On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Riga from the Nazi invaders, the Russian Ministry of Defense published a number of previously classified documents from the funds of the Central Archive of the Ministry. They include photocopies of military magazines, political reports, newspaper publications and award lists of the most distinguished fighters during the Riga operation.

Years of occupation

Latvia has become an arena of fierce battles between Soviet troops and Nazi occupiers from the very beginning of World War II. At the end of June 1941, the Nazis broke into the territory of the republic, and on July 1 captured Riga.

“Different people lived in Latvia at that time. Some were ready to the last battle with Nazism, joining the volunteer regiments of the Red Army. Others - waited for what will happen next, and tried to just survive. And the third were representatives of an aggressive minority, set up to cooperate with the invaders. They attacked the retreating units of the Red Army, and then immediately proceeded to the massacres and tortures of people disliked by the Nazis, ”military historian Yury Knutov told RT in an interview.

On July 8, 1941, Latvia was completely occupied by German troops and incorporated into the Ostland Reich Commissariat as a general district with a center in Riga. Latvian industrial enterprises and land were declared German property.

  • Latvian punitive squad and a group of Jews in the city of Liepaja, July 1941
  • © Deutsches Bundesarchiv

The origins of the collaboration movement in Latvia were Victor Arais, who before the republic became part of the USSR worked in the police, and in the Soviet years received a law degree. On July 1, 1941, he personally greeted the head of Einsatzgruppe A in Riga, Walter Stalecker. Hitler's special services instructed him to create a punitive police formation. In just a few days, Arais recruited about a hundred people into his sonderkommando - mostly former security officials, students and high school students. Over time, the number of collaborators increased to about 1200.

After the creation of the Riga ghetto, Arajs fighters proceeded to the systematic extermination of Jews, as well as dissident Latvians, Russians, and representatives of other peoples living in the republic. They killed about 46 thousand inhabitants in the Bikernieki forest. In the Rumbulsky Forest in late 1941, they executed about 28 thousand Jews. According to eyewitnesses, they shot adults, and children were beaten with butts.

On the basis of the Arays team, the Nazis began to deploy battalions of auxiliary police - only about 40 units that left a bloody mark not only in the Baltic states, but also in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Only members of one of them - the 18th battalion of the schutzmanshaft - took part in the execution of about 10 thousand Jews during the liquidation of the Slonim ghetto.

In 1942, a brigade was formed on the basis of several Latvian battalions, and in 1943 the SS division (15th Waffen-Grenadier). At the beginning of 1944, on the basis of other punitive battalions, the 19th SS Waffen Grenadier Division was deployed.

Evidence of specific crimes committed by the Nazis and collaborators in Latvia can be found in documents declassified by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

“Prisoners of war in the camp were physically exterminated by the regime of hunger established by the Germans, the deliberate spread of infectious diseases: typhoid, dysentery, tuberculosis, as well as by leaving the wounded prisoners of war without medical assistance ... The daily ration was 80 to 100 grams of bread, half of sawdust, and one or two liters of herbal soup, the so-called baland ... ", - said in a memorandum to the Main Military Prosecutor of the Red Army.

It also contains such data: “On January 6, 1943, the German security guards forced the Jews to hang each other. The imprisoned women were stripped naked and chased with sticks around the camp ... Immediately they were raped. From their mothers they took young children ... Nobody saw them again. ” And this is not a complete list of crimes committed on the territory of the republic.

  • Kurtenhof concentration camp in Salaspils
  • RIA News
  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

In total, about 300 thousand Soviet prisoners of war and about the same number of civilians, including 40 thousand children, were killed during the Nazi occupation in the territory of the Latvian SSR.

Battles for Latvia

In the summer of 1944, during the implementation of Operation Bagration, Soviet troops entered Latvia and liberated Daugavpils, the second largest city in the republic, from the Nazis on July 27. However, after the Soviet troops entered the central part of the republic, their progress slowed down. The command of the Red Army began to prepare a new large-scale blow to the Nazis.

On September 14, 1944, the Baltic strategic offensive operation of the Soviet troops began. Its first components were the Tallinn and Riga operations.

The plan of the Riga offensive operation is disclosed by the Russian Defense Ministry’s memorandum to the Commander of the Leningrad Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Leonid Govorov, to Supreme Commander-in-Chief Joseph Stalin. The document indicates the tasks for the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Baltic fronts, and it is also proposed to concentrate massive fire support in the areas of a decisive strike.

“The fascist German command by that time, that is, by the end of the summer of 1944, had significantly expanded the construction of defensive structures and strengthened the grouping of troops. To the north of the Daugava, where the 2nd Baltic Front was operating, four defense lines were prepared, layered all the way to Riga, ”recalled Hero of the Soviet Union Ivan Tretyak in his book“ Brave Hearts of a Fellow Soldier ”.

According to Yuri Knutov, the Soviet command planned to cut into pieces Nazi troops in the area turned into a fortress of Riga, and then finish them off individually in boilers.

According to the methodologist of the scientific department of the Victory Museum Alexei Kuzmin, from the Soviet side, 119 rifle divisions, six tank divisions, one mechanized corps and 11 separate tank brigades were involved in the Riga operation. In various sources, the number of Soviet troops is estimated at 900 thousand - 1.3 million people. They were opposed by over 700 thousand Nazis and collaborators.

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

As Knutov noted, despite the fact that the numerical superiority of the Soviet troops was small for such an operation, they managed to successfully "cope with their task."

On September 25-27, the Red Army men reached the mighty Sigulda defense line 60 km from Riga. Fortifications here were held by units of the Wehrmacht and the Latvian SS. Fights for well-prepared positions lasted several days. Only on October 6 did the Nazis retreat to Riga.

The liberation of Riga

October 10-11, Soviet troops approached the outskirts of Riga, advancing immediately on both banks of the Western Dvina. October 12 began the assault on the city itself. The next day, the Red Army broke into its center. An important role was played by the operation to force Lake Tish-Ezers on amphibious vehicles. These events are described in the journal of operations of the 3rd Baltic Front.

“Each house was turned by the Nazis into a bunker, and each door handle had the property of a grenade check, regiment units fought in a variety of conditions: either they had to repel a flank strike, or they themselves attacked, anticipating an enemy attack,” describes the battles for Riga in his book Ivan Tretyak.

The award documents published by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation describe the exploits of the Soviet military in the battles for Riga. So, senior lieutenant Leonid Krylov, intelligence chief of the division of the 1486th cannon artillery regiment, together with the scouts, was the first to break into the capital of the Latvian SSR on October 13, 1944. There, his group met fierce resistance from the Nazis and, as a result of the battle, destroyed 15 Nazi soldiers, and captured four of them.

Courage and valor was shown by captain Mikhail Lukyanov, the division commander of the 1486th cannon artillery regiment in battles on the outskirts of the city and in Riga itself, destroying two mortar mortars, four artillery batteries and two enemy machine guns with the fire of the division.

  • The scheme of operations for the seizure of Riga
  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The inhabitants of the Red Army met the soldiers of the Red Army as liberators. The head of the political department of the 43rd Guards Latvian Rifle Division in his report noted that "the townspeople met soldiers and officers with flowers and red flags."

“The Riga operation as a whole was completed on October 22, 1944 by blocking a significant Nazi group in the so-called Courland boiler. Most of Latvia was freed. 23 enemy divisions were defeated and completely destroyed, ”said Alexei Kuzmin.

The Order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of October 13, 1944 No. 194 is posted on the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

“Today, on October 13, at 23 o’clock the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, on behalf of the Motherland, salutes the valiant troops of the 3rd and 2nd Baltic Fronts, including the Latvian corps of Major General Brantkaln, who captured the capital of Soviet Latvia, Riga, with twenty-four artillery in volleys of three hundred and twenty-four guns, ”the document says.

According to Yuri Knutov, the liberation of Riga was one of the stages of the withdrawal of hostilities outside the Soviet Union.

“This was a step towards the final expulsion of the Nazis and the transfer of war to enemy territory. Riga became one of the last major Soviet cities freed from the Nazis. In less than three weeks, the Nazis were completely expelled from the USSR. The publication of documents dedicated to these events is extremely relevant. This is the best way to convey the truth to people, not to rewrite history, ”concluded Yuri Knutov.