Tag: Latvia stamp

Another slaying the beast stamp. This time not Russian see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/16/russian-soviet-federative-socialist-republic-1921-triumphant-so-claims-the-stamp/ , in fact Russia is here represented as the dead dragon. At the time Latvians faced many dragons. Russians, Germans, and even Jews. It also had a leader Karlis Ulmanis, who believed Latvia was for Latvians, and only Latvians. 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.

This stamp is obviously anti Russian. Really though could the image be more Russian. Latvia had been in Russia’s orbit for quite a while and of course neighbors for all time. More assimilation must have occoured than a Latvian nationalist like Ulmanis would like to admit to.

Todays stamp is issue A6, a 10 Kapeikas stamp issued by the newly independent provisional government of Latvia. It was part of a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the Latvian government gaining control over the province of Kurland. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents whether it is mint or used.

Kurland started the 20th century as a Dutchy of Czarist Russia. The area lies on the coast of the Baltic just east of the then furthest eastern city of Germany Memel, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/21/memel-1920-the-french-worry-about-the-germans-and-forget-to-worry-about-the-lithuanians/   . During World War I the Russians were pushed back and the area became German. After Germany lost the war, The intact and indeed victorious German Eastern Army was used to prevent the Soviets from retaking the area. Weimar Germany hoped the Baltics would become vassal states. After the German Army pushed back the Soviets they turned over Kurland to the Latvian government of Karlis Ulmanis.

Kurland was about 80 percent Latvian, 8 percent German, 8 percent Jewish, and only 1 percent Russian. Germans were over represented in the cities and the landowning class while Jews were over represented in the professional and artistic classes. Ulmanis sought to replace the Germans and Jews with Latvians not by force but via an education system that heavily favored the after all native Latvians. Independent Latvia was however politically splintered and there were numerous minority governments till Ulmanis again took power in a coup in 1934. He ruled by decree until the Russians pushed him out and imprisoned him in 1940. Ulmanis died of chronic diarrhea while his Soviet guards fled East away from advancing Germans in 1942. He died knowing what the Russian dragon on the stamp must have felt like.

The German dragons were also back in Kurland in World War II. They in fact were especially long lived. The German forces that had been besieging Leningrad faded into Kurland and were cut off in a pocket in 1944. German Generals advised Hitler to evacuate Kurland by sea. Hitler instead had the fantasy that the troops there could lead a new push to Leningrad when the tide turned. Indeed the German force stayed intact and undefeated until the end of the war but unlike World War I was not willing or able to keep the Baltic states from being absorbed by the Soviets. The Soviet dragon was alive in Latvia, even if the German and Jewish ones were dead.

Karlis Ulmanis is well remembered by modern independent Latvia. There are now statues of him and a major highway built by the Soviets was renamed for him. Ulmanis was a homosexual so had no offspring, but a grand nephew of him Guntis Ulmanis served as President of Latvia from 1993-1999.

Well my drink is empty and so I will patiently wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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.