Indigenous pagans from times before history. Russians. Germans. Swedes. Poles. Lithuanians. The Russian Orthodox Church. Crusaders. Mercenaries. The Catholic Church. Seafaring merchants. From the early 1200’s through the early 1700’s (the timespan within the focus of this book), the control of Riga sloshed around between these competing — and occasionally allied — forces like beer in a nearly empty keg on a boat in heavy seas. A clunky sentence? Yes, but it also captures the frothiness and chaos of Riga.
Not being any sort of a northern European history buff, I went into this book with some trepidation, fearing it would be overly academic and inaccessible to newbs such as myself. I’m happy to report that with the judicious use of skipping forward a page or two here and there, I came out the other side with an appreciation for the unique and overlooked role that Riga has played in European history.
Fun fact: I never knew that there was a northern front to the Crusades. With 100% of the imagery of the Crusades in my mind being focused on the Holy Land abutting the Mediterranean, there was also a long-running effort by the Roman Catholic Church to convert pagans in the Baltic regions of northern Europe to Christianity. Through a combination of the cross, commerce, coercion and the crossbow, the pagan tribes eventually succumbed and/or formed alliances with the arriving forces. For those who refused to acquiesce and acknowledge the radiant beauty of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ… those people were erased from the landscape. As gawd would have wanted.
Fun fact #2: For Christians who joined the Crusades in the fight to retake Jerusalem from the Muslims (mission accomplished!), fighters could be granted up to a lifetime’s worth of indulgences by the church. Righteous, dude. For those willing to take up arms and head off to Riga and Europe’s northern climes, one year’s worth of indulgences would be granted. One year?! Pray tell, dear Pope, how the hell does that even work? Do I get to pick the year? Is it randomly selected? If so, by whom? Is it selected before or after my term of service? Can it be a year in the future or does it have to be for deeds that have already been completed? Does it have to be a single calendar year or can it be a fiscal year? Can I (or the indulgence grantor) pick and choose specific minutes/hours/days/weeks/months that would add up to a year? So. Many. Questions.
At any rate, within the span of this book’s focus (after the early 1700’s, Riga slipped into two centuries of Russian tsarist rule), Riga saw half a millennium of constantly morphing ruling interests. But in the end… after breaking away from the German empire in the aftermath of WWI only to be forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, only to be invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany and only to be re-occupied by the Soviets at the end of WWII and finally becoming an independent parliamentary republic following the collapse of the USSR, the most unexpected of all outcomes is that since 1991, Riga has stood as the capital city of its own sovereign territory. History whiplash.
Will Riga’s indepence be a permanent and lasting thing? History seems to indicate that we should check back here in a few years. In the meantime, go track down a copy of this work for yourself: https://search.worldcat.org/en/title/1090904513
And if you want to kick some of this history around with Dr. O’Connor, go hang out at your local disc golf course or join a game of Risk. Listen for the muffled swearing and you will probably have found your guy.
ReMarkable 