The consulate of Latvia in Vilnius and the reports from consul Felikss Donass written in autumn 1939

Abstract

Felikss Donass, a professional diplomat, had been the consul of Latvia in Vilnius for seventeen years before the outbreak of World War II. In September 1939 he stayed in the city and sent to his superiors (latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and latvian mission in Moscow) reports on what was happening in the city. His first reports are dated September 17 and the last is from November 16, 1939. At the moment they are stored in the State Historical Archives of Latvia in Riga (Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs). Donass’s reports from Vilnius are a valuable source of information, because they show the complicated situation and happenings in the city at the beginning of World War II from the wiew of a latvian consul, including soviet occupation, reaction of different social groups to it and the enter of lithuanian army in autumn 1939. The reports also show the situation of the consulate of Latvia which was the country declaring neutrality in this conflict.