Voldemārs Ozols (17 October 1884, Vidreja,

Vitebsk Governorate Vitebsk Governorate (russian: Витебская губерния, ) was an administrative unit ( guberniya) of the Russian Empire, with the seat of governorship in Vitebsk. It was established in 1802 by splitting the Byelorussia Governorate an ...

– 12 July 1949) was a

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 ...

n military commander, lieutenant colonel, honored with the

Order of Lāčplēsis The Order of Lāčplēsis (also Lāčplēsis Military Order, lv, Lāčplēša Kara ordenis), the first and the highest Latvian military award, was established in 1919 on the initiative of Jānis Balodis, the Commander of the Latvian Army during ...

, one of the Latvian Riflemen, a military theorist, and a

right wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

politician. On 15 December 1932, he founded a right-wing extremist organization, The Society of the Cavaliers of the

and Freedom Fighters "Legion" (Lāčplēša kara ordeņa kavalieru un brīvības cīnītāju biedrība "Leģions"), known simply as the Legion. It was a rather small organization, primarily of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and

Latvian War of Independence The Latvian War of Independence ( lv, Latvijas Neatkarības karš), 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 proclaim ...

veterans. In 1934, in the declaration of the

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

Kārlis Ulmanis Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis (; 4 September 1877 – 20 September 1942) was a Latvian politician. He was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians of pre-World War II Latvia during the Interwar period of independence from November 1918 to ...

, the Legion was the only organization mentioned by name as a threat to the state. Ozols was arrested and accused of the preparation of a coup.''The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia'' by

Andres Kasekamp Andres Ilmar Kasekamp (born 7 December 1966 in Toronto) is the director of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute ( :et) (since 2000) and Professor of Baltic Politics at the University of Tartu, Estonia (since 2004). Andres Kasekamp served as ...

(2000);
pg. 143
/ref>

References

1884 births 1949 deaths People from Liozna District People from Orshansky Uyezd Latvian Lutherans Latvian military personnel Latvian military personnel of the Latvian War of Independence Latvian Riflemen Latvian politicians 20th-century Latvian politicians Recipients of the Order of Lāčplēsis {{latvia-bio-stub