My Home and My Family Are Now Our Regiment: National Belonging and Familial Feelings in Latvian Units during World War II

Peteris Čačka was a World War II Latvian soldier for whom “the national idea of Latvia had remained sacred since childhood.” Yet, the Latvian state no longer de facto existed when war erupted on the territory of Latvia in 1941, meaning that Čačka could only serve in the military of another state. After being conscripted into the German-organized Latvian Legion in 1944, Čačka deserted and hid in Latvia until the Soviet Union’s Red Army arrived, willingly joining its 43rd Guards Latvian Rifle Division. Latvians in the Red Army, he argued, “were all [nationally minded], not communist, and all of us