From serfdom to self-government

The 19th century marks a significant change in the political structure of Latvia. Serfdom is abolished, nationalist movement is born, change of politics regarding land ownership, ending the century with revolution of 1905. All of these events shaped the outline of how agriculture developed further on.

During the first period of the 19th century serfdom was abolished. First it was done in the Northern part of Latvia, and later in the South at the same time as the rest of the Russian Empire, of which Latvia was then part. In addition to the personal right, some farmers also acquired property and started their own farm. Starting from 1870s many houses were purchased and this process lasted till the beginning of the 20th century. The circumstances for farmers got complicated: they lost their old rights to land and were transformed from the owners to lenders without clear guarantee for lasting rights to use land. Landlords became owners of manors land as well as former farmers land. Centuries old patriarchal relationships, which determined the landlord's duty to take care for peasants in case of hunger and poor harvests ended. These were replaced by economic relationships of free men, who signed contracts at seemingly equal positions. More over, landlords signed contracts with individuals, not with farmsteads that led to destruction of the patriarchal farmsteads, mostly the only liveable form to maintain a farm.

The agricultural society was marked by 3 social groups: a small percentage of German landlords, holding the economic and political power, Latvian farmers with restricted citizen and economic rights and a vast amount of landless farmers with almost no rights and power.

However, the luxury lifestyle of landlords gradually pushed them into financial problems and forced them to sell their lands. Eventually the relatively small farmers became more productive than the large manors. During this period 70% of the population inhabited the countryside.

The largest farms were the size of the smallest manors, but these smallest manors (up to 10 ha) didn't even own a horse. As a consequence, there were farmers who produced and farmers who were solely self sustained. Besides this the land reform made a the third type of "landless" farmers who worked in manors' or other farmers' properties (estimated to 2/3 to 3/4 of inhabitants).

Technologies entered slowly, up until mid 20th century mainly horses were used (instead of motorized technique). This technological underdevelopment made local produce more expensive than imported products. As a result, cattle breeding became more widespread than grain crops. Dairy products were the main agricultural produce, butter was even exported. Dairy thus became the main profile of Latvian agriculture industry, which is the case up to the present moment.

At the beginning of the 20th century, manors still owned around 50% of the land, with an average size of 2500 ha (largest up to 70000 ha). Social inequalities and injustices sparkled protests in the Latvian countryside, especially among landless farmers, which led to revolutionary events.

Revolution of 1905 heavily damaged the countryside in Latvian regions. Many manors were burned down or destroyed, fields were not cultivated and looked after. It led to fear in owners of manors to invest in agriculture. Many people left the countryside, and tense relationships established among those who stayed. Due to perceiving smallholder farmers as economic rivals, same as large landlords, the relationship among landless farmers and smallholder farmers worsened. Social democratic party took the leadership of a radical wing of landless farmers and formulated their economic claims: democratic elections; eight hour working day; union of working people in the countryside to defend their interests.

In an attempt to counter the rebellions of the Latvian farmers and to create a loyal society, as well as to avoid the lack of workforce, German landlords started colonising western and northern part of Latvian territory by moving in 5 000 German farmers. This move however only exacerbated already complicated relationships between Latvians and Germans. The same strategy was adopted by the government of the Russian tsar, but failed to be implemented on a large scale due to WWI.

The WWI destroyed 1/4th of the agricultural buildings and 20% of arable lands were overgrown. In 1915 Latvia was partly occupied by Germans and Russian empire. More than 500,000 people fled from one occupied part to another. Refugees headed north and east, to the Russian territory. Russian army, while stepping back, was destroying houses, bridges and fields. Despite calls not to leave their land, almost all Latvian farmers left their farmsteads, leaving german, jewish and polish farmers in place. This exile was clear vote with the feet against germans at that time, the mood was clearly anti-german. However the german landlords constituted roughly about half of the large landlords, the main dissatisfaction and frustration among Latvian farmers was clearly against german landlords.

At the beginning of 1919 almost all territory of Latvia was incorporated to Soviet Russia. The newly formed Soviet Congress transferred all the lands and buildings previously owned by manors, monasteries, churches and farmers to the local Soviet governments. The private property was abolished. Instead of distributing the lands taken from manors among the farmers, as promised, the manors were turned into communal farms and the rest of the land was rented to the farmers. This tactical "mistake, along with the 'red terror' that killed almost 4000 people within 5 months during the so-called elimination of social classes, triggered Latvian farmers to fight against the Soviet forces.