13 ATLASES

History of Latvia in maps

Latvia as it appears in 13 interactive history atlases, from 1789 to 2015: Latvia, Soviet Union, Soviet Latvia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free — every chapter. No sign-up.

Free printable WW2 study guide, sent by email ↓

Map of Europe in June 1940, showing Latvia — MAP OF EUROPE IN JUNE 1940

These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1 — dated political boundaries · French Ministry of the Armed Forces — La ligne de démarcation · IGM Fiume, 1:25,000, sheet53B II SE — boundary established in1924 · Natural Earth — physical reference geography · Yugoslavia (1929–1939) location map — international frontier and Adriatic coast · Treaty of Rome (1924), division of Fiume and west-bank boundary · Murli / rowanwindwhistler — Slovakia border changes, 1938–1945 · United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — The Holocaust in Slovakia · Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute — The First Vienna Award

Source details

Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY4.0 · Dated polity and constituent territory selections; campaign-dependent occupation overlays reconstructed separately.
Ministère des Armées. Historical facts consulted; actual polygon imported from Cliopatria
Istituto Geografico Militare, Fiume (printed1946; 1927 survey with1931–1940 updates), reproduced by Istituto regionale per la storia della Resistenza e dell’Età contemporanea nel Friuli Venezia Giulia. Independent reconstruction from graticule coordinates and boundary observations; archive page reserves artwork rights.. Geographical-fact reconstruction; original archive artwork not distributed
Natural Earth. Public domain
NordNordWest/Wikipedia. Converted from the published SVG to WGS84; eastern Italian regional territory extracted. Source cites Velhagen & Klasings Großer Volksatlas (1938).. CC BY-SA 3.0 Germany
1924 agreement interpreted alongside the regional history institute and City of Rijeka’s explanation of the Donja/Gornja Drenova division.. Historical geographic facts; citation only
Murli; SVG adaptation by rowanwindwhistler (2021). CC BY-SA 2.5; derived geographic paths under the same license · Georeferenced actual published vector regions using eight printed city positions; no map artwork or labels in the atlas.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum — The Holocaust in Slovakia. Historical chronology consulted; no source prose or artwork republished
Slovak Nation’s Memory Institute — The First Vienna Award. Historical territorial chronology consulted; no source artwork or prose republished

Slovak territory is reconstructed from the published 1938–1945 border-change map, which separates the client state from Hungarian and German annexations. This regional source does not resolve small northern frontier changes or survey-level detail. After August 1944, German military occupation supersedes the client-state fill.

The eastern Italian frontier uses the published 1930s regional map and a reconstruction of the 1924 Fiume boundary. Source conquests after April 1941 remain separately dated.

reconstruction: 1936–1940 · reconstruction: 1936–1941 · reconstruction: 1936–1942 · reconstruction: 1939–1944 · reconstruction: 1940.5 · reconstruction: 1940–1940 · reconstruction: 1940–1941 · vector: 1912–1955 · vector: 1924–1940 · vector: 1936–1941 · vector: 1936–1944 · vector: 1936–1945 · vector: 1938–1972 · vector: 1939–1944 · vector: 1939–2023 · vector: 1940–1940 · vector: 1940–1941 · vector: 1940–1942 · vector: 1940–1943

Layer records and reconstruction methods

What was Latvia before it was Latvia? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.

Latvia · Norse and Aztecs

c. 790

Other peoples and states — the opening position

NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Livonia (mod. Latvia) · Mongol Empire

1206	Beyond the conquests — the opening position

MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Latvia (Russian Empire) · Industrial Revolution

1890	Industrialising — the opening position
1890	Industrialising
1890	Industrialising

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Latvia · Age of Revolutions

JUL 1789

The conservative monarchies — the opening position

AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Latvia · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia

Latvia was annexed in 1940. By 1989 about one-third of its population was Russian, a fact that made the independence campaign and later citizenship laws contested. Riga was at the center of the Baltic Way. In January 1991, days after the killings in Vilnius, Soviet special police attacked the Latvian interior ministry and killed several people. Latvia regained independence in 1991 and joined NATO and the European Union in 2004.

OCT 1964	The USSR, then Russia — the opening position
OCT 1990	War, rebellion, breakaway
DEC 1991	Independent neighbours

MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Latvia (Courland & Livonia) · Russian Revolution

Three sides fought in Latvia: nationalists, Baltic Germans and Reds. Yet elsewhere in Russia, Latvian Riflemen were among the Bolsheviks’ most reliable troops. Latvia emerged independent in 1920; that state lasted until the Soviet annexation of 1940.

SEP 1855	The Tsarist empire — the opening position
MAR 1917	Provisional Government, then the Whites
NOV 1917	Soviet power
MAR 1918	Breakaway national states

RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Latvia (Russian Empire) · WWI

JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies — the opening position
JAN 1894	The Entente & Allies
NOV 1917	Russia in revolution
MAR 1918	Under Central Powers occupation
JUN 1919	Neutral or unaligned
NOV 1918	Neutral or unaligned

WWI: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →

Latvia · Stalin’s Soviet Union

Soviet troops occupied independent Latvia in June 1940, and a staged election produced a request to join the Union. About 15,000 people were deported in June 1941. German occupation followed, during which German forces and local collaborators murdered most of Latvia’s Jews. Soviet rule returned in 1944–45 and met armed resistance. Operation Priboi deported more than 40,000 Latvians in March 1949.

JUN–AUG 1940	Annexed by the USSR, 1939–45 — the opening position
JUN–AUG 1940	Annexed by the USSR, 1939–45
DEC 1941	Under German occupation
SEP 1945	Annexed by the USSR, 1939–45

STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →