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 After the signing of the so-called "Molotov-Ribbentrop" pact on August 23, 1939, Latvia became a place of strategic interest to the USSR. In concordance with this unlawful secret agreement the Soviet army occupied Latvia on June 17, 1940. A few months later, against the wishes of the Latvian nation, Latvia was made a part of the Soviet Union. From the 13th to the 14th of June 1941, thousands of Latvian inhabitants were violently deported to Siberia, during the night. Thirty-five thousand people suffered Soviet repression in the first year of Soviet occupation.
With the beginning of WWII, Latvia was taken by German occupation forces. During this time 90 percent of Latvia's Jewish population were murdered in Nazi concentration camps. In 1944, heavy fighting took place in Latvia between German and Soviet troops, the USSR gained the upper hand. During the course of the war, both occupying forces conscripted Latvians into their armies, in this way increased the loss of the nation's "live resources". In 1944, part of the Latvian territory once more came under Soviet occupation. They immediately began to reinstate pre-war order.
The first post war years were noted by particularly dismal and sombre events in the fate of the Latvian nation. The post war Soviet occupation implemented repression and genocide against the Latvians. One hundred and twenty thousand Latvian inhabitants were imprisoned or deported to Soviet concentration (GULAG) camps. One hundred and thirty thousand took refuge from the Soviet army by fleeing to the West. On March 25, 1949, 43,000 rural residents were deported to Siberia in a sweeping repressive action.
An extensive Russification campaign began in Latvia, many administrative obstacles were implemented to hinder the use of the Latvian language.
In the post war period Latvia was forced to adopt Soviet farming methods and the economic infrastructure developed in the 1920s and 1930s was purposefully destroyed. Rural areas were forced into collectivisation.
Because Latvia had still maintained a well-developed infrastructure and educated specialists it was decided in Moscow that some of the Soviet Union's most advanced manufacturing factories were to be based in Latvia. Later, in order to run these factories, Russian workers were flooded into the country, their numbers noticeably decreasing the proportion of Latvian nationals. By the end of the 1980s, the Latvians comprised 50 percent of the population, however before WWII, they comprised 75 percent of the population. (At present the total population is 2.375.000).
Text: Raimonds Ceruzis
Photo credits and illustrations: Latvian Academic Library, Latvian Museum of Photography, L.Pigozne, V.Ridzenieks, A.Tenass
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