Two important things: 1. We will feature Lithuania in a separate episode later this year or early next year 2. Thanks again to Game of Trenches to sponsoring this episode! Every cent we make via ads makes the show better. The first 20 players to register at: bit.ly/GameOfTrenches will receive in-game rewards worth a total of 10 600 Gold
As a Latvian who absolutely loves the WW1 theme - a massive Thank You for such an amazing recap. Dear Estonian brothers - always and forever with you even if you now married to Finns and don't want to buy our booze anymore :)
I know a Baltic German apologist, something of a WWI wehraboo, lives in Riga. Keeps claiming Estonians were bad guys in the war, he's just salty his forefathers lost to some angry peasants.
@Movies Despite attitudes like yours, as an Estonian I consider Latvians as brothers. I believe Latvians have got over Ruhnu just as Estonians have got over how Latvians treated our kins the Livonians.
You know I think I know why most of the world doesn't learn too much about this time period in school. Because it's too much of a cluster*uck to teach anyone who isn't aspiring to be a historian.
@Mikolaj Wojtowicz ... yeah man, clusterf#$! is the right term for it, so many factions in such a mess... it must have really sucked to be a civilian in between all this
I mean, in AP European history we spent like a solid two days on the 30 years war. That’s a true cluster****. So many phases and the reasons for conflict changed about 6 times
Not to mention all the misinformation that exist on the topic, Finland for instance is still somewhat divided to this day, people in the industrial south tend to remember the reds as the heroes and the whites as the murdering maniacs, and the rural north thinks the opposite is true. Neither of these points of views of course is entirely right, as the truth lies somewhere in between, I can imagine the same goes for much of the world during this point in time.
As a former university student in Estonian history I approve this episode! Fun fact: a significant amount of Estonian soldiers on eastern front ignored orders and abandoned their positions so they could go and fight against baltic germans, who they really hated at the time.
Germans were enslavers in estonia and no sane person could have imagined that in 20 years Estonians would fight together with the Germans. The reason was the 1940 Soviet occupation with mass murders, robberies and rape. But yes, in 1919, Estonians fought against the Germans with anger and fanaticism caused by centuries of slavery.
It's great to find out more about the Latvian Independence War, because despite our close cooperation, events in Latvia are often overshadowed in Estonia. For example in Estonia it is very rarely mentioned that Latvians fought alongside us at Cesis (Võnnu in Estonian) and that the great victory was gained solely by Estonian troops with some Latvian help.
While in Latvia, we all are taught about the bravery of the schoolboys of Cesis marching pretty much from heir classrooms straight into the battle, with barely a mention of "oh, and yeah, there were some Estonian armored trains there, too. For that help, we gave them Ruhnu." Which, naturally, makes it seem like we just threw away our only island. While in reality, the Estonian help was absolutely crucial, and the island is pretty much worthless.
because. if you research what happened at the battle was that latvians ran away on their first contact with the germans. around 1000 men went MIA and Estonians had to fill the gaps and do all of the fighting by themselves. (the armored trains got into a very bad situation due to the latvians breaking)
When you say "fought along side us" realise that it was not you that would have been wanting this fight back then, you'd have been a peasant. It was the rich aristocrats who were fighting back a peasant uprising from spreading into their area lol.
I never realized the amount of fighting that continued after hostilities ended on Nov 11! I knew about the Russian civil war but, all of the fighting that continued in the rest of Europe and the Middle East is astounding! Thanks for the education!!
You think the Britians are your allies? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 They will sacrifice you, if they need it. If you call them allies, you can hang up your own damokles sword.
As an Estonian I have to say this video is absolute best most in-depth video on the Estonian and Latvian Wars of Independence. Way to go! Thank You Very Much for producing this outstanding video!
The whole affair was a horrible and confusing mess. Till this day nobody is really sure whether to call the conflict "Latvian/Estonian War of Independance", "Latvian/Estonian Civil War", roll it seamlessly into the "Russian Civil War" or find some other name.
America's great war of independence was nothing more than a little British civil war ... and then there were some Indians ... belum omnium contra omnes - war of all, against all. In short: an affair! :)
Another excellent show from your team. So far the production, writing and presentation of this often overlooked yet crucial part of 20th century history is second to none, don't ever stop
Correction: the Ingrian troops mentioned in 14:38 were loyal to Estonia, not Latvia. Russia carried out a massive genocide against the Ingrian and Votic populations on the coastal lands between Estonia and Leningrad between the two world wars and in the forties. As a result the area has become almost completely Russified. The survivors of the genocide settled in Estonia in the fifties. There are only a few survivors left in Ingermanland who can speak either Ingrian or Votic.
Greetings from Estonia! Really liked the video! I couldnt wait when you make a video about it. The Estonian war of indenpendence , Vabadussõda in estonian, is a really interesting topic for me. The time when our little country defeated much larger red army and well equipped germans. Search up more information yourself, its really interesting! Ps: One important man in that conflict for estonians was/is the estonian partisan leader lieutenant Julius Kuperjanov, who was killed in the battle of paju 02.02.1919. Search it up!
the estoian, litwanian and latvian independent war happend in kremlin between eltsin and ligachev. eltsin won the battle and gave those lands away. this is real story all others are fairy tells.
Should point out that the force was named Northern Latvia brigade. It consisted more of Latvians than Estonians, but they were under Estonian command. The plan of retaking Latvian northern territories itself was done by Latvian lieutenant colonel Voldemārs Ozols. Just wanted to correct you guys on this, but I know you dont have any reliable Latvian sources or anyone capable of translating them.
Also forgot to mention at the battle of Cēsis there were many young school boys who fought in these battles, they were aged around 15-16 and they were underequipped, most of them didnt even have any shoes to wear.
In he battle of Cesis, Germans had 6000-6900 men against 5800 Estonians and 1400 Latvians (2nd Latvian Cesis Regiment, part of Northern Latvia Brigade) under Estonian command. As the battle began, Germans had temporary success, as the Latvians abandoned the lines. But, as the Germans got into danger of getting surrounded by the Estonian troops, the battle ended with their withdrawal to Riga. The losses were: Germans - 274 killed (and unknown number of wounded), Estonians - 110 killed and 295 wounded, Latvians - 13 killed and 30 wounded. So, in the main event, Latvians had no much glory.
"The White Army got bogged down due to in-fighting in the Ingrian forces loyal to Latvia." Why... why would the Finno-Ugric Ingrians be loyal to Latvians, with whom they didn't, nor have ever, share a border with? Surely you must mean Estonia instead of Latvia here.
What an amazing show! I was worried at the begining that with the so-called Great War over and Indi's goodbye the show has done his job. But to know the aftermath of the conflict, the new multilingual host (who is doing an amazing job) and how this war was not the war which ends all wars, but rather the war which cause so many others, is just amazing
It's basically a relatively rare example in which the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" rule doesn't exactly apply because none of the belligerents could decide who was their worst enemy and therefore felt compelled to fight all of them. The Estonianas and Latvians hated both the White Russians and the Baltic Germans who practically ruled over them cordially with one another prior to the outbreak of WWI and now made it abundantly clear that they didn't wish for the locals to gain autonomy, let alone independence. And since at least their governments realized that to the Bolshevists their countries stood in the way of global revolution, the Red Russians couldn't be trusted either. The White Russians and Baltic Germans under any other circumstances would have probably joined arms instantly but they had just finished fighting a war, they hated each other's guts, even though, all things considered, their goals seemed least mutually contradictory.
I just want to say that I enjoy the little quips at the end of each episode. Thanks for keeping this going after November 2018. Jesse, you are awesome!
@@jackthorton10 That is the current motto of Latvia as well. You see, Latvia ended the mandatory conscription after recent illuminating examples such as Sweden and Germany. And now Latvia has been relying on a professional corps of bureaucrats and Estonian conscripts.
The fact that neither the fighting didn't actually end on 11 November 1918 is almost unknown in the west. I love this aspect of the history. Having looked into the intense fighting on the western front, I couldn't help but immediately wonder how the generals in charge of these forces handled logistics, since that was, and is, the decisive factor in most successful battles. How did they feed the troops, how did they find ammunition for their guns, coal for the trains, petrol for the trucks, and were the troops paid? How did they reconnoiter the ground and how did they gain information? I can assume, to some degree, that if the Entente powers were supporting the Estonians that they would provide these to them, but who supplied the German forces? The Red and White Russian armies, I assume, simply plundered from the land as they went through. You guys do a fantastic job. Thanks for the fascinating look into the events which shape our world to this day.
Everyone forgets about all the wars that erupted in the fallout of WWI; the Polish-Soviet War, the Russian Civil-War, the Turkish-War of Independence and the Polish-Ukrainian war just to name a few.
Pronunciation tips for the next Latvia-centric episode: Latvian (similar to Estonian and Finnish) has universal stress on the first syllable. So it's not Ulmanís, it's Úlmanis. Dáugava, not Daugáva. Jélgava, not Jelgáva. Also the L sounds are really harsh and the more German L sound is written with Ļ/ļ
While in Finnish the stress is indeed always on the first syllable, Estonian makes some exceptions for loan words and foreign names where stress is kept as in the original language and marked almost always with a long vowel: "garaaž", "mobiil", "Pariis". Great series btw!
My great gradfather was one of those "northern boys". Went from Finland to fight in the Estonian war, presumably after having fought in the Finnish civil war in the whites. I've seen one picture of him in uniform riding a tall horse. That's about all I know about him.
They just discovered the remains of an Australian soldier who fought on the side of the White Russians ca. 1919. He had fought at Gallipoli too so had an eventful life before his demise. BTW Great video! 🇦🇺
Pronunciation note for Jesse: Latvian has fixed word stress, and practically all words in Latvian are stressed on the first syllable, so with any Latvian personal and geographic names (including Ulmanis, Jelgava and Daugava), you may confidently stress them on the first syllable: you'll get it right!
@@seneca983 Depends on the name. In this particular case estonians mostly put stress on the second silible, almost like there is a double "n" in the end of the name. Putting stress on the first silible isnt totally wrong, but in that case the stress isnt that strong. But yeah, feel free to correct me, I mostly thought, how I have heard estonians say this name.
We had some photos of troops and my grandfather around mounds of rubble taken during this war- he was a participant in the Latvian Independence War having been an officer in the Imperial Russian Army earlier. My father never talked much about this- he did say that his aunt had told him: "When the Bolsheviks left Riga, they left bodies hanging from lamp posts like the balls on a Christmas tree."
@@TheGreatWar the feeling I get when I read about this sort of thing, is that there's some level of underlying racism there, in that it's not just (some) Germans who considered the Baltic peoples as "lesser", but also the (white) Russians from the east (considering the area vassal states and all), such that, well, it's easier to kill "animals" than people...
The one thing that stands out about the Baltic civil wars, the Polish-Lithuanian war, and the Polish-Ukrainian war, is the lack of vision of so many of the factions to understand that in pushing only for their specific demands, they were dooming themselves to decades of Soviet oppression.
results of this decades of soviet oppression: People in the baltics were free'd from serfdom, given free healthcare, free education and paid employment, Literacy rates were lifted from below 30% to over 95% in the space of 20 years and everybody who previously toiled in fields and lived in communal bunkers was given proper housing for every family by the 1960's. So oppressive! Would have been far better if they continued living under imperialist rule by the Tsars or Germans I'm sure!
i should mention that a lot of estonian school boys joined the fight during 1918 when it seemed that we would lose. the main estonian units in Cesis were the 3rd divison and kuperjanov batalion which is named after Julius Kuperjanov who at that point was already dead, fun fact about him he was a teacher at Kambja which is the village next to my home.
My grandfathers dad led the finnish volunteers called Pohjan Pojat a.k.a Northern Boys in Estonian war of indepenency, he fought in finnish civil war too and was estonian and cuz of him i have some estonian blood in me. he also fought for russian imperial army as a officer
The rule of Bolsheviks not only was known for the red terror but also for causing the only famine in Latvian history since Northern war (early 18th century).
Official Russia's position that Latvia volunteraly joined Soviet Union in 1940 because of "mass support for revolution" is absolutely ridiculous. Memory of the famine, collectivization (yes, it was carried out by Soviet Latvian government during their short rule) and murders was still fresh 2 decades later.
4:05 The Danes mentioned was a corps of around 200 volunteers under command of Lieutenant Richard Gustav Borgelin. They mostly played a supportive role to the Estonians and Latvians during the war covering the Eastern flank towards the Russians. Source (if you are interested): Mikkel Kirkebaek: Danish volunteer soldiers in Latvia's war of independence 1919 (Embassy of Denmark, Latvia)
i loved the video, i am a estonian myself, and you pronounced the estonian names correctly as well my great grandpa fought in that war and survived to tell the tale.
Got to remember, the 11th of November will not be just an another Lāčplēša diena commemorating the liberation of Riga from German troops posing as White Russians, it will also be a centenary. One if the most hilarious parts of this video is the fact that White Russian movement was heavy on officers, yet it lacked both discipline and competent commanders. Sort of shows the "high" quality in the officer core of the imperial Russian Army and it's administrative apparatus as a whole, doesn't it? No wonder anyone who could tried to gain independence from Russia. "Cowan's War" also notes lack of discipline among White Russian command. As far as I get, this problem also persuaded Brits to start supporting those who was more of a use in stopping Bolsheviks - young national states of Baltics, maybe that made some people in Entente feel guilty (local French commanders seemed to show some doubts, unlike Cowan) as dropping the idea of restoration of unified Russia felt like a betrayal of their ally, but you can't help those, who put almost no effort themselves into reaching of the common goal.
how was the Russian officer corps constituted? Was it similar to e.g. the British forces where people outright bought commissions and so rank had more to do with hereditary wealth (and political ambition) than it had to do with competence (whether military or otherwise)?
Regarding the germans: i can understand why the landswehr and the iron division fought. But why the 1st guards division fought? A regular army unit? All the years all the soldiers wanted the end of war, so many mutinies, desertions, willingly surrenders and these guys had the chance to go home and stayed there. Thats what i cannot understand.
I am from Latvia and that period of time is very complicated to normally understand for foreigner. Most important things in history for Estonia happened in 1919. but for Latvia there was still war going on in East side of Latvia against Bolsheviks in 1920. - there we had allies as Poland who helped us to defeat Bolsheviks once and for all and we also had small conflict with Lithuania. One more fun fact about Latvia - Latvia declare war to Germany in 1919. and in 1920.g. Latvia and Germany signed peace treaty.
At first many did indeed see Ulmani as a german puppet, but after the coup atempt it became clear that hes our guy since they wouldnt try to coup him if he was theirs.
It's entirely improper to call these wars "Baltic civil wars" as if Estonia and Latvia were in civil wars. This is exactly the kind of false impression your regular Russian historiography would like to portray like our societies were just divided and thanks to foreign help one side won. In reality our national governments saw overwhelming support and the opposition was mostly made up of invading foreign forces with some Estonian or Latvian collaborators with them.
I would love to see an episode about the first Red Scare in the US as well as the deportations of anarchists and communists. I love this channel. Thank you guys for all you do
These videos are incredibly well put together with amazingly well researched detail! Just curious. What ethnicity are you? Can not seem to place the accent.
These conflicts really should be counted as part of World War 1 in the history books. Because these events are the continuation of events, and have the same belligerents still fighting all over Europe and Asia, despite the armistice and capitulation on the Western front. The idea that WW1 ended in 1918 have rendered these following tragedies forgotten in large part.
I am curious: was Germany actively supplying and equipping the German troops in the Baltic after the November 1918 Armistice? I imagine that, given their dire economic and political challenges, the Germans would have found such a project difficult.
In 1919 there were no more Germans in Estonia, the Finns helped us at the most difficult moment. then the English also came to help, who at first did not want to know anything about independent Estonia and supported the White Guards who fled to Estonia. From then on, the British gradually began to support the Estonians' aspirations for freedom.
Two important things:
1. We will feature Lithuania in a separate episode later this year or early next year
2. Thanks again to Game of Trenches to sponsoring this episode! Every cent we make via ads makes the show better. The first 20 players to register at: bit.ly/GameOfTrenches will receive in-game rewards worth a total of 10 600 Gold
One moment i was thinking maybe someone forgot this country :F
it fits more into his own episode since they were more "busy" with Poland.
You should talk about the Free Territory of Ukraine
The Great War bring back Indy
we will talk about Ukraine soon
These conflicts are immensely complicated. Great job of covering them!
Thanks!
As a Latvian who absolutely loves the WW1 theme - a massive Thank You for such an amazing recap. Dear Estonian brothers - always and forever with you even if you now married to Finns and don't want to buy our booze anymore :)
can i have some?
It is our booze we are buying from you :D
A Finn here. We want your booze :(
I know a Baltic German apologist, something of a WWI wehraboo, lives in Riga. Keeps claiming Estonians were bad guys in the war, he's just salty his forefathers lost to some angry peasants.
@Movies Despite attitudes like yours, as an Estonian I consider Latvians as brothers. I believe Latvians have got over Ruhnu just as Estonians have got over how Latvians treated our kins the Livonians.
Greetings to my brothers Estonians 🇪🇪🇱🇻, we fought hard for our independence and we'll always be by each others side. Tēvzemei un Brīvībai.
Cheers brother!
Priekā!
Jā
Would be nice to get some land back tho.
Par tevuzemi
You know I think I know why most of the world doesn't learn too much about this time period in school. Because it's too much of a cluster*uck to teach anyone who isn't aspiring to be a historian.
yeah, it also at least should be called Russian Civil Wars
@Mikolaj Wojtowicz ... yeah man, clusterf#$! is the right term for it, so many factions in such a mess... it must have really sucked to be a civilian in between all this
I mean, in AP European history we spent like a solid two days on the 30 years war. That’s a true cluster****. So many phases and the reasons for conflict changed about 6 times
Not to mention all the misinformation that exist on the topic, Finland for instance is still somewhat divided to this day, people in the industrial south tend to remember the reds as the heroes and the whites as the murdering maniacs, and the rural north thinks the opposite is true. Neither of these points of views of course is entirely right, as the truth lies somewhere in between, I can imagine the same goes for much of the world during this point in time.
It is hard to grasp especially for young kids.
As a former university student in Estonian history I approve this episode!
Fun fact: a significant amount of Estonian soldiers on eastern front ignored orders and abandoned their positions so they could go and fight against baltic germans, who they really hated at the time.
Germans were enslavers in estonia and no sane person could have imagined that in 20 years Estonians would fight together with the Germans. The reason was the 1940 Soviet occupation with mass murders, robberies and rape.
But yes, in 1919, Estonians fought against the Germans with anger and fanaticism caused by centuries of slavery.
It's great to find out more about the Latvian Independence War, because despite our close cooperation, events in Latvia are often overshadowed in Estonia. For example in Estonia it is very rarely mentioned that Latvians fought alongside us at Cesis (Võnnu in Estonian) and that the great victory was gained solely by Estonian troops with some Latvian help.
While in Latvia, we all are taught about the bravery of the schoolboys of Cesis marching pretty much from heir classrooms straight into the battle, with barely a mention of "oh, and yeah, there were some Estonian armored trains there, too. For that help, we gave them Ruhnu." Which, naturally, makes it seem like we just threw away our only island.
While in reality, the Estonian help was absolutely crucial, and the island is pretty much worthless.
@@kraanz the island matters for fishing zones. by itself its worthless indeed.
No problem to retake the island, barely anyone is there in winter, just put some 100 latvians and hold a
referendum.
because. if you research what happened at the battle was that latvians ran away on their first contact with the germans. around 1000 men went MIA and Estonians had to fill the gaps and do all of the fighting by themselves. (the armored trains got into a very bad situation due to the latvians breaking)
When you say "fought along side us" realise that it was not you that would have been wanting this fight back then, you'd have been a peasant. It was the rich aristocrats who were fighting back a peasant uprising from spreading into their area lol.
As an Estonian. I truly appreciate you making effort on pronouncing Estonian names correctly. Most people wouldnt bother.
"and the only youtube history channel that is NOT claiming to be a Latvian government in early 1919."
Hahahahaha
I can think of one of two other RUclips channels who are not claiming to be a Latvian government in early-1919...
I am the Latvia.
I never realized the amount of fighting that continued after hostilities ended on Nov 11! I knew about the Russian civil war but, all of the fighting that continued in the rest of Europe and the Middle East is astounding! Thanks for the education!!
I was born november 11 un es esmu latvietis
Love from Poland to our Baltic brothers 🇵🇱❤️🇪🇪🇱🇹🇱🇻
thaks polish brother
Wait what happened with Vilno in 1920-1939?
as an Estonian i want to thank my brothers in Latvia and our allies in Great Britain
Dont forget to thank the danes, swedes and somi.
One of my grandfathers was Estonian and of military age in 1919 I believe. I don't know what part he had in this.
@@robdgaming How is that possible? How can people be rootless?
You think the Britians are your allies? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
They will sacrifice you, if they need it. If you call them allies, you can hang up your own damokles sword.
Estonians werent really too keen on helping Latvia
Eastory made a video about the estonian war of independence and how the frontlines changed over time. Check it out
I think he works for them and makes there maps
@@danieltsiprun8080 pretty sure he works for the World war two channel, not the great war.
As an Estonian I have to say this video is absolute best most in-depth video on the Estonian and Latvian Wars of Independence.
Way to go! Thank You Very Much for producing this outstanding video!
You're welcome - more to come soon!
thank you. as a Latvian, I feel this is a very decent summary
thanks, and there will be more in the future
Es neesmu latvietis un nedzivo Latvijaa, bet man ari l,oti patik shis video (manai tastaruurai nav latvieshu atsleegas:( )
I'm not Estonian or Latvian, but I feel proud of them.
Im latvian
@Niic1GT forši
Im the only EstonianXD
Thanks as latvians say paldies
I haven't watched the great war in a while, but this episode i have to watch. Three cheers to our baltic brothers !!!
Cheers!
Cheers!
Cheers!
I have to get on this.
Cheers!
Cheers!
Cheers!
Soviet: We can crush the Estonian with ease.
Estonia: Hold my Madsen machinegun
I mean they could, but they were kinda busy at the moment.
Madsen AND Lewis machine gun. They were useful indeed.
@@Kurtownia US could crush Vietnam as well. Dumb excuses. Estonia defeated the Soviet Union. That's all there is to say about that time.
Today's the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles, don't forget to pay your respect to all the victims of WW1!
F
No that was November 11th, 2018
No, that’s when a ceasefire was signed
Versailles was the birth and death of the german empire
F
Never knew any of this, it almost qualifies as__ "A War Of All, Against All".
The whole affair was a horrible and confusing mess. Till this day nobody is really sure whether to call the conflict "Latvian/Estonian War of Independance", "Latvian/Estonian Civil War", roll it seamlessly into the "Russian Civil War" or find some other name.
@Jim lastname I sure gives you the feel for the mood of everyone involved, that I must say.
Tagad jau zini
(Now you know)
America's great war of independence was nothing more than a little British civil war ... and then there were some Indians ... belum omnium contra omnes - war of all, against all. In short: an affair! :)
It was basically Estonia and Latvia supported by the United Kingdom and Finland against Germany against Russia against White Russians
Micahistory 2 Latvia*
@@laurynasg9932 You're right
Another excellent show from your team. So far the production, writing and presentation of this often overlooked yet crucial part of 20th century history is second to none, don't ever stop
thank you Ralph, this means a lot and we don't intent to stop anytime soon
Correction: the Ingrian troops mentioned in 14:38 were loyal to Estonia, not Latvia. Russia carried out a massive genocide against the Ingrian and Votic populations on the coastal lands between Estonia and Leningrad between the two world wars and in the forties. As a result the area has become almost completely Russified. The survivors of the genocide settled in Estonia in the fifties. There are only a few survivors left in Ingermanland who can speak either Ingrian or Votic.
Not Russia : bolsheviks. The first Independant Ingria republic has been led by "pro-white-Russia" officers
Greetings from Estonia! Really liked the video! I couldnt wait when you make a video about it. The Estonian war of indenpendence , Vabadussõda in estonian, is a really interesting topic for me. The time when our little country defeated much larger red army and well equipped germans. Search up more information yourself, its really interesting!
Ps: One important man in that conflict for estonians was/is the estonian partisan leader lieutenant Julius Kuperjanov, who was killed in the battle of paju 02.02.1919. Search it up!
Yeah first Latvian Commander of the Armed forces Oskars Kalpaks was also killed during friendly fire incident in early April of 1919.
@@dams6829 March 6th, not early April.
@@PPeteris Mana kļūda
the estoian, litwanian and latvian independent war happend in kremlin between eltsin and ligachev. eltsin won the battle and gave those lands away. this is real story all others are fairy tells.
@@dams6829 Varbuut vecais/jaunais kalendaars?
Should point out that the force was named Northern Latvia brigade. It consisted more of Latvians than Estonians, but they were under Estonian command. The plan of retaking Latvian northern territories itself was done by Latvian lieutenant colonel Voldemārs Ozols. Just wanted to correct you guys on this, but I know you dont have any reliable Latvian sources or anyone capable of translating them.
Also forgot to mention at the battle of Cēsis there were many young school boys who fought in these battles, they were aged around 15-16 and they were underequipped, most of them didnt even have any shoes to wear.
any English sources you would generally recommend?
In he battle of Cesis, Germans had 6000-6900 men against 5800 Estonians and 1400 Latvians (2nd Latvian Cesis Regiment, part of Northern Latvia Brigade) under Estonian command. As the battle began, Germans had temporary success, as the Latvians abandoned the lines. But, as the Germans got into danger of getting surrounded by the Estonian troops, the battle ended with their withdrawal to Riga. The losses were: Germans - 274 killed (and unknown number of wounded), Estonians - 110 killed and 295 wounded, Latvians - 13 killed and 30 wounded. So, in the main event, Latvians had no much glory.
"The White Army got bogged down due to in-fighting in the Ingrian forces loyal to Latvia." Why... why would the Finno-Ugric Ingrians be loyal to Latvians, with whom they didn't, nor have ever, share a border with? Surely you must mean Estonia instead of Latvia here.
What an amazing show! I was worried at the begining that with the so-called Great War over and Indi's goodbye the show has done his job. But to know the aftermath of the conflict, the new multilingual host (who is doing an amazing job) and how this war was not the war which ends all wars, but rather the war which cause so many others, is just amazing
As a Latvian I admire my countrymen.
Jesus, what a mess. It seems like everybody was fighting everyone else.
AND, occasionally, fighting themselves too
Well thats world war
We are free states today so i guess all according to plan..... ;)
It's basically a relatively rare example in which the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" rule doesn't exactly apply because none of the belligerents could decide who was their worst enemy and therefore felt compelled to fight all of them.
The Estonianas and Latvians hated both the White Russians and the Baltic Germans who practically ruled over them cordially with one another prior to the outbreak of WWI and now made it abundantly clear that they didn't wish for the locals to gain autonomy, let alone independence. And since at least their governments realized that to the Bolshevists their countries stood in the way of global revolution, the Red Russians couldn't be trusted either.
The White Russians and Baltic Germans under any other circumstances would have probably joined arms instantly but they had just finished fighting a war, they hated each other's guts, even though, all things considered, their goals seemed least mutually contradictory.
@@StenKilla just buy few tanks and fighter jets because youdont have a single one. That you could not relay on Poles and Canadians
This is such an amazing channel... I should say, "continues to be".
Thanks!
I just want to say that I enjoy the little quips at the end of each episode. Thanks for keeping this going after November 2018. Jesse, you are awesome!
Thanks!
We Latvians will shall fight for out freedom till the last Estonian
Hahahaha! :D
Oh heavens above, please tell me this a real saying
@@jackthorton10 That is the current motto of Latvia as well. You see, Latvia ended the mandatory conscription after recent illuminating examples such as Sweden and Germany. And now Latvia has been relying on a professional corps of bureaucrats and Estonian conscripts.
@@oojaa2upsī, not anymore
Pretty cool to see foreign cover of these conflicts. Cheers!
True, especially for nations, who participated in the conflict
Can you guys do Lithuanian war for independence? Lithuanians had to fight three enemies at once
I'm Lithuanian and I would love that :D
The fact that neither the fighting didn't actually end on 11 November 1918 is almost unknown in the west. I love this aspect of the history.
Having looked into the intense fighting on the western front, I couldn't help but immediately wonder how the generals in charge of these forces handled logistics, since that was, and is, the decisive factor in most successful battles. How did they feed the troops, how did they find ammunition for their guns, coal for the trains, petrol for the trucks, and were the troops paid? How did they reconnoiter the ground and how did they gain information? I can assume, to some degree, that if the Entente powers were supporting the Estonians that they would provide these to them, but who supplied the German forces? The Red and White Russian armies, I assume, simply plundered from the land as they went through.
You guys do a fantastic job. Thanks for the fascinating look into the events which shape our world to this day.
Everyone forgets about all the wars that erupted in the fallout of WWI; the Polish-Soviet War, the Russian Civil-War, the Turkish-War of Independence and the Polish-Ukrainian war just to name a few.
Also the wars between the USSR and the different republics and kahnats in central asia.
Pronunciation tips for the next Latvia-centric episode: Latvian (similar to Estonian and Finnish) has universal stress on the first syllable. So it's not Ulmanís, it's Úlmanis. Dáugava, not Daugáva. Jélgava, not Jelgáva. Also the L sounds are really harsh and the more German L sound is written with Ļ/ļ
thanks, will keep that in mind for future episodes
Also: Líepaja, not Lie-pája.. ;)
As a English native learning Latvian Soft G and soft L's are very hard too prononce
While in Finnish the stress is indeed always on the first syllable, Estonian makes some exceptions for loan words and foreign names where stress is kept as in the original language and marked almost always with a long vowel: "garaaž", "mobiil", "Pariis".
Great series btw!
Great info....danke! I didn't know about the fighting in the Baltics during the post-war era.
As much as I loved Andy, Jesse's passion and expertise is what made me donate to the show ! super !
My great gradfather was one of those "northern boys". Went from Finland to fight in the Estonian war, presumably after having fought in the Finnish civil war in the whites. I've seen one picture of him in uniform riding a tall horse. That's about all I know about him.
This channel has done an amazing job covering the events post the first world war. Glad the Great War is still going strong!
A nicely informative video. And wow the small wars around this time were extremely brutal. It boggles the mind.
Today 105 years ago Franz Ferdinand was shot in Sarajevo
Well done, sir. Great video, and I love that last comment.
Thank you for making my day
I love learning about these often overlooked struggles in history..thank you.
Another great episode! So happy to see this series continuing. Always learning something new.
we are learning a lot too, fascinating period
LONG LIVE the INDEPENDENT BALTIC REPUBLICS of ESTONIA, LATVIA and LITHUANIA! YOU were the first REBORN NATION STATES in fight against Imperialist
Greeting to all Estonians from Bulgaria
Great program yet again.
Thank you so much for all the teams hard work.
They just discovered the remains of an Australian soldier who fought on the side of the White Russians ca. 1919. He had fought at Gallipoli too so had an eventful life before his demise. BTW Great video! 🇦🇺
It will take years to find all soldiers. I read they are working on it.
Pronunciation note for Jesse: Latvian has fixed word stress, and practically all words in Latvian are stressed on the first syllable, so with any Latvian personal and geographic names (including Ulmanis, Jelgava and Daugava), you may confidently stress them on the first syllable: you'll get it right!
Noted for next time!
Yes. Pretty the same way as in Estonian.
He didn’t pronounce cowan properly either,but it was an interesting video
while it's opposite for Lithuanians, where you should not put stress on 1st syllable for words which have more syllables than one
As an Estonian I found it hilarious how you Pronounced Päts, but it's understandable xD.
That "ä" is pronounced like the "a" in "massive".
Sorry, my German brain just takes over every time I see an umlaut... :)
Oh, and on the name Johan, the stress is on the second silible of the name, just a thing to know. Love the show!:)
@@A-A_P: So the stress isn't always on the first syllable in Estonian?
@@seneca983 Depends on the name. In this particular case estonians mostly put stress on the second silible, almost like there is a double "n" in the end of the name. Putting stress on the first silible isnt totally wrong, but in that case the stress isnt that strong. But yeah, feel free to correct me, I mostly thought, how I have heard estonians say this name.
@@jessealexander2695 No worries, love the show ;)
this war was a clusterf**k of free for all. Greets from Lithuania!
I was expecting a TGW Video.
Today marks 100 years since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
Im latvian and i like this video a lot.Thank you. Brīvību Latvijai.
We had some photos of troops and my grandfather around mounds of rubble taken during this war- he was a participant in the Latvian Independence War having been an officer in the Imperial Russian Army earlier. My father never talked much about this- he did say that his aunt had told him: "When the Bolsheviks left Riga, they left bodies hanging from lamp posts like the balls on a Christmas tree."
the violence on both sides in these conflicts is hard to fathom sometimes
@@TheGreatWar the feeling I get when I read about this sort of thing, is that there's some level of underlying racism there, in that it's not just (some) Germans who considered the Baltic peoples as "lesser", but also the (white) Russians from the east (considering the area vassal states and all), such that, well, it's easier to kill "animals" than people...
@@Tsototar And therefore "animals" have no remorse either.
Fighting on the side of imperialists, against a working class uprising so as the peasants can keep being oppressed and in serfdom, nice.
@@TsototarRussians still consider their neighbours to be lesser people.
Liked and linked. I was already subscribed.
My point, the treaty of Versaille didn't prevent any new wars nor did attempt to stop any other current wars.
The one thing that stands out about the Baltic civil wars, the Polish-Lithuanian war, and the Polish-Ukrainian war, is the lack of vision of so many of the factions to understand that in pushing only for their specific demands, they were dooming themselves to decades of Soviet oppression.
results of this decades of soviet oppression: People in the baltics were free'd from serfdom, given free healthcare, free education and paid employment, Literacy rates were lifted from below 30% to over 95% in the space of 20 years and everybody who previously toiled in fields and lived in communal bunkers was given proper housing for every family by the 1960's. So oppressive! Would have been far better if they continued living under imperialist rule by the Tsars or Germans I'm sure!
@@rtmclean484you also forget pogroms, exiles and ethnic cleansing, along with repression and poverty.
Simply superb content and presentation, and I love your closing jokes, Jesse.
Thanks - they're a team effort. :)
i should mention that a lot of estonian school boys joined the fight during 1918 when it seemed that we would lose. the main estonian units in Cesis were the 3rd divison and kuperjanov batalion which is named after Julius Kuperjanov who at that point was already dead, fun fact about him he was a teacher at Kambja which is the village next to my home.
Interesting as always
My grandfathers dad led the finnish volunteers called Pohjan Pojat a.k.a Northern Boys in Estonian war of indepenency, he fought in finnish civil war too and was estonian and cuz of him i have some estonian blood in me. he also fought for russian imperial army as a officer
The rule of Bolsheviks not only was known for the red terror but also for causing the only famine in Latvian history since Northern war (early 18th century).
Official Russia's position that Latvia volunteraly joined Soviet Union in 1940 because of "mass support for revolution" is absolutely ridiculous. Memory of the famine, collectivization (yes, it was carried out by Soviet Latvian government during their short rule) and murders was still fresh 2 decades later.
@@stroki9948 what is it with russia and famines??
It was a matter of cultural genocide. The Russians are still having trouble admitting it... Us Finns got lucky.
I think my favorite part is the sign-off at the end. I am starting to look forward to it with every new video.
4:05 The Danes mentioned was a corps of around 200 volunteers under command of Lieutenant Richard Gustav Borgelin. They mostly played a supportive role to the Estonians and Latvians during the war covering the Eastern flank towards the Russians.
Source (if you are interested): Mikkel Kirkebaek: Danish volunteer soldiers in Latvia's war of independence 1919 (Embassy of Denmark, Latvia)
Clean and recognized borders: exist
Map of eastern europe and the balkan in 1919: I'm about to end this man's whole career.
Imagine having 4 armies ravaging your land
Africa: _am I a joke to you?_
@@rascallyrabbit717 lol
Happened also around Zaporozhia.
This channel has the best ww1 stuff.
It's a pity the Kurds did not manage to establish an independent state after the Ottoman Empire disappeared.
I find it funny that the Kurdish leader then was a Barzani and the Kurdish leader in Iraq today a century later is a Barzani. Same family I think.
Greetings from Latvia🇱🇻
i loved the video, i am a estonian myself, and you pronounced the estonian names correctly as well
my great grandpa fought in that war and survived to tell the tale.
Dizzying, and that quote was intense. This makes Versailles seem like a sick joke. Episodes like these are what makes this channel so great though.
Got to remember, the 11th of November will not be just an another Lāčplēša diena commemorating the liberation of Riga from German troops posing as White Russians, it will also be a centenary.
One if the most hilarious parts of this video is the fact that White Russian movement was heavy on officers, yet it lacked both discipline and competent commanders. Sort of shows the "high" quality in the officer core of the imperial Russian Army and it's administrative apparatus as a whole, doesn't it? No wonder anyone who could tried to gain independence from Russia.
"Cowan's War" also notes lack of discipline among White Russian command. As far as I get, this problem also persuaded Brits to start supporting those who was more of a use in stopping Bolsheviks - young national states of Baltics, maybe that made some people in Entente feel guilty (local French commanders seemed to show some doubts, unlike Cowan) as dropping the idea of restoration of unified Russia felt like a betrayal of their ally, but you can't help those, who put almost no effort themselves into reaching of the common goal.
how was the Russian officer corps constituted? Was it similar to e.g. the British forces where people outright bought commissions and so rank had more to do with hereditary wealth (and political ambition) than it had to do with competence (whether military or otherwise)?
So multifaceted and fascinating, you guys rock!
Regarding the germans: i can understand why the landswehr and the iron division fought. But why the 1st guards division fought? A regular army unit? All the years all the soldiers wanted the end of war, so many mutinies, desertions, willingly surrenders and these guys had the chance to go home and stayed there. Thats what i cannot understand.
Thank you for this video! Greetings from Latvia!
I’m now in Riga and heading Tallin its fascinating being here and listening to this episode !
Thank you. Enormously useful today
Thank you very much for this important yet forgotten piece of history.
I like your bios on writers and other significant people that served in the conflicts
Can't believe my blood came here western Baltic Estonia Latvia Lithuania not Russian nor German O.O Thank Professor Alexander
is anyone else latvian just clicking on a video about ur home country apart from me...
I am from Latvia and that period of time is very complicated to normally understand for foreigner. Most important things in history for Estonia happened in 1919. but for Latvia there was still war going on in East side of Latvia against Bolsheviks in 1920. - there we had allies as Poland who helped us to defeat Bolsheviks once and for all and we also had small conflict with Lithuania. One more fun fact about Latvia - Latvia declare war to Germany in 1919. and in 1920.g. Latvia and Germany signed peace treaty.
At first many did indeed see Ulmani as a german puppet, but after the coup atempt it became clear that hes our guy since they wouldnt try to coup him if he was theirs.
It's entirely improper to call these wars "Baltic civil wars" as if Estonia and Latvia were in civil wars. This is exactly the kind of false impression your regular Russian historiography would like to portray like our societies were just divided and thanks to foreign help one side won. In reality our national governments saw overwhelming support and the opposition was mostly made up of invading foreign forces with some Estonian or Latvian collaborators with them.
Big war
A bunch of small conflicts
Big war
History in a nutshell
great video as usual. I always find out something interesting!
love from Vienna to all our fellow travelers 🤘✊
I would love to see an episode about the first Red Scare in the US as well as the deportations of anarchists and communists.
I love this channel. Thank you guys for all you do
These videos are incredibly well put together with amazingly well researched detail! Just curious. What ethnicity are you? Can not seem to place the accent.
Latvian here,,, Thank you my EEsti friends
These conflicts really should be counted as part of World War 1 in the history books. Because these events are the continuation of events, and have the same belligerents still fighting all over Europe and Asia, despite the armistice and capitulation on the Western front. The idea that WW1 ended in 1918 have rendered these following tragedies forgotten in large part.
"Estonia amd latvia fight for independence"
Lithuania: *I'm so unpopular that I cant even be included in a title?*
Better dead, than red. Greetings from latvia!
I am curious: was Germany actively supplying and equipping the German troops in the Baltic after the November 1918 Armistice? I imagine that, given their dire economic and political challenges, the Germans would have found such a project difficult.
In 1919 there were no more Germans in Estonia, the Finns helped us at the most difficult moment. then the English also came to help, who at first did not want to know anything about independent Estonia and supported the White Guards who fled to Estonia. From then on, the British gradually began to support the Estonians' aspirations for freedom.
What happened after WW1 in the early 20s and late 1910s is very fascinating.