Demobilization of Latvians from the 24th Red Army territorial rifle corps on June 20–30, 1941

Abstract

This article, on the basis of unpublished sources and publications of the Latvian historians previously not introduced into wide scientific circulation, considers one of little-known pages of an initial stage of the Great Patriotic War — demobilization of the military personnel of Latvians from the 24th Latvian territorial rifle corps of Red Army on June 29–30, 1941. The author of the article attempts to show not only the course of this demobilization, but also try to answer the question of what causes forced the leadership of the USSR and the Red Army to take this step, which processes and outcomes accompanied it, and what reflection it received in historiography. Key attention is paid to consideration of this perspective on the basis of the unpublished documents which had previously not been introduced into scientific circulation. Refs 13.