Arturs Sproģis (6 March 1904 – 2 October 1980; russian: Артур Карлович Спрогис) was a Latvian colonel and commander of the Soviet partisans during the

occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany The military occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany was completed on July 10, 1941 by Germany's armed forces. Initially, the territory of Latvia was under the military administration of Army Group North, but on 25 July 1941, Latvia was i ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Early life and career

Sproģis was born in

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

in 1904 in to a working-class family. In 1919 he voluntarily joined the Latvian Red Riflemen at the age of 15 in defence of the short-lived Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic. At the same time he also joined the

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League (russian: link=no, Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи (ВЛКСМ), ), usually known as Komsomol (; russian: Комсомол, links=n ...

. In 1920, he was sent to Komosomol courses in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, after which he continued his military service in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

fighting against the

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

forces of General Wrangel. Subsequently, he attended military academy, finishing in 1922. Thereafter he served in the border guards until 1928, when he was sent to the

OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU; russian: Объединённое государственное политическое управление) was the intelligence and state security service and secret police of the Soviet Union f ...

Border Guards School in Moscow for further training. Following these courses, he was assigned to the Special Section (Counterintelligence) of the

Byelorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

, where he served until 1936. He then was sent on a special mission in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlism, Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebeli ...

. After returning from Spain in 1937, he began courses at the Red Army's M. V. Frunze Military Academy, completing his studies in 1941.

Soviet partisan

With the start of

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

, Sproģis was involved in organising anti-German partisan resistance in Belarus and Latvia. From its formation in 1943 until 1944, Sproģis served as the Chief of Staff of the

Latvian resistance movement Latvian may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Latvia **Latvians, a Baltic ethnic group, native to what is modern-day Latvia and the immediate geographical region **Latvian language, also referred to as Lettish **Latvian cuisine **Latvi ...

Later career

Later, he was appointed to the special group of activists from the Communist Party of Latvia, whose job it was to re-establish the functioning of the

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Latvian SSR), also known as Soviet Latvia or simply Latvia, was a federated republic within the Soviet Union, and formally one of its 16 (later 15) constituent Republics of the Soviet Union, republics. Th ...

after the Germans had been driven out of the country. From 1944, he resided in Riga. After the complete liberation of the Latvian SSR from the Nazis and their allies, Sprogis was appointed head of the military department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvia. Sproģis was awarded the

Order of the Red Banner The Order of the Red Banner (russian: Орден Красного Знамени, Orden Krasnogo Znameni) was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of th ...

four times, as well as the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (russian: Орден Ленина, Orden Lenina, ), named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6, 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration ...

Sources

* All details from Sproģis's CV in 1944, published in H. Strods (see below), v. 2, pp. 76–7.

Literature

* Strods, Heinrihs (ed.), ''PSRS kaujinieki Latvijā'', 2 vols (Riga, 2006–7); (v. 1), (v. 2) * Боярский, В.И., ''Диверсанты Западного фронта: Артур Спрогис и другие. Страницы Памят'' (Moscow: Красная звезда, 2007);

External links

* http://pobeda.rambler.ru/scouts.html?id=234 * http://det.lib.ru/o/olbik/spartakgorchdoc.shtml * https://web.archive.org/web/20071207104509/http://www.world-war.ru/article_455.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20080415184611/http://www.mezhdunarodnik.ru/rubricisubject/5978.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Sprogis, Arturs 1904 births 1980 deaths Military personnel from Riga People from the Governorate of Livonia Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Latvian people of the Spanish Civil War Recipients of the Order of Lenin Soviet Latvian partisans Soviet people of the Spanish Civil War NKVD officers Frunze Military Academy alumni Soviet border guards

Early life and career

Soviet partisan

Later career

Sources

Literature

See also

External links