Jānis Čakste

Jānis Čakste (1859-1927) was a Latvian independence campaigner who originally advocated for an independent Latvia in the early 1900s.He was a Latvian politician and lawyer who served as the first Chairman of the People's Council (1918-1920), the Speaker of the Constitutional Assembly (1920-1922), and the first President of Latvia (1922–1927).

In 1889, he became the editor of the journal "Tvija," which quickly became one of Courland's most widely read Latvian-language publications. In 1895, he was one of the main organizers of the 4th All-Latvian Song Festival in Jelgava, which he partially funded with his own money. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, he worked on a concept to establish Latvian national autonomy within the Russian Empire. Following the first free elections to Latvia's Constitutional Assembly, Čakste was chosen its Speaker on 1 May 1920, resuming his role as the provisional ruler of the Latvian state. Rainis, a well-known poet and Social Democrat deputy, finished second in the elections. Two years later, on 7 November 1922, at the first session of Latvia's first Saeima, Čakste was elected unopposed as the first President of the Republic of Latvia, with 92 Saeima members voting for his candidacy and 6 against - the highest number of votes ever cast for a candidate in a Latvian presidential election.

As President, Čakste's duties were mostly ceremonial, though he continued to pay considerable attention to foreign affairs, particularly Latvia's international standing as a young European state on the globe. During his term, he issued 402 laws, returned three to the Saeima for examination, and pardoned 549 persons. He sparked controversy in 1926 when he pardoned Andrievs Niedra, a distinguished writer and former head of the opposition pro-German Latvian puppet government, who was serving a treasonous term. Čakste, on the other hand, insisted on Niedra departing the country after the pardon.