Kaudzit, Reims Reinisovlc and Matis Reinisovic

Latvian writers. Reinis Reinisovič (pseudonym, Vid-zemnieks) was born Apr. 30 (May 12), 1839, in Vecpiebalga Volost, present-day Cesis Raion, and died there Aug. 21, 1920. His brother Matis (pseudonym, Kalninieks) was born Aug. 6 (18), 1848, in Vecpiebalga Volost and died there Nov. 8, 1926.

The Kaudzitis brothers became elementary school teachers in Vecpiebalga in 1868. In his struggle against the policies of the Baltic German landowners and pastors in public education during the 1880’s, Reinis Kaudzit emerged as a leading Latvian publicist. The brothers’ most important work is the novel The Time of the Land Surveyors (1879). As the first major Latvian realist literary work, the novel was of great importance for the development of realism in Latvian literature. Effectively using ethnographic material, the Kaudzitis brothers vividly portrayed the coming of capitalism in the countryside in the 1870’s and created a wide range of satirical characters.