The Ulmanis regime was unique among other European dictatorships of the interwar period. Ulmanis did not create a ruling party, rubber-stamp parliament or a new ideology. It was a nonpartisan, personal, and
paternalistic dictatorship in which Ulmanis—who called himself "the leader of the people"—claimed to do what he thought was best for Latvians. All political life was proscribed, while culture and economy were eventually organized into a type of
corporate statism made popular during those years by Mussolini. Chambers of Professions were created, similar to
Chambers of Corporations in other dictatorships. All political parties, including Ulmanis' own
Farmers' Union, were outlawed. Part of the
Latvian Constitution and
civil liberties were suspended. All newspapers owned by political parties or organizations were closed and all publications were subjected to censorship and government oversight by the Ministry of Public Affairs led by Alfrēds Bērziņš. The army and the
Aizsargi paramilitary were lavished with privileges. Ulmanis is often believed to have been a popular leader especially among farmers and ethnic Latvians. This is debatable. His party had never won more than 17 percent of the vote in any election and had seen its support steadily decline in the years since the 1922 constitutional convention. In the
1931 election, the Farmers' Union only won 12.2 percent of the vote, an all-time low. Some historians believe that one of the chief motives for the coup was his fear of losing even more votes in the upcoming elections. From the time of his coup until his demise, for obvious reasons, no reliable voting or popularity statistics were available.
Ideology Ulmanis was a Latvian
nationalist, who espoused the slogan "Latvia for Latvians" which meant that Latvia was to be a Latvian
nation state, not a
multinational state with traditional Baltic German elites and Jewish entrepreneurial class. At the same time, the slogan "Latvia's sun shines equally over everyone" was used and no ethnic group was actively targeted. A limited number of German, Jewish and other minority press and organizations continued to exist as far as the limitations of authoritarian dictatorship permitted. Yiddish newspapers were hit particularly hard. In practice only the religious party Agudat Israel's newspaper
Haint was not forbidden, while popular publications
Dos Folk,
Frimorgn,
Riger Tog, and
Naier Fraitik were closed. The official 1936 chamber of commerce list of newspapers and magazines does not list a single Yiddish, Hebrew or Jewish publication.
Latvianisation policies were followed in the area of education, cutting and removing subsidies for minority education. During Ulmanis' rule, education was strongly emphasized and
literacy rates in Latvia reached high levels. Especially in eastern Latvia
Latgale region however, education was actively used as a tool of assimilation of minorities. Many new schools were built, but they were Latvian schools and minority children were thus assimilated.
Economy Economic historians are divided as whether Latvia experienced economic stagnation or prosperity during the Ulmanis regime. The state assumed a larger role in the economy and
state capitalism was introduced by purchasing and uniting smaller competing private companies into larger state enterprises. This process was controlled by , a state bank established in 1935. Many large-scale building projects were undertaken—new schools, administrative buildings,
Ķegums Hydroelectric Power Station. Due to an application of the economics of
comparative advantage, the
United Kingdom and
Germany became Latvia's major trade partners, while trade with the
USSR was reduced. The economy, especially the
agriculture and
manufacturing sectors, was
micromanaged to an extreme degree. Ulmanis
nationalized many industries. This resulted in rapid economic growth, during which Latvia attained a very high standard of living. At a time when most of the world's economy was still suffering from the effects of the
Great Depression, Latvia could point to increases in both gross national product (
GNP) and in exports of Latvian goods overseas. This, however, came at the cost of liberty and civil rights. The policy of Ulmanis, even before his accession to power, was openly directed toward eliminating the minority groups from economic life and of giving Latvians of Latvian ethnicity access to all positions in the national economy. This was sometimes referred to as "
Lettization". According to some estimates, about 90% of the banks and credit establishments in Latvia were state-owned or under Latvian management in 1939, against 20% in 1933.
Alfrēds Birznieks, the minister of agriculture, in a speech delivered in
Ventspils on 26 January 1936, said: As a result, the economic and cultural influence of minorities—
Germans,
Jews,
Russians,
Poles—declined. Latvia's first full-length sound movie '''' (1939) was a tale of a young fisherman who tries to free other local fishermen from the power of a middleman and shows them that the future lies in cooperative work. The movie was based on a widely popular novel written by
Vilis Lācis who in 1940 became the Prime Minister of the Soviet-occupied
Latvian SSR. == Later life and death ==