The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1915-09-10
The Struggle For Riga

II VICE driven back from Riga, once the
land side, when Won Hindenburg's cavalry
drive failed to carry home, and again the
side when British submarines helped make com
plete one OF the biggest naval victories of the
to date, the Germans are again hammering at the
doors of the second Russian port on the Baltic,
with the military critics in general agreement that
this time the attack will probably be successful.
Riga is the second port for foreign trade on the
Baltic ranking only below Petrograd. Situated
eight miles above the mouth of the Dvina, canals
bring it into communication with the basins of the
Dnieper and the Volga. Railroads bring it into
direct touch with the fertile parts of Southern and
Southwestern Russia. Lying 800 miles southwest
Of Petrograd, it is the commercial outlet for vast
part of the interior of the empire.
From the forests of White Russia and Volhynia
timber is carried to the great northern mart. From
the northwest comes fax, and from West Central
Russia hemp and corn. Its industries well
Developed and it contains machine factories, oil
mills and breweries. Its exports increased from
$4,000 annually in 1880 90 to from 100000
to %OOOOOOO in l9Ol-O5. y
Founded in l58 as sorehouse by few Bre-
men merchants. Riga soon came under the domin-
ION of the church. In 1870 an Augustinian monk
Meinhard, built monastery there, and in 1919
Bishop Albert | Of IvOnia got from Innocent III
permission for German merchants to land at the
port. The bishop, acting with the Teutonic
Knights, soon had complete sway over Riga and
the neighboring territory.
But with increased trade the town chafed under
the clerical yoke BY the first half of the thr-
teenth century it had elected its own magistracy
md joined the Ian,catic League In 1888 it re-
used to recognize the rights Of the bishop of the
knights. But in 1920 the port fell once more under
the bishops rule and remained until the Re-
formation, in 1866.
In l7H Sigismund II, King of Poland, seized
the town. Its first taste of battle came in 1853
when the Russians burned the suburbs and the
ships in the Dvina. When Gotthard Ketteler abb
dictated the mastership OF the Teutonic Knights
in l5Ol Riga became Polish possession.
Thea, in the seventeenth century, came the real
stru9 c for its CONTROL For nearly hundred
years Sweden, Poland and Russia battled for the
flanseatic port In 1920 Gustavus Adolphus, King
Of Sweden, took it from Poland, and defended it
successfully against Polish and Russian attack
until ITO. when, during the Northern War; it fell
to the Czar's forces. In 1876 it was made the
capital of I.vOnia.
The town is divided into four parts. On the
right bank of the Dvina lie the old town itself and
tive Pctrograd and Moscow suburbs On the left
bank are the Mitau suburbs. The sides are con-
ncCted by floating bridge, which is removed in
winter, and by viaduct $50 feet long
Riga still shows traces OF its llanseatic days
High storehOuses with deep cellars and spacious
granaries, flank the narrow, winding streets. The
only open spaces are the market place and two
! squares The suburbs however, contain broad
quiet boulevards, built on the sites of what were
once forthcatiOnS Ihc Pctrograd suburbs are the
seat Of the German aristoCracy, for Rga's popula
ton consists OF iorty-seven per cent Germans
twenty-five per cent Russians and twenty three pei
cent Let's, with >prinklng of other races.
In one OF the public squares stands a granite
column, erected i'll 1878 in Commemoration Of
: NapoleOn's defeat in 1872 For in that year the
French army came close to the Baltic port and the
Russians, fearing its capture, burned the suburbs
The Russians resistance proved too strong then