The Russian invasion of Latvia (and the other Baltic states) in June 1940 represents the perfect corollary of Stalin’s entire strategy and the Allied passivity – especially US submissiveness, – of those years. It is the crystalline example of how Soviet Russia exploited every opening left open by realpolitik and Western fear. Let’s see how we got there.
On August 23, 1939, Russia, under its former name of the Soviet Union (USSR), but effectively continuing the imperialist modus operandi of Tsarist Russia as it is today, concluded a non-aggression treaty with Germany, then known as National Socialist (Nazi) Germany, the so-called Hitler-Stalin Pact (or Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact). Its secret protocol called for the partition of Poland and the inclusion of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Bukovina in the USSR’s “sphere of influence,” as well as the mutual supply of weapons and raw materials.
On September 1, 1939, Hitler (assured by Stalin that he need not fear any danger from Russia) felt free to attack Poland. As a result, on September 3, France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, beginning World War II. Latvia immediately declared neutrality in the hope of being saved, but to no avail. On September 17, 1939, USSR troops invaded Poland, and Latvia found itself in a vise ready to crush it. On September 28, 1939, Germany and Soviet Russia signed a treaty of good-neighborhood and friendship that dismembered Poland, included Latvia in the USSR’s “sphere of influence,” and, through secret protocols, provided for the exodus of ethnic Germans from the USSR’s and cooperation between their respective intelligence services.
On October 5, 1939, under military and political pressure, Latvia was forced to sign the so-called Pact of Mutual Assistance with Soviet Russia, a crucial step that allowed the occupation of western Latvia, initially by 25,000 Soviet Red Army and Navy soldiers, under the guise of simple military bases. On October 30, 1939, Latvia was forced to accept an agreement with Nazi Germany for the transfer of Latvians of German origin to Germany. On June 12, 1940, the Soviet Navy began a naval blockade of the Baltic states. Russian forces of the NKVD (the KGB’s predecessor intelligence service) attacked Latvia’s eastern border posts: the guards were killed or captured and taken to Russia. On June 16, 1940, an ultimatum was presented to Latvia, demanding the resignation of the Council of Ministers and the unrestricted admission of Russian troops into Latvia. The Latvian government was forced to accept it without protest or resistance.
Thus, on June 17, 1940, Soviet Russian forces occupied all of Latvia. France and the United Kingdom remained silent, contrarily to what they had done with Poland, exploiting treaty loopholes to prevent Germany and Russia from consolidating their alliance and launching a two-front war against them. Three days later, Soviet Russia, now firmly in power in Latvia, installed a new government obedient to Moscow under the leadership of the collaborationist Auguste Kirchenstein.
In violation of the Latvian Constitution, elections to the Parliament (Saeima) were held on July 14 and 15, 1940, with only one list of candidates allowed: the Communist-Workers’ People’s Bloc, subservient to Moscow.
On July 21, 1940, the new puppet Parliament unanimously proclaimed Latvia a “Soviet Socialist” republic and hypocritically requested its admission to the USSR. Latvian former head of state Karlis Ulmanis was captured and deported to the USSR. Shortly thereafter, on August 5, 1940, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR annexed occupied Latvia (and guess what!), soon after the Politburo of the Soviet-Russian Communist Party approved the Constitution of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). In occupied Latvia, on November 26, 1940, the Criminal Code of Soviet Russia came into force. Article 58 addressed counterrevolutionary crimes and was used for political prosecutions. The mass deportation of Latvian residents began on June 13–14, 1941: approximately 15,443 Latvians (including 3,741 children under the age of 16) were deported to remote areas of the Soviet Empire. Most adult men were arrested and thrown in prison camps. The phenomenon is significant, with approximately 200,000 deportees from all the Baltic republics.
At the same time, beginning in 1944-1945, coinciding with the end of the German occupation and the beginning of the second Soviet occupation, Stalin began importing and settling primarily Russian settlers in the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) to create a stronghold of Russian-speaking and ethnic Russians to justify the continuation of the occupation. It is estimated that by 1955, this phenomenon affected approximately 500,000 individuals.
At the end of the Second World War, the silence of Yalta (February 1945) and Potsdam (July-August 1945) regarding the Baltic Republics and the invasion of Poland was not an oversight, but a deliberate and systematic omission. It was the moment when the moral superiority the Allies flaunted against Hitler was shattered by the wall of wartime expediency.
At Yalta, Stalin presented himself in a position of absolute strength: the Red Army not only occupied the Baltics, but was already 60 kilometers from Berlin. When Roosevelt and Churchill mentioned the Atlantic Charter (which provided for the right of peoples to self-determination), Stalin responded with brutal logic: whoever liberates a territory imposes his own system there. The Allies lacked the courage to respond that this “liberation” was actually a second occupation.
To save at least appearances over Poland (for which Great Britain and France had officially entered the war), the Allies sacrificed the Baltics. Stalin was adamant: the 1941 borders of the USSR (those obtained thanks to the wicked pact with Hitler) were non-negotiable. The result: Roosevelt and Churchill, despite the huge aid in food, weapons and equipment provided by the US under the Land Lease program, silently agreed to pardon Russia for the stab in the back of Poland and that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would be considered “internal affairs” of Soviet Russia in exchange for Stalin’s promise (later broken) to ensure “free elections” at least in Poland.
At Potsdam, the war in Europe was over. Truman (who had replaced Roosevelt) knew that the USSR was already deporting tens of thousands of Latvians and Poles. However, the silence persisted for a specific reason: the US wanted Stalin to enter the war against Japan. Instead of denouncing the illegal occupation of the Baltics as a violation of international law, the Western Allies chose the hypocritical formula of “formal non-recognition.” The silence of Yalta and Potsdam transformed the Russian occupation of Latvia from an act of international piracy (1940) to a tolerated geopolitical reality. Stalin understood that might trumps right: if you had enough divisions on the ground, the “idealisms” of Washington and London vanished.
This silence persisted for fifty years: until 1991. This is why the Baltics no longer trust anyone: obviously and as always, Russia, and from then on also the US, and they are among the countries in Europe that spend relatively more on modern armaments.
At the beautiful Riga Museum of the Occupation, where I gathered all this information, they don’t hate the Russian language and literature; on the contrary, they appreciate them and offer courses to teach them. However, they scrupulously separate culture and politics. Latvia no longer trusts anybody blindly.
