The Great October Revolution opened up the possibility of creating a socialist society for all the peoples of Russia. But it was only after the expulsion of the fascist invaders from the territory of the republic that the working people of Latvia were able to truly embark on socialist transformation. This essay is devoted to the difficult path of the Latvian rural workers to socialism. 1. The Baron, the landlord, and the farmhand "We can say, perhaps, that in Latvia the rural proletariat existed earlier than capitalism." 1 There is some truth in these words of P. I. Stuchka. Even under serfdom, peasant land was assigned here by landlords to dependent wealthy peasants, who were given serf laborers at their disposal. On average, there were three or four serf labourers for each farmstead of the serf "owners" .2 The former had some advantages. In particular, under their control, farmhands worked out corvee. On the basis of a law drawn up by the Courland and Livonian nobility and approved by Alexander I, the abolition of serfdom was proclaimed in Courland on August 25, 1817 and in Livonia on March 26, 1819. By renouncing their serfs and their rights to the peasants, the local barons retained their ownership of the land. The peasant was deprived of the means of production and land use rights that he previously had. It was a legal robbery for the benefit of the nobility. In addition, the Baltic barons 3 enjoyed various privileges. Myznaya Zemlya was exempted from volost taxes and duties. Only the nobility had the right to maintain inns, shinkas, spirits and breweries. The right of patronage (appointment of Lutheran pastors), organization of bazaars, hunting and fishing supplemented their privileges. Noble class organizations were given the opportunity to resolve issues of self-government, manage police supervision and courts. It was "the most severe form of corvee that any peasant in the entire world has ever experienced." 4The implementation of the new legislation has tur ... Read more