latviski
We retrieved and transcribed a copy of the original unesco.lv site content of the 1944 Latvian Central Committee (LCC) memorandum advocating for the restoration sovereignty, featuring the text of the Latvian memorandum and translations into English, French, German, and Russian. Another LCC memorandum, on the impact of the Nazi German occupation, is included in Latvia Under German Occupation in 1943 on our site. See Statement by the Latvian Underground Central Council
About the memorandum
The Latvian Central Council's (LCC) Memorandum of March 17, 1944, by which a number of leading Latvian politicians and prominent public figures declared the urgent need to restore de facto sovereignty of the Republic of Latvia and create Latvian Government.
The Latvian Central Council was created during Nazi occupation on the 13th of March, 1943. Representatives of the largest pre-war political parties (the Latvian Social Democratic Worker's Party, the Latvian Farmers' Union, the Democratic centre and the Christian Farmers' Union of Latgale) headed by the professor Konstantīns Čakste formed the Latvian Central Council.
In March, 1944 Konstantīns Čakste and Fēlikss Cielēns drafted the LCC Memorandum, which disregarding the prospect of being a target for repression by the German occupation institutions was signed by 188 Latvian political leaders and public figures. The Memorandum was a call to restore the sovereignty of Latvia and create Latvian army to fight actively against the threatening return of Soviet occupation. The Memorandum underlined that forcible annexation of Latvia into the Soviet Union is clearly against the law. At the same time the Memorandum also rejected the Nazi Germany rule in Latvia. LCC firmly believed that restoration of the Latvian Government to take over the armed fight against the Red Army was the only way out serving interests of the Latvian nation. It is worth to note the order of signatures – it starts with Pauls Kalnins, the Chairman of the last Saeima, who at that moment was the highest-ranking state representative according to the Constitution of Latvia (Satversme).
This document is a bold statement of the political platform of Latvian Central Council, the most important organisation of resistance movement, and shows the commitment of its supporters to fight for the freedom and independence of the Republic of Latvia, despite of two totalitarian occupation regimes – Soviet Union and Nazi Germany – making efforts to take it away. At this point, the destiny of Latvia was similar to other East European countries, which during World War II experienced two occupation regimes. Even today this fight for the freedom is sometimes declared as support for one or the other occupation regimes. LCC Memorandum provides a documentary proof that this approach is wrong.
This copy of the document is the only known original of the LCC Memorandum. The Memorandum was drawn up in several original copies and reproduced as photos with an aim to carry it across the Latvian borders and hand it over to the governments of Western Allies. For a long time, the knowledge about the Memorandum was very limited – some versions of the wording and discrepant information about the signatories of it. The Memorandum owned by Latvian War Museum is the original that was kept hidden in Riga, under the floor where it was found in 2001 during the redecoration of the flat. In this flat lived Valija Vaschuna–Jansone, whose husband, engineer Vilhelm Jansons, is among the signatories of the Memorandum. It is sheer luck that at least one original of the Memorandum has preserved in so excellent condition until today.
The Memorandum is housed at The Latvian War Museum.
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