Veidenbaum, Eduard Jekabovic

Born Oct. 3, 1867, on the Glaznieki Farmstead, now in Cësis Raion; died May 24, 1892, in Tartu. Latvian poet.

Veidenbaum was born into a peasant family. In 1887 he enrolled in the law faculty of the University of Dorpat (Tartu). He died at the time of his final examinations. Veidenbaum’s essay On Private Property, Capitalism, and the Problems of the Working Class (1886; published in 1908) was the first Marxist work written in Latvian. During Veidenbaum’s lifetime his poems were circulated in manuscript in illegal revolutionary circles. Deserving of special attention is the poem “Spirit of Liberty, Awake!” In satirical poems Veidenbaum sharply ridiculed the bourgeoisie and the church, the servants of reaction (“There Is No Truth on Earth! The Rich Man Is Above All ...” and “Pursuing a Lucrative Position”). In 1908 the Latvian writer E. Trei-man-ZvarguJis published a collection of Veidenbaum’s works, for which he was imprisoned. Several poems by Veidenbaum have been set to music.