Letgallia
| Latgale | |||
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| Country | Latvia | ||
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| Borders on | Vidzeme (northwest), Semigallia (southwest), Russia (east), Belarus (southeast) | ||
| Population | 301 593 | ||
| Coat of Arms of Latgale (historical) | |
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| Adopted | 1566 |
Latgale (Latgalian: Latgola; Russian: Латгалия; Latin: Lettgallia) is one of the four historical and cultural regions of Latvia recognised in the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. It is the easternmost region north of the Daugava River. While most of Latvia is historically Lutheran, Latgale is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.
The region has a large population of ethnic Russians, especially in Daugavpils, the largest city in the region. Many of the Russians who lived in Latgale before the Soviet occupation are Old Believers. Rēzekne, often called the heart of Latgale, Krāslava, and Ludza are other large towns in the region, which also has a Belarusian minority. There is also a significant Polish minority. As part of the Polotsk and Vitebsk guberniyas, the region was part of the Pale of Settlement and had a very large Jewish population – but most of the Jews perished in the Holocaust and much of the remainder has emigrated. The region has a smaller average wage than rest of regions.
Due to its history several different names are historically used for Latgale.
From 2004 on, the Latgalian language is the subject of the biggest sociolinguistic/ethnolinguistic poll in Europe, held by the Rēzekne Augstskola and the Centre d'Étude Linguistiques Pour l'Europe.
As of 2011 97,600 people in the region spoke Latgalian language, which is a standardised form of local varieties of High Latvian dialect.
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Wikipedia