A people has desired independence and chaos and defeat in Russia and Germany has allowed it. Now comes the hard part of building a country. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
A new countries first stamps often displays the new flag or in this case the new coat of arms. It is a way to say things are different now before any positive results are achieved. It is also a patriotic appeal for people to work together to make the new endeavor work. The first stamp of Latvia after independence from Russia in 1991 was a slightly modified rendering of this same coat of arms.
Todays stamp is issue A11, a 10 Lat stamp issued by the republic of Latvia in 1923. It was part of a 6 stamp issue in various denominations that show new Latvia’s coat of arms. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $6 used.
Latvia had achieved it’s long standing goal of being broken away from Russia by the Germans during World War I. A few weeks before the end of the war in 1918 the German Kaiser declared the Baltic states free but under the allegiance of a German Count appointed by him. Naturally this is not what the Latvians had in mind but there were a number of German ethnics in the landowning class. The German Count did not last post war but the German Army in the area was still intact and ready to fight. It refashioned itself the Baltic Landeswher and along with the new Polish state helped fight when the Red Army invaded to bring Latvia and the other Baltic states back into the fold. Western countries were slow to recognize Latvian independence. They hoped that the troubles in Russia would end with a pro western democracy that would grant Latvia a measure of self rule within Russia.
The Red Army invasion did succeed in capturing the capital Riga and their puppet government set out executing many of the German ethnic landowning class. This was also happening on a wide scale in Russia itself. The Landeswher and its allies managed a successful counterattack and drove the Red Army from much of the Baltics. Now it was the ethnic Russians turn to flee. The west became concerned that a German army was still fighting after World War I was over and pressured defeated Germany to withdraw the army from the Baltics. When Germany procrastinated, a British general was appointed commander of the Baltic Landeswher and set about disbanding it. The soldiers then aligned themselves with a White Russian force that hoped to march to Moscow and install a pro German Russian government. This force was defeated by the Red Army 6 months later.
The Soviets signed a treaty recognizing Latvian independence and western recognition followed quickly thereafter. The leaving of Russian and German ethnics left Latvia with a population that had dropped in half but a least what remained was mainly Latvian. The democracy that was set up featured numerous small parties and weak ever changing coalitions. Elections were every two years so there was very little political stability with governments on average lasting barely a year. The new country was obliged to spend a great deal on defense as the borders were shaky and argued about.
There were however achievements. Land reform went well with the old German dominated manor system broken up. This was done in a way that increased peasant land ownership and greatly enhanced farm output. The German landowners were allowed to keep 50 acres around the manor house but most quickly sold and moved to Germany. A new currency was successfully floated and the economy did well, at least in the 1920s.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the Latvians for being able to pull together a new country. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.