The Borders of Latvia in Historical Perspective

Abstract

The current borders of the middle Baltic state face four countries, of which the northern and southern ones are borders shared with EU and NATO member states within the Schengen area, while the south-eastern and eastern ones are external borders. Despite the fact that Latvia is a young state by historical standards, its southern and eastern borders have shown a high degree of stability for centuries; since those functioned as the external borders of the State of the Teutonic Order, which dominated the region. Those boundaries remained mostly intact under the one and a half, two centuries long Russian rule, mainly as internal administrative borders, yet Latvia’s independence in 1918 necessitated the drawing of borders. It did not prove to be easy: Latvia was at war with one of its four neighbours – Russia – and came to the brink of an armed conflict with two others – Estonia and Lithuania. The drawing of the Latvian-Polish border, the shortest of all, was also not easy due to overlapping claims. Ultimately, the latter lasted the longest, until the end of the 1920s, but the borders drawn up during this period proved to be stable and were not disputed by the parties concerned even after the restoration of independence in 1991 – with the exception of the Abrene region, which was annexed to Russia in 1944, reclaimed by the Latvian political elite and population until the 2000s.