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video description to unlock a special offer that will make your start a little easier. Game of Trenches, out now. It’s June 1919, and the new republics of
Latvia and Estonia have been caught up in the chaos of the collapse of the Russian empire,
revolution, and crumbling German occupation for months. This month, a major battle between the Estonians,
Latvians and Germans would prove decisive to the fate of the two Baltic States. Hi, I’m Jesse Alexander and welcome to the
Great War. By June 1919, the Russian Civil War and the
defeat of Germany had plunged the Baltic region into chaos for months. Bolsheviks, Freikorps, White Russians, and
troops loyal to the new republics of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania fought in a series of
changing alliances and shifting fortunes. Before we dive in, if you want a general overview
of the Russian Civil War until March 1919, check out our February episode. But today we’re going to focus on developments
in Latvia and Estonia and the important battle of Cesis, which took place in June. Before we join the battle though, let’s
catch up on what was going on in the Baltics in 1919 and how the armies ended up facing
each other near a small town in northern Latvia called Cesis. For our Lithuanian fans, fear not, we will
cover events there in a future episode. Both Latvia and Estonia declared independence
from Russia during the course of 1918, but German forces in the region were in control
until November. After Germany’s defeat and the signing of
the armistice, the Bolshevik Red Army launched a western offensive and invaded the two countries. Inexperienced Estonian and Latvian troops
fled the field, and it was German units who stopped the Bolsheviks. But once the Germans began to withdraw, the
Red Army took control of half of Estonia and nearly all of Latvia by January 1919. In February, the Estonians counterattacked
and pushed the Reds back, but in Latvia only the area around the town of Liepaja remained
in Latvian and German hands. So the Bolsheviks had invaded in early 1919
but had been partly pushed back by the late spring by the combined forces of Estonia,
Latvia, and the Germans. But these were not the only players in the
region, so let’s take a look at all the factions involved in this microcosm of chaos
in the aftermath of the war. Let’s start with the Republic of Estonia. The Provisional Government in Tallinn was
led by Konstantin Päts, who would later take power as dictator in the 1930s. The provisional government aimed to create
the first independent Estonian state in 700 years, and had secretly built up an underground
administrative infrastructure while under German occupation. Although the troops’ morale was low at first,
Estonians gained something to fight for when the government promised free land for veterans
which mostly would be taken from Baltic German landowners. Many Estonian peasants and workers resented
the Baltic Germans who lived in the region. For about seven hundred years the Germans
dominated the upper and middle class and owned most large estates. Despite the tensions, Estonian forces included
a Baltic German Battalion, which eventually grew into a regiment. The Estonian army mostly consisted of veterans
of the Russian imperial army and was led by former Russian army General Johan Laidoner. The Estonians received arms shipments from
the UK starting in December, including artillery and machine guns, and they had about a dozen
of the all-important armored trains. Initially protected with just wood and sand,
these trains eventually were fitted with steel armour, and brought overwhelming firepower
to conflicts where anything heavier than an armored car was rare. Additional help arrived with several thousand
Nordic volunteers, known as the “boys from the North,” mostly from Finland but also
from Sweden and Denmark. By May, the Estonian army could field some
75 000 men. Estonia even had a tiny navy consisting of
three captured Bolshevik and German ships given to them by the British. The modest force was under Commander Johan
Pitka, whom the British thought quite colourful: “He had only two speeds, full ahead and
stop, and wasted a lot of [fuel] in the process…always clad in a thick greatcoat (Lord knows what
he had on underneath)…with a pistol strapped round his middle and generally clutching a
loaf of our bread, he was quite a figure, and a very clever and fearless fighter. His tactics were to get as near to the enemy
as he could and then fling his very mixed bag against their flank. He often got away with it, more especially
if we were able to back it with some shelling.” So the young Estonian republic under Päts
had armed itself to redistribute the land. Now let’s have a look at the Republic of
Latvia. The Provisional Government was led by Karlis
Ulmanis, who, like Päts, would take power as dictator in the 30s. Initially, Ulmanis had great difficulty recruiting
troops. The Red Army was seen as liberating Latvia
from centuries of dominance by the local German nobility, and there were many Latvians serving
in its ranks. A high proportion of military-aged men had
already been conscripted into the Czar’s army and sent elsewhere, so many early recruits
were young and inexperienced. In fact some Latvians mutinied or deserted
when Riga was taken by the Bolsheviks in January. At first the Ulmanis’ republic had little
support, as many more Latvians held socialist sympathies. But promises of land reform and the political
violence carried out by the Reds and pro-German forces led many to join the republican cause. Initially, the Latvian Republic had been allied
to some of the German forces, but this came to a crashing halt when the Germans led a
coup in April and installed a puppet Latvian regime. Ulmanis was forced to take refuge on a British
ship which was for a time the only place under the control of the Latvian government. On the plus side, once the Germans broke the
alliance the republic became a more appealing option for Latvians opposed to German ownership
of land. So Latvia was caught between the forces of
the Germans, the Bolsheviks and its own fragile republican government – but land reform
was a key issue here as well. Let’s turn to the Bolsheviks next. Their objective was to reclaim the Baltic
States as part of the former empire and carry the social revolution into Europe. For them, the new Baltic republics represented
an obstacle in their quest for revolution in Germany and the world. In each of the regions they set up a local
Soviet government under the influence of Moscow, with varying degrees of success. The Estonian Workers’ Commune lasted until
June 1919 – just a month longer than its Latvian counterpart. There was actually a fair degree of support
for the Bolsheviks in Latvia, both amongst Latvians and Russians, but their disastrous
economic policies and political violence policies soon alienated nearly everyone. Initially, many Latvian Soviet soldiers were
battle-hardened veterans of the previous years of fighting. They were eager to liberate their country
from German landlords, but hesitated when fighting Estonian peasants. Many deserted if they were deployed near their
hometowns, and even some of the famous Latvian Riflemen of the Red Army joined the Republic
of Latvia fight the landowners more effectively. There were of course also Estonians in Bolshevik
ranks, but as time went by many switched sides and joined the Republic of Estonia, including
the commander of the Estonian Bolshevik Division. In short, the Bolsheviks represented a mixture
of revolutionary zeal and Russian expansionism, with some significant local support. And where there were Russians in 1919, there
must be Whites as well as Reds. The Northern Corps was created as a White
Russian force by Germans in late 1918, and ended up under Estonian command by the end
of the year. By that time, in typical White Russian style,
this officer-heavy force was hobbled by infighting, rivalries, and incompetent leadership. The Northern Corps intended to take Petrograd,
then turn on the Baltic States, which it saw as rightful Russian territories unable to
govern themselves. Naturally, this approach hindered cooperation. And now for the most complicated of the factions,
the Germans – a collection of regular army troops, local ethnic German militias, and
Freikorpsmen. After the armistice was signed, most occupying
German troops simply wanted to go home. After resisting the Bolsheviks in Estonia,
German units largely withdrew from there, but the situation would be different in Latvia. There, the 6th Reserve Corps was under the
command of General RĂĽdiger von der Goltz, who had helped the Whites win the Finnish
Civil War. The Corps was a mixed formation consisting
of a local militia called the Baltic Landeswehr, a Freikorps called “Iron Division”, and
the 1st Guards Division, a regular army unit. Just to muddy the waters, there were also
some Latvian and Russian units under Goltz’ command as well. Until April, the Germans were allied to the
Latvian Republic under Ulmanis. The Freikorps gained many recruits, since
Ulmanis agreed to give citizenship to German volunteers, although this promise was vaguely
worded and would later be revoked. Germans took it to include land rights, but
the Latvians did not. By the end of April, many Freikorps soldiers
had sold their property in Germany, bought land in Latvia, and some had even begun to
work it. Recruitment ads were even placed in the German
Social Democratic newspaper Vorwärts! Many Germans had been hoping for favorable
peace terms in Paris, but once the treaty content became known in May, many assumed
the German government would refuse to sign and that they would soon be fighting the Entente
again. Some even held out hope of fighting alongside
a revived White Russia, and saw Estonians and Latvians as Entente “vassals,” while
others expected the Entente to support them against the Bolsheviks. For local Baltic Germans, joining the Landeswehr
to preserve their wealth, power, and privileged lifestyle. The German presence in the Baltics was a mix
of local militias, Freikorps and regular troops, who had no cohesive motivation: some wanted
land, some wanted to preserve their status, and some wanted to maintain German power in
the region. The British played by far the largest role
of the Allied intervention forces in this area. Because the entire Baltic region lies close
the coast, the Royal Navy’s guns could and did exert a direct influence on the fighting. The British threw their support behind the
Latvian and Estonian republics to stop the Bolsheviks and the Germans from dominating
the region. They bombarded Bolshevik positions, delivered
weapons and supplies and ferried Finnish volunteers across to Estonia. The fleet was expanded starting in January,
with the arrival of Admiral Walter Cowan, and smaller numbers of French, American and
Italian ships joined the British. Cowan was well aware of the complicated situation
his fleet had to navigate: “It seemed to me that there was never such a tangle, and
my brain reeled with it. An unbeaten German army, two kinds of belligerent
Russians, Letts, Finns, Estonians, Lithuanians, ice, mines — 60,000 of them! Russian submarines, German small craft, Russian
battleships, cruisers and destroyers all only waiting for the ice to melt to ravage the
Baltic. I felt that I had better get out there as
soon as possible to get wise before the Gulf of Finland thawed out…”. But with the armistice signed, the British
sailors generally wanted to go home. Some showed socialist sympathies, and Baltic
duty was often dull, so ships were rotated out every six weeks out of fears of mutiny. In all some 238 Royal Navy ships took part
in the Baltic operations, with an average of 88 ships active at once, including an early
aircraft carrier. Segue
So there you have it: the Bolsheviks, White Russians, Germans, British, and Estonian and
Latvian Republics all packed into a small corner of Europe. It's worth pointing out that in May and June,
there were three competing governments in Latvia: the republic led by Ulmanis, the German
puppet regime, and the Bolshevik Latvian republic. Fighting
Now, we should bear in mind the nature of the violence as well. In the countryside, the fighting often had
a guerilla nature, with front lines, allies, and enemies unclear. The fog of war was brutal, and Germans typically
executed Latvian prisoners, and often received no quarter themselves. Massacres were common in Latvia, with many
killed in the “White” and “Red Terror” in Riga and other cities. Figures vary, but estimates tend to say roughly
two thirds were killed by non-Bolsheviks and the best source estimates 4500-6000 were killed
in Latvia, and 2000 in Estonia. The Freikorps in particular were known for
their brutality. Alan Palmer writes, “…there was no bond
of chivalry to lift their companionship. They had become military adventurers, field-grey
condottieri. Villages were fired, their inhabitants shot
down, their crops destroyed." Ernst von Salomon, a Freikorpsman who would
later be involved in political violence and assassinations in Germany, wrote: "We fired
into surprised crowds and we raged, we shot and hunted. We chased the Latvians like rabbits over the
fields, we burnt every house and destroyed every bridge and every telegraph mast. We flung the bodies into fountains and threw
hand grenades on top. We slaughtered whoever fell into our hands;
we burned whatever would catch fire...there were no human feelings left in our hearts...a
giant smoke trail marked our path. We had set fire to the stake where we burnt...the
laws and values of the civilized world." Now that we have an idea of the different
factions involved and how violent this conflict was, let’s see if we can follow the political
and military events in the late spring and early summer of 1919. In mid-May, the White Russian Northwest Corps
launched an attack towards Petrograd, while other White and British forces attacked towards
the city from the north. Initially the Northwest Corps made some progress,
and garrison of the largest Bolshevik fortress in the area, Krasnaya Gorka deserted. But the Whites then got bogged down in clashes
with Ingrian troops loyal to Latvia, and the Red Army retook the fortress in a counterattack. The city of Pskov was captured, and the White
forces grew as Red Army deserters joined their ranks. On June 19, White forces formally left Estonian
command but were soon halted by determined Red Army defences southwest of Petrograd,
and the British offensive in the north failed as well. Along the coast during May and June, the Royal
Navy clashed regularly with Bolshevik ships, and air and naval raids against the Soviet
naval base at Kronstadt took place regularly – in fact, three British sailors won Victoria
Crosses for their actions during the raids. Naval engagements were made trickier by the
fact that in the chaos of revolution, the maps indicating where naval minefields had
been laid were lost, and both sides lost ships due to mines. In one particularly successful action, during
the Bolshevik counterattack against the Whites at Krasnaya Gorka, a British torpedo boat
managed to sink an enemy cruiser with one hit. A little further south, the Landeswehr and
German-controlled Latvian troops drove Bolshevik forces out of Riga. This battle became known as the Miracle on
the Daugava, after the Landeswehr stormtroopers and Iron Division Freikorspmen captured the
last intact bridge over the river, which allowed them to capture the city. Many residents were relieved, but as was common,
few prisoners were taken on either side. Before they left, the Bolsheviks massacred
hostages they’d been holding in the Citadel. Once the Germans had secured the city, they
committed further atrocities, killing several thousand suspected Bolshevik sympathizers,
particularly women thought to have fought on the Red side. With the Bolsheviks now having been pushed
back in both Estonia and Latvia, the stage was set for a final reckoning between the
German Landeswehr and the Entente-backed troops of the Estonian and Latvian Republics. The advancing Landeswehr approached Estonians
troops moving south near the town of Cesis in northern Latvia. Since the Estonians recognized the Ulanis
government and not the German-backed Niedras government, fighting soon broke out in what
became known as the Landeswehr War. The Estonians enjoyed an advantage in manpower
and had two armoured trains in the area, but the Germans had more artillery, mortars and
aircraft. The first shots were fired on June 5th, as
German troops fired on an Estonian armoured train and forced it to retreat. Both sides claimed the other shot first, US
observers sided with the Estonian version. The next day the Landeswehr pushed the Estonians,
whose forces included Latvian units loyal to the Ulmanis government, out of Cesis altogether. After further attacks failed on both sides,
the Entente negotiated a truce with the warring parties on June 10. The ceasefire lasted a mere nine days, during
which time the Germans brought their troop strength up to 9000 and the Estonians and
Latvians to 7000 – plus one more all-important armoured train. The Germans made some progress but after three
days’ fighting the Estonians counterattacked. They managed to outflank the Germans, and
reinforcements from the Iron Division were turned back by Estonian cavalry. The Germans pulled back, and Estonian forces
marched into Cesis June 23rd. Estonian and Latvian republican forces continued
to push forward until they had reached Riga. They bombarded the city with artillery and
naval fire from the Estonian navy’s two destroyers off the coast, causing a panicked
evacuation of the city’s residents. Some reports even suggest both sides used
mustard gas. At this point, Latvian leader Karlis Ulmanis
was able to return to dry land and leave the protection of the Royal Navy. On July 2nd, the Entente stepped in and forced
the Estonians to accept German offers for peace, and the next day a truce was signed. On July 5, German troops left Riga and began
to withdraw. But instead of leaving Latvia in accordance
with the ceasefire terms, the Iron Division retreated to nearby Jelgava and regrouped. From their base there they would see more
fighting later in the year, on the side of the White Russians. The German defeat at Cesis on June 23rd was
a decisive moment in the Estonian and Latvian wars of independence. It is celebrated today by Estonians as Victory
Day, and in 1919 many saw it as a just revenge for centuries of Baltic German dominance. They wanted to hold a triumphal parade in
Riga, traditionally a German-speaking city, but this was stopped by the Entente. Both the Latvian and Estonian Republics had,
with help from the Entente, gained in prestige and established a stable territorial base
from which to continue the fight against the Germans and the Bolsheviks. For despite the victory at Cesis, there was
still much hard fighting to come in the Baltics in the second half of the year which we will
cover when time comes. Segue
Alright, now that we’ve tracked the turmoil in the Baltics, it’s time for our Roundup
segment, where we take a look at what else is going on in June 1919. Block Roundup
Let’s begin in the Middle East, where on June 1st, Greek troops occupied the Ottoman
town of Ă–demish, following their first clashes with Turkish militias. On the 27th, the Battle of Aydin broke out
when Turkish irregulars attacked Greek occupying troops. Within days both sides began massacring civilians
in the ethnically mixed town. Between June 5th and 7th, in the midst of
tensions over the fate of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani forces killed some 600 Armenian
civilians in the Khaibalikend Massacre. On the 17th, Kurdish rebel fighters under
Mahmud Barzani were defeated by the British at the battle of the Bazyan pass in northern
Iraq. Turning to eastern Europe, on June 7th Troops
of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic began a counter-offensive against the Poles,
who had successfully attacked eastwards in May. By June 27, the Ukrainians had advanced to
within striking distance of Lviv, or Lwow in Polish. In Russia, on the 9th, the Red Army pushed
back the White troops of Admiral Kolchak and recaptured the city of Ufa, which had been
taken by the Whites in March. In international news, on June 2nd, Italian
anarchists sent eight bombs to anti-immigrant US politicians and judges. None of the targets were killed, but a night
watchmen who opened one of the packages died. Another bomb went off prematurely, killing
the anarchist who was carrying it. One of his body parts landed on the front
step of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was a neighbour of the target. On the 4th, the US Congress approved the 19th
amendment to the US constitution, which granted voting rights to women. And finally, on the June 28th, the Treaty
of Versailles was signed in Paris, bringing an end to the war between Germany and the
Allies. You can check out our previous episode to
learn more. As usual, you can find all our sources for
this episode in the video description, including links to our amazon stores. In this month’s Supporter Podcast we talked
to Kevin Axe, who did the research for this episode. To get access to all our podcast episodes
with expert interviews, and other perks you can also support us on Patreon or by clicking
the join button below. I’m Jesse Alexander and this is The Great
War 1919, a production of Real Time History and the only YouTube history channel that’s
not claiming to be a Latvian government in early 1919.
Have you guys seen eastories video?
Is that an extended magazine for a Madsen MG? I could’ve sworn their magazines weren’t curved that much