Communist Party of Latvia
Communist Party of Latvia Latvijas Komunistiskā partija | |
---|---|
Founded | 7 June 1904 |
Banned | 10 September 1991 |
Succeeded by | Far-left |
National affiliation | Communist Party of the Soviet Union |
Colours | Red |
Party flag | |
The Communist Party of Latvia (Latvian: Latvijas Komunistiskā partija, LKP) was a political party in Latvia.
History
Latvian Social-Democracy prior to 1919
The party was founded at a congress in June 1904.
The party held its fourth congress in Brussels from 26 January to 8 February 1914.[1]
In May 1918
Rule in Soviet Latvia, 1919–1920
The party briefly governed the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic in 1919; and changed its name to the Communist Party of Latvia in March 1919; 7,500 members in 1919.[3] The youth wing of the party was the Young Communist League of Latvia (LKJS).
The LKP was a member of the
Underground and exile, 1920–1940
In the aftermath of the
In 1928 the party started operating more openly, and contested the 1928 Saeima elections through a proxy list known as the "Left Trade Unions". The list won five seats, but was banned in 1930. They reformed the following year to contest the next elections as the "Trade Union Workers and Peasants Group", winning six seats. However, in 1933 the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution of the party, and its MPs were arrested and charged with treason.[4]
In 1936, a youth organization parallel to the LKJS,
In power in the Latvian SSR, 1940–1990
After the Soviet occupation of Latvia in June 1940 and the ousting of the Ulmanis government, the LKP and LDJS were legalised again and could operate openly.[5] It was the only party de facto allowed to contest in the Soviet staged 1940 elections,[4] which it did under the aegis of the "Latvian Working People's Bloc" (Latvian: Latviešu darba tautas bloks) installed by the Communists themselves.[6] The party later merged into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks). As the Latvian branch of CPSU(b) it was renamed as Communist Party of Latvia (Bolshevik) (Latvian: Latvijas Komunistiskā (boļševiku) partija, (LK(b)P). When the CPSU(b) was renamed the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1952, the Latvian branch was reconstituted under the old name LKP.[5]
Article 6 of the
On 14 April 1990, a pro-independence faction under
Post-independence, 1990–1993
Following Latvia's renewed independence from the Soviet Union, the LKP was banned by a decision of the
In 1994, the Socialist Party of Latvia was founded as the successor to the LKP.
Press
Cīņa (Struggle) was a newspaper founded in March 1904 as the Central Organ of the Latvian Social-Democrats. It was published periodically in Riga, Brussels and Petrograd. From 1919 it was the organ of the Communist Party of Latvia.[10]
While the LKP leadership was in exile in the USSR during the interwar years and the Nazi occupation in World War II, Cīņa was published in the
In the Latvian SSR, Cīņa was one of the main Latvian-language dailies. In 1990, when the Ķezbers faction split from the main LKP to form the Independent Communists, they changed the name of the newspaper to Neatkarīgā Cīņa (The Independent Struggle), which after privatisation in the 1990s later became Neatkarīgā Rīta Avīze.
The Russian-language sister publication to Cīņa published by the LKP was the daily Sovetskaya Latviya (Soviet Latvia); while the daily Padomju Jaunatne (Soviet Youth) was the newspaper of the Latvian Young Communist League.
In the Latvian SSR, the LKP also published a monthly political journal
First Secretaries of the Communist Party of Latvia
First Secretary | Dates in office |
---|---|
Jānis Kalnbērziņš | 25 August 1940 – 25 November 1959 (in exile in Russia, 1941–1944) |
Arvīds Pelše | 25 November 1959 – 15 April 1966 |
Augusts Voss | 15 April 1966 – 14 April 1984 |
Boriss Pugo
|
14 April 1984 – 4 October 1988 |
Jānis Vagris | 4 October 1988 – 7 April 1990 ("Leading" role of the party abolished 11 January 1990) |
Alfrēds Rubiks | 7 April 1990 – 10 September 1991 |
Second Secretaries of the Communist Party of Latvia
Second Secretary | Dates in office |
---|---|
Žanis Spure | August – December 1940 |
Ivan Lebedev | 1944 – January 1949 |
Fedor Titov | January 1949 – 1952? |
Valentin Ershov | 1952 ? – June 1953 |
Vilis Krūmiņš | June 1953 – January 1956 |
Filipp Lashnikov | January 1956 – January 1958? |
Arvīds Pelše | January – April 1958? |
Vilis Krūmiņš | April 1958? – February 1960 |
Mikhail Gribkov | February 1960 – 1963 |
Nikolai Belukha | 1963–1978 |
Igor Strelkov | 1978–1980 |
Valentin Dmitriev | 1980–1986 |
Vitaly Sobolev | 1986–1990 |
See also
- Pēteris Stučka
- Imants Sudmalis
- Vilis Lācis
- Eduards Berklavs
- Tatjana Ždanoka
- International Front of the Working People of Latvia
References
- ^ a b Lenin: An Appeal to the Party by Delegates to the Unity Congress Who Belonged to the Former ’Bolshevik’ Group
- ^ Lenin: The Second Conference of the R.S.D.L.P. (First All-Russia Conference)
- ^ "Glossary of Organisations - Co". Archived from the original on 2007-05-04. Retrieved 2007-05-08.
- ^ ISBN 0-313-23804-9
- ^ a b Latvijas Valsts arhīvs
- ^ Gints Zelmenis, "Absurdas lappuses vēsturē – 75 gadi kopš tā sauktās Latvijas Tautas Saeimas vēlēšanām", Latvijas Avīze, July 14, 2015
- ^ Par dažu sabiedrisko un sabiedriski politisko organizāciju darbības izbeigšanu
- ^ "Latvia and the Enlargement of the European Union". europarl.europa.eu. European Parliament. 31 July 2000. Retrieved 6 May 2017.
- ^ (in Russian) Союз Коммунистических партий - КПСС Archived 2012-10-31 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Lenin: The Jubilee Number of Zihna