Power in a civilised society is realised mainly through the language. It exists in the language, it is expressed in the form of laws and regulations, rules and orders, requests and wishes. But speech is not only an expression of thought, habits and patterns of speech have a serious effect on habits of thought patterns. The words can be not only bridges to the mind but also harpoons in the soft flesh of the subconscious. One can manipulate with words: by lying, by hiding the truth, by insinuations , by saying more than the truth, by exaggerating. The author of this article examines the influence of Nazi German and Soviet Russian on the Latvian language.