After emerging from the long shadow cast by the Soviet Union, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and neighboring Poland transitioned from communism to market economies and instituted democratic reforms in a remarkably short time. Although each continues to contend with various economic and political issues, their successes have allowed them to become some of the few former Eastern bloc states to join the European Union. The journeys each country has made-from antiquity to the present-and the remarkable peoples and cultures that make their populations are the subjects of this captivating volume.
Fellini had been researching the Hammer of Thor, the Norse god of thunder, and had linked it to a Viking warrior and a twelfth-century Latvian village. A coded message in Fellini's package leads Annja on a wild chase along the canals of Venice to Latvia for more clues to an ancient treasure. Rumored to be hidden deep in the forests of Latvia for nine hundred years, this fabled prize is also sought by a ruthless corps of mercenaries. And they will do anything to fi nd it. Including killing Annja Creed.
Located on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, Latvia has had a turbulent past. Its larger neighbors -- Russia, Germany, Poland, Sweden -- all occupied this area of the Baltic littoral at different times in the past, but it was not until the twentieth century that Latvia emerged as an independent country. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Latvia, together with the other two Baltic states, Estonia and Lithuania, regained independence that they had already had between the two World Wars. Plakans' intention here is to offer a stepping stone towards the eventual creation of a work presenting the "significant core" of Latvian history in English.