The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and i
Red Army BT-7 tank and ZIS-5 truck in Riga (1940)
Signing of German–Estonian and German-Latvian nonaggression pacts. Sitting from the left: Vilhelms Munters, Latvian MFA; Joachim von Ribbentrop, German MFA; and Karl Selter, Estonian MFA.
Molotov signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
A joint parade of Wehrmacht and Red Army in Brest at the end of the invasion of Poland. On the tribune are Major General Heinz Guderian (centre) and Brigadier Semyon Krivoshein (right).
The Baltic states—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania—were occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and remained under its control until its dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years durin
Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940
…Protocol signed in August 1939. In 1989, the USSR condemned the 1939 secret protocol between Nazi Germany and itself that had led to the invasion and occupation of the three Baltic countries, including Latvia. In July 1989, the people of Latvia began the process of restoring their independence. In 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet…
A protest sign from the 1980s calling on the United Nations to abolish Soviet colonialism in the Baltic states
Soldiers of the Red Army enter the territory of Lithuania during the first Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940.
Schematics of the Soviet military blockade and invasion of Estonia in 1940 (Russian State Naval Archives)
A cross commemorating the victims of the Rainiai massacre, committed by the Soviet NKVD on 24–25 June 1941