The occupations of Latvia and Soviet rule, 1940–1991

On 23 August 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty commonly known as the Hitler-Stalin or Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

A secret protocol divided parts of eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of interest. Latvia was assigned to the Soviet sphere.

On 5 October 1939, under military and political pressure, Latvia signed a Mutual Assistance Pact with the Soviet Union. This allowed Soviet military bases and large numbers of Soviet troops to be stationed in Latvia.

On 16 June 1940, the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum demanding a new Latvian government and unrestricted entry for Soviet forces.

Soviet armed forces occupied Latvia on 17 June 1940.

A government controlled by the occupying power was established. Elections held in July allowed only a Soviet-approved list of candidates.

The newly formed assembly requested Latvia’s incorporation into the Soviet Union, and the USSR formally annexed Latvia on 5 August 1940.

Political institutions were dismantled, property was nationalised and Soviet law was introduced.

Public officials, military personnel, politicians, business owners, farmers and other residents were arrested or persecuted.

During the mass deportation of 13–14 June 1941, 15,443 residents of Latvia, including 3,741 children under the age of 16, were deported to remote regions of the Soviet Union. Many adult men were separated from their families and sent to prisons or labour camps.

Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.

German forces captured Riga on 1 July and occupied the whole of Latvia within days. Latvia became part of Reichskommissariat Ostland and did not regain national independence.

Nazi authorities introduced racial persecution, economic exploitation, forced labour and political repression.

The Holocaust began immediately after the German invasion.

Nazi German authorities organised and directed the persecution and murder of Jews in occupied Latvia. Local collaborators participated at several levels in identification, guarding, dispossession, propaganda and mass murder.

Jewish communities in smaller towns were destroyed during mass shootings in the summer of 1941. Ghettos were established in Riga, Daugavpils and Liepāja.

Major killing sites included Rumbula near Riga, Šķēde near Liepāja and the Poguļanka area near Daugavpils.

More than 70,000 Latvian Jews were murdered. Jews deported to Latvia from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and other occupied territories were also imprisoned and killed.

Jewish prisoners resisted through escape, underground organisation and attempts to obtain weapons and supplies.

Some Latvian residents hid and assisted Jews despite the risk of execution.

Žanis and Johanna Lipke and their network helped people escape from the Riga ghetto and forced-labour sites. A bunker in the Lipke family’s yard sheltered rescued Jews during the occupation.

Rescue stories should not obscure the overall scale of the Holocaust, the role of perpetrators and collaborators or the large number of people who remained passive bystanders.

Latvians served in armed formations controlled by both occupation regimes.

Nazi Germany created the designation “Latvian Legion” for two Waffen-SS divisions and related units. Many of the men who served were illegally conscripted rather than volunteers.

Latvian soldiers also served in Soviet forces. Military service under the occupation regimes involved different forms of coercion, conviction and circumstance and should not be reduced to one shared motive.

Representatives of former democratic political parties established the Latvian Central Council in 1943.

Its goal was the restoration of an independent and democratic Republic of Latvia.

In March 1944, the council approved a memorandum calling for the renewal of Latvian statehood. It was signed by 188 political and cultural figures.

The Red Army returned to Latvia during 1944.

Fighting continued in Kurzeme until Germany’s surrender in May 1945. Thousands of Latvian residents fled westward during the final stages of the war.

Latvian exile communities developed in Western Europe, North America, Australia and elsewhere. They maintained cultural organisations, schools, archives and support for Latvian statehood.

Armed resistance to Soviet rule continued after the war.

National partisan groups operated mainly in rural and forested areas. Soviet security forces gradually suppressed organised resistance through military action, arrests, deportation and infiltration.

The battle at Stompaki in March 1945 was one of the largest engagements involving Latvian national partisans.

On 25 March 1949, Soviet authorities deported 42,125 people from Latvia.

The deportees were mainly rural families accused of supporting national partisans or classified as prosperous farmers. The total included 10,987 children under the age of 16.

The deportation accelerated agricultural collectivisation and weakened rural resistance to Soviet authority.

Private agriculture was reorganised into collective and state farms.

Industry was integrated into the wider Soviet economy. New factories, military facilities and housing districts changed towns and cities.

Movement of workers from other Soviet republics changed the demographic and linguistic environment, particularly in Riga and other industrial centres.

Political organisations, publishing, education and public culture were subject to censorship and Communist Party control.

Latvian language, music, literature, theatre and cultural traditions continued, but operated within ideological restrictions.

The Song Festival tradition survived under Soviet administration. Official programmes included Soviet political content, while many participants and audiences also understood the festivals as expressions of Latvian cultural continuity.

Churches and religious communities faced restrictions, surveillance and varying levels of repression.

Many western states did not recognise the legality of Latvia’s annexation into the Soviet Union.

Latvian diplomatic representatives continued to work abroad, maintaining a degree of legal and institutional continuity.

The modern Satversme states that Latvia restored independence in 1990 on the basis of continuity with the state proclaimed on 18 November 1918.