Visvaldis Lācis
Visvaldis Lācis (born March 12, 1924 in Valmiera ; † April 18, 2020 ) was a Latvian publicist and politician . He was one of the leaders of the Latvian independence movement and, at an old age, worked as a member of parliament from 2006 to 2011.
biography
His father was an officer in the Latvian army . Lācis attended a humanistic high school in Riga . In 1943 he was drafted into the Latvian Legion and wounded twice as a platoon leader in the 19th Latvian SS Division . After the war and filtration imprisonment, he was able to return to his native country.
Multiple attempts to complete a course of study were unsuccessful, as Lācis had his examination permits withdrawn due to his origin and biography. According to his own statements, he was thrown from the Agricultural Academy of the LSSR after presenting his views on the weaknesses of the collective farm and the unfree electoral system at a Komsomol event . It was not until 1965, at the age of 41, that he received a degree in linguistics as part of a distance learning course at the Moscow State Institute of Education .
With the beginning of the independence movement, Lācis became politically active: He was one of the first participants in the Latvian Popular Front and was chairman of the LNNK party from 1991 to 1992 . After leaving politics, he worked as a freelance journalist and publicist. He has authored several books, including a history of Latvia since the Great Northern War and a six-volume work on World War II . At the time, these publications were among the first available Latvian-language historical works from a non-Soviet ideological perspective. In 1995 he was awarded the three-star medal .
Lācis was temporarily chairman of the Daugavas Vanagi , the veterans' association of the former Latvian Waffen SS and Wehrmacht members. In 2001 he helped found the nationalist, radical youth organization Visu Latvijai! involved.
At the age of 82 he ran for the Latvian Green Party in the parliamentary elections in Latvia in 2006 and was elected to the Saeima . However, he resigned from the parliamentary group and party a year later. At the next parliamentary elections in Latvia in 2010 he ran for the National Association , from whose parliamentary group and party he in turn left. When asked about the reasons, he explained in an interview: Since he was the only member of parliament who had not made any election campaigns or promises before the elections, he did not have to give any explanations for leaving the party.
Lācis was married with three children and several grandchildren. He lived near Vestiena, Madona district .
Web links
- Profile on the parliament website (accessed October 12, 2015)
- Biography (Latvian)
- Newspaper report about Lācis as a member of parliament in standard.at (accessed in October 2015)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) virtual lexicon "Latvia People", third paragraph (Latvian)
- ↑ http://www.irlv.lv/2011/3/8/lacis-izstajas-no-vl-un-pamet-frakciju ir.lv (accessed in October 2015)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lācis, Visvaldis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Latvian publicist and former politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 12, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Valmiera |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 18, 2020 |