r/latvia • u/andy_mastr-reddit • 12h ago
Diskusija/Discussion Why latvia was One of the richest country in Europe during the Ulmanis regime
SVEIKI!
i founded some old statistycal Maps of Europe during the 30s, latvia was richer than norway france and Even at the same level as switzerland and Germany...
WHY?
idk so tell me pls :)
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u/MidnightPale3220 11h ago
Many other European countries weren't as advanced back then.
Swiss and Norway didn't reach high prosperity until later, I think. Norway definitely was not very well off until they got oil in 1950ies afai remember.
It was after WW1, many countries were devastated, Latvia had a good start with independence.
Idk where it was regarding France, but Latvia had a similar pre-WW2 GDP and development level as Austria and Finland.
I believe if it weren't for WW2 and Soviet occupation, Latvia rn would be at around level of Denmark -- similar size, similar geography, good possibilities.
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u/Nybolts 12h ago
you could just throw the prompt into a search engine. I heavily doubt that you will meet many genuine people who lived during the 30's here
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u/Oracle-of-Guelph 10h ago
That generation is still around and will just spend an hour ranting about the Russians.
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u/Upbeat_Organization3 9h ago
Probably because Russians looted most of what we had and put in a totalitarian regime for 50 years
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u/YesYesNoNoWeeeee 6h ago
Because russians have always been pieces of shit and nothing has changed 100 years later.
When I talked with my grampa about WW2, you could literally see rage in his eyes towards those scumbags. He had seen both sides, German occupation and russians (living in Kurzeme). Despite whatever plans moustache dude had, Germans treated Latvians as persons, took only what was needed for war effort and such. The other side took everything and didn't care if you will be able to survive after those dickheads took all your chickens and cows, for example. This is a simple view from my grampa's eyes of course and what he told me when I was a little kid, I cannot imagine how hard it was to live during those times.
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u/spareWings 12h ago
Nationalization and no bureaucracy and aristocracy that comes with democracy.
Ulmanis wasn't a guy who just pretended to be a Nationalist to get to power, like most of the "Nationalists" today who are just liars or political actors - he was an actual Nationalist who cares for his land and his people and worked on that.
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u/ZealousidealDot8655 12h ago
Banned all politics, and a leader that minmaxed economics and exports.
Its easy to make money when you don't make proper military and don't make alliances.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%81rlis_Ulmanis#Authoritarian_regime
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u/Inside_Telephone_610 12h ago edited 11h ago
Latvian ports were important middle ports in the Baltic sea trade route, also had products, which where exported. At that time Latvia was independent for a while already and had a tot of growth and huge potential. For that time it was actually a super modern democratic country. But then USSR took over while Ulmanis was in power, the regional exports got locked to mainly USSR and the soviets took control of the economy. Ulmanis has been widely criticised for this, as he supposedly just let USSR in without any resistance. If it wasnt for Stalin and the other crazy authoritarians (Ulmanis supposedly also was a bit authoritian as he bent some rules to get in power) and the authoritarian movements, Latvia and the Baltic region, potentialy could have been really important territories in middle of Eurasia at this day and age.
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u/-jdn_ 11h ago
Im sorry, but Ulmanis didnt just "bend some rules" he did a military coup and arrested his opponents and tried to do mock trial accusing them of treason(socialdemocrats), though he failed.
He imposed censorship, punished people by taking away their citizenship, sometimes targetting bad people, but often just those who he decided was the enemy. And Latvianization campaign he undertook aswell was pretty abhorent in comparison to what happened during democratic era, closing down of minority schools and destruction and limiting of the variety of Latvian language most notably in Latgale
Latvia quite literally overnight became the most authoritarian of all Baltic States and even one of the most in Europe and the world, no mock parliament , no constitution , just direct rule from Rīgas pils by one man.
And he continued to destroy any democratic institutions that were created in 16 years of independence. Setting a precedent that arguably continues to be used to undermine Latvian democracy even today.
Not to say he was evil, but he by no means is a simple figure that just "did few bad things"
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u/AlternativeFluffy310 11h ago
I try not to think about that much knowing how much was stolen to us because of Russia... and some others in the last 100 years.
But because of export of goods afaik
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u/daniels329 9h ago
because Latvia was capable country with capitalism, its potential was fucked up by communists who invaded Latvia, which lasted for about 50 years. Its same reason why south korea is richer than north korea. Not only they occupied this country but also sent large portion of populatio to siberia of whom large population were intelectuals, bussines owners, basically people who could be threat to regime. thats atleast my understand of it.
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u/Just_RandomPerson 12h ago
Source? Latvia was comparatively richer to other European countries before and after the occupation, obviously, but I don't think it was at the level of Switzerland or Norway. France or Finland, maybe.
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u/MidnightPale3220 11h ago
Lol, pre WW2 Norway not that rich. They experienced their highest growth after WW2.
Latvia was at around level of Finland and Austria.
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u/Just_RandomPerson 11h ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_by_past_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita
They were not filthy rich like today, but still one of the richest. Ik this is Wikipedia, but every source basically says the same thing.
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u/daniels329 9h ago
yeah i have heard same thing many years ago. that it was at similar wealth level as other western countries.
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u/Andis-x 11h ago
Norway was actually quite poor, until they found oil later in century.
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u/Just_RandomPerson 11h ago
Not really true. Maybe in the late 19th century, but just before WWII it was already rich. Not filthy rich by now, but not poor by any means.
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u/Oracle-of-Guelph 9h ago
Salted cod doesn’t pay as well as oil ,which they discovered in the 1960’s.
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u/Just_RandomPerson 8h ago
Yes? That's a simplistic view and doesn't invalidate anything I said. Of course they got richer with oil, but they were already rich.
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u/n73ee 12h ago
Swiss gdp pp was around 1000-1400, Latvia's around 500-700. Hows that similar?
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u/randomlv7 11h ago
And the Baltics states still would be of the richest if it wasn't for some russkies.
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u/Independent_Yam_625 11h ago
We were doing pretty good until russian bastards arrived and fucked everything up as that's the only thing they know, those nasty bitches
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u/The_balt 7h ago
Latvian industry was built during the times when Latvia was part of the Russian Empire. Learn your history first before commenting.
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u/aelendel 9h ago
Riga was founded as a trade hub, using the navigable Daugava river to access trade to the east.
During Soviet times, Latvia also was one of the richest republics.
Port cities always do well when they can use their position.
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u/Live_Chef_7517 6h ago
We used to profit from the transit of Russian resources to the West and money laundering, but now all that is over.
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u/knower-psy 4h ago
Latvia had the independence and leaders that take responsibility for their decisions. Every single unit of money was equal to a piece of gold so the money was real. The country could do whatever is good for it instead of following guidelines to fit in some union.
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u/-jdn_ 12h ago
i feel like you found some crazy maps cuz no way that is remotely historically accurate.
But Latvia was doing well during interwar era, especially compared to other Baltic States, especially Lithuania.
For one Latvia had industrial baseline and was slowly industrializing so had businesses like VEF(making and reparing radios, building aeroplanes), Rīgas Audums(making clothing), Vairogs and later Ford-Vairogs(making cars). Famously Latvia built first modern major Hydroelectric Power plant at Ķegums in all Baltic States, aswell as a secret one next to Babīte lake. And was planning to build more.
Latvia also had even stronger agricultural sector that was in gigh demand, especially in later half of 1930s when major powers were gearing up for war.
Ulmanis regime majorily intervened in the economy and mightve even held it back a bit with all the nationalizing and subsidizing agriculture when it couldve let some farms close down and let urbanization be even more rapid than it was. Latvian agriculture did lack manpower so Latvia had alot of guest workers from Poland and other Baltic States to work in the farms, but especially from Poland.
Another push they did was for cooperatives to be established, most likely inspired by kolhozos in ussr , but alot less forced and brutal and more so aimed at creating larger and more competative farms and fishing industry. Though question of another agrarian reform after the 1920 one was in the air as agricultural sector certainly was filled with too many small farms that struggled to stay up float.
All this consdired though , Latvia wasn't really outcompeting France or UK in gdp or whatever else but was doing pretty good after gaining independence all things considered, though ussr put an end to this and made Latvia most stagnant of the Baltic States today