REFLECTIONS IN THE "INVISIBLE " RELIGION OF YOUTH: THE CASE OF LATVIA By Leons G.Taivans

Latvia is one of three Baltic countries situated on the East coast of the Baltic Sea. After the 50-year occupation beginning with the Molotov-Ribentrop Pact, it regained independence when the Soviet Union collapsed. It has a unique mixture of religious traditions. The preponderant share of believers is found in the Evangelical Lutheran, the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthodox branches of Christianity. In addition to these three, there are viable groups of Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostalists, Russian Old Believers and Jews. During the Soviet Occupation all of these religious organisations experienced various rates of decline and atrophy. While much blame for the decline of religious practice and belief can be placed at the doorstep of organised and militant Soviet atheism, not all of its inroads and seeming victories are the result of its own actions and polices, but rather, can be found in the peculiar mix of Latvian history and the world-wide process of urbanisation and modernisation. Religion in Latvia had never been deeply interwoven with nationality. There are several explanations for this. The lack of a homogenous religion among Latvians prevented the deep rooting of such an associative bonding. While three quarters of Latvia's territory was predominantly Lutheran, the south-eastern portion, the area of Latgale, was almost exclusivel