All About Latvia

Donald Day was a Chicago Tribune correspondent stationed in Riga, Latvia for a period of 20 years from early 1920s to 1940, a critical period in Latvia’s history. A Russian ambassador in the U.S. invited Day to cover the Soviet Union for his newspaper, but upon Day’s arrival to Riga he was denied the visa to enter the USSR unless he promised to present USSR in the positive light in the Western media.

Day refused. And stayed in the border state of Latvia for the next 20 years.

I’m glad he did.

Often the figure of Day is contrasted to that of the New York Times correspondent an Englishman, Walter Duranty, who gave up most of his journalistic credibility for access to the Soviet government sources. And yet, to my great surprise Duranty won the Pulitzer prize for his work. Duranty wrote extensively for the Times about USSR under Stalin, often denying the obvious. For example, the 1933 famine in the Ukraine went barely noticed in his reportage.

For a few days, I’ve been trying to find Day’s book “Onward Christian Soldier” in which he recalled the events of 1940 in Riga, when Soviet troops occupied the country. I have found only one quote on the Internet, but I would like to read the whole book. My university’s library has a copy.

Upon his return to the legation he said Munters’ maid had telephoned saying immediately after the minister had left for Riga, two automobiles with GPU — Soviet secret police — men had driven up and abducted (Latvia’s Foreign Minister) Munters, his wife and their two children. A few weeks later Mrs. Munters returned to Riga and packed their belongings which were transported to Moscow. Munters is now an official of the Soviet Commissariat of Foreign Affairs in Moscow.

I had little to do with Munters. I instinctively mistrusted him. All indications point to Munters as an arch traitor who sold his country to Moscow.

Another man who seemed to have an unusual influence over Ulmanis was Rabbi Mordecai Dubin who was chiefly responsible for the growth of the Jewish minority in Latvia. It was Dubin who succeeded in persuading Ulmanis to give permission for many thousands of Russian Jews to enter Latvia. He also aided the influx of additional thousands of other Jews when the uprising against the Jews began in Germany and spread to other countries. It was these proletarian revolutionary Jews who conducted a hilarious wake over the coffin of the Latvian Republic. It was the Jews who were delirious with joy when the Red Army tanks rolled into Riga. It was the Jews who participated in the introduction of the Red Terror against the very Latvians who had given them refuge and shelter from countries which had vomited them forth. I saw all this happen.

Even though some of them seemed too envious, the Latvians were real and sincere patriots who loved their country deeply. I know of only one who fled from Riga. I did not hear of others trying to escape. The fugitive was Alfred Berzins, minister of labor and propaganda, who most certainly would have been one of the first to be executed had he remained. Ulmanis and the remaining leaders of the Latvian people remained even after they had
been deposed and were hourly expecting arrest.

I met Police Inspector Kissels on the street in civilian clothes shortly before I was given 24 hours to leave the country. One of the first actions of the Bolsheviks when they occupied eastern Poland was to exterminate all police officials. In Latvia and other Baltic countries the first action of the Soviet GPU was to recruit the
hooligan element of the population who were armed and furnished with red armbands and detailed to “help” the local police. Kissels and the other higher police officials had already been forced to resign. I urged him to flee to Sweden. I happened to have enough dollars with me to finance his journey, and offered them to him. He refused, saying he could not run away. A few weeks later when the GPU called to arrest him, he shot himself. He was a brave man and a patriot.

There were plenty of motor driven fishing boats and Sweden was not far away. Some Latvians owned large and sturdy motorboats which could have made the journey. But aside from President Smetona, his family and clique, who fled from Lithuania, and Minister Berzins who fled from Latvia I do not know of any other escapes, or attempts to escape of government people from the Baltic countries. There were a few unimportant people who managed to cross the Finnish gulf to Finland and most of these immediately volunteered to serve with the Finnish forces.

The subconscious sometimes has the faculty of making things difficult for us. In writing about the Baltic States my heart . . . .

Can you picture groups of men and women and children being forced to crawl on their hands and knees through the streets to the railroad station where they were herded like animals, the men into one row of freight, cars, the women and children into another? They these trains with their human freight leaving during the night on journeys lasting for many days eastwards? From one distant station to another till the secret destination was reached? Families separated forever on this earth? Farewells which turned into moans of utter despair? This happened in Kaunas (Kovno) the capital of Lithuania.

Can you picture autotrucks night after night rumbling through the
streets carrying their loads of arrested men and women to secret
prisons? Of tiny torture cells in which the prisoner was unable to lie down or even sit down? Of actual physical torture to obtain
confessions of acts never committed, or of information concerning the whereabouts of fugitives from the communist class war? Of men flayed alive, castrated, with their faces beaten until their noses and jaw-bones were smashed and broken? All this before the communist executioner with a single shot in the back of their head put them out of their misery? Of Christian women and girls being violated by Jewish chekists? All this happened in Riga, the capital of Latvia.

Can you picture men, women and children being placed in freight cars and being kept there two and three days without food, without water, without facilities to perform natural functions? The men in one line of cars, the women and children in another? Of agonized screams for help from both lines of cars? Of indignant crowds of people gathering wishing to rescue them? Of platoons of GPU troops rounding up these people and marching them off to forced labor on fortification works? Of trains finally disappearing into the night, also eastwards to exile and death? All this happened in Tallin (Reval) the capital of Estonia.

These unfortunates were families of army officers, government
officials of all kinds, businessmen, factory owners, lawyers, doctors, dentists, writers and journalists. Only one section of the educated class seemed exempt from this extermination policy. It was the engineers and building contractors. They remained to operate the confiscated factories and to supervise the construction of fortifications.

There is plenty of gruesome evidence concerning the short bloody reign of Bolshevism in the Baltic States. All three countries have published books containing photographs and sworn testimony. For one who has lived in the Baltic States twenty years and who was personally acquainted with many of the victims this material is agonizing. There are many groups of photos of the same person. First you see a businessman or public official you know in peacetime. Next to it is his picture found in the archives of the GPU. He has become haggard, unshaven and his unkempt clothing reveal weeks of imprisonment. His hopeless face is lined with suffering. Beneath this is the picture of his horribly mutilated body. His distorted swolled features are almost unrecognizable. Yet it is undoubtedly the same man.

Destroyed towns and shattered buildings can be replaced. The best strains of a nation’s blood are irreplacable. The destruction of
literally tens of thousands of the best families, not men alone, but
entire families, of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, not to speak of
similar slaughter in Eastern Poland, Polish Ukraine, Bessarabia and
Bukovina have left scars on these nations and communities which will take generations to efface.

The Red Terror, as it is called by the Communists themselves, was
introduced as a matter of course in those countries annexed by the Soviet Government. Red Terror is the liquidation by execution and exile of all classes except the proletariat. The GPU in the Baltic States employed the same methods used during the early years of the revolution in Russia. The sadistic barbarity which the GPU used against the outlawed classes is a practical and effective method of terrorizing into inaction any element of the population which might resist.

Compared with the mental and physical torture methods of the Jewish GPU of Russia, the guillotine of the French revolution was a very pleasant form of death. Chroniclers tell us how hoi polloi of Paris screamed with sadistic delight when a dripping head with blond hair was held up on the scaffold for their inspection. . . . Racial hatred also played a role in the actions of the Jewish GPU in the Baltic States.

You notice I say Jewish GPU. This is correct. From the very beginning of the Russian revolution the terrorists branch of the government was in the hands of the Jews. Felix Djerjinski, a Pole who first headed the Cheka, had Menshinski and Jagoda as assistants. He was succeeded by Menshinski, who was followed in succession by Jagoda, Yeshov, Akulov and then Berija who now heads this terror organization. All of these men are Jews. All the testimony gathered from survivors of the Red Terror in the Baltic States confirms that the GPU leaders were, almost without exception, Jews. And so long as the GPU holds supreme control in Russia, the Soviet Government must be regarded as a Jewish
controlled regime. I might mention here that I have reported this
phase of the communist revolution many times during the past 22 years to The Chicago Tribune which, together with other American newspapers subscribing to our press service, has published these articles.

But not always. There have been some exceptions.

On Sunday night, 16 June 1940, the Latvian government capitulated to an ultimatim from Moscow demanding a change of government and the right for the Red Army to occupy Latvia’s chief centers. In a tragic address President Ulmanis informed his countrymen over the radio of his government’s decision. It was the last time they heard him speak.

Large Red Army garrisons had already been established in the vicinity of Riga. . . . .

The first Soviet tanks rumbled over the bridge from the Mitau (Jelgava, a city a few miles south of Riga) road
late Monday afternoon. As they clattered along over the cobblestone streets to take positions before the railroad station, a crowd of some 3,000 poured out of the Moscow suburb and Marien street to welcome them. They cheered the tanks wildly. I followed the tanks and watched the crowd. It consisted of more than ninety percent Jews, representing all strata of Riga’s Jewish population.

A small detail of police attempted to maintain order but as more tanks arrived, the enthusiasm of the Jews got out of control. Some tried to mount the tanks and embrace the Russians. A Latvian policeman was attacked and tossed over an embankment. Shots rang out and I saw another policeman fall dead. At this point one of the Soviet tank officers shouted a command. A machine gun was trained on another group of Jews who were attacking a policeman. There was a short burst of fire and several Jews were wounded. Rioting continued sporadically, despite a curfew clearing the streets at ten at night. The Latvian police, who had been disarmed upon the demand of the Soviet minister in Riga . . . . . Many Jews were arrested and later released.

. . . my report . . . . appeared in The Tribune the same
morning. It was not until many weeks later, when I was in Finland
covering the inter War, that I received the clippings of my stories
which my office forwards to me each month. My report of the riot was published under the headline: RIGA REDS BATTLE POLICE TEN SLAIN AS SOVIETS OCCUPY LATVIA. I had emphasized in my report that it was the Jews and not the Latvians who had welcomed the Red Army tanks in Riga, that it was the Jews who attacked the Latvian police, that it was the Jews who had been arrested for rioting. But the word “Jew” did not once appear in the story. This is regretable for it was very misleading. The reader obtained the impression that it was a Latvian crowd who welcomed the Bolsheviks. I had also reported how I questioned the Jewish demonstrators and asked them why they were so happy and how they replied: “Now the Germans will never come here.” The fact that the first act of the Jewish rioters was to attack and murder unarmed Latvian policemen speaks for itself. The Jews greeted the Soviet usurpers as liberators. The other inhabitants greeted them with horror and fear.

I was not expelled from Riga until a month later.

Day’s book appears to be antisemitic, blaming Jews for the Soviet invasion of the Baltic states in 1940. Yet, I find another perspective on the events refreshing. It is true that majority of the Latvian Jewry greeted the Soviet troops as liberators, in part because they choices were limited: either yoke under Stalin, or in a concentration camp under Hitler. It was clear that Latvia would have lost its independence one way or another.

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