History of Latvia: a Brief Survey

Propaganda poster of Stalin’stotalitarian regime, 1950. Slogan on theflag: ‘Onward towards Communism!’.The Soviet Era in LatviaWhereas the end of the Second World War brought freedom for many countries throughoutthe world, for Latvia it brought half a century of Soviet occupation. By 1945, Latvia was onceagain under total Soviet occupation and pre-war Soviet rule was reinstated. After the war,Moscow did everything in its power to quickly establish Russian law and order and to fullysubjugate the population. Immediately following the re-occupation of Latvian territory,Moscow authorities began to persecute those who had cooperated with German Naziforces. People were also arrested for activities during the period of independence, for theirparticipation in or support for the resistance movement against the Soviet regime, for beingsuspected of being politically unreliable, for free thought, etc. The Russification of Latviansociety began.The forests of Latvia were full of fighters from the national resistance movement (includingformer members of the Latvian Legion) who believed that Western countries would cometo Latvia’s aid and free the country from Soviet oppression. The national partisans, 20 000 intotal, continued to actively resist Soviet rule long after the war had ended, until they wereeliminated by the local Soviet armed forces. The final unit of national partisans surrenderedonly in 1956, which marked the end of military resistance to the Soviet regime.38Fighters of the national resistancemovement — national partisans (late 40searly50s).