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An ultimatum was presented by the USSR to Latvia. 17 June: Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940: Soviet troops occupied the country. 5 August: Latvia was incorporated into the Soviet Union, becoming the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). 1941: 14 June: The first mass deportations of Latvians to various sites in the Soviet Union began. 1 July
After the February Revolution in the Russian Empire, a majority of Latvians did not expect more for their country than a federated status in a Russian state. "Free Latvia in Free Russia" was the slogan of the day. During March 12–13, 1917 in Valmiera the Vidzeme Land Congress took place, which set up the Provisional Land Council of Vidzeme.
In Latvia, Russians have been the largest ethnic minority in the country for the last two centuries. The number of Russians in Latvia more than quadrupled during the Soviet occupation of Latvia when the size of the community grew from 8.8% of the total population in 1935 (206,499) to 34.0% in 1989 (905,515). [1]
The Treaty of Riga was signed in Riga, Latvia, on 18 March 1921 between Poland on one side and Soviet Russia (acting also on behalf of Soviet Belarus) and Soviet Ukraine on the other, ending the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921). [2] The chief negotiators of the peace were Jan Dąbski for the Polish side [3] and Adolph Joffe for the Soviet side.
Territorial changes of the Baltic states refers to the redrawing of borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after 1940. The three republics, formerly autonomous regions within the former Russian Empire and before that of former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and as provinces of the Swedish Empire, gained independence in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917.
The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940, which included deportations to Siberian Gulags (June deportation), created a large degradation of Latvian-Russian relations. Nazi Germany then occupied Latvia in 1941 German occupation of Latvia during World War II, until the USSR returned in 1944 to resume occupation, resulting in further deportations.
The four countries on the Baltic Sea that were formerly parts of the Russian Empire – Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – consolidated their borders and independence after the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian independence wars following the end of World War I by 1920 (see Treaty of Tartu, Latvian-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty and Soviet-Lithuanian Treaty of 1920).
After World War I, Soviet Russia wanted to regain Latvia, since it had once been a part of the Russian Empire. [2] The Red Army invaded Latvia in 1918 after the Latvian prime minister, Karlis Ulmanis, declared its independence. The Red Army was able to capture the capital, Riga, and a Soviet Government replaced Ulmanis.