Latvian partisans

Latvian national partisans (Latvian: Nacionālie partizāni) were Latvian pro-independence partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet rule during and after the Second World War.

The decisions of the 1917 congresses and the declaration of independence on November 18, 1918, with Latgale as part of the Latvian state, moved both the military of Latvia as well as local partisans to struggle for the liberation of Latgale. This was a difficult task, given the territorial interests of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Second Polish Republic, and Belarusian People's Republic. On June 10, 1919, the Lithuanian army reached the territory controlled by the partisan (Green Guard).

Latvian national partisans waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet rule during the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 during World War II, and the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic after the war. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups fought against Soviet rule in Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Galicia (Eastern Europe).

The Red Army occupied the formerly independent Latvia in 1940–1941 and, after the period of occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany, again in 1944–1945. As Stalinist repression intensified over the following years, thousands of residents of this country used the heavily forested countryside as a natural refuge and basis for armed anti-Soviet resistance.

Resistance units varied in size and composition, ranging from individually operating guerrillas, armed primarily for self-defence, to large and well-organised groups able to engage significant Soviet forces in battle.

Latvia had gained her independence in 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire. The ideals of self-determination had taken hold with many people as a result of having established an independent country for the first time in history. Allied declarations such as the Atlantic Charter had offered promise of a post-war world in which Latvia could re-establish itself. Having already experienced occupation by the Soviet regime followed by the Nazi regime, many people were unwilling to accept another occupation.

In the first weeks of Operation Barbarossa Latvia was overrun by German Army Group North. The German advance had been so swift that thousands of Red Army troops had been by-passed without taking them as prisoners. Thousands of Latvians joined partisan units which were organized by Latvian officers in the rear of the Soviet front line. The Latvians now collected the Reds and sometimes fought fierce battles with those who resisted. The national partisans ahead of the German front line took Sigulda on July 2 (two days before the Germans). On July 4, partisans of former Aizsargi and 24th Territorial Corps soldiers of about 170 to 180 men under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Arvīds Reke invaded and temporarily occupied Limbaži. They secured Alūksne on July 5, but that evening strong Red Army forces, retreating from the Germans, reached the town, and the partisans withdrew without a fight. The next morning the Reds departed, and the partisans re-occupied the town. The Germans occupied Alūksne on July 7. At the village of Mālupe the partisans attacked the headquarters of the 183rd Rifle Division, killing its commander and several staff officers and capturing their supplies and transportation. By July 8 the Red Army had retreated beyond the Latvian border.

Preparations for partisan operations in Courland were begun during the German occupation, but the leaders of these nationalist units were arrested by Nazi authorities. Longer-lived resistance units began to form during the last months of the war; their ranks were composed of a good number of Latvian Legion soldiers as well as civilians. On 8 September 1944 in Riga, the leadership of the Latvian Central Council adopted a Declaration on the restoration of the State of Latvia. The adoption of the Declaration was an attempt to restore de facto independence to the Republic of Latvia, in hopes of international support and by taking advantage of the interval between changes of occupying powers. The Declaration prescribed that the Satversme is the fundamental law of the restored Republic of Latvia, and provided for establishment of a Cabinet of Ministers that would organise the restoration of the State of Latvia.