Historical Miracles: When Pensions Were 31 Lats, But Footballers Swore Like Karosta Sailors

Our archive opened another box of 1990s Liepāja daily gems, proving that life back then was simpler, but no less absurd.

Starting with the business world - a construction company with 150 employees felt confident after receiving permission to work with historic objects. Meanwhile, "Olimpija" bank promised an unbelievable 23% annually to private individuals, which today would give any finance minister a heart attack. As local economist Jānis Pūce comments: "Well yes, 23 percent annually - back then that was normal, now you can only get such rates when borrowing money from Manchester."

But the real problem was elsewhere - footballers trained with such profanity that even Liepāja's ice hall seemed like a church choir in comparison. Reader L. Grīnbergs was so devastated by the athletes' moral condition that he wrote a letter to the newspaper. "The new generation!" comments old football fan Uldis Kalns. "In our time we also swore, but at least with imagination, not just in Russian."

The most interesting fact - a plane ticket to Riga cost 15-20 lats, but pensioners lived on 31 lats per month. The math was simple - either go to Riga or eat. There was no third option. As our grandmother would say: "Now children complain that life is expensive, but back then you could live for a month and a half on the price of one ticket."