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Latvia v USA (my first mini TL)
HI, I wrote this couple paragraphs for an AH challenge and as my first piece of AH I was wondering if I could find out what people think of my style of writing. Is it interesting or boring? Does it make you happy or go into a scary rage? Would you prefer I stopped asking questions and let you decide for yourself? Please comment as I would rally appreciate feedback, Thanks.
The USA’s involvement in the Russian Civil War (published by Oxford University Press,1987)
Chapter 5: The lesser known story of US troops in Latvia
Summary
When on November 18, 1918 Latvia declared herself independant from the Russian Empire, many Latvians wondered what the future might hold. While Latvia was proclaimed a republic, many Latvians wished the country to become Communist. This scared the Latvian government as they knew what happpened in Russia, and they did not want a Communist revolution in Latvia.
In early 1919, the Latvian government's fear came true as the Latvian division of the Red Army attacked Riga and won the following battle against the government's troops. The government was forced to flee and Pēteris Stučka (leader of the Latvian Communist Party) took control of the country. Many feared this would lead to Latvia being reabsorbed into Russia (now the Soviet Union.) However this was not so, as in an act that still puzzles historians to this day, he confirmed Latvian independence and thus crowned himself King of Latvia.* He then ordered his loyal troops to purge Latvia of both Communist and Western influences, citing that it was the only way to keep Latvia pure.
Unfortunately, during what is now known as the January terror, two American aid workers were killed brutally on the streets of Riga, thus causing an outrage in America. After a further death of another US citizen the US declared War on Latvia, on the 23rd of January 1919. American troops in Germany were immediately mobilized, and much to dismay of Stučka had landed near Riga by the 4th of February. On the 6th of February the Americans entered Riga to find that Stučka had fled**, and so the Americans had technically won the war against Latvia without a single major offensive. American troops would stay in Latvia for the next 33 years until the Soviet Union finally acknowledged its independence in 1952 after the devastating Sino-Soviet war that left the Soviet Union a shell of what it had been in 1919.
*Prominent historian Professor H Turtledove of the University of Los Angeles has proposed that Stučka was suffering from psychosis and that the shock of finding himself in power led to him going completely insane. However most other historians believe that Stučka had just too much faith in his own troops and that lead to an over confidence in his own abilities.
** Stučka was captured by the German Freikorp’s unit “Landeswehr” on the 18th of February and was eventually tried and executed at the Versailles Trials for crimes against humanity on the 16th July, 1920. Both the 18th of February and the 16th f July are now national holiday’s in Latvia.