Jukums Vācietis was a Latvian Soviet military commander. He was a rare example of a notable Soviet leader who was not a member of the Communist Party, until his demise during the Great Purge in the 1930s.

The Latvian War of Independence, sometimes called Latvia's freedom battles or the Latvian War of Liberation, was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaimed Republic of Latvia was invaded by Soviet Russia, and the signing of the Latvian-Soviet Riga Peace Treaty on 11 August 1920.