Article in the periodical review HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES LATVIA

Thanks to the periodical review Humanities and Social Sciences Latvia for their interest and publication of my article within the Volume 24, Issue 1 (Spring-Summer 2016). It is a honor to tribute to the spread of Latvian History.

HERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE ARTICLE DIRECTLY:

Ignacio Latvians SCW.51-77

Here you can find the whole volume:

http://www.lu.lv/apgads/izdevumi/elektroniskie-izdevumi/zurnali-un-periodiskie-izdevumi/humanities-and-social-sciences-latvia/

 

Mihails Švarcs

Mihails Švarcs wearing a captain peaked cap of the Spanish Republican Army / Latvijas Kara Muzejs (an identical copy can also be found in RGASPI)

• A.k.a. names: Miša / Egons Schmits
• Roots: Jewish
• Birth: Minsk. December 27, 1903.
• Profession: Electronic ingenier – Professor of maths and phisics
• Residence places: Daugavpils, Moscow, Prague
• Political affiliation: VKP(b) (Soviet Union), KSČ (Czechoslovakia) and LKP (Latvia)
• Military service: Latvian National Army 1931-1932
• Police records: Arrested several times. Imprisoned in Riga, 1934-1935
• Arrival in Spain: December 23, 1936
• Languages: Russian, German, Czech,
• Spoken languages: Latvian, Russian, Spanish, French, Hebrew.
• Rank: Captain head of a sappers company, Political Comissar at an officers academy
• Military unit: XV International Brigade – Engineers (Counterintelligence ops)
• Fronts: Jarama (wounded), Brunete, Quinto, Belchite and Fuente del Ebro.
• Death: Killed in action during the Battle of the Ebro on August 18, 1938

Braina Rudina

• Date and city of birth: 24th June, 1902. Riga.
• Profession: Doctor
• Residence places: Riga, Berlin, Moscow, Belgrade
• Spoken languages:  Latvian, Russian, Serbian, German, French and Spanish
• Political affiliation: KPD (German Communist Party)
• Profesional work: Doctor in Moscow- she was awarded a Stakhanovite medal
• Police records: Arrested and imprisoned 8 months for have organized the                          recruitment and transportation of brigadistas in Yugoslavia, 1937.
• Arrival in Spain: February 10, 1938
• Military unit: XIIIth International Brigade– 51st Battalion
• Rank: Lieutenant promoted to Captain – Head doctor of S’Agaró IB Hospital
• Departure: Fled into Soviet Union (Moscow)
• WW2: Red Army – Sanitary Service. Head of the Evaco Hospital (Pryluky, Ukraine)
• Postwar: Moved back in Riga in 1945, where he worked as doctor
• Death: Died in Riga. November 9th, 1973. Buried in the New Jewish Cemetery of Riga

Latvietes: Latvian women in the SCW (I)

The role of the Latvian women who participated in the Spanish Civil War is a very important topic for this blog. It provides us a more complete social picture of this phenomenon. Despite most of the Baltic volunteers were men, there were also some tens of women by their side. Nowadays it is possible to put faces to their names. Their stories deserve their own lines.

Jūlijs Jenšs: Commander of the Thälmann Battalion.

• Born in Poland, 1905.
• Day labourer in Riga
• Degree on economic studies in London.
• Arrived in Spain in October, 1936. Came with the first British volunteers
• Commander of the Thaelmann Battalion. Since December 15,1936
• Killed in action on December 20, 1936 in Boadilla
• One of the first Latvians killed in action

Between December 1936 and January 1937, Franco’s army launched a second major operation in order to capture Madrid. Unlike the previous offensive, this was an ”enveloping operation”, the idea was to cut the communications between the capital and the Republican northern front in Guadarrama by capturing A Coruña Road (current A-6 road). The operation had three different phases, until January 7, 1937, when the rebel troops finally captured the villages which enclosed the route of this road. In this important battle was killed Jūlijs Jenšs, a Latvian who commanded the Thälmann Battalion.

A social picture: Who were they?

Nowadays it becomes evident that the feat of the International Brigades has been aim of certain degree of mystification, distorting surely their genuine social picture. Of course, it is a difficult task for the historian to make a general outline of the -approximately- 35.000 volunteers from 54 countries (out of the 56 independent and recognized countries within the League of Nations in 1936). But it is possible to point out some general characteristics and features about their socio-political roots: they were men and women from different races, social classes, religious beliefs and political convictions who considered Spain as the first open battlefield again International Fascism.

Group of Polish miners from the mines of northern France. Albacete Bullring, 1936 / Archives of the University of Salford Manchester

Before getting started analyzing the Latvian volunteers, let’s summarize some of their basic features and characteristics:

• Both Latvian men and women (Servicio Sanitario Internacional) participated in the IB
• Mostly labour workers (about 80%)
• Average age at the moment of enrollment: 28 years old. (Born in 1905-1915)
• Specially from industrial areas (Riga, Daugavpils, Liepāja)
• They raised-up in a traumatized society (WW1)
• Minority of highly educated volunteers (engineers, doctors, nurses)
• Many of them were already military trained within the Latvian Army 
• Few WW1 veterans and Russian Civil War veterans
• They were a multi-ethnic group (Latvians, Jewish, Slavs)
• Large Communist affiliation among them (under Soviet trend)
• Notorious political activism prior Spanish Civil War
• Multilingual skills

Introduction

Wounded Latvians at Murcia’s hospital, summer 1937 / Latvijas Kara Muzejs I identify Levs Cernins (right) and Juris Klimkāns (left)

The Spanish Civil War gained, since its very beginning, characteristic features of an international conflict. The rebellion, supported by Nazi Germany and Italy, faced a Spanish Republic isolated in terms of diplomacy. But besides the coercive attitude of the European governments and the whole Non-Intervention Committee, thousands of their citizens from all the countries sympathized the antifascist cause of the Spanish people. While the government of the Republic had to go out of its way to get political and weaponry backing, propaganda campaigns were launched in order to get political support.

About us

Brīvprātīgie aims to become a cultural project through the active recovery of historical memory of the Latvian International Brigadistas. It aspires to be a convergence site of documentation and audio-visual materials for research and learning. Also it wishes to become a contact platform for scholars from all the world and families.

To this effect, Brīvprātīgie project is committed:

• To cultivate historical memory of those Latvian women and men who volunteered for fighting international fascism in Spain, their experiences in the French concentration camps, as well as their struggle during the WW2 and the Holocaust.

• To teach and raise awareness of authoritarianism and totalitarianism, mass atrocities and state violence (in any form and origin) aiming the education of a new generation of human rights activists and historical memory defenders for nowadays world.

• To promote an active online learning experience that connects historical memory to documentation: primary sources from diverse international archives, oral testimonies, war photographies, journalistic reports and bibliography. In order to achieve this goal, Brīvprātīgie wills to establish and compile a resources depositoryfor researchers and interested relatives.

• To organize cultural and educational historical memory events and seminars within the frame of university and cultural institutions. focused on recovering and keeping alive the historical tale and the collective memory of the Latvian brigadistas. By bringing the past into the present, we are also forming a new space for dialogue and critique on ideological and political conflicts.

• To contribute to the publication and spread of studies and materials related to the role of the Latvians during the Spanish Civil War.

Welcome to an episode of the Latvian history that remains in the oblivion. Feel always free to participate through this online platform and to place all your questions, reflections and requests.

2016