Most people know all about the 1917 Russian Revolution which spelled the end of the Tsarist system and the rise of the Soviet Union. But there was an earlier revolution that caused widespread unrest, ripped apart communities and served as a stepping stone to events to come: the 1905 Revolution.
This ‘First Russian Revolution’ started in St. Petersburg with a series of worker’s strikes, but initiated a chain of events that quickly spread to the Baltics.
The final decades of the 19th century had seen increasing levels of discontent among the peasants living under the Russian Empire. The advent of the Latvian National Awakening, led by men like Krišjānis Valdemārs, made attitudes in Latvia especially ripe for revolt against the powers that be. For the Latvians, those ‘powers’ were three-fold. There was the autocratic Imperial system of course, plus the centuries long oppression of the Baltic German nobility as well as the Lutheran clergy. It was mainly the Baltic German and religious groups who were targeted in Latvia.
In 1905, Riga had more industrial workers than all other cities in the Empire except Moscow and St. Petersburg with a 90% literacy rate throughout the region. This large working class s and high rate of education meant that the population as a whole, not just Leftist thinkers were ready for a change.
On the 9th of January, 1905, some of the demonstrators in St. Petersburg were attacked. Five days later, on the 13th of January, tens of thousands of workers lined the River Daugava in Riga in solidarity with their fallen counterparts in St. Petersburg. These angry labourers shouted slogans like, “Down with autocracy!”, “Long live the revolution!”, and “Glory to the workers of St. Petersburg!” Groups of Tsarist soldiers opened fire along the river, killing 73 and wounding dozens of others, while some people tried to flee towards the Daugava as the ice gave way, drowning them in the cold winter water.
Back in St. Petersburg, on the 22nd of January, a huge procession of workers, hundreds strong, marched to the Winter Palace to deliver a petition to Tsar Nicholas I. The group was told to halt and come no further. At some point however, Imperial troops started to open fire. Chaos ensued and hundreds were killed. ‘Bloody Sunday’, as it came to be called, is the traditional start of the 1905 Revolution proper.
The Revolution in Latvia
These massacres did not deter the working classes, but spurred on the rebellion to greater and greater heights. The 1905 Revolution spread like wildfire throughout Latvia. It may even have been the most successful location of this socialist revolt anywhere in the Empire. By the summer of 1905, most of the violence was concentrated in the countryside in Courland (Kurzeme) and Vidzeme. The armed conflict was mainly between peasants and industrial workers and the Baltic German landlords inhabiting their traditional manor houses. These armed groups, proudly waving the solid red flag of the Revolution, ended up burning down well over 400 manors.
In Courland, some groups ended up surrounding local towns and setting up their own councils. In Vidzeme, armed groups took over the major railway lines, took over public services and killed those they deemed the enemy. There were over 1000 armed clashes throughout these areas.
A contemporary article in the newspaper “Qinya” wrote:
“The events of recent weeks have marked a transition to open revolution. The usually peaceful inhabitants of this ‘God’s Corner’ have risen up and, in their thousands, have begun to carry out their will. Enslaved for seven hundred years, they make their masters tremble. For generations, they existed in state papers only as objects of taxes and conscription; now they are reducing these papers to ashes. They long ago looked with disgust upon the state eagles and portraits of autocrats; now they are crushing these symbols of slavery into dust.” – https://stradnieki.org/1905-god-v-latvii
By November, martial law had been declared in Courland and Vidzeme and the Tsar was making plans to send his elite and feared Cossack troops into the area to quell the uprisings by any means necessary.
The Revolution in Courland
One of the places where armed revolutionaries took control of an entire area was in the Courland town of Tukums, between Talsi and Riga. In the middle of December, Tukums had been taken by a mixture of local armed militia, industrial workers and members of the Latvian Social Democratic Workers’ Party. Many of the revolutionaries had come by train to be part of the event. The overwhelmed Russian and Baltic German administration fled. For three days, Dec 13th – 16th the town flew the red flag and declared themselves the ‘Republic of Tukums’.
Those three days saw intense fighting in the streets between the rebels and the newly arrived Imperial forces. 100 rebels died and about 40 Imperial soldiers, before the town was re-taken by the Tsar’s forces.
Tukums wasn’t the only town in the area to see intense fighting and civil unrest. A bit north of Tukums, is the small town of Talsi. The Talsi area had played a significant role in the ideas of the Latvian National Awakening by being the home of Krišjānis Valdemārs. Now it would play another role in Latvian independence.
Talsi was also the home of Jekob & Magreete Zekants. Jekob and Magreete’s ancestors were all from this area: Talsi, Spāres, Stende and Nurmuiža. The family was surrounded by this violent uprising and I have often wondered how it affected them and if their sympathies rested with one side or the other.
In the final hours of the Battle of Tukums, the people of Talsi were alerted to the situation as Imperial troops were ordered to leave Talsi to help quell the rebellion in Tukums, 40 km to the south.
Members of the Socialist Democratic party in Talsi would not let some of these troops leave, keeping them under guard. The Party called on local peasants to rise up to take Talsi. Farmers, armed with rifles, pitchforks and anything else they could use as a weapon started arriving in town from the surrounding countryside.
They attacked the crown armoury, occupied the houses of local police and magistrates and disarmed city guards. They even let political prisoners free.
By the end of the day on the 16th of December, Tukums had been re-taken by Tsarist troops. The soldiers were then told to immediately turn north as the town of Talsi was in crisis. The General in charge was hesitant to enter the now rebel-held town and instead set up a headquarters at the nearby Stende railway station. Three local teachers were brought to him and he gave them orders to go back and tell the residents to fight against the rebels and clear the area. And if they did not comply, he threatened to destroy the city.
Amazingly, the teachers were able to come to an agreement with the rebels to stand down in order to avoid bloodshed. The Imperial Pskov regiment and its general, however, disregarded their previous agreement and entered the city anyway, artillery blazing.
They bombed the city. Fires broke out everywhere. 20 houses were completely burned down as well as dozens of other buildings throughout the town. At least 30 people died, mostly innocent bystanders.
According to the eye witness report of a man named T. Dzintarkalns:
“The whole city center is like a huge fire, where everything is burning, dying, turning into ashes. There are also big fires in the city wings; on the right side, the Dunkelis Hotel is burning with its buildings and the Berger House, where the smoke plumes surround all of Old Talsi, and it seems that everything here has been burned. New Talsi is also engulfed in smoke; here the fire is eating the Beļinka House. But down below – everything is wrapped in smoke, from which tongues of fire shoot out in places, eruptions of sparks rise, which fly in all directions like bright, deadly bees.” – 1905. gada revolūcija Talsos un apkārtnē, 1927
As soon as Talsi was once again safely back in government hands, the searches and arrests began. This must have been an incredibly scary moment for Jekob and Magreete and their families. My husband’s great-grandfather, Žanis, would have been 13 years old. In the 1897 census, the Zekants family was living at the Nurmuiža Lutheran rectory in the outskirts of Talsi city. Were they still living there? Would they have been targeted as they had a close relationship to the Baltic German pastor? Or were they sympathetic to the rebels. Afterall, their children were attending the sailing schools founded by Krišjānis Valdemārs, as part of the Latvian National Awakening.
I do know that on a farm just down the road from the rectory, Timme farm, two brothers were accused of stealing weapons from Baltic German barons and guards and agitating rebellion.
On the cold morning of the 6th of November 1906, on a site by the pond, Kristaps Timme, 44, and his brother Karlis Timme, 38, were executed by firing squad. Three other men of Nurmuiža were shot that day, including Voldemars Sedliņš, Indriķs Šteinbahs (34) and Augusts Klimpmanis.
In such a small community, there can be little doubt that Jekob and Magreete would have known these men. Did they attend this early monring execution or did they turn theirs heads from such a gruesome spectacle?
Aftermath
427 people were sentenced to death across Latvia and over 2600 were exiled to Siberia. Some revolutionaries fled to safety in Western Europe or the United States. Some of the remaining revolutionaries actually didn’t stop the fight, continuing their rebellion into 1907 by becoming ‘Forest Brothers’; secretly executing further attacks from their hiding places in the dense Latvian forests.
The Tsar’s Cossack troops raged through the land, burning homes, intimidating the population and executing people without trial. The family story goes that Karl Vimba, the husband of Lavize Rozenbergs, my husband’s 3-great aunt, was injured by Cossack troops which led to his eventual death a few years later.
In 1907, Magreete’s sisters all relocated to the small village of Valtaiķi, over 100 km to the southwest of Talsi. Was this move due to the devastation and danger that now engulfed their home? We will probably never know, but it seems likely to have played a part.
The Revolution could be deemed a failure, but it did result in a small step towards the end of Imperial Russia. The first State Duma held elections in April 1906 – an admission by Nicholas that he needed to make some kind of concession to the masses.
The town of Talsi was in ruins after these battles. At least half the city had been destroyed. Many priceless documents were lost forever. The Valgale manor house, owned by the von Fircks family, was levelled.
In 1980, a sculpted monument to these men was placed at the site of the execution. On it is written a poem by the great Latvian nationalist and writer, Rainis (husband to Aspazija) who had played an integral part in the 1905 Revolution. The poem is called ‘Talsu Tiesa’ and recalls the day of the Talsi executions.
I will end with excerpts of this poem:
Late winds wailed late,
Leading summer and day to rest,
The cold dark gates opened slowly,
Which lead into the night and to death.In the holy evening, still opening,
Late opened the old prison gates,
Howling piteously in long phantom voices,
Letting in the soldiers, with clanking chains,
Leading in to deliver five young men.
The prison grants them after a hot fight
Late sleep still, but tomorrow early
The bitter road leads them to another sleep.
Late winds wailed late.Late that same night flew around,
Late news of execution all around Talsi.
In quiet panic they whisper and argue:
“— Listen! — the ringleaders of the revolt are being hauled away!
— Brothers Timmas, Sedliņš, Steinbogs, Klimpmans —
— Ah or the one who was secretary in the board?
— A righteous man, but far too sharp with the masters.
— I already said it, I always say it —
— What can we do against power now —
— But you yourself — you already betrayed those men —
— What to do then? You only have to taste bullets —
— I already said it, I always say it. —”
Late winds wailed late.Late that same night it announced
To ten Talsi men, “who must be present,
When the sentence of death by shooting
Is carried out upon the rebels.”
And so that the pastor and priest do not lack,
The heralds of Christ’s love,
There, where hatred does its deadly work.
Late, unwillingly the sun rose,
Wrapped in a shroud of fog, shivering.
Early at dawn already in the prison cells
Hastened the harbinger of death and the priests,
While workers go to slave away at work,
While little children go to learn
To believe in God and obey the masters…For an hour the priests tormented themselves in vain,
Time now for the soldiers to bring the matter to an end.
Amidst the soldiers, in prisoner’s garb,
Five young men walk the path of death:
On their cheeks pallor dwells, but peace and pride,
A clear light casts over their faces,
On the brow reigns a great thought,
In their eyes they have taken pride,
The lips smile an endless love,
But over all shines the great eyes’
Alien light, which like a glow and lightning
Burns those souls upon which it falls…