Dauman, Ans Ernestovich

(party pseudonym, Pujka). Born Nov. 26, 1885; died Aug. 1, 1920. Active participant of the revolutionary movement in Latvia. Member of the Communist Party from 1904. Born in Riga District into the family of a peasant.

Dauman studied at the Pskov Geodetic College. In 1905 he participated in the May Day demonstration in Pskov and in organizing a workers’ strike in Riga. He worked as a land surveyor in Vilna Province from 1911 until 1914, when he was drafted into the army. The last post he held in the tsarist army was battalion commander.

Dauman was mayor of Narva during the February Revolution of 1917 and became chairman of the Narva Soviet and of the Narva Military Revolutionary Committee in October 1917. In February 1918 he took over the command of a partisan detachment that fought against the German occupation forces around Narva.

Dauman organized and was commissar of the Narva Regiment of the Red Guard. It was composed of workers and became the nucleus of the 6th Division. In 1919, Dauman was a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Soviet Latvian Army, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the Latvian Division, commandant of the Dvina Fortress, and commander of the Courland Group of Forces; in October 1919 he became a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Sixteenth Army. He was also a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies of Latvia and a delegate to the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of Latvia. Dauman studied at the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in Moscow and was a delegate to the Ninth Congress of the RCP (Bolshevik). In 1920 in the war against the White Poles, Dauman commanded the 10th Division and fell in battle near Brest. He was awarded two orders.