Sloka – a city in the shadow of war

Nowadays, Sloka is part of Jurmala, but more than a hundred years ago, the history of the city was significantly affected by war.

During World War I, Sloka was in the front line for several years. The damage from the war was enormous – 456 of the 567 town houses were destroyed. The Sloka cemetery is also associated with the war, where Latvian and Siberian Russian riflemen who fell in World War I and the Latvian freedom struggle are buried. One of the memorial objects is a monument designed by architect Eižens Laube in 1923.

The area around Sloka also became a venue for the Latvian freedom struggle in 1919. In March–May, battles took place near Sloka between the forces of the Latvian Provisional Government and the military units subordinate to the government of Pēteris Stučka.

A special story is connected with the Sloka cellulose factory. It was not only an important industrial enterprise – during the war its activities also fell within the scope of defense needs. In 1941, the factory considered the production of opaque camouflage materials, which was related to air defense.

The factory's importance in the life of the city was much broader. Until 1926, it provided Sloka with electricity, but in the fall of 1944, at the end of World War II, the pulp and paper mill was one of the companies that resumed electricity production, helping to restore the war-damaged energy supply.

Therefore, the history of Sloka can also be read as a story about how the war affected the city, its people, and its industry – and how industry, in turn, helped the city recover after the war.