Latvians in the Soviet Political Elite 1920-1937 | Latvian History
▻https://latvianhistory.com/2014/06/16/latvians-in-the-soviet-political-elite-1920-1937
he Latvian nation has suffered from the Soviet repressions like no other. However, among ranks of communist supporters and top officials, Latvians took a high position. It happened because of the nature of the times before the Russian revolution and after. On the beginning of the 20th century, the New Current (Jaunā Strāva) was strongest Latvian leftist movement with whom many Latvian future social democrats and communists emerged. The revolution of 1905 was directed by Latvian Social Democratic Workers Party. Before World War I some Latvians moved to Russia to look for new farmland, while intellectuals like Krišjānis Valdemārs, Krišjānis Barons, Baumaņu Kārlis and others established carriers in Petersburg and Moscow. The German invasion in 1915 made hundreds of thousand Latvians go on the refuge to Russia. Locals in Moscow begun to notice that city is full of Latvians and Jews, who were forced to leave Lithuania and Latvia. The fall of Russian invasion made many previously mistreated minorities including Latvians to believe its their time to take power for themselves. And since Bolshevism an international movement in its roots seemed the most popular and strongest choice many Latvians chose the Soviet way. In future it turned out an ill-fated tragic choice, but in 1917 the perspective of independent Latvian state seemed far from reality.
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