Andrievs Niedra ( old orthography: ''Andreews Needra''; 8 February 1871 – 25 September 1942) was a Latvian writer, Lutheran pastor and the Prime Minister of the German

puppet government A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sover ...

in Latvia between April and June 1919, during the

Latvian War of Independence The Latvian War of Independence ( lv, Latvijas Neatkarības karš), sometimes called Latvia's freedom battles () or the Latvian War of Liberation (), was a series of military conflicts in Latvia between 5 December 1918, after the newly proclaim ...

. Niedra's first collection of poems was published when he was only nineteen years old, and he was still in his teens when his stories based on history and folklore began to appear in the newspaper ''Baltijas Vēstnesis''. Between 1890 and 1899 he studied theology at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

(now

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of ...

). Aesthetically blending realistic fantasy with idealism, his stories, criticism and plays often treated the formation of the Latvian intelligentsia and the situation of the peasantry with regard to the dominant

Baltic Germans Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly decline ...

. Believing that society can only develop through evolution rather than revolution, Niedra was a fierce opponent of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes th ...

and came to be seen as a reactionary in an increasingly revolutionary society. After collaborating with the German military authorities and their defeat, Niedra fled Latvia. Returning in 1924, he was tried for treason and banished. In exile, the pastor of a German congregation in

East Prussia East Prussia ; german: Ostpreißen, label= Low Prussian; pl, Prusy Wschodnie; lt, Rytų Prūsija was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 187 ...

, Niedra took German citizenship and penned a lengthy work entitled ''Tautas nodevēja atmiņas'' (''The Memoirs of a Traitor to the Nation''); the first edition of the first part was destroyed by the dictator

Kārlis Ulmanis Kārlis Augusts Vilhelms Ulmanis (; 4 September 1877 – 20 September 1942) was a Latvian politician. He was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians of pre-World War II Latvia during the Interwar period of independence from November 1918 to ...

after the 15 May 1934 coup d'état, and his works were banned. Niedra returned to Latvia during the

occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany The military occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany was completed on July 10, 1941 by Germany's armed forces. Initially, the territory of Latvia was under the military administration of Army Group North, but on 25 July 1941, Latvia was i ...

and died in Riga.

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* 1871 births 1942 deaths People from Gulbene Municipality People from the Governorate of Livonia Latvian Lutheran clergy Latvian politicians Latvian anti-communists Latvian writers 20th-century Latvian politicians University of Tartu alumni {{Latvia-writer-stub

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