Raimonds Krumiņš

As America observes Veterans Day and Europe marks the Armistice that effectively ended WWI hostilities in 1918, Latvians observe Lāčplēsis (Bear-Slayer) Day. It commemorates November 11th a year later, 1919, when Latvian soldiers halted the advance of the "Bermontians," Russian prince Pavel Bermont-Avalov's forces at Latvia's now capital, Rīga. The day is named for Lāčplēsis, the hero of Andrejs Pumpurs's national epic, a young man strong enough to tear a bear apart with his bare hands, who spends the story fighting off foreign invaders. Germany had occupied Latvia during WWI, and the Baltic German nobility, who had been the landlords of the region for centuries, saw their chance. Even prior to the armistice, on March 8, 1918, they proclaimed a "Duchy of Courland and Semigallia" and offered its crown to Kaiser Wilhelm II. The German empire recognized it on March 15th. Later that year it was folded into a "United Baltic Duchy" meant to cover all of present-day Latvia and Estonia, tied to the German Empire. When Germany lost the war, that plan collapsed. But not the ambition. It was only a week after Armistice Day that Latvians—with German troops still in the city—declared independence on November 18, 1918, in a Riga theater. Within weeks the Red Army invaded from the east along with a Soviet Latvian government of its own. Riga fell on January 3, 1919, and the the new Latvian government was forced to retreat to Jelgava and then to Liepāja, holding little more than a strip of coastline in the far west. To fight the Bolsheviks, the Latvians had to accept help from the Baltic German Landeswehr and the German Freikorps—the very same people who had just wanted Latvia for themselves. In April 1919 those forces under Rüdiger von der Goltz turned on the Latvians and staged a coup in Liepāja. Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis and his government took refuge aboard the steamship Saratov in Liepāja harbor, protected by flanking British warships. At that moment, Latvia's lawful government held not a speck of its own territory. Meanwhile, in the north, Latvian units had been fighting alongside the Estonian army and pushed the Red Army out of Vidzeme. Von der Goltz's forces retook Riga from the Soviets in May and continued northward toward Estonia, engaging the Latvians and Estonians at Cēsis (Wenden) in June 1919. Estonian and Latvian forces prevailed, and Estonia still celebrates June 23rd as Victory Day (Võidupüha). The Germans retreated, the Ulmanis government returned to Rīga, and an Allied-brokered ceasefire followed. However, Germans did not go home. Under the ceasefire terms they were supposed to leave. Instead, many simply swapped uniforms to join Bermont, who had assembled Russian former prisoners of war into what he called the West Russian Volunteer Army. Officially his aim was to fight the Bolsheviks and restore the Russian Empire. In practice, his army consisted mostly of Germans who had no intention of recognizing an independent Latvia. Following his capture of Jelgava (Mitau), Bermont attacked Rīga on October 8, 1919. His forces took the left bank of the Daugava and shelled the city from across the river. The Latvian Army was young, under-equipped, and badly outnumbered in places. But it held the bridges. Prime Minister Kāŗlis Ulmanis, who had enlisted in the 1st Battalion of Students, was wounded on the front lines. British and French warships supported the Latvians with naval artillery, and Estonia sent armored trains (improvised steel-plated mobile artillery batteries, troop carriers, and command hubs). On November 11, 1919, the Latvian Army launched its counterattack and drove Bermont's forces off the left bank and out of Rīga. That is the day Latvians now commemorate. By early December, Bermont's army had been pushed out of Latvia. However, the Red Army still held Latgale in the east. In January 1920, Latvian and Polish forces together took Daugavpils, and by summer the Bolsheviks were gone. On August 11, 1920, Soviet Russia signed a peace treaty with Latvia and renounced, "for all time," any claim to Latvian territory. That promise didn't last even 20 years. So, on November 11th, while most of the world remembers the end of hostilities in WWI, Latvians honor their their forebearers for whom—a year later—the battle for freedom was not yet over, who had to fight on three fronts: against Bolsheviks, Baltic German barons, and a Russian adventurer with a German army, to achieve freedom after 500 years of German hegemony and competing empires. In Riga, people light candles at the Brethren Cemetery (Brāļu kapi), where many of the fallen are buried, then walk with torches to the Freedom Monument (Brīvības piemineklis) and on down to the riverbank. There, a fire raft is set adrift on the Daugava, the river across which Bermont’s army shelled the city. Thousands more set candles along the Riga Castle wall, and towns across Latvia hold torchlight processions of their own. The Lāčplēsis commemoration photos are from Mission Latvia, the Latvian government's Facebook page. Fallen warriors in eternal sleep at Brāļu kapi is my own. #latvija #latvia