Editing Latvian Russian Union (section)

=== As ForHRUL (1998–2014) ===
==== As an electoral alliance (1998–2007) ====
The party originated as the [[electoral alliance]] '''For Human Rights in a United Latvia''' (ForHRUL) ({{langx|lv|Par cilvēka tiesībām vienotā Latvijā}}, '''PCTVL'''; {{langx|ru|За права человека в единой Латвии}}, '''ЗаПЧЕЛ''') that was established in May 1998 by three political parties: the [[National Harmony Party]], [[Equal Rights (Latvia)|Equal Rights]] and the [[Socialist Party of Latvia]], all of which were mainly supported by [[Russophone]] voters. The alliance won 16 out of 100 seats in the [[1998 Latvian parliamentary election|1998 parliamentary election]] and 25 seats in the [[2002 Latvian parliamentary election|2002 parliamentary election]], as well as 13 out of 60 seats on [[Riga City Council]] in the {{Interlanguage link|2001 Latvian municipal elections|lt=2001 municipal elections|lv|2001. gada Latvijas pašvaldību vēlēšanas}}. After the municipal elections, ForHRUL became part of Riga's city government and National Harmony Party member [[Sergey Dolgopolov]] became the [[deputy mayor]] of [[Riga City Council]].

During this period, ForHRUL's most prominent leaders were [[Jānis Jurkāns]], [[Alfrēds Rubiks]] and [[Tatjana Ždanoka]]. Jurkāns was a leader of the [[Popular Front of Latvia]] and founder of the National Harmony Party; Rubiks and Ždanoka were prominent as leaders of the [[International Front of the Working People of Latvia|Interfront]] movement, the [[Communist Party of Latvia|Latvian branch]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] and the federalist movement in Latvia in the early 1990s. They were fairly popular in the Russian community but very unpopular among ethnic [[Latvians]]. ForHRUL therefore remained in opposition, because a coalition with Rubiks or Ždanoka was seen as a political suicide by most other elected parties.

ForHRUL partially broke up in 2003. The National Harmony Party was the first to leave the alliance and the Socialist Party followed half a year later. The remnant of ForHRUL consisted of [[Equal Rights (Latvia)|Equal Rights]] and {{Interlanguage link|Free Choice in People's Europe|lv|Brīvā izvēle tautu Eiropā|ru|Свободный выбор в народной Европе}}. The latter was composed of dissident Socialist Party and National Harmony Party members, like [[Yakov Pliner]], who opposed the decision to quit the alliance. This reduced grouping had only 6 members of the [[Saeima]] (out of 25 that the alliance had before the breakup). ForHRUL was the main force supporting the 2003-2005 activities of the [[Headquarters for the Protection of Russian Schools]].

At the [[2004 European Parliament election in Latvia|first Latvian election to the European Parliament]] in 2004, ForHRUL gained one seat, held by [[Tatjana Ždanoka]], who sat with [[the Greens–European Free Alliance]] group in the European Parliament. It also proposed the idea of a Europe-wide party of ethnic Russians. ForHRUL supported a federal Europe, with a "common economic and political space from [[Lisbon]] to [[Vladivostok]]".

==== As a single party (2007–2014) ====
In 2007, ForHRUL was transformed into a single party that retained the name and identity of the old electoral alliance. In recent years the party's support has declined as ethnic Russian voters have switched allegiance to the [[Social Democratic Party "Harmony"|Harmony]] party, successor to the National Harmony Party. At the [[2010 Latvian parliamentary election|2010 parliamentary election]], the party lost its representation in the Latvian Parliament.

In 2011, the party launched an unsuccessful [[Amendments to the Citizenship Law (popular initiative, Latvia)|popular initiative]] on amending the [[Latvian nationality law|law governing Latvian nationality]]. The Central Electoral Commission considered the proposed amendment to be incompatible with the [[Constitution of Latvia]] and the process of collecting signatures for a [[referendum]] on the proposals was suspended. This decision was eventually upheld by the [[Constitutional Court of Latvia]] and the [[Supreme Court of Latvia]]. It also supported the [[2012 Latvian constitutional referendum|2012 initiative]] to make Russian a co-official language in Latvia.