page_title: Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
section_title: Era of Pelše, 1959–1966
hierarchical_section_title: Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic / Era of Pelše, 1959–1966
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Salaspils Holokaustgedenkstätte This is a photo of cultural heritage monument of Latvia number 93.
context_page_description: The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Latvia or Latvia, was a republic of the Soviet Union.
  It was established on 21 July 1940, during World War II, as a Soviet puppet state in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Latvia after it had been occupied on June 17, 1940 by the Red Army, in conformity with the terms of the 23 August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
  Following the Welles Declaration of July 23, 1940, the annexation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union on 5 August 1940 was not recognized as legitimate by the United States, the European Community, and recognition of it as the nominal thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth constituent republic of the USSR was withheld for five decades. Its territory was subsequently conquered by Nazi Germany in June–July 1941, before being retaken by the Soviets in 1944–1945. Nevertheless, Latvia continued to exist as a de jure independent country with a number of countries continued to recognize Latvian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in the name of their former governments.
  Soviet rule came to an end during the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
context_section_description: During 1959–1962 the leading Latvian national communists were purged as Arvīds Pelše enforced his power. For almost 30 years Communist Party and government was led by the conservative Russian Latvians.
  The orthodox marxist Pelše is often remembered for the official ban in 1961 of the Latvian midsummer Jāņi celebrations and many other Latvian traditions and folk customs. He established the pattern of total obedience to Moscow and increased Russification of Latvia, especially Riga.
  Between 1959 and 1968 nearly 130,000 Russian speakers immigrated to Latvia and began working in the large industrial factories that were built at rapid speed. The newly arrived immigrants were the first in line to receive apartments in the newly built micro-districts. Very soon the Soviet Latvia's industrial model was created. Large factories, employing tens of thousands of recently arrived immigrants, and completely dependent on resources from faraway Soviet regions, produced products – the majority of which were then sent back to other Soviet republics. Many of the new factories were under All-Union ministry and military jurisdiction, thus operating outside the planned economy of the Soviet Latvia. Latvia's VEF and Radiotehnika factories specialized in production of radios, telephones and sound systems. Most of the Soviet railway carriages were made in Rīgas Vagonbūves Rūpnīca and mini buses in Riga Autobus Factory.
  In 1962 Riga began receiving Russian gas for industrial needs and domestic heating. This allowed large scale construction of new micro-districts and high-rises to begin. In 1965 Pļaviņas Hydroelectric Power Station began producing electricity.
caption: Salaspils police prison memorial, opened in 1967
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