Aleksandrs Grīns

Aleksandrs Grīns (1895–1941) was a Latvian writer, translator and army officer. He has written many novels and stories, many of them historic. After graduating school in Cēsis in 1914, he wanted to study medicine at the University of Tartu but due to the start of First World War he went to Moscow to study at Alekseyevskoye military school. In 1916 Grīns managed to get permission to join a Latvian Riflemen unit and in 1918 after mobilization he returned to his native homestead in Latvia. Later he went to study medicine at the University of Tartu. After 1920 Grīns worked as a journalist and started to write historical novels and stories. 

Aleksandrs Grīns is known for several successful historical novels, however, the most notable is the novel Dvēseļu Putenis [Blizzard of Souls] published in 1934, where the main protagonist is a young Latvian schoolboy who enlists in a Latvian Riflemen battalion and participates in battles in Latvia and, later, the Russian Civil War. In this novel he used his own experiences and memories during the First World War. Other notable works are Nameja Gredzens [Ring of Namejs], about ancient Semigallian duke Nameisis, and Tobago, about Courlander colonists of the island in the 17th century. Besides novels, he has also translated into Latvian Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and L. Renn War.