Latvian Soldiers of World War II
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
9780198970842 (ISBN)
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Latvian Soldiers of World War II: Fighting for the Homeland in Nazi and Soviet Service traces the origins, wartime experience, and legacies of soldiers from Latvia who fought in national formations on both sides of the Eastern Front. Through the lenses of social, cultural, and political history, this book analyzes military records and government documents drawn from archives across four countries to uncover how these national formations were created in negotiations between the occupying powers and Latvian advocates. Utilizing first-person primary sources (“ego-documents”)-including wartime interviews, diaries, letters, memoirs, and oral histories-this book reveals how Latvian soldiers adapted to their new ideological settings and incubated Latvian nationalist ideas while serving in the armies of occupying powers. These soldiers distinguished themselves in combat on both sides, with the Latvian Legion becoming the most decorated non-Germanic unit of the Waffen-SS and the Latvian Rifle Corps emerging as a highly decorated Red Army formation, one division of which earned the designation of an elite Guards unit. Veterans of each side then became key political actors in postwar Soviet Latvia and the Latvian diaspora in the West respectively. After the war, the victorious Latvian Riflemen gradually became marginalized-first in Soviet Latvia, then in independent Latvia-while the defeated Waffen-SS Latvian Legionnaires successfully integrated into Cold War-era Western democracies and developed durable institutions and narratives in exile that were later imported into post-Soviet Latvia. In the memory wars that followed World War II, wartime victors became the losers of history and the “lost cause” of the defeated side triumphed, yielding ongoing tensions both within Latvia and between Latvia and other countries, most notably Russia.
Harry C. Merritt is a historian of modern Europe, working on the social history of war and its consequences. He earned a Ph.D. in History from Brown University in 2020. From 2023 to 2025, Harry was a Postdoctoral Fellow in History and Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont. In 2022, a chapter of his was published in Defining Latvia: Recent Explorations in History, Culture, and Politics (Central European University Press, 2022). Harry's work has also been published in Nationalities Papers, The Journal of Baltic Studies, REGION, and The Journal of Modern European History.
Introduction: One Society, Divided Memories
1: For the Greater Soviet and the Smaller Latvian Homelands: Creating the Latvian Rifle Corps
2: Race, Revenge, and Restoration: Creating the Latvian Legion
3: Home Away from Home: Latvian Units as National Communities and Families
4: Things to Kill for, Things to Die for: Brutalization and Images of the Enemy in Latvian National Formations
5: Brothers Against Brothers: National Liberation and National Defense
6: Victorious Losers and Thwarted Winners: Postwar Narratives and Legacies
Conclusion
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 26.3.2026 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Oxford |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 156 x 234 mm |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) |
| Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945 | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
| Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte | |
| ISBN-13 | 9780198970842 / 9780198970842 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Informationen gemäß Produktsicherheitsverordnung (GPSR) | |
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