Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Latvian: Latvijas Padomju Sociālistiskā Republika; Russian: Латвийская Советская Социалистическая Республика Latviyskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika), and commonly referred to as the Latvian SSR, is a sovereign Soviet socialist state in the Baltic region of the Northern Europe. and one of the seventeen constituent republics of the Soviet Union. It is bordered by Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south and shares a maritime border with Scandinavia to the west. Within the Soviet Union, it is bordered by the Russian SFSR to the east and the Byelorussian SSR to the southeast. Its capital and most populous city is Riga.

It was established on July 21, 1940, during World War II, in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Latvia after it had been occupied on June 17, 1940 by the Soviet Army, in accordance with the terms of the August 23, 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Following the Welles Declaration of July 23, 1940, the annexation of Latvia into the Soviet Union on August 5, 1940 was not recognized as legitimate by the United States and the European Community. Its territory was subsequently conquered by Nazi Germany in June–July 1941, before being retaken by the Soviets in 1944–1945.