1940 Latvian parliamentary election

Parliamentary elections were held in Latvia on 14 and 15 July 1940, alongside simultaneous similarly undemocratic and anticonstitutional elections in Estonia and Lithuania,[1] following the Soviet occupation of the three countries. The Communist Party of Latvia was legalised and renamed the "Working People's Bloc" (Darba ļaužu bloks).[2] It was the sole permitted participant in the election, as an attempt to include the Democratic Bloc (Demokrātiskais bloks; an alliance of all now-banned Latvian parties except the Social Democratic Workers' Party) on the ballot was suppressed,[3] and the main figures of the bloc either arrested and deported (Atis Ķeniņš, Pēteris Berģis and Jānis Bankavs) or shot (Hugo Celmiņš) shortly after, while a few (Voldemārs Zāmuēls, Jānis Breikšs) managed to escape the repression by fleeing from the country.

Latvia
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Along with its sister parliaments in Estonia (Riigivolikogu) and Lithuania (Liaudies Seimas), the newly elected People's Parliament (Tautas Saeima) convened on 21 July to declare Latvia a Soviet republic and request admission to the Soviet Union on the same day. The request was approved by the Soviet government on 5 August.[4]

Soviet sources maintained that the Latvian people carried out a socialist revolution, and the "People's Parliament" was a democratic institution of the Latvian people that ultimately voted to join the Soviet Union. However, Baltic and Western sources maintained that the election was merely an attempt to give legal sanction to a Soviet occupation.[5]

Results
Party Votes % Seats
Latvian Working People's League1,155,80797.8100
Against25,5162.2–
Total1,181,323100100
Registered voters/turnout1,246,21694.8–
Source: My Riga

See also

References
  1. Romuald J. Misiunas & Rein Taagepera (1983) The Baltic States, Years of Dependence, 1940-1980, University of California Press, p25
  2. Vincent E McHale (1983) Political parties of Europe, Greenwood Press, p450 ISBN 0-313-23804-9
  3. Misiunas & Taagepera, p26
  4. Misiunas & Taagepera, p28
  5. Roberts, Geoffrey (1995). "Soviet policy and the Baltic States, 1939–1940: a reappraisal". Diplomacy & Statecraft. 6 (3): 672–700. doi:10.1080/09592299508405982.
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