Vilis Lācis

{{Infobox person

| name = Vilis Lācis

| image = Vilis Lācis (cropped).jpg

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1904|5|12|df=y}}

| birth_place = Vecmīlgrāvis, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|1966|2|6|1904|5|12|df=y}}

| death_place = Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union

| burial_place = Forest Cemetery, Riga

| party = Communist Party of the Soviet Union

| occupation = Writer, politician

| spouse = {{Plainlist|

{{marriage |Marija Bute|1927|1944}}
{{marriage |Velta Kalpiņa|1944|}}

}}

| children = 5

| movement =

}}

Vilis Lācis (born Jānis Vilhelms Lāce (Old orthography: Jahn Wilhelm Lahze) on 12 May 1904, died 6 February 1966) was a Latvian writer and communist politician.{{cite book |last=Rožkalne |first=Anita |author2=LU literatūras |author3=folkloras un mākslas institūts |title=Latviešu rakstniecība biogrāfijās. |language=lv |publisher=Zinātne |location=Riga |year=2003 |isbn=9984-698-48-3 |oclc=54799673}}

Biography

Jānis Vilhelms Lāce was born into a working-class family in Vecmīlgrāvis (now part of Riga). During World War I, his family fled to the Altai region in Siberia, where Lācis studied at the pedagogical seminary in Barnaul. In 1921, Lācis returned to Riga and at various times worked as a fisherman, port worker, ship's fireman and librarian while writing in his free time. In 1933, he published his hugely successful novel Zvejnieka dēls ('Fisherman's Son'), making him one of the most popular and commercially successful Latvian writers of the 1930s. His novels have been characterized as popular fiction, not always liked by highbrow critics, but widely read by ordinary people.

Throughout this period, Lācis maintained underground ties to the officially banned Communist Party of Latvia. Due to his political activities, Lācis was under periodic surveillance by the Latvian Political Department. Eventually, Lācis became a favorite of Latvian president Kārlis Ulmanis, who personally ordered the destruction of the surveillance files on Lācis. Lācis wrote newspaper editorials highly favorable of the Ulmanis regime, while remaining a Communist supporter, and Ulmanis's government generously funded Lācis's writing and a film adaptation of {{Interlanguage link|Fisherman's Son (1939 film)|lt=Fisherman's Son|lv|Zvejnieka dēls (1939. gada filma)|ru|Сын рыбака (фильм, 1939)}}. In the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, eight films based on Lācis's works were produced, including a new adaptation of {{Interlanguage link|Fisherman's Son (1957 film)|lt=Fisherman's Son|lv|Zvejnieka dēls (1957. gada filma)}} in 1957.

After Latvia was occupied and forcefully incorporated in the USSR in August 1940, Lācis became Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Latvian SSR (nominally, Prime Minister) and served in this position from 1940 to 1959. When Nazi Germany occupied Latvia from 1941 to 1944, Lācis was evacuated to Moscow, where he continued to write in a socialist realist style. He was regarded mostly as a figurehead, as most of the actual decisions were made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party.{{No source|date=August 2023}} As first Minister of the Interior and then Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, he is seen as personally responsible for the Soviet deportations from Latvia.{{cite book |last=Laima |first=Rita |title=Skylarks and Rebels: A Memoir about the Soviet Russian Occupation of Latvia, Life in a Totalitarian State, and Freedom |date=2017 |publisher=ibidem Press |location=Stuttgart |page=118 |isbn=978-3-8382-6854-5 |quote=Lācis was a communist and was allegedly responsible for the deportation of many of his compatriots.}}{{cite news |last=Līcīte |first=Madara |date=13 November 2023 |title=Relocation of writer, politician Vilis Lācis' monument considered |url=https://eng.lsm.lv/article/culture/history/13.11.2023-relocation-of-writer-politician-vilis-lacis-monument-considered.a531380/ |publisher=Public Broadcasting of Latvia |quote=Meanwhile, historian Juris Ciganovs mentioned that during Stalin's time, Lācis was both Minister of Interior and Chairman of the Council of Ministers. And above all, he signed the fatal order to deport 10,000 families in 1949. |access-date=26 October 2018}}{{cite news |date=15 June 2005 |title=Balts mark Day of Mourning and Hope |url=https://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/12901/ |newspaper=The Baltic Times |quote=Vike-Freiberga said that overnight on June 14, 1941 people who were included on the lists were detained and deported without a trial. She admitted that Latvians were also involved in these crimes, including Vilis Lacis, a famous writer, Alfreds Noviks, and others. |access-date=25 April 2007}}

From 1954 to 1958, Lācis also served as Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities.{{Cite web|url=http://whp057.narod.ru/sssr.htm|title=СОЮЗ СОВЕТСКИХ СОЦИАЛИСТИЧЕСКИХ РЕСПУБЛИК|date=September 28, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928130334/http://whp057.narod.ru/sssr.htm|archive-date=September 28, 2011}} He was awarded the Order of Lenin seven times and the Stalin Prize twice, in 1949 and 1952.{{cite book |last1=Serdāns |first1=Viesturs |title=A Hundred Great Latvians |date=2006 |publisher=Latvijas Mediji |location=Riga |page=120}}

Lācis's books have been translated into more than 50 languages, with the most numerous translations into Russian. He remains the most translated Latvian writer. He was among the contributors of semi-official literary magazine Karogs.{{cite book

|publisher=Academic Studies Press|location=Boston, MA|isbn=9781618119780|page=202|chapter-url=https://doi.org/10.1515/9781618119780-013|chapter=Reading Literary History through the Archives: The Case of the Latvian Literary Journal Karogs|doi=10.1515/9781618119780-013 |s2cid=213663806 }}