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Latvia Heroes – Dupes – Victims From the Soviet point of view, Latvia voluntarily joined the Soviet Union in 1940. Consequently, it became a Soviet republic again after the liberation. For a majority of the Latvians, however, the situation was quite different. Already in 1940 the Soviet occupation had brought a reign of terror over the country, which was established again after the War. For many Latvians the terror came above all in the form of several waves of deportations. In the Latvian Soviet Republic, however, it was officially not allowed to recall these events. So the Soviet occupation and its consequences were kept alive in the memory of the Latvians in exile or in the underground. After 1989/91 this preserved memory became a constituent element of the new basic narrative of independent Latvia. The German occupation also proved to be problematical for this narrative. In the official Soviet version of history the members of the Latvian legion of the Waffen-SS were considered as traitors, Fascists and war criminals who had escaped their just punishment by fleeing into exile in the West. In the Latvian narrative they are still either heroes, dupes or victims. |
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The recollection of Stalinist terror and deportations could only be covertly expressed in the immediate post-War period before Stalin's death. A few individual artworks treated the banishment to Siberia and the wrongs committed against Latvians, but they were usually very reserved in their criticism. At first glance the painting by Jānis Pauļuks shows nothing more than an old freezing couple. It is only the title, "In Foreign Parts", which establishes a link between the cold and the horrors of exile for the observer. |
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In 1958 Rolands Kalniņš undertook an initial attempt to paint a differentiated portrait of the Latvian Legion. The shooting of the film was broken off by the censors, however. The director was able to take up the work on the film again in 1965, but in the following year the finished film was again banned by the censors. But then in 1966 the film was released for two weeks and shown in the cinemas under the title "I Remember Everything, Richard", before it was again recalled by the censors. It wasn't until 1992 that the film was shown in public again. It tells in flashbacks of the senseless death of the Latvian legionaries and the contempt in which they were held by the German officers. The poster announcing the film in 1966 shows the head of the protagonist and behind him a forest of death runes such as the Waffen-SS placed on the graves of their comrades. |
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