The Popular Front of Latvia , abbreviated as the Popular Front or the NFL ( Latvian: Latvijas Tautas fronte, LTF ) - the political movement in Latvia in 1988-1993 . Being originally created in support of perestroika, it further advocated the withdrawal of Latvia from the USSR, its independence and market reforms. The first NFL chairman is Dainis Ivans , the second is Romualdas Rajukas , the third is Uldis Augstkalns.
After the failure of the elections to the Saeima of Latvia in June 1993, it was reorganized into the Christian People's Party ( Latvian. Kristīgā Tautas partija ), and then joined the Christian Democratic Union .
History
Creation
The idea of creating a Popular Front was voiced at the Plenum of Creative Unions of Latvia , which took place in Riga on June 1 and 2, 1988, almost simultaneously with similar initiatives in Estonia (there it was voiced in April 1988) and Lithuania.
The founding congresses in all three republics were preceded by the rapid formation of support groups at enterprises and organizations. In Estonia, for example, by the day of the founding congress of the NFE there were over 1,500 of them. The founding congress of the Lithuanian Perestroika Movement, registered as “Sayudis”, was represented by more than a thousand support groups [1] .
The Popular Front of Latvia was founded on October 8, 1988 as a popular movement in support of Perestroika on the territory of the Latvian SSR . Almost simultaneously with the congress in Latvia, constituent congresses of the Estonian Popular Front (October 1-2) and the Sayudis movement in Lithuania took place on October 22-23, 1988 [1] .
For the first time, the NFL headquarters was located in the building of the Writers' Union of the Latvian SSR ( Benjamin House ). The writer Marina Kostenetskaya recalled that the Latvians came here to donate their ruble, silver armor of the pre-war era , table silver, paintings [2] .
The NFL issued its own newspaper - “Atmoda” (from Latvian - “Awakening”), which was published in Latvian and Russian. In the first issue, published on October 7, 1988, before the constituent congress of the NFL, the draft Charter of the new movement was published.
“ Gorbachev’s closest associate, Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee A. Yakovlev , provided an invaluable help to the Latvian Front, presenting a note to the CPSU Central Committee following his visit to Latvia after the 19th All-Union Party Conference , in which he supported the activities of the NFL as being most in line with the ideas and tasks of perestroika,” recalls witness of events, in the late 1980s, the first secretary of the Riga City Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia Arnold Klaucen [3] .
Activities
After the establishment of the NFL, the main centers of Latvian emigration became more active. The Congress of the World Organization of Free Latvians decided to cooperate with the NFL, its information bureau was opened in Munster to establish contacts with the European Parliament in Strasbourg [4] . In March 1989, the NFL office was opened in Stockholm , the Swedes began to rebuke their government for recognizing the Baltic states as part of the USSR. In the same year, Swedish Foreign Minister Stens Anderson condemned his country's former policies; thus, it joined 60 states that did not recognize the accession of the Baltic states to the USSR .
Influential representatives of foreign Latvians began to come to Riga for meetings of the NFL board. Then Janis Jurkans , who was in charge of foreign affairs, formed a group, which, in addition to him, also included Mavrik Wulfson and Vladlen Dozortsev , for negotiations with representatives of the diaspora in the USA, Canada and England. Foreign business trips of NFL representatives were partially funded by Latvian assets frozen in American banks in 1940 [4] .
The Popular Front of Latvia has collaborated with the Popular Front of Estonia and the Lithuanian Sayudis movement . On August 23, 1989 , on the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact , all three movements carried out a joint action “The Baltic Way ”. A chain formed of people holding hands stretches across the territory of three republics - from the Long Herman Tower in Tallinn to the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius .
The first free elections of delegates to the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in Soviet history ended in Latvia with a convincing victory for the Popular Front. The representative of the opposition force - Interfront - elected by the deputy, Viktor Alksnis, challenged the election results in a statement to the Credentials Committee of the congress, indicating that in violation of Article 17 of the Law on the Election of People's Deputies of the USSR, requiring the formation of national-territorial districts with an equal number of voters, in rural areas of Latvia SSR districts were created, four times different in numbers - from 28.8 thousand people (308th district) to 127.3 thousand people (290th district). Arithmetically, the average number of constituencies in the republic was to be about 62 thousand people. Thus, the rights of citizens and the working class to elect their deputies were artificially limited, and the majority in the Latvian delegation received deputies elected from small rural districts: out of 11 members of the Duma of the People’s Front, elected by deputies of the USSR, 10 ran for these districts [3] . However, this Alksnis statement was left without reaction [1] .
The Commission of the Congress of People's Deputies under the leadership of A. N. Yakovlev recognized and condemned the existence of a secret protocol to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact .
In the 1990 republican elections, the NFL and its allies received in the Supreme Council more than 2/3 of the vote (138 out of 201 seats), that is, the majority necessary to amend the Constitution. On May 4, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR adopted the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence . The text of this declaration, Dainis Ivans , Anatoly Gorbunov and Ilmar Bishers , was taken to Moscow in March 1990 to be shown to the Secretary General of the CPSU Central Committee Mikhail Gorbachev and the Chairman of the Soviet Government Nikolai Ryzhkov . The delegation was also the then Chairman of the Latvian Government Vilnis Edwin Bresis [4] .
After the election, the NFL chairman Dainis Ivans was elected vice speaker of the parliament, and his deputy Ivar Godmanis , prime minister. Many other NFL members have held key posts in the government.
When drafting the government, the former physicist Ivar Godmanis consulted with a person from the previous government - the chairman of the State Planning Committee of the Latvian SSR, Miervaldis Raman. He also relied on the former Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR Vilnis Edwin Bresis , who had connections in Moscow.
Since Godmanis had no business experience, when forming his cabinet, he included only two people from the NFL - Ilmar Bisher to replace his deputy and Talavs Undzis as Minister of Defense. The Ministry of the Interior remained with Bruno Steinbrick . Janis Jurkans was approved by the Minister of Foreign Affairs [4] .
Termination
After achieving the main political goal of the Popular Front - the restoration of Latvian independence - the NFL became the conduit of economic reforms in Latvia. The transfer of the socialist economy to market rails was very painful, and the leadership of the Popular Front was rapidly losing popularity among voters. Many NFL leaders have joined new political parties.
In the Latvian Saeima elections in June 1993, the Popular Front received only 2.62% of the vote and did not overcome the electoral threshold. The NFL was reorganized into the Christian Democratic Party, which was called the Christian People's Party of Latvia ( Latvian. Kristīgā Tautas partija ), but this did not bring success. Ultimately, the Christian People's Party merged with the Christian Democratic Union ( Latvian: Kristīgi demokratiskā savienība ). Many of the former activists of the Popular Front of Latvia play an important role in modern Latvian politics.
In Riga , at ul. Vecpilsetas 13/15, the Museum of the Popular Front of Latvia is open.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Arnold Klauzen. “Song revolution”, “color revolution” or counter-revolution? // IMHOclub.lv: discussion portal. - 2018 .-- June 5.
- ↑ Marina Kostenetskaya, Sergey Mazur. On the 20th anniversary of the legendary Plenum of creative unions of Latvia. // "Russian World and Latvia": Almanac. - 2009. - January ( t. 6 ). - S. 49-54 .
- ↑ 1 2 Klautzen, Arnold Petrovich. How the Latvian nationalists defeated the red Latvian shooters . - Memories. - Moscow: Light, 2018 .-- S. 72, 122-130. - 228 p.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Vladlen Dozortsev. Another Yurkans. - Memories. - Riga, 2018 .-- S. 27 .-- 440 p. - ISBN 978-9934-8686-1-0 .