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Up Against the Wall: The KGB and Latvia
A hard-hitting history of the Soviet security police and Latvia over a century of oppression - with Latvians as both oppressors and oppressed.Up Against the Wall details the methods of a brutal totalitarian regime and the bloody twists and turns of Latvia's long and complicated relationship with the Soviet security police. This is not for the squeamish.
At the KGB headquarters in Riga - the Corner House, or Stūra Māja - suspects were processed, questioned and even executed during the periods of Soviet rule in 1940-41 and then 1944-1991. The author presents harrowing personal testimonies of those imprisoned, tortured and deported to Siberian gulags by the KGB, drawing from museum archives and interviews translated into English for this book as well as from de-classified CIA files, KGB records and his own research in Latvia. He interviews human rights activists, partisans, KGB experts and those who led Latvia to independence in the 1990s and explores the role of Latvian KGB double agents in defeating anti-Soviet partisan groups and the West's Cold War spying missions.
Ironically it was the feared Latvian Riflemen who helped crush the Bolsheviks' political rivals after the 1917 Revolution and defeat the British-backed White generals in the vicious Civil War of 1918-22, while Latvia itself became independent. Their reward was top jobs in the Soviet regime, including in the Cheka security police, the forerunner to the NKVD and KGB. But Stalin turned on the Latvians in the 1930s and mercilessly purged the old guard. When the Baltics were carved up by Hitler and Stalin, the Red Army killed or deported anyone opposing Soviet power in a period known as the 'Year of Terror'. Fifty years of occupation followed WWII as through the Cold War and into the late 1980s Latvian society was in the grip of the KGB. Even more than 25 years after the regime collapsed, its secrets have still not been revealed.
At the KGB headquarters in Riga - the Corner House, or Stūra Māja - suspects were processed, questioned and even executed during the periods of Soviet rule in 1940-41 and then 1944-1991. The author presents harrowing personal testimonies of those imprisoned, tortured and deported to Siberian gulags by the KGB, drawing from museum archives and interviews translated into English for this book as well as from de-classified CIA files, KGB records and his own research in Latvia. He interviews human rights activists, partisans, KGB experts and those who led Latvia to independence in the 1990s and explores the role of Latvian KGB double agents in defeating anti-Soviet partisan groups and the West's Cold War spying missions.
Ironically it was the feared Latvian Riflemen who helped crush the Bolsheviks' political rivals after the 1917 Revolution and defeat the British-backed White generals in the vicious Civil War of 1918-22, while Latvia itself became independent. Their reward was top jobs in the Soviet regime, including in the Cheka security police, the forerunner to the NKVD and KGB. But Stalin turned on the Latvians in the 1930s and mercilessly purged the old guard. When the Baltics were carved up by Hitler and Stalin, the Red Army killed or deported anyone opposing Soviet power in a period known as the 'Year of Terror'. Fifty years of occupation followed WWII as through the Cold War and into the late 1980s Latvian society was in the grip of the KGB. Even more than 25 years after the regime collapsed, its secrets have still not been revealed.
- GenresHistory
324 pages, Hardcover
Published April 25, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 12, 2020
Lieliska grāmata, ļoti kvalitatīvi uzrakstīta.
Lielā daļā grāmatu par vēsturi latvieši attēloti kā iekārtas, varētu teikt - mašinērijas upuri, bet šajā grāmatā ir pavērtas Latvijas vēstures "tumšās lappuses" - tā saka pats autors.
Grāmatā apskatīti tādi uzvārdi un personas par kuriem tagad nerunā, bet senāk lepojās. Man šī grāmata ir nozīmīga, jo mainīja manu paradigmu par latviešiem konkrētajā vēstures posmā.
Lielā daļā grāmatu par vēsturi latvieši attēloti kā iekārtas, varētu teikt - mašinērijas upuri, bet šajā grāmatā ir pavērtas Latvijas vēstures "tumšās lappuses" - tā saka pats autors.
Grāmatā apskatīti tādi uzvārdi un personas par kuriem tagad nerunā, bet senāk lepojās. Man šī grāmata ir nozīmīga, jo mainīja manu paradigmu par latviešiem konkrētajā vēstures posmā.
December 10, 2019
Dažbrīd informācija bija nedaudz haotiska, man prasītos nedaudz vairāk ievērota hronoloģiskā secība. Taču grāmata ir pilna ar daudz interesantiem faktiem, fotogrāfijām un atmiņām, kā arī uzrakstīta pietiekami vieglā valodā, lai informāciju varētu uztvert ikviens.
February 21, 2022
Spēcīga grāmata, kas atvēra acis uz daudziem vēstures zināšanu robiem. Patiesi laba lasāmviela tiem, kas grib zināt savu un savu priekšgājēju vēsturi un saprast kāpēc šobrīd notiek tas, kas notiek
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews