Memorandum of LAShOR principles and position Activity of LAShOR is aimed at democracy strengthening in Latvia, as well as on evolution of Latvian Republic as multinational and multicultural state. We consider preserving and developing of Russian language and culture together with the necessity to preserve and develop the culture of Latvian people and other national groups within Latvia. We participate in working-out the compromise solutions and decisions which take into account the cultural and educational aspects and interests of the Latvian and other national and linguistic groups in Latvia. We advocate for the democratic opportunity for schools and parents to choose the language of instruction in municipal schools, both in basic and secondary schools, for the possibility, in particular, for the Russian language to be chosen as the language of instruction. The duty of the state is to provide and to ensure such possibility. We stand for defending the Russian culture, thus we defend the Russian Language as the product and the ļæ½bearerļæ½of the culture. We defend education in Russian as the chief means to reproduce Russian culture. We respect and highly esteem the efforts of Latvian and other national groups to preserve their culture and language. We think that good command of the Latvian language is a moral norm of non-Latvians living in Latvia. The state must finance the teaching of the Latvian language of all age groops of the population. The state must ensure such teaching of the Latvian language in schools, so that the graduates had a free command of the Latvian language. We are at the same time convinced that strengthening of the state Language must not lead to the deterioration of the quality of the Russian language in Latvia and to destruction of the existing system of education in the Russian language in Latvia. We think that consistent fulfilment and execution of international legal standards and full ratification of the Convention on national minoritiesļæ½ defence will ensure preserving of the Russian language in Latvia. We meaningly participate in the process of public integration and creating the civil society. We however consider it inadmissible to use transfer of state schools into the Latvian language of instruction as means of integration. We are sure that such policy leads to pure assimilation of the minorities. Defending education in Russian is a particular case of demanding education in the native language. We stand for the other minoritiesļæ½ languages in Latvia to be used as their languages of instruction, provided such a demand proposed by initiative groups. We strive for altering the articles of the Law on Education, which stipulate for transfer of education in schools into the state language. We criticize the so-called ļæ½ transitionalļæ½ conception of bilingual education, being implanted in Latvia. At the same time we do not fully reject this conception. We put forward a different bilingual education conception, a conception of preserving and developing minorityļæ½ s native language. By this we broaden the possibility for schools and parents to choose the educational programme. We form our position independently, we do not follow any partyļæ½s or organizationļæ½s instructions. We are looking for allies and are ready for any support from any organization or party if their basic purposes and practical deeds correspond to our demands. We are constantly carrying on dialogues with state institutions on minoritiesļæ½ education issues. We cooperate with governmental institutions , with foreign statesļæ½ representative offices, with international organizations on the issues of education and culture.