Atis Kronvalds and Latvian

We saw this monument on the lawn of the New Sigulda Castle. It is of Kronvaldu Atis, made by Teodors Zalkalns in 1938, and was unveiled at the front of the New Castle. He was a teacher and a publicist who helped initiate the second wave of the New Latvian movement and is remembered for his contributions to keeping, preserving, and expanding the Latvian language. He was born in 1837, the son of a village craftsman. He audited lectures at the University of Berlin (1859), and in 1867 graduated from the teachers training courses at the University of Tartu (EDstonia). As a member of the bourgeois liberal Young Latvian movement, Kronvalds opposed the policy of Germanization. He believed that the path to national rebirth lay in perfecting the Latvian language and ridding it of Germanisms, in expanding the network of national schools, and in establishing various progressive public organizations. Kronvalds popularized pedagogical science among Latvian teachers. In articles on the national language, he demonstrated the enormous significance of the Russian language for Latvian culture. He played an important role in the development of the Latvian literary language, particularly as the originator of many new words. His best-known book is National Aspirations. He was removed from the lawn during the Soviet occupation, and returned with Latvian independence.