BU Mint Set

The emergence of the Latvian state was connected with the collapse of the Russian Empire and the consequences of the First World War. The territory of Latvia was a theatre of war and was simultaneously contested by various political and military forces. The provisional government under Kārlis Ulmanis had to assert itself against Bolshevik troops, Baltic German formations and the so-called West Russian Liberation Army under Pawel Bermondt-Awaloff. Only after the end of the Latvian War of Independence was the government able to largely control its state territory.

Another step was the peace treaty with Soviet Russia of 1920. In it, Russia renounced its claims to rule over Latvia. The Western Allied powers of the First World War initially hesitated to grant definitive recognition. One reason was the unresolved future of Russia during the civil war: parts of Allied policy at times hoped for the restoration of a non-Bolshevik Russian state and did not want to anticipate its possible territorial claims.

The term “de jure” denotes the full legal recognition of a state. It differs from mere recognition “de facto”, in which a state is treated as an actually existing political order, but its legal status has not yet been conclusively recognized. De jure recognition made it easier for Latvia to establish regular diplomatic relations. Later that same year, the country was admitted to the League of Nations (Völkerbund).

The legal concept of state continuity later acquired additional significance. After the Soviet occupation and incorporation of Latvia in 1940, several Western states did not legally recognize this annexation. Latvian diplomatic missions were therefore able to continue operating in part. When state independence was restored in 1991, Latvia invoked the fact that the republic had continued to exist in law. The coin’s theme thus refers not only to a diplomatic process of the interwar period, but also to a foundation of the modern Latvian understanding of the state.