In the morning of the 15th June in 1940 the USSR internal affairs special army forces attacked three border points in the East of Latvia, killed three border-guards and the wife and the son of a border-guard. Ten border-guards and 27 civilians were taken hostage and sent to the USSR.
In the 16 June – Sunday afternoon – the Latvian government received the ultimatum for the USSR to which they had to answer in six hours. The USSR unreasonably accused Latvia for breaking their mutual aid contract of 1939, demanded to immediately form a new government and to let in the USSR army in Latvia without any restrictions to fulfill the contract. Seeing the enormous USSR military advantage at the border, the brutal attacks at the border points, the Soviet invasion into Lithuania, as well as the closeness of the USSR military bases and the recent fate of Poland, the Latvian government hoped to avoid bloodshed in Latvia and ordered await the Red Army as an allied nation army. The Red Army occupied Latvian in the 17th June. It occupied Estonia the same day. In the evening in the 17th June the president Karlis Ulmanis addressed the nation and said: “I will stay in my place, and you stay in yours!” It is still being debated if the decision from the side of the government or Ulmanis was the correct one. Should we have opposed them, even though from a military perspective, it could have lasted only a few days? Should we have not declared an international protest or at least mentioned to the world that the government was forced to do this? The current Russian government does not acknowledge the occupation fact, referring to this government order and the later signed decrees by Ulmanis, that gave a legal cover for what had happened. Karlis Ulmanis, by staying in his place, could only approve the laws and decrees of the Latvian Republic which crumbled his created and singlehandedly led basis of the country. On the 21st of July, he had to sign the last decree – for releasing himself from the position of president of Latvia. (8)
In the time period 1940 – 1941 the USSR territorial administrative unit was made in the Latvian territory called the Latvian Soviet Socialistic Republic with the USSR government apparatus. Rapid changes happened, especially in the economy. A mass company and house ownership nationalization was happening in the cities, but in the countryside – the agrarian reform which helped the landless farmers and small landowners. In the June of 1941 around 15 thousand people were deported from Latvia to the USSR Eastern regions without any trials. From the deported together in imprisonment and deportation died 5381 people – 34% of all people that were deported in 1941.
Military actions in the Second World War in Latvia began in the 22nd June in 1941 with the German army aviation air strikes on Liepaja and Ventspils, but a full occupation of the Latvian territory by Germany concluded in the 8th July. The Third Reich made a branched administration structure in the occupied territory. The head of the occupied land was the Occupied Eastern district ministry (in German: Reichministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete) led by the Reichsleiter Alfred Rozenberg. Latvia, together with the other Baltic states, Belarus and the Eastern part of Poland were added to one of this ministry’s structural units – in the Reichcommisariat Ostland (in German: Reichskommissariat Ostland), which was led by the Reichcommissioner Hinrich Lohse. The occupied lands were given the status of general districts (in German: Generalbezirk). According to this scheme Latvia was now a general district which was governed by the General Commissioner Otto-Heinrich Drechsler. The Latvian general district was divided in smaller structural units – in province commissariats which then divided even further into districts and local communities. The German governors and the repressive establishments determined practically all of the essential Latvian life questions, even though in the lower levels of the civil government structural units it was allowed to involve the local Latvian inhabitants.
In the very beginning of the occupation Adolf Hitler had come to Malnava. This historic event was summarized by the journalist Ritums Rozenbergs by publishing the material “Hitler’s footsteps in Latvia?” in the publication’s “Evening News” 9th August of 2005 edition. Here are a few fragments from this material:
“(..) Because of the front rapidly advancing to the East, in the summer of 1941 Hitler was in ecstasy for the major military achievements. He felt quite safe and could afford to go on quick visits to the occupied territories. Not facing serious opposition, aside from battles with some groups, in July the German army already marched to the region of Pleskava. Hitler’s army rapidly approached Saint Petersburg. In the July of 1941 in the Malnava agricultural high school, which is located not far from the railroad line Warsaw – Petersburg, army headquarters were set up for Hitler’s army. (..) In the early morning of 16th June at least 9 German “Messerschmidt” fighter planes appeared over the sky of Malnava. It had created more interest because before it only small “Junkers” planes, or as the locals have called them “prelka”, were rarely seen in the sky.
After a couple of hours in the courtyard of the Malnava school continuous and loud shouts of “Heil!” were heard. The locals had understood that someone high-ranked had arrived if not the Führer himself. Later it turned out that they were correct. Hitler really had been in the headquarters to personally give orders to his generals. The German Führer also gave an encouraging and patriotic speech.
By summing up the statements it is estimated that Hitler’s visit in Malnava could have only lasted a couple of hours. At first the Germans had it kept secret. Only a few months later the German officers were not afraid to be proud that the Führer himself had arrived to see them.”
The German occupation introduced new adjustments in the Latvian national economy. One of the first measures that was carried out by the civil government was the Reichcommissioner’s Hinrich Lohse’s order in the 18th August of 1941 for taking over the Soviet Union’s property. With further orders Jewish and people who were hostile against the Germans properties were taken over. The locals were forbidden to acquire or sell firms and companies without a state permit. With various decrees personal initiative was stopped, therefore many companies did not start to work again. An important question for the locals was the question about the cancelling the Bolshevik performed nationalization. However, the German civil government were not in a hurry to do that. Agriculture was regulated with infeasible orders. Taxes usually were increased without warning which made the farmers uneasy. Those farmers that did not pay their taxes were fined or even imprisoned in concentration camps.
The German alcohol policy
The German occupation period came with its own laws, including laws regarding the alcohol policy. This question has been researched in depth by Ph. D Hist. Kaspars Zellis by preparing the paper “The history of alcohol’s everyday life: Latvian example during the German occupation time (1941 – 1945)” (9), which has been read in the Daugavpils University’s Institute of Comparative Studies international scientific conference “A tavern in the European culture”, which happened in Daugavpils 13th – 14th April 2007. K. Zellis writes: “To understand the problem of alcohol it has to be looked at from two viewpoints: first, it is the politics of alcohol, which are regulated by the existing regime trying to control the drinking urge of society. Second – the reaction of the society to these politics has to be looked at, because it can be expressed in many different ways from which the homemade spirit making would be the main example. Also, the existing norms of the society, customs and assumptions have to be taken into consideration, because they regulate the amount of consumed alcohol or its social functions in a specific place and time period.” (..)
So in the beginning of the occupation – in July and August of 1941 selling alcoholic drinks to private persons was forbidden, but in the distribution cards which were introduced in the August of 1941 to provide the people with the necessary goods – alcohol was not provided.
The use of alcohol was only allowed in “house conditions”. In the 2nd November of 1942 a ration of spirit was only provided in the normal consumer cards, that is, it was only for persons that have reached the age of 18, but the inhabitants that had not reached the age of 21 the received sugar instead of alcohol. However, the dose of alcohol did not exceed 0.25 l of spirit per a regular consumer a month. (..)
In the National Socialist German occupation regime the alcohol policy had a manipulative nature also, using the urge for something “stronger”, and to stimulate the farmers to give their produce, it was decided to compensate them with agricultural production means or pleasure substances (Genussmitteln). Concluding, that in the land (in Latvia) spirit is in very high demand, they planned and introduced so called alcohol bonus (Alkoholprämie). With it, for example, for selling 1 ton of grain till the 31st August the farmer received the right to purchase 5 liters of spirit, but if the grain is sold in the time period from the 1st to the 15th September then the bonus decreased to 4 liters, but those who did it from the 16th to the 30th September received the right purchase only 2.5 liters of spirit. Similar bonuses were for the flax, potato and other crop growers. Also, the “special” profession people received an extra dose of a strong drink, they were – workers of hard work, garbage collectors, woodsmen, police officers, seaman and others. (..)
Without work the Latvian inhabitants could only acquire alcohol on the basis of a priest for weddings, baptisms and funeral cases, as well as for field threshing and joint work of sugar-beet gathering, which had to be verified with a written confirmation from the district board. In other cases, spirit was not sold. In the cities, to receive a permit to give bonuses to their workers, the head of the company to go to the main Drink administration in Riga with a request to receive the right to purchase alcohol. The inhabitants of Daugavpils went to the City Council’s Trade sector with a request so that the alcoholic drinks could be bought also for name days and birthdays, but the council denied this request.”
Regarding the acquirement of alcohol on holidays, Latgale was left in the role of an “outcast”. It is shown in a small article “Sweets in Jani for women and young people” in the publication “Tevija” in 1942 shortly before Jani. A small subtitle says that the people who live in the countryside will get a “drop” of strong alcohol. But not everyone. “The food providing department announces that for Jani in countryside homes (excluding Latgale and all the war prisoners in all the districts) the employed men that are older than 20 can receive 0.25 liters of spirit after the district head made lists. The district’s head makes a list of all the employed men in the district that are older than 20, by writing his name, surname and place of residence and leaving a space for a signature after receiving alcohol. This list is given to the local consumer society or the nearest point of spirit handouts by the head of the district. The head of the district also hands out to the consumer’s society the permit for purchasing spirit for which people could receive their spirit from the nearest handout place. Spirit could only be sold this way only till the 15th July.” It is a logical and an understandable Latgalian wish to make alcohol themselves since they cannot get it from the country.
The food providing department in their letter to the Church and faith department in the 7th July 1943 concluded that: “Recently it has been observed that the pastors of other faiths have begun to hand out confirmations for the purchase of alcohol in for the confirmation of the members of the congregation, and it is happening in many congregations, where there have never been any confirmations, or if it has happened in these congregations it is not that important as it is in Evangelic Lutheran congregations, for example, there are no festivities to celebrate confirmations. Lately we have been receiving messages from the head of the Rezekne district saying that there have been a lot of requests for alcohol for confirmations based on the old-believer pastor handed out conformations”. The Church and congregation department drew a conclusion that “the old-believers have no right to ask for rations in the cases of confirmations, because their cult does not provide youth confirmation.” With it the handing out permits to the “newly confirmed” old-believers was forbidden”.
The silent growth of the homemade alcohol
The Ph. D Hist. K. Zellis points out that “if the alcohol policy does not match the main drinking model of society then people just look for other ways how to evade it. In the viewed time period there frequently were cases of fake spirit permits and the use of homemade spirits or other spirit containing mixtures. In the cities people used denatured spirit the most, which was sold by speculators as “spirit” or “liquor”. Police establishments, of course, began to fight the harmful elements of society that distill and sell the denatured spirit. News appeared regularly about detained distillers of spirit which will receive severe punishment. Such actions were considered as the breaking of tax bylaws and for it the culprit must pay a fine of 100 – 500 RM (German mark – Reichsmark) and go to prison for 1 year, which was defined by those laws that were in force in Latvia before the 17th June 1940, so far as they did not oppose the laws of the German army.
The makers of homemade spirit or “kandza” and “shmakolka” were fought in a similar way in Latgale. At the time of the German occupation the homemade liquor got other names also, a good quality homemade drink was called as “the forest queen”, but a bad one was called as “the briar-rose”. Even though the propaganda spread the facts that making spirit “corrodes the moral of people and unnecessarily wastes values, which cannot be allowed currently in war when every handful of flour is very valuable,” but the self-supply with the homemade drinks lasted the whole war as an alternative for the occupation’s realized alcohol policy.
It is interesting that during the war the social role of alcohol changed from a simple “pleasure substance” it became as one of the most saleable goods on the black market. Both Germans and Latvians speculated with spirit.” (..) (9) The author also mentions that a half liter bottle of spirit officially in 1942 on average costed 1.50 RM, but on the black market its price was 40 RM. To limit the “underground” making of alcohol several prohibitions were issued. For example, in the Daugavpils district commissioner’s task such a decree was issued:
To ensure the supply of food and save the bread grain and flour, I issue this decree: 1) Making your own spirit “kandza” and other alcoholic drinks starting from this moment is forbidden in Latgale. 2) Whoever makes or sell homemade spirit (kandza) and other alcoholic drinks, after the publication date of this decree in the newspaper, will be punished. 3) In insignificant cases of breaking this prohibition, the culprits will be punished with public work without pay for one week. In more serious cases this punishment can be 1 month long. 4) Those who do not do the punishment work will be sentenced to prison for a time period till 3 months. In the Daugavpils district commissioner’s task SCHUCK.