Marģers Skujenieks
| Marģers Skujenieks | |
|---|---|
| Prime Minister of Latvia | |
|
In office 19 December 1926 – 23 January 1928 |
|
| President |
Jānis Čakste Gustavs Zemgals |
| Preceded by | Arturs Alberings |
| Succeeded by | Pēteris Juraševskis |
|
In office 6 December 1931 – 23 March 1933 |
|
| President | Alberts Kviesis |
| Preceded by | Kārlis Ulmanis |
| Succeeded by | Ādolfs Bļodnieks |
| Latvian Minister of Finance | |
|
In office 21 February 1932 – 23 March 1933 |
|
| Prime Minister | Himself |
| Preceded by | Gustavs Zemgals |
| Succeeded by | Jānis Annuss |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
22 June 1886 Rīga, Latvia(part of the Russian Empire) |
| Died | 12 July 1941 (aged 55) Moscow, Soviet Union
|
| Nationality |
 Latvian
|
| Political party | Union of Social Democrats – Mensheviks and Rural Workers |
| Other political affiliations |
Progressive Union (Latvia), Latvian Social Democratic Workers' Party |
| Profession | Politician, Statistician |
Marģers Skujenieks (born 22 June 1886, Riga – executed July 12, 1941, Moscow) held the office of Prime Minister of Latvia twice from 19 December 1926 – 23 January 1928 and 6 December 1931 – 23 March 1933.
Skujenieks was born in a family of Vensku Edvarts (real name Eduards Skujenieks), a notable publicist and a poet, and Luīze Skujeniece (daughter of Juris Alunāns), the first female Latvian theatre critic. His sister was actress and poet Biruta Skujeniece. After studies in Jelgava and Rīga he studied economics in the Moscow Commerce institute.
Skujenieks became a Social Democrat in 1903, but he never supported the concept of international class struggle, where nationality would be of no importance. Instead, he was one of the early proponents of Latvian national unity. After the suppression of the 1905 Russian Revolution he was forced to emigrate to London in 1906, but in 1907 was allowed to returned to Russian Empire and went on to study economics at the Moscow Commercial Institute. In 1911 he proposed political autonomy for the Baltic provinces and had to flee in exile once again. In 1913 in St. Petersburg he published the book Nacionālais jautājums Latvijā (The National Question in Latvia) in defense of Latvian national rights. By 1914 he had become an opponent of the Bolsheviks led by Lenin. During World War I he worked in the Latvian War Refugee Aid Committee and in 1917 was elected to the Council of Landless Peasants of Vidzeme.
Skujenieks' political career began as one of the leading Social Democratic members of the Democratic Bloc, and as such he was included in the Tautas padome and co-chaired the meeting which declared the independence of Latvia on November 18, 1918. In 1919 he went to the Paris Peace Conference to lobby for the international recognition of Latvia.
From 1919 until 1940 he led the State Statistics Department, leaving this post only for the duration of ministerial or prime ministerial duties. In April 1920 he was elected to the Constitutional Assembly of Latvia, where he participated in creating the Constitution of Latvia. In 1921 Skujenieks and a group of MPs broke away from the mainstream Social Democrats and established his own faction, which then joined the ruling coalition. In 1922 he was elected to the 1st Saeima. He was a MP until the 1934 Latvian coup d'état as the leader of Union of Social Democrats – Mensheviks and Rural Workers, and eventually moved ideologically more to the right as the leader of the Progressive Union.
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