About the Lutsis

It may seem peculiar to think of Ludza — located in southeastern Latvia — as a place with an ancient connection with Estonia. Estonia is several hours away and none of the languages you’ll hear on your travels there will be Estonian

But yes — for at least several centuries the area around Ludza was home to people of Estonian ethnicity who spoke their own unique variety of the South Estonian language. At the end of the 19th century there were still about fifty villages where this language could be heard in that region. Their residents called their language mākīļ or māvärkki (the country language) and called themselves mārahvas (countryfolk). Over the course of the centuries, their ethnic identity became increasingly integrated with the Latvian and Latgalian identities of their neighbors. The Ludza Estonians, or Lutsis, only stopped using their language relatively recently. The last speaker of Lutsi, Nikolajs Nikonovs, was from the village of Lielie Tjapši and passed away in 2006. However, their language was still in relatively vibrant use among older people until the 1970s. In 2014, the Lutsis and their descendants still remember their Estonian roots, the fact that their grandparents spoke this unique language, and a few fragments of Lutsi language and culture.

On this site you can learn more about the Lutsis, their history, language and come to know the wonderfully beautiful hilly landscape dotted with innumerable lakes in southern Latgale which they have called home for generations.