At 99 Krišjāņa Barona Street, in the former seminary building, the Latvian War School began classes on October 3, 1919. The state had only just formed its army, but it lacked junior officers, so cadets were trained in haste and under wartime conditions. This was no peaceful academic term – within days Bermondt’s offensive interrupted the lessons, and the school’s personnel were sent to the front. The officer school was born with pencils in satchels and rifles in hand.

During the Latvian War of Independence, building the army and training officers happened at the same time as the fighting for the state’s survival. The War School later became one of the institutions that shaped the professional core of interwar Latvia’s army, although its first autumn began in the shadow of the front.