History of Latvia: a Brief Survey

A monument dedicated tothe 1905 Revolution.A rally in Dundaga (western Latvia) in October 1905.social and political situation. On 13 January 1905, the LSDSP declared a general strike. About20,000 factory workers participated in a demonstration on the streets of Rīga. A widespreadmovement took hold, and demands were made for improved social conditions and morepolitical rights. In rural areas the movement was aimed against the local aristocrats — theGerman landed gentry — who owned most of the land and who had usurped local power.In the eyes of many Latvians the 1905 Revolution was largely directed against the BalticGerman aristocracy, and many manors in the countryside were destroyed, prompting thegovernment authorities to send punitive expeditions to Baltic provinces.Later, in history books, these events of 1905 were called the ‘Latvian Revolution’. During thisrevolution several nationally oriented Latvian Social Democrats publicly voiced, for the firsttime, the necessity to unite all Latvian-inhabited regions into an autonomous state — Latvia.This idea was especially popularised by Miķelis Valters (1874-1968), the nationally orientedleading ideologue of the Social Democratic Union, who opposed the lack of rights andundemocratic socio-political order of the Russian Empire.The decade after the 1905 Revolution displayed a mix of old and new political realities. TheBaltic German aristocracy agreed to a modest reform of their self-government, but it wasalready too late. Many Latvians now called for democratisation and the idea of nationalautonomy arose.Miķelis Valters (1874-1968), originatorof the idea of independent Latvianstatehood and one of the founders ofthe Republic of Latvia.21