Andrejs Upīts (4 December 1877 – 17 November 1970) was a Latvian teacher,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and short story writer.

Career and literary activity

He was born in

Skrīveri Skrīveri () is a village in the Skrīveri Parish of Aizkraukle Municipality in the Vidzeme region of Latvia, near the Riga–Daugavpils Railway. Skrīveri had 2,424 residents in 2022. The village is the location of the parish council, the An ...

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

. He graduated from the parish school in Skrīveri, then continued his self-study, devoting himself mainly to the study of languages such as German, Russian, English, French and Italian. He worked as a teacher, translator, and was also an active civil servant. Andrejs Upīts, while writing for the newspaper "Mājas viesis" under the pseudonym Andrei Araji in 1892, published his first articles, ''Parunas, Skrīveros uzrakstītas'' (Recorded Proverbs of

) (No. 15) and ''Kā mūsu senči agrāk Vidzemē dzīvojuši'' (How Our Ancestors Once Lived in Vidzeme) (No. 20). Upīts wrote novels, stories, drama, tragedy, comedy, poetry, satire, journalism, and literary criticism. His children's novel, ''Sūnu ciema zēni'' (''The Boys of Moss Village''), is included in the compulsory reading list of schools. He was one of the more multifaceted Latvian writers. Upīts' heroes possess striking character and he used a rich language. Under the influence of the

1905 Revolution The Russian Revolution of 1905, also known as the First Russian Revolution, was a revolution in the Russian Empire which began on 22 January 1905 and led to the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under the Russian Constitution of 1906, t ...

, Upīts began to sympathize with

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

ideas. After the

February Revolution The February Revolution (), known in Soviet historiography as the February Bourgeois Democratic Revolution and sometimes as the March Revolution or February Coup was the first of Russian Revolution, two revolutions which took place in Russia ...

in 1917-1918 during the German occupation, Upīts was arrested. In 1919, Upīts was the head of the art department of the Education Commission of the

Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic The Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic (, LSPR) was a short-lived socialist republic formed during the Latvian War of Independence. It was proclaimed on 17 December 1918 with the political, economic, and military backing of Vladimir Lenin and ...

. In 1920, after returning secretly to Latvia from Russia, he was arrested twice and was sentenced to death, from which he was saved by colleagues from cultural circles. After liberation, he lived in Riga and Skrīveri and from 1924 to 1930 worked in the editorial office of ''Domas'' magazine. In 1940 Upīts supported the Soviet occupation of Latvia and became a member of the

People's Seimas The People's Seimas () was a puppet legislature organized in order to give legal sanction to the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union. After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940, a new pro-Soviet government was formed, known a ...

. He was appointed editor-in-chief of ''

Karogs ''Karogs'' ("Flag") was a monthly literary magazine which was published in Latvia in the period between 1940 and 2010. Published by the Soviet Latvian Writers’ Union during the Communist period it was a semi-official publication. History and p ...

'' and served in the post until 1941. At the end of the Second World War, he became Head of the Department of Latvian Literature of the Latvian State University and founder and first director of the Institute of Language and Literature of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR from 1946 to 1952. Upīts was Chairman of the Union of Writer of the Latvian SSR from 1944 to 1954. As a politician, Upīts was deputy chairman of the

Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR The Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR ( Latvian: ''Latvijas PSR Augstākā Padome''; Russian: Верховный Совет Латвийской ССР, ''Verkhovnyy Sovet Latvyyskoy SSR'') was the supreme soviet (main legislative institutio ...

from 1941 to 1952. After his death in 1972, the A. Upīts Museum was opened in his honor in Riga and Skrīver. His 1945 novel ''Zaļā zeme'' (Verdant Land) received the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

State Prize in 1946. Between 1945 and 1946 he served again as the editor-in-chief of ''Karogs''. His ''Sociālistiskā reālisma jautājumi literatūrā'' (Problems of Socialist Realism in Literature) won the Latvian SSR State Prize in 1957. His works were banned twice: the first time after

Kārlis Ulmanis Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis (; 4 September 1877 – 20 September 1942) was a Latvian politician and a dictator. He was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians of pre-World War II Latvia during the Interwar period of independence from N ...

' coup of 1934, and the second during the years of the Soviet regime, when his performance of his play, ''Ziedošais tuksnesis'' (The Blooming Desert) was prohibited at the

Dailes Theatre The Dailes Theatre () is a professional Latvian theater founded by Latvian director and actor Eduards Smiļģis (1886-1966) on November 19, 1920 at the Craftsmen Relief Society House at Lāčplēša Street 25, Riga, Latvia. Today, it is located ...

and censors prohibited distribution of his book, ''Literatūras vēsture'' (The History of Literature).Zirnis, E
''Cenzēts mūža garumā''
Diena, 6.12.2007 On 16 October 2024 the

Riga City Council Riga City Council () is the government of the city of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Its meeting place is in the Riga Town Hall (''Rīgas rātsnams)'' at the Town Hall Square (''Rātslaukums'') in the very heart of Riga. The Riga City Council con ...

approved the relocation of an Upīts monument in

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. This monument is to be sawed in half and then reinstalled in the city with both parts at such a distance that a person can walk through both parts. According to (the father of this idea) Riga City Council deputy Ivars Drulle (

Movement For! Movement For! () is a liberal political party in Latvia.Soviet collaborator - and symbolize the different sides of each person".

Significant works

Novels

* ''Jauni avoti'' (1909) * ''Sieviete'' (1910) * ''Zīda tīklā'' (1912) * ''Pēdējais latvietis'' (1913) * ''Zelts'' (1914) * ''Renegāti'' (1915) * ''Ziemeļa vējš'' (1921) * ''Perkona pievārtē'' (1922) * ''Pa varavīksnes tiltu'' (1926) * ''Zem naglota papēža'' (1928) * ''Jāņa Robežnieka nāve'' (1932) * ''Vecās ēnas'' (1934) * ''Zaļā zeme'' (1945) * ''Plaisa mākoņos'' (1951)

Plays

* ''Dzimumdienas rītā'' (1905) * ''Balss un atbalss / triloģija'' (1911) * ''Žanna d'Arka'' (1930) * ''Spartaks'' (1943) * ''Ziņģu Ješkas uzvara'' (1933) * ''Apburtais loks'' (1929) * ''Mirabo'' (1926) * ''Kaijas lidojums'' (1925) * ''Peldētāja Zuzanna'' (1922)

Poetry

* ''Mazas drāmas'' (1911)

Prose

* ''Jauni avoti'' (1909) * ''Sieviete'' (1910) * ''Zīda tīklā'' (1912) * ''Pēdējais latvietis'' (1913) * ''Ziemeļa vējš'' (1921) * ''Zelts'' (1921) * ''Pērkona pievārtē'' (1922) * ''Renegāti'' (1922) * ''Pa varavīksnes tiltu'' (1926) * ''Zem naglota papēža'' (1928) * ''Jāņa Robežnieka pārnākšana'' (1932) * ''Jāņa Robežnieka nāve'' (1933, Vecas ēnas'' (1934) * ''Smaidoša lapa'' (1937) * ''Laikmetu griežos'' (1937 1940) * ''Māsas Ģertrūdes noslēpums'' (1939) * ''Zaļā zeme'' (1945) * ''Plaisa mākoņos'' (1951)

Short stories

* ''Mazas komēdijas (1-2)'' (1909 1910) * ''Nemiers'' (1912) * ''Vēju kauja'' (1920) * ''Aiz paradīzes vārtiem'' (1922) * ''Kailā dzīvība'' (1926) * ''Stāsti par mācītājiem'' (1930) * ''Sūnu ciema zēni / garstāsts jaunatnei'' (1940) * ''Noveles'' (1943)

Partial bibliography

* ''

McCall's ''McCall's'' was a monthly United States, American women's magazine, published by the McCall Corporation, that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. The publication ...

: August 1964; Vol. XCI, No. 11'' (featuring ''The Young Crane'' by Andrejs Upīts and Illustrated by

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was impacted by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Send ...

) *''Outside Paradise and Other Stories'' (1970) *''Cause and effect (Soviet short stories)'' (1977) *''Selected stories'' (1978) *''Problems of Socialist Realism in Literature''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Upits, Andrejs 1877 births 1970 deaths People from Aizkraukle Municipality People from Riga county Communist Party of Latvia politicians Deputies of the People's Saeima Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1947–1951 Latvian writers 20th-century Latvian poets Latvian male poets Academic staff of the University of Latvia People's Writers of the Latvian SSR Recipients of the Stalin Prize Heroes of Socialist Labour Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Latvian Marxist writers Latvian satirists