Editing Latvia (section)

=== Declaration of independence and interwar period ===
{{More citations needed|subsection|date=April 2025}}
[[File:Janis Cakste.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jānis Čakste]] (1859–1927), the first [[president of Latvia]]]]
[[World War I]] devastated the territory of what became the state of Latvia,<ref>{{Cite web |title=WORLD WAR I AND LATVIAN RIFLEMEN IN THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF LATVIA. |url=https://oldlvi.lu.lv/lv/LVIZ_2017_files/3numurs/K_Zellis_World_War_LVIZ_2017_3.pdf |access-date=24 April 2025|author=Zellis, Kaspars |language=lv }}</ref> and other western parts of the Russian Empire. Demands for [[self-determination]] were initially confined to [[autonomy]], until a power vacuum was created by the [[Russian Revolution]] in 1917, followed by the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Russia–Central Powers)|Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] between Russia and Germany in March 1918, then the [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] armistice with Germany on 11 November 1918. On 18 November 1918, in Riga, the [[Tautas padome|People's Council of Latvia]] proclaimed the independence of the new country and [[Kārlis Ulmanis]] was entrusted to set up a government and he took the position of prime minister.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kārlis Ulmanis {{!}} Valsts prezidenta kanceleja|url=https://www.president.lv/en/karlis-ulmanis|access-date=13 October 2021|website=www.president.lv|language=en|archive-date=18 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018115339/https://www.president.lv/en/karlis-ulmanis|url-status=live}}</ref>

The General representative of Germany [[August Winnig]] formally handed over political power to the Latvian Provisional Government on 26 November.<ref>{{Cite web |title= NATIONAL COMMUNISM AND WORLD REVOLUTION: THE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF GERMAN MILITARY WITHDRAWAL FROM THE BALTIC AREA IN 1918-19 |url= https://ia801304.us.archive.org/16/items/germanrevolution00lutz/germanrevolution00lutz.pdf |access-date=25 April 2025 |author=University of California at Los Angeles |language=en }}</ref> On 18 November, the Latvian People's Council entrusted him to set up the government. He took the office of Minister of Agriculture from 18 November to 19 December. He took a position of prime minister from 19 November 1918 to 13 July 1919.

The [[Latvian War of Independence|war of independence]] that followed was part of a general chaotic period of civil and new border wars in Eastern Europe. By the spring of 1919, there were actually three governments: the Provisional government headed by [[Kārlis Ulmanis]], supported by the [[Tautas padome]] and the [[Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control|Inter-Allied Commission of Control]]; the [[Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic|Latvian Soviet government]] led by [[Pēteris Stučka]], supported by the [[Red Army]]; and the Provisional government headed by [[Andrievs Niedra]], supported by [[Baltic Germans|Baltic-German]] [[Freikorps in the Baltic|forces]] composed of the ''[[Baltische Landeswehr]]'' ("Baltic Defence Force") and the [[Freikorps]] formation ''[[Eiserne Division]]'' ("Iron Division").

Estonian and Latvian forces defeated the Germans at the [[Battle of Cēsis (1919)|Battle of Wenden]] in June 1919,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/cesis_battle_of|title=Cēsis, Battle of {{!}} International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1)|access-date=15 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223133640/https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/cesis_battle_of|archive-date=23 February 2019}}</ref> and a massive attack by a predominantly German force—the [[West Russian Volunteer Army]]—under [[Pavel Bermondt-Avalov]] was repelled in November. Eastern Latvia was cleared of Red Army forces by Latvian and Polish troops in early 1920 (from the Polish perspective the [[Battle of Daugavpils]] was a part of the [[Polish–Soviet War]]).

A freely elected [[Constituent assembly]] convened on 1 May 1920, and adopted a liberal constitution, the ''[[Constitution of Latvia|Satversme]]'', in February 1922.<ref>Bleiere, p. 155</ref> The constitution was partly suspended by Kārlis Ulmanis after [[1934 Latvian coup d'état|his coup in 1934]] but reaffirmed in 1990. Since then, it has been amended and is still in effect in Latvia today. With most of Latvia's industrial base evacuated to the interior of Russia in 1915, radical [[land reform]] was the central political question for the young state. In 1897, 61.2% of the rural population had been landless; by 1936, that percentage had been reduced to 18%.<ref>Bleiere, p. 195</ref>

On 15 May 1934, Ulmanis staged [[1934 Latvian coup d'état|a bloodless coup]], establishing a nationalist dictatorship that lasted until 1940.<ref name="Country profile">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1108059.stm|title=Timeline: Latvia|work=BBC News|date=20 January 2010|access-date=5 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420190840/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1108059.stm|archive-date=20 April 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> After 1934, Ulmanis established [[government corporation]]s to buy up private firms with the aim of "Latvianising" the economy.<ref>{{cite book|jstor=2119564|author1=Nicholas Balabkins|author2=Arnolds P. Aizsilnieks|title=Entrepreneur in a small country: a case study against the background of the Latvian economy, 1919–1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwaSAAAAIAAJ|access-date=19 February 2012|year=1975|publisher=Exposition Press|isbn=978-0-682-48158-8|pages=xiv, 143|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112212508/http://books.google.com/books?id=PwaSAAAAIAAJ|archive-date=12 November 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>