Miķelis Krogzemis (18 September 1850, Ungurpils – 6 February 1879,

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

), better known by his

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Auseklis* was a poet from the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

who wrote in Latvian and prominent member of the Young Latvians movement.

Biography

Miķelis Krogzemis was born in Sīpoli, Ungurpils to a peasant family. He attended parochial school in Aloja and later in Ērgļi. In Ērgļi, he met members of the Jurjāni family, who got him in touch with the Young Latvian movement. In 1868, he was admitted to the teachers' seminary in Valka under the leadership of Latvian composer

Jānis Cimze Jānis Cimze (3 July/21 June 1814 — 22 October/10 October 1881) was a Latvian pedagogue, collector and harmoniser of folk songs, organist, founder of Latvian choral music and initiator of professional Latvian music. He is buried at the Lugaž ...

. While in Valka, he studied

European literature Western literature, also known as European literature, is the literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, and is shaped by the periods in which they were conceived, with each period containing prominent weste ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

of the

Age of Enlightenment The Age of Enlightenment (also the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment) was a Europe, European Intellect, intellectual and Philosophy, philosophical movement active from the late 17th to early 19th century. Chiefly valuing knowledge gained th ...

. After graduating in 1871, Krogzemis begin his teaching career in Jaunpiebalga, but was soon forced to leave the school due to conflicts with the local

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

. He then taught briefly in

Cēsis Cēsis (; (, , , ) is a town in Latvia located in the northern part of the Central Vidzeme Upland. Cēsis is on the Gauja River valley, and is built on a series of ridges above the river, overlooking the woods below. Cēsis was selected to b ...

before moving to Lielvārde to teach. In Lielvārde, he became active in the local cultural life. He organised

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

and

choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...

, and in 1873, participated in the first

Latvian song festival The Latvian Song and Dance Festival () is one of the largest amateur choral and dancing events in the world, and an important event in Latvian culture and social life. As one of the Baltic song festivals, it is also a part of the UNESCO Mast ...

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 ...

. However, due to these activities and his anticlerical poetry, he soon found himself in conflict with the local pastor and was forced to leave. Krogzemis moved to

Vecpiebalga Vecpiebalga () is a village in Vecpiebalga Parish, Cēsis Municipality, in the Vidzeme region of Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic stat ...

where he lived and worked with

Atis Kronvalds Atis Kronvalds or Kronvaldu Atis (15 April 1837 – 17 February 1875) was a Latvian writer, linguist and pedagogue, as well as a prominent member of the Young Latvia movement. Early life Kronvalds was born to a tailor's family, but he was ra ...

, but their collaboration proved unsuccessful. He subsequently moved to Riga to seek employment. In 1874, he left for St. Petersburg where he taught in several schools and wrote literature. In St. Petersburg, he became close friends with Latvian composer Baumaņu Kārlis and contributed to the satirical magazine ''Dunduri''. In 1879, Krogzemis became ill with

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

and died on February 6. His funeral ceremony in Aloja attracted national attention.

Literature

Miķelis Krogzemis is better known by his pen name Auseklis. His first publication was in the newspaper ''Baltijas Vēstnesis'' in 1872. In his poetry, he richly used motives of

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

and became one of the leading voices of

the First Latvian National Awakening The First Latvian National Awakening or the First Awakening () was a cultural and national revival movement between 1850 and 1880 among the Young Latvians, a group of well-educated Latvians, who, opposed to the Baltic Germans, Baltic German domi ...

in poetry. In his satirical poems, he stood against

Baltic German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are Germans, ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), their resettlement in 1945 after the end ...

landowners,

germanisation Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people, and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In l ...

and obscurantism.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krogzemis, Mikelis 1850 births 1879 deaths People from Limbaži Municipality People from Valmiera county 19th-century poets from the Russian Empire 19th-century Latvian poets Deaths from typhus Latvian male poets