A Soldier in Two Armies: Latvian citizens who served in combat with both the German Army and the Soviet Army in World War II

• In Event: Latvia in World War II: History, Memory and Conditionality

Abstract

In Kurzeme on 23 January 1945, soldiers of the Latvian 19th Waffen SS Grenadier Division that where fighting on the German side captured a 19-year-old Riga native, Pavel Jegorov, a soldier of the 376th Rifle Division of the Red Army. During the interrogation, it was learned that he had been released from the prisoner-of-war camp at the Riga Citadel only on 14 December 1944 and had become a Soviet soldier. According to the prisoner, there were about 1 000 prisoners in the camp, of whom several hundred were, after examinations, enrolled in the ranks of the Red Army, including the penal companies. Pavel Yegorov's testimony sheds light on a unique phenomenon in Latvia. The exact number of such soldiers who took part in hostilities on both sides is unknown, but secondary sources suggest that there could be a few thousands of such cases. Although both occupation regimes illegally mobilized Latvian citizens, it was the Soviet military doctrine that created the preconditions for the use of soldiers, regardless of their previous experience in the German army. The paper will analyze the reasons for the appearance of such soldiers, the course of their service and their possible fates. Even today, the different approaches of the occupying armies to the recruitment, training and use of soldiers on the battlefield during the World War II shape different self-identification of veterans, public attitudes towards them and traditions of commemorating soldiers.

Author

• Valdis Kuzmins, National Defence Academy of Latvia