Harbour of Ventspils, Latvia not a pleasure to visit for foreign seamen according to a Cia report dated 19 May 1953

An item described the sad state in which the harbour and town Ventspils, Latvia was. The town was dirty and extremely poor with just a food ships and long queues of people waiting on their turn before the shops. Dried fish could be bought without problems in contrary to fresh meat and fish, smoked fish, dried meat and sausages. Street kiosks sold vodka. The poorly dressed civilians seemed to avoid any contact with foreign seamen. A das remark was that the original Latvian inhabitants seemed to be deported from their hometown. Russian was the common language on the streets. Older high ranked Soviet officers could be sighted striking was the absence of their households, some younger officers and hardly enlisted men. Men and women between the 17-22 years were seldom seen, probably on duty or at work.

Source
The report was published on www.archive.org, document number CIA-RDP80-00810A000700260003-3