Maybe you remember something else that older people have told you?
Categories: Eriks Zachs
Older people, who are my father, his god-mother or my father’s father’s sister have told me and also my father’s sisters and other relatives from my father’s side have told me about Meikulis Šadurskis, who was called up for the military service into the Russian army during the Russo – Japanese war. He was a very religious man, he often said his prayers and considered that exactly that fact had helped him in the war, and therefore he hadn’t been injured. The story goes that during some firing, the shell splinters had torn his several greatcoats, but he was not injured. Some splinter or a bullet had even dashed against the buckle but he was not injured. Even after a certain charge explosion, several soldiers of the Russian army were buried under the earth, though their fellows unearthed them were quickly and he survived, too.
Then he had been the Japanese prisoner, he had been taken prisoner at Port Arthur. During the captivity, he stayed in Nagasaki. The conditions there were very bad, the food was poor, they even caught and ate cats. Then, it was said, after the conclusion of the peace he had been given back to Russia as a prisoner of war. I have even seen those things that had belonged to him. In Sološnieki, there was his soldier’s sword, but here in Ančupāni there was a metal and paper fan with some Japanese women, butterflies and motifs of flowers. In general, he related his survival in the war to his prayers and turning to God. He died in the 50ies or the 60ies; he’s buried in Sološnieki cemetery together with his brothers Jezups and Tadeusz. They all were unwed and lived in that Sološnieki house also during the times of the first Republic of Latvia, during the war and the period of Soviet occupation. That’s all about him.
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Researcher: Dr. philol. Valentīns Lukaševičs, Daugavpils Universitāte
