The Aizsargi published a newspaper, entitled Aizsargs ("Defender"/"Guard"), and the movement had subsidiary sections for women ("Aizsardzes", established in 1926)[3] and youth ("Jaunsargi").The organization, along with the Latvian Army, provided military support to the 1934 coup d'état of Kārlis Ulmanis.

[4][5] On 23 June 1940, the organization was disbanded as a result of the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940.

During the Soviet occupation, the former members of the LAO were heavily persecuted.

[6] After the restoration of the independence of Latvia, the Aizsargi organization was not re-established by the government, as the Latvian National Guard was formed in 1991 as the main volunteer defence force of the country.

Since then, separate small-scale NGOs have claimed to be the successors of the original LAO, which sometimes espoused fringe right-wing political views, e.g. the LAO group led by Riga Film Studio make-up artist Jānis Rība who was assassinated in 1997, possibly by Pērkonkrusts members; the Latvijas Aizsargi ('Aizsargi of Latvia') and others.