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Working towards ‘An Unforeseen Miracle’ Redux: Latvian Refugees in Vladivostok, 1918–1920, and in Latvia, 1943–1944

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2007

ALDIS PURS
ALDIS PURS*
Affiliation:
3523 Carr Place North, Seattle, WA 98103, United States; [email protected]
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Abstract

During the First World War the survival of hundreds of thousands of Latvian refugees, dispersed across the Russian Empire, overlapped with issues of identity. Latvians in Siberia and the Far East created a refugee organisation complete with military, diplomatic and cultural programmes for themselves and their homeland. The key players attempted to recreate the same organisational trajectories and outcomes during the Second World War, under very different geopolitical conditions. This article presents new archival research and suggests new interpretations of the dynamic nature of political organisation, refugee experience and identity in Latvia through the first half of the twentieth century.

Œ:vrant vers ‘un miracle imprévu’ rétablis: les réfugiés lettons en vladivostok, 1918–1920, et en lettonie, 1943–1944

Durant la Première Guerre mondiale, la survie de centaines de milliers de réfugiés Lettons, dispersés à travers l'Empire russe, coïncidait avec des questions d'identité. Des Lettons en Sibérie et dans l'Extrême-Orient ont créé une organisation de réfugiés avec des programmes militaire, diplomatique et culturel pour eux-mêmes et pour la patrie. Les acteurs principaux ont essayé de recréer les mêmes trajectoires organisationnelles et leurs conséquences durant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale. Cet article présente une nouvelle recherche archivistique et suggère de nouvelles interprétations de la nature dynamique de l'organisation politique, de l'expérience et de l'identité des réfugiés en Lettonie durant la première moitié du vingtième siècle.

Arbeiten auf ‘ein unvorhergesehens wunder’ hin? – lettische flüchtlinge in wladiwostok, 1918–1920, und in lettland, 1943–1944

Während des Ersten Weltkriegs war die Frage nach dem Überleben hunderttausender lettischer Flüchtlinge, die über das ganze russische Reich zerstreut waren, mit Fragen nationaler und regionaler Identität eng verknüpft. Letten in Sibirien und dem Fernen Osten gründeten eine Flüchtlingsorganisation, welche über militärische, diplomatische und kulturelle Programme für sich und ihr Heimatland verfügte. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg versuchten die zentralen Akteure wieder, unter ganz anderen geopolitischen Bedingungen, die gleichen organisationellen Strukturen zu schaffen. Indem er erstmals zugängige Archivmaterialien auswertet, bietet dieser Artikel eine Neuinterpretation der Dynamik zwischen politischen Organisationen, Flüchtlingserfahrungen und nationaler Identität in Lettland in der ersten Hälfte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 16 , Issue 4: World Wars and Population Displacement in the Twentieth Century , November 2007 , pp. 479 - 494
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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References

1 Aija, Priedite, ‘Latvian Refugees and the Latvian Nation State during and after the First World War’, in Nick, Baron and Peter, Gatrell, eds., Homelands: War, Population and Statehood in Eastern Europe and Russia 1918–1924 (London: Anthem Press, 2004), 38–42Google Scholar. Readers seeking a good general introduction in English to the history of twentieth-century Latvia are referred to the following works: Anatol Lieven, The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993); Andrejs, Plakans, The Latvians: A Short History (Stanford: Hoover University Press, 1995)Google Scholar; George von Rauch, The Baltic States: The Years of Independence, 1918–1945 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995); and Misiunas, Romuald J. and Taagepera, Rein, The Baltic States: The Years of Dependence (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

2 The classic account in English is Alfreds Bilmanis, A History of Latvia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951). Bilmanis (1887–1948) was a leading Latvian diplomat who served in Moscow and in Washington.

3 Two wide-ranging studies of the impact of forced migration and social identity in modern Latvia are Vieda Skultans, The Testimony of Lives: Narrative and Memory in Post-Soviet Latvia (London: Routledge, 1998), and Modris Eksteins, Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of our Century (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999).

4 Peter Gatrell, A Whole Empire Walking: Refugees in Russia during World War I (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1999), 158.

5 Priedite, ‘Latvian Refugees’.

6 Entry for 15 January 1918, Alfreds Goba's diary (unpublished). Goba, a conservative, nationalist intellectual of the interwar period, lived as a refugee in Baku from 1915 to 1918. All quotations from untranslated sources are by the author.

7 Priedite, ‘Latvian refugees’, 42.

8 ‘Upelnieks, Kristaps Krišs’, in Lāčplēša Kara Ordeņa Kavalieri: Biogrāfiskā vārdnīca (Riga: Jāņa Sņēta, 1995), 535–6.

9 ‘Kurelis, Jānis’, in Pauls Kroders, ed., Latvijas Darbinieku Galērija 1918–1928g. (Riga: Grāmatu Draugs, 1929), 109.

10 Voldemārs and Milda Salnais changed the spelling of their names several times. I have used the final version throughout.

11 ‘Salnais, Valdemars’, Latvijas Darbinieku Galērija, 74.

12 ‘Salnajs, Milda’, Latvijas Darbinieku Galērija, 254.

13 Geoffrey, Swain, The Origins of the Russian Civil War (London: Longman, 1996)Google Scholar.

14 From Milda Salnais's unpublished notes, ‘At the End of the World’, 4, 6, 11, ‘Latvian National Council in Siberia’ folder, Box 1, Voldemārs and Milda Salnais Collection, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University.

15 ‘Imantas pulks’, in Inta Petersone, ed., Latvijas Brīvības cīņas 1918–1920 Enciklopēdija (Riga: Preses Nams, 1999), 129.

16 Milda Salnais, ‘At the End of the World’, 10–11.

17 From Photograph Folder B, ‘Vladivostokas fotos’, Voldemārs and Milda Salnais Collection.

18 ‘Imantas pulks’, in Petersone, Latvijas Brīvības cīņas, 129.

19 The football team was popular and accomplished, beating all local teams apart from a British and Czech team. This section draws on various minutes, pamphlets and reports, Box 1, Salnais Collection.

20 Milda Salnais, ‘At the End of the World’, 15–16.

21 The choice of names was not entirely random, but reinforces the lack of up-to-date news. The Latvian National Council was crucial in the months leading to 18 November 1918 in Latvia, Moscow and Petrograd, but was eclipsed by a more inclusive People's Council. These differences were unknown in Vladivostok, Omsk or Irkutsk.

22 ‘Alfreda Strazda apliecība (pagaidu pase)’, reprinted in ‘Sibērijas un Urālu Latviešu Nacionālā padome’ in Petersone, Latvijas Brīvības cīņas, 263 (capitals in original).

23 ‘J. Bruhmers’ Letter of 20 July 1920 to Voldemars Salnais’, Box 1, Voldemārs and Milda Salnais Collection.

24 Konrad Zielenski, ‘Population Displacement and Citizenship in Poland, 1918–24’, in Baron and Gatrell, Homelands, 100–1; Tomas Balkelis, ‘In Search of a Native Realm: The Return of The First World War Refugees to Lithuania, 1918–1924’, ibid., 83–7.

25 ‘Švābe, Arveds’, Latvijas Darbinieku Galērija, 78.

26 Voldemārs Salnajs, ‘Sibīrijas latviešu Nacionālā kustība’, in Alfreds Bilmanis et al., eds., Latvijas Republikas Desmit Pastāvēšanas Gados (Riga: Golts un Jurjans, 1928), 40.

27 First raised in Gatrell, Whole Empire Walking, and subsequently expanded upon in Baron and Gatrell, Homelands.

28 Arnolds, Auziņš, Konstantins Čakste (Riga: Jumava, 2004), 32–46Google Scholar.

29 Salnais submitted reports on conditions in occupied Latvia through the US embassy in Sweden to the US secretary of state. The reports are available in ‘Part One: Voldemārs Salnais Reports. 1941–1944’, in Andrew Ezergailis, ed., Stockholm Documents: The German Occupation of Latvia. 1941–1945: What Did America Know? Symposium of the Commission of the Historians of Latvia Volume 5 (Riga: Publishers of the Historical Institute of Latvia, 2002), 1–184.

30 The full text of the declaration including all signatories can be found in Edgars Andersons and Leonids Siliņš, eds., Latvija un Rietumi: Latviešu nacionālā pretestības kustība 1943–1945 (Riga: 2002), 420–34.

31 The most detailed English-language account of the Kurelis group is in Valdis Lumans, Latvia in World War II (New York: Fordham University Press, 2006), 367–70.

32 Haralds, Biezais, Kurelieši: Nacionālās pretestības liecinieki (Ithaca: Mezabele, 1991), 165–77Google Scholar.

33 Rudolfs, Bangerskis, Mana Mūža Atmiņas: Ceturtā Grāmata (Copenhagen: Imanta, 1958)Google Scholar; Freivalds, O., Kurzemes Cietoksnis: Dokumenti, liecības un atmiņas par latviešu tautas likteņiem 1944/1945 gada, vol. 2 (Copenhagen: Imanta, 1954)Google Scholar; Indulis, Kazociņš, Latviešu karavīri zem svešiem karogiem, 1940–1945 (Riga: Latvijas Universitates Žurnala Latvijas Vestures fonds, 1999)Google Scholar.

34 Freivalds, Kurzemes cietoksnis, 68–78, is perhaps the worst example.

35 Arvids Grīgulis's novel, When the Rain and Wind Strike Against the Window (Kad lietus un vēji sitās logā) (1964), depicted the post-war partisans in a style similar to that of Andrzej Wajda in his film Ashes and Diamonds (1961).

36 Biezais, Kurelieši.

37 Heinrihs, Strods, Latvijas nacionālo partizāņu kaŗš, 1944–1956 (Riga: Preses Nams, 1996)Google Scholar; Latvijas nacionālo partizāņu kaŗš: Dokumenti un Materiāli, 1944–1956 (Riga: Preses Nams, 1999); Latvijas nacionālo partizāņu kaŗš III: Dokumenti, Apcerējumi un Atmiņas, 1944–1956 (Riga: Preses Nams, 2003).

38 Edgars Andersons and Leonids Siliņš, eds., Latvijas Centrālā Padome LCP: Latviešu nacionālā pretestības kustība 1943–1945 (Upsala: LCP, 1994), 123–244, 286–93, 346–75.

39 Lumans, Latvia, 369–70.

40 Ibid., 365.

41 Lobe even named the Latvian forces in the German army that he commanded at the Volkhov front the Imants Regiment. ‘Lobe Karlis’, in Arveds Švābe, ed., Latvju enciklopēdija, vol. 17 (Stockholm: Apgads Tris Zvaigznes, 1951), 1552–3; Lumans, Latvia, 327. Lobe was ultimately tried by the German army for Latvian nationalist sympathies.

42 Andersons and Siliņš, Latvijas Centrālā Padome LCP, 269. The diary is also available online at http://www.historia.lv/alfabets/K/ku/kurela_grupa/dokumenti/diengr/satur.htm.

43 Dzintars Ērglis, ‘Padomju represīvo orgānu arestētie Generaļa Kureļa grupas dalībnieki’, in Latvijas Vēsturnieku Komisijas Raksti, vol. 3: Totalitārie Režīmi un to Represījas Latvijā 1940–1956 Gadā: Latvijas vēsturnieku komisijas 2000 gada petījumi (Riga: Latvijs vēstures instituta apgads, 2001), 330–72. Soviet security forces eventually arrested the majority of those who joined the Red Partisans.

44 Lumans, Latvia, 390.

45 Egīls Zirnis, ‘Musu Karš tikai sakas’, Diena, 11 Nov. 2006, 21.