Saturs: Introduction ; Sources ; Development of latvian national costume ; Womens handicrafts as manifestations of national identity ; Ethnography before the second World war ; Ethnography in the Latvian academy of sciences during the soviet occupation ; Research topics in soviet ethnography ; Research methods ; Ethnographer Mirdza Slava ; Ethnographer Aina Alsupe ; Folk costume and Latvian applied arts during the soviet period ; Conclusions.