The First World War devastated the country. According to Ilgvars Butulis, the Russian Army mobilized 120,000 – 140,000 men from Latvia in the First World War; the most famous units were of course the Riflemen, but tens of thousands of Latvians also served in the Home Guard and other formations. Hundreds of thousands of Latvians were forced to become refugees in the interior of Russia. Even after the return of the refugees, the population was c. 32% smaller than it was before the World War One.

Demands for self-determination were at first confined to autonomy ("a free Latvia in a free Russia"), but full independence was proclaimed in Riga on November 18th, 1918 by the People's Council of Latvia, Kārlis Ulmanis becoming the head of the provisional government. 

The War of Liberation that followed was the most chaotic period in Latvia's history. By the spring of 1919 there were actually three governments – Ulmanis' government, which concluded an agreement with the Germans and was supported by Great Britain; the Iskolat led by Pēteris Stučka, which proclaimed an independent Soviet Latvia and whose forces, supported by the Red Army, occupied almost all of the country; and the Baltic German puppet government headed by Andrievs Niedra. Estonian and Latvian forces defeated the Germans at the Battle of Cēsis in June 1919, and a massive attack by a German and Russian force under Pavel Bermondt-Avalov was repelled in November. Eastern Latvia was cleared of Bolshevik forces by Polish, Latvian, and German troops in early 1920.

A freely elected Constituent Assembly was convened on May 1, 1920 and adopted a liberal constitution, the Satversme, in February 1922 – suspended by Ulmanis after his coup in 1934 but reaffirmed in 1990 and since amended, this is the constitution still in use in Latvia today. The Satversme declares that power is vested in the people of Latvia (Latvijas tauta – rather than the Latvian people, latviešu tauta), and minorities received considerable cultural autonomy.

With most of Latvia's industrial base evacuated to the interior of Russia in 1915, radical land reform was the central political question for the young state. In 1897, 61.2% of the rural population was landless; by 1930 that percentage had been reduced to 23.2%. The extent of cultivated land surpassed the pre-war level already in 1923.

Latvia established a stable currency, the lat (Latvian: lats), and built up its institutions. Innovation and rising productivity led to the GNP per capita approaching Finland's level by 1930, but the economy soon suffered the effects of the world-wide economic crisis – the Great Depression.

Though Latvia showed signs of economic recovery and the electorate had steadily moved toward the center during the parliamentary period, Kārlis Ulmanis staged a bloodless coup on May 15th, 1934, establishing a dictatorship that lasted until the USSR occupied the country in June 1940. Jānis Peniķis notes that “prior to 1934, there is nothing to indicate that Latvian democracy would not be viable; after 1934, there is nothing to indicate that the people would be prepared to rise up against Ulmanis’ new regime,” calling this the greatest paradox of the interwar period of independence. [7]  

Both the parliamentary period and the six years of Ulmanis’ authoritarian regime saw tremendous accomplishments in culture and education. The number of schoolteachers, for example, more than tripled between the wars. The University of Latvia, founded in 1919, became the academic center of the country. Book publishing flourished, with Latvia second only to Denmark in the number of titles published per capita in Europe.

Most of the Baltic Germans left Latvia by agreement between Ulmanis' and Hitler’s governments after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was concluded between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, the seven centuries of their formative influence – both positive and negative – coming to an abrupt end.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact sealed the fate of the Baltic states for the next half century. Coerced into concluding a “mutual assistance agreement” on October 5th, 1939, Latvia admitted Soviet troops to its territory. On June 15th, 1940, the Soviets attacked the border post at Masļenki, killing three guards and two civilians and taking 37 hostages. The following day, the Red Army invaded and occupied the country.

After rigged elections to a “People’s Saeima,” Latvia was illegally incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Latvian SSR on August 5, 1940. The United States and most Western countries refused to recognize the legality of the annexation.

© Text: Pēteris Cedriņš, 2009

© The Latvian Institute
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