Kraulin, Karlis

Kraulin’, Karlis Ianovich 

(also Karlis Kraulins). Born Mar. 6 (19), 1904, in Koceni Volost (small rural district), present-day Valmiera Raion. Soviet literary critic, Honored Cultural Worker of the Latvian SSR (1964). Became a member of the CPSU in 1942.

Kraulin’ graduated from the University of Latvia in 1928 and became a teacher. In 1936 he helped run an underground Communist printing house. He participated in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–45. From 1944 to 1948 he was the head secretary on the board of the Union of Writers of Latvia. After 1945 he was an instructor at the Latvian State University, where he has served as professor since 1966. From 1948 to 1951, Kraulin’ directed the Institute of Literature and Language of the Academy of Sciences of the Latvian SSR. Between 1964 and 1967 he edited the journal Karogs. He has published many articles on the problems of socialist realism and on the national qualities of Latvian literature. Kraulin’ wrote The Life and Work ofJ. Rainis (1953), The Creative Work of Vilis Lads (1954), Andrejs Uptts: Life and Work (1963), and The Contemporary Soviet Novel (1969). He has been awarded the Order of the Red Star and medals.