The new German Republican Government now recognized the Baltic territories as German-administered protectorates and sent a trade union leader, August Winnig, to takeover in Latvia. Winnig believed that Germany’s defeat would lead to an economic debacle and that large numbers of Germans would in order to survive need a refuge, so he was determined that Germany should not lose its hold over the Baltic States. To Winnig’s satisfaction he was given the impressive title of Plenipotentiary of the Reich for the Baltic Lands. Alarmed by the advance of the Russian troops and the pro-Bolshevik sympathies of the industrial proletariat, the Latvian Government turned to Winnig for aid.
The Baltic barons, with the help of some White Russians and right-wing Latvians, formed the Baltische Landeswehr, or Baltic Militia, and a volunteer German body, the Iron Division, was created to protect the rear of the retreating troops.
Just before Christmas two British warships steamed into Riga Harbour and Ulmanis, the Latvian Prime Minister, asked that the crews might come ashore to help protect his government. The request was refused. The British were told that the Iron Division and the Landeswehr, together then numbering about 700 men, were confronting some 16,000 men of the Red Army. However, they insisted that the Germans must hold Riga and recapture all the evacuated parts of the Baltic States. The withdrawal of German troops was to cease. Winnig replied that the troops were disregarding orders and that the fall of Riga was inevitable.
Instead of helping the German forces, the British armed a Latvian Militia which shortly afterwards mutinied and declared for the Bolsheviks. Beyond a brief march through Riga by a small contingent of men, which brought a reprimand from London, the British refused to leave their ships, but carried out a token bombardment of Riga. It was not long before the Russians held three-quarters of Latvia and had set up a puppet Red Latvian Government in their occupied zone.
The Provisional Government agreed that the Landeswehr should be officered by Germans. Latvian citizenship, with the right to settle, was granted to any German who served in the Iron Division for at least four weeks. This brought a rush of volunteers from Germany, many of whom were unaware that they were to engage in fighting.
At the end of November 1918 the Russian Council of People’s Commissars declared Estonia a Soviet Republic. The country, weakened by the German occupation and stripped bare by the retreating troops, was in no state to oppose the Bolsheviks and by December 10th the Red Army was advancing westwards from Pskov and down the coast from Petrograd towards Tallinn. A heavy bombardment by British warships drove the Russians back. The British provided arms and supplies and the Estonians also received support from the White Russian Northern Army.
By February 1919 the Red Army was driven out. In the absence of an industrial proletariat, the Russian attempt to turn Lithuania into a Soviet Republic met with little success and, after four months of Soviet domination the capital, Vilnius, was captured by Polish legionaries and the Provisional Government moved to Kaunas.
The Russians were intent on creating a Soviet Republic of Latvia which they hoped to use as a channel for the flow of Communist ideas to the West, and as a model for a non-Russian Soviet Republic. Conditions under the Bolsheviks were appalling. The bourgeoisie were stripped of money and possessions and obliged to exchange homes with working-class families. Forced labour was introduced and food rationed in three categories, the lowest being allottd to the sick, the elderly and those not considered socially desirable. Revolutionary tribunals ordered anyone suspected of liberal sympathies to be shot without trial.
The Russian success, coupled with the fear that the Red Army would succeed in making contact with revolutionary groups in Germany, now galvanized the Germans in Latvia into desperate action, and they sent for General Rudiger von der Goltz, who had just completed a successful campaign against the Bolsheviks in Finland, to take command of the Iron Division. Goltz was determined to recover the Baltic States for Germany and quite prepared to disregard any orders from the Latvian Provisional Government. The British distrusted Goltz and, since he obtained most of his supplies by sea, established a blockade of the coast of Courland.
The governments of the three Baltic States had pleaded with the Allies for de jure recognition of their independence, but the status of these countries was less important than the continuation of the struggle against Bolshevism. The Allies were supporting the White Russian Admiral Kolchak, who had set up an all-Russian government, called the Directorate, at Omsk on September 23rd, 1918. Kolchak had no intention of allowing the Russia for which he was fighting to be deprived of its Baltic coast.
To add to the confusion caused by the Allied support of three conflicting forces—the White Russians, the Germans and the nationalist governments—there was disagreement between the British and the American Military Missions. The Americans disapproved of supplying arms to the Latvians, and of the Baltic blockade.
On April 16th a detachment of the Landeswehr under Baron Hans von Manteuffel, arrested the Latvian Government, and Ulmanis was obliged to take refuge in a Latvian ship, under British protection. A puppet government was set up under a Pastor Niedra, who had escaped from Russian-occupied Riga disguised as a Red Army officer. German-led forces captured Riga on May 23rd.
The Allies, alarmed at this German success, sent a commission to the Baltic to arrange for the raising and equipping of native Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian troops. The Latvian Government was to be reinstated and von der Goltz relieved of his command. The German Republican Government disowned Goltz’s actions and said that as soon as a truce was concluded between Soviet Russia and Germany their troops would be removed. The Allies, however, offered to allow Goltz to remain, provided that he would organize the recruitment and arming of Latvian troops and help in the establishment of a Latvian coalition government. Goltz, instead, ordered the Iron Division to advance northwards, but was met by Latvian and Estonian forces at Cesis and soundly defeated. The Iron Division and the Landeswehr withdrew to Riga.
On June 10th, General Sir Hubert Gough, in charge of an Inter-Allied Mission, ordered Goltz and the Niedra Government to retire to Courland and allow Ulmanis to set up a Latvian Government once more. The Landeswehr, under the command of a British officer, became a unit of the Latvian army.
In spite of an order signed by General Foch for the evacuation of all German troops from Latvia by August 30th the commanders delayed, hoping that if they waited till the winter freeze-up British sea power would be hampered and they could procrastinate still further. The German Government dreaded the return of the Iron Division’s soldiers who, disappointed of their promised lands and, owing to trade union regulations, unable to obtain employment in Germany, would present a subversive threat.
An ingenious idea occurred to von der Goltz. The remnants of the White Russian Northern Army, led by Prince Anatol Lieven, had decided to join the German volunteer forces in Liepaja as a first step in a plan to cut the Moscow-Petrograd railway. They were joined by other White Russian units under the adventurer Bermondt. If a West Russian Government were formed in Berlin, the German volunteers could be granted Russian citizenship and join Lieven’s forces. The Allies would then have no legal basis for insisting on their return to Germany, and the German Government could disclaim all responsibility.
Before this scheme could be put to the test the White Russian General Yudenich, acting on British instructions, ordered Lieven to proceed to Narva on the Estonia-Russian frontier, leaving Bermondt in command of the growing White Russian forces in Courland. Whilst professing devotion to the White Russian cause Bermondt felt that the German side had more to offer. The 30,000 Germans under his command, however, found themselves converted into ‘West Russians’, a status which they did not take too seriously. They were paid in notes printed by Bermondt, using as security the booty which he hoped to capture.
Bermondt invited the Latvians to co-operate in the capture of Moscow, but they ordered his immediate withdrawal from the country. Against the advice of Lieven he at
tacked Riga, but was forced by a joint British and French bombardment to retire to Jelgava once more.
The Latvians drove Bermondt’s forces into Lithuania, where they were twice defeated and struggled homewards, leaving a trail of looting, murder and rape. On returning to Germany they werre given a hostile reception.
By December 1919 the evacuation of German troops from the Baltic States was complete. In January 1920 the Latvians, with the help of the Poles, were able to drive the Red Army out of Latgale. The frontier between Latvia and Estonia was settled in March, though that with Lithuania was not established until March 1921.
Once treaties had been signed between the Baltic States and Soviet Russia the Allies’ last hopes of restoring a non-Communist regime in Russia vanished and they were willing to give de jure recognition to the three countries. The independence of Latvia and Estonia was recognized by Britian and France on January 26th, 1921. Owing to the dispute over Memel Lithuanian independence was not acknowledged until December 20th, 1922.
© Peggie Benton 1984, 2011
Cover design: Dan Benton
Cover photograph from Wikimedia Commons, scan da E.Bauer, Storia controversa della seconda guerra mondiale, vol. VII De Agostini 1971
Baltic Countdown: A Nation Vanishes Page 23
