1. Gustavs Zemgals was a Latvian politician and the second President of Latvia.
11 Facts About Gustavs Zemgals
1. 2.
Gustavs Zemgals attended elementary school in a small parish of Saka, and later continued education in Riga Nikolai Gymnasium.
3.
Gustavs Zemgals graduated from Moscow University in 1899 with a degree in law.
4.
Gustavs Zemgals then returned to Latvia and was a lawyer, a newspaper editor and a political activist.
5.
In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, Gustavs Zemgals was mobilised and sent to the front, where he spent a year and a half and was promoted to the rank of captain.
6.
Gustavs Zemgals was an editor in the newspaper that succeeded "Jauna Dienas Lapa" -"Musu Laiki".
7.
When World War I began, Gustavs Zemgals was mobilised and initially assigned to an infantry division in the middle part of Latvia, but later he was sent to Finland.
8.
From 1918, Gustavs Zemgals became active in the Latvian Provisional National Council, where he worked on matters related to occupied Latvian territories.
9.
Gustavs Zemgals served as president until 1930, when his term expired, and he refused to run for a second term, despite having been asked by many to do so.
10.
On 6 January 1939 Gustavs Zemgals died and was buried in Riga.
11.
In 1990, a monument to Gustavs Zemgals was constructed in Dzukste, place of his birth.