On 8 July 1919, the Saratov anchored in the Daugava opposite Riga Castle – the ship on which Kārlis Ulmanis’s Provisional Government had taken refuge after the Liepāja coup. Riga was not welcoming an ordinary delegation, but a government just emerging from two and a half months of “exile on water.” In Jānis Balodis’s recollection, the scene is strikingly physical: streets packed with people, flowers, greetings, and a walk along Valdemāra Street to the Foreign Ministry.

The event followed the Battles of Cēsis and the Strazdumuiža armistice, after which German forces had to withdraw from Riga. Two days later, on 10 July, the previously separate Latvian military units were united into the Latvian Army.