The fate of Latvia and her Baltic neighbors were sealed with a stroke of a pen from Russian Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov in August of 1939. The Russian-German neutrality pact divided up Eastern Europe between the two countries. Germany had a free hand in taking over Poland, while the Soviet Union was acknowledged to have “interest” in Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and a part of Romania. With a half-million men readied to invade across the border if they would not agree, Stalin forced both Latvia and Estonia to allow Russian garrisons in their territories. From there the path to annexation was laid bare.

On this day, August 5, in 1940, after a manufactured conflict orchestrated by Russia allowed the Red the Army marched into the Latvian capital to take control, a Russian-backed “People’s government and parliament” formally asked to join the Soviet Union.

The military phase of the takeover took place quietly in mid-June of 1940, as the rest of the world was distracted by the fall of France to Hitler. The political phase was legitimized by an election to the “People’s Parliament” with a startling 97.6% turnout, and the results of which were published in Moscow a full 12 hours before the polls closed.