Cultural and national revival movement between 1850 and 1880
The
First Latvian National Awakening
or the
First Awakening
(
Latvian
:
Pirm? atmoda
) was a cultural and national revival movement between 1850 and 1880 among the
Young Latvians
, a group of well-educated
Latvians
, who, opposed to the
Baltic German
dominance in
Livonia
and
Courland Governorates
, created the basis for the modern Latvian nation state. It was influenced by the European
romantic nationalism
movements of
Young Germans
and
Czech National Revival
. Most of their efforts were spent on educating Latvians, criticizing Germans and removing the stigma from Latvian language, traditions and culture.
The movement started after 1850 in the
University of Tartu
, which then was the highest place of education in Livonian Governorate and was attended by around 30 ethnic Latvian students.
Kri?j?nis Valdem?rs
, a student from Courland, posted in his dorm room a note identifying himself as a Latvian, which was unheard of at the time. Very soon a group of 10-13 students grew around him; they organized “Latvian evenings”, during which they debated about the condition of German-oppressed Latvians.
Juris Alun?ns
and
Kri?j?nis Barons
soon became leading members.
[1]
They established the newspapers
M?jas Viesis
and
P?terburgas Av?zes
. The movement initially was supported by Russian authorities, who saw it as a tool against the German-dominated Baltic provinces.
In 1868, Young Latvian
Fricis Br?vzemnieks
began gathering Latvian folk songs known as
dainas
. His work was continued by
Kri?j?nis Barons
, who in 1894 published the first book of dainas and eventually become known as the Father of Dainas (
Dainut?vs
).
Another literary activist was teacher
Atis Kronvalds
, who discovered mention of a red-white-red flag in the 13th-century
Livonian Rhymed Chronicle
. These colors eventually became the
flag of Latvia
. Kronvalds worked tirelessly on promoting education among Latvians, and modernized the Latvian language by creating many new words.
In 1868, initially, as a charity organization for helping victims of Estonian crop failure, the
Riga Latvian Society
was established, which organized Latvian cultural life in Riga and regions.
[2]
The first Latvian theatre troupe led by
?dolfs Alun?ns
was established here, which led to the birth of playwriting in Latvian.
In 1873, the
first Latvian singing festival
was held in Riga, during which most of the songs were Latvian folk songs. Of the new songs performed there, one of them, composed by
Bauma?u K?rlis
, later became the
national anthem of Latvia
. Fearing the growth of nationalism, its original name of “God, bless Latvia!” was changed by Russian censors to “God, bless the Baltics!”.
In 1888, the national epic
L??pl?sis
, written by
Andrejs Pumpurs
, was first published.
The First Awakening was a cultural movement mostly among the well-educated classes and soon ran out of momentum as Latvian society became more mature and interested in new political and scientific ideas. Many of the leading Young Latvians died early or worked in Russia, away from their home. Latvians also experienced a wave of
Russianization
during which use of Latvian in schools was prohibited.
The First Awakening was followed by the
New Current
(
Jaun? str?va
) movement, which was much more political and led to the establishment of the Social Democratic Party.
The First Awakening's interest in folklore was carried on by the
Baltic neopagan
movement
Dievtur?ba
, which was created in the 1920s by
Ernests Brasti??
and K?rlis Marovskis-Breg?is.
[3]
References
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