Gustav Adolf Celmins

Gustavs Ādolfs Celmiņš (born April 1, 1899 in Riga, April 10, 1968, in San Antonio, Texas) is a Latvian politician, leader of paraplegic Ungunskrusts and Perkunskrusts volunteers in the Finnish-Soviet War 1939-40. , military attaché in Warsaw, emigre activist and sovietologist in the USA.

In 1917 he graduated from the Moscow School of Commerce, then studied at the Riga Polytechnic Institute (temporarily active in Russia). In 1929 he defended his MA thesis at the University of Latvia in Riga in the field of Philology and Philosophy.

In December 1918 he enlisted in the Latvian Army, fought in Kurland, for which in August 1919 he was awarded the rank of lieutenant and later the Lāčplēsis Order.

In January 1920, he was appointed deputy military attaché of Latvia in Warsaw. After returning to Riga he worked as an official in the Ministry of Finance (1925-27 and 1930-32), twice dismissed for political reasons.

In 1932, he headed the fascist movement "Ungunskrusts" ("Cross of Fire"), which in 1933 became "Perkunskrusts" ("Perkunskrusts"). Ideally, both organizations referred to the Fascism of the Italian and Spanish phalanxes, and did not hide the fascination with the Nazi-German movement.

In the summer of 1935, Celmiņš was sentenced to three years in prison for his anti-state activities - after being freed in Europe (he was in Poland, Hungary and Romania).

In December 1939 he enlisted in the international legion "Sis", who defended Finland against Soviet aggression - for a few months he was a commander of the "Sis" commander.

After the war ended, he returned to Latvia after June 1941, where he tried to collaborate with the German authorities to restore independence. When hopes for this disintegrated, he headed the "Brīvā Latvija" movement (1943-44), which demanded the restitution of a free Latvian, independent of Germany and the USSR.

In the spring of 1944 he was arrested by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp in Flossenbürg and later in Dachau.

After the Second World War, he briefly stayed in Italy to be in the United States in 1949. He settled down in Texas where he worked as a military instructor at Syracuse University, later earning bread as a librarian at Trinity College in San Antonio. In 1959 he became a specialist - professor of zoology at that university, with whom he was associated for the rest of his life.

He is the author of the book "Eiropa krustcelēs" (1947). Bibliography

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