Description

A century after the catastrophe of 1914, Mark Hatlie's Riga at War: 1914-1919. War and Wartime Experience in a Multiethnic Metropolis tells the story of the Baltic metropolis and its half million residents during the years of world war, revolution and civil war. The book follows the major events in the city, from the mobilization of 1914 through the mass evacuation of 1915, the revolution of 1917 and the German occupation of 1917 to 1918 and the chaos of 1919 marked by the arrival of a communist regime, the liberation of the city by Balt and Latvian forces, and a final battle for the city between the Latvian army and the Russian "White" general Bermondt-Avalov. The second half of the book examines the competing wartime experiences of the city's major national groups, the Germans, Latvians and Russians. These groups experienced the catastrophes, battles, upheavals and occupations in very different ways. The differing interpretations and actions of each national group expressed themselves in politics, religion and society, reflected in contemporary documents, memoirs, diaries and periodicals.