Address: Mārstaļu street 28/30, Rīga, LV–1050, room No. 42
Phone: +371 67281265
Chairman: Dr. habil. hist., Prof. Aivars Stranga
E-mail: Aivars.Stranga@lu.lv

The Department was founded in September, 2008, as a result of reorganization of the departments of Latvian History, and Modern and Contemporary History of Central and Eastern Europe.

The department offers studies on social, political, economic and military history of Latvia and Eastern Europe between the 16^th-20^th centuries.

The research activities of the Department cover the following main areas:

• Latvian modern and contemporary history and historiography
• Enlightenment in Latvia
• Latvian Church history
• Jews in the Baltic countries
• The Baltic region’s military and political history of the 20^th century
• History of Poland
• History of Latvian, Polish, Lithuanian, Ukrainian minorities
• Latvian War of Independence, 1918 –1920
• History of Latvia (ideology, press, culture, economy) between 1920 and 1940
• Paramilitary organizations between 1920 and 1940
• History of Latvian SSR, its culture and economy 

The Department collaborates with the Institute of Universal History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and the University of Rostock in Germany, Institute of History of the Romanian Academy of Sciences, Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Siauliai Universities in Lithuania, Lithuanian Institute of History of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Charles University in Prague in the Czech Republic, Lvov University in Ukraine and Institute of History of Ukraine of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Minsk and Grodno Universities in Belarus, University of Tartu and Institute of History of the Tallinn University in Estonia, University of Warsaw, Gdansk, Silesia, Krakow, Olsztyn and within the Erasmus exchange programme it collaborates with the Universities of Torun, Bialystok, Lublin in Poland, Stanford University in USA and others.