Latgalia or Latgale (, Latgalian: Latgola) is one of the four cultural and historical regions of Latvia recognised in the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. It is the easternmost region north of the Daugava river. While most of Latvia is historically Lutheran, Latgale is historically predominantly Roman Catholic.

The region has a large population of ethnic Russians, especially in Daugavpils, the largest city in the region. Many of the Russians who lived in Latgale before the Soviet occupation are Old Believers. Rēzekne, often called the heart of Latgola, Krāslava, and Ludza are other large towns in the region, which also has a Belarusian minority. There is still a significant Polish minority (Daugavpils has almost as many Poles as Latvians). As part of the Polotsk and Vitebsk guberniyas, the region was part of the Pale of Settlement and had a very large Jewish population -- but most of the Jews perished in the Holocaust and much of the remainder has emigrated.

The region is one of the poorest in the European Union, and unlike in the rest of Latvia, a majority of voters was opposed to EU membership in the referendum on accession.

Due to its history several different names are historically used for Latgale.

• Other names for the region include Lettigallia, Latgallia, and Latgola.

• The people are called latgalieši in Latvian (as distinct from latgaļi, which refers to the ancient tribe, though some modern Latgalians prefer latgaļi) — latgalīši in Latgalian, sometimes latgali — Latgalians, Latgallians, or Lettigalls in English, and are sometimes referred to as čangaļi (sometimes derogatory — the reference is to a novel, and Latgalians often call other Latvians "čiuļi"). The term latgalieši dates only to the early 20th century, and before that Latgalians were long refrred to as Vitebsk Latvians or Inflantians (Latgalian: vitebskīši, inflantīši).

• The language or dialect is called Latgalian.

• From 2004 on, the Latgalian language is the subject of the biggest sociolinguistic/ethnolinguistic poll in Europe, held by the Rēzekne Augstskola and the Centre d'Étude Linguistiques Pour l'Europe.

History

Originally the territory of what is now Latgale was populated by Eastern Baltic tribes, whose language became the basis for both modern Latgalian and standard Latvian. Many Latgalians still speak the local dialect, which has a standardized written form and is therefore considered a separate language.

During the 10^th–12^th centuries two principalities, Jersika and Atzele, existed on the territory of modern Latgale and Eastern Vidzeme. In addition Latgalians inhabited parts of modern Pskov Oblast in Russia and Vitsebsk Voblast in Belarus.

In the first decade of the 13^th century the principality of Jersika, also known as Lettia, was allied with the Principality of Polock and Lithuanian dukes against the Bishopric of Livonia, but was defeated in 1209. Part of it was divided between the Bishopric and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, the remainder became a vassal country. In 1239, after the death of King Visvaldis, the latter was incorporated into the territory of the Livonian Order.

In 1242, after defeat in the Battle of the Ice, Eastern Latgale (Lotigola) passed to the Republic of Novgorod.

In 1277 Grand duke Traiden of Lithuania unsuccessfully besieged the newly built castle of Daugavpils .

In 1481-1493 Grand Prince Ivan III of Russia temporarily occupied Latgale.

During the Livonian war, Ivan IV of Russia annexed Latgale in 1577. In 1559–62 Latgale was annexed by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which in 1569 was incorporated into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1621 most of the Duchy of Livonia was ceded to the Swedish Empire, but part of the Duchy including Latgale remained under Polish-Lithuanian control. This became known as the Inflanty Voivodeship. The creation of Polish Inflanty is the birth of the region we now know of as Latgale. During this period the Latgalian dialect was influenced by Polish and developed separately from the Latvian spoken in other parts of Latvia.

In 1772, Latgale was annexed by the Russian Empire, and in 1865, as part of Russia's anti-Polish policies, a period of Russification was begun, during which the Latgalian language (written in Latin script) was forbidden. This ban was lifted in 1904, and a period of Latgalian reawakening began. Many Latgalian public figures sought reunification with the rest of Latvia at the Congress of Rēzekne in 1917, while some preferred autonomy or incorporation in Russia. The decisions of the 1917 Congress and the declaration of independence on 18 November 1918, claiming Latgale as part of the Latvian state, moved both Latvian armed forces as well as local partisans to fight for the liberation of Latgale: a difficult task, given the territorial interests of both Bolshevik Russia and Poland.

In 1920 Latgale was incorporated into Latvia. By the peace treaty of 1920 with Soviet Russia, parts of the Vitebsk Governorate and Pskov Governorate were incorporated into the new Republic of Latvia. United with other ethnic Latvian territories, as claimed by the declaration of independence (ethnic borders as national borders), they formed the districts of Daugavpils, Ludza, Rēzekne and Jaunlatgale, later Abrene district.

In 1944, at the beginning of the second occupation of Latvia by the USSR, the eastern municipalities of the Abrene district were incorporated into the Russian Federation.