Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic was a de facto constituent republic of the Soviet Union covering the occupied and annexed territory of Latvia from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990.
The Soviet occupation and annexation of Latvia began between June and August 1939, according to the agreed terms of the secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In 1939, Latvia was forced to give military bases on its soil to the Soviet Union, and in 1940 the Red Army moved into Latvia, effectively annexing it into the Soviet Union.
The territory changed sides during World War II, with Nazi Germany occupying a large portion of Latvian territory from 1941 until the Red Army entered Latvia in 1944 with the final territory occupied by the Germans liberated in 1945. The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states from 1939 to 1940 and then from 1944 to 1991 was widely considered illegal by the international community and human rights organizations.
Soviet instability during the 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 provided an opportunity for Latvia to restore its independence.
Creation in 1940
On 24 September 1939, USSR bombers entered the airspace of Estonia, flying numerous intelligence-gathering operations. On 25 September, Moscow demanded that Estonia sign a Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty to allow the USSR to establish military bases and station troops on its soil. Latvia was next in line, as the USSR demanded the signing of a similar treaty. The authoritarian government of Kārlis Ulmanis accepted the ultimatum, signing the Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty on 5 October 1939. On 16 June 1940, after the USSR had already invaded Lithuania, it issued an ultimatum to Latvia, followed by the Soviet occupation of Latvia on 17 June.Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov had accused Latvia and the Baltic states of forming a military conspiracy against the Soviet Union. Moscow presented ultimatums, demanding new concessions, including the replacement of governments with new ones, "determined to fulfill the treaties of friendship sincerely" and allowing an unlimited number of troops to enter the three countries. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet troops entered Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. These additional Soviet military forces far outnumbered their individual armies.
The Ulmanis government decided that, given the conditions of international isolation and the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, it was better to avoid bloodshed and an unwinnable war. The Latvian Army did not fire a shot and was quickly decimated by purges, then incorporated into the Soviet Army.
Ulmanis' government resigned and was replaced by a left-wing government created under instructions from the USSR embassy. Until the election of the People's Parliament on the 14/15 July 1940, there were no public statements about governmental plans to introduce a Soviet political order or to join the Soviet Union. Soon after the occupation, the Communist Party of Latvia became the only legal party and presented the "Latvian Working People's Bloc" for the elections. It was the only permitted participant in the election after an attempt by other politicians to include the Democratic Bloc on the ballot was prevented by the government. Its office was closed, election leaflets confiscated, and its leaders arrested.
The election results were fabricated; the Soviet press released them so early that they appeared in a London newspaper 24 hours before the polls closed. All Soviet army personnel present in the country were allowed to vote.
The newly elected People's Parliament convened on 21 July and announced both the creation of the Latvian SSR and the request of admission into the Soviet Union. A change in the constitutional order of the state was illegal under the Constitution of Latvia because a change was only possible after a plebiscite with two-thirds of the electorate's approval. On 5 August, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union completed the annexation process and accepted the Latvian petition, formally incorporating Latvia into the Soviet Union.
Following the annexation, power in the republic was held by the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Latvia, while the titular head of the republic, and the head of the executive, were in subordinate positions. Therefore, the history of Soviet Latvia can broadly be divided into the periods of rule by the First Secretaries: Jānis Kalnbērziņš, Arvīds Pelše, Augusts Voss, and Boris Pugo.
Era of Kalnbērziņš, 1940–1959
The Horrible Year, 1940–41
In the following months of 1940, the Soviet Constitution and criminal code were introduced. The elections of July 1940 were followed by elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in January 1941. The remaining Baltic Germans and anyone that could claim to be one emigrated to Nazi Germany.On 7 August 1940, all print media and printing houses were nationalized. Most existing magazines and newspapers were discontinued or appeared under new Soviet names. In November 1940, banning books began; in total, 4,000 titles were banned and removed from circulation. Arrests of authors like Aleksandrs Grīns occurred during this time.
As Latvia implemented a sweeping land reform after the independence, most farms were too small for nationalization. While rumors of impending collectivization were officially denied in 1940 and 52,000 landless peasants were given small plots of up to 10 ha, in early 1941, preparations for collectivization began. The small size of land plots and imposition of the production quotas and high taxes meant that independent farmers would likely go bankrupt and had to establish collective farms.
Arrests and deportations to the Soviet Union began before Latvia was annexed. Initially, they were limited to the most prominent political and military leaders like President Kārlis Ulmanis, War Minister Jānis Balodis, and Army Chief Krišjānis Berķis, who were arrested in July 1940. The Soviet NKVD arrested most of the White Russian émigrés, who had found refuge in Latvia. Very soon, purges reached the upper echelons of the puppet government when Minister of Welfare Jūlijs Lācis was arrested.
14 June deportations
In early 1941, the Soviet central government planned the mass deportation of anti-Soviet elements from the occupied Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. In preparation, General Ivan Serov, Deputy People's Commissar of Public Security of the Soviet Union, signed the Serov Instructions, "Regarding the Procedure for Carrying out the Deportation of Anti-Soviet Elements from Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia." During the night of 13 to 14 June 1941, 15,424 inhabitants of Latvia — including 1,771 Jews and 742 ethnic Russians — were deported to camps and special settlements, most of which were in Siberia.Among the deported were such obvious candidates as former politicians, wealthy bourgeois and farmers, police, members of Aizsargi, and NGO leaders, even philatelists and enthusiasts of Esperanto were included in the June deportation as unreliable elements. 600 Latvian officers were arrested in the Litene army camp, and many were executed on the spot. Many political prisoners were summarily executed in prisons across Latvia during the hasty Soviet retreat after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Latvia lost 35,000 people during the first year of Soviet rule.
World War II, 1941–1945
The start of Operation Barbarossa cut short immediate plans to deport several hundred thousand more people. German troops occupied Riga on 1 July 1941. A few days later, Reichskommissariat Ostland, was established incorporating the territories of Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and parts of Byelorussia.During the short interregnum period, Latvians created two political bodies that sought to restore independent Latvia: the Central Organizing Committee for Liberated Latvia and the Provisional State Council.
Immediately after the installment of Nazi German authority, the process of eliminating the Jewish and Gypsy populations began, with many killings taking place in Rumbula.
Massacres were mainly committed by the Einsatzgruppe A, the Wehrmacht, and Marines, as well as Latvian collaborators, which included the 500 to 1,500 members of the Arajs Kommando and the 2,000 or more Latvian members of the SD. By the end of 1941, almost the entire Jewish population had been killed or placed in the death camps. In addition, some 25,000 Jews were brought from Germany, Austria, and present-day Czechia, of whom around 20,000 were killed. The Holocaust claimed approximately 85,000 lives in Latvia, of whom the vast majority were Jews.
A large number of Latvians resisted the German occupation. The resistance movement was divided between the pro-independence politicians of the Latvian Central Council and the armed Soviet partisan units under the Latvian Partisan Movement Headquarters in Moscow. The commander was of the communists was Arturs Sproģis.
The Nazis planned to Germanize the Baltic's by settling some 520,000 German settlers there 20–25 years after the war. In 1943 and 1944, two divisions of Latvian Legion were created through a forced mobilization and made a part of the Waffen SS to help Germany fight the Red Army.
Stalinism re-imposed, 1945–1953
In the middle of 1944, when the Soviet Operation Bagration reached Latvia, heavy fighting took place between German and Soviet troops, which ended with a stalemate and the creation of the Courland Pocket, which allowed some 130,000 Latvians to escape to Sweden and Germany.During the war, both occupying forces conscripted Latvians into their armies, which increased the loss of the nation's "live resources." In Courland, Latvian Legion units fought battles against Latvians of the Red Army.
Latvia lost some 20% of its population during World War II. In 1944 part of Abrene District, about 2% of Latvia's territory, was illegally ceded to the RSFSR.
In 1944, the Soviets immediately began to reinstate the Soviet system. After re-establishing military control over the country, in February 1946, elections of the Soviet Union's Supreme Soviet were held, followed, in February 1947, by Latvian Supreme Soviet elections and only in January 1948 elections to the local Soviets.