Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic
Encyclopedia
The Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic was a short-lived socialist republic formed during the Latvian War of Independence. It was proclaimed on 17 December 1918 with the political, economic, and military backing of Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

 and his Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....

 government in the Russian SFSR. The head of government was Pēteris Stučka
Peteris Stucka
Pēteris Stučka, sometimes spelt Pyotr Ivanovich Stuchka ; b. in Koknese parish, Governorate of Livonia — d. January 25, 1932 in Moscow) was the head of the Bolshevik government in Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence, one of the leaders of the New Current movement in the late 19th...

.

History

The LSPR armed forces, which consisted of the Red Latvian Riflemen and other units of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

, quickly captured most of the territory of present-day Latvia, forcing Kārlis Ulmanis
Karlis Ulmanis
Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis was a prominent Latvian politician in pre-World War II Latvia during the Latvian period of independence from 1918 to 1940.- Education and early career :Ulmanis studied agriculture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich and...

's provisional government into a small pocket of territory around the city of Liepāja
Liepaja
Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...

.

Stučka's government introduced sweeping communist reforms, resuming the radical policy direction from the abortive Iskolat
Iskolat
The Iskolat |Soviet]] of Workers, Soldiers, and the Landless in Latvia, Исполнительный комитет Совета рабочих, солдатских и безземельных депутатов Латвии) was established in Riga on July 29 – 30, 1917, O.S...

 regime. Some reforms were initially popular, such as the expropriation of property from what the government called the "bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

", i.e. the upper
Upper class
In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

 and middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

. The decision to unilaterally nationalise all agrarian land, however, had dire economic consequences for the cities, as rural support for the regime declined drastically. The peasants no longer agreed to supply the townsfolk with foodstuffs on the government's terms, and shortages became critical. When the people in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

 and other cities began to starve, contributing to widespread discontent among the proletariat as well, a wave of terror swept both rural and urban areas, seeking out alleged counter-revolutionaries supposedly responsible for the failures of the regime. Arbitrary Revolutionary Tribunal
Revolutionary tribunal (Russia)
Revolutionary tribunals in Soviet Russia were established soon after the October Revolution by the Soviet "Decree of the Soviet of Peoples' Commissars Concerning the Courts No. 1" of November 22 , 1917...

s and the so-called Flintenweiber ("Gun-Women") were memorable components of this wave of terror.

When the Entente
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...

-backed Ulmanis government counter-attacked with the backing of German Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...

 units in the spring of 1919, they quickly regained the lost territory. The capital, Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

, was recaptured on 22 May 1919, and the territory of the LSPR was reduced to a part of Latgale
Latgale
Latgale is one of the four historical and cultural regions of Latvia recognised in the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. It is the easternmost region north of the Daugava River...

 in eastern Latvia, until finally reconquered
Battle of Daugavpils
Battle of Daugavpils was the final battle of the joint Polish and Latvian Operation Winter against the Red Army. It took place in late December 1919 in the area around the city of Daugavpils...

 by combined Latvian and Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 forces in early 1920.

See also

  • Iskolat
    Iskolat
    The Iskolat |Soviet]] of Workers, Soldiers, and the Landless in Latvia, Исполнительный комитет Совета рабочих, солдатских и безземельных депутатов Латвии) was established in Riga on July 29 – 30, 1917, O.S...

  • Commune of the Working People of Estonia
    Commune of the Working People of Estonia
    The Commune of the Working People of Estonia was an unrecognised government claiming the Bolshevik-occupied parts of Republic of Estonia as its territories during the Estonian War of Independence and the Russian Civil War...

  • Lithuanian-Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
  • Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia
    Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia
    The Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia or Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus was an early republic in the historical territory of Belarus after the collapse of the Russian Empire as a result of the October Revolution....

  • Finnish Democratic Republic
    Finnish Democratic Republic
    The Finnish Democratic Republic was a short-lived government dependent on and recognised only by the Soviet Union. It nominally operated in those parts of Finnish Karelia that were occupied by the Soviet Union during the Winter War....


External links

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