The Baltic States in World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR SPECIAL
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- Before the First World War, what are today Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were part of the Russian Empire. As that empire fought and fell, so to fought the soldiers of the Baltic States, first during the war, and then in their struggles for eventual independence.
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» WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT WORLD WAR I AND WHERE ELSE CAN I FIND YOU?
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» WHAT ARE YOUR SOURCES?
Videos: British Pathé
Pictures: Mostly Picture Alliance
Background Map: d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=6...
Literature (excerpt):
Gilbert, Martin. The First World War. A Complete History, Holt Paperbacks, 2004.
Hart, Peter. The Great War. A Combat History of the First World War, Oxford University Press, 2013.
Hart, Peter. The Great War. 1914-1918, Profile Books, 2013.
Stone, Norman. World War One. A Short History, Penguin, 2008.
Keegan, John. The First World War, Vintage, 2000.
Hastings, Max. Catastrophe 1914. Europe Goes To War, Knopf, 2013.
Hirschfeld, Gerhard. Enzyklopädie Erster Weltkrieg, Schöningh Paderborn, 2004
Michalka, Wolfgang. Der Erste Weltkrieg. Wirkung, Wahrnehmung, Analyse, Seehamer Verlag GmbH, 2000
Leonhard, Jörn. Die Büchse der Pandora: Geschichte des Ersten Weltkrieges, C.H. Beck, 2014
If you want to buy some of the books we use or recommend during our show, check out our Amazon Store: bit.ly/AmazonTGW
NOTE: This store uses affiliate links which grant us a commission if you buy a product there.
» WHAT IS “THE GREAT WAR” PROJECT?
THE GREAT WAR covers the events exactly 100 years ago: The story of World War I in realtime. Featuring: The unique archive material of British Pathé. Indy Neidell takes you on a journey into the past to show you what really happened and how it all could spiral into more than four years of dire war. Subscribe to our channel and don’t miss our new episodes every Thursday.
» WHO IS REPLYING TO MY COMMENTS? AND WHO IS BEHIND THIS PROJECT?
Most of the comments are written by our social media manager Florian. He is posting links, facts and backstage material on our social media channels. But from time to time, Indy reads and answers comments with his personal account, too.
The Team responsible for THE GREAT WAR is even bigger:
- CREDITS -
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Written by: Indiana Neidell
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My Lithuanian great-great-grandfather had to serve in the Tsars army so that he could get a permission to buy land, he saved up the money working in the trans-atlantic ships transporting cattle. I was told he served in the Hussars in Petrograd and that paid off many years later. When soviets occupied Lithuanian in WW2 and most land owners were deported to siberia -our family was spared because of his portrait in the Hussar uniform hanging in the living room.
Arturas P interesting.
Similar story here, my great-great-grandfather was kinda part of the upper class, he decided to gather up all the wealth he had and sail to US, Chicago. As much as I know, he kept saving up the money there and sent it to his sons, who later bought some land, which was sadly taken by the soviets.
Same here.....i have so many relatives all around the world.....in Australia and in the US and a lot of my family was sent to siberia.....im from Latvia btw
Arturas P My great grandpa from Lithuania 🇱🇹 was in The Romanov Army and left in 1917.
My wifes grand aunts and uncles were all shot by the Soviets..
The historical situation in the Baltic region is complicated. Latvians are closer ethnically and linguistically to Lithuanians but their history is closer with Estonians.
True but Latvia is arguably the most artificial of the three Baltic nations. Estonia groups almost all the Finnic speakers in Livonia and it's fairly homogenous: if you discount the descendants of the Russian settlers, the whole country is either Lutheran or post-Lutheran atheists. Latvia on the other hand kinda gathers whoever's left between Estonia and the area of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania: several tribes of Balts (Lutheran and Catholic) whose common identity and even the very name Latvia were forged in the nineteenth century.
@@yarpen26 Your point being? All three of these nations were spiritually born in the 19th century. And are you forgetting the Latvian territory was constantly split between it's neighbors in the previous centuries, thus leading to different confessions of faith? Or, much more likely, you don't know that at all? And you generously mention that most people in Estonia are atheist, same goes for Latvia. From the three nations only the Lithuanians can be called religious today, and even then very arguably. Again - what's your point? Apart from an apparent, strange grudge against Latvians?
@Andrei VasilciuDafaq does that suppost to mean?
@@kraanz As an American, I think your nation is beautiful and riveting - so much so that I plan to relocate there. Much love and warm regards from a Latvian admirer here in the United States. 🇺🇸 🇱🇻 ❤️
@Erikas Sadauskas If you don’t mind me asking, are you Latvian?
Thanks for making an episode about the Baltic states! Keep up the great work. Greetings from Lithuania!
You´re welcome!
@The Great War your enthusiasm in these videos is very captivating, very well done video, also greetings from Lithuania
Greetings from Estonia!
LeMoN The Beast I'm from Latvia 🇱🇻
finland>estonie>latvia>lithuania
I’m Lithuanian and I love this video. However, he failed to mention the Klaipeda region of my nation, which was part of Prussia. My grandmother said that we are Prussian Lithuanian, and that she grew up with Lithuanian and German hand-and-hand.
Quick correction: Lithuanian Declaration that tied it to Germany was signed in December 1917. February 1918 Declaration proclaimed a fully independent Lithuania, although it took a while before it became a reality.
Indy is not kidding when he mentioned various independence wars in the Baltics. It was really messy and really interesting.
Indie, why do you keep calling it "The first World War" and "World War I"? After all, this is going to be the war to end all wars... right?
Right....?
*WW3* 2018 confirmed?
Internet King damn, guys, I... I think he's onto something. After all, my grandad died in a war and he was to young to have died in the Great War...😶💂
It was known as the Great War for a time as well
Internet King I do hope everyone else understands this comment. 💀
Well look, they obviously thought the GREAT War was so Great, it'd have a sequel for sure, so they got cocky and decided to call it World War I from the start.
Any time someone makes a video about Estonians (or in this case the Baltics) thousands of us flock to watch it. I am the first and I hope many more come after me :)
Been waiting for this special since the channel began :D
+TheSilverUniverse Hi
I wouldn't be suprosed if this was in Postimees.
can you give us spoilers on how it all ends?
Phi6er Eesti ! Eesti !
I'm a simple Estonian. I find one of about ten videos on Estonia on RUclips, I like and comment.
I'm simple Latvian. We should make a simple party!
I grew up among Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian refugees in Brazil. They fled there home countries in the early 1920's out of fear of the Russian invasion. That part of my own history really does make this episode and your future one very interesting to me. Thanks for this background.
James Hawkins that’s interesting
@Algirdas Urbanavicius a jew who is also a commie. How the world has fallen.
A lot of bolcevist sympathy in the Baltic area? May be among workers in the factories and those in the countryside which owned no land at all. But the vast majority were farmers and thereby conservative defenders of their property. So the Russian revolution failed in the Baltics.
I’m very happy to see you Neidel, talking about my countrys (Latvias) history, let alone our Baltic brothers also, pretty much all of our loss during the War was because of Siberian battalions “stationed” alone the front. Thanks Neidell!❤
I am glad Lithuania and others got the spotlight! The WW1 and post-WW1 was a very important period for the Baltic States.
Lietuva Vilnius
I'm Latvian and i'm so happy that he finaly made a video about Baltic states.
I am lithuanian, and i love when we get a Baltic states videos
I don't understand how anyone could give this history presentation the thumbs down! Just the photos alone would have taken time to find and organise. This presenter is a walking encyclopaedia.
Haha yes finding those photos was a hard piece of work but it was worth the effort. Glad you like it!
this video alone presented an enormous mass of info and on 3 different nations as well.... well done
Thanks Indie. As a Lithuanian -American who has tried to follow Baltic history I found your synopsis very helpful and well done, to understand that fast moving and confusing period where Baltic State independence was established. Yes, the next episode of that Baltic history will be more complicated.
🇱🇹 🇱🇻 🇪🇪
Latvian rifles saved Lenins life.
Little did they know what came of it 😞
Listen carefully from 5:33
During bloody Christmas battles, when after incompetent orders of Tsarist officers so many riflemen died, why shouldn`t they turn against the old system?
@@Archibaldvs The battle of Machine gun Hill where they could have got a counter offensive if the line was secured? They could have exploited the gap.
what came of it? Riga became a major SU city with great prosperity and stability.
@@dirensare Aha, only 50% of population was now Russian.
They tried to erase Latvians, you donut.
Here's a fun fact. One french general of WWI was asked how much is one Latvian rifleman worth. He answered "as much as he weighs in gold".
I actually started researching much of what was covered in this episode with E. Andersons - History of Latvia 1914-1920 (pub. 1967) as my primary source a year ago. But my master's thesis had to take priority and now Maximilian has beat me to it xD Nevertheless, big thanks to Indy, Flo and gang for covering the region's history during WW1. Your channel played big part in motivating me to research my countries history and culture with greater intensity e.g. by reading some fiction by Aleksandrs Grīns, a veteran of the Latvian Rifles. His book "Blizzard of Souls" is about Latvian Rifles and is being made into a movie right now.
Some more tidbits on Latvian Rifles (all from Andersons):
- The anti-German sentiment among Latvians was pretty hefty. An officer supposedly urged Latvian Rifles to attack by yelling "come on, you have waited 700 years for this" drawing a direct link between Latvian Rifles and the natives' wars against the German crusaders in the 13th century.
- Latvian Rifles indeed hat ethnically Latvian officers. They were technically Russian officers thou because they joined the army before the War and the forming of the Rifles. And of course all officers above the Latvian units, like the generals of the army they were attached to, were regular Russian officers and the Rifles were properly integrated into the army, not acting autonomously.
- After the meat grinders of Christmas Battles and the Defense of Death Island (both rather pointless affairs started by the ambitious but incapable general of the Northern Front and vigorously supported by the Rifle's officers) the Rifles were severely depleted and demotivated. They experienced a huge influx of fresh volunteers diminishing the unit's fighting prowess and resilience. The Rifle's actual capabilities fell behind their reputation. The fresh, young volunteers were also those most susceptible to Bolshevism and thus responsible for them becoming the Red Latvian Rifles and carrying Lenin through his revolution.
Even though Latvian Riflemen were demoralized by their immense losses and incompetence of the Russian officers during Christmas Battles, when German forces attacked Riga on September 1st, 1917 Latvian Riflemen managed to hold them back for approximately 24h, thus allowing Russian army to retreat and escape from encirclement.
In pre-WWI Latvia and Estonia the anti-German sentiment was rampant and Russians were seen as those douchebags who refused to assist in their peril rather than as natural enemies as well, similar to how the Slovaks and Romanians detested the Hungarian but looked up to Austria in hope that their concerns be addressed by the bigger guy in charge. In contrast to them though the Russians were commonly despised in Lithuania and the relations with the "old" overlords (the Poles) were not nearly this awful-if by no means cordial either.
Any metalheads should check Skyforger's album "Latvian Riflemen", lyrics are in Latvian but there should be a translation. great music and great learning material as well.
I second this.
After this, will you cover Ukraine and Belarus? I did request a video on the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (and I hope the sources I provided you earlier are helpful, but if you need more just ask :) Love your channel!), but seeing as you are covering the Baltic States in general, I think after you finish with them it would only be fitting to move south and cover the Belarusian People's Republic, the Ukrainian People's Republic, the Hetmanate of Ukraine, the Directorate, the Kuban People's Republic, the Don Republic, and the Crimean People's Republic.
Really interesting that you made a video about the baltic history, greetings from Lithuania and a big big thank you!
I ran up the stairs after seeing the notification!
Jaak Sootak profile pic checks out.
Ah yes, the Latvian Rifleman the best fighting unit of Russian army. Fighting against all odds, charging over swamps and no man's land, fighting in trenches without no artillery support, united in their love for fatherland and described by Russians as "devils who know no mercy and don't know what fear means". Truly they were soldiers worth admiration.
Displays of bravery and skill for a bad cause does not call for admiration. I'd rather reserve that for independence fighters (many of them - defectors of red riflemen).
they were soviets. who fought against their own country. what is there to admire?
@@hullmees666 My apologies, I should have clarified that I was referring to Latvian Riflemen who fought in 1915-1917 and where indeed quite a different fighting unit with drastically contrasting motives if compared to Red Latvian Riflemen who fought against independence forces in 1918-1920.
@@hullmees666Dude - in that time there was no real imagination of that there Latvians could have own country. What best they could think or dream about was some Latvian administration under Soviet regime.
@@matrixberzins465 tell that to those who fought against soviets and died by the hands of the riflemen.
Love this episode. I'm half Lithuanian, and I love finding out more about my heitege.
Same here. Its nice to learn about it, especially since so little people do so.
Great episode! Cant wait for the follow-up!
I'm from Estonia, how Baltic states land have been raped and people murdered is just criminal, look how many Russians are in all of Baltic states!
My great grandfather was an original Latvian rifleman who survived the war. I visited some of the battle sites near Rīga last year. It was amazing to see sites where family had fought all those years ago.
Can't wait for the next special. Great work guys!
Thank you for this special. Cheers from Lithuania!
Thanks for that episode. Greetings from Estonia!
Awesome!!! I'm from Liepāja. Watching you for a year or so, love the show. Thanks for the great episode!
Yey, an episode about Baltics. Finally.
Thanks from Latvia!
Can't wait for continuation.
Thank You for this video, great job, very interesting to find out more about "Three Sisters" history!
Thanks for great episode. It's really interesting to see how things were back then and how the world viewed us, the Baltic region.
Very well done video
Haha, finally! Thanks for covering this region guys. Very detailed, as always.
Interesting! Thanks for the video, my grandma is from Latvia and came to the U.S. in 1949. She has many stories that are incredible.
Writing them down or making videos about them would be awesome :)
Thanks for making this great war team.
I was so looking forward to this special! I am from Latvia :)
great episode, explains so much of this complicated history
Love your videos and learning about my favorite time period
great video.cheers from Lithuania
I'm glad this channel exists seeing how I had only ONE day to learn WW2 and ONE week to learn about WWI in school, mostly skipping Baltic States, the Eastern Front, and offensives near Turkey. I didn't even learn much about Verdun or the Gallipoli Campaign! And to make matters worse, the inter WWI unit was solely based in a 30 page packet that mostly repeated many famous battles and events in vague detail. So THANK YOU Indie and Co. for creating this channel, I am currently watching from the beginning and I am in the middle of 1915.
Anybody from the baltics? I am.
LhorNe Gaming lithuania. Vilnius here :)
Half Latvian here
yep Estonia
Me too
From Pärnu:)
An impressive perspective on such a difficult and tangled historical subject.
Hey The Great War team! If youre interested in creating more accurate episodes about Baltic States and their fight towards independance, i can try to put you in contact with Latvian National War Musem! Long time fan of the episodes and waited for this special for a long time being Native Latvian!
Hey thanks, that would be great!
Fascinating pictures!
Great episode. Greet8ngs from Lithuania!
thanks, greetings from Berlin.
Finallllyyyy! Thank you so much for this.
Great chapter! Cheers from Latvia!
I cant tell ya how long I've been waiting for this.
That was really interesting and shed some light on the roots for the sentiments the Baltics and Russia have for each other today.
greetings from Latvia great video!
I really do hope you'll make more stuff about the Baltic states in the future!
It's fascinating how much did I not know as a Lithuanian about my and my neighboring countries' history.
Great as always. I hope you can one day have a special episode on Persia.
Fantastic episode. Very informative! These countries aren't mentioned much in most American textbooks so its awesome to hear about them here!
Epic Vid
I have utter respect for you and your channel. Im saving up for august von mackson socks
My grandad smelled them as he was trampled in a retreat....They stink of pomposity, arrogance and belligerance.....but old.
Particularly interesting episode!
Yeah, it was great to research it too.
I feel that! Research is the best sometimes!
I'm from Latvia and I like your channel 😊👌
I keep forgetting how AWESOME this channel is. :>)
You should also do an episode about Finland and it's part in the first World War! Especially the Jaeger movement is interesting.
these vids are ace I would love to see one done on the hull pals battalions of the great war
Very interesting topic,knew little about the Baltic states or Finland in the great war,know a bit more now.
Im from Latvia and i love your show! Please make one about the independece :)
I hope you make a video about the Soviet westward offensive since it was in some ways both caused by WWI and was a continuation of WWI and also set the stage for WWII. The topic is rarely talked about but I find it to be an important part of modern European history. Had the new Eastern European republics not stopped the spread of the bolsheviks they might've snowballed out of control and even consumed Germany and France. As an Estonian I take great pride in our nations struggle for freedom together with our Latvian brothers and find it to be extremely interesting, the baltics had so many combatants it was like a micro world war. So I hope you delve deeper into the baltic states or maybe you will make a WWII series with the Soviet offensives as a precursor. Anyways, great video.
Hey Indie when was the first term world war was used. Keep up the great work
At 3:45 ...well, there's the origins of "Generalplan Ost" for you!
I love that image in the intro with the cavalryman holding the lance and wearing a gasmask... while the horse he's sitting on doesn't.
Will you make a "who did what in World War One" about Montgomery, I believe he joined in 1914 and fought at Ypres
Parker Dunlop its spelled General.
8:49 one should also mention that Tallinn was called Reval back then
Indy, you made a mistake however - the February 16 act did not proclaim a Lithuania bound permanently to Germany, it proclaimed a fully independent and sovereign Lithuania, free of German authority. The act you are referring to is the December 11th Act, signed in 1917, the which was the act Germany recognized until the end of the war, even though Taryba now insisted on a fully sovereign and democratic Lithuania, which lead to significant tension between Lithuania and Germany.
Hi, Indy and team! Great special about the Baltic states - I have a question possibly for Out of the Trenches: why was Finland not mentioned in this episode - since Finland was in the same situation and was considered a Baltic state until ww2?
Geographic reasons i belive. Finland is Geographically in Scandinavia. Estonia,Latvia and Lithuania are considered Baltic States, even tho Estonia is not culturally Baltic its Finno-Uralic.
Waiting about a special episode about the baltic germans, their army, their proposed state and their role in the wars of independence.
Actually it was also complicated. Baltic Germans formed their own military units, called Baltische Landeswehr, which initially fought for United Baltic Duchy (one of three forces fighting in Latvian war for indepdence, ehhh, it's compilcated), but later was loyal for Latvian government and fought against Soviets in the East and in 1920 become part of the Latvian army. Their commander at one point was Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis, British officer, and after WWII Governor General of Canada.
During the 1919 battles between Latvian and German forces, the opposing force of the Latvians were actually remains of German army (Eiserne Division), formally a part of White Russian army (West Russian Volunteer Army, fomally under command of cossak Pavel Bermondt-Avalov, but in fact commanded by German general Rüdiger von der Goltz). Landeswehr, formmally already under Latvian command, wasn't participating in those battles, was instead sent to Eastern front against Soviets (which, to make it more complicated, were in big part also Latvians - the Red Latvian Riflemens).
And also we need to remember the fact that the Baltic Germans weren't the same as Germans, a lot of them were just German speaking Latvians and Estonians.
When will they do the 2nd special on the Baltics?
Indie greetings from Latvia!
Thx
Oooo. Another lovely episode! Are you ever going to touch on Finland during the WW1? Our independance was born as a result of the revolution. Not to mention many finnish men left to be trained as Jagers in Germany, and fought against Russia. Yet there were finnish generals in the Imperial Russian army (Mannerheim being the most prominent one)
niki75 they have said specials are coming about Finland and Mannerheim.
Some how I have hunch to expect those to be published around 6th of December. :)
ootahhan kun tulee Suomen sisällissotaa koskeva video...
Greetings from Estonia!
Do a video about Finland during WW1, please! :)
I hope you will make a video about indepence war in Baltic states 1918-1920
Finaly My Country Is Here.Greetings From Estonia
More videos on baltic please!
Question for out of the Trenches. How come we haven't seen any English or Russian ships try and establish a beach head on German soil?
LJMpictures The German Navy had something to say about that.
LJMpictures gallipoli lol
TheGamingZuluWarrior he was referring to the stigma of proposing a landing amongst the entente commands that ensued for a long period of Tim Easter the catastrophic failure of the Gallipoli. Also the German navy does have something to say about that.
LJMpictures have you every look a naval chart of the German North Sea coast? Thought not.
A naval invasion that big would require technology that had not been invented yet.
Still waiting for that special.
Take care.
yay! lithuania gets a mention :3
Thank you for this!
One thing I would add as it was taught to us estonians. When the russians retreated and the germans had not yet reached estonia, i declaration of independence was made. The german army marched into cities that were flying the blue-black-white flags, not the russian empires.
In the end, when ze germans had lost the war, per the agreement of surrender, all lands must be returned to the nations they were taken from. Because Estonia was a nation for one day, the land was to be returned to us.
And we held dear to that agreement making sure the russian army and the wehrmacht knew that, with fire and steel.
surely you meant Deutsches Heer :P
Dahaa! great video. Seems like little Balkans there.
A question for out of the trenches, as you have talked about the mutinies in the French army and the German navy were there any such wide scale mutinies within British, Austro-hungarian or ottoman armies
Oh, how did I miss this 3 days ago?
Indie, are you going to continue with the great war series even after Nov 11? If so how much further or will you just have a few more specials on after the war and the post war effects?
Wow. Was watching archival footage from Operation Albion, and this popped up. Noice ;)
Finally! Thank you for the episode from Latvia. 12min for 3 states is impossible time. If you could compare state differences when the front line is in you home (Latvia) with being in Russian empire (Estonia) or German (Lithuania) almost all the time of the war. What changed in perception during those days. Also interesting question is- did GBR created Baltic states as buffer zone?
Hy Indy! Please talk about the German "Mitteleuropa" plan. (From Belgium to Finland and Ukraine.)
When the next video about Latvia is going to be uploaded/created?
Tänan, et tegi episoodi Eesti kohta :D
warmowed teised olid ka ju