Young Latvians - Beginnings

Beginnings

Though the Young Latvians can be seen as part of a primarily cultural and literary movement, their cause had significant political ramifications due to the socio-economic conditions then prevailing in Latvia (part of the Russian Empire, it was nonetheless dominated by the Baltic German nobility). 1856 is usually given as the date of the movement's beginning because of the publication of Alunāns' book and the founding of the major Latvian language newspaper Mājas Viesis ("The House-Guest"), which provided a counterpoint to the pro-German newspaper Latviešu Avīzes. Another contemporary and seminal event was the public declaration of nationality by a leader of the movement, Krišjānis Valdemārs; a student at the University of Tartu (then Dorpat) from 1854 to 1858, Valdemārs affixed a carte de visite to his door that read "C. Woldemar stud. cam. Latweetis." At the time, it was almost unheard of for an educated person to call himself a Latvian; education meant Germanisation, and Valdemārs' act has been compared to Martin Luther's posting of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in its importance for Latvian nationalism. Just as some scholars consider the posting of the 95 Theses to be apocryphal, Valdemārs' notice can be seen as less dramatic if taken in context. The historian Arveds Švābe noted that Valdemārs denied being a radical in his own writings; the Young Latvians had no political program threatening the Baltic Germans until the 1860s; according to Švābe, their political opposition to the prevailing order was crystallized under the influence of the Slavophiles in connection to the reforms of Alexander II of Russia.