PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
October 2020
599
by
Clifford J. Mugnier, CP, CMS, FASPRS
B
etween 2500 and 1500 BC, the Finno-Ugric
and proto-Baltic tribes settled on Baltic
shores. The closest ethnic relatives of the
Latvians are the ancient Prussians, the Galinds,
the Jatvings, and the Lithuanians. The first settlers
in the territory of Latvia were the Livonians or
“Libiesi.” The Livonians were once concentrated in
the northern part of Latvia, but today only about
100 individuals speak their ancient language
which nevertheless has contributed to a prominent
Latvian dialect. By the 12
th
century, the natives
were split into a number of tribal groups, all
practicing nature religions. The Knights of the
Sword (Livonian Order) were crusaders that
forcibly converted Latvia to Christianity in the
13
th
century. For centuries, Latvia has been under
Swedish, Polish, German, and Russian rule. In
1918, Latvia proclaimed independence from Czarist
Russia. By 1940, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet
Union and was soon overrun by Nazi Germany.
Soviet forces reoccupied the country in 1944-45,
and Latvia remained under Soviet rule until 1991
when it was admitted into the United Nations. In
May 1994, the Latvian National Independence
Movement finished first in Latvia’s first post-Soviet
local elections; the excommunists fared the worst.
Latvia shares borders with Estonia to the north (343 km),
Russia to the east (246 km), Belarus to the southeast (161
km), Lithuania to the south (588 km), and the Baltic Sea
and Gulf of Riga to the west comprises a coastline of 498 km.
Slightly larger than West Virginia, the country is mostly low
coastal plain with the highest point being Gaizinkalns at 312
meters.
Survey activities in Latvia began with Tenner’s first-order
network of 1820-32 in Semgallen and Courland, and were
published by Czarist Russia in 1843 and 1847. Tenner later
supplemented his primary net with lower-order stations. The
Tenner chains were originally computed on the Walbeck 1819
ellipsoid where the semi-major axis (
a
) = 6,376,895 m and
1
/
f
= 302.7821565; they were later recomputed on the Bessel
1841 ellipsoid. Between 1878 and 1884, Schulgin further in-
creased the density of lower-order stations in the area origi-
nally surveyed by Tenner. However, the majority of these lat-
ter station monuments did not survive into the 20
th
century,
and they were ignored by the Russians. The Tenner net in the
east did not extend further north than the Sestukalns-Gaiz-
inkalns side, and the Struve primary net extended north
from this side through Yuryev and over the Gulf of Finland.
The Russian Western Frontier surveys were executed mainly
by Yemel’yanov and Nikifirov between 1904 and 1912. These
chains formed a major part of the modern (early) 20
th
century
network of Eastern Latvia with some of the first-order sta-
tions being old Tenner or Struve stations. This Russian sur-
The Grids & Datums column has completed an exploration of
every country on the Earth. For those who did not get to enjoy this
world tour the first time,
PE&RS
is reprinting prior articles from
the column. This month’s article on the Republic of Latvia was
originally printed in 2002 but contains updates to their coordinate
system since then.
THE REPUBLIC OF
LATVIA
Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing
Vol. 86, No. 10, October 2020, pp. 599–602.
0099-1112/20/599–602
© 2020 American Society for Photogrammetry
and Remote Sensing
doi: 10.14358/PERS.86.10.599
