The building of the Union plant in Riga
The Union plant was founded in 1898 on the basis of the Russian-Baltic Electrotechnical Plant. In 1904, the plant became the property of the German concern AEG. In 1905, it was taken over by the Russian Society of the General Electricity Company (VKE), a subsidiary of the AEG concern. The company manufactured electrical equipment for naval vessels, electric trams and other electrical appliances. In 1915, in connection with the outbreak of the First World War, the enterprise was evacuated to Kharkov. Subsequently, the VEF plant (1919-1999), the largest and most famous Latvian enterprise in the 20th century, was located in the shops of the former VKE.
>>
Russian minority and the economic life of interwar Latvia
In the 1920’s and 1930’s the economic situation in Latvia differed radically from that at the beginning of the 20th Century. Most of those industrial enterprises that had been evacuated to Russia never returned to Latvia after the First World War. After the war Latvia’s economy could not rely on raw material or the market of Soviet Russia. The industry of independent Latvia was dominated by agriculture as well as medium-sized and small businesses, mainly in food and wood-processing. >>
