Imants Ziedonis kā sabiedriskas grupas līderis un virzītājspēks

The article will focus on the outstanding Latvian poet of the second half of the 20th century Imants Ziedonis (1933-2013), as the leader and driving force of a social group, his works of non-fiction, including essays, columns, interviews, as well as activities from the 1970s to the beginning of the 21st century. Ziedonis formulated the nation’s values, cultural experience, and heritage during times of change, recording modifications and the evolution of these values. The article raises several questions: In which categories of collaboration/collaborationism should Ziedonis be placed? Is it possible to be an opponent and a supporter of the occupied state apparatus simultaneously and act on behalf of the nation’s interests? Leaders and members of several sub-groups of like-minded people initiated or created by Ziedonis participated in the creation of the renewed state value system and cultural policy, thus, with their activity, it is possible to record and interpret the traces of Ziedonis’s ideas also in today’s current literary and political processes.