 In 1913 in St. Petersburg he published the book "Nacionālais jautājums Latvijā" (The National Question in Latvia) in defense of Latvian national rights.By 1914 he had become an opponent of the Bolsheviks led by Lenin.During World War I he worked in the Latvian War Refugee Aid Committee and in 1917 was elected to the Council of Landless Peasants of Vidzeme.