Soviet Occupation of Latvia in 1940

The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers, according to the European Court of Human Rights, the Government of Latvia, the United States Department of State, and the European Union, to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union ostensibly under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany.

When World War II started in September 1939 with the German invasion of Poland, Latvia had already come under the Soviet sphere of influence in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and its Secret Additional Protocol of August 1939.

In the reassessment period of the Soviet history that began during the Perestroika, the USSR in 1989 condemned the 1939 secret protocol between Nazi Germany and herself that had led to the invasion and occupation of the three Baltic countries, including Latvia. While Russia acknowledged in a treaty with Lithuania the adverse impact by the USSR on Lithuania's sovereignty prior to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, no such acknowledgment by Russia exists with regard to Estonia or Latvia, and the central authorities of the USSR did not acknowledge occupation prior to its dissolution.

In July 1989 the country stepped on the road of the restoration of its independence, and after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Latvia's sovereignty was fully restored in 1991.