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Having Shed Red Yoke, Latvia Battles Red Ink, Black Market  By
Juris KazaSpecial to The Christian Science Monitor / January 24,
1996   FIFTY yards from Latvia's first McDonald's, laughing
children sled down the side of the low Bastejkalns hill opposite
where, in 1991, Russian gunfire struck down most of its victims.
Skip to next paragraph  This tiny country wedged between Russia
and the Baltic Sea has had a difficult path to follow since
''The Days of the Barricades'' in January 1991. Then, tens of
thousands of Latvians gathered around key government buildings
in Riga's medieval Old Town, armed only with their bare hands,
songs, and an icy determination to resist Soviet oppression.
They came in response to appeals by the pro-independence
government after the Soviet Army shot 14 unarmed civilians in
neighboring Lithuania.  A little more than seven months later,
their hopes would be fulfilled when Latvia and its neighbors,
Estonia and Lithuania, regain