Andrejs Pumpurs

Andrejs Pumpurs (22 September [O.S. 10 September] 1841 on the left bank of the Daugava, in Lieljumprava civil parish, now Birzgale Parish – 6 July [O.S. 23 June] 1902 in Riga) was a poet who penned the Latvian epic Lāčplēsis (The Bear Slayer, first published in 1888) and a prominent figure in the Young Latvia movement. Working in the land before volunteering to fight in Serbia against the Ottoman Empire in 1876, he became a loyal officer in the Russian army and also a staunch promoter of the Latvian culture.