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Pērkonkrusts or Thunder Cross is a culturally far right, economically neutral, totalitarian, ultranationalist, anti-German, and anti-semitic ideology that inhabits the Authoritarian Unity sector of the Political Compass, based off of the party of Gustavs Celmiņš.
Gustavs Celmiņš was born in April 1st 1899 aka April Fool's Day at Riga but there is no information about his family also there is less infomation about his childhood but He was educated at the Riga Stock Exchange Commercial School then he was graduated in Moscow and studied at the Riga Polytechnic Institute in which it was evacuated to Moscow after the October Revolution.
In 1918, Gustavs Celminš joined the Latvian National Armed Forces in the Kalpaks Battalion after the Latvian War of Independence 1918-1920 has just started but on May 22nd 1919 was promoted to lieutenant and in 1921 he was rewarded with a medal called the "Order Of The War Of Lāčplēsis" but in 1924 he left the army. Gustavs Celminš just became an minister or secretary of Foreign Affairs from 1925 to 1927 and in the year 1929 he graduated from the University Of Latvia because of the experience with Philology and Philosophy along with being a rapporteur of the Ministry Of Finance but in 1930 he held the position of vice-director of the State Department Of Agriculture.
On January 24th 1932, Gustavs Celminš has joined a Latvian Fascist group called the Latvian People's Association also known as Firecracker or Ugunskrusts and becomes elected chief but he got kicked out because of the group's political policies so he founded Thunder Cross also known as Pērkonkrusts in 1933, Common for advocating a national revolution for a radical re-organisation of society, politics, and the economy in Latvia. After the coup of 15th May 1934 that turned Latvia into a Conservative dictatorship set up by Kārlis Ulmanis who is a member of the Latvian Farmers Union, Gustavs Celminš was arrested and imprisoned for three years along with 97 Pērkonkrusts members.
Two years later in 1936, Ernests Plāķis took over the leadership of Pērkonkrusts trying to reunite all of it's members but on May 14th 1937, he was arrested along with 31 other members then he was sentenced in early June 1938 and in November 13th 1937, Gustavs Celminš was kicked out of Latvia so he seek refuge in Italy but later in Switzerland at Zurich but he was arrested and kicked out of this country because of unwanted presentations then stayed in Romania for a while and in 1938 he moved to Finland. Gustavs Celminš has set up a foreign liaison office of the Pērkonkrusts while the original Pērkonkrusts was lead by Adolf Schilde with the total of 800 members have been arrested in Latvia and during the Winter War (1939-1940), Gustavs Celminš has joined the Finnish Foreign Legion to fight against Soviet soldiers during an invasion by the Soviet Union until In August 1940, he goes at Helsinki to leave for Germany on the ship Strassburg even he hates Germans.
When the Soviet Union invaded Latvia in 1940, They have freed the Communists but not the Pērkonkrusts because Instead were arrested again also some of them are being deported to Siberian gulags but when Nazi Germany does Operation Barbarossa to occupied and liberate Latvia in 1941, Gustavs Celminš has moved back to Latvia to regained leadership of the original Pērkonkrusts in the service of the German Wehrmacht. The Pērkonkrusts have been restored with 15,000 members but many of them held positions in institutions set up by the German occupation such as the Latvian Auxiliary Police, the Schutzstaffel and the Sicherheitsdienst but also led the Latvian press that is allowed by the occupying authorities. On July 25th 1941, Gustavs Celminš offered Alfred Rosenberg to establish two Divisions of Latvian Pērkonkrusts but on August 17th 1941 however the group was dissolved after the Germans found out that this group was involved was Anti-German and most of the members sent to concentration camps in Bavaria. After the Pērkonkrusts have banned, some of it's members still collaborate with Nazi Germany while others mostly engaged in resistance that secretly lead by Gustavs Celminš and also he created the Latvian Articles Free Latvia in 1943 as an illegal newspaper press but he was arrested on March 14th 1944 by the Gestapo to be sent into the Flossenbürg concentration camp but later Dachau also he is set free by American soldiers On May 5th 1945.
After World War 2 1939-1945, Gustavs Celminš moved to Italy, where he created a another newspaper press called Brīvā Latvija aka Free Latvia and In 1947 he published the autobiographic book called Eiropas krustceļos/At The Crossroads Of Europe. In 1949 he moved to the United States where he becomes an instructor at Syracuse University's Armed Forces School in the New York state from 1950 to 1952 and in the year 1951 he was the director of the Foreign Language program for the US Air Force while also a television lecturer about the USSR and communism. In 1954 he moved to Mexico as manufacturer but he moved back to the United States as a librarian at Trinity University located at San Antonio, Texas from 1956 to 1958. In 1959 he became a professor of Russian studies at St. Mary's University and he died on April 10th 1968 at the age of 69.
Modern Pērkonkrusts
Ugunskrusts
Before the Pērkonkrusts, there is the Ugunskrusts and it existed since November 5th 1931 after the Latvian Parliamentary Election of 1931, in which the far-right candidates failed to gain power but also the Ugunskrusts was created by Adolfs Greble/J. Greble who is a footballer in order to unite the former members of the Latvian National Club. The Ugunskrusts has different names to itself such as Fire Cross, Firecracker & Firecrust but also the Ugunskrusts was registered by Riga Regional Court on January 19th 1932 and it has a founding meeting with the Riga Latvian Society (1868-Today) that took on January 24th 1932 at Riga with 69 people in it. The Ugunskrusts did not reach 200 members in the first months but in the summer of 1932, T-Groups/Alarm groups began to be formed to protect the Ugunskrusts after attacks by left-wing organizations for being Anti-Semitic, Anti-Democratic & Anti-German along with sympathy for Fascist Italy and in August 21th 1932, the Ugunskrusts have published a weekly newspaper called Firecracker even it was the same name but on September 14th 1932 the Riga Regional Court the seized the first four issues.
In the start of the year 1933 the Ugunskrusts had achieved some success among academic youth & student corporations for example they win 1 out of 40 seats in the elections the University Of Latvia and then the Ugunskrusts have gained more members. In March 1933 an Physical Education Society called the Patriotic Guardian was claimed to have activities that were closely related to the Ugunskrusts and it has T-Groups/Alarm Groups in it. On March 17th 1933, the Latvian government has adopted a decision on the ban of the Ugunskrusts but instead on March 27th 1933 they have banned the Latvian National Socialist Party and on April 12, 1933 the Ugunskrusts was dissvolved with a ban.
