Harald Kalnins ( Latvian. Haralds Kalniņš ; July 22, 1911 - October 27, 1997 ) - Lutheran Bishop, first head of ELKRAS from 1988 to 1994 .
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Born in St. Petersburg . Had a mixed German-Latvian origin. In 1919 his parents repatriated to Latvia. In the years 1933-1937 he studied theology in Switzerland. After graduating from the seminary for a year, he served as assistant pastor in Alsace . In 1938 he returned to Latvia . From 1943 to 1945 he served as sergeant-major in the Latvian SS Legion .
After captivity in 1947 he returned to Latvia. In 1951 he was ordained pastor in Riga by Bishop of LELC Gustav Tours . Since 1967, begins to feed the community of Russian Germans . In 1981, he became the superintendent of German communities in the USSR.
In 1988 he left the Latvian Church to become a full-fledged bishop of the German Communities of the USSR ( German: Deutschen Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche in der Sowjetunion ) (future ELKRAS ). According to Baronas, Kalnins was close to the Pietistic trend in Lutheranism [1] .