On this day in Riga: 14 March Jānis Čakste, President of Latvia, died on this day in 1927. He was born in Lielsesava in 1859, and attended Jelgava Gymnasium and Moscow University, where he graduated in Law. In 1888, he began working as a lawyer in Jelgava, where he got involved in public life and was elected chairman of three major Latvian associations. In 1906, Čakste was elected to the Duma, where he promoted the idea of autonomy for Latvia. After the dissolution of the Duma, he was among the 166 deputies who signed the so-called Vyborg Appeal calling upon the citizens to refuse to pay taxes and send recruits to the Tsars Army until the convening of the Second Duma. For these activities he was sentenced to three months imprisonment. In 1915 he moved to Tartu where together with other Latvians he founded the Latvian Refugees Central Committee and in 1917 became its chairman. The following year he formed the Latvian Diplomatic Corps abroad; he headed the Latvian delegation at the Paris Peace Conference where the delegation petitioned the recognition of Latvias independence. In July 1919, Čakste returned to Latvia where the Peoples Council elected him the President of State and Commander-in-Chief of the army. The photograph shows the funeral procession
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 05:12:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015