Eduards Berklavs (June 15, 1914 – November 25, 2004) was a

Soviet 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 ...

and

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n politician. Eduards Berklavs was born in Kurmāle Parish, which is part of the

Kuldīga Municipality Kuldīga Municipality () is a municipality in Courland, Latvia. The municipality was formed in 2009 by merging Ēdole parish, Gudenieki parish, Īvande parish, Kabile parish, Kurmāle parish, Laidi parish, Padure parish, Pelči parish, ...

as of today. During his youth, he was active in labour and

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

organizations.Īvandes pagasts. Novadnieki
/ref> In the 1930s, he was arrested and served a prison sentence for his communist activities. After Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union in the 1940, Berklavs, with a background as a

Komsomol The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), although it w ...

and Communist Party official, rose to become the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of

Latvian SSR The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic (Also known as the Latvian SSR, or Latvia) was a Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republic of the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1941, and then from 1944 until 1990. The Soviet occupation of the Bal ...

in the 1950s. In this position, he opposed the Soviet policies of

Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...

, supported a larger role for the Latvian language, and proposed to limit immigration from other parts of the Soviet Union to Latvia. This led to him being labelled as Latvian

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

and deposed from his position in 1959. He later wrote the Letter of 17 Latvian communists, where he accused the Soviet government of "

Great Russian chauvinism Great Russian chauvinism () is a term defined by the early Soviet government officials, most notably Vladimir Lenin, to describe an ideology of the "dominant exploiting classes of the nation, holding a dominant (sovereign) position in the state, de ...

" and the "

forced assimilation Forced assimilation is the involuntary cultural assimilation of religious or ethnic minority groups, during which they are forced by a government to adopt the language, national identity, norms, mores, customs, traditions, values, mentality ...

". In the late 1980s, Berklavs became a Latvian independence activist. He was one of the founders and the first chairman of Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK), a pro-independence political organization. He was simultaneously active in Latvian Popular Front and the Congress of Citizens of Latvia. During this period, Berklavs was one of the most prominent independence activists. He was elected to the Latvian parliament in 1990 and 1993; on both occasions he was the oldest member of the parliament.

References

1914 births 2004 deaths People from Kuldīga Municipality People from Kuldīga county Communist Party of Latvia politicians Latvian National Independence Movement politicians For Fatherland and Freedom/LNNK politicians Fifth convocation members of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, 1947–1951 Deputies of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia Deputies of the 5th Saeima Soviet Army officers Soviet military personnel of World War II Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner Recipients of the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd class Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Recipients of the Order of the Red Star {{Latvia-politician-stub