Poet Jan Rainis: biography, features of creativity, interesting facts

Jan Rainis is a well-known Latvian poet, an outstanding writer, thinker and politician, who exerted a tremendous influence on the formation of the culture and national self-consciousness of the people of his country at the time of independence.

Childhood

Янис Плиекшанс (the name of the writer, given to him at birth) was born on September 11, 1865 in the estate of Tadenava - the most remote corner of Latvia, located in the province of Courland. The nearest cultural center to these lands was the city of shopkeepers, craftsmen, carpenters - Dinaburg (Daugavpils). The boy has learned to observe nature; From the first childhood impressions, he remembered the summer best, beautiful green fields, blue ponds, winding forest paths and sun, whose good power is still felt in the poetry of the author. To the treasury of human creativity of the future writer was introduced by his mother, Dartha Plikshane, a clever and active woman. She sang a lot, and Jan Rainis managed to record a large number of folk songs.

Yan's father was a well-off man - a peasant who managed to independently achieve a stable financial situation and gave his child an excellent education. Since childhood, the boy was fluent in Russian and German, later he studied Latin and French. With a more detailed acquaintance with the biography of Janis, it becomes clear that the poet was also fluent in Lithuanian, Belarusian, Polish and Italian.

Gymnasium years

Since 1880, Rainis Jan entered the Riga City Gymnasium, then "gnawed" the granite of science at the St. Petersburg University on a law faculty. According to Jan, he chose the profession of a lawyer, because he wanted to be personally inside the life of his state, transforming it into a better one. At this time he read a lot; These were works of writers of ancient times (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Homer, Herodotus, Plutarch) and writers of modern times (Shakespeare, Byron, Lermontov, Shelley, Heine, Pushkin). In parallel, he was engaged in translations of the great works of world classics.

It was in St. Petersburg, the revolutionary cradle, that the poet swore allegiance to the proletariat and served his interests until the very last day.

Public activity

After the completion of his studies, Jan Rainis, whose biography is a special pride for his compatriots, got a job in the specialty: first in Vilnius, then in Berlin, Panevezys, Jelgava. After defending in 1891, thesis became a candidate of jurisprudence, but quite easily said goodbye to the promising career of a lawyer. At the same time, Jan Reinis was seriously interested in politics, was fond of literary activity, got a job at the Dienas Lapa newspaper, which was close to the Social-Democratic spirit. It was the editorial years that became the most fruitful time of Jan Reinis's journalistic work. The poet wrote poetry, reviews, political reviews and polemical articles, became one of the best and most wanted journalists of his country.

In the link

Poet Rainis Jan, whose biography arouses the sincere interest of a wide range of readers, actively fought for revolutionary ideas, for which he repeatedly sat in prisons. For the first time he was put in jail in 1897. In 1899, the poet was exiled for 5 years to Vyatka province - one of the centers of political exile, known for its endless swampy swamps and impenetrable dense forests. It was there, in a provincial Russian town with boiling spiritual activity, Rainis published the first poetic collection "Far echoes in the blue evening" (1903), clearly reflecting his artistic and spiritual path for almost 20 years.

On his return home, Rainis spent two extremely fruitful years of life. By that time the poet was married to the famous poetess Aspazia, he was 38 years old, and he was completely engaged in social work and creative activity. Ian delivered many speeches at rallies and meetings, took an active part in the Congress of Latvian Teachers, collaborated with the Social Democrats, traveled to Moscow as a delegate. With glee and joy, the poet reacted to the revolution of 1905, in which he took part.

The most significant achievement of this period was a great verse drama "Fire and Night" - a great work of Latvian dramaturgy.

Biography and author's books

Rainis Jan, together with his wife after the defeat of the armed uprising emigrated to Switzerland, where he lived for 15 years. It was this country that the poet called his second homeland. Here the author saw such works as "The End and the Beginning", "The Silent Book", "The New Force", "Those Who Do not Forget", "The Daugava", "The Way, the Breeze", "The Fire and the Night", "Joseph" And his brothers "," Golden Horse ". The plays and rhymes of Rainis became the best examples of Latvia's poetry, which used to be secondary in character and imitated German literature.

last years of life

Upon returning to an independent Latvia, where he was met with his wife by thousands of people as national heroes, Jan Rainis wrote the tragedy "Ilya Muromets", and then published a book of poetry "Five Sketches of Dagda". After spending the last 9 years of his life in Riga, the poet took an active part in political life, was elected to the constituent assembly of Latvia, was one of the authors of the country's constitution and even participated in the presidential race that he lost. From 1921 to 1925 he worked as a director of the Art Theater. A large number of scenic works were staged by the National Theater during the reign of Rainis. From 1926 to 1928, Jan Rainis was Minister of Education, and in 1925 received the highest award of the country - the Order of Three Stars of the 1st degree.

The life of the Latvian poet was interrupted in Jurmala on September 12, 1929. Jan Rainis left suddenly, leaving in the archive materials for more than a hundred unfinished plays. He was buried by a world-famous writer at the New Cemetery, later named after him. In 1943 near Jan, his wife Aspaziya was buried.

The plays of Jan Rainis are staged on the stages of not only the Latvian theaters, but the whole planet, and his poetry, published in new translations, acquires millions of readers.