Latvia

Abstract

Socialist ideology was strong in the latter part of the 19th century in those territories of the Russian Empire that eventually constituted the Republic of Latvia in November 1918. Different shades of Socialism were found among activists of the New Current movement that generally strove for broad social and political changes for the emerging Latvian nation. The wide appeal of the New Current is often attributed to a relatively high rate of urbanization, literacy and the industrial development of Latvia at the end of the 19th century.