NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript and are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was microfilmed as received. PRE- PAGE II This reproduction is the best copy available. Vecmamai Lai Dzivo Latvija iii CONTENTS Page LIST OF MAPS vi LIST OF TABLES vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS viii ABSTRACT X INTRODUCTION 1 PART I: THE BIRTH OF A STATE, 19 18- 1922 27 CHAPTER 1. 19 18-1922: THE STATE FROM ABOVE, SURVIVING TO STRUGGLE, THE STATE FROM BELOW, STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE 28 CHAPTER 2. 1922-1925, A STEP TOWARDS NATIONAL STABILITY, A STEP TOWARDS LOCAL COLLAPSE 68 PART 11: 1922-1934, THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF LATVIA 98 CHAPTER 3. BUILDING THE STATE, REBUILDING COMMUNITIES; THE ECONOMY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, 1922-1930 99 CHAPTER 4. THE CONTENTIOUS ISSUE OF EDUCATION: THE BATTLEGROUND OF MINORITY RIGHTS, NATIONALLY AND LOCALLY 130 CHAPTER 5. THE FIRST GREAT EXCEPTIOK, RIGA 153 CHAPTER 6. THE SECOND GREAT EXCEPTION, LATGALE 176 PART 111: THE BEGINNING OF THE END, 1930-1940 198 CHAPTER 7. THE ECONOMIC CRISIS, 1930-1933 CHAPTER 8. A RECOVERY INTERUPTED BY A COUP, 1934-1936 CHAPTER 9. THE ASCENDANCY OF THE VADONIS, 1936-1940 CHAPTER 10. 1940 AND CONCLUDING REMARLS APPENDIX A. A CRlTIQUE OF SOURCES APPENDIX B. ALMANAC OF THE MUNICIPALITIES OF LATVIA APPENDIX C. A DETAILED LOOK AT 3 APRINKI APPENDIX D. COMPOSITION OF COUP-APPOINTEES BY APRINKIS BIBLIOGRAPHY MAPS 1. The Apgabali of Latvia 2. The Aprinki of Latvia 3. The Pagasti of Latvia Legend for Map 3. 4. War Damaged Latvia 5. The Riga Aprinkis in Relation to Latvia 6. Latgale in Relation to Latvia TABLES table 1. Statistics for Latvia's Aprinki 2. Politicallv Unreliable Deputies in Rural Government 3. ~reakdownof Municipal councils 4. Municipal Councils by Employment 5. Municipal Councils by Education 6. The Ethnic Com~ositionof Latvia bv Percentase- 7. Economic Life df the ~aunsaitnnrzieks 8. School Children not Attending School 9. Voter Turnout and Incumbents 10. The Pre-war Population of Riga 11. Births, Deaths and Marriages in Riga, 1920 12. Industry in Riga in Relation to Latvia 13. Some Pagasti in Riga Aprinkis, 1919 14. Population of Latgale by Aprinkis 15. Religion in Latgale, 1935 16. Reasons for Children not Attending School 17. Latgalians Employed in Pagasts Governments, 1939 18. Teachers in Latgale 19. Rural Nature of Latgale 20. Division of Communes by Agrarian Refonn 21. Ethnicity of Municipalities, 1925 by Percentage 22. Latgale by Ethnicity, 1935 23. Overview of Invalid Upkeep in 1930 24. Alterations from the 1931 to 1932 Budget 25. Appointed Officials to Local Government 26. Appointed pagasts Elders by Percentage 27. The Age of the Coup-appointees by Percentage 28. The Education of Coup-appointees by Percentage 29. Occupations of Coup-appointees by Percentage 30. Social standing of Coup-appointees by Percentage 31. Auctions of Inventory, 1935 32. Auctions of Immovable Property, 1935 33. Pagasri that Paid Full Taxes in 1938 34. Pagasti Tax Limits 35. The Purge in 1939, the Removed 36. The Purge in 1940, the Appointed 37. The Purge of May 1940, the Removed 38. The Purge of May 1940, the Appointed 39. Changes in Daugavpils Schools 40. Students by Ethnicity in Daugavpils 41. Teachers by Ethnicity in Daugavpils ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is truly a collaborative effort that owes its strengths to the aid, assistance and advice given to me throughout its arduous creation. My graduate student colleagues, "the Tuesday lunch crowd," have not only entertained me when I needed it, but have provided consistent, top rate academic and scholarly advice. My heart felt thanks and best wishes to: Tom G., Kari. B., and Blaine C. May Gaston L. follow and surpass my Latvian footsteps in the history department. Particular thanks to Tracey M., of whom I am proud to be in the same cohort. Although I "may properly omit formal thanks for the routine help given by an adviser or a thesis committee," the help of Professors Viola, Rossos, and Johnson far surpassed the routine.** I took all of their advice to heart and consider my work far the better due to their superb guidance. Professors Haberer and Klein acted as friends and patrons outside of the formal committee, but I am as indebted to their help. The community of Baltic academics, most specifically Professors Ezergailis, Hiden, Langins, and Dreifelds all encouraged me in my pursuit of Latvian history. My adopted families, the Briedis family and Petersons family, provided "de facto subsidized room and board" throughout my stay in Toronto without which I could not have completed my studies. I am particularly indebted to numerous organizations that funded my research and writing in various ways. The University of Toronto and the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) earned the lion's share of thanks and appreciation. Through CREES and Professor Johnson, I worked as an intern in the Department of Information in " Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996). 8. viii the Sacinla of the Republic of Latvia--a once in a lifetime opportunity. My thanks to Anita Dudina and her staff that allowed me access to the Saeirna's library. My undying thanks to the staff cf the Latvian State Historical Archives who made research a joy instead of a chore. Several Latvian organizations provided substantial financial backing for this dissertation, particularly: the Latvian National Association of Canada (L.N.A.K.), Daugavas vanagi, the Latvian Centre of Toronto, and the Latvian Relief and Developrnent Fund. Thanks to the Karlis Goppers Fund for allowing reproduction of maps used in this dissertation. Errors due to their manipulation for purposes of clarity are entirely mine. Finally, I must thank my family for the silent encouragement and constant financial relief over the many years of my studies. My grandparents were my muses throughout research and writing. Finally, Ann-Marie Petersons has made the whole process worth while. I could not have done it without her. Mistakes and errors are, of course, entirely my own. ABSTRACT "Creating the State from Above and Below" tracks the course of local government in Latvia from 1918 until 1940. The relationship between elected local councils and the central ministry that supervised local governments reflected upon larger emerging issues of the role of the state and its citizens. Early in the Republic's existence local governments emerged as nearly autonomous units, but the great devastation of World War One and the War for Independence overwhelmed local economies. The centre, through the agency of the Department of Local Government, reasserted control over local governments with the provision of financial aid and planning. The provision of minority education and the emerging divide between older. established farmers and the beneficiaries of the radical agrarian reform particularly defined local governments in the 1920s. Riga, Latvia's capital, and the ethnically diverse, poor eastern province of Latgale broke significantly from the general Latvian mould in the nature of local governments and their relations with the state. The Great Depression shook the economic foundations of local governments and reverberated through political life as well. Coalition building and generating consensus became increasingly difficult. Tax arrears mounted throughout Latvia's local governments. Nevertheless, by late 1933 local governments posted clear economic indicators that local economies were on the mend. In 1934, however, Karlis Ulmanis used the depression as a pretext for an authoritarian coup. After dismissing parliament, his regime turned on local governments purging systematically all but the most ardent coup supporters. This purge extended from local councils to school teachers and common employees targeting particularly leftists and minorities. Local government lost its function as a nexus between state and citizen, instead becoming a transmission belt for central directives. The regime appointed officials that were more loyal than competent, and increasingly relied on bureaucratic staff to administer local government. Local government became an extension of an authoritarian state that directed society, the economy and culture. The state's curtailment of local participation in government created a precedent for the form of governance that the Soviets and Nazis would use. INTRODUCTION The Farmers Union had to leam to come to a coalition with the Social Democrats as they did in pagasts, aprinkis and municipal governments.' This restricted range of inquiry [local government] seems justified since few areas of governmental activity reveal so clearly the fundamental character of a state as does the manner in which it seeks to organize public functions and civic life in the local communities. Indeed, the attitudes and institutions that define local government constitute a unique index to the mind and structure of a state as a whole.? These two quotations are the seeds of my interest in local govemment in Latvia, as well as the beginnings of the long process of this dissertation. While researching my Master's Paper on the Social Democratic Party in Latvia, I stumbled across the first quotation in the memoirs of a prominent ideologue of the political right, Adolfs Klive. News of local coalitions between the agrarian right and the social democratic left was mildly shocking because the two parties were enemies on the national scale, but it seemed much of the antagonism came from a clash of personalities of the national leaders. My topic, however, remained the national Social Democrats and so I left the seed to germinate at some later date. I stumbled across Start's quotation while preparing for comprehensive exams. His excellent analysis of local government in Reform-era Russia impressed me greatly. Readings iil African history further strengthened my belief that local government is the nexus between a national state far away, and local concerns nearby.