Latvia

Before the crusaders came, the territory of modern Latvia was settled by Baltic-speaking peoples, the Latgalians, the Couronians (Curonians), the Semigallians and the Selonians, together with the Finnic Livonians along the coast. The Latgalians were the largest and most developed of these groups, and it is from them that the later Latvian people and the country's name ultimately derive. These tribes lived in chiefdoms and small principalities along the rivers and the sea, the Daugava in particular serving as a trade artery linking the Baltic to the lands of the Rus and beyond.

In the late twelfth century German merchants from Lübeck and Bremen reached the mouth of the Daugava, and missionaries followed; the monk Meinhard arrived around 1180 and was made bishop of Üxküll. The decisive figure was Bishop Albert of Buxhoevden, who founded Riga in 1201 and, with the sanction of Pope Innocent III, established the Order of the Brothers of the Sword in 1202 to subdue and convert the pagan tribes. Over the following decades the Sword Brothers waged the Baltic phase of the Northern Crusades; after their defeat by the Lithuanians and Semigallians they were absorbed into the Teutonic Order in 1237 as its autonomous Livonian branch, the Livonian Order, and by then most of the Latvian and Livonian lands had been conquered. The conquered territory was organised as the loose confederation known as Terra Mariana, the 'Land of Mary'.

Riga prospered as the leading German town of the eastern Baltic, joining the Hanseatic League in 1282 and growing rich as an intermediary in the trade between Russia and western Europe, handling amber, timber, furs and grain. Power in Livonia was divided between the Livonian Order, the archbishop of Riga and the bishops, while a German-speaking nobility and burgher elite ruled over a Latvian-speaking peasantry, a social division that would endure for centuries. The Reformation reached the towns in the early sixteenth century, but the old order collapsed only when the Livonian War broke its fragile balance, ending the medieval church-state by 1561.

Turning points

1. 1201Formation

   Foundation of Riga by Bishop Albert

   Bishop Albert of Buxhoevden founded Riga at the mouth of the Daugava as the base for the German mission and conquest, the city that became the centre of crusader Livonia and a great Hanseatic port.

   [1] [3] [4]

2. 1202Religion

   Order of the Brothers of the Sword founded

   With papal sanction Bishop Albert established the Order of the Brothers of the Sword to subjugate and convert the Baltic tribes, launching decades of crusading warfare in Livonia.

   [1] [5]

3. 1237War & Rupture

   Absorption into the Teutonic Order

   After heavy defeats the Sword Brothers were merged into the Teutonic Order as the autonomous Livonian Order; by this time the Latvian and Livonian tribal lands had largely been conquered and bound into Terra Mariana.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [5]

4. 1282Economy & Trade

   Riga joins the Hanseatic League

   Riga entered the Hanseatic League, the powerful association of northern European merchant towns, cementing its prosperity as the chief trading city between Russia and western Europe.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [5]

Figures of the era

When the Livonian Order dissolved in 1561, its lands were divided. The northern region around Riga, Livonia proper, passed under Polish-Lithuanian overlordship, while the last master of the Order, Gotthard Kettler, became the first duke of a new vassal state, the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, in the west and south. The Baltic German nobility retained its dominance over the Latvian peasantry under each successive sovereign, and Riga remained a coveted prize. In the wars between Poland and Sweden the city was taken by King Gustavus Adolphus in 1621, and most of Livonia passed to the Swedish crown, beginning a period later remembered by Latvians as the 'good Swedish times' for its relatively orderly administration and early measures on behalf of the peasantry.

The Duchy of Courland reached a remarkable height under Duke Jacob Kettler in the mid-seventeenth century, building a merchant and naval fleet and even founding short-lived overseas colonies, on the Gambia River in West Africa and on the Caribbean island of Tobago, an extraordinary venture for so small a Baltic state. The duchy's fortunes faded after Jacob was captured during a Swedish invasion in the 1650s and his colonies were lost, but it survived as an autonomous principality for another century.

The decisive change came with the Great Northern War. In 1710 the armies of Peter the Great took Riga from Sweden, and at the Peace of Nystad in 1721 Swedish Livonia, including Riga, was ceded to the Russian Empire. The Duchy of Courland, long under Russian influence, was finally incorporated in 1795 during the third partition of Poland-Lithuania. By the end of the eighteenth century the whole of the Latvian lands lay within the Russian Empire, governed through the provinces of Livonia and Courland but still administered in practice by the privileged Baltic German elite.

Turning points

1. 1561Politics & Power

   Dissolution of Livonia and the Duchy of Courland

   The collapse of the Livonian Order during the Livonian War split the land: Livonia passed under Polish-Lithuanian rule, while Gotthard Kettler founded the vassal Duchy of Courland and Semigallia.

   [1] [5]

2. 1621War & Rupture

   Swedish conquest of Riga

   Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden captured Riga and most of Livonia from Poland-Lithuania, opening the period of Swedish rule remembered by Latvians as the 'good Swedish times'.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [4]

3. c. 1651–1660Economy & Trade

   Courland's overseas colonies

   Under Duke Jacob Kettler the Duchy of Courland founded short-lived colonies on the Gambia River and on Tobago, a striking commercial venture by a small Baltic state before its decline.

   ↗See the data

   [7]

4. 1710War & Rupture

   Russia takes Riga

   During the Great Northern War the forces of Peter the Great captured Riga from Sweden; the cession of Swedish Livonia was confirmed at the Peace of Nystad in 1721, bringing the region into the Russian Empire.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [5]

5. 1795Politics & Power

   Courland annexed by Russia

   In the third partition of Poland-Lithuania the Duchy of Courland was incorporated into the Russian Empire, completing Russian rule over all the Latvian lands.

   [1] [5]

Figures of the era

Within the Russian Empire the Latvians remained a peasant people subject to a Baltic German upper class, but serfdom was abolished in the Baltic provinces early in the nineteenth century, and a Latvian-speaking intelligentsia began to emerge. From the 1850s the movement of the 'Young Latvians' set out to raise the prestige of the Latvian language, collect folklore and culture, and challenge German dominance; this First Latvian National Awakening laid the foundation of a modern national consciousness. It was followed in the 1890s by the more radical, leftist New Current (Jaunā strāva), which fed into the revolutionary upheaval of 1905 and produced figures such as the national poet Rainis.

The First World War devastated the Latvian lands, much of which became a front line, and the collapse of the Russian and German empires opened the way to statehood. On 18 November 1918 the People's Council of Latvia proclaimed an independent Republic of Latvia in Riga. Independence had then to be won in a confused War of Independence fought against Soviet forces and against German and pro-German troops; victory was secured with Allied help, and on 11 August 1920 the Latvian-Soviet Treaty of Riga ended the war, with Soviet Russia renouncing all sovereign rights over Latvia 'for all future time'. A democratic constitution, the Satversme, was adopted in 1922.

The interwar republic carried out a sweeping land reform that broke up the German estates and created a class of Latvian smallholders, and it developed a lively cultural and political life. But like much of Europe it drifted toward authoritarianism: on 15 May 1934 the veteran prime minister Kārlis Ulmanis carried out a self-coup, suspending the constitution, dissolving the Saeima and the political parties, and ruling thereafter as an authoritarian leader who in 1936 also took the office of president. His regime lasted until the Soviet occupation destroyed the republic in 1940.

Turning points

1. c. 1850–1880Culture & Ideas

   The First National Awakening

   The Young Latvians led a cultural revival that championed the Latvian language and folklore against Baltic German dominance, creating the basis for a modern Latvian nation.

   [1] [5]

2. 18 Nov 1918Independence

   Proclamation of the Republic of Latvia

   As the empires collapsed at the end of the First World War, the People's Council of Latvia proclaimed an independent, democratic Republic of Latvia in Riga.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [5] [13]

3. 11 Aug 1920Independence

   Latvian-Soviet Treaty of Riga

   Concluding the War of Independence, Soviet Russia signed the Treaty of Riga, in which it voluntarily and irrevocably renounced all sovereign rights over the Latvian people and territory, recognising Latvia's independence.

   ↗See the data

   [6] [1]

4. 1922Politics & Power

   Adoption of the Satversme

   Latvia adopted its democratic constitution, the Satversme, in 1922, establishing the institutions of the parliamentary first republic.

   [5]

5. 15 May 1934Politics & Power

   The Ulmanis coup

   Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis staged a self-coup, suspending the constitution, dissolving the Saeima and the parties, and establishing an authoritarian regime that lasted until 1940.

   [2] [5]

Figures of the era

Latvia's fate in the Second World War was sealed in secret. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939 between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union contained a secret protocol that assigned Latvia, along with Estonia and later Lithuania, to the Soviet sphere of influence. Under pressure Latvia was forced to admit Soviet military bases, and in June 1940 the Red Army occupied the country outright; after a staged election a puppet assembly requested incorporation into the Soviet Union, and Latvia was annexed in August 1940. On the night of 13-14 June 1941 the new Soviet regime carried out the first mass deportation, removing some fifteen thousand people, the political, economic and intellectual elite among them, to Siberia, where many perished.

Within days of that first deportation, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Latvia from the summer of 1941. The Nazi occupation brought the Holocaust to Latvian soil. A ghetto was established in Riga, and on 30 November and 8 December 1941 SS units under Friedrich Jeckeln shot roughly twenty-five thousand Jews, most of them from the Riga ghetto, in the Rumbula forest, one of the largest single massacres of the Holocaust before the death camps. The great majority of Latvia's prewar Jewish community was murdered during the occupation.

In 1944-1945 the Red Army reconquered Latvia, restoring Soviet rule, although a pocket in the west, the Courland Kettle, held out by German forces until the war's end. The successive occupations between 1940 and 1991, Soviet, then Nazi, then Soviet again, would become the subject of Latvia's Museum of the Occupation, founded in 1993 to document fifty-one years of foreign rule, the deportations, executions and the destruction inflicted on the Latvian state and people.

Turning points

1. 23 Aug 1939Politics & Power

   The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

   The Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact and its secret protocol assigned Latvia and the other Baltic states to the Soviet sphere of influence, sealing the country's fate in the coming war.

   [9] [8]

2. Jun–Aug 1940War & Rupture

   Soviet occupation and annexation

   The Red Army occupied Latvia in June 1940; after a staged election a puppet parliament requested incorporation, and the Soviet Union annexed the country in August 1940.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [5] [10]

3. 13–14 Jun 1941Catastrophe

   The June 1941 deportations

   The Soviet regime deported some fifteen thousand people from Latvia to Siberia in a single operation, targeting the country's political, economic and intellectual elite; many never returned.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [5]

4. 30 Nov & 8 Dec 1941War & Rupture

   The Rumbula massacre

   Under the Nazi occupation, SS units led by Friedrich Jeckeln shot about twenty-five thousand Jews, chiefly from the Riga ghetto, in the Rumbula forest, among the largest single massacres of the Holocaust.

   ↗See the data

   [11]

Figures of the era

For more than four decades after 1945 Latvia was a Soviet republic, subjected to Sovietisation, Russification and large-scale immigration that altered its demography. A second great wave of repression came in March 1949, when tens of thousands of people were deported to Siberia, many of them peasants resisting the forced collectivisation of agriculture. Yet Latvia's statehood was not held to have ended: the United States, in the Welles Declaration of 1940, and many other Western governments refused to recognise the annexation of the Baltic states as lawful, sustaining the doctrine of state continuity that kept the prewar republics legally alive and allowed their diplomatic missions to function in exile throughout the Cold War.

The reforms of the late 1980s reopened the question of independence. On 23 August 1989, the fiftieth anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, about two million people joined hands in a human chain stretching from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, the Baltic Way, demanding recognition of the pact's secret protocols and the restoration of independence. On 4 May 1990 the Supreme Council of Latvia adopted the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence, reaffirming the 1918 constitution and denouncing the 1940 occupation as illegal. After the failed Moscow coup, full independence was restored by constitutional law on 21 August 1991 and swiftly won international recognition.

The restored republic anchored itself firmly in the West, joining NATO on 29 March 2004 and the European Union on 1 May 2004. The unfinished business of the Soviet era was the eastern district of Abrene, which had been part of interwar Latvia under the 1920 treaty but was transferred to the Russian SFSR in 1944 and never returned. Latvia long linked any border settlement to the 1920 treaty, but in order to conclude relations with Russia it dropped that claim: the 2007 Latvia-Russia border treaty fixed the frontier and renounced the Abrene claim, even as Latvia's Constitutional Court reaffirmed the principle of state continuity. With that, the modern Latvian state settled its borders and completed its return to Europe.

Turning points

1. Mar 1949Catastrophe

   The March 1949 deportations

   In Operation Priboi the Soviet authorities deported tens of thousands of Latvians to Siberia, many of them farmers resisting collectivisation, in the largest single act of repression of the postwar years.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [5]

2. 23 Aug 1989Politics & Power

   The Baltic Way

   On the fiftieth anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, about two million people formed a human chain from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius, demanding the restoration of Baltic independence.

   [12] [8]

3. 4 May 1990Independence

   Declaration on the Restoration of Independence

   The Supreme Council of Latvia adopted the declaration restoring independence, reaffirming the 1918 constitution and declaring the 1940 Soviet occupation illegal.

   ↗See the data

   [13] [8]

4. 21 Aug 1991Independence

   Full restoration of independence

   After the collapse of the Moscow coup, the Supreme Council adopted a constitutional law fully restoring the independence of the Republic of Latvia, soon recognised internationally.

   ↗See the data

   [13] [5]

5. 29 Mar & 1 May 2004Politics & Power

   Accession to NATO and the European Union

   Latvia became a member of NATO on 29 March 2004 and of the European Union on 1 May 2004, anchoring the restored state firmly within Western institutions.

   [14] [1]

6. 2007Politics & Power

   Latvia-Russia border treaty

   The border treaty with Russia entered into force, fixing the frontier and renouncing Latvia's claim to the Abrene district transferred to the Russian SFSR in 1944, while the Constitutional Court reaffirmed state continuity.

   [15] [16]

Figures of the era