Karlis Lidaks

Kārlis Līdaks – conductor, composer, violinist and teacher of music. Composed choral music, his songs are mainly based on religious poetry. For two decades he was a leading conductor of Baptist church choirs in Latvia.

Kārlis Līdaks was born in Riga on 27 June 1893. He learned to play a violin as a child, and from the age of 14 was already conducting a Baptist Sunday school choir. In 1910, at the age of 17, Kārlis Līdaks took part in the 5th Latvian National Song Festival in Riga as a conductor of the Āgenskalns Baptist Church Choir. As a refugee during the First World War, he was a conductor of the Latvian Baptist Refugee Choir in Moscow. After his return to Riga in 1917, Līdaks continued working as a choral conductor, and was studying violin privately with an Italian professor of music Edmondo Lucini at the Latvian Conservatory. Self-taught in many ways, Līdaks passed exams at the Latvian Conservatory in 1923, and was permitted to teach music and singing. He taught these subjects at the Latvian Baptist Seminary in Riga and conducted mixed choir, taking it on concert tours in Latvia and also abroad. Later, also at the Baptist Seminary, he founded and conducted a string orchestra. ln 1927 he founded the Riga Baptist Male Choir, and was a Principal Conductor at the Second (1925) and Third (1935) Latvian Baptist Song Festivals. ln 1930 Kārlis Līdaks initiated the founding of the Latvian Baptist Choir Association, and was elected its Chairman from 1930 to 1938 and from 1939 to 1941.

Apart from his devotion to music, on 31 May 1919 Kārlis Līdaks enlisted in the newly formed Latvian Army, and through the years had served as an administrative officer, and was promoted up to the rank of Administrative Captain in the Latvian Army. During his career he had held various administrative positions in the Armament and later Supply Departments at the Latvian Ministry of War. When the Soviet Union occupied Latvia on 17 June 1940, Kārlis Līdaks had chosen to serve in the People’s Army of Latvia and later in the Red Army, and was appointed as a finance officer to the 24th Territorial Infantry Corps Headquarters Staff. Later he served as an accounting officer in the 181st Infantry Division Headquarters’ Finance Department. On 15 November 1940 Kārlis Līdaks was promoted to a rank of the Red Army Major. Kārlis Līdaks, like many other former Latvian citizens, was falsely accused by the Soviets of crimes he never committed, and was arrested on 14 June 1941, deported to Siberia and imprisoned in Norilsk. By a decision of the Taymyr District Court of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) of 23 December 1941, Kārlis Līdaks was sentenced to 10 years in a correctional camp and to to the highest measure of punishment – death by shooting. Kārlis Līdaks was shot on 29 June 1942 in Norilsk, USSR.

On 5 October 1960, the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the USSR adopted a decision overturning Kārlis Līdaks conviction and terminated the criminal case due to the lack of evidence, posthumously rehabilitating him.

The following is an excerpt from an article in the newspaper “Rīgas Balss” (Voice of Riga), of May 29, 1989, page 4: “History: For Information and Thought” by the Latvian Army (and later, during the Soviet occupation – the USSR Red Army) Second Lieutenant Benjāmiņš Dzirnieks describing the night when Kārlis Līdaks was shot: “One night at around 1.00 or 2.00 am a prison warden summoned my neighbor Līdaks. We were cellmates placed next to each other on an upper bunk bed. He got up and held out his hand without a word. All our prison cell inmates honored this affable tall officer. We knew that he was a Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) from the Latvian Army Headquarters*. (Note: Kārlis Līdaks was an Administrative Captain in the Latvian Army; his last position before the Soviet occupation was a Mobilisation Officer of the Budget and Accounting Section at the Finance Division of the Logistics Department in the Latvian Ministry of War. After the Soviet occupation, K. Līdaks continued his military service in the Latvian People’s Army and later in the USSR Red Army. In November 15, 1940 K. Līdaks was promoted to a rank of the Red Army Major (OF3), which corresponded to the pre-WW2 Latvian Army rank of Lieutenant Colonel (LTC). At the time of his arrest, in June 14, 1941 K. Līdaks was an Accountant at the Finance Section of the 181st Rifle Division in the Red Army 24th Territorial Rifle Corps). For a while, the corridor echoed his steps and the steps of the wardens; then a sound of a shot similar to a short and broken radio signal was heard in the silence of our cell – a sound which was impossible to muffle even though the doors were sheathed with metal on both sides...” (for illustrative purposes only: scenes of execution of the Polish Army officers by the Soviet NKVD (Secret Police) operatives in Katyn Forest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre) in spring of 1940 from 2007 Polish movie “Katyń” directed by Andrzej Wajda 

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Kārlis Līdaks has composed 29 (32 or 33) songs for mixed choir; some of them contrafacta, having similar or even identical melody with different lyrics and/or titles, 17 songs for female choir, including a song with a harmonized German folk melody, 9 songs for male choir, 2 solo songs, a trio (for voice, violin and piano), a composition for violin and piano and a composion for piano. His best songs typically contain musical thought that is simple and concise, though original enough, with a clear and moderate expression, and impeccable taste. Several of Līdaks' songs were translated into Portuguese, Russian and Ukrainian, and are still sung today around the world.