Who is Vilis Lācis?

Vilis Lācis (May 12, 1904 – February 6, 1966) was a Latvian writer and communist politician.

Lācis was born Jānis Vilhelms Lāce into a working-class family in Vecmīlgrāvis (now part of Riga). During World War I, his family fled to the Altai region in Siberia, where Lācis studied at the pedagogical seminary in Barnaul. In 1921, Lācis returned to Riga and at various times worked as a fisherman, port worker, ship's fireman and librarian while writing in his free time.

In 1933, he published his hugely successful novel "Zvejnieka dēls" ('Fisherman's Son'), making him one of the most popular and commercially successful Latvian writers of the 1930s. His novels have been characterized as popular fiction, not always liked by high-brow critics, but widely read by ordinary people.

Throughout this period, Lācis maintained underground ties to the officially banned Communist Party of Latvia. Lācis was under periodic surveillance by the Latvian secret services due to his political activities. Eventually Lācis became a favorite of Latvian president Karlis Ulmanis, who personally ordered the destruction of the surveillance files on Lācis.