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Lācis Vilis
(1904—1966)

Vilis Lācis was a Latvian writer and Communist politician. Lācis was born in a working class family in Mangali, a village next to the city of Riga. He was working manual labour, mostly in the port of Riga and writing in his free time, until 1933, when he published his novel Zvejnieka dēls (Son of a fisherman) which made him one of the most popular and commercially successful Latvian writers of 1930s. His novels have been characterized as popular fiction, not always liked by high-brow critics, but widely read by ordinary readers.

Throughout this period, Lācis maintained ties to underground Communist Party of Latvia (banned after Ulmanis coup of 1934). At a times, he was under surveillance by Latvian secret services due to his political activities. Eventually, with Lācis being increasingly successful as a writer, he became one of favorites of Kārlis Ulmanis, the dictator of Latvia from 1934 to 1940, and Ulmanis would personally order to destroy the surveillance files about Lācis. Lācis would write newspaper editorials highly favorable of Ulmanis regime (while secretly remaining a Communist supporter) and Ulmanis government would generously fund Lācis writing and a big-budget movie version of Zvejnieka dēls.
Lācis' Communist links became public after Latvia was occupied by Soviet Union. He became the Prime Minister of Latvian SSR and served in this position from 1940 to 1959, largely in a figurehead role, as most of the actual decisions were made by Central Committee of the Communist Party. As the Prime Minister, he was part of Stalinist crimes against humanity, signing orders for arrest and deportation of over 40,000 people.
Lācis' books have been translated into more than 50 languages, with translations in Russian published in largest number. He remains the most translated Latvian writer, by far.

USSR, 1984.05.12, Riga. 80th Birth anniv of Lācis

USSR, 1983, Vilis Lācis