Karlis Ulmanis
Kārlis Ulmanis governed Latvia four times, took power in a coup, and died in Soviet captivity. Born in 1877 on a farm in the Zemgale region, he studied agriculture in Zurich and at Leipzig, took part in the 1905 revolution, was imprisoned, and emigrated to the United States, where he took a degree at the University of Nebraska and worked as a dairy manager and lecturer. He returned in 1913 under an amnesty. He founded the Latvian Farmers' Union in 1917 and, on 18 November 1918, proclaimed the Republic of Latvia and became its first prime minister — a government that at one point controlled almost nothing and had to take refuge on a steamer in Liepāja harbour while German-backed forces held Riga. Independence was secured in 1920 after fighting Bolsheviks, Baltic Germans and West Russians in turn, and a land reform broke up the Baltic German estates and distributed them to peasants and veterans. He served as prime minister several times in a fragmented parliamentary system with dozens of parties and short-lived governments. On 15 May 1934 he suspended the constitution, dissolved parliament, banned political parties and arrested opponents, and in 1936 combined the presidency with the premiership. The regime was nationalist and paternalist rather than fascist, and presided over strong agricultural exports and a cult of the leader. The Soviet ultimatum of June 1940 demanded a new government and free passage for troops. He accepted it and broadcast to Latvians that he would remain in his place. He was deported in July 1940 and died in a prison camp near Krasnovodsk in 1942.
- Lived: 1877 CE – 1942 CE
- Nationality: Latvian
- Roles: statesman, head_of_state
