Editing History of Latvia (section)

=== 1905 Revolution ===
{{Main|1905 Russian Revolution}}
Latvia welcomed the 20th century with an explosion of popular discontent during the [[1905 Russian Revolution|1905 Revolution]]. It started with the shooting of demonstrators in Riga on January 13, progressed to mass strikes in October and armed uprising in December. The revolution was aimed not only against the czarist authorities, but against the hated German barons. For in Latvia most did not feel primarily oppressed by Russia or Russians, but by the [[Baltic Germans]] —roughly seven percent of the population— who had instituted a feudal system with themselves at the top and Latvian-speakers being left mostly poor and landless.<ref name="oDe">{{cite web |title=What became of Latvia's left? |publisher=openDemocracy |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/will-mawhood/what-became-of-latvias-left |author=Will Mawhood |access-date=December 18, 2017 |archive-date=March 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302043857/https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/will-mawhood/what-became-of-latvias-left |url-status=dead }}</ref> As such, it involved not only left wing social democrats and industrial workers, but also more conservative peasants and Latvian intelligentsia since —despite being second class citizens in their own country— Latvia was also a highly literate and industrialised society. Riga was behind only St. Petersburg and Moscow by the number of industrial workers, and at the turn of the century over 90% of Latvians could read.<ref name="oDe"/> In this regard, Latvia was equally primed for radical leftism and nationalism. In all, spearheaded by the [[Latvian Social Democratic Workers’ Party]] (LSDSP), the governorates making up what is now Latvia were probably the most ungovernable in the whole Russian Empire.<ref name="oDe"/>

Following the shooting of demonstrators in [[St. Petersburg]] on January 9, 1905, a wide-scale general strike began in Riga. On January 13 Russian army troops opened fire on demonstrators in Riga killing 73 and injuring 200 people.

During the summer of 1905 the main revolutionary events moved to the countryside. 470 new parish administrative bodies were elected in 94% of the parishes in Latvia. The Congress of Parish Representatives was held in Riga in November. Mass meetings and demonstrations took place including violent attacks against [[Baltic Germans|Baltic German]] nobles, burning estate buildings and seizure of estate property, including weapons. In total 449 German manor houses were burned.

In the autumn of 1905 armed conflict between the German nobility and the Latvian peasants began in the rural areas of [[Vidzeme]] and Courland. In Courland, the peasants seized or surrounded several towns where they established revolutionary councils. In Vidzeme the fighters controlled the Rūjiena-Pärnu railway line. Altogether, a thousand armed clashes were registered in Latvia in 1905.<ref>{{cite book| last = Bleiere| first = Daina |author2=Ilgvars Butulis |author3=Antonijs Zunda |author4=Aivars Stranga |author5=Inesis Feldmanis| title = History of Latvia : the 20th century.| publisher = [[Jumava (publisher)|Jumava]]| location = [[Riga]]| page = 68| year = 2006| isbn = 9984-38-038-6| oclc = 70240317}}</ref>

Martial law was declared in Courland in August 1905 and in Vidzeme in late November. Special punitive expeditions by Cossack cavalry units and Baltic Germans were dispatched in mid-December to suppress the movement. They executed over 2000 people without trial or investigation and burned 300 houses and public buildings. The executed often were local teachers or peasant activists who had shown disrespect to German nobles, not necessarily hardened revolutionaries. 427 people were court martialed and executed. 2652 people were exiled to [[Siberia]], over 5000 went into exile to Western Europe or the US. In 1906 the revolutionary movement gradually subsided but some local protests and actions of forest guerrillas continued until 1907. They executed some daring raids – freeing their imprisoned comrades from Riga police HQ on January 17, 1906, February 26, [[1906 Helsinki bank robbery]] and the 1910 [[Siege of Sidney Street]] in London.

Among the exiles were activists from the left and right who in just 10 years would fight against each other over the future of Latvia, such as the future Prime Minister [[Kārlis Ulmanis]], National poet [[Jānis Rainis]] and early [[Cheka]] leader [[Yakov Peters|Jēkabs Peterss]].
<gallery widths=180>
Jānis Rainis.jpg|Jānis Rainis, ca. 1900
Brīvības piemineklis-1905 gads.png|Latvian workers against a Cossack, [[Freedom Monument]]
Rīga, 1905. g. revolūcijas piemineklis 2000-10-16 - panoramio.jpg|Monument to the victims of January 13, 1905
Allažu muiža 1905.jpg|The burned Allaži manor house
</gallery>