Iskolastrel

(full name, Executive Committee of the Joint Soviet of Latvian Rifle Regiments), elected at the first congress of deputies of Latvian riflemen in Riga on Mar. 27–29 (Apr. 9–11), 1917.

Nine of the 28 members of Iskolastrel were Bolsheviks, including K. Petersons, P. Barda, and A. Petersons, and 19 were nonparty people, including Captain V. Ozols, the chairman. At the second congress of deputies of Latvian riflemen, held in Riga on May 12–17 (25–30), the Latvian riflemen began to side with the Bolshevik Party; more than half of the newly elected 50 members of Iskolastrel were Bolsheviks. During the preparation and execution of the October Socialist Revolution of 1917, Iskolastrel was the main stronghold of the Bolsheviks in Latvia, and it supported the Soviet government in Latvia after the victory of the revolution. In February 1918, when German troops occupied all of Latvia, Iskolastrel reorganized the Latvian regiments in Soviet Russia into units of the Red Army and united them into a rifle division.