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Article Title: Karlis Ulmanis: From University of Nebraska Graduate to President of

Full Citation: Lawrence E Murphy, Aivars G Ronis, and Arijs R Liepins, “Karlis Ulmanis: From University of Nebraska Graduate to ,” Nebraska History 80 (1999): 46-54

URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1999Ulmanis.pdf Date: 11/30/2012

Article Summary: Karlis Ulmanis studied and then taught briefly at the University of Nebraska as a Latvian refugee. As president of Latvia years later, he shared his enthusiasm for Nebraska traditions with citizens of his country.

Cataloging Information:

Names: Karlis Augusts Ulmanis, Howard R Smith, Jerome Warner, Charles J Warner, Karl Kleege (orininally Kliegis), Theodore Kleege, Herman Kleege, Val Kuska, Howard J Gramlich, Vere Culver, Harry B Coffee, J Gordon Roberts, A L Haecker, Hermanis Endzelins,

Place Names: , Latvia; Lincoln, Nebraska; Houston, Texas

Keywords: Karlis Augusts Ulmanis, University of Nebraska, Howard J Gramlich, Hermanis Endzelins, J Gordon Roberts, Roberts Sanitary Dairy Company, Baltic Farmers Association, 4-H clubs, Arbor Day, Guntis Ulmanis

Photographs / Images: President Karlis A Ulmanis, official photo taken in the late 1930s; graduation portrait of Ulmanis, University of Nebraska, February 15, 1909; University of Nebraska dairy judging team, December 1908: Ulmanis, Vere Culver, Howard J Gramlich; Gramlich and Lawrence Murphy viewing the preceding photo during a June 29, 1979, interview of Gramlich; Roberts Dairy office, early 1910; US Ambassador William Bullitt presenting a University of Nebraska pennant to Ulmanis at in 1936; Ulmanis in 1936 with members of the Latvian counterpart to 4-H clubs; last known photo of Ulmanis, taken July 23, 1940, in the Moscow rail yards with an unidentified agent of the USSR; unveiling of plaque honoring Ulmanis at the Dairy Industries Building on the University of Nebraska East Campus, May 22, 1954: Philip Kelly, W V Lambert, Olgerts Liepins, Charles J Warner, Ilmars Bergmanis

One who passe annexed to days remembers s s aggressive mold, in a great r with nothing upon its wall t disturb the of Latvia and a penn trol of the local German the University of Nebraska. I , under whom the ethnic Latvian Of the nearly 280,000 persons who were treated as serfs. graduated from the University of Ne­ unique double system of control braska between 1873 and 1999, Karlis was still in force at the time of Ulmanis's Augusts Ulmanis, class of 1909, is the birth on September 4, 1877, on a farm only one to become a president of a na­ named Piksas, near the village of tion." His historic shadow still lingers Dobele, within Berzes County in the over Latvia, the country where he served province of Zemgale. Under the existing both as prime minister and as president. conditions, it is remarkable that pursu­ Who was this one-time Nebraska resi­ ant to a government act of June 12, dent? Why did he make the long jour­ 1886, the Ulmanis family was eventually ney from Europe to Nebraska, and why able to obtain the title to Piksas from were certain ideas of Nebraska origin Russian Czarist officials.' implemented in a land six thousand Karlis was the youngest of three miles to the east? These are worthwhile Ulmanis brothers to reach adulthood. questions to ask about the brief Ne­ As a child, he attended a local grade school in Berzes County; as a teenager, braska years of Karlis Ulmanis, who An ofticial photograph of President Karlis today's once walked the East Campus of the A. Ulmanis taken in the late 19305. he was a high school student in University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Republic of Latvia photograph bustling provincial capital city of For centuries, because of established Jelgava. Oddly, in view of his many ef­ amber trade routes, the ancient world grains and other crops of the earth with forts to obtain a higher education, had been aware of the area that today is greater perseverance than expected .... Ulmanis never received a diploma from known as Latvia. Among the first histori­ But they also search out the sea, and a Latvian high school. ans to leave a written record was Tacitus, they are the only ones to gather amber.'? Ulmanis's interest in dairying sur­ who called the inhabitants of this area This ethnic group had lived free from faced early. In 1896 he made the first of "Aestii" and reported, "They cultivate colonization on the eastern shore of the many trips outside Latvia, traveling to Baltic Sea for centuries, but by the latter the city of Tapiau (today known as part of the 1100s, the Germans had Gvardejsk) in what was then German Lawrence E. Murphy is a Lincoln, Nebraska, attorney who assisted in research for the 1986 reached Latvia. Consequently, the first East Prussia, to attend an experimental NETV documentary, In Search of Freedom: of many formal efforts of a foreign school in dairying. Upon his return to Nebraskans From Latvia. power to rule this region can be traced Latvia in 1899, when he was just twenty­ Aivars G. Ranis, a native ofLatvia, is president to the founding of Riga in 1201 by two, Ulmanis was already conducting ofthe Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bishop Albert and the Teutonic knights lectures and demonstrations for the Lincoln, Nebraska. under his command. From this time un­ benefit of local dairy farmers in Berzes Arijs R. Liepins, also a native ofLatvia, is til November 1918, Latvia was ruled by County. president of the Latvian St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church ofLincoln, Nebraska, Inc., foreign powers. In 1902 Ulmanis again traveled out­ and the Latvian ReliefAssociation ofNebraska­ When in the late eighteenth century, side his homeland, first to SWitzerland, Daugavas Vanagi, Inc. Russia consolidated its expansionist where he enrolled in the Zurich Poli­

46 Karlis Ulmanis technical Institute and specialized in By the fall of 1906 Ulmanis was a full­ Nebraska area, including the Loveland agriculture. After a brief trip home, he fledged fugitive, on the run from his na­ Dairy and the Alamito Dairy in both Fort broadened his education in at tive land of Latvia in order to escape the Calhoun and Lyons, Ulmanis was hospi­ the Agricultural Institute of the Univer­ Russians. He made his way to Riga, St. talized with an unknown ailment at sity of Leipzig in the province of Saxony. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, and fi­ Immanuel Hospital in Omaha, where he There he earned a certificate indicating nally to Leipzig in Germany. While he met Dr. John Fossler. It is believed that it that he was qualified to teach the sub­ was temporarily in Annaberg, site of an was Fossler who suggested that Ulmanis ject of agriculture." American consulate, Ulmanis noted in a enroll in the University of Nebraska in By 1905 Ulmanis had returned to letter to Endzelins that he had started Lincoln." Latvia. According to Hermanis Endzelins, studying English." Karlis Ulmanis faced difficult prob­ a founder of the Baltic Agricultural As­ lems when he arrived in Lincoln toward sociation, Ulmanis was first hired by the end of 1907 or the beginning of that group as an instructor at a farmers' 1908. Although he was already well meeting held on July 10, 1905. His du­ versed in agriculture and dairying from ties included not only lecturing at asso­ his farm experiences in Latvia and his ciation meetings, but also writing ar­ European education, his knowledge of ticles for their publications. English was limited. His age, now past That same year the first rumblings of thirty, made him a full decade older Latvian nationalism terrified the ethnic than most of his fellow students at the German gentry, who had been in firm University of Nebraska College of Agri­ command of the land since the found­ culture, then known as the Industrial ing of Riga. These local barons promptly College. He was reserved around asked the Russian government for assis­ people until after he had made their ac­ tance in putting down the resistance of quaintance. Fortunately for Ulmanis, the protesting farmers. soon after he arrived in Lincoln, he was The fall 1905 issue of The Farmer, a befriended by Professor Howard R. magazine edited by Ulmanis, reported Smith, then on the staff of the Industrial the various countermeasures taken by College. Professor Smith remembered: the Czar against revolutionary move­ I was head of the Department of Animal ments spreading across Russia. Ulmanis Husbandry at the University of Nebraska ended this issue with a ringing declara­ in Lincoln. We had then a winter course tion, "Long live the revolution!" Shortly for students lacking entrance require­ Graduation portrait of Karlis A. Ulmanis, thereafter, on December 21, 1905, he ments for the four year agricultural University of Nebraska, February 15, 1909. course. On the first day, a young man in was arrested by Czarist police and sent © 1979, Townsend Studio, Lincoln my short course class spoke with a foreign as a political prisoner to the Russian jail accent, and I asked him to remain.... within the city of Pskov." Not yet thirty in the spring of 1907, When I learned that he had previous train­ By May of 1906 he had been released Ulmanis left Germany and sailed to New ing sufficient to enter the four years col­ lege course, I took him to the city campus from prison and was quietly working on York. lt is unclear why he traveled to to talk with Dr. Bessey, Dean of the Indus­ his brother lndrikis's farm in the Zemgale America (and to Nebraska). At the time trial College, who permitted him to enter province. However, by late summer, Rus­ he left Germany, however, he was seek­ the four [year] course." sian officials were again investigating ing employment, he was interested in The official University of Nebraska Ulman is and his editorials. Through cer­ learning more about modern improve­ student record card for Karl August tain contacts in the Valmiera district of ments in agriculture, and he wished to Ulmann, the German form of his Latvian Latvia, Hermanis Endzelins, who had vis­ help improve the lot of the , reveals that on February 17, 1908, ited Ulmanis in prison, was able to alert people.'? Ulman is somehow made his he was admitted to the Industrial Col­ his friend of possible rearrest.' According way to Omaha in the summer of 1907 lege in the Technical Agricultural to the neighboring Kliegis family, their fa­ and took a series of dairying jobs. Never Group; was given senior standing upon ther, Juris, sent his daughter on horse­ afraid of hard work, he announced his presentation of credentials from the Uni­ back with money and a warning for availability in the Omaha newspapers. versity of Leipzig; and on February 15, Ulmanis to leave immediately. By mis­ Eventually he found employment under 1909, was duly issued a Bachelor of Sci­ take the Czarist police had stopped at the the auspices of A. A. and Edward Martin. ence degree in Agriculture." wrong farm, thus providing crucial time While he was working at different lo­ Former State Senator Jerome Warner for this warning." cales 'within the Omaha and eastern (now deceased) on numerous occasions

47 Nebraska History - Summer 1999

partment. Ulmanis, Gramlich, and Vere S. Culver made up the three-man team. In a 1954 letter Gramlich described his friend and classmate: Ulmanis was a very pleasant companion on such occasions as this.... He was a big, good-hearted guy who spoke with a very distinct accent and was probably ten years older than most undergraduates. 19 Student teams representing nine col­ leges participated in the National Dairy Cattle Judging Contest in Chicago on December 3, 1908.20The University of Nebraska team of Ulman is, Gramlich, and Culver won the separate Jersey tro­ phy, but came in second overall. Ac­ cording to Gramlich, Ulmanis was a conscientious member who tried to do University of Nebraska dairy judging team, December 1908. (Left to right): Karlis A. Ulmanis, Vere Culver, Howard J. Gramlich. © 1979, Townsend Studio, Lincoln his best on every occasion. Mymost vivid recollection of the contest recalled that his father, Charles 1. Burlington Railroad and a loyal friend to and events pertaining thereto was one Warner, welcomed new immigrants to the 4-H clubs of Nebraska. Within the ar­ which occurred early on the morning af­ ter. I was awakened by Ulmanis, who was Nebraska (including Ulmanis) during chives of Love Library of the University talking to himself as he sat up in bed, flay­ the early part of the century by offering of Nebraska are his written reflections ing the air with his arms. He was "damn­ employment at the large Warner family about his classmate Ulman is and about ing" the class of Guernsey cows which he farm near Waverly in Lancaster County." the days on the Warner farm. had in the contest and which had proved Charles Warner also provided living to be our downfall. While our team We worked together, we ate at the same ranked second among the nine compet­ quarters for the new farm hands, free table and slept in the same bunk house. ing, we would have been an easy first had room and board for as long as they re­ That gave us a good opportunity to dis­ Ulmanis seen the Guernseys just a little mained on the farm, and regular wages cuss subjects and problems as they came better." during periods of work, such as the an­ up in our everyday lives.... I found Ulmanis was a thorough student, a close During this period Ulman is overcame nual crop harvest. observer and well informed in all phases occasional periods of loneliness. Ruth Working on the farm with Ulmanis of human betterment. This made him an Guerney, one of the early co-ed students were several sons of Latvian·Juris Kliegis interesting conversationalist, particularly at the old Industrial College, remem­ who after immigrating to America, because he could compare life in America with life abroad." bered Ulmanis living in a tool shed on changed their last name to Kleege. Broth­ the campus. She also recalled profes­ An extensive newspaper account ers Karl and Theodore arrived first. Later sors encouraging classmates to visit him their younger brother Herman joined published in Nebraska about Karlis there to cheer him Up.22 Other students them. At one time or another, during the Ulman is describes him during his uni­ believed that Ulman is could occasion­ versity days as a "penniless, friendless years 1907 to 1909, there were three or ally be morose." Without question, the youth."18 Penniless he may have been, four Latvian-born farm hands working at friendships of key University of Ne­ but he did have a great many helpful the Warner farm. IS braska faculty members, and their help friends, professors, classmates, and em­ Nearly thirty years later, Ulmanis, to Ulmanis in obtaining employment, af­ then president of Latvia, invited Karl ployers during his short stay in Lincoln fected his future. Apparently, through at the university. Kleege and his wife to return to Latvia. hard work, he was able to exorcise the One of his most long-lived classmates Eventually, he persuaded the Kleeges dark moods. was Howard Gramlich, who later be­ to come back in 1937, where a position 1. Through the years, Filley Hall on the came head of the animal husbandry de­ within the Latvian government awaited East Campus has been the site of many 16 partment. Professor Gramlich, when he Karl Kleege. efforts of the Agricultural College faculty Another university student, Val was in his early nineties, described the to improve the dairy industry of Ne­ Kuska, was also working on the Warner 1908 selection of the first University of braska. For a time that faculty included Nebraska dairy judging team by Profes­ farm in 1908. Kuska later became a well­ Karlis A. Ulman is. sor A. L. Haecker, head of the dairy de­ known agricultural agent for the When Ulmanis was a senior, Profes­

48 Karlis Ulmanis sor Howard R. Smith arranged for him to was Mr. Ulmanis' favorite work; as we quiring his degree, improving his English, be appointed, on November 6, 1908, as worked with him in those classes we and publishing articles on dairying. learned to appreciate his personality more a laboratory assistant at the salary of than just from his lectures." In Latvia, before coming to America, thirty dollars a month." In a 1951 letter, Ulmanis had published a best-selling a student of Ulmanis, John E. Erickson The University of Nebraska Board of text, Profitable Dairying. By 1908 he was of Funk, Nebraska, described the situa­ Regents' records indicate that on Febru­ sufficiently proficient in English to tion that autumn of 1908. ary 15, 1909, the day Ulmanis received tackle composition in this country. The his B.S. degree in Agriculture, he was It was in the fall of 1908 that I attended the 1908 annual report of the Nebraska School of Agriculture [high school] at Lin­ granted an interim appointment as an Dairymen's Association featured his ar­ coln. I was only 16years old at the time. instructor and assistant in dairy hus­ ticle, "Profits of Farm Cheese Making." Mr. Ulmanis was attending the College of bandry at the experiment station. His Shortly after graduation, in March of Agriculture at the same time there and salary had been increased to seventy­ 1909, Ulmanis's article, "The Making of was teaching part time to help pay his ex­ five dollars a month." Several months penses at school." Cottage Cheese," was published in the later, on November 11, 1909, Karlis A. Nebraska Farmer. More than four decades later Ulmanis was awarded another promo­ Contemporary accounts of this pe­ Erickson retained a vivid memory of tion as "instructor in the department of riod describe Ulmanis as someone who his old instructor: dairy industry for the school year of six "didn't drink, swear, or smoke; stocky, He was a rather large man, six feet or months at a salary of one hundred dol­ muscular and picking up a trace of an more tall, and weighed about 200 pounds; lars per month."28 American prairie drawl."29 A University he was of the athletic type; active and Within the brief period of one year alert. Mr. Ulmanis was a good instructor of Nebraska Agricultural College peri­ and the boys liked him in the class room. Ulmanis had gone from a part-time in­ odical, appropriately called Agriculture, He was very keen and full of dry humor, structor in high school to a full-fledged printed a favorable review of instructor and though his English was not too good, instructor in the College of Agriculture Ulmanis in an early 1910 issue. yet he was able to hold his own in any with a significant increase in salary. He group he found himself. Cheese making Few men of his age have had a wider ex­ had achieved all this while he was ac- perience or better training in the practical and scientific phases of Dairy Husbandry and as a student Mr. Ulmanis is thorough and progressive. His preparation and am­ bition to succeed insure for him a splen­ did future." 1.Gordon Roberts, who founded Roberts Sanitary Dairy Company, then located at the northeast corner of Six­ teenth and M streets in Lincoln, hired Ulmanis as a superintendent for his Lin­ coln plant in early 1910. For the next two years Ulmanis worked for Roberts. In a letter written forty-five years later, Roberts tells a classic tale about his lin­ coln superintendent. It concerns the physical and mental strength of the sturdy Karlis Ulman is. According to Roberts, a couple of fellow employees enjoyed ridiculing this "foreigner" be­ cause of his accent, but one day two of the men made the mistake of doing so while standing too close to a large vat of milk. The slow-to-anger Ulman is finally lost his patience: Solemnly, the Latvian picked up the two men-one under each arm. Very deliber­ ately, as though performing a necessary Howard J. Gramlich (right) and lawrence E.Murphy view a photograph of the 190.8 Uni­ but painful duty, he took one man in each versity of Nebraska dairy judging team during CI June 29,1979, interview of Gramlich hand by the overall straps and deter­ filmed by Nebraska Educational Television. Harald Driemanis photograph .

49 Nebraska History - Summer 1999

minedly submerged the two. When the clowns finally surfaced gasping for air, the Latvian regarded them with no trace of ex­ pression upon his face, turned, and went about his business. Needless to say, Ulmanis was treated as a "man of distinc­ tion" from that time forward." At some point during the period of 1911-12, Karlis Ulmanis again decided to make a radical change-to pursue private enterprise. He had learned that a creamery was for sale in Houston, Texas. While others may have at­ tempted to discourage him, Professors Howard R. Smith and A. L. Haecker co­ signed a note for Ulmanis at the First Na­ tional Bank in Lincoln so he could re­ ceive a thousand-dollar loan to close the purchase of the Texas creamery. It was ten years before the last of that loan was repaid to the co-signers." Stories Roberts Dairy office, northeast corner of Sixteenth and M streets in Lincoln, early 1910. within the Charles 1.Warner family sug­ (Left to right): Karlis A. Ulmanis, superintendent of the Lincoln plant; Vera Barger, secre­ gest the possibility of other loans and a tary; J. Gordon Roberts, president; Clarence Laird; E. R. Harnly; and Grace I. Roberts. trip to Houston by Warner to investigate Roberts Diary photograph the situation after the business experi­ enced financial trouble." On July 30, 1913, Ulmanis wrote his chored in Latvia's harbor city of Liepaja, Exactly why the fiscal stability of the old friend Hermanis Endzelins from because a number of rival armies were Houston creamery was endangered re­ Bremen, Germany. Endzelins later re­ clashing throughout the Latvian coun­ mains unclear. According to some news ported that in spite of the amnesty, tryside. Latvia's new, independent army, accounts, written years afterward, Ulmanis had been detained at the bor­ at one time or another, was forced to Ulmanis made too many changes and der by Russian authorities." Once back fight the Communist "Red" Army of the installed expensive new machinery, home, he found the same old double USSR, the pro-Czar "White" Army of old which did not produce the hoped-for system of German land barons who con­ Imperial Russia, and a variety of swirling profits." trolled Latvia under the titular govern­ German troops who had refused to About this time the Russian govern­ ment of the Russian Czar. However, it leave Latvia after World War I. ment issued an amnesty for political was a system that Ulmanis was deter­ Almost miraculously the native citi­ prisoners arrested during the troubles mined to break. On August 20, 1913,he zens of Latvia, under Ulmanis's guidance of 1905.This manifesto was proclaimed was again hired as an agronomist-editor and grim determination, were finally able on the 300th anniversary of the Russian for the Baltic Farmers Association in to escape Russian rule and the domi­ House of Romanov in 1913.35 Valmiera in the province of Vidzerne." nance of the German barons. Bythe early The impending bankruptcy of his He became active in the Latvian inde­ 1920s all foreign armies had been ousted, Texas creamery coincided with the am­ pendence movement and head of the the independent Latvian army was firmly nesty, which made it safe for Ulmanis to Agrarian Party. The Republic of Latvia's in control, and a peace treaty had been return to his native Latvia. He left his Declaration of Independence was pro­ signed with former adversaries. failing business to his disappointed claimed in Riga on November 18,1918. Like the United Kingdom, the Repub­ creditors and by way of the port of New Not long after the guns had fallen si­ lic of Latvia adopted a parliamentary Orleans, took a freighter back to Eu­ lent along the Western Front of Europe, system of democratic government. Dur­ rope. Ulmanis's American sojourn had Ulmanis had propelled himself to the ing the two decades between World lasted only half a dozen years, from prime ministership of a Latvian provi­ Wars I and II, Ulmanis served four terms 1907to 1913. Nonetheless, his Nebraska sional government. Almost immediately, as prime minister: November 18, 1918, experiences enabled him to combine, however, he found himself again a fugi­ to June 18, 1921; December 12,1925, to agriculturally and politically, the best of tive. He and his fellow ministers in the May 6,1926; March 27 to December 5, the old from Europe and the new from national cabinet were forced to find 1931; and March 17 to May 19,1934.38 America. sanctuary aboard a British warship, an- The political parties of Latvia during this

50 Karlis Ulmanis time were divided into dozens of differ­ ent factions. With the rise of both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, the survival of Latvia against such outside fascist and communist influences seemed threat­ ened, or at least so Ulman is believed. On the night of May 15,1934, he, with the help of friends within the Latvian military establishment, staged a blood­ less coup d'etat, without any shots being fired. Thus, Ulmanis became the unelected premier or "Vadonis" [leader] of Latvia. He also assumed the title of president when the sitting president's expired in 1936. Ulmanis was to remain the president of Latvia un­ til June 17, 1940, when the Soviet Union sent tanks across the border, forcibly oc­ cupied the country, arrested Ulmanis, and immediately replaced him with a Communist-installed government under the guns of the Red Army. Whether or not Ulman is was a dicta­ U.S. Ambassador William Bullitt presented a new University of Nebraska pennant to tor is an issue that Latvians still debate. President Ulmanis at Riga Castle in 1936. The pennant was sent by Nebraska Perhaps this old argument was best cov­ Congressman Harry B. Coffee. Ulmanis Coilection, University Archives/Special ered by the Daily Nebraskan, the student Coilections Department, UNL Libraries newspaper of the University of Ne­ However, no one disputed Ulmanis's braska, when Ulmanis was president of pride in his Nebraska connection. Many Latvia. On April 29, 1936, a news article visitors to the living quarters in the presi­ with the banner headline, "Former Stu­ dential castle in Riga commented upon dent Now Dictator," appeared in the the sparsely covered walls that displayed Daily Nebraskan. The article stated that the and the pen­ Ulmanis "joined the list of Europe's full­ nant of the University of Nebraska. Harry fledged dictators. "39 B. Coffee of Chadron, Nebraska's Fifth Just a little over a year later, on May District representative to the U.S. House 5, 1937, the Daily Nebraskan printed the of Representatives and an Ulmanis con­ other side of the debate. This time the temporary from the old days at the Agri­ headline read, " cultural College in Lincoln, promised to Graduate Peter Lejins Denies Existence send a new scarlet and cream pennant of Dictatorship in Native Land." Pertain­ to replace the somewhat frayed one ing to the controversy about the "dicta­ from the president's college days in torship" of Ulmanis, the article stated: Nebraska." Here to see the state and the university that Under Ulmanis's direction Arbor Day, Latvians have heard so much about, Peter first introduced in Nebraska by 1. Ster­ Lejins, a graduate of the University of ling Morton of Nebraska City, became Latvia, who has been doing graduate work an institution in Latvia. Ulmanis also at Chicago, denied that his country was the type of dictatorship as exemplified by founded an agricultural youth organiza­ some of the other fasciststates.As Lejins tion called "Mazpulki," patterned upon expresses it, Latvia, under the command of the American 4-H clubs he had observed President Karlis Ulmanis, who graduated in Nebraska. Furthermore, his work with President Ulmanis in 1936 with "Mazpulki" from the university in 1909, is merely enjoy­ members, the Latvian counterpart to Ne­ ing the leadership of an able president and the dairy industry in Nebraska is re­ braska 4-H clubs. Ulmanis Collection, an important economic group of the popu­ flected in the emphasis Latvia put upon University Archives/Special Coilections lation-the farming class." improved dairy methods. Latvia became Department, UNL Libraries

51 Nebraska History - Summer 1999 one of the major European exporters of butter before World War II. Perhaps better than anyone else, former President Herbert Hoover cap­ tured the impact of Ulmanis's stay in America, After his visit to Riga in 1938, he reflected upon certain words of the Latvian president: "America may need expert advice later on and I will come home-I mean come back-and help," This slip into the word "home" echoed in my mind for days, for that is the grip that America takes on men's souls." After fewer than twenty-two years of independence free from foreign inter­ vention, Latvia again was squeezed be­ tween two giants, Germany and the So­ viet Union, Hitler and Stalin had made a deal in 1939, dividing and as­ signing the of , Latvia, and Lithuania to the Soviet "sphere of influence."43 With a free hand promised under the Molotov-von Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet Union invaded Latvia on June 17, 1940. As the Red Army was marching in, Presi­ dent Karlis Ulmanis addressed his fellow citizens for the last time in a nationwide radio broadcast late that day. Urging calm, he asserted, "Es paliksu sava vieta, jus palieciet savas" ("I shall remain in my place; you remain in yours")." The last Westerner to speak with Ulmanis on a transatlantic telephone (in June of 1940) appears to have been newspaper reporter Edward Morrow of the Omaha World-Herald. Morrow later wrote: I asked him if Soviet troops were march­ ing in and he said he thought so but, , , my impression was that the Russians were The last known photograph of Karlis A. Ulmanis, taken July 23, 1940, when he arrived at nearby and possibly had tapped his line. the Moscow rail yards in custody of an unidentified agent of the USSR. Photograph Then he hung Up.45 courtesy of Guntis Ulmanis President Ulmanis and many other train to Moscow and then to a perma­ Endzelins in Valrniera, At the conclu­ Latvians were arrested at the time of the nent internment camp for political pris­ sion of the card is an eerie postscript, initial invasion. A more massive depor­ oners in Stavropol, in the Caucasian re­ It is almost again like 35years ago in tation, by train, of thousands occurred a gion of southern Russia." Through Pleskau [Pskov] ."48 year later on June 14, 1941,just before February of 1941 Ulmanis corresponded During the German army's last offen­ the arrival of the invading German with his Latvian contacts, especially his sive through the Caucasian region, army, which had launched an attack agricultural friends." From Voroshilovsk Ulmanis was removed from the Stavropol upon the Soviet Union, [Stavropol], on December 19, 1940, for camp and taken across the Caspian Sea After his seizure by the Soviets in example, he sent a poignant Christmas to the city of Krasnovodsk." It was fifty June of 1940, Ulmanis was taken by card, one of his last messages, to years before any credible facts about his

52 Karlis Ulmanis final days were determined. In an inter­ view, eyewitness Nikolay Melnikov, a Soviet prison official, confirmed that Karlis Ulmanis had died in the prison in­ firmary on September 20, 1942, and that he had been buried in the Krasnovodsk cemetery in Turkmenistan." He was sixty-five years old. Following World War I, the Baltic na­ tions were free and independent. The loss of that freedom to the occupying Soviet army during 1940-41 had been such a traumatic event that when the Red Army again approached their homelands during the second invasion in late 1944, an estimated one half mil­ residents of the Baltic States left their possessions, relatives, and native soil behind and fled west, ahead of the retreating German armed forces. A plaque honoring Karlis A. Ulmanis was dedicated at the Diary Industries Building on As of April 30, 1951, 59,426 Baltic na­ the University of Nebraska East Campus, May 22, 1954. (Left to right): Dr. Philip Kelly, tionals, including 29,599 Latvians, had chairman of the dairy department; W. V. Lambert, dean of the College of AgriCUlture; Olgerts Liepins, president of the North American Latvian Press Association; Lt. Gov. immigrated to America under the new Charles J. Warner; and IImars Bergmanis, Latvian Youth representative. Displaced Persons Act." More than one IImars Didrichsons photograph thousand Latvian families came to Ne­ braska during the early 1950swith the the collection and was instrumental in Karlis Ulmanis shared with every Ne­ help of farmer sponsors or Lutheran obtaining support for the commission­ braskan a high regard for the pursuit of Church authorities. Most of them even­ ing of sculptor Mikelis Geistauts's bronze excellence, whether on the campus or tually settled either in Omaha or Lincoln. bust of Ulmanis. The bust was dedicated in the creamery, whether in the city or During the postwar years, it became on November 18, 1982.Today it can on the farm. His Nebraska experiences increasingly apparent to the Nebraskans be seen on the second floor of Love and education remained an influence from Latvia that restoration of indepen­ Memorial Library." throughout his life. Nor did Nebraska dence for their native land would be a After the breakup of the Soviet forget the quiet dairyman from Latvia, long, bitter struggle. Their efforts to keep Union, U. S. President George Bush was the University of Nebraska graduate of their ethnic heritage intact in the mean­ finally able to welcome the diplomatic 1909who became his country's leading time included preserving the cherished representatives of all three newly freed statesman. memory of Karlis Ulmanis. On May 22, Baltic nations to the White House on 1954,a plaque in his honor was placed September 11, 1991.A short two years Acnowledgment within the Dairy Industries Building on later the Ulmanis name reappeared on the East Campus of the University of Ne­ The authors wish to acknowledge the invaluable the list of world statesmen when Guntis help of Mara Kalnins Murphy in editing the final braska. On hand to give the dedication Ulmanis, a grandnephew of Karlis, was manuscript and preparing the endnotes. For many address was Lieutenant Governor elected president of Latvia. years Mrs. Murphy was an English teacher in Ne­ Charles 1. Warner, Ulmanis's friend and In 1924 Ulmanis had described the braska high schools. former employer.52 difficult task of nation-building in a let­ In 1981 when Helene Ulmanis, ter that also contained a contribution to­ Notes widow of a nephew of Karlis, offered to ward the construction cost of the new donate her priceless collection of the I "A Premier from Nebraska," New York Times, Memorial Stadium in Lincoln. Mar. 26, 1931, 11. Latvian president's papers to his alma Professor Haecker, my dear professor, the matter, Gerald Rudolph, then dean of 2 L. Dennis Smith, president of the University of foundation and the formation of a new Nebraska, to Lawrence E. Murphy, July 16, 1998. University of Nebraska Libraries, estab­ state by a little nation like ours is no small lished the Ulmanis Collection. Associate matter after all, believe me. The longer I 3 Cornelius Tacitus, Tacitus' Agricola, Germany and Dialogue on Orators, trans. Herbert W. Professor Elsie Thomas, librarian in ar­ live the more I begin liking and admiring the history and the great statesmen of Bernario (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, chives and special collections, cared for America." 1991),86.

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31 J. Gordon Roberts to John Mierkalns, May 20, 1954, folder 14, Ulmanis Collection. 32 M'Gaffin, "Premier," 9C. 33 Edward Morrow, "Former Husker Student's Dairy Goes Bankrupt: Tiny Latvia Gains Dictator," Omaha World-Herald, Apr. 12, 1936: 12A. 3'lbid.,6. 35 Endzelins affidavit, 6.

36 lbid., 2. "Ibid. 381. Rutkis, ed., Latvia: Country and People (Stockholm: Latvian National Foundation, 1967), 241. 39 "Former Student Now Dictator," Daily Nebras­ kan, Apr. 29, 1936, 11. '0 "University of Latvia Graduate, Peter Lejins, Denies Existence of Dictatorship in Native Land," Daily Nebraskan, May 5, 1937. 41 "Latvia Dictator to Get New Nebraska Pen­ nants," Omaha World-Herald, Metro Ed., Apr. 15, 1936,8. librarian Elsie Thomas and Guntis Ulmanis (Karlis's grandnephew) with Mikelis Geistauts's 42 Herbert Hoover, reprinted from Collier's in bust of Karlis A. Ulmanis in Love library, University of Nebraska-lincoln, 1992. Guntis "What Nebraskan Learned as Dictator," Omaha Ulmanis became president of Latvia in 1993, serving until 1999. Peteris Zobs photograph World-Herald, Apr. I, 1951, 10. 4"Vykupnol akt," folder 3, Ulmanis Collection, 16 Theodore Kleege to Val Kuska, Jan. 9, 1960, '3 Rutkis, Country and People, 244. University Archives/Special Collections Depart­ folder 14, Ulmanis Collection. 44 Radio Broadcast, Karlis Ulmanis, June 17, ment, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries 17 Statement, Val Kuska, folder 14, Ulmanis Col­ 1940, folder 2, Ulmanis Collection. (hereafter cited as Ulmanis Collection). lection. 45 Edward Morrow to Lawrence E. Murphy, 5EdgarsDunsdorfs, The Life ofKarlis Ulmanis 18 Marr M'Gaffin, "Premier Making Latvia Like Feb. 12, 1980. (rumba: Daugava Forlag, 1978),599. Nebraska," Omaha Sunday World-Herald, Apr. 19, 46 Dunsdorfs, Life of Ulmanis, 613. 6Affidavit of Hermanis Endzelins, folder 1, 1931: 9C. Ulmanis Collection, I. 19 Howard Gramlich to John Mierkalns, June 6, 47 Karlis Ulmanis to Latvian Agricultural Literary Publishing House, Feb, 7, 1941, folder 1, Ulmanis 7Ibid.,2. 1954, reproduced by Val Kuska in a letter to Osvalds Akmentins, Dec. 22, 1954, folder 14, Collection. 8Val Kuska to Theodore Kleege, Dec. 21, 1959, Ulmanis Collection. 48 Postcard, Karlis Ulmanis to Hermanis Endzelins folder 14, Ulmanis Collection. Dec, 19, 1940, folder I, Ulmanis Collection. ' 20 "Results of Students' National Contest in Judg­ 9Dunsdorfs, Life of Ulman is, 600. ing Dairy Cattle, National Dairy Show, Dec. 3, 49 Dunsdorfs, Life of Ulmanis, 613. 10 Alfreds Berzins, Kartis Ulmanis Cilveks un 1908," Agriculture (December 16, 1908). 50 Zemes Saimnieks, producer and director, Valstsvirs (New York: Gramatu Draugs, 1974), 21 Gramlich to Mierkalns, June 6, 1954. Arvids Krievs, Kaupo Studio, 1993, videocassette; 34-37; Dunsdorfs, Life of Ulman is, 600. Alfonss Andris Stavro, "Karla Ulmana Apraksanas Pedejais Francis, "Dr. Karla Ulmana Dzive un Darbi," ed. 22 Silenieks, Nebraskans from Latvia, 19.' Liecinieks," Liesma No. 1/2 (1991): 10-11. Atis Zalitis, Tev Muzam Dzivot Latvija (Riga: Rota, 23 M'Gaffin, "Premier," 9C. 1938), 62-63. 51 Senator Herbert H. Lehman of New York, 2.Silenieks, Nebraskans from Latvia, 21. "Freedom for Baltic Peoples," 82nd Cong., 1st 11 Juris Silenieks, Nebraskans From Latvia: A sess., Congressional Record (June 19, 1951),4. Sociohistorical Study (Lincoln: Biruta Zommers 25 John Erickson to Alexander Liepnieks, Trust Fund, 1979), 16. Jan. 16, 1951, folder 14, Ulmanis Collection. 52 "U of N to Honor Graduate Missing Behind Iron Curtain," Omaha World-Herald, May 20, 1954, 12 Howard R.Smith to Osvalds Akmentins, cited "Ibid. 12. in Osvalds Akmentins, Nebraska Student, States­ 27 Silenieks, Nebraskans from Latvia, 21. man, Leader (Lincoln: Vaidava, 1954),7. 53 See Elsie Thomas, "The Karlis Ulmanis Collec­ 2B Minutes of the University of Nebraska Board tion at the University of Nebraska Lincoln," type­ 13 Official student record card, University Ar­ of Regents meeting, Nov. 11, 1909, University Ar­ script, June 1982. chives/Special Collections Department, University chives/Special Collections Department, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. 54 Letter, Karlis Ulmanis, cited in "Ulmanis­ Builder of a Republic," Nebraska Alumnus (Sep­ 14 Statement, Jerome Warner to Lawrence E. 29 Lemuel F. Parton, "From Milkman to President· tember 1924): 253. Murphy, Nov. 1982; Silenieks, Nebraskans From Ulmanis May Reverse Route," Omaha World-Her- ' Latvia, 35. aid, June 20, 1940. 15 Silenieks, Nebraskans From Latvia, 35. 30 "Karl Ulmann," Agriculture (March 1910): 7.

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