Born: 1848, Latvia
Died: 1925
Country most active: Latvia
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Paula Gaidule’s youth belongs to that period which the Latvians regard as the moment of the intellectual awakening of their people.
At the beginning of the 19th century, serfdom was abolished in the Baltic Provinces, a yearning for education and prosperity awakened in the hitherto oppressed Latvians.
Already, in the middle of the 19th century, the first Latvians studied at the University of Dorpat. It fell to their lot to become the founders of a national consciousness in their people. It was also at a school at Dorpat that Paula Gaidule received her education. There she began to burn with the idealism proclaimed by the pioneers of the national movement. Having finished an intermediate school (high school), as the first Latvian woman to do so, she worked as a teacher of history and languages in the parish school of Dzerbene. In the magazines appeared her first historical essays — in a period when Latvian literature had just begun to free itself from the tutorship of the clergy. She devoted her energies and her talents to her duties as a teacher, to her numerous family, and to public work. She took an active part in chorus singing, and also appeared several times on the stage. The last joy in her long and active life was the foundation of the independent Latvian State on November 18th, 1918. Paula Gaidule had seen the dawn of the awakening of her nation, the last period of her life coincided with the beginning of the freedom of the Latvian people. She was the first educated Latvian woman who devoted all her life to the work of a teacher. As such, her image will continue to live in the memory of Latvian women.