ON THE WAY TO THE WEST? CONSTITUTION OF LATVIA OF 1922
The article is devoted to the process of elaboration and adoption of the Constitution of Latvia in 1922. It also attempts to identify the influence of Western Europen experience and political events, namely the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922 on the genesis of the constitutional provisions. The article notes that in 1920 three variants of gouvernment could be implemented in Latvia - the conservative-aristocratic under German influence, the Soviet and parliamentary-democratic, which is based on Western European model of parliamentary democracy. Weakening of the Latvian Social-Democracy under the influence of the Civil War in Russia led to the fact that the focus on the Western European model became fundamental in the process of drafting the constitution. One of the most contentious issues in the drafting of the constitution was the question of the rights of the president. The discussion was between the agrarian party advocating for a strong president elected on the basis of national elections and the Socila- Democratic party advocating for a weak presidential power and for a superposition of the president and the speaker of parliament positions. As a result, the point of view of the Socila-Democrats won, so that the president under the Constitution of 1922 was elected not by people but by parliament and only for three years.