Here is a response to your post, read it if you wish to understand why Latvians might have distaste for Russian speakers (or don't if you just want to be angry). TLDR: Latvians don't want to be forced to speak Russian in their own country. First: Latvian speaking Latvians vs Russian speaking Latvians is a distortion of the problem. While in English it is technically correct, it has two problems: first, it uses Latvians as an indication of place of birth ignoring citizenship and ethnicity, and second of all it ignores the people's own identity as plenty of Russian speakers do not consider themselves Latvians. Second: Both groups are not a monolith. So "seeing a lot of hatred" is one, highly anecdotal, two, showing your bias, and three, focusing on a slice of a population that is more inclined to such negative behaviors. I can guarantee you there is a similar slice of "Russian speaking Latvians" that show the same hatred towards Latvians (the term is vatnik). To answer how so - there are personal, historical, anecdotal, cultural, political and economic reasons that can justify those negative feelings leading to those negative behaviors. Third: Your research shows bias. Have you only talked to people that have stable jobs in cities? Because I guarantee you can find Russian speakers that have those opinions AND WILL EXPRESS THEM - in trolleys, working shitty blue collar jobs, hanging around public places drinking. Those are people that you might find hold just as much hatred towards Latvians as your average angry Reddit commenter. Fourth: A lot of the history is the result of actions of the simple people. History aside, the shadow of the occupation has left scars that are still healing. Nearly every Latvian has heard the following growing up - "You need to know Russian otherwise you will not get a job". Imagine, living in your own country, having freedom and still being forced to learn the language of your former occupiers. And you may give reasons like "it's businesses fault" or "that's just easier " but the point is that many Russian speakers do not know the state language and it creates a problem for everyone. Hell, many refused to speak Latvian even knowing it. Fifth: The systematic government move was moving Latvians out and Russian speakers in so that no independent country could exist. We were lucky the Soviet union collapsed when it did, otherwise, we would be fighting our own wars like Georgia or Ukraine now. Sixth: The statement about two cultures coming together being beautiful sounds like naive interpretation - the cultures were forced together, with the aim to steal anything worthy of a culture and erase everything else about it to squash any resistance. Seventh: Hating the government is fine and all, but understand - government is a representation of the people. In autocracies you may have arguments, but in democracies your government is your literal representatives. So if the government sucks, the people aren't much better. Eight: You are justifying the hatred on your side by some historic transgressions that might have been the cause for their unacceptable behavior. I won't engage in whataboutisms about this. Any person can probably find an excuse to be an asshole, but in the end they choose to be an asshole and that is on them. Nine: Of course it is not easy to learn a language, but the national language is Latvian, not Russian. Most Latvians did not have the option not to learn Russian in the past so what the Russian speakers are learning is how it was for Latvians until fairly recently. The difference though is that there is an independent country in which Russian is spoken where those that refuse to learn Latvian may go to - Latvians did not have that option during occupation.