Two 1905 Congresses in Latvia: A Reconsideration.

Two Congresses in November 1905-the Schoolteachers Congress and the Rural Delegates Congress-have played an important role in the narratives of the events of the year 1905 in the Latvian territories of the Russian Baltic provinces. When narrative descriptions of the two are contrasted with the information available about them in the most frequently used contemporary sources-newspaper accounts-the statements that can be made about the two Congresses turn out to be anchored in evidence that ranges from the certain, the plausible, and the uncertain. The nature of the evidence requires a reassessment of how the Congresses should be fitted in the larger narrative of the revolutionary year and how much importance can be attached to them in light of what is currently known. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]