Relations between Latvia and the Ukrainian People’s Republic, 1919–1921

Abstract

With the collapse of the Russian Empire, a number of peoples, including Latvians, Estonians, Lithuanians and Ukrainians, sought independence. In 1919–1920, the goodwill of the Latvian government towards an independent Ukraine was based also on a purely pragmatic calculation of the political and economic benefits of cooperation. The relations between Latvia and the Ukrainian People’s Republic reached their peak in August and September 1920, when the Ukrainian delegation was admitted to negotiations between the Baltic States and Poland in Bulduri. After that the Latvian government was forced to reckon with the Soviet power actually existing on Ukrainian territory in order to maintain good relations with Soviet Russia, as well as to give thousands of Latvian refugees still in Ukraine a chance to return to their homeland.

The sometimes striking similarities, as well as the differences, in the struggle for independence of the two countries should be noted. The similarities include the intensity of the fighting and the large number of participants or political-military actors in both countries – the Ukrainians fought with the Poles (allied with them in 1920) the Ukrainian Bolsheviks, Soviet Russia, and White Russians in different periods. The Latvians – with the Latvian Bolsheviks, Soviet Russia, Germany and the German-Balts (allied with them in the initial period), and the White Russians. In both Latvia and Ukraine, apart from Soviet Russia, which both shared as a threatening neighbor with claims to lost territories, the interests of neighboring countries (Lithuania, Estonia and Poland in Latvia, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Poland in Ukraine) played an important role in developments in both countries, as did the involvement of the Western powers. As a result of frequent changes of power, both countries and their populations experienced a terror that is difficult to describe, not only of the powers involved, but above all, of the Bolsheviks, etc. However, Latvia and the other Baltic countries preserved their independence, while the Ukrainians did not. This stems from the differences between these countries. Firstly, obvious differences in the territory and size of the nations greatly intensified the scale of events and the number of participants. The Baltic governments managed to overcome their internal differences to create a fighting force, while the Ukrainian government largely failed to do so. However, the most important factor was the high level of national self-confidence of the Baltic peoples.