Latgals

Latgals

 

(in 11th-century Russian sources, let’gola and lotygola), an Old Latvian ethnic group from whom comes the name of the whole Latvian people (latvieši, Russian latyshi).

The Latgals inhabited the eastern part of modern Latvia along the right bank of the Daugava. Their neighbors to the west were the Livs, to the south were the Selonians and Zemgalians, to the east the Krivichi, and to the north the Estonians. An early feudal elite appeared among the Latgals in the tenth through 12th centuries. Beginning with the early feudal period, the Latgals spread into the territory of the Livs.

REFERENCES

Istoriia Latviiskoi SSR, 2nd ed. Riga, 1971.
Mugurēvičs, E. S. Vostochnaia Latviia i sosednie zemli ν X-XIII vv. Riga, 1965. (Translated from Latvian.)