Andrievs Niedra

The stamp of the traitor on the pastor and writer, poet and publicist Andrius Niedra is stamped during the events of 1919 in Liepaja. April was the most appropriate time for the overthrow of the Latvian Provisional Government.

In 1960, the book "Andrievs Niedra" was published in Iowa, by the historian Janis Ezergailis, a historian and Latvian soldier of freedom struggles. It reflects his personality contrary to popular belief in the so-called treachery issue. It is a monument to Andrew Niedra - Christian, thinker, politician and prophet. Based on specific historical facts and testimonies of the age.

"It is said that Niedra was not a politician. Nor did Niedra himself have a policy on the purpose of his life. He compares his political activities in 1919 as a small spatula with which he went out in the fields of the Kalsnava pastor's manor in the spring to direct floods in the desired direction, to prevent water from sleeping or carrying volumes. (..)

He was never indifferent to his people and their destiny. And when he saw that his people were moving astray, he went up and called for the path which he had judged best. So Niedra opposed the revolution in 1905, knowing full well that he was putting his good name, his great writer name - and his life - at stake. It is a miracle that Niedra stayed alive in that great roar of revolution. But he couldn't go any other way because he knew the dark international forces behind the revolution. (..) The booklet "Where We Go" reads the following prophecy: "The red flag will not stop at the ruins of a manor house or at the shot of a policeman, but will pass over our farmsteads, each of us, our work, our lives." (..)

In fighting the revolution, Niedra did not think politically, but Christian ethically. Blood testimony can establish a church, but not a state, and he expresses the following thoughts about his struggle: "The more martyrs the revolutionaries created, the harder it would be for them to wander through the abominations."

Testimony of Mary Rutevitz

On December 10, 1959, Janis Ezergailis meets a lady on a train from Hannover to Celli, her name being Maria Rutevica.

She tells Ezergail: "I lived in 50 Vilhelmīnes Street in Liepāja, later renamed Krišjānis Valdemārs. In 1919 one of the three rooms in our apartment was presented to the Refugee Committee. A. Niedra's beard is being removed to make it less noticeable. - Aut.) In the room shown, he lived more without a beard, who turned out to be a remarkable personality, a writer and later a politician. He asked for a bed and a round table; then another desk and three chairs, and during the day he also used to lie down and write a lot, and he could see manuscripts of whole sheets on separate sheets, and he didn't seem to be lying in bed behind his illness, but to save his energy for mental work. His food was unusual: two stops of milk a day and bread was the head sometimes the fish he brought and fried with his brother, who was always there to help with his hand, sometimes came along. The writer also went out for a walk, dressed in a coat. We thought he was a big man. Once upon a time, he was also visited by his brother. Although we did not usually go into his room, we sometimes heard visitors speak French or English. We knew nothing about his political activities. We later heard that he had been arrested, tried and then worked as a pastor in East Prussia. "

The testimony of history

Andrievs Niedra and his brother arrive in Liepaja on February 18, 1919. He himself writes: "I decided to go over the Bolshevik front to the Latvian government and army by mid-February at the latest. I wanted to present them with a state of play and agree to coordinate action on both sides of the front."

In late February and March, Niedra published articles in the "Libausche Zeitung" about his views, Latvians' understanding of the Germans, their joint fight against the Bolsheviks, and the obstacles to such cooperation.

On April 11 Niedra begins the journey back to Riga. In the capital he ends up wet and raw feet. You have to spend several days in bed to heal them. On April 17, Niedra returns to Liepaja after collecting information about the Red Army's deployment and combat capabilities in Riga, the revolutionary tribunal's bloodshed, and learning about new arrests.

As Andrius Niedra heals his severely injured legs in Riga and prepares for his return, the Germans overthrew the Ulmanis Provisional Government in Liepaja on April 16. Niedra did not take part in the coup, which he was later accused of repeatedly.

Instead of an interim government, the Germans set up a war directory, inviting Colonel Jan Balod and Prince Anatoly Lieven to lead Russian soldiers in the fight against the Bolsheviks. Both refuse.

On April 26, a report on the formation of a new interim government appears in the streets of Liepāja, mentioning A as Prime Minister Niedra writes about it: "After arriving in Liepaja, I had to go straight from the station to the ... apartment where the new ministers' meeting was set. Not washed. Not clipped. what feelings have I been welcomed by the ministers I saw for the first time. There I found out that I was on the ministerial list. "

Testimony of Andrew Niedra and letters

On May 27, 1919, Niedra writes "An Explanation to the Rigans about the Conditions and Tasks of the Establishment of His Cabinet". It appraised Karl Ulmanis' attempt to overthrow the Provisional Government: "This step was not only illegal and unacceptable, he was also insane. (..) We Latvians were completely innocent of the event. But we were in danger the next few days that when the Germans left, Kurzeme would also be woken by the same wave of bolshevists as they ... crossed Vidzeme. Latvia would then be destroyed. "

In the summer of 1897, Andrius Niedra enters her husband's marriage to Emily Kristin Bankovski, without being invited to the wedding by her friend Rudolf Blauman. And for several years, there is silence in the correspondence. Then Niedra writes to Blaumanis on "The Brothers" on January 14, 1898: "... a friend believes in a friend and his friendship without requiring proof of friendship with gold edges. (..) You don't have the faith that makes friendship a friendship." .) You can learn from these lines that it is more profitable - to attack sharply where you need to defend yourself. (..) I will just say that for all these last months I am the happiest person in all Vidzeme ... (..) bachelors who can marry and do not commit suicide. Those who are looking for rich brute should be counted. They will have to be surrendered.

The misunderstanding clears up, and Blaumanis writes to Niedra, "The other (verse) is very stingy, only I am extraordinary in his great sincerity. See, if you had always been so open between us on the four walls, as here before all people!" The poem is "I wonder, when autumn day, there is a pine tree weaving there ..." In 1901 Alfreds Kalnins makes music for these lines. Both greats could have encountered Liepaja St. Anna's Church, because when Niedra was serving in Kalsnava (1908-1918), she was invited to St. Liepaja's Church. Ann's congregation. She even read as a preacher, but everything breaks down - the church has refused to hire a new pastor as a secretary.

The voice of his friend Blaumanis was muted in Finland on 4 September 1908, and he sent the last letter to Niedra dated 16 July. Whatever the change over the years, in the end it was again, "Beloved Andriev!"

But Niedra records the lines in a correspondence between the two published in 1931: "Rudolf found a place for himself in the homeland and in the heart of the people. Where will I be?"