 jÄnis Äakste (14 september 1859 in lielsesava (now viesturi parish), latvia â 14 march 1927 in riga, latvia) was a latvian politician and lawyer who served as the first head of independent latvian state as the chairman of tautas padome (1918â1920), the speaker of the constitutional assembly (1920â1922), and as the first president of latvia (1922â1927). == youth == Äakste was born in the lielsesava parish of the jelgava district, the son of a farmer.Å vÄbe, arveds. latvijas encyclopÄdija. trÄ«s zvaigznes, stockholm. 1950-1951 he received his primary education at st anne's primary school, and entered the academia petrina in jelgava, where he participated in student "evenings" advocating neo-latvian ideals. after graduating in 1882, he entered the law faculty of moscow university. while studying in moscow, Äakste founded a local latvian student society in 1883, which later became the academic fraternity "austrums" and actively participated in the activities of the local latvian community along with kriÅ¡jÄnis valdemÄrs and fricis brÄ«vzemnieks. Äakste graduated in 1886 and returned to jelgava. == career and entry into politics == after graduating from moscow university, he worked at the legal department of the courland governorate and, from 1888, as a lawyer in jelgava. in 1889 he became the editor of the newspaper âtÄvijaâ, which became one of the most widely read latvian-language newspapers in courland. in 1895 he became one of the chief organisers of the 4th all-latvian song festival in jelgava, and partly financed the event out of his own pocket. in the course of the russian revolution of 1905 he collaborated on a project for creating latvian [[na
1859_births 1927_deaths Latvian_Farmers\'_Union_politicians Latvian_lawyers Latvian_legal_scholars Presidents_of_Latvia