The Latvian Riflemen (Latvian: Latviešu strēlnieki; Russian: Латышские стрелки, romanized: Latyshskie strelki) were originally a military formation of the Imperial Russian Army assembled starting 1915 in Latvia in order to defend Baltic governorates against the German Empire in World War I.

The Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party (LSDRP) was well organized and its leading elements were increasingly sympathetic to the Bolsheviks by the time of the 1905 Revolution.

When punitive expeditions were mounted by the state following this, armed resistance groups - often affiliated to the LSDRP - were set up to conduct guerilla warfare against the Tsarist regime.

By April 1915, when the Imperial German Army was advancing into Latvian territory, some prominent Latvians, led by deputy Jānis Goldmanis [lv; ru] used their position in the State Duma to call on Tsar Nicholas II to establish all-Latvian battalions.

[1] At Jelgava two battalions of the Latvian Home Guard had already held back the Imperial German Army.

The first battalions consisted mainly of volunteers, especially refugees from Courland and workers from the factories evacuated to inner Russia from Riga.

Suffering heavy casualties, Latvian riflemen managed to break the German line of defence but the effort was in vain as the attack was not followed through.

After victory in the Oryol-Kromy operation against Denikin in October 1919, a division of Latvian Riflemen received the highest military recognition of that time: the Honorable Red Flag of VTsIK.

[citation needed] Other former Riflemen remained in Soviet Russia and rose to leadership positions in the Red Army, Communist Party, and Cheka.

The most famous pre-World War II Soviet Communist leaders from Latvia were from the Red Riflemen: Martin Latsis, Jēkabs Peterss, Arvīds Pelše, Yan Karlovich Berzin, Yan Rudzutak, Pēteris Stučka, Robert Eikhe.

Officers such as Kārlis Goppers and Frīdrihs Briedis tried to prevent Bolshevik ideas from spreading among the Latvian soldiers.