[2] To escape dishonest and harsh baronial treatment, Briedis' father moved the family from Vidzeme to Vitebsk Governorate (today's Shumilina Raion in Belarus), where he obtained forest land, cleared it for growing corn, and built the house where Briedis was born, the youngest of three children.

A shocked Briedis renounced any thought of entering the priesthood—he held boozing to be the most vile immorality and would have no truck with any who engaged in it.

[1] Briedis graduated from the war school with the rank of Podporuchik, and afterwards he served in the 99th Ivangorod infantry regiment, which was deployed in Daugavpils.

He participated in World War I, initially serving in East Prussia, where he successfully led reconnaissance patrols and received numerous awards for valor for his accomplishments.

[1] Briedis joined Boris Savinkov's Union for the Defence of the Motherland and Freedom, serving as an intelligence officer.

He posthumously received all classes of the Order of Lāčplēsis for his valor in the Christmas Battles, and for participation in almost all the rifleman's operations on the Riga front.