Background
Aleksandrs Grīns was born as Jēkabs Grīns on 15 August 1895 in Birži parish, Courland Governorate.
Aleksandrs Grīns was born as Jēkabs Grīns on 15 August 1895 in Birži parish, Courland Governorate.
He has studied in a local parish school and later also in Jēkabpils Merchant school and Rūjiena Gymnasium. In 1914 he graduated Realschule in Cēsis.
He has written many novels and stories, many of them historic. He was awarded the Order of the Three Stars (IV and V class) and Order of Viesturs (III class). 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.
After a few months, he was sent to the front with the rank of praporschik.
In 1916 Grīns managed to get permission to join a Latvian Riflemen unit He was first deployed to a Reserve battalion in Tartu, but was later sent to the front lines near Olaine.
During this period he changed his name from Jēkabs to Aleksandrs. In July 1917 Grīns was seriously wounded during the Battle of Jugla in the first days of September, and he was evacuated to Saint St. Petersburg.
After treatment, he was demobilized in April 1918 and returned to his native homestead in Latvia.
Later he went to study medicine at the University of Tartu. While in Tartu, he was mobilized into the Soviet Red Army in the beginning of 1919. When the Red Army was retreating from Courland, Grīns deserted in Bauska and joined a Latvian brigade under Colonel Jānis Balodis.
After the liberation of Riga, Grīns resumed his medicine studies at the newly established University of Latvia in autumn 1919.
In 1924 Grīns was demobilized from the Latvian army with the rank of captain. After 1920 Grīns worked as a journalist, first in the military newspaper Latvijas Kareivis, and later in Latvis and Brīvā Zeme.
In addition, Grīns started to write historical novels and stories. In autumn 1939 Grīns returned to active military service.
After the Soviet occupation of Latvia in June 1940, Grīns was sent to a military camp in Litene parish.
In June 1941 several hundred Latvian officers from this camp, including Grīns, were arrested by People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs. Grīns was imprisoned in Riga and interrogated. After Operation Barbarossa started, Grīns was sent to Russia and imprisoned in an Astrakhan prison. In October he was sentenced to death and on 25 December he was shot dead in prison.