Baltic States – CIS, Education and Science, History, Latvia, Legislation, Russia

Russia promised to provide the requested document copies in the spring of 2014, then in the fall of 2014.

"Before the commission's was suspended, we failed to receive the requested document copies. This made the commission's work complicated. I believe that Russian archives' explanations about being overloaded with work and large numbers of requests just do not hold up, because we are an international commission after all, our requests had to be a priority. We wanted to supplement the archive not only with Russian documents, but also with unpublished documents from Latvian archives on the relations between Latvia and the Soviet Union during the interwar period," said Zunda.

The commission's co-chairman is certain that Russian historians, too, believe that meetings, discussions, and exchange of opinions are very much needed. "During the conferences, we gradually came down to similar opinions on the interwar period, however, we have not yet started discussing the most problematic matters in both countries' relations – the events of 1940. We require academic discussions. The history of the 20th century is special because it is recent and many witnesses are still alive. Furthermore, modern political processes are influenced by the events of that period," stressed Zunda.