which was an attempt to revive an assumed pre-Christian Latvian religion. Despite its rural ideals, Pērkonkrusts gained most of its support in the urban areas like Riga, Cēsis, Valmiera, Jelgava, more specifically among students at the University of Latvia. Party symbols "Thunder Cross" is one of the names for the swastika in Latvian, which was used as a symbol of the organization. The group used a variation of the Roman or Hitler salute, and greeted with the Latvian phrase "Cīņai sveiks" ("Ready for battle" or "Hail the struggle"). According to Latvian historian , although the party used both the swastika and the Roman salute, it was neither affiliated with, nor a copycat of German Nazism— as was the case with the headed by . The uniform of Pērkonkrusts was a grey shirt and black beret. History Before World War II The fascist group (Fire Cross), one of the Latvian ethnic symbols as well as a sign which is a mirrored image of a swastika, was founded in Latvia in 1932 by Gustavs Celmiņš, but was soon outlawed by the government of Latvia. The former Ugunskrusts organisation reemerged immediately under the new name of Pērkonkrusts. By 1934, Pērkonkrusts is estimated to have had between 5,000 and 6,000 members, although the organization maintained that it had more. Kārlis Ulmanis, leader of the conservative nationalist Peasants' Union Party and then Prime Minister of Latvia, proposed constitutional reforms in October 1933, which socialists feared would target the left more than the right. In November of the same year, seven communist deputies were arrested, while Pērkonkrusts officials were left alone. Because of political unrest, stemming partially from the growing power of the right, Ulmanis staged a bloodless coup d'état in May 1934, banning not only the Communist Party and Pērkonkrusts, but all parties and the Saeima (Parliament). Following the coup, Pērkonkrusts leader Celmiņš was imprisoned for three years and then banished from Latvia. Although Pērkonkrusts did not exist officially after 1934, many former leaders and members acted with a degree of unity in subsequent years. In the late 1930s, Celmiņš set up a 'foreign liaison office' of Pērkonkrusts in Helsinki, Finland. During his peripatetic exile, Celmiņš had established personal contacts with the representatives of other fascist groupings in Europe, most notably Romania's Corneliu Codreanu. During World War II Not long after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union. Whereas the