Evening star., 1941-07-02
Says Freedom Is
Lutvio's Sole Aim
Envoy Reviews History Of
Nation Long Pledged
To Ideal of Liberty

| To the Editor Of The Star:
| I would like to congratulate The Sum
day Star on the really instructive ar
ticle on Latvia written by Mr.. F. j. Has
kin in the edition Of June 20. May I
only add that the Latvians. like their
neighbors the Lthuanians, are neither
Russians nor Slavs' They speak their
own language, which is closely related
to the ancient Sanskrit, and the major
ity of them are Of the Roman Catholic
and Lutheran faith. Furthermore, not
Riga but the Archbishopric Of Riga was
| founded In 1901 The city of Riga itself
was a town and port of the Latvians long
before Christianity was introduced into
| the country.
The former Primate of Ireland, Bishop
| Albert, was invested by the Holy See as
| first archbishop prince and ruler of the
| land Of Christiapized Latvians, COM
| prised of the provinces of Kurzeme
| (CourlandD, Semgale (Semigallia) and
| Vidzeme Uivonia). The Latvians inhab-
! tied all the lands along the river Daugava
| Cor Dvina or Duena or Rubonia) and on
| both sides of the Gulf of Riga.
These small individual Latvian prince
doms were now united under the rule of
the Archbishop of Riga under the name
Terra Mariana"-the land dedicated to
the Holy Virgin. The archbishops ruled
with mild hand and great wisdom.
The Livonian Order. a branch of the
Teutonic Order in Prussia, acted as the
police and military force of the arch
bishopric. The members or knights of
this order were of different races, and
great number of the sons of the Lat
Wan princes and seniores also entered
the order. Celibacy being strictly enforced
In the order, these young Latvian mobiles
naturally left no descendants. At the
same time 1t should be mentioned that
racial nationalism as it is understood
today did not exist at that time.
Only suzerainty or political nationalism
counted. Therefore it was not neces-
sary for the knights of the Livonian
Order to be only of the German race
The Archbishopric of Terra Mariana
or Livonia waged cruel wars with the
MuscoVites, who pushed toward the Bal
tic Sea and tried to seize the business
OF the Hanseatic cities. The successes
OF the Livonian Order In these wars
placed 1t in predominant position as
regards the archbishop. At the same
tlme the cities became wealthier and
tried to gain greater independence. All
this resulted in civil war between the
archbishop on one side and the Livonian
order and the cities on the other,
Owing TO this constant discord the
archbishopric Of Livonia by the middle
OF. the 10th century had become so
weakened that the master of the Livon-
ian Order, Gotthard KettIer. appealed
10 the German Emperor for aid in order
to protect the country against the Mus
covltes. When this aid was denied by
the Emperor, Kettler turned to Poland
for help. He secularized the knights,
who all became Protestants. They took
over the lands held by the order in fief
as their own property and married. The
master Of the order himself married
the sister of the Polish cardinal. Rad
zivil. who helped him become Duke of
Courland and Semigallia. The province
OF Livonia was given to the Polish
crown.
The Poles started a Roman Catholic
counterreformation, and the newly Gre
ated Livonian mobiles and great land
owners, together with the city of Riga.
appealed for help to the Protestant King
OF Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, who con-
quered Livonia and Riga in 1910
The Duchy of Courland, which is the
core of present-day Latvia, f1ourished
under the rule of the dukes of the House
Of Kettler in the 17th and 18th CEN
turies. One of the edukes-Jacob-even
took possession of the island of Tobago
and developed shipbuilding and a great
overseas trade. Livonia was happy
under the rule of the Kings of Sweden,
who protected the Latvian peasants
against the descendants of the knights
of the order. Sweden also began to
take back the lands of the archbishop
which had been seized by the knights
at the time of the secularization of the
order. For this reason the great land
owners of the Baltic in the struggle
between Charles XII and Peter the
Great turned to the latter, just as they
had betrayed Poland in order to retain
their lands.
Gar Peter naturally promised these
land owners to maintain the status quo
and from that time on the Baltic great
land owners were the most devoted fol-
lowers of the Czars. The Dukedom of
Courland and Semigallia continued to be
independent, however, until the final
partitioning of Poland in 1795. At that
time the duchy was annexed by Russian
military force with the acquiescence of
the great land owners, who were given
promises by the Gar to be treated as
their fellow peers in Livonia.
1t is worthy of mention that even
under Russian occupation, which began
in 1795, the conquered provinces Of
Courland, Semigallia, Latgalia and Liv-
onia enjoyed to certain extent self
government. Particularly toward the
end of the 18th century there arose a
strong Latvian national movement for
Latvian schools, press, arts, letters, bet
ter economics and repossession of seized
lands. At the same time more rights
were demanded in sef-government. In
1904 even revolution broke out against
czarism. In 1918 all the Latvian popu-
lated provinces united into the Republic
Of Latvia and valiantly fought for their