History of Latvia: a Brief Survey

In the 1930s Latvia achieved one of the highest standards of living in Europe. The countryadopted a progressive social insurance system. Already in the 1920s, Latvia became knownthroughout the world as a country that took special care of the rights of national minorities.With financial support from the government, Latvia’s national minorities created their ownautonomous school system. Latvia was often mentioned abroad as an example to othercountries of the protection of minority rights.The worldwide economic crisis of the early 1930s did not leave Latvia unscathed. Theglobal crisis created political and economic tension in Latvian society. More radicallyinclined political circles thought that under these circumstances, the constitutionallydefined party system was not sufficiently effective. The Latvian Farmers’ Union begandrafting a bill to amend the Constitution, although the changes received no supportfrom the other political parties. A coup d’etat took place on 15 May 1934. Parliamentwas dismissed and the activities of the political parties were suspended. Power wasseized by the Prime Minister and member of the Latvian Farmers’ Union, Kārlis Ulmanis(who had also been leader of Latvia’s first government). By then, similar coups hadalready taken place in the majority of European countries, including the other twoBaltic countries — Lithuania (December 1926) and Estonia (March 1934).30