latviski
“Letters written in Siberia on a birch bark”
On March 25, 2022, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia will solemnly announce an addition to the nomination “Letters written in Siberia on a birch bark” included in the Latvian National Register of the UNESCO Program “Memory of the World”. This nomination is especially relevant at this time in the context of current international events. We need only look to Russia's attack on Ukraine as a reminder of how threatened democratic rights and national independence are today.
Tukums Museums submitted and maintains the “Letters written in Siberia on birch tree” UNESCO nomination in cooperation with 10 Latvian museums. There are a total of 52 letters from 18 authors in the nomination, 15 of which are stored in the Tukums Museum, and the rest in the Andrejs Pumpurs Lielvarde Museum, the Aizkraukle Museum of History and Art, the Daugava Museum, the Jēkabpils History Museum, the Latvian National History Museum, the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, the Madona Museum of Folklore and Art, the Museum of Literature and Music, the Riga Jewish Community Museum “Jews in Latvia” and the Talsi Museum. The nomination was initially submitted in 2009 and supplemented in 2013, 2017, and 2021.
In October 2021, the General Assembly of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO decided to supplement the nomination with seven additional letters written in Siberia on a birch tree. Three letters – Easter, Pentecost and birthday greetings – to her prison companion's daughter, Ināra Auce, née Aizpure (1943) were sent by Voldemārs Mežaks (1914–1985), head of communications of the Ventspils group of the Central Council of Latvia, from a heavy labor camp in Taishet, Irkutsk Oblast. Ceramicist Zaiga Reimane, who donated V. Mežaks' letters to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, related that Inara's father Andrejs Aizpurs had been convicted and worked in a hard labor camp in Severo-Yeniseyskiy↗ (Северо-Енисейский) [see link below] in very difficult conditions. It was impossible for his wife Pauline, as the wife of the enemy of the Soviet people, to get a job in Latvia and as a result to find a normal place to live, so she decided to move to Severo-Yeniseyskiy. The living conditions there were difficult, but Pauline and her little Ināra at least had their husband and father and their own room.
The Museum of the Occupation of Latvia also possesses an Easter greeting, the text of which was written by Lilija Villa (1904–1996) with a drawing by Auguste Emilia Jākobsone (1898–1988), deported on June 14, 1941 from Blīdene and Slampe parishes of Tukums County as spouses of members of the Aizsargi. A similar Easter greeting is also in the collection of the Tukums Museum. It was drawn by Auguste Emīlija Jākobsone on March 31, 1949, thinking about her two eldest daughters – Ausma and Ilga in Latvia. Sofija Milda Melder (1899–1988) from Tume parish also lived and worked in Novostroyka. Her daughters, like the daughters of Auguste Emīlija, had travelled to Latvia by the so-called children's train in 1946, but the youngest child – son Jānis – lived with her. The little boy brought Sofija Milda closer to the Lithuanian teacher Gražina Gaidieni (1911–1989), whose little son had hidden from the NKVD at the time of her removal and remained in Kaunas with relatives. The very beautiful congratulations drawn by Gražina to Sofija Milda have come into the collection of Tukums Museum, donated by Sofija's daughter Lida Biruta Bērziņa.
The friendship between Latvian and Lithuanian women was very close, as it was tempered by labor collecting resin in the Siberian forests and fighting for the lives of their children, including education. The family of one of our local residents, poet Māra Zālīte, was also incarcerated in Novostroyka. The book "Five Fingers", where M. Zālīte, according to the stories of her mother and grandmother, describes the birth of the heroine of the book, mentions three Lithuanian smart women who baptized the frail girl and what was survived. The deported women worked so hard because many babies did not survive to see the sun at all. In the few photographs that have miraculously survived and are now on display in the tower of Tukums Castle, there is nothing to indicate the island, the famine, the pain that the deported locals endured. Only somber countenances and glances serious and calloused hands.
Each letter and congratulation, written on a birch tree in Siberia, is a testimony to the actions of the Soviet totalitarian regime, at the same time confirming the strength of the spirit of a repressed people, rising above the difficult circumstances of everyday life and providing spiritual support to loved ones and friends. All documents included in the nomination are authentic. These are originals written by hand in the places of settlement in the Nizhny District↗ of Krasnoyarsk Krai↗ and in the Odeska District↗ of Omsk Oblast↗, as well as in the prisons in Taishetlag↗↗ru (Irkutsk Oblast↗), Shiroklag↗ [Shirokovsky ITL, became Kosvinsky ITL in 1949] and Usollag (Molotov Oblast, now [[Perm Oblast↗↗ru).
Letters on birch trees are acknowledged to be rarely encountered documents. They were very often destroyed upon receipt or hidden from outside eyes and also from children so as not to expose them to danger. The letters were not originally created for publication, but for communication with relatives and like-minded people, yet they have entered into the collections of museums, where they serve as evidence of crimes against humanity committed during mass deportations in Latvia and other Baltic states.
What makes the form of letters unique is its use of birch birch, which was the only material available for writing during the Second World War, so the idea arose to submit a special nomination [to UNESCO] of “Letters written in Siberia on birch bark.” Today, it is even difficult to imagine a shortage of paper, a lack of pencils, no ability to buy postage stamps, and each and every letter read by a censor. Although paper was available in the postwar years, it was nevertheless often unavailable, so birch bark were still used in correspondence. Later, when the lack of paper could no longer be lamented, the politically repressed wrote congratulations on birch bark as symbolic messages. Although many decades have passed since the time of the great repressions, it is still important to talk about this topic. In today's international situation [of continued Russian aggression and repression], these letters acquire even greater relevance, therefore the Tukums Museum is acting to supplement the nomination included in the Latvian National Register of the UNESCO “Memory of the World” programme and invites Tukums residents [indeed, Latvians everywhere] to browse their family archives and help museums keep alive the historical memory of our nation by entrusting documents, images, objects to their care. Perhaps there are still more letters on birch bark to add to the nomination. Maybe there's still some birch tree that could add to the nomination again. You can share memories or consult with the museum by calling Dace Valdmane, head of Tukums Museum Collections at 63122633.
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