LATVIAN SOCIALIST SOVIET REPUBLIC

The 'Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic' (, LSPR) was a short-lived communist state during the Latvian War of Independence. It was proclaimed on 17 December 1918 with the political, economic, and military backing of Lenin and his Bolshevik government in the Russian SFSR. The head of government was Pēteris Stučka.
The LSPR armed forces, which consisted of the famous Red Latvian Riflemen and other units of the Red Army, was quickly able to capture most of the territory of present-day Latvia, forcing the back the democratic provisional government of Kārlis Ulmanis into a small pocket of territory around the city of Liepāja.
Stučka's government introduced sweeping communist reforms, resuming the radical policy direction from the abortive Iskolat regime. Some reforms were initially popular, such as the expropriation of property from the upper and middle classes, the so-called bourgeoisie. 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 and other cities began to starve, contributiong 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 Tribunals and the so-called Flintenweiber ("Gun-Women") were memorable components of this wave of terror.
When the Entente-backed Ulmanis government went on the counter-attack with the assistance of German Freikorps units in the spring of 1919, they quickly regained the lost territory. The capital, Riga, was recaptured on 22 May 1919, and the territory of the LSPR was reduced to a part of Latgale in eastern Latvia, until finally driven out by combined Latvian democratic and Polish forces in early 1920.

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Bibliography

★ Piat’ mesiatsev Sotsialisticheskoi sovetskoi Latvii: Sbornik statei i dokumentov, , P., Stuchka, Izd-vo TsK KP Latvii, 1919–21,

★ The City of the Red Plague: Soviet Rule in a Baltic Town, , George, Popoff, George Allen & Unwin; E.P. Dutton & Co, 1932,

★ Sotsialisticheskakia Sovetskaia Respublika Latvii v 1919 g. i inostrannaia interventsiia: Dokumenty i materialy, , IA. P. (Krastiņš, J.) (ed.), Krastyn', Izd-vo Akademii Nauk Latviiskoi SSR, 1959–60,

★ Legal Thought and the Formation of Law and Legal Institutions in the Socialist Soviet Republic of Latvia, 1917–1920, , Zigurds L., Zile, Journal of Baltic Studies, 1977

See also

★ Iskolat

★ Commune of the Working People of Estonia

★ Lithuanian-Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic

★ Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia

External links

★ Latvia in the Soviet Union (early flags)

★ Latvia page on www.worldstatesmen.org

★ Significant documents from the history of the LSPR at HISTORIA.LV