Video: Latvia's tenuous independence and three governments of 1919

Take note – story published 4 years ago

LTV's documentary series "Atslēgas" (The Keys) has another short film for you with English subtitles.

This time the subject is the events of 1919 when Latvia had three competing claims to government, independence hanging by a thread and found itself in an incredibly complex geopolitical situation.

At one point, a skeleton government operated from a ship moored off Liepāja on the Baltic coast, yet somehow it came to be recognized as having most legitimate claim to represent the new nation and from these unlikely beginnings the country would go from strength to strength despite plenty of obstacles along the way. 

According to LTV "The Keys" will tell of the most important or "key" events, personalities and turning points in the history of the Latvian state from 1918 to the present. The purpose is to reveal each selected event from an unusual point of view, as if "unlocking the door" to lesser known and therefore particularly intriguing facts. 

"Such an exploratory approach, bypassing the usual stereotypes of presenting history, will allow viewers to perceive what is known to others and to better understand what has happened in the context of today's experience," says LTV.

Throughout the year, Latvian history will be told in 'mixed order' - events will not be sequenced year by year, but viewed in the exact month in which they occurred.

The show is made by VFS Films, a long-time partner of Latvian Television and it is hosted by Mārtiņš Ķibilds, a distinguished cultural journalist who sadly passed away late last year.

 

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