860P.00/310: Telegram
The Chargé in Latvia (Washington) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 26—7:44 p.m.]
235. Your No. 99, July 23 [22], 5 p.m.98 The following is a summary of the first day’s session of the Latvian Saeima.
A resolution states that as an expression of the will of the entire working class of free Latvia a Soviet regime is inaugurated. Authority henceforth rests in the working population of the towns and countryside and it shall be expressed through the Soviet of workers’ deputies.
A resolution regarding the incorporation of Latvia into the Soviet Union states that only in the U.S.S.R. will Latvia be able to “heal the wounds received during the long years of slavery” and that only with the aid of the U.S.S.R. can Latvia develop its culture and insure freedom to its workers.
A declaration states that under the former reactionary regime unemployment and hunger were the lot of the Latvian workers whose interests were sacrificed for the benefit of the capitalists and large landowners who ruled the country; the foreign policy was dangerous for the people especially in its hostility toward the Soviet Union. The people have overthrown that Government and the recent elections [Page 406] were the triumph of the working classes. In solving the question of the political regime “we turn our eyes toward the great example set by the friendly peoples of the Soviet Union. Every worker in the U.S.S.R. is guaranteed the right to work, to rest, to education and to material support in his old age.” The declaration continues with such eulogies of the Soviet system.
A declaration concerning the incorporation of Latvia into Soviet Union after accusing the former Government of oppressing the peasants, squandering the country’s wealth, increasing its indebtedness and making the country dependent on foreign capitalists and bankers, accuses it of failure to fulfill the mutual aid pact of October 5, 1939 with the U.S.S.R. and states that a firm and stable union between Latvia and the U.S.S.R. must be legally established.
A telegram to Stalin starts with eulogistic greetings and continues that the Saeima, expressing the will of the people, has unanimously established the Latvian Socialist Republic. Another telegram to Molotov is in the same vein.
- Not printed; it requested brief summaries by telegraph of the “most important resolutions and proclamations having to do with the annexation of Latvia and with nationalization of property.” (860P.00/302)↩