Not only schools and hospitals were built in Soviet Latvia - factories as well. For example, RAF - Riga Autobus Factory, founded in 1949. Vans made by RAF were used as shuttles, ambulance cars etc. everywhere in the USSR. Unfortunately for Latvia, RAF lost in the competition with the Russian company GAZ (founded in 1932 in Nizhny Novgorod), failed to conquer the new Russian market and went bankrupt in 1998.