Aizsargi (; officially – , or LAO) was a volunteer paramilitary organization,

militia A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or se ...

with some characteristics of a

military reserve force A military reserve force is a military organization whose members (reservists) have military and civilian occupations. They are not normally kept under arms, and their main role is to be available when their military requires additional ma ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

during the

interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

period (1918–1939). The Aizsargi was created on March 30, 1919, by the

Latvian Provisional Government The Latvian Provisional Government () was formed on November 18, 1918 by the People's Council of Latvia as the interim government of the newly-proclaimed Republic of Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence. The term encompasses three cabin ...

as a self-defense force - a kind of National Guard - during the

Latvian War of Independence The Latvian War of Independence (), sometimes called Latvia's freedom battles () or the Latvian War of Liberation (), was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaimed Republic of Latvia was invade ...

. In 1921, it was reorganized to follow the example of the Finnish ''

Suojeluskunta The White Guard, officially known as the Civil Guard (, ; ; ), was a voluntary militia, part of the Finnish Whites movement, that emerged victorious over the socialist Red Guards in the Finnish Civil War of 1918. They were generally known as ...

'' (known as the "White Guard"). The Aizsargi published a newspaper, entitled ("Defender"/"Guard"), and the movement had subsidiary sections for women ("", established in 1926) and youth (""). Latvian delegation in Warsaw

The organization, along with the Latvian Army, provided military support to the 1934 coup d'état of

Kārlis Ulmanis Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis (; 4 September 1877 – 20 September 1942) was a Latvian politician and a dictator. He was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians of pre-World War II Latvia during the Interwar period of independence from N ...

. By 1 January 1940, the organization had a membership of 60,684: 31,874 guards (aizsargi), 14,810 women members (aizsardzes), and 14,000 youth members (jaunsargi).Latvian Armed Forces in 1940
/ref> The organization consisted of 19 infantry regiments and the separate Railroad and Aviation Regiments. On 23 June 1940, the organization was disbanded as a result of the

Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and its Secret Additional Protocol signed i ...

. During the Soviet occupation, the former members of the LAO were heavily persecuted. After the restoration of the independence of Latvia, the Aizsargi organization was not re-established by the government, as the

Latvian National Guard The Latvian National Guard or NG (, ZS) is a part of the Military of Latvia, Latvian National Armed Forces. The National Guard is a basic land component, consisting of volunteers who perform traditional National Guard (disambiguation), national g ...

was formed in 1991 as the main volunteer defence force of the country. Since then, separate small-scale NGOs have claimed to be the successors of the original LAO, which sometimes espoused fringe right-wing political views, e.g. the LAO group led by Riga Film Studio

make-up artist A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying makeup and Prosthetic makeup, prosthetics on others for theatre, television, film, fashion, magazines and other simil ...

Jānis Rība who was assassinated in 1997, possibly by

Pērkonkrusts Pērkonkrusts (, "Thunder Cross") was a Latvian ultranationalist, Anti-German sentiment, anti-German, anti-Slavic, and antisemitic political party founded in 1933 by Gustavs Celmiņš, borrowing elements of German nationalism—but being unsym ...

members; the ''Latvijas Aizsargi'' ('Aizsargi of Latvia') and others.

References

Anti-communist organisations in Latvia Military history of Latvia Paramilitary organisations based in Latvia {{Latvia-hist-stub