Red Army and in the partisan movement, and supporting the underground Communist Party. But, at the same time, there were quite a number of Russians collaborating with the Nazi authorities. They worked on the newspapers propagandising the myth of "a national Russia" free of Bolsheviks and Jews, and "the liberating mission" of the Wehrmacht. Russians were won over to militarised units. The Nazis made advances to those of the Russian population who had suffered from the Bolsheviks. The newspapers of that time were full of information about Russian national culture. In Daugavpils a Russian theatre was opened, at the Rēzekne Teachers' Institute, a Russian-language class for teachers of Russian, was set up. An institution was created to represent the interests of the Russian population in the Generalgebiet of Latvia, as well as the Russian Committee for the Affairs of the Russian population of Latvia. These were designed to help Russians with some of their economic, cultural and legal needs. Peculiarities of post-war migration After Latvians, the Russians are the largest ethnic group in today's Latvia. In 1989 this national group made up 34.0% of the population of Latvia, its total number 905,500 . In comparison with the demographic situation of the pre-war period, the number of Russians had increased 4.5 times. Their relative share in the national composition of Latvia had increased 3.5 times. Such a big growth of the Russian population could not be explained solely by natural increase. The majority of the Russian national group in Latvia today are a result of a big migration movement from other republics of the USSR, mainly from the Russian Federation. Russians settled mostly in towns rather than in the country. They tended to choose larger cities such as Riga and Daugavpils. Russians differed from Latvians in their professional characteristics. Over one-third of the Russian population were engaged in industry (one-quarter of Latvians), 7% of Russians (22% of Latvians) were engaged in agriculture, 1% of Russians (2.5% of Latvians) in the sphere of culture and art. Russians were the main ethnic group in the USSR both in number and in political influence. Under the conditions of Soviet Latvia, Russian culture dominated the whole non-Latvian population of the Republic. The Russian language also formed a new group of Russian-speaking Belarusians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and Germans of Latvia. In the period of 1959–1979 the number of ethnic Russians in Latvia increased by 47%, but