1939: Latvia

Latvia's main events of the year centered about relations with Germany and the Soviet Union. After negotiations in the spring and consultation with Estonia on May 6, Latvia signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in Berlin on June 7. In this pact, similar to and interdependent with the German-Estonian pact which was signed the same day, each country agreed to refrain from using force against the other and to remain neutral if the other should be attacked by a third power. After signing a mutual assistance pact with the U.S.S.R., Latvia on Oct. 8 received Hitler's proposal to give Latvian residents of German blood their last chance to choose between German and Latvian citizenship. President Karlis Ulmanis announced on Oct. 12 that Germany and the Soviet Union had agreed upon German emigration from the small Baltic countries, and that German Latvians would be permitted to leave — but could never return to Latvia. About 60,000 Latvians were involved in this question, and German ships were sent to Liepaja (Libau) and Ventspils (Windau) to transport them to the Reich. A Latvian-German resettlement agreement was initialed on Oct. 29, and by the middle of November over 13,000 Germans had left Latvia to resettle in Posen, the former Polish province now incorporated in the German Reich (see ESTONIA).

On June 4, Briva Zeme, the Latvian Government organ, answered Soviet Foreign Commissar Molotov's offer of guarantees by stating that to accept guarantees from any country would be to forfeit neutrality, which Latvia was determined to maintain. The June 7 non-aggression pact with Germany was no repudiation of this position, since it served merely to balance a similar pact concluded with the U.S.S.R. in 1932. Following the outbreak of war in September, President Ulmanis issued a statement, on Sept. 23, denying that the Baltic states were menaced by war complications or likely to become victims of Soviet aggression. On Oct. 5, however, Latvia registered its uneasiness in signing a dictated mutual assistance pact with the Soviet Union in Moscow. This pact provided (1) that the two states would render each other mutual assistance in case of direct aggression against their sea frontiers on the Baltic or against land adjoining Estonia and Lithuania; (2) that the Soviet Union should supply the Latvian army with war materials 'on favorable terms'; (3) that the Soviet Union might establish naval bases in the ports of Liepaja and Ventspils, build several airdromes in Latvia, set up artillery bases along the coast between Ventspils and Pitraga, and maintain troops at these military establishments; (4) that neither partner should enter an alliance directed against the other; (5) that the agreement should not interfere with the sovereignty or economic system of either country; and (6) that the pact would be valid for ten years. On Oct. 29 the first Soviet troops crossed into Latvia to occupy the military bases granted them in the pact. See also BALTIC ENTENTE; U.S.S.R.