The new latvians

The national awakening was influenced by the national and revolutionary movements in Europe and reforms in Russia, which prescribed greater economic independence and rights for peasants. The first educated sons of Latvian peasantry began the process of consolidating the nation, in an aspiration to neutralise the economic and spiritual leadership of the Baltic German aristocracy. One of the ideologues of the New Latvian movement was Krišjānis Valdemārs (1825 1891). Having achieved Russian scale authority in seafaring matters, Valdemārs gained permission to publish the newspaper ‘Pēterburgas Avīzes’, in which Juris Alunāns (1832 1864) and Krišjānis Barons (1835 1923) also worked. Influenced by the ideas of the New Latvians, writers became interested in the use of folklore and the ancient history of the Latvian people. Juris Alunāns wrote ‘Dziesmiņas’ (Songlets) (1856), a compilation of poetic reproductions in order to demonstrate that it was possible to express the same thoughts in Latvian as were expressed in ancient (Greek, Latin) and modern (German, Russian) languages. Fricis Brīvzemnieks and Barons began the systematisation of Latvian folk songs, which was concluded with the publication of the monumental ‘Latvju Dainas’ (1 6, 1894 1915), a compilation and systematisation of 219 996 song texts and their variations.

A new era in the New Latvian movement began in the late 1860s, when Rīga became the centre for Latvian social activity. The ‘Rīga Latvian Society’ was founded in 1868, and other societies using this as a template were also formed in Kurzeme and Vidzeme. The first theatre performances in Latvian were held in 1868, and in 1869 the Rīga Latvian Theatre was founded, which staged the first original plays by Ādolfs Alunāns (1848 1912). The seeds for various centres of science, libraries, etc. were sown by the Society. The first Song Festival was held in Rīga in 1873, in which singers from Vidzeme and Kurzeme participated, encouraging a notion of unified national identity and a development of self awareness. In the 1870s many Latvian publishing houses were established.

Teacher Atis Kronvalds (1837 1875) continued the idea of the New Latvians, who in contradiction to attempts by Krišjānis Valdemārs to find allies in Russian society, oriented himself to members of the German society who were benevolent towards Latvian culture. Kronvalds believed that the foundation for national culture could be established in Latvian schools, where lessons in Latvian could occur from elementary to higher education. National culture during the era of national awakening was associated with recognition of the fatherland, the use of the Latvian language in all spheres of life and a sense of a unified past. 60 years later this gained the title of the ‘National Awakening’.