Editing Latvia (section)

=== Occupations, 1940–1990 ===
{{Main|Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940|German occupation of Latvia during World War II||Occupation of Latvia by Soviet Union 1944–1945|Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic}}
{{See also|The Holocaust in Latvia|Latvian partisans|Latvian anti-Nazi resistance movement 1941–45}}
[[File:Riga 1940 Soviet Army.jpg|thumb|[[Red Army]] troops enter [[Riga]] (1940).]]
Early in the morning of 24 August 1939, the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Nazi Germany]] signed a 10-year non-aggression pact, called the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact – archive, August 1939 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2019/jul/24/molotov-ribbentrop-pact-germany-russia-1939 |website=the Guardian |access-date=28 January 2021 |language=en |date=24 July 2019 |archive-date=27 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210627110113/https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2019/jul/24/molotov-ribbentrop-pact-germany-russia-1939 |url-status=live }}</ref> The pact contained a secret protocol, revealed only after Germany's defeat in 1945, according to which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet "[[sphere of influence|spheres of influence]]".<ref name="mrtext">[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1939pact.html ''Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141114231303/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1939pact.html |date=14 November 2014 }}, executed 23 August 1939</ref> In the north, Latvia, Finland and Estonia were assigned to the Soviet sphere.<ref name="mrtext" />

After the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, most of the [[Baltic Germans]] left Latvia by agreement between Ulmanis's government and Nazi Germany under the [[Heim ins Reich]] programme.<ref name="Latvia in WWII">Lumans, pp. 71–74</ref> Most of those who remained left for Germany in summer 1940, when a second resettlement scheme was agreed.<ref>Lumans pp. 110–111</ref> The racially approved being resettled mainly in Poland, being given land and businesses in exchange for the money they had received from the sale of their previous assets.<ref name="PBBG">{{cite book |first=Prit |last=Buttar |title=Between Giants |isbn=978-1-78096-163-7|date=21 May 2013 |publisher=Bloomsbury USA }}</ref>{{rp|46}}

On 5 October 1939, Latvia was forced to accept a "mutual assistance" pact with the Soviet Union, granting the Soviets the right to station between 25,000 and 30,000 troops on Latvian territory.<ref>Lumans, p. 79</ref>
State administrators were murdered and replaced by Soviet cadres.<ref name="wettig20">Wettig, Gerhard, ''Stalin and the Cold War in Europe'', Rowman & Littlefield, Landham, Md, 2008, {{ISBN|0-7425-5542-9}}, pp. 20–21</ref> Elections were held with single pro-Soviet candidates listed for many positions. The resulting people's assembly immediately requested admission into the USSR, which the Soviet Union granted.<ref name="wettig20" /> Latvia, then a puppet government, was headed by [[Augusts Kirhenšteins]].<ref>Lumans, pp. 98–99</ref> The Soviet Union incorporated Latvia on 5 August 1940, as the ''[[Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic]].''

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L19397, Lettland, Riga, Begrüßung der deutschen Soldaten.jpg|thumb|German soldiers enter Riga, July 1941.]]
The Soviets dealt harshly with their [[Enemy of the people|opponents]]&nbsp;– prior to [[Operation Barbarossa]], in less than a year, at least 34,250 Latvians were deported or killed.<ref>{{cite book|author=Simon Sebag Montefiore|author-link=Simon Sebag Montefiore|title=Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar|page=334}}</ref> Most were deported to Siberia where deaths were estimated at 40 percent.<ref name=PBBG />{{rp|48}}

On 22 June 1941, German troops attacked Soviet forces in Operation Barbarossa.<ref>{{cite news |title=Operation Barbarossa |url=https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa#:~:text=On%20June%2022%2C%201941%2C%20Adolf,the%20frontier%20into%20Soviet%20territory. |website=HISTORY |access-date=28 January 2021 |language=en |archive-date=22 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210622142556/http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa#:~:text=On%20June%2022%2C%201941%2C%20Adolf,the%20frontier%20into%20Soviet%20territory. |url-status=live }}</ref> There were some spontaneous uprisings by Latvians against the Red Army which helped the Germans. By 29 June [[Riga]] was reached and with Soviet troops killed, captured or retreating, Latvia was left under the control of German forces by early July.<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Latvia: A brief synopsis |url=https://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/usa/culture/history-of-latvia-a-brief-synopsis |website=www.mfa.gov.lv |access-date=28 January 2021 |archive-date=3 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303083044/https://www.mfa.gov.lv/en/usa/culture/history-of-latvia-a-brief-synopsis }}</ref><ref name=PBBG />{{rp|78–96}}

Under German occupation, Latvia was administered as part of ''[[Reichskommissariat Ostland]]''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Estonia - RomArchive |url=https://www.romarchive.eu/en/voices-of-the-victims/estonia/ |website=www.romarchive.eu |access-date=28 January 2021 |archive-date=7 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207204810/https://www.romarchive.eu/en/voices-of-the-victims/estonia/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Latvian paramilitary and [[Arajs Kommando|Auxiliary Police]] units established by the occupation authority participated in [[the Holocaust]] and other atrocities.<ref name="Country profile" /> 30,000 Jews were shot in Latvia in the autumn of 1941.<ref name=PBBG />{{rp|127}} Another 30,000 Jews from the Riga ghetto were killed in the Rumbula Forest in November and December 1941, to reduce overpopulation in the ghetto and make room for more Jews being brought in from Germany and the West.<ref name=PBBG />{{rp|128}} There was a pause in fighting, apart from partisan activity, until after the [[Battle of Leningrad|siege of Leningrad]] ended in January 1944, and the Soviet troops advanced, entering Latvia in July and eventually capturing Riga on 13 October 1944.<ref name=PBBG />{{rp|271}}

[[File:Red Army soldiers in Riga. October 1944.jpg|thumb|[[Red Army]] soldiers in front of the [[Freedom Monument]] in Riga in 1944]]

The Soviets reoccupied the country in 1944–1945, and further deportations followed as the country was [[collectivization in the Soviet Union|collectivised]]
and [[Sovietisation|Sovietised]].<ref name="Country profile" /> <!-- The first post-war years were marked by particularly dismal and sombre events in the fate of the Latvian nation{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} I'll take this out; let the readers evaluate the events&nbsp;– they are quite self explanatory -->

In the post-war period, Latvia was made to adopt Soviet farming methods. Rural areas were forced into [[Collectivization in the Soviet Union|collectivization]].<ref>Bleiere, p. 384</ref> An extensive program to impose [[bilingualism]] was initiated in Latvia, limiting the use of Latvian language in official uses in favor of using Russian as the main language. All of the minority schools (Jewish, Polish, Belarusian, Estonian, Lithuanian) were closed down leaving only two media of instructions in the schools: Latvian and Russian.<ref>Bleiere, p. 411</ref> An influx of new colonists, including laborers, administrators, military personnel and their dependents from Russia and other Soviet republics started. By 1959 about 400,000 Russian settlers arrived and the ethnic Latvian population had fallen to 62%.<ref>Bleiere, p. 418</ref>

Since Latvia had maintained a well-developed infrastructure and educated specialists, Moscow decided to base some of the Soviet Union's most advanced manufacturing in Latvia. New industry was created in Latvia, including a major [[Riga Autobus Factory|machinery factory RAF]] in [[Jelgava]], electrotechnical factories in [[Riga]], chemical factories in [[Daugavpils]], [[Valmiera]] and [[Olaine]]—and some food and oil processing plants.<ref>Bleiere, p. 379</ref> Latvia manufactured trains, ships, minibuses, mopeds, telephones, radios and hi-fi systems, electrical and diesel engines, textiles, furniture, clothing, bags and luggage, shoes, musical instruments, home appliances, watches, tools and equipment, aviation and agricultural equipment and long list of other goods. Latvia had its own film industry and musical records factory (LPs). However, there were not enough people to operate the newly built factories.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}} To maintain and expand industrial production, skilled workers were migrating from all over the Soviet Union, decreasing the proportion of ethnic Latvians in the republic.<ref>Lumans, p. 400</ref> The population of Latvia reached its peak in 1990 at just under 2.7 million people.

In the second half of the 1980s, Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] started to introduce political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union that were called [[glasnost]] and [[perestroika]]. In the summer of 1987, the first large demonstrations were held in Riga at the [[Freedom Monument]]—a symbol of independence. In the summer of 1988, a national movement, coalescing in the [[Popular Front of Latvia]], was opposed by the [[International Front of the Working People of Latvia|Interfront]]. The Latvian SSR, along with the other [[Baltic states|Baltic Republics]] was allowed greater autonomy, and in 1988, the old pre-war [[Flag of Latvia]] flew again, replacing the Soviet Latvian flag as the official flag in 1990.<ref>{{cite web |title=Flag Log's World Flag Chart 1991 |url=https://flaglog.com/1991 |website=flaglog.com |access-date=9 December 2021 |archive-date=2 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102050401/https://flaglog.com/1991 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>More-detailed discussion in Daina Stukuls Eglitis, ''Imagining the Nation: History, Modernity, and Revolution in Latvia'' State College PA: Pennsylvania State Press, 2010), 41-46. {{ISBN|9780271045627}}</ref> In 1989, the [[Supreme Soviet of the USSR]] adopted a resolution on the ''[[Occupation of the Baltic states]]'', in which it declared the occupation "not in accordance with law", and not the "will of the Soviet people". Pro-independence Popular Front of Latvia candidates gained a two-thirds majority in the [[Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia|Supreme Council]] in the [[1990 Latvian Supreme Soviet election|March 1990 democratic elections]].