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Cold war and its effect on Latvia
Cold War – which began in 1947 was a condition between rivals the Soviet Union and the United States
with their allies. It was expressed by political hostility and military tension between the two countries,
involving threats and other measures without starting an actual war. With the collapse of communism
in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the Cold War ended in 1991.
For Latvia the time when Cold War takes place means being under control of the Soviet Union.
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact
To better understand, why the territory of the Baltic states was invaded, let’s go a few years back to
when Molotov – Ribbentrop pact was formed.
It was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed in Moscow on August
23rd, 1939 by foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov. The agreement is
believed to be one of the causes of World War II and contained secret protocols that negotiated the
division of Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of interest.
*Germany gets Poland, USSR gets Latvia, Estonia and parts of other countries + Lithuania in exchange for money
and some other territories
August 23rd is marked as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism as
the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed on this day.
Because of this pact, in the timespan of 5 years, my country was occupied not once, not twice, but
three times. After the third and final occupation, the lives of Latvians didn’t change instantly, however,
russification and sovietisation slowly but surely took over our country.
1940. – USSR; 1941. – GERMANY; 1945. - USSR
Russification is a type of cultural adjustment process during which non-Russian communities,
voluntarily or not (in most cases not), give up their own language, traditions and culture in favour of
the Russian one.
And sovietisation means the adoption of a political system, mentality and way of life based on the
model of Soviet Union.
“World revolution”
In order to achieve the life communists had imagined, they had some of the most severe and terrible
ideas. They would go through with repressions against Latvians such as: forced labour, living in bad
conditions, unreasonable imprisonment and others.
Deportation
One of the most unforgivable and unforgettable things the people of Baltic countries experienced
were the Soviet mass deportations on 25-28th of March 1949.
Armed men would show up at a house in the middle of the night, give the people living there no more
than 30 minutes to dress, pack their things and leave. The family would be then brought to a railway
station where the storage trains would already be waiting. The officers sometimes would take young
children, expecting that their parents would show up at the station and trade places. People were
forced to get in the trains, leave to inhospitable, faraway places in Russia and not allowed come back.
On the night from 25th to 26th of March 41,708 Latvians were deported, most of them being women
and children under the age of 16.
Not mention, the families who were on the lists were well chosen weeks before the night of the crime.
It was the wealthy, smart, hard-working part of the society – the ones who wouldn’t obey the new
rules.
Some even had heard about this plan and were lucky enough to hide that night and not be found by
the officers. They hid in forests and corn fields for many days until all the trains had left.
With the powers changing, in time, more and more people were released and some of them managed
to return home though many of our descendants still live in Siberian towns and villages to this day.
* relatives in America, who escaped to Germany in the beginning of March with one carriage of things
with them.
Collectivization
These repressions against the people of the Baltic countries were necessary for the collectivization
plan. A five-year plan aimed to join individual landholdings and labour into collectively and statecontrolled farms. The Soviet leadership expected that the replacement of individual owner farms by
collective ones would immediately increase the food supply for the urban population, the supply of
materials for processing industry, and agricultural exports. However, most individual farm owners
knew better than to assign their establishment to the authorities and make their farm into a collective
work place. But the government would get what they want one way or another.
The rate of collectivisation jumped from 11% to more than 50% from March 12th to April 9th in
Latvia. By the end of the year 93% of Latvian farms joined the collectivization, because there just
wasn’t any other way.
All that’s left in our country after the emigration and deportation was the dull, unintelligent part of
the society that could not get the job done neither in time nor in quality. The five-year plans were
falling apart, and they were slowly running out of supplies to provide for the whole, wide Soviet Union.
I wonder, was it even worth it?
Latvia was the most militarized from all Baltic countries, so food would be deserved primarily by the
army. Because 90% of the things produced in Latvia were sent to other parts of Russia, there wasn’t
much left for us, we lived in poverty. We had little food, supplies and clothes. That’s why it was
important to be creative and make things yourself.
It got to the point that, the government provided people with these “tickets” that once a month could
be exchanged at the sore for a set amount of sugar, soap, washing powder, shampoo and other
supplies. In a grocery store, there would be lines even outside of the shop, because each person in a
family was only granted a limited amount of butter, sausage and other foods. Families would take
infants with them to wait in the line, so that they would get more. It was possible that you might not
even get any, because the store couldn’t provide enough.
Of course, the governors and other people of a higher status lived well and would have advantages
and stores of their own.
Immigrants
There was a scheme to filter the society and as a result, we would lose our ethnicity. People from the
USSR were kindly welcomed to move to the Baltic countries and get a job. The more factories with
workplaces were built, the more Russians came.
The more Russians came, the more living places were needed. When a house with 70 apartments was
built, only 2 of them would be assigned to a Latvian family. One person was granted 4m 2 of personal
space. Imagine, a family of 4 had to live in an apartment of no more than 16m2. That’s less than the
size of this room.
In the 1940s the mass in the Soviet Union was told: “Come here, all here is ours to have’. Even more
than 50 years later, when Latvia got back its independence, they still couldn’t understand that they
are in a different country.
Education
Kids in schools were taught not the real history but the history that the government wanted them to
know. They were told that the Soviet Union came as our saviours and protectors, when they were the
ones taking away what was ours. Some teachers, especially in schools outside of the big cities in the
countryside, would tell kids the real story but it was considered unacceptable behaviour and could be
risky for the teacher to do so.
In schools, Russian language was mandatory from second grade. By the 1980s there were more
Russian lessons per week than there were Latvian.
In order to educate new generations and more effectively implement the communist ideology in
educational institutions, three youth mass organizations were created. First - Oktobrēni – which
accepted all kids aged from 7 to 9 years. However, not all kids aged from 10 to 15 were accepted in
Pionieri organisation. And finally, youth aged from 15 to 28 had a chance to be a part of Komjaunatne
– the organisation that was the hardest to become a part of because one had to follow all the rules,
show motivation and have a well overall behaviour. Not becoming a part of these organisations would
keep students from being accepted in good schools and would overall badly affect their futures.
No freedom of speech
The authorities were trying to brainwash the society. They wanted it to seem like there were no flaws
in the system even when the plan wasn’t working. The authorities had gained access to radio,
television, newspapers and other media to double check it to make sure that the USSR isn’t being
shaded in any way. They would put up posters praising themselves. We could still have our own
thoughts, but it was better and safer if we didn’t say them out loud.
We lived
Latvians lived. We expressed our thoughts, beliefs and lived through our songs, dance, poems,
literature and theatre. Outlanders, of course, wouldn’t understand. We, Latvians, perceive each other.
And thanks to our cultural heritage, we have survived as a nation and have kept our own language
alive.
Although, it’s been 30 years since we’ve retrieved back our country, the consequences of the
occupation can still be noticeable, but we keep fighting for our place under the sunlight.