Eduards Berklavs, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetEduards Berklavs
Latvian politician
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Kurmāle Parish, Kuldīga Municipality, Latvia
About Eduards Berklavs
- Eduards Berklavs (June 15, 1914 – November 25, 2004) was a Latvian politician.Eduards Berklavs was born in Kurmale Parish, today part of the Kuldiga Municipality.
- During his youth, he was active in labour and communist organizations.
- In 1930s, he was arrested and served a prison sentence for his communist activities.
- After Latvia was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940, he being a Komsomol and Communist Party official, rising to the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of Latvian SSR in 1950s.
- In this position, he opposed the Soviet policies of Russification, supported a larger role for Latvian language and proposed to limit immigration from other parts of Soviet Union to Latvia.
- This led to him being labelled as Latvian nationalist and deposed from his position in 1959. In late 1980s, Berklavs became a Latvian independence activist.
- He was one of founders and the first chairman of Latvian National Independence Movement (LNNK), a pro-independence political organization.
- He was simultaneously active in Latvian Popular Front and the Congress of Citizens of Latvia.
- During this period, Berklavs was one of the most prominent independence activists.
- He was elected to the Latvian parliament in 1990 and 1993 and, both times, was the oldest member of the parliament.
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