General Information
III. History

Baltic tribes entered the territory of modern Latvia sometime during the last two millenia B.C. Over the course of centuries they pushed out or absorbed the indigenous Finno-Ugric tribes of Estonians and Livs. The Latvian tribes of Sels, Latgallians, Semigallians, and Cours developed agriculture and metals, traded with the Romans in amber, and gained a reputation as sea pirates. By the latter part of the first millenium A.D., they had developed a system of fortresses to protect their lands from constant incursions by Vikings and Slavs. Eastern portions of the country may well have been under tribute to Novogorod and Pskov at various times, but at others--as in a major battle between the Semigallians and the Princes of Polotsk in 1106--the BaIts successfully repulsed the Slavs. [1]

At the turn of the 13th century a new threat appeared which proved too much for the Latvian tribes. German ecclesiastics followed their merchants into the area. Bishop Albert founded the city of Riga in 1201 and the Order of the Brethren of the Sword the following year, which began to bring the Latvians the way of the cross in a very literal sense. The Semigallians and Cours fought back fiercely. In 1236, they united with Lithuanian forces to defeat the Order at the Battle of Saule [Siauliai]. [2] The Germans reorganized themselves into the Livonian Order of Teutonic Knights, which continued the struggle until the conquest of Latvia was completed in 1290. A decentralized state, the Livonian Confederation, was organized, and the Latvians were reduced to peasants and bound to the land in an early form of serfdom. The land-owning and governing class of German barons, created during this time, survived the later Polish, Swedish, and Russian conquests and remained in power until the Revolution of 1917-1918.

The Livonian Confederation endured through internal dissension, peasant revolts and the incursions of the growing Russian and Polish-Lithuanian states until 1561, when weakened by strife growing out of the Reformation (Lutheranism was especially active in the towns of Riga and Reval [Tallinn]) and by the long Livonian War of Ivan IV, it was dissolved. Lithuania-Poland occupied eastern Latvia and defended it against the Russians. The Duchy of Courland was organized in the west. It recognized the suzerainty of the Polish crown but in fact was virtually autonomous. [3]

Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries Latvia was exposed to the intellectual currents of the Reformation and Counter-reformation and to the influences of three different western cultures--Swedish, Polish, and German. Livonia and Courland remained predominantly Lutheran. Latgale, in the east, was held by Poland until the first partition of that country in 1772 and was re-converted to Catholicism. Religious works were printed in the local language; German and Swedish scholars began to discover Latvian folksongs, customs, and traditions. The life of the peasant became increasingly harsh, however, as the rights of the barons and the requirements of statutory labor were extended, culminating in full serfdom after the Russian take-over. [4] Until that time, Riga served as a city of refuge for peasants fleeing the control of harsh landlords and the devastation of war. During this period, the cities, while still predominantly German in character, had gained in native population.

Sweden's control over Riga and Livonia was consolidated early in the 17th century. It was not broken until Peter I's victory in the Great Northern War, which once again devastated the countryside. This victory brought the province under the Russian crown in 1721. Peter welcomed the German barons into the service of the Russian state and allowed them to retain their privileges. The widow of the Duke of Courland became the Empress Anna Ivanovna in 1730, and a later Duke, Ernst Biron, exercised great power in Russia as a favorite of the empress. [5] Formal Russian control over Courland did not come until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, but Russian influence had grown continuously throughout the century.

The end of the eighteenth century saw the rest of Latvia come under Russian control via the partitions of Poland and marked the end of three centuries of intermittent warfare and strife. Latvia did not again become a major battlefield until World War I. Soviet historians stress the great positive benefit of the peace, unity, and opportunity for economic development which the unification with Russia afforded the people of Latvia. [6] Some credence must be granted this assertion, although the picture was by no means rosy. Serfdom prevailed, mitigated somewhat by the reforms of Alexander I in 1804 and 1816-1819. [7] Famines and peasant revolts occurred. The oppressions of the autocracy hindered, but did not stop, the development of media, literature, and learning in the Latvian language.

The Russians governed Latvia in three separate units: the gubernii of Livonia (which also included part of Estonia) and Courland contained most of the country, but Latgale was administered as a part of the Vitebsk guberniya and did not enjoy the same limited degree of autonomy as did the other two provinces. [8] This autonomy, exercised by the local nobility, contributed to the maintenance of a non-Russian culture in the region, but it became increasingly restricted in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Alexander III essentially abolished it, but by that time the Latvian National Awakening was in full swing.

The personal freedom (without land) granted to Latvian peasants in 1816-1819 allowed considerable movement to the cities and the growth of manufacturing and trade. [9] Riga began to become a Latvian city rather than German. [10] The first Latvian-language newspaper was published in 1822 in Jelgava. Latvian-literature began to move away from its clerical and religious origins and to establish more secular concerns. The small but growing Latvian intelligentsia included men such as P. Balodis (1839-1918), who had been educated in St. Petersburg and who had established ties with the growing radical movement in Russia.

In 1854, a group of Latvian students at the University of Tartu, in Estonia, founded a small intellectual circle which grew into the movement known as the Young Latvians [Mladolatyshi] and became a major force in the growth of Latvian culture and national consciousness. Unable to publish in Latvia, these men founded a Latvian newspaper in St. Petersburg in 1862. Although it existed for only three years, the Petersburgas Avize was uncompromising in its call for national rights. It gained a significant readership in Latvia. [11] Among the leaders of the Young Latvians were such national heroes as Krisjanis Barons, who devoted his later life to a massive compilation of Latvian folksongs; Juris Alunans, poet and journalist; Krisjanis Valdemars and Atis Kronwalds, who worked as publicists and public speakers and assisted in the formation of the Latvian Society of Riga. This society sponsored the first national gathering of the Latvians, a song festival in 1873.

In 1897, Riga had 48,000 industrial workers in a total population of 282,000. [12] The wealth of the country was increasing rapidly, and Latvians were sharing in it to a greater and greater extent. Many of the large landed estates of the German nobility were divided up and sold to the peasants. The growth of a successful entrepreneurial class drained much of the militancy from the Young Latvian movement. This created a vacuum which was soon filled by a new generation of young intellectuals who became even more deeply influenced by socialist throught and teaching. These men came to be known as the "New Current" (Jauna Strava, Novotechentsy), and were among the leaders of the growing revolutionary movement. One of them, Peteris Stuchka, later founded the Communist Party of Latvia. Another, the great poet Janis Rainis, is acclaimed and claimed by both Communist and nationalist Latvians.

Social Democratic organizations were founded throughout Latvia in 1901 and 1902, at first primarily by Russians, but Latvians quickly began to take on leading roles. In 1904, representatives of many of these groups, with a total membership of perhaps 4000, met in Riga and organized the Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party. They worked closely with the Russian SD's but insisted on a national principle of federation, rather than a territorial one as the Leninists wanted. [13] By late 1905, in the midst of the revolution, the Party claimed 14,000 members. Lenin is said to have remarked that during the 1905 Revolution the workers and SD' s of Latvia "occupied one of the first, most important places in the struggle against autocracy." [14] Indeed, Soviet statistics indicate that Latvia was the most revolutionary part of the empire in terms of the ratio of strikers to the total number of workers. [15]

Nationalist and socialist currents remained strong in Latvia after the suppression of the 1905 Revolution. They exploded under the impact of the devastation caused by World War I, which was fought for three years on Latvian territory (the battle lines divided the country in half for much of the time), and the anarchy that followed Russia's February Revolution.

In 1917, provisional governmental and semi-governmental councils proliferated among Latvian Rifle Regiments in the Russian Army (formed in 1915) and among Latvian refugees scattered throughout Russia. Several of these cooperated to form the Latvian Provisional National Council on November 18, 1917. After the October Revolution, pro-Bolshevik groups proclaimed the establishment of Soviet power in unoccupied eastern Latvia, but left the country in the van of the German advance in the spring of 1918, in which all of Latvia was occupied. Enjoying limited recognition from the German occupation authorities, the Provisional Council and leaders from Courland, previously isolated from the rest of the country by the battle lines, united to form a pre-parliament, the Latvian People's Council, and to elect a provisional government under Karlis Ulmanis in November of 1918.

In 1919, following the collapse of Imperial Germany, Soviet troops, including major elements of the Latvian Rifles Regiments, returned to Latvia. They pressed hard against Latvian national forces from the east, as did freebooting German forces in the west. But with some assistance in the form of money and supplies from the Allies and military support from Estonia, the Latvians succeeded in driving both Soviet and German forces out of the country by early 1920. A peace treaty with Soviet Russia, in which the young Bolshevik government renounced all claims to Latvian territory, was signed in August of that year.

A great many Latvians remained in Russia after the creation of the Latvian Republic. They played a disproportionately large role in the creation of the Soviet Union. The Red Latvian Rifles were one of the most reliable units available to the Bolsheviks. In the Civil War battles, from the Ukraine to Siberia, they played a significant role. Latvian Communists such as Roberts Eiche, Roberts Eidemanis, and Janis Rudzutaks, were widely influential, the last named as a member of the Politburo. However, Latvian Communists in the Soviet Union were virtually annihilated during Stalin's purges. Soviet historiography has consistently downplayed their significance. [16]

The Republic of Latvia carried out an extensive land reform during the 1920s. The degree of equality of access to land thus obtained is still in dispute between Soviet and Western authors. [17] The parliamentary system established in Latvia provided extensive cultural autonomy, including schools and press, for the ethnic minorities. Political parties proliferated. Twenty-five of them were represented in the 100-member Saeima [Parliament] in 1928. [18] The development of a stable government proved impossible, and in May, 1934, Prime Minister Ulmanis dissolved the Saeima and established an authoritarian regime, corporate and national in character but not clearly fascist. Political parties were banned, a few leaders of extremist parties on both the left and the right were interred and/or prosecuted, and some restrictions were placed on the press, but there was no secret police, and the courts remained relatively independent. [19] This regime remained in power until the Soviet occupation.

In 1939, after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact with Germany, the Soviet Union forced the Baltic states to sign Mutual Assistance Pacts which allowed the stationing of Soviet troops on their soil but guaranteed non-interference in internal affairs. Nine months later, in June of 1940, under threat of imminent Soviet attack, the government of Latvia was forced to resign in favor of one more "friendly" to the Soviet Union (and in fact, hand-picked by Andrei Vyshinsky, the special Soviet emissary to Latvia) and to allow the entry of Soviet forces in unlimited numbers. New elections were proclaimed, in which only the Communist-backed list of candidates was allowed to stand. After a campaign in which the Communists consistently denied any desire to Sovietize Latvia, the new parliament immediately requested incorporation into the Soviet Union. [20]

The new Soviet regime proclaimed the nationalization of property, dismantled much of the.existing social system, but had little time to organize Soviet style institutions before the Nazi invasion of June 1941. There was, however, time to plan and carry out deportations (on the night of June 14, 1941, more than 15,000 Latvians of all ages and in all walks of life were taken) and the execution of many more. [21] All major political leaders, including President Ulmanis and the Commander of Latvian forces, J. Balodis, disappeared. Most estimates agree that some 34,000 Latvians died or disappeared in 1940-1941. Additional deportations followed the expulsion of Nazi troops from Latvia, in connection with the re-establishment of Soviet control, the elimination of nationalist guerrillas who actively fought the Soviets until at least 1948, and the collectivization drive. There is no accurate way to calculate the losses inflicted on the Latvian nation by the war and the imposition of the Soviet system. They may easily have been in the neighborhood of 290,000 dead from military action, executions, or deportation. In addition to those killed or imprisoned, many more sought refuge in Western nations, from Sweden to Australia. [22]

1. See Latvia, 1968: 15; Spekke, 1951: 112; Rutkis, 1967: 6; Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 30-32.
2. Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 35-36. Even Stalinist history does not claim Russian participation in the battle, although it does claim that the defenders were "inspired" by a Russian victory at Yuriev two years earlier.
3. Rutkis, 1967: 217.
4. Spekke, 1951: 188; Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 95.
5. Spekke, 1951: 255-256.
6. Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 114. There was some fighting in Latvia during the Napoleonic invasion; see Ibid.: 124.
7. The decree of 1804 provided that peasants in Livland, Estland, and Courland could not be sold without selling the land also; the laws of 1816-1819 granted the peasants personal freedom requiring that their relations with the landlords be regulated by "free contracts." The peasants received no land, which led to the reference to their new rights as "the freedom of the bird." This differed from the 1861 abolition of serfdom in Russia, when the state purchased land for the peasants and saddled them with a heavy repayment burden. See Spekke, 1951: 290 and Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 128.
8. Rutkis, 1967: 216-217.
9. Soviet historians note that Riga had 54 capitalist manufacturing enterprises in either 1820 or 1830, depending on which source is consulted. See Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 142 and Vesture, 1967: 121. Neither book notes the date as an error, and neither gives a reference source.
10. Rutkis, 1967: 181.
11. See Spekke, 1951: 307; Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 211; Latvia, 1968: 18.
12. Spekke, 1951: 308 and Rutkis, 1967: 292. Spekke's actual figure of 148,000 must be an error, as this represents some 51% of Riga's total population at that time. Rutkis, 1967: 316, gives a figure of 61,000 industrial workers in Riga in 1935.
13. Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 262-268.
14. Ibid.: 281.
15. Istoriya LSSR, 1955: 281-282.
16. See Germanis, 1970: 6-12.
17. For a statistical assessment, see Rein Taagepera, "Inequality Indices for Baltic Farm Size Distribution, 1929-1940," Journal of Baltic Studies (Spring), 1972: III: 1: 26-34.
18. Spekke, 1951: 375.
19. Ibid.: 376; Von Rauch, 1970: 132-133; Rutkis, 1967: 242; Bilmanis, 1947: 154. Dependent upon agricultural exports, Latvia was significantly affected by the Great Depression. This factor apparently hastened the end of democratic government there. The Ulmanis regime kept a balanced budget, but was apparently successful in encouraging recovery and further developing the road network and supply of electric power. Latvia's economic situation improved considerably in 1936-1937. See Bilmanis, 1947: 306, 333-337.
20. Tarulis, 1959: 253; Berzins, 1963: 90
21. Rutkis, 1967: 253, 774.
22. See Rutkis, 1967: 292-327; Latvia, 1968: 53-54; King, 1965: 86.

• Attitudes of the Major Soviet Nationalites Latvia and the Latvians, prepared by Frederic T. Harned - A Personal Introduction
• General Information (Part A) - I. Territory
• General Information (Part A) - II. Economy
• General Information (Part A) - III. History
• Next General Information (Part A) - IV. Demography
• General Information (Part A) - V. Culture
• General Information (Part A) - VI. External Relations
• Media (Part B) - I. Language Data
• Media (Part B) - II. Local Media
• Media (Part B) - III. Educational Institutions
• Media (Part B) - IV. Cultural and Scientific Institutions
• National Attitudes (Part C) - I. Review of Factors Forming National Attitudes
• National Attitudes (Part C) - II. Basic Views of Scholars on National Attitudes
• National Attitudes (Part C) - III. Recent Manifestations of Nationalism
• References