Elizabete, Aleksejs, Peteris Cedrins, thank you for your fast replies!

If I got well from your words, then the Communist Party was banned over there?

Peteris Cedrins - 02 April 2008 06:30 AM

Yes, Lembergs was a Second Secretary of the Komsomol and Propaganda Secretary for the Ventspils Party Committee. Later he was the Secretary for Industry in the Ventspils Region Committee. Re Šķēle—I don’t know, but if he was—I don’t think he held a position.

To answer Kiskun’s question—the Party split in April 1990. The pro-independence wing became the Democratic Labor Party and eventually fused with the Social Democratic Workers’ Party (Latvia’s oldest party, which had survived in exile).

The pro-Moscow wing was led by Rubiks, who was imprisoned for his part in the August coup. The illegalized Party re-emerged as the Socialist Party—it now shares a list with Harmony Center (the “moderate” “Russian party") and is still led by Rubiks, who can’t be elected to Parliament because those who remained active in the Party after the violence of the “January events” of 1991 began cannot stand… he could theoretically be elected to the European Parliament, however.

Most entered or founded other parties across the political spectrum—one of the founders of the rightist LNNK, now fused with the Fatherlanders, for example, was Eduards Berklavs, who was a “national Communist” in the 1950s but helped draft lists of “anti-Soviet and bourgeois elements” to be deported back in 1940.

The first head of state of independent Latvia—before the Presidency was restored—was Anatolijs Gorbunovs, who had been the Ideological Secretary of the Party.

Regards,
/P

So, did the new Socialist Party along with the Harmony Center ever get into the government?

Sveiki!

The socialists have never held a cabinet position and technically neither has the Harmony party.  However, a popular past-time for Latvia’s politicians is changing parties and by 1994 a short-lived party (TPA), which was an off shoot of the current Harmony party, for a year held the Economics, Privatization, Agricultural and Environmental Protection portfolios.  Thereafter former (and future) Harmony party members intermittently have held cabinet posts.

It should be kept in mind that parties come and go in Latvia, but many of the top players ‘reinvent themselves’ and get re-elected to the Saeima from another list.  For example, since 1993 when LV had its first parliamentary election there have been 24 distinct parties that gained seats in Saeima.  Deputies from 23 of these parties have seats in the current Saeima.

Visu labu,

Elizabete

Elizabete writes:
“ … many of the top players ‘reinvent themselves’ and get re-elected to the Saeima from another list.  “

Musical chairs?

This is exactly the reason Hitler stated why democracy does not wok. (Main Kampf).

Mr. L. L.

The original post was about the people who were deported from Latvia to Russia.
Since many of the LOL readers do not know the extent and reasons of this mass genocide of the Latvians and at this time I am helping Peter V. put the list up on his website, I thought that I should put up some of the work completed.
A small preface is now available on one of my sites so that the context of the deportations can be seen and no one can say this was not “genocide”
http://www.latvietislatvija.com/These_Names_Accuse.htm
I do have a personal interest for I have family members on that list.

If I got well from your words, then the Communist Party was banned over there?

Yes—the Communist Party, the Interfront, the Communist Youth League, and two other organizations had to suspend operations on 24 August 1991 [1] and were banned on 10 September [2].

The legal reasoning was that these organizations had conspired to overthrow the elected government through the All Latvia Committee for the Salvation of Society, not only declaring support for the hardliners’ coup but forming an operative group to support it. The Latvian SSR Constitution prohibited parties advocating the violent overthrow of the state. The ban made it clear that members could found or join organizations that were not illegal.

Later laws also prevent those who were active in the CPSU after 13 January 1991 and other like organizations from being candidates for local or national office. Same goes for employees of the KGB (employees—not informants). There have been close cases—e.g., Ādamsons, who was an officer in the Border Guard, which was technically subordinate to the KGB. Vidavsky, the disgraced Mayor of Daugavpils who was removed but then reelected, also squeaked through on the basis of having been elected before the law was passed ("Vidavsky’s Law”—tailor made for him, pretty much).

Tatyana Zhdanok, who is an MEP, sued Latvia in Strasbourg—the decision of the Grand Chamber, worth reading because it describes the events and processes of the time in detail, is available here.

Regards,
/P

Elizabete, Peteris Cedrins you helped a lot.

As a summary, we can say that there was a year when many portfolios were held by later-Harmony members in 1994, who were formerly members of the communist organizations but fell out of any kind of banning-list of the lustration laws, and it happened several cases more later that they had some places in the ministries, but never in a dominant rate. Is this statement true?
And there were several cases, when some people who are not admitted into politics since the 1991 laws, won some positions still.
Correct me if it is not like that. I took these from your words.

If you let me I would also write some things:
First of all, I am surprised there were so many people replying, and you know facts so fine in Latvia.
In Hungary, the Communist Party simply changed its name to “Hungarian Socialist Party” in 1990 and inherited all buildings, organizations and all the money from its predecessor. Some quit the party and founded the new CP, and a few entered other parties, but most of them stayed.
After the first free elections when the pro-democrat wing won, the “Socialists” won 3 out of 4 elections, and each time they started making reforms their methods were old-styled, high-rate corruption was obvious among their members, and finally they made a catastrophical financial mistake - exactly the same which was comitted by their ancestors in the 1970’s.

Such happenings in my country, like the deportations of 1949 in the Baltic States, are not commemorated at all here (I mean we had similar ones over here) And this is strongly the fault of politics. It also caused radical rightists to gain a lot of voters which is also unhealthy.

I just wanted to know how are these guys doing in other countries, since in mine its obvious we should’ve made stronger lustration laws like in the Czech Republic or East-Germany - we can see the result of the absence of it in already in the economy, not even to mention other fields. I see things are better in Latvia.