Jānis Līcis

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Jānis Līcis with the pseudonym Indriķis Straumīte

Jānis LĪCIS (* 19th July 1832 in Bewershof , Governorate of Livonia , Russian Empire ; † 6 September . Jul / 19 September 1905 . Greg in Fistehlen , Governorate of Livonia), also jānis Līcītis written eingedeutscht Jahn Lihzis or Johann Lihzit , Russian Янис Лицис or Янис Лацис , pseudonyms Josts Viesulis and Indriķis Straumīte , in German spelling Indrik Straumit , in Russian spellingИндрик Страумит or Индрикъ Страумитъ , was a Latvian priest . He is considered an Orthodox martyr .

parents

Jānis Līcis' father of the same name was a wealthy servant, initially on the Kastran estate in the Sunzel parish . In 1836 he moved to Laubern in the parish of Sissegal . In October 1845, the Rigas Higher Order Court issued an order that people from the Riga district who wanted to convert to the Russian Orthodox Church had to come to Riga. To carry out the transfer in Wenden was no longer allowed. Jānis Līcis sen. disregarded this order. The regulatory court then ordered his imprisonment; he fell ill and died in prison 14 days later. His wife was dismissed from the servants after protests against the authorities and eventually converted with her son from the Evangelical Lutheran to the Russian Orthodox denomination. (While the Russian state power promoted the Orthodox state church, the German-Baltic nobility patronized the Evangelical Church, which formed the majority denomination in Livonia.)

Life

Maria Magdalena Church in Fistehlen

Jānis Līcis the Younger became a priest after 1854, initially at an Orthodox emergency church in Altenwoga . According to his own statement, he was one of the first two Latvians to achieve the status of Orthodox priest. From 1859 he looked after the Orthodox Christians in Fistehlen, from 1867 in the newly built Maria Magdalena Church.

In 1868 Jānis Līcis published his autobiography Записки православнаго латыша Индрика Страумита under the pseudonym Indriķis Straumīte. (1840-1845) , with the German title Memoirs by the orthodox Latvian Indrik Straumit. (1840-1845) , published by Juri Samarin in Prague by Типографія Дра. Э. Грегра as the second issue of the series Окраины Россіи. Серія первая: Русское Балтійское поморіе. ( The Russian border stamps. First series: The Russian-Baltic coastline. ) Was issued. In this pamphlet, Līcis called for converting to the Orthodox Church as well and thus also to strip away the German-Baltic supremacy.

Carl Schirren

The memoirs received heavy criticism in German-Baltic and Protestant circles, including from Carl Schirren in his Livonian answer to Mr. Juri Samarin , which in the second chapter referred to this book published by the Slavophile Samarin. Samarin advocated the abolition of the autonomy of the Baltic provinces and an adaptation to Russia. It was also alleged that Samarin himself wrote or at least falsified the memoirs. In addition to Samarin and Schirren, from a negative point of view, W. von Bock also took up Līcis' writing and uncovered his identity (see chapter “Literature”).

During the Russian Revolution of 1905 , on Tuesday September 6th jul. / September 19, 1905 greg. , Līcis was sitting at the table with his family at 8:30 p.m. when he was shot in the head through the window. The assassin raised the blind on the window to make sure that his act had been successful, and fired another shot at Līcis, who died from his injuries.

Afterlife

Immediate reactions

The case was handed over to the examining magistrate. This immediately initiated appropriate investigations. The Riga district chief von Schilinsky traveled to Fistehlen on the evening of September 7th in connection with the murder.

Karl Schilling

Līcis was buried in the cemetery of his community. Already on September 10th July / 23 September  1905 greg. the next clergyman, the Protestant pastor Karl Schilling, was killed.

For evidence of the murderers Līcis' and Schillings, the Riga district police set on September 12th July. / 25th September  1905 greg. a reward of 1000 rubles.

On September 13th Jul. / 26th September  1905 greg. a comment appeared in the Rigaschen Rundschau , in which Līcis and Schilling were referred to as martyrs, combined with the consolation note that the Church would always grow good fruits from the blood of the martyrs. The author expressed his doubt that the murder of private individuals who did not embody state power could be justified by the revolutionary pursuit of improvement. The establishment of Līcis by patriarchal church structures is not an argument, since the Latvian parishioners have voluntarily converted to the Orthodox Church. The Protestant Church of Schilling, in turn, grew together with the population for over four centuries, and as the successor to the Roman Catholic Church even over seven centuries. The killers would achieve the opposite of what they wanted; Church members who were previously wavering would now only bind themselves more closely to their church.

In September 1905 the governor visited Riga's Lutheran clergy. He spoke about the murder of Līcis' and Schilling. City provost Gaethgens expressed the hope that the perpetrators would soon be found and that order would be restored in the church.

Reactions in the Latvian press

The Rigas Awise ruled on the murder of Līcis and Schilling:

“If a nation calmly tolerates murder, then the curse comes upon the whole people. That is a law of eternity. And is it not tolerating the acts of murder if those whose duty it is to instruct the people through the scriptures remain silent? What if they can't find a word to condemn the movement that is causing these murders? No, these are morally complicit. "

Līcis' authorship of the memoirs of the orthodox Latvian Indrik Straumit was suspected by W. von Bock, among others, during his lifetime, but it was only really known after his death. The Deenas Lapa recommended reading the work, which had been forgotten at the time, and ruled that the assassins would have probably given up their attack if they had known the book and with it the sympathy that Līcis had for the Latvian farmers in his youth. The Rigasche Rundschau contradicted this view and viewed it as a spiritual arson. The book was rightly forgotten. The Düna-Zeitung also rated Deenas Lapa's remark as tactless.

Līcis and Schilling were the first in a long line of clergy and other church-related figures to be killed in the wake of the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. The newspaper Latwija criticized the " master role " of evangelical pastors who are only concerned with their own benefit, while the Orthodox clergy are rightly called "fathers". The murder of Līcis was cited by the Düna newspaper as a counter-argument: the murderers probably did not notice the difference mentioned.

Arrest and death of the alleged murderer

In September 1906, the gang leader Mikel Bitit, a farmer from Weißensee, was arrested. The younger clerk assistant of the Rigas district led the preliminary investigation. The officers of the 2nd Eskodron of the 9th Dragoon Regiment were also present. In this investigation, Bitit confessed to a total of seven murders, including that of Līcis. The remaining cases were:

  • two sub-military officers , von Petersohn ( Kokenhusen's younger clerk assistant) and Dragoon officer Kosljanninow, killed in autumn 1905 on the Neu-Kaipen estate
  • Kruhming, community elder in Römershof, killed in winter 1905
  • Kalning, community clerk in Jürgensberg

Bitit agreed to extradite the farmer Jahn Purrin from Ledemannshof who was accused of complicity. On the way to Purrin, on which he went in the company of the screech assistant, Bitit attempted to escape in a wood, during which he was shot by one of the dragoons.

Threat letter to a pastor

On September 25, 1906, a Livonian pastor received the following printed letter in "official" language:

Ludwig Zimmermann
No. 51.
Request to the pastor (censored in the source) of the (censored) church.
You are hereby requested to stop insulting freedom fighters and our fallen comrades and immediately after receiving this notice to close down your sanctifying business - the Church, otherwise we will be forced to use violence. Think of the fate of your colleagues Schilling, Lihzit and Zimmermann .
25 / IX. 1906.
The group
the Baltic Combat Organization.
"Mescha-Brahli" printing company

The letter was stamped with the inscription "Latwijas Sozialdemokratiga Komiteja Widsemas Maleenas", the name of the pastor and his parish as well as the date were subsequently inserted in red ink.

Political instrumentalization of the murders

Baron Hans von Rosen

In May 1909, after the suppression of the revolution, the Livonian MP Baron Hans von Rosen gave a speech in front of the Duma in which he described the murders of Jānis Līcis and the evangelical clergy Wilhelm Taurit , Karl Schilling, Ludwig Zimmermann , Alphons Fuchs and Julius Busch and Albert Grühn mentioned. (According to other sources, Fuchs survived the attack despite an initial report of death.) Rosen referred to the aforementioned as martyrs and spoke of the respect that Līcis was shown during his lifetime. He also emphasized the importance of the Protestant clergy as pillars of the state and campaigned for an end to the legal disadvantage of the Protestant church compared to the Orthodox.

In a comment in the Rigas newspaper on April 24, 1910, an editorial appeared in the Riga Russian magazine Rish. Westn. criticized, in which the murder of the evangelical clergy by revolutionaries is attributed to the political influence of the evangelical church. The Rigasche Zeitung argues against this view with the fact that, along with Līcis, an Orthodox clergyman was murdered who certainly did not pursue any anti-Russian policy.

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ The dates in this article are based on the Julian calendar for the period up to 1918 unless otherwise noted.
  2. ^ Absence of defects. The victim of a shameful terrorist crime in the Düna newspaper , No. 197, September 8, 1905, online at [1]
  3. ↑ Local. in the Düna newspaper , no. 200, September 12, 1905, online at [2]
  4. ↑ Commentary in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 201, September 13, 1905, online at Schilling | issueType: P
  5. ↑ Domestic. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 198, September 14, 1905, online at Schilling | issueType: P
  6. ↑ On the murder of Pastor Schilling. in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 202, September 14, 1905, online under Pastor Pastor Schilling | issueType: P
  7. ^ Absence of defects. in the Rigaschen Rundschau , No. 202, September 14, 1905, online at [3]
  8. ↑ The murdered priest Lihzit in Fistehlen. in the Düna newspaper , No. 206, September 19, 1905, online at [4]
  9. ↑ A wicked voice from among the clergy. in the Düna newspaper , No. 64, March 18, 1906, online at [5]
  10. ↑ Lennewarden. A dangerous murderer shot dead. in the Düna newspaper , no. 210, September 13, 1906, online at [6]
  11. ^ Threat letters to pastors. in the Düna newspaper , no. 227, October 3, 1906, online at [7]
  12. ↑ Domestic. in the Libauschen Zeitung , No. 227, October 4, 1906, online at [8]
  13. ^ The speech of the Livonian MP H. Baron Rosen in the Düna-Zeitung , No. 117, May 26, 1909, online at [9]
  14. ↑ Russian press. in the Rigaschen Zeitung , No. 92, April 24, 1910, online at [10]
personal data
SURNAME Līcis, Jānis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Līcītis, Jānis; Lihzis, Jahn; Lihzit, Johann; Лицис, Янис; Лацис, Янис; Viesulis, Josts; Straumīte, Indriķis; Straumit, Indrik; Страумит, Индрик; Страумитъ, Индрикъ
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Latvian priest and Orthodox martyr
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Bewershof , Livonia Governorate , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1905
Place of death Fistehlen , Livonia Governorate , Russian Empire