Gustavs Zemgals

Who was Gustavs Zemgals?

Gustavs Zemgals was a Latvian politician and the second President of Latvia.

Zemgals was born in Džūkste, Latvia. He attended elementary school in a small parish of Saka, and later continued education in Riga Nikolai Gymansium. He graduated from Moscow University in 1899 with a degree in law. He then returned to Latvia and was a lawyer, a newspaper editor and a political activist.

In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Zemgals was mobilised and sent to the front, where he spent a year and a half and was promoted to the rank of captain.

After his return to Latvia in 1905, Zemgals became one of the creators of a new liberal newspaper "Jaunā Dienas Lapa" and proceeded to become an editor of this paper. He was also an editor in the newspaper that succeeded "Jaunā Dienas Lapa" -"Mūsu Laiki". In July 1907, the Riga district court sentenced Zemgals to a three months long arrest for his work at "Mūsu Laiki". Soon after that, Zemgals created the Latvian democratic party together with some other political activities. In the time period between 1912 and 1914 Zemgals also worked on a magazine "Domas".