1 Lats Aleksandrs Čaks 1901-1950

Aleksandrs Čaks was the pen name of Aleksandrs Čadarainis, the Riga-born poet whose modernist verse broke sharply from the agrarian romanticism dominating Latvian literature between the wars. He wrote about the city's underclass — prostitutes, drunks, street fighters — which made him both celebrated and politically suspect. Under Soviet occupation he was pressured into ideological conformity, and much of his pre-war work was suppressed until after his death in 1950.

The Bank of Latvia's commemorative lats series has consistently honored cultural figures marginalized or silenced during the occupation decades. Čaks fits that pattern precisely.