Guests & Visitors

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Aleksandr Dmitrievich Loktionov" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Chief ideologue of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party. Born: 12 January, 1893, in Tallinn (Imperial Russia at the time, currently Estonia) of Baltic-German parents. He was educated in Moscow during the period of WW I, gaining his degree in architecture and personally witnessed the Bolshevik revolution; an experience that apparently left him with both a fanatical hatred of Communists and Jews and a profound respect for Soviet methods of control. He also had a life-long dislike for the Latvians as during this period a Latvian Student Fraternity snubbed him for his "strange ideas" by rejecting his attempt to join. As he had backed the "White Guards" he fled to Germany after the final takeover of Russia by the Reds. He joined the fledgling Nazi party nine months before Adolph Hitler did. He was the author of much of the evolving ideology of the Nazi Party concerning Race, Religion, Paganism, Jews, Lebensraum, etc. When Hitler went to prison after the "Beer Hall Putsch", he left Rosenberg as acting head of the Nazi Party in his absence, though it is generally thought that the primary reason for this was that Hitler trusted Rosenberg's lack of ambition. Following the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Rosenberg was appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete) – and as such, was H. Lohse's boss. During his time in this office, he visited Riga once. It was noted that he understood the Latvian language but made a point not to speak it. As a member of the inner circle of Nazi leadership, Alfred Rosenberg's fate was sealed when the Allies won WW II and he was hanged in Nurnberg, Germany, on 16 October, 1946.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Alfred Rosenberg" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Chief ideologue of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party. Born: 12 January, 1893, in Tallinn (Imperial Russia at the time, currently Estonia) of Baltic-German parents. He was educated in Moscow during the period of WW I, gaining his degree in architecture and personally witnessed the Bolshevik revolution; an experience that apparently left him with both a fanatical hatred of Communists and Jews and a profound respect for Soviet methods of control. He also had a life-long dislike for the Latvians as during this period a Latvian Student Fraternity snubbed him for his "strange ideas" by rejecting his attempt to join. As he had backed the "White Guards" he fled to Germany after the final takeover of Russia by the Reds. He joined the fledgling Nazi party nine months before Adolph Hitler did. He was the author of much of the evolving ideology of the Nazi Party concerning Race, Religion, Paganism, Jews, Lebensraum, etc. When Hitler went to prison after the "Beer Hall Putsch", he left Rosenberg as acting head of the Nazi Party in his absence, though it is generally thought that the primary reason for this was that Hitler trusted Rosenberg's lack of ambition. Following the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Rosenberg was appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete) – and as such, was H. Lohse's boss. During his time in this office, he visited Riga once. It was noted that he understood the Latvian language but made a point not to speak it. As a member of the inner circle of Nazi leadership, Alfred Rosenberg's fate was sealed when the Allies won WW II and he was hanged in Nurnberg, Germany, on 16 October, 1946.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Fredrich Jeckeln" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 2 February, 1895. Fredrich Jeckeln served as an artillery officer in World War I. When the war ended he was discharged and working as an engineer. He joined the NSDAP (German Nazi Party) in 1929 and the Allgemeine-SS in 1931, quickly rising through the ranks so that by 1936 he was an Obergruppenfuhrer (Major General) and the "SS and Police Leader" for the western part of Germany. When World War II began Fredrich Jeckeln was called to active duty in the Waffen-SS, but in 1941 Reichsfuhrer Himmler transfered him back to the Allgmeine-SS and appointed him the "Higher SS and Police Leader in occupied eastern territories". This put him charge of " security" in these areas which he carried with personal emphasis on " solving the Jewish question". During most of the war he had his headquarters in Riga and as such had to work with Hinrich Lohse. While the two apparently did not get along all that well as Lohse was not quite so enthusiastic about Jeckeln's priorities, Lohse had him over at the house. As the German area of occupation in the East collapsed, Fredrich Jeckeln retreated to Germany where he was given command of one of the "paper" units (units whose real combat strength had been destroyed, but still existed as symbols on Hitler's maps) until the end of the war. At the war's end he was captured by the Red Army and transported back to Riga. While it is generally considered that Jeckeln was directly and personally involved in the mass killings of Jews, Gypsies and Slavs, the primary charge leveled at him at his war crimes trial was that he ordered the destruction of facilities in Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian cities and harbors. The trial was held from 26 January to 3 February 1946 where he was duly found guilty as charged and, along with six other German generals, hanged in the first public hanging to be held in Riga for 200 hundred years. (the day was declared a work holiday by the Soviets and among others, children were trucked from the schools to watch.)[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Hinrich Lohse" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Chief ideologue of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party. Born: 12 January, 1893, in Tallinn (Imperial Russia at the time, currently Estonia) of Baltic-German parents. He was educated in Moscow during the period of WW I, gaining his degree in architecture and personally witnessed the Bolshevik revolution; an experience that apparently left him with both a fanatical hatred of Communists and Jews and a profound respect for Soviet methods of control. He also had a life-long dislike for the Latvians as during this period a Latvian Student Fraternity snubbed him for his "strange ideas" by rejecting his attempt to join. As he had backed the "White Guards" he fled to Germany after the final takeover of Russia by the Reds. He joined the fledgling Nazi party nine months before Adolph Hitler did. He was the author of much of the evolving ideology of the Nazi Party concerning Race, Religion, Paganism, Jews, Lebensraum, etc. When Hitler went to prison after the "Beer Hall Putsch", he left Rosenberg as acting head of the Nazi Party in his absence, though it is generally thought that the primary reason for this was that Hitler trusted Rosenberg's lack of ambition. Following the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, Rosenberg was appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete) – and as such, was H. Lohse's boss. During his time in this office, he visited Riga once. It was noted that he understood the Latvian language but made a point not to speak it. As a member of the inner circle of Nazi leadership, Alfred Rosenberg's fate was sealed when the Allies won WW II and he was hanged in Nurnberg, Germany, on 16 October, 1946.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Hovhannes Bagramyan" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Marshall of the Soviet Union; Born: 2 December, 1897, in Chardaklu (Imperial Russia at the time, currently Azerbaijan) of Armenian parents. Initially he worked for the railroad, as did his father; he joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1915 and spent WW I fighting the Ottoman Empire. He did not immediately join the Communist Party after the consolidation of Soviet power, becoming a member only in 1941, which was unusual for a Soviet military officer. During World War II, H. Bagramyan was the first non-Slavic military officer to become a commander of a "Front". In November 1943 he received his most famous post, as the commanding officer of the 1st Baltic Front. He was instrumental in the planning and success of the 1944 "Operation Bagration", also known as "the destruction of Army Group Center". After the war, Bagramyan remained in command of the Baltic Military District, commanding operations against the remaining Lithuanian and Latvian freedom fighters. In 1954, he was appointed Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Defense. In 1955, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense with the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.[4] He was also head of the Military Academy of General Staff and commander of the reserve forces of the Soviet Armed Forces. Politically, he served as a deputy of the Supreme Soviets of both the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic and his native Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1952, he became a candidate for entry into the Central Committee of the USSR and, in 1961, was inducted as a full member. In August 1967, he accompanied General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and Premier Aleksej Kosygin to North Vietnam, where they met with Vietnamese leaders and serving as a military expert, helped negotiate the transfer of Soviet military aid to the country during the Vietnam War. He retired from the Red Army in 1968. Hovhannes Bagramyan lived to be the last surviving WW II Soviet Marshal, dying from illness on September 21, 1982.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Soviet Communist Party Leader, Premier of the Soviet Union Born: 17 April, 1894 in Kalinovka, Kursk Region. A lifelong Communist Party worker, he joined the party in 1918, gradually rising up its ranks. From 1938 until March 1947 and again December 1947 until 1949, he was the First Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist Party. During WW II he was a high ranking political commissar, attaining the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1943. He won the power struggle that followed the death of Stalin and from September 1953 until October 1964 was First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (the de-facto ruler of the Country). From 1958 until October 1964 he was also officially the Premier of the Soviet Union. During his official travels in the area, he used the house as his residence. He became the only Soviet leader to be forced out of office but not shot afterwards. According to the official "Soviet Encyclopedia", during his time in office he committed the errors of "subjectivity" and "volunteerism". Western Kremlin watchers generally believe that he was ousted primarily because the Americans out-maneuvered him in the Cuban missile crisis. Nikita Khrushchev died on 11 September, 1971 in Moscow.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Vilis Lācis" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 12 May, 1904, as Janis Vilhelms Lacis, in Rinuzi, his father, Tenis Lacis, was a stevedore and his mother, Karlina Lacis, a fisherman's daughter. He legally changed his name to Vilis Lacis, in 1954. During WW I his family evacuated to Siberia and in 1920-1921 he did his first writing: for the Latvian Communist newspaper: "Sibirijas Cina" (Siberian Struggle) When he returned to Latvia in 1921, it is possible he had already been recruited by the Soviet Secret Services. In the 1920s and early 30s he workedas a manual laborer. He liked to go dancing and would always arrive at dances in a second-hand suit, as a result of which he earned the nickname: the "Vecmilgravja Dandy". He liked girls from "the higher social circles". In 1927 he married a school classmate of his, Marija Boota (Buta). Then they had a separate room in her parent's house, which made it easier for him to write. Soon after the marriage he participated in a strike and lost his job. In 1928 Vilis and Marija had their first child, Zigurts and in 1932, their second, Ojars. Soon after the birth of his second son, his novel "Zveijnieku dels" (The Fisherman's Son) was published by Emilija Benjamin's publishing house and that launched V. Lacis to fame and financial security. Elegant, secretive as the sphinx (a contemporary description of him) he now lived a quiet, bourgeois existence and of course, continued to write intensively. And very few knew of his continued connection with the Reds. In 1938, V. Lacis was hired directly by Emilja Benjamin's publishing house, Jaunakas Zinas. In his writing for the newspaper V. Lacis praised Latvian President Karlis Ulmanis, the 15 May 1934 Putsch and Emiljas husband, Anton Benjamin. But in his post-war novel "Vetra" (Storm), V. Lacis described his former benefactor with foul language. In the summer of 1940, under the Soviet Occupation regime, V. Lacis the author finally showed his true colors when he became the Minister of the Interior (and therefore the Police Minister) in the Kirchenstein government – which was the (still nominally) independent Latvian government set up in June 1940, with Stalin's approval, as a transition between the old Latvian Government and the new Communist Latvian Administration. When the new Communist Government/Administration formally petitioned Stalin to incorporate the "Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic" in the "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics" (USSR), V. Lacis remained the local "Interior Minister". He instantly turned his back on the person who started him on his success, Emilja Benjamin. In June 1941 he signed the order to have her shipped to Siberia to die like the rest. Soon however, the Lacis family received their own tragedy. On the 3 October, 1940, V. Lacis youngest son was killed when he fell down an elevator shaft. Some say it was an accident, others, revenge and still others that the faulty lift was waiting for Vilis Lacis, himself. While V. Lacis spent the World War II years in Moscow heading the non-existent "Latvian Soviet Socialist government", but his wife Marija and remaining son were sent to live elsewhere. When V. Lacis returned to Riga on 19 October, 1944, he did so with a different woman: Velta Kalpina. On the 10th of November, 1944, in a secret session the High Court granted them a divorce. On the 18th of November, 1944, V. Lacis remarried, to the daughter of a family of revolutionaries (the announcements made a point of saying that), V. Kalpina. In 1945, the new family had a son, Leonid and in 1946 a second son, Juris. His wife Velta became a journalist and for many years worked for the Soviet magazine "Zvaigzne" (Star). It also appears that immediately after the war, V. Lacis angled to get permission to live in the Benjamin House himself. But this the Soviet authorities did not give him, assigning him a much smaller house down the street instead. Apparently he was not satisfied with that house and later permanently maintained a room in a hotel at the other end of the same street (Juras Str.) From 1940 until 1962 V. Lacis was a member of the USSR State Council (the Soviet "parliament") From 1940 until his death he was member of the Central Committee of the Latvian Communist Party. From 1952 until 1961 he was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the USSR Communist Party. From 1946 until 1959 he was the Premier of the Cabinet of the "Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic". From 1954 until 1958 he was the Chairman of the Nationalities Committee, USSR State Council. V. Lacis seemed to have truly made it; he had a family, glory, money, the illusion of power and all the privileges that came with being in the "Soviet elite". But, his health failed. Medical problems came in relentless waves: eye problems, rheumatism, diabetes, two strokes, gangrene and alcoholism. The "Chairman" regularly got drunk at work. Vilis Lacis died of a heart attack on 6 February, 1966. Before that, he had lost a good part of his body to gangrene. It has been said, that when Emilija Benjamin realized that she would indeed be deported to the Soviet camps, she cursed Vilis and said that he should rot alive – which in a sense, he did. He is buried in the Mezakapi (Forest Cemetery) in Riga. During his lifetime, V. Lacis wrote twenty novels, fifty-eight short stories and six plays as well as numerous newspaper articles. After the war, V. Lacis re-wrote his prewar works to conform to "proper socialist realism" as well as continued to write actively. His works were favorites of the Soviet regime and were translated into all the languages of the USSR. Three of his novels were made into films, and one short story into an animated (cartoon) film. One was reworked as an opera (by M. Zarins) and another as a ballet (by R. Grinblats).[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Aleksej Nikolajevich Kosigin" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Soviet Government Official, Premier of the Soviet Union Born: 21 February 1904 in St. Petersburg. He joined the Communist Party in 1927 and gradually worked his way up the Leningrad Party apparatus. He spent most of his time in various positions for economic planning. He succeeded, N. Khrushchev as Premier of the Soviet Union, a post he held from October 1964 until October 1980. While this made him legally the ruler of the country, unlike his predecessor, he was not also the First Secretary of the Communist Party. This, more powerful position was held by Leonid Brezhnev (who outlived Kosygin by several years). He used the house both as an official residence when traveling in the area and repeatedly as a vacation house. Alexey Kosygin died on 18 December, 1980 in Moscow.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Georges Marchais" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]French Communist Party Leader Born: 7 June 1920, in La Hoguette in Calvados. Before WW II an engineer with the Société Nationale d'Étude et de Construction de Moteurs d'Aviation (National Society for the Study and Construction of Aviation Engines); after the collapse of France, he appears to have freely enrolled as a volunteer to work in Nazi Germany in the Messerschmitt aircraft manufacturing plant, as he left for Germany before the establishment of the STO system, by which French workers were compelled to work in German plants. He joined the French Communist Party in 1947 and worked as both a labor organizer and a party official, becoming a candidate to the Party politburo in 1956 and the General Secretary (leader) of the French Communist Party in December 1972, a post he held until 1994. From 1956 to 1958 and again from 1973 until his death in 1997 he was a Deputy in the French Parliament in the Communist Party faction. He regularly took his vacations in the Soviet Union and stayed at the house in Jurmala with his wife. The house staff recalls that his peculiarity was that he and his wife Lilian would always smoke "Gitanes sans filtre" cigarettes in bed, before getting up for breakfast. Georges Marchais died in Paris on 16 November, 1997.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Josip Broz 'Tito'" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born 7 May, 1892: Kumrovec, Croatia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. Josip Broz started out learning a trade as a skilled machinist. He was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army shortly before WW I and in fighting against the  Imperial Russian Army was both promoted, becoming at one point the youngest Sergeant-Major in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and cited for bravery. But he was captured before the medal could be awarded and ended up in a Prisoner of War camp deep in Russia. When Imperial Russia fell apart, Josip Broz joined the Bolsheviks and before returning to his homeland, now in the nation of Yugoslavia, had become a Communist Agent. He earned Stalin's trust and after another long visit to the Soviet Union, in 1936, was sent back to Yugoslavia to carry out Stalin's great purge as it related to the Yugoslav Communist Party. In 1937, by Josef Stalin's order, Josip Broz was appointed the General-Secretary of the Yugoslav Communist Party. After the Axis Powers occupied Yugoslavia in 1941, Josip Broz made himself the military chief of the Communist, anti-Fascist resistance. It was during the war that Josip Broz started using the name "Tito". At the end of the War, Tito was universally acknowledged as the Allied, and particularly Stalin's, approved leader of the restored Yugoslavia. However the post-war Tito soon proved to be too independent for Stalin's liking and in 1948 the split became public. Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform, "Titoists" in other Socialist countries were purged and Stalin tried to have Tito assassinated several times. But Tito was not ready to embrace Western Democracy and a free market economy either and so Yugoslavia under Tito became the prototype of the country "non-aligned" with either of the power blocs, the 'West' and the 'East'.  Along with, India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Indonesia's Sukarno, Egypt's Gamel Adbel Nasser and Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, he founded the Non-Aligned Bloc. And in 1961, Josip Broz Tito became the first Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement. After Stalin's death and now recognizing the stature Tito was gaining in the world, the Soviet Union offered to normalize relations with Yugoslavia, but initially Tito rejected the offer. However in 1955, the new leaders of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin visited Yugoslavia and apologized to Tito for Stalin's actions. In 1956, Tito paid a return visit to the Soviet Union and visited there several more times. When he was in Riga, Tito was put up in the Benjamin House. Josip Broz Tito died in a hospital in Ljubljana on 4 May 1980 and his State Funeral was attended by the largest number of National Delegations in history to that date.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Erich Honecker" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]East German Communist Party Leader Born: 25 August, 1912, in. Joined the German Communist Party in 1929. When the National Socialist (Nazi) Party came to power went underground but was arrested in 1935. In 1946 he became a member of the German Socialist Unity Party (the party that was set up by Soviet Occupation troops by a forced unification of the Communist Party and the local branches of the Social Democratic Party to form the communist government in its zone) and rose through its ranks to replace the retiring former Party Boss, Walther Ulbricht in 1971. He became General Secretary in 1976. In that year he also became Chairman of the Ruling Council of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). During this period he used to regularly vacation in the USSR. He lost power when under Gorbachev the Soviet Union withdrew active support. He was replaced as leader by the party in 18 October, 1989 in a series of changes in East Germany that led to the demolition of the Berlin Wall and ultimately the reunification of Germany. He fled to Moscow but was extradited to face criminal charges for murder by the new unified German Government however the trial was stopped due to his ill health and he then went into exile in Chile, where he died on 29 May, 1994.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Augusts Voss" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]All-Soviet and Latvian Communist Party Official Born: 30 October, 1916, in Saltikovo, Toboljsk Region, Russia. A Red Army veteran of WW II, he joined the Soviet Communist Party in1942 and graduated from the Communist Party Senior Training School in 1948. He sent for Party work in the Latvian Communist Party in 1945 and worked up through the ranks until from 1966 until 1984 he was the Latvian Communist Party First Secretary. This was the period during which he was given the house as his residence. An avid film buff, he had a complete movie theater built into the basement of the house. From 1971 until 1990 he was also a member of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee. From 1984 until 1989 he was the Chairman of the Nationalities Committee of the USSR State Council (following in Vilis Lacis footsteps). After the collapse of the Soviet Union some thought was given by the new Latvian Government to the idea of charging him with crimes against humanity and attempting to extradite him, but nothing came of it before he died on 10 February 1994, in Moscow.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Boris Pugo" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Communist Party Official, Interior Minister of the USSR Born: February 19, 1937 in Kalinin, USSR (now Tver, Russia). His family were Latvian communists who had left the country when the Communist faction ended up on the losing side of the Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920). They returned to Latvia after Soviet Union occupied and annexed it in 1940. Boriss Pugo graduated from Riga Polytechnical University in 1960 but immediately went to work in various Komsomol (Communist Youth Organization), Communist Party and Soviet government positions and eventually was appointed the "Interior Minister" and also the chairman of KGB of the Latvian SSR. On 14 April, 1984 Boriss Pugo took over the position of first secretary of the Communist Party of the Latvian SSR from Augusts Voss and held that position until October 4, 1988. Unlike Voss, he did not actually live in the house however, but he frequently conducted business there. Between 1990 and 1991, he was the Minister of the Interior Affairs of the USSR. He is considered one of the primary plotters of the Kremlin Putsch in the August 1991. He died in Moscow. Officially, he is said to have died by shooting himself in the head on 23 August, 1991, when it had become clear that the Putsch had failed. His wife was also shot dead. Some sources cast doubt on this version however, claiming that his pistol was found neatly placed on a chest of drawers by his bed.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Giovanni Leone" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 3 November, 1908, in Pomigliano d'Arco, near Naples, Italy. Giovanni Leone received a law degree in 1929. Before the Second World War, he worked as a lawyer and during the war as a legal officer in the Italian Army. With the return of multi-party politics in Italy after the fall of Benito Mussolini, he became involved in politics and was one of the founders of the Naples branch of the Italian Christian Democratic Party. He was elected to the Italian Constiuent Assembly in 1946 and to the Chamber of Deputies in 1948. He became the Prime Minister of Itally twice, first from June to November 1963 and again from June to November 1968. He was also named a Life Senator in 1968. In 1971 he was elected the President of Italy. And there is a story... In November 1975, President Leone made an official State visit to the USSR. On the 22 of November, flying from Moscow to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) a blizzard forced the aircraft to divert and land in Riga. There the Soviet Security personnel (KGB) accompanying the party placed everyone on a bus and sent them to Jurmala to wait out the storm. As the only house in Jurmala at the time that the Soviet government deemed suitable for a President was the Benjamin house, presumably that is where the Italian delegation spent the next 8 hours before being returned to the airport and heading on to Leningrad. But, as Italy did not recognize the forceable incorporation of the Baltic Countries into the Soviet Union, diplomatic protocol demanded that someone with a position like the Presdient of Italy not visit the occupied Baltic States. As a result no offical statements, confirmation of this " visit" or mention of it in the Soviet Press was ever made. However rumors of the " Top Secret" Cold War incident did leak out in Italy. Giovanni Leoni served as Presdient until 1968 when he forced to resign as a result of what is called the "Lockheed Bribery Scandal" (which involved the choice of the C-130 transport plane for the Italian Air Force). Giovanni Leoni passed away in Rome on 9 November, 2001 just after his 93rd birthday.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Mihail Gorbachov" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Soviet Communist Party Leader, (last) Premier of the Soviet Union Born: 2 March, 1931 in Privolnoye, Stavropol District, USSR. The first and only Soviet leader to have been born after the Bolshevik Revolution, he grew up as a true worker instead of as the child of the Communist Party. In fact his paternal grandfather spent nine years in the gulag for withholding grain from the collective farm's harvest. Too young to have to participate in World War II, he and his family remained in Stavropol, untouched, when German troops occupied it from August 1942 to February 1943 and remained. . After the war he helped his father gather a record harvest on the collective farm and as a result, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, at just 16 (1947). This opened the door to entry in Moscow University despite his non-revolutionary family background. From there he worked up the ranks of the Party, becoming known both for efficiency and new ideas. From 1985 until 1991 he became the last General Secretary of the Communist Party of the USSR and also the last head of state of the USSR, serving from 1988 until after its collapse in 1991. By the time he came to power it was obvious even to most Communist Party officials that the Soviet System as it had developed was approaching a dead end and Gorbachev was appointed with the hope that he could reanimate the system. Unfortunately for both the Soviet system and M. Gorbachev personally, his attempts at reforms were fatally crippled by the insuperable internal contradictions of Communism. As a result he actually ended up presiding over the demise of both the all-powerful Soviet Communist Party and of the USSR itself. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. Mikhail Gorbachev and his wife Raisa came to the house twice on vacations and the manager of the house service staff recalled that Mikhail was very polite and considerate but his wife was much more demanding. Gorbachev used the house as his headquarters when in the Baltic area and had one of the smaller bedrooms converted into his office. While Gorbachov was in residence, three guards were posted, one at the gate, one at the front door and the third one behind his bedroom. After the collapse of the USSR and the termination of his official positions, M. Gorbachev has remained active Russian politics, as recently as September 2008, forming the Independent Democratic Party of Russia with fellow Novaya Gazeta owner (retired Gen.) Alexander Lebedev.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Vladimir Kuzmich Gusev" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 19 April, 1932, he graduated from the Saratov State University in 1957 and steadily progressed up the ladder of Soviet State and Communist Party offices as a scientist. At one point he became the Chairman of USSR State Committee for chemistry and biotechnology and in 1989 he was First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, in which capacity he visited the Latvian SSR. He and his delegation had breakfast at the house on the morning of 27 July, 1989. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union he has been a representative in the Russian Federation Government as well as the Vice President of a private technology firm.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Dr. Karl-Horst Hahn" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]President of Volkswagen AG, 1982-1993. Born: 1 July, 1926 in Saxony, Germany. He joined the Volkswagen Firm in 1953 and from 1958 to 1965 was the President of Volkswagen of America. After a stint with the tire firm Continental he returned to Volkswagen and was the President of the Firm from 1982 to 1993. He visited Latvia while it was still under Soviet occupation as a guest of the Latvian Soviet local authorities, ostensibly to see a parade of antique cars. He had dinner with Mr. Godmanis, the Chairman of the Government and a whole entourage of other local dignitaries at the house on 25 August 1990. Dr. Hahn is now retired.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Boris Yeltsin" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]President of the Russian Federation Born: 1 February 1931 in the village of Butka, Sverdlovsk District, Russia - USSR. Like his contemporary M. Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin was of "non-revolutionary" parents. His father, Nikolay Yeltsin, was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation in 1934 and sentenced to hard labour in a gulag for three years. But he nevertheless got into the Ural State Technical University in Sverdlovsk, graduating with a degree in construction, in 1955 and afterwards working as a construction engineer. As membership in the Communist Party was a prerequisite for advancement, he joined the Party in 1961 and became a Party apparatchik in 1968 when he was appointed head of construction in the Sverdlovsk Regional Party Committee. From there he rose in the Party ranks, eventually getting appointed to the Politburo, becoming acquainted with the up and coming M. Gorbachev and being made the Administrator ("Mayor") of the city of Moscow. While both were reformers, eventually he clashed with Gorbachev because he believed the pace of reforms was too slow and was temporarily demoted. However, as part of M. Gorbachev's attempt to reform Soviet Society, real elections were coming to the USSR and through them, B. Yeltsin made his comeback. In March 1989, Yeltsin was elected to the Congress of People's Deputies as the representative of the Moscow district and acquired a seat on the Supreme Soviet. Then on 29 May 1990, he was elected chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR , the post he held until 10 July 1991. An increasingly direct power struggle between Mr. Gorbachev and Mr. Yeltsin ensued. But then the coup attempt by hard-liners in the Communist Party against M. Gorbachev irrevocably altered the situation. As part of the plot M. Gorbachev was held in Crimea while the primary plotters acted in Moscow. However Yeltsin, whom the plotters had considered unimportant, was in Moscow. Now Yeltsin rallied opposition to the plot, mobilized crowd and convinced the Army unit that was sent to control the situation to come over to his side. When the putsch collapsed, Yeltsin was the hero. Gorbachev became acquainted with Yeltsin while the latter was still the Communist Party boss of Sverdlovsk, a relatively minor position. But Gorbachev recognized Yeltsin's reformist ideas and when Gorbachev became the First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party he maneuvered Yeltsin into the position of First Secretary of the Moscow City Central Committee of the Party (the "Mayor" of Moscow). At first they worked well together and Yeltsin was also allowed a taste of the privileges of high Party position, at one point for example getting to vacation with his wife at the Soviet Government guest house in the City of Jurmala, known as the "Benjamin House", where Gorbachev and his wife had vacationed earlier. Later, Boris Yeltsin was to use the house as a haven during the struggle in the Kremlin. B. Yeltsin had already been to the house in Latvia in the late 1980s while on vacation, along with his wife. The house staff recalled them both as being warm and kind and also that he used to keep his vodka hidden in the art-deco wooden owl that dated back to Emilija's time. Now Yeltsin came alone, to use it as a brief haven from the tension of Moscow and he also met the leaders of the Baltic Republics whose demands for the restoration of independence had much to do with triggering the crisis in the Soviet Union. Sitting in the house, he told them about what was happening in Moscow. And with the collapse of the coup, so did the whole Soviet Union. Now virtually every "constituent republic" including Russia, of which Yeltsin was the head, was demanding independence; the USSR was dissolving. So, in an event whose significance will unquestionably last through the centuries, sitting together with the leaders of the three Baltic countries in the music room of the house, Boris Yeltsin, the leader of the Russian Federation recognized the declarations of independence by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Yeltsin returned to Moscow to be elected to the newly created position of President of the Russian Federation. He held the post until 31 December, 1999, winning reelection for a second term in 1996. Unfortunately this was also the period of almost total economic collapse in Russia. The basic causes, the preceding 70 years of "socialist" economics, go back to before Yeltsin was born, but in the end he was blamed for it by much of the Russian population and of course, he and his economic advisors also made some mistakes. After turning over the Presidency of Russia to Vladimir Putin, B. Yeltsin lived as an elder statesman, the first leader in Russian and Soviet history to pass quietly into retirement after having arranging a peaceful transfer of power to his successor. Shortly before his death he visited the Republic of Latvia one more time. Boris Yeltsin died on 23 April, 2007, in Moscow.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Alexander Vasilyevich Korzhakov" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 31 January, 1950, in Moscow. Alexander Korzhakov started out as a common factory worker. At age 19 as a draftee, he served as a Private in the Kremlin Regiment, which was subordinate to the KGB and not the Soviet Army. From there he joined the KGB and served in the 9th Chief Directorate, " Protection of Higher Party and Government Officials"; he also progressed in rank, ultimately becoming a KGB General. From 1981-1982 he served in Afghanistan and from 1983- 1984 was one of (Soviet Premier)Yuri Andropov's personal bodyguards. In 1985 he was assigned as one of Boris Yeltsin's bodyguards and they struck up a friendship. They remained friends after Yeltsin lost his high Party position, which ultimately resulted in Korzhakov being forceably retired from the KGB. He then became Yeltsin's private bodyguard and after what may have been an attempt on Yeltsin's life (on 28 September, 1989, Boris Yeltsin fell off of a bridge) he created Yeltsin's Security Service. His face became familiar to the world on 18 August, 1991, when he stood next to Yeltsin on the tank in one of the famous moments of opposition to the August Putsch attempt. A week later, when Yeltsin came to Latvia and stayed at the house, Korzhakov was with him. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, when Yeltsin became the President of the now independent Russian Federation, Alexander Korzhakov transformed Yeltsin's security force into an official organization and became the commander of the Russian Presidential Security Service. From this position of power he was frequently accused of getting involved in political matters which eventually led to his falling out with Yeltsin and getting sacked from his post on 20 June, 1996. He then quickly got himself elected as a Deputy to the Russian Duma (from Tula) which among other things gave him immunity from prosecution. And he wrote a book: " Boris Yeltsin: From Dawn to Dusk" , in which, with pride, he completely confirmed his (and the Presidential Security Service) involvement in various political power struggles as well as demonstrated a complete contempt for " democracy" .[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Anatolijs Gorbunovs" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Latvia, Speaker of the Saeima Born: February 10, 1942 in Pilda parish, Ludza District, Latvia. From 1974 he held various positions in the Communist Party of the Latvian SSR, the most important ones being that of Party Ideologue and then finally the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvian SSR. Unlike most of the Communist Party in Latvia, A. Gorbunovs supported and actively worked for Latvian independence. From 1988, he was speaker of the Latvian "parliament" as it evolved (first, as the Supreme Soviet of Latvian SSR, then Supreme Council of the newly independent Republic of Latvia, and finally the new Saeima, the parliament of the Republic of Latvia as elected according to the Latvian Constitution) . As the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Latvian SSR, he was considered the local leader in the Soviet System. As such he represented Latvia in the key meeting with Boris Yeltsin at the house, in which Latvian independence was confirmed. He was also a regular visitor to the house on various types of government business both before and after 1991. After restoration of the Latvian Government system; according to the 1922 Constitution, Gorbunovs as speaker of the parliament, became the acting President of the Republic until 1993, when Guntis Ulmanis was elected to the post in the first Presidental election since the restoration of independence. Anatolijs Gorbunovs joined the "Latvian Way" party in 1993 and remained the Speaker of the Saeima until 1995 and a member of parliament until 2002. Between 1995 and 2002, at various times he served as Minister of Regional Development, the Minister of Transportation and the Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Arnold Rüütel" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]President of Estonia Born: 10 May, 1928 on the island Saaremaa, Estonia. He graduated from Janeda Agricultural College in 1949 and then worked in the field. In parallel he joined the Communist Party and rose through both government and Party ranks. Together with other pro-reform Communists like Vaino Väljas, Arnold Rüütel played a major part in the preparation and composition of the Estonian declaration of sovereignty that was adopted by the Estonian Supreme Soviet on November 16, 1988. On March 29, 1990 Rüütel was appointed as the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. In that capacity he represented Estonia in the key meeting with Boris Yeltsin at the house, in which Estonian independence was confirmed. He had been a regular visitor to the house prior to that as a member of the Baltic Council. He continued as the Chairman until October 5, 1992 when the position was abolished as the new President Estonia was democratically elected. Arnold Rüütel ran for the post of President in that election but lost to Lennart Meri. The two competed again in the next presidential election 1996, with L. Meri winning again. Arnold Rüütel was finally elected to the Presidency in 2001, defeating Toomas Savi in a vote in the Electoral College and served one term, until 2006. He did not win reelection. His greatest achievement as President is generally considered to be successfully leading his country into the European Union in 2003.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Vytautas Landsbergis" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania Born: October 18, 1932 in Kaunas, Lithuania. He graduated from the Lithuanian Conservatory of Music (now the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre) in 1955. Landsbergis was one of the founders of Sąjūdis, the Lithuanian pro-independence political movement founded in 1988. V. Landsbergis became the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania after Sąjūdis' victory in the 1990 elections. On March 11, 1990, he chaired the session of the Lithuanian Supreme Council (Parliament) during which the restoration of Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union was declared and Lithuania became the first Soviet Republic to take this step. According to the temporary Constitution of Lithuania also adopted at that time, as Chairman of the Supreme Council, V. Landsbergis had constitutional authority over both the Leader of the State and the Speaker of the Parliament. He held this position though out the period of bitter and sometimes violent struggle by the Lithuanians to be free of the Soviet occupation. As the leader of Lithuania he too was a member of the Baltic Council which met at the house, and when the time came, represented his country in the historic meeting with Boris Yeltsin at the house, in which Lithuanian independence was confirmed. Professor Landsbergis was the Chairman from March 1990 until November 1992, when the next elections in the now truly independent Lithuania replaced that post with the Office of President (to which Algirdas Brazauskas was elected). In 1993, Professor Landsbergis founded a new political party, the Homeland Union (Tėvynes Sąjunga) which gained a landslide victory in the 1996 parliamentary elections. Vytautas Landsbergis then served as the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) from 1996 until 2000. He ran unsuccessfully for President in 1997. During the runoff (as noone had received over 50% of the votes in the first round), he supported Valdas Adamkus, who had finished second in the first round and V. Adamkus eventually became the President. In 2004 Vytautas Landsbergis was elected as a Deputy to the European Parliament by the Lithuanian voters.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Anatolijs Gorbunovs" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Latvia, Speaker of the Saeima Born: February 10, 1942 in Pilda parish, Ludza District, Latvia. From 1974 he held various positions in the Communist Party of the Latvian SSR, the most important ones being that of Party Ideologue and then finally the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Latvian SSR. Unlike most of the Communist Party in Latvia, A. Gorbunovs supported and actively worked for Latvian independence. From 1988, he was speaker of the Latvian "parliament" as it evolved (first, as the Supreme Soviet of Latvian SSR, then Supreme Council of the newly independent Republic of Latvia, and finally the new Saeima, the parliament of the Republic of Latvia as elected according to the Latvian Constitution) . As the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Latvian SSR, he was considered the local leader in the Soviet System. As such he represented Latvia in the key meeting with Boris Yeltsin at the house, in which Latvian independence was confirmed. He was also a regular visitor to the house on various types of government business both before and after 1991. After restoration of the Latvian Government system; according to the 1922 Constitution, Gorbunovs as speaker of the parliament, became the acting President of the Republic until 1993, when Guntis Ulmanis was elected to the post in the first Presidental election since the restoration of independence. Anatolijs Gorbunovs joined the "Latvian Way" party in 1993 and remained the Speaker of the Saeima until 1995 and a member of parliament until 2002. Between 1995 and 2002, at various times he served as Minister of Regional Development, the Minister of Transportation and the Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Arnold Rüütel" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]President of Estonia Born: 10 May, 1928 on the island Saaremaa, Estonia. He graduated from Janeda Agricultural College in 1949 and then worked in the field. In parallel he joined the Communist Party and rose through both government and Party ranks. Together with other pro-reform Communists like Vaino Väljas, Arnold Rüütel played a major part in the preparation and composition of the Estonian declaration of sovereignty that was adopted by the Estonian Supreme Soviet on November 16, 1988. On March 29, 1990 Rüütel was appointed as the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. In that capacity he represented Estonia in the key meeting with Boris Yeltsin at the house, in which Estonian independence was confirmed. He had been a regular visitor to the house prior to that as a member of the Baltic Council. He continued as the Chairman until October 5, 1992 when the position was abolished as the new President Estonia was democratically elected. Arnold Rüütel ran for the post of President in that election but lost to Lennart Meri. The two competed again in the next presidential election 1996, with L. Meri winning again. Arnold Rüütel was finally elected to the Presidency in 2001, defeating Toomas Savi in a vote in the Electoral College and served one term, until 2006. He did not win reelection. His greatest achievement as President is generally considered to be successfully leading his country into the European Union in 2003.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Vytautas Landsbergis" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania Born: October 18, 1932 in Kaunas, Lithuania. He graduated from the Lithuanian Conservatory of Music (now the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre) in 1955. Landsbergis was one of the founders of Sąjūdis, the Lithuanian pro-independence political movement founded in 1988. V. Landsbergis became the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Lithuania after Sąjūdis' victory in the 1990 elections. On March 11, 1990, he chaired the session of the Lithuanian Supreme Council (Parliament) during which the restoration of Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union was declared and Lithuania became the first Soviet Republic to take this step. According to the temporary Constitution of Lithuania also adopted at that time, as Chairman of the Supreme Council, V. Landsbergis had constitutional authority over both the Leader of the State and the Speaker of the Parliament. He held this position though out the period of bitter and sometimes violent struggle by the Lithuanians to be free of the Soviet occupation. As the leader of Lithuania he too was a member of the Baltic Council which met at the house, and when the time came, represented his country in the historic meeting with Boris Yeltsin at the house, in which Lithuanian independence was confirmed. Professor Landsbergis was the Chairman from March 1990 until November 1992, when the next elections in the now truly independent Lithuania replaced that post with the Office of President (to which Algirdas Brazauskas was elected). In 1993, Professor Landsbergis founded a new political party, the Homeland Union (Tėvynes Sąjunga) which gained a landslide victory in the 1996 parliamentary elections. Vytautas Landsbergis then served as the Speaker of the Lithuanian Parliament (Seimas) from 1996 until 2000. He ran unsuccessfully for President in 1997. During the runoff (as noone had received over 50% of the votes in the first round), he supported Valdas Adamkus, who had finished second in the first round and V. Adamkus eventually became the President. In 2004 Vytautas Landsbergis was elected as a Deputy to the European Parliament by the Lithuanian voters.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Guntis Ulmanis" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]First President of the restored, independent Republic of Latvia Born: September 13, 1939 in Riga, Latvia. From 1941 until 1946 (age 2 through 7) he was imprisoned along with his family in the Krasnoyarsk District, in Siberia. He graduated from the School of Economics at the University of Latvia in 1963. From 1963 until 1965 he served as a draftee in the Soviet Army. As this was a prerequisite for anything other than a menial job, G. Ulmanis formally joined Communist Party in 1965 and resigned from the Party in 1989. He was never a Party official. In the first Latvian Parliamentary elections after the restoration of independence which were held in June 1993, he was chosen as a candidate for a seat by the "Farmers Union" party. According to the Latvian Constitution once a new Parliament is seated, it then elects the President of the Country and on 7 July, 1993, it elected Guntis Ulmanis as the first President the restored Republic of Latvia (the fifth overall, in the history of the Latvian Republic). There is no question that Guntis Ulmanis achieved this sudden prominence as a result of his name. He is the grandson of the brother of Karlis Ulmanis, who is generally considered to be the founder of the Latvian Republic and was it's forth (and last during the period of the 1st Republic) President, before being deposed and "disappeared" by the USSR when it invaded Latvia in 1940. Guntis Ulmanis also bears a distinct resemblance to his relative and predecessor. Whatever the original reasons for his election, Guntis Ulmanis became a respected and popular President in his own right and won reelection to a second term without any serious opposition, retiring after the legally mandated maximum of two terms in 1999. Guntis Ulmanis was at the house early in his term when it was still an official guesthouse of the Latvian Government. As Emilija Benjamin and President Karlis Ulmanis were friends, it is possible that the first President Ulmanis may also have visited the house in 1939-40, but no records or eyewitnesses of that have survived.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Carl Bildt" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Former Prime Minister of Sweden Born: 15 July, 1949 in Halmstad, Halland district, Sweden into a family of Swedish/ Norwegian/Danish nobles, he is related to the King of Norway, his great-great-grandfather was Prime Minister of Sweden a century before and his great-grandfather the Chief of the General Staff of the Swedish Army. He has spent his entire life in politics and was elected the leader of the Swedish Moderate Party in 1986. From 1991 until 1994 he was the Prime Minister of Sweden. His most widely recognized achievement was Sweden's entry into the EU during his tenure and Bildt signed the accession treaty at the European Union summit in Corfu, Greece on June 23, 1994. His time as PM also partly coincided with the most crucial period in the recovery of freedom and independence by Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and the active support of the Swedish Government led by him, was of great importance to the Baltic countries particularly in the negotiations about the ultimate withdrawal of residual Russian troops from the territories of these countries. Carl Bildt was at the house during talks with Baltic leaders in this period. After his stint as Prime Minister, Carl Bildt was tagged for important international conflict resolution activities, serving as the EU Special Envoy to the Former Yugoslavia from June 1995, the Co-Chairman of the Dayton Peace Conference in November 1995, and EU High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina from December 1995 to June 1997 and the United Nations Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Balkans from 1999 until 2001. In October, 2006, Carl Bildt was back in a position in the Swedish Government, this time as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government led by Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Gunārs Meierovics" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born, 12 May, 1920 in Riga. Gunars Meierovics was the son of Zigfrid Meierovics, the first Foreign Minister of the newly proclaimed Republic of Latvia. His father was killed in an automobile accident while he was still an infant. In 1939 he graduated from the French Lyceum in Riga and went on to the University of Latvia studying economics and engineering.  After the Second World War he was a refugee in the western occupation zone of Germany and ultimately immigrated to the USA. There, until retirement, he worked for the US Department of Defense. At the same time from the very beginning in the US he was active in the Latvian and other Baltic people's attempts to preserve their national identity and work to ultimately end the Soviet occupation of the Baltic countries. After returning to Latvia immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union he gained a seat in the first elected Latvian parliament since the Soviet Russian Occupation began in the 1940, as a representative of the "Latvian Way" party and was put forward as a serious contender for the renewed presidency. (Guntis Ulmanis won that position however). Gunars Meierovics continued to be active in Latvian politics almost until his death which occurred after a lingering illness on the night of 10-11 February, 2007 in Riga.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Karina Petersone" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 19 September, 1954 in Riga, Latvia. Karina Petersone studied foreign languages at the University of Latvia and then worked as a language teacher first at the Riga Polytechnical Institute and then at the University of Latvia. In 1991 she became an assistant (and translator) to Mr. Gorbunovs, the Head of the Latvian State at the time. This opened a political career and she went on to become a member of the Riga City Council and then repeatedly, a Deputy in the Latvian National Parliament. From 1998 to 2000 she was the Latvian Minister of Culture and in 2006 the Special Assignments Minister for Social Integration Affairs. She is associated with the "Latvian Way" party and its successors. Karina Petersone is married and has three children. She was at the house many times during the period when it was used for meetings by the Baltic Council (1991 – 1992) and more recently has been a guest of the family.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Richard Nixon" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Former American President Born: 9 January, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, US Republican Party Politician, the 36th Vice-President of the United States of America (under President Dwight D. Eisenhower) 1952-1960. He ran for president in 1960 but narrowly lost to John F. Kennedy. He ran for president again in 1968, against Lyndon B. Johnson's Vice-President Hubert Humphrey, this time narrowly winning becoming the 37th President of the United States and then won a second term in 1972 by a land-slide against George McGovern. His entire presidency was consumed by the need to extricate the United States from the disastrous strategic blunders of his predecessor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in the War in Vietnam. While he did this more or less successfully, he was ultimately forced out of office in 1973, becoming the only American President to resign. While the formal reason was that he concealed information concerning a break-in into the Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Hotel during the 1972 election campaign (the "Watergate Scandal"), the underlying cause was the deep enmity of the US Democratic Party towards him, combined with a general anger by the American people towards government in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. While in Office, President Nixon negotiated the first Nuclear Weapons limitation agreements (SALT-1 & the ABM Treaty) with the Soviet Union. Mr. Nixon visited the Soviet Union several times while in office and was also invited to come afterwards. He stayed in the house in the 1980s, as a private citizen but an official guest of the Soviet government. He was also the only guest who asked to stay in a smaller bedroom with a view to the sea, instead of the master bedroom which is on the landward side of the house. Since then the room has become known as the " Nixon Room" .The housekeeper remembers him to have been very friendly and that he spoke with everyone through a translator who traveled with him. Richard Nixon died on 22 April 1994, in New York, the USA.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Rita Suessmuth" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born 17 February, 1937 in Wuppertal, Germany. Rita Suessmuth received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Munster in 1964 and taught at he University of Dortmund until becoming active in politics in the German CDU Party, From 1985 to 1988 she was the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. She was a Deputy of the Bundestag from 1987 to 2002, became its President in 1988 and lost the post in 1998 when the SPD Party gained a majority in the Bundestag. Rita Suessmuth visited Latvia at the head of a Bundestag delegation and stayed at the house: 17-19 May, 1993[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Aina Nagobada-Ābola" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 9 June, 1920 in Riga. Aina Nagobada started studying dentistry in 1939 and went on the Medicine Department of the University of Latvia. In the fall of 1944 she was evacuated to Germany along with all the staff of Riga Hospital Nr. 2. After the Second World War she finished her medical studies at the University of Tubingen in Germany. In 1951, along with her family she went to Morocco (at that time, still a French colony) but in 1955 returned to Paris. There she worked in her husband, Guntars Abols, firms, which were involved in oil and gas exploitation technology. As the Latvians started their push for the restoration of their independence, in March 1990, Mrs. Nagabada- Abola was appointed as the Latvian Honorary Consul in Paris. But in fact she worked as the real ambassador; the "honorary" was necessary in her title, because as Latvians was still occupied by the Soviet Union at the time, they were not in a position to get an actual ambassador accredited. She arranged for and accompanied the Latvian parliamentarians ("Council" members) I. Daudish and I. Berzinsh, when they visited the French National Assembly in December 1990 and the Chairman of the Latvian Higher Council, A. Gorbunovs on his visit to the French Parliament in May 1991, during which they also met with President Mitterand (see entry on Mitterand). After the actual renewal of Lativan independence after the failed Putsch in Moscow in August 1991, Mrs. Nagobada-Abola became the Latvian ambassador to France, being formally accredited from 18 March 1992 to 10 June, 1997 (she was followed as Ambassador by Sandra Kalniete, who after her term, went on to be the Foreign Minister of Latvia ). In addition to being the Latvian Ambassador to France, Mrs. Nagobada-Abols was also the Ambassador to Spain (1993 – 1997) and Portugal (until 1998). From 1992 until 2000 she was also the Latvian representative to UNESCO and since than is a lifetime advisor to them. Before the war, as a girl of 19, she was invited to visit Emilija Benjamin at the newly completed house. At the university she was a classmate of Emilija's adopted son Juris. After the restoration of independence, in the 1990s she played a significant role in getting the property returned to Emilija Benjamin's family. Since the family recovered the house, she has been Peter Aicher's guest at the house numerous times. During one recent dinner at the house she related how she remembers the custom bamboo garden furniture from 1939 which is still there.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Miguel Angel Martinez Martinez" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 30 January, 1940, Madrid, Spain. Miguel Martinez Martinez started in politcs early and at age 24 became the Deputy Secretary General of the International Union of Socialist Youth. He was elected to a public office in 1977, in 1983 became the Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and in 1992 became its President, holding that post until 1996. He was also Vice-President of the WEU (Western European Union) Assembly from 1986 to 1996 and was elected to the European Parliament in 1999. In his capacity as the President of the Parliametary Assembly of the Council of Europe he visited Latvia and stayed at the house from the tenth to the twelfth of January, 1995.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Hans van den Broek" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 11 December, 1936 in Paris, France, but is of Dutch nationality. Hans van den Broek received a degree from Utrecht University and started his career as a lawyer, but in got involved in local Dutch politics in 1970 as a member of the Katholieke Volkspartij (Catholic People's Party). From there he went to the Dutch Parliament. From 1982 to the beginning of 1993 he was the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands and from 1993 until 1999 he was the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, (under the old system - the de facto "foreign minister" of the EU with very limited authority). In this capacity he visited Latvia at the head of an EU delegation and had dinner at the house on 9 February, 1995. Hans van den Broek retired from European politics in March 1999.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Brigitta Dahl" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 20 September, 1937, Vastra Gotaland County, Sweden. A graduate of Uppsala University, Brigitta Dahl started her career in various Swedish international development organisations. She was elected to the Swedish Parliament in 1969, was the Swedish Minister for Energy Affairs from 1982 to 1990, the Minister for the Environemnt from 1986 to 1991and the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament from 1994 to 2002. During and immediately after the Vietnam War she was also the chairperson of a group called the Swedish Committee for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; in this position she strongly supported the Pol Pot Regime while it carried out the holocaust in Cambodia, calling reports of this lies and American propoganda. Much later (1997) this led to public questions about her appropriateness for the position of Speaker for the Parliament but she nevertheless remained in the position until 2002. Since 2005 she is chairperson of the Swedish section of UNICEF. In her capacity as Speaker, she led a Swedish Parlimentary delegation to Latvia and dinner at the house on 14 February, 1995.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Riitta Maria Uosukainen" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: Riitta Maria Vainikka, 18 June, 1942 in Enso, South Karelia; graduated with a Licentiate (a degree with a license to teach) in Philosophy in 1970 and worked as a teacher before entering politics in 1977. From 1991 until 1994 she was the Finnish Minister of Education and for long periods in the years between 1994 and 2003 she was the Speaker of the Finnish Parliament. She visited Latvia as the head of a Finnish Parliamentary Delegation and was at the house on 20-21 February, 1995.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Poul Nyrup Rasmussen" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 15 June, 1943 in Esbjerg, Denmark. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen received a degree in economics from the University of Copenhagen. While a student he was already active in politics with the Social Democratic Party. In 1990 he became the head of the Party and 1993 the Prime Minister of Denmark ("State Minister" in Danish) and held that position until 27 November 2001. He is not related to the next two Prime Ministers of Denmark, both of whom are also named Rasmussen. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen came to Latvia in his capacity as Prime Minister of Denmark and stayed at the house 29-30 March 1995. After the defeat of the Social Democratic Party in the Danish 2001 election, P. N. Rasmussen stepped down as the head of the Party a year later, but went on to win a seat in the European Parliament in 2004.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Jean-Pascal Delamuraz" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 1 April, 1936, in Vevey, Switzerland. Jean-Pascal Delamuraz received a degree in political science from the University of Lausanne and then worked as the assistant director of the Swiss National Exhibition. He was elected to the Swiss Federal Council in 1983 and was the head of the Swiss Federal Military Department from 1984 to 1986 and the Federal Department of Economic Affairs from 1987 to 1998. The Swiss have a unique system of "Presidents", in which each (of the seven) members of the Federal Council take turns in becoming first the Vice-President and then the President for a year. However, the title of President (and Vice-Presdient) only applies within Switzerland,;when the person travels, officially he represents the Swiss Department he is head of. So, when Jean-Pascal Delamuraz came to Latvia in 1995, he came as the head of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, but he was also the Vice-Presdient of Switzerland at the time. The Presdient of Latvia, Guntis Ulmanis received Jean-Pascal Delamuraz at the house on 31 March, 1995. Jean-Paul Delamuraz resigned from the Federal Council in 1998 and died a few months later, in Lausanne.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Islom Abduganiyevich Karimov" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 30 January, 1938 in an orphanage in Samarkand. I. Kamirov studied engineering and at the Central Asian Poly-Technical Institute and economics at the Tashkent Institute of National Economy. Later he worked at the Tashkent Aircraft Plant and also steadily progressed up the ladder of Soviet State and Communist Party offices in the Uzbek SSR. In 1989 he became the First Secretary of the Uzbek Communist Party and in 1990 the President of the Uzbek SSR. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, he declared Uzbekistan to be an independent country on 31 August, 1991. Since then he has been the only President that Uzbekistan has had. He made a state visit to Latvia in 1995 and was at the house on 6 - 7 June.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Wang Hanbin" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 1925 in Fujian Province, China. Wang Hanbin joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1941 and worked his way up the ranks of both the Party and the Chinese Government until from 1992 until 1997 he was an alternate member of the 14th CPC Politburo Central Committee and, from 1993 until 1998, the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee (the full-time members) of the Chinese National People's Congress. In this capacity he headed a delegation to Latvia in 1995 and stayed at the house in 6 – 10 July.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Kirsti Kolle Grondahl" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 1 September, 1943 in Oslo, Norway. Kirsti Kolle Grondahl received her university degree in 1966 and went on to become a Labor Party politician. She entered politics in 1977 and worked her way up in the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) until from Parliament from October 1993 until September 2001 was the President of the Storting. She visited Latvia at the head of a Norwegian parliamentary delegation in 1995 and was at the house on 6-8 August. From 1999 she has been the County Governor of Buskerud.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Angus Maddison" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Born: 6 December 1926 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. Angus Maddison was educated at Cambridge and went on to do graduate work in the United States but decided not to complete his PhD at the time. Returning to Great Britain he taught for a year at the University of St. Andrews and also finally got the doctorate. In 1953 Maddison started working for the recently formed Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and after a time became the chief of its economics department. When the organization was renamed the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) he remained as the Assistant Director of the Economic Development Department. While there, he and Peter Aicher (father) met and became best of friends. They remained in touch after Angus Maddison took a leave of absence from the OECD that ultimately lasted fifteen years and during which he traveled the world in various economic consulting assignments. In 1979 Angus Maddison also became a Professor at the University of Groningen with a specialty in economic history. His work in researching the economics of China over the past two millennia of its history, as well as his calculations of per-capita income in the Roman Empire, is world renowned in the field. Angus and Peter often met when Angus passed through Paris and remained friends of the family after Peter Aicher's death in 2001. The Aicher family invited him to Latvia and he visited with them at the house in 2003. Angus Maddison passed away in France in 2010.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Maximilian Heinrich von Habsburg Lothringen" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Archduke of Austria and Prince of Hungary. Born, 10 February, 1961 in Boulogne-sur-Seine, the grandson of Maximillian, the younger brother of Karl, the last Habsburg Emperor of Austro-Hungary. Maximillian Heinrich is a childhood friend of the family and has visited the house several times since it was returned to the original owners. Maximillian is a very succesful businessman whose main operation is in Eastern Europe and Russia and also is active with his own charities working with disadvantaged people and children from difficult home environments.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="Richard Hudson" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]Richard Hudson was born in 1954 in to a family with a long farming tradition. Having sailed and travelled throughout the World, the Americas, Africa, Europe and the Far East, he ended up finding his vocation in life as a sculptor in Mallorca. He now lives and works in Spain producing Small and Monumental Pieces in Bronze, Steel and Marble that have been exhibited and sold all over the world showing with Sotheby's and selected Galleries throughout Europe, America and the Far East.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="François Mitterrand" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]President of France (also, co-Prince of Andorra) Born: 26 October 1916 in Jarnac, Charente. As a sergeant in the French Army he was wounded and captured in 1940 but successfully escaped to Vichy ruled France in 1942. He worked in both the Vichy Government and eventually in the French resistance movement during the war, which put him in situations where he was forced to involve himself in politics. After the war he remained in politics, aligning himself with the Socialist Party. He was elected as President of France in May 1981 and became the first socialist president of the Fifth Republic and the first left-wing head of state of France since 1957. He held office for two full terms; at almost 14 years is the longest serving President of France to date and was also the oldest President of the Fifth Republic, leaving office at the age of 78 in 1995. Francois Mitterrand died on 8 January 1996. Anatalojs Gorbunovs and Karina Petersone (the director of Gorbunovs' office) visited Mr. Mitterand in the Elysee Palace in Paris before the demise of the Soviet Union and at that time he expressed disbelief when Mr. Gorbunovs told him the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse and that Boris Yeltsin was the new power to watch. When Gorbachov was placed under house arrest during the putsch attempt, Mitterand indicated a willingness to work with the putschists. However shortly thereafter, France became the first Western country to send its Foreign Minister ot the now indpendent nation and Francois Mitterand became the first Western President to visit Latvia after the restoration of independence. During his visit to Latvia he formally reopened the French Embassy in Riga. The house was prepared for him and the road between Riga and Jurmala fixed in anticipation of his visit, however during his time in Latvia he was not feeling well and so stayed in Riga. As a token of appreciation for all the work she had done in preparation for his arrival, he sent a gift of a scarf to Mrs. Vanaga, the housekeeper; a gesture she still vividly remembers.[/ultimate_modal]

[ultimate_modal icon_type="selector" icon="Defaults-angle-right" modal_title="William Jefferson 'Bill' Clinton" modal_on="text" modal_on_align="left" read_text="Read more" txt_color="#b4975a" modal_size="medium" modal_style="overlay-zoomin"]In 1994 President Bill Clinton visited the Baltic States. This was the first visit by an American President to the Republic of Latvia. The Benjamin House was to be his residence in Latvia but President Clinton at the last moment decided not to stay the night and left the same day of his visit. The Clinton Plans: This was an elaborate architectural project to honor President Clinton and the fact he was the first President to visit the Republic of Latvia. This project was to up grade the Benjamin House which included marble terraces and a cascade of indoor and out door swimming pools. However, this project was not carried out because of lack of funds.[/ultimate_modal]