The Revolution of 1905-1907 in Riga

In Riga, on the eve of the revolutionary events of 1905-1907, there were 60,000 industrial workers who were employed at a number of large enterprises, for example, Fenix , Russian-Baltic Carriage Works , Conductor , Riga Electrotechnical Factory and others. 70% of all industrial enterprises and workers of the Livonia and Courland provinces were located in Riga . The situation of workers deteriorated sharply in the conditions of the industrial and financial crisis, which began in 1900 and lasted until about 1903. During this period, a fairly wide range acquired new methods of political struggle, among which the most common was the method of street demonstrations. One of the loudest and most significant manifestations of the struggle of workers for their rights was the Riga revolt of 1899. In addition, LSDRP, founded in 1904 , made a proposal to boycott the call of reservists and army recruits in connection with the outbreak of hostilities of the Russian-Japanese war . On December 10, 1904, the Latvian Social Democrats organized two mass demonstrations of factory workers, whose goal was to disrupt mobilization.

The official beginning of the events of the Revolution of 1905 was the massacre of Petersburg demonstrators on January 9, 1905 , which was received with indignation in Riga and became a catalyst for the start of organized working demonstrations. The Central Committee and the Riga Committee LSDLP , meeting at an emergency meeting, decided to hold January 12, 1905 a general political strike. The main task of the recently formed LSDLP was the mobilization of all forces sympathizing with the idea of ​​a social democratic revolution, and the creation of armed groups of the militant wing of the Latvian Social Democracy. About 20,000 protesters gathered on the day in Dvard . More than 10,000 people took part in the rally at the market in Ilgezeem . The police and other law enforcement agencies did not intervene in the process of a working demonstration and did not stop the strike. Meanwhile, on January 13, the strike took on a larger scale, and most of the demonstrators reached the Daugava Embankment, but at the Iron Bridge the soldiers of the non-commissioned officer company opened fire on the demonstration, resulting in about 80 deaths and 300 protesters wounded. Subsequently, the funeral demonstrations of the fallen workers also acquired the status of political demonstrations. After January 13, the police practically did not disperse the demonstration of the working masses, and by the end of January the number of demonstrations increased. Industrial workers of urban enterprises went to the demonstration under the strict coordination of leadership member LSDRP. By the end of January, the workers were joined by peasants from the neighboring Riga estates - Shampeter , Solitude , Annenhof (Anni ,muiža) , Biennhof (Bishumuiža) and others.

In the spring, the strikes temporarily ceased, and in the summer they resumed with a new force — while the workers and peasants during the mass rallies elected delegates who were to participate in negotiations with the provincial administration. The delegates united in councils, which functioned as temporary authorities in industrial enterprises, so that the strike movement of the Riga workers had the character of cells. At the same time, the leadership of LSDRP openly urged the workers to search for weapons and arm themselves, so that individual workers from a number of factories ( Etna , Russo-Balt, Phoenix, Motor) actually had firearms at their disposal when the police were actually inactive. . Also, the soldiers of the garrison of the Ust-Dvinsk fortress identified with the rebellious sailors on the battleship Potemkin , which also led to riots in Dünamünde. On July 9, in memory of the dispersal of the working demonstration, on January 9, a new large-scale action of still non-violent resistance was held in St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg, blocking the work of more than 60 Riga industrial enterprises. This strike eventually paralyzed city life, and as a result, factory managers asked to send troops to pacify the strike movement. A cavalry regiment was sent to Riga, and the clashes between workers demonstrators and the police became much more frequent. By the fall, the strike movement had somewhat subsided, and the tactics of the battle wing of LSDLP had changed somewhat - instead of mass protests, the leadership of the revolutionary movement in Riga had focused on conducting point actions.

The first of these loud and bold actions took place in early autumn. On the night of September 7, 1905, a group of armed militant workers made a surprise attack on the Riga Central Prison on Matveyevskaya Street to release the prisoners. The attack was carried out by the militant group LSDLP, which was led by Latvian revolutionaries Janis Luther (“Bobis”) and Jekab Dubelstein (“Epis”), and preparations for the attack were carried out in the apartment of the militant Fritzis Tiesnieks , a member of the Riga Committee LSDRP. About 50 people took part in the attack, including Christopher Sallniньs (“Grishka”), then one of the most active revolutionary fighters and scouts in the Baltic States. At first, the participants appointed Matveyevskoye Cemetery as a meeting place, where they split into groups. One group of militants remained in the courtyard, while another secretly entered the prison building, while the third took up fighting positions to repel an attack by the prison guards. The doors of the chambers were broken down and two prisoners were released - member of the Riga Committee of Social-Democratic People's Party of Latvia J. Latsis-Kruger and Yuli Shleser, the organizer of the combat brigade at the Phoenix factory, who had been sentenced to death. Prison guards lost 15 people killed in the attack of militants. The press of the Russian Empire widely reported on the attack of militants on the Riga Central Prison, and V. I. Lenin gave a high assessment to the incident.

On October 12, 1905, a large-scale strike of railway industry workers began in Riga, and on October 15, the representative bodies of the Riga workers (councils of delegates and LSDRP committees) decided to join the All-Russian mass strike. On October 19, 1905, a mass rally was held on Lagernaya Street (Nometnia) in Zadvinie, which gathered more than 60,000 people, and in parallel there were mass actions in Grizinkalns , which gathered from 100,000 to 150,000 people. On the same day, on October 19, the previously closed newspaper Dienas Lapa , uncensored, as well as some other bodies of the revolutionary propaganda press, began to appear. On October 20, workers' demonstrators at a rally in Grizinkalns began to discuss the formation of legal trade union workers, who subsequently united more than 25,000 people. Also trade unions have created the uniform centralized board (the Central bureau of the Riga trade unions ). Organized bodies also began to form in other professional groups of socialist-oriented Latvians, for example, from 10 to 14 November 1905 a congress of national teachers was held in Riga.

Soon the Moscow armed uprising of the workers was suppressed, after which a punitive expedition arrived in Riga in January 1906, as a result of which many Latvian demonstrators and militants of the revolutionary organization LSDRP were arrested and executed. The government issued orders prohibiting mass meetings of workers and strikes. However, on January 17, 1906, Riga’s militants attacked the secret police in order to release six prisoners. The secret police building was located on Bastion Boulevard . At the safe house (current address: Krisyan Street Baron , 25), participants of the militant organizations of LSDRP workers gathered in advance and carefully prepared a plan to attack the building. It was originally planned to carry out the attack on January 15, but these plans did not come true, because troops were passing near the secret police building. Meanwhile, with food in the jail secret police managed to transfer revolvers. Early in the morning of January 17, a small armed militant group of fighters, Jekab Dubelshtejna, secretly settled in front of the building (Christopher Sallins and Rudolf Delins (“Choms”) were in the group. Four militants from the group secretly entered the police building, while the rest remained outside, controlling the situation in the vicinity. Soon, between the participants of the armed attack and the security guards of the secret police, a shootout ensued, as a result of which one guard soldier was shot. As a result, six prisoners sentenced to death by the military court eshno released, and on the building of the attackers militants were no injuries.

Despite the arrival of a punitive expedition and reprisals against participants in the revolutionary movement in Riga, the strike movement continued. In April 1906, there was a general strike of protest against the inhuman treatment of the imprisoned militants and the massacres of arrested revolutionaries without trial. A large number of construction and factory workers took part in this city protest. Practically at the same time, workers in the transport industry, for example, employees of the Riga Tram Park , who refused to go to work on July 18 because of the refusal of the park management to reinstate employees who had been dismissed for their active participation in the strike activity, began to strike. In August 1906, after the intervention of the police and the suppression of workers' demonstrations, the strike movement gradually declined. During the clashes with the police, some prominent representatives of workers' organizations of LSDLP, such as the militant Rudolf Delins, were killed. Most of the Riga militants went into exile, and many militants were shot for participating in terrorist activities. As a result, during the 3rd Congress of LSDLP in July 1906, a decision was made to unite with the RSDLP, as a result the territorial organization Social Democracy of the Latvian Territory was created, which operated as an autonomous organization that is part of the RSDLP.

• Janis Čokke is a member of the armed wing of the LSDRP. Together with the brothers he created the first revolutionary fighting group of participants of the resistance called “Brašie " (Bold). He participated in the attack of militants on the Riga Central Prison and on the dragoons detachment guarding the Provodnik factory. Participant in the robbery of the branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire in Helsingfors 13 February 1906. Arrested, sentenced to life imprisonment, died in a convict prison in Abo .
• Rudolf Delinsh - professional revolutionary, fighter LSDRP. Member of the Riga Social Democratic Federal Committee. One of the most active organizers and participants of the attack on the Central Prison and the building of the secret police. He died in a shootout with the police on June 1, 1906.
• Christopher Sallins - a prominent revolutionary, military leader of Soviet Russia. At first he was a member of a group of militants who beat up workers who opposed the revolutionary strike movement. The participant of all the high-profile actions of combat groups LSDLP in Riga. In April 1906 he went to Baku, where he was engaged in subversive activities. He returned to Riga, participated in many robberies, for example, wine shops on Moscow and Suvorov streets. In 1912 he went to the second, longer emigration to the United States . After 1920, he worked in the intelligence directorate in the Far East . Member of the Spanish Civil War . Shot on espionage charges in 1939.
• Jekab Dubelstein is a member of the battle wing of the LSDRP, one of the organizers of the revolutionary movement in Riga. He headed the Joint Committee of the Libavsky Social Democratic Organizations. He participated in the attack of militants on the Central Prison, in the robbery of the Helsingfors branch of the Russian State Bank. He worked in the promotion of revolutionary ideas in Mitau . In 1907, he was arrested, tortured and shot at the entrance to the Riga Central Prison.
• Janis Pec is a participant in the revolutionary movement in Livonia. Member of the CP since 1903. A well-known propagandist in Libava , a member of the militant attack on the Riga Central Prison. In 1914 he was arrested, exiled to Narym . In 1917 he became a member of the Moscow Committee of the RSDLP, took an extremely important post as chief of the Central Staff of the Red Guard . In fact, he coordinated the armed uprising in Moscow during the October Revolution of 1917 . After the proclamation of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic - a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Army. The author of the memories.
• Louise Tiesniece is one of the first female revolutionaries in Latvia. She took part in organizing mass demonstrations of workers of the “Jute Manufactory” during the Riga revolt of 1899. Active participant of the Revolution of 1905-1907 in Riga. From 1909 she was in charge of the department of illegal literature of the SDLC, in fact, all information about illegal propaganda periodicals passed through it. In 1918 she was elected to the Riga Council of Workers' Deputies . In early January 1919, one of the organizers of the armed uprising of the Riga workers, which influenced the success of the Red Army and the proclamation of the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic .
• Fritzis Tiesnieks - participant of the Riga riot, one of the founders of LSDRP. Brother Louise Tiesniece. He was the authoritative leader of the Riga militants.
• Yury Gaven - professional propagandist, revolutionary; from 1902 to 1905 was secretary of the Riga party organization of the social democrats. During the revolutionary events of 1905–07, he coordinated the fighting squads of the “ forest brothers ” in the Livonia province, which plundered and burned the estates of the Ostsee nobles . From 1906 to 1908 he was engaged in propaganda activities in Mitau, Riga, Libau. Since 1908, he was constantly arrested and exiled to remote areas of Siberia . From September 1917, he was sent to Sevastopol , and he brutally suppressed the white resistance movement in the Crimea . Member of the Presidium of the Council of the Sevastopol Council of Military and Workers' Deputies , Chairman of the City Committee of the Bolsheviks, Editor of the newspaper " Tavricheskaya Pravda ". From March 21, 1918, he was a member of the Council of People's Commissars of the Republic of Tavrida , and at the same time served as Commissar of Naval Affairs. He was arrested on April 4, 1936, shot in October 1936. Rehabilitated in 1958.

• The 1905 revolution in Latvia
• Monument to the fighters of the revolution of 1905 (Riga)

• Riga: Encyclopedia = Enciklopēdija "Riga" / Ch. ed. P. P. Eran. - 1st ed .. - Riga: The main editors of encyclopedias, 1989. - p. 599. - 880 p. - 60 000 copies - ISBN 5-89960-002-0 .