New Current - History

History

The beginning of the New Current is usually given as 1886, when the movement's newspaper, Dienas Lapa ("The Page of the Day"), was founded by Pēteris Bisenieks, who ran the Riga Latvian Craftsmen's Credit Union. Pēteris Stučka, who later headed the Latvian Bolsheviks, became the editor of Dienas Lapa in 1888. From 1891 to 1896, the paper was edited by Bisenieks and Rainis (the nom de plume of Jānis Pliekšāns). Rainis, who became Latvia's foremost dramatist and the literary figure "inseparably linked to the birth of the independent Latvian nation and the struggle for freedom", was also the leading figure in the New Current). Under Rainis and Stučka—the latter was again editor in 1896-97 -- Dienas Lapa turned to socialism; shut down by the Ministry of the Interior in 1897, the paper took a moderate turn under the editorship of the philosopher and publicist Pēteris Zālīte (formerly an editor of Mājas Viesis—see the Young Latvians article) between 1899 and 1903; despite its moderation under Zālīte, the paper was again shut down by the censors, re-emerging in 1905 as the Social Democratic newspaper before its permanent closure.