Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

al Democratic Workers of Russia in Minsk (1898), and partially as a consequence of the increasing political action in the Baltic provinces, separate small groups of people in Riga with a Social Democratic orientation unified to form the Riga Social Democratic Organisation.” However, soon various branches of socialism started to emerge from within the unified organisation. In general, they were hostile towards religion, as evident in so-called “church demonstrations” that took place in many Lutheran churches (and in some cases, also in Orthodox parishes) during the 1905 Revolution, forcing pastors to leave the pulpit, to be replaced by a socialist agitator. The Riga Social Democratic Organisation viewed the Lutheran Church, controlled by the Baltic German nobility, as reactionary and oppressive. Latvian clergy generally opposed socialism because of its negative view '8 Oscar Wilde, De Profundis and Other Writings (London: Penguin Books, 1986), p. 27. '? Dienas Lapa was published in Riga from 1886 until 1905. Among its editors were such known Latvian Leftists as poet Janis Rainis, revolutionary Davids Bundza (who later emi- grated to America), Péteris Stucka (head of the Soviet government in Latvia from 1918- 1920) and others. 0 J. Krastins (ed), Riga: 1860-1917 (Riga: Zinatne, 1978), p. 144. 106 of religion. Only in rare cases did Lutheran and Orthodox pastors (for example Lutheran minister Juris Rozéns) support the political demands of the lower classes.” Nor were Latvian Baptists actively involved in the revolution of 1905.” While some Baptists were executed or exiled by tsarist forces, not all were revolutionaries. Many ordinary people who did not directly support the revolution were among those who suffered.” Established in 1918, the Social Democrats were among the strongest political groups in the Republic of Latvia. They maintained a negative attitude toward the church, opposing religious education in schools and combating especially Catholicism, which they viewed as relic from the middle ages, and therefore criticised more harshly than they did Prot- estants. Besides the Social Democrats, there were also smaller political groups associated with the socialist “camp”. But boundaries between polit- ical ideologies were not always strict. Parties borrowed rhetoric from each other to attract a wider proportion of citizens. For example, the newspaper Latvis [The Lett] published by rightwing politician Arvéds Bergs, used such phrases as “rightly understood interests of classes” and “healthy socialism” (in contrast with “unhealthy socialism”). There were several political parties directly linked with the church. The Association of Christians, established in 1920 and originally called the Christian National Party, was led primarily by Lutheran pastors and combined nationalism with Christian values. In 1920, another party was established, the Union of Latgale Christian Peasants, which followed a p