Soviet repressions and service in a legion
Categories: Beginning of the war, Andrey Rancan
Story-teller: “The legion…Only from my neighbourhood there were three volunteers who had joined it.”
Interviewer: “Did they volunteer themselves?”
Story-teller: “They had volunteered themselves. Yes, maybe, I suppose, it was not only the propaganda; those were real facts. Thus, for example, in that one, that Russian year in Rēzekne, as it was told, the nails were taken off, you know, people were tortured, and, and, many were put to death. And this, that rang out everywhere, not only in Rēzekne, but, as they say, in all the corners. We can say that there was some certain, maybe, hatred against that Russian system, something like that. So, many people, you see there, if the one, the one was rich, in Latgale, probably, not that many, there all sorts of… but, if you were richer or something, then you were the one. I, I, I had to join, but I, at that time, I was already in reading books, I had already read that there were the so-called rich farmers and there were those working, so to say, people. So it was! And the rich ones usually were expropriated, liquidated. And that, that policy was introduced even in Latvia, within a year. Therefore, two my neighbours Baranovs Saļmans were a bit further, once they volunteered. Although, that, that bread won in the war was not sweet. When they came for the first leave … (he laughs)”
Interviewer: “Did they desert?”
Story-teller: “They did not go back. That happened with Saļmans. But those neighbours, you see, Voitkāns Edvards and Meincs Ādolfs, I think, they didn’t even get to the leave, they were killed at the front. We have experienced different times.”
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Researcher: Dr. philol. Gatis Ozoliņš, Daugavpils Universitāte
