There were many different nationalities among them: Greek, Latvian, Jewish, Russian, Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani.
The Balts east of a slight ridge at Viļaka were gradually Russified from the 15–16th centuries, but the philologists August Johann Gottfried Bielenstein and Kārlis Mīlenbahs, conducting linguistic field research in the area in the late 19th and early 20th century, found that many people, called "Russian Latvians" by the local Russians, still spoke the High Latvian dialect.
Augusts Kirhenšteins, formerly spelt Kirchenšteins (September 18, 1872 in Mazsalaca – November 3, 1963 in Riga), was a Latvian microbiologist and educator.
Born in Siberia, Russia where her parents, both teachers, were residing in exile together with hundreds of other Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians.
The Estonians sent two armoured trains to aid the Latvians (according to some explanations, in exchange for Latvia ceding the island of Ruhnu and its territorial waters to Estonia) while the Lithuanians were engaged in battles with the Bolsheviks and could only issue diplomatic protests.