latviski
Timeline of the Soviet, Nazi, and second Soviet occupations
First Soviet occupation | June 14, 1940 – June 22, 1941
Occupation by Nazi Germany | June 22, 1941 - May 9, 1945
Beginning of second Soviet occupation | May 9, 1945 - March 25, 1949
First Soviet occupation | June 14, 1940 – June 22, 1941
- June 14 and 15, 1940 Soviet NKVD forces attack the border headquarters of the Republic of Latvia in Masļenki↗ and Šmaiļi.
- June 16, 1940 The Soviet Union submits an ultimatum to the Government of the Republic of Latvia with a request to allow an unlimited contingent of the Red Army into the country.
- June 17, 1940 The Red Army occupies the territory of Latvia.
- June 19, 1940 a new People's Government of Latvia is established under the leadership of Andrei Vishinsky, the extraordinary representative of the USSR.
- July 5, 1940 elections to the People's Parliament are announced.
- July 8, 1940 President Kārlis Ulmanis signs the law on the dissolution of the organization of Guards.
- July 14 and 15, 1940 undemocratic elections to the People's Parliament are held.
- July 21, 1940 the newly elected People's Parliament of Latvia declares Latvia a Soviet republic.
- July 22, 1940 The People's Parliament of Latvia adopts laws on land, banking, large industry and trade
- July 22, 1940 the President of Latvia, Kārlis Ulmanis, is deported to Russia.
- August 5, 1940 a decision was taken on the admission of Latvia to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
- August 13, 1940 The Politburo of the All-Union Communist (Bolshevik) Party CK (VK(b)P CK) approves the Constitution of the Latvian SSR.
- May 16, 1941 The People's Commissariat for State Security of the USSR sends to the VK(b)P CK draft decision "On measures for the purification of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSR from anti-Soviet, criminal and socially dangerous elements".
- June 14, 1941 the action plan of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR is adopted to transfer, organize, and exact labor from the population to be deported from the Lithuanian SSR, the Latvian SSR, the Estonian SSR and the Moldavian SSR.
- June 10 to 14, 1941 officers of the former Latvian Army included in the 24th Territorial Corps of the Red Army are arrested.
- June 14, 1941 the first mass deportation of Latvian citizens to the USSR takes place, deporting 15,443 people.
Occupation by Nazi Germany | June 22, 1941 - May 9, 1945
- June 22, 1941 German troops attack the USSR and begin the occupation of Latvia.
- July 1, 1941 Rīga is captured.
- July 4, 1941 the main Jewish synagogue in Rīga is burned down.
- July 17, 1941 The Ministry of Occupied Eastern Areas (Ostland) is established in Berlin.
- August 3, 1941 the 201st Latvian Riflemen Division is formed in the Russian Red Army, starting the mobilization of Latvian soldiers.
- August 15, 1941 all adults are ordered to register with the German Labor Authority.
- November 30, 1941 the campaign of mass extermination of the inhabitants of the Rīga ghetto begins in Rumbula, on the outskirts of Rīga.
- February 10, 1943 Adolf Hitler signs an order in Berlin on the establishment of the Latvian SS Legion and the mobilization of men born in 1919 to 1924.
- February 23, 1943 an order for the mobilization of persons born in 1919 to 1924 in the labor service is promulgated.
- August 13, 1943 The Central Organization of the Latvian National Resistance Movement — The Central Council of Latvia (LCP), is established in Rīga.
- November 16, 1943 an order is promulgated for the mobilization of all men born in 1914 to 1924 in the Latvian Legion, threatening to shoot anyone who resists.
- November 28, 1943 At the Tehran Conference, the leaders of the United States, Great Britain and the USSR agree that the USSR after the war has the right to act freely in the Baltic States and Eastern Europe.
- March 1944 German authorities form the 19th Division of the Latvian SS Legion.
- April 29, 1944 The Gestapo arrests the head of the Latvian Central Council↗, Konstantīns Čakste↗↗lv — son of the first President of Latvia, Jānis Čakste↗.
- July 18, 1944 The 43rd Latvian Rifle Guard Division of the Red Army breaks through into the territory of Latvia in combat. The second Soviet occupation begins.
- October 13, 1944 The Red Army occupies Rīga.
- October 22, 1944 the Kurzeme fortress or Kurzeme cauldron↗ is formed.
- February 5, 1945 At the Yalta Conference, the leaders of the USA, the USSR and Great Britain agree on division of Germany into occupation zones and leaving the Baltic states in the USSR.
- April 20, 1945 the National Council of Latvia is established in Potsdam, claiming the status of Provisional Government.
- May 5, 1945 the founding ceremony of the Kurzeme Land (People's) Council and the establishment of the Provisional Government of Latvia is planned at the Liepāja Theater.
- May 7, 1945 The unconditional capitulation of Germany takes place in Berlin.
- May 8, 1945 is capitulated by a group of German troops in Kurzeme, including the 19th Division of the Latvian SS Legion.
Beginning of second Soviet occupation | May 9, 1945 - March 25, 1949
- June 24, 1945 a victory parade of the Soviet army is held on Moscow's Red Square.
- July 1945 The Latvian National Partisan Organization is established in Kurzeme.
- September 2, 1945 the Second World War ends.
- September 9, 1945 North Kurzeme partisan organization is founded in Zlēki parish, Ventspils district.
- October 8, 1945 the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Latvia CK and the Latvian SSR to examine and "clean the local Soviet cadres from class-alien and nationalistic elements" is taken.
- October 31, 1945 The State Security Committee of the LSSR in Ventspils begins extensive arrests of activists of the Ventspils Communication Group of the Central Council of Latvia.
- November 20, 1945 the Nuremberg Military Tribunal in Germany commences.
- January 26, 1946 the trial of Nazi war criminals begins in Rīga.
- March 24, 1946 The People's Council of Commisars of the Latvian SSR is be renamed the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR.
- May 16, 1946 a meeting of the Military Tribunal of the troops of the Ministry of the Interior of the LSSR is held, at which activists of the Central Council of Latvia are sentenced3.
- July 16, 1946 The Latvian Association of Resistance Movement Participants (LPKDA) was founded in West Germany.
- January 17, 1947 the publishers of the illegal newspapers "Latvis" and "Little Latvis" are sentenced to death.
- February 16, 1947 undemocratic elections to the Supreme Council of the LSSR are held.
- February 17, 1947 "Voice of America" begins broadcasting on the radio; inhabitants of the USSR listen to it illegally.
- March 22, 1947 58 groups of national partisans operate in the territory of the Latvian SSR, which the Chekists call gangs.
- May 21, 1947 the decision of the VK(b)P CK "On the construction of collective farms in the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian SSR" is adopted.
- May 26, 1947 USSR abolishes the death penalty.
- December 10, 1948 The UN adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- January 29, 1949 The USSR Council of Ministers adopts a decision "On the deportation of kulaks and their families, bandits and nationalist families deemed illegal, families of bandits shot and convicted in armed clashes, legalized bandits who continue hostile activity and their families, as well as families of supporters of repressed bandits, from the territory of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia".
- March 17, 1949 The Council of Ministers of the LSSR adopts a decision "On the deportation of kulak families outside the Latvian SSR".
- March 25, 1949 44,271 people are deported (this figure includes those who were not present when authorities on 25 March and were deported later).
- January 12, 1950 The USSR reintroduces the death penalty.
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