The People's Council of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Tautas padome, LTP) was a temporary council which declared

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

's independence on November 18, 1918 and then acted as the temporary parliament of the country until a

Constitutional Assembly A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...

was elected. The People's Council was formed on November 17, 1918 as a result of merging two councils of Latvian organizations:

Latvian Provisional National Council Latvian Provisional National Council (, LPNP) was a political organization established on November 29, 1917 (November 16 in the Julian calendar) in Valka, Governorate of Livonia by the Latvian Refugee Support Central Committee, Latvian political p ...

( lv, Latvijas Pagaidu Nacionālā padome'','' LPNP) and the Democratic Bloc. Originally, the People's Council had 40 members representing all the major Latvian political organizations, except the far right and the far left ( communists). It was later expanded to 245 representatives. On November 18, 1918, the People's Council declared Latvia an independent country at the now

National Theatre of Latvia The Latvian National Theatre ( lv, Latvijas Nacionālais teātris) is one of the leading professional theatres in Latvia. The building is in the Eclectic style and is an architectural and artistic monument. The country of Latvia was proclaimed ...

. It chose

Jānis Čakste Jānis Kristaps Čakste (14 September 1859 – 14 March 1927) was a Latvian politician and lawyer who served as the first head of an independent Latvian state as the Chairman of the People's Council (1918–1920), the Speaker of the Constitutio ...

as the President of the Council and Kārlis Ulmanis as the Prime Minister of the Latvian Provisional Government. The People's Council acted as a temporary parliament of Latvia until May 1, 1920 when the Constitutional Assembly was elected.

References

External links

Tautas padome
Political history of Latvia 1918 establishments in Latvia {{Latvia-hist-stub Independence of Latvia