Jānis Urbanovičs

Who is Jānis Urbanovičs?

Jānis Urbanovičs is a Latvian politician. Member of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th Saeima. Leader of the Social Democratic Party "Concord", in 2005–2010 leader of National Harmony Party. Member of the board of the political block Concord Centre.

Jānis Urbanovičs was born on March 23, 1959 in Rēzekne District in Latvia, in a large devoted catholic family of modest means. The Urbanovičs’s family history is closely tied with the history of Latvia: his father fought against fascism in the Red Army, while his uncle was in the Latvian Waffen-SS Legion. During his school years Jānis Urbanovičs worked on different irrigation engineering projects, it shaped his choice of education. In 1982, he graduated from the Latvian Academy of Agriculture as a hydraulic engineer. At the same time, he had mastered the cabinetmaker, which is still his hobby. He had worked as a Chief Engineer leading various construction work.

In 1984, during the early years of Gorbachev’s Perestroika, he decided to become a part of Komsomol, where he quickly gained the position of the first secretary of the Central Committee of Komsomol in Soviet Latvia.