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[49]
I remember that this conversation hadn't gone on an hour, when the guards arrived to take us from the criminal section
to the political section, on Palejas Street. It turned out that the official who had put the questions to me was the son of
Helms, the Aizpute miller and my school mate (though not a classmate) in the 'kreitu' school. After that matters were cleared
up quickly in questioning, since I could tell them a bit about America and our reasons for going to Riga. In the end, they
took us back to the little ship where they had arrested us, and arranged it so that we were passengers, without needing to
have tickets. The ship's crew let us eat and drink with them, by candle-light, and gave us a place to sleep. We reached Riga
without any trouble.
We stopped in Pardaugava [the part of Riga on the west bank of the Daugava], on Sulcmuizas [note: the street name means
'of or to the Schultz estate'] Street, where Cipus' mother-in-law (or perhaps his own mother), who had recently died, owned
a small house. The first thing the people there told us about was the murders committed by the Bolsheviks before they left
Riga, and the much larger number of murders committed by the Landwehrists when they had come in. Even the old woman who owned
the house had fled in fear that she was being shot at, and had fallen unhurt behind a tree.
Now we were in 'celebrated' Riga!
Now we had to familiarize ourselves with the city. We could get to the city center by ship. We went past the Dzeguzkalns
and Ilgeciems [Pardaugava neighborhoods] cement factory. Not going down there [this is unclear], we turned to the Zunde ship's
berth, and rocked along further on that. I don't remember how much it cost, but it wasn't much. In Liepaja we had already
acquainted ourselves with the Liepaja city money and the Latvian rubles, along with the Ostmark [German occupation currency].
In Riga the tsarist rubles were more desired; people avoided the 'kerenkas' and 'council money' [issued by the Russian provisional
government of Kerensky].
As we got off the ship we were already in the Daugavmala [riverside] marketplace, the same as it had been since the olden
days, with all of its smelly outhouses. First we searched for the necessary institution which could issue permits to travel
to Moscow--the police and foreign ministry. Having arrived from a country with few formalities, we in our ignorance got ourselves
snagged on just those formalities. We accepted the first answer we were given 'to come back in two weeks' and returned punctually.
We started to have our doubts about subsequent two-week terms given. I wanted to start looking for my mother, brother and
sisters to gather them together as soon as possible; but Cipus wanted to carry out his assignment.
At some time -- perhaps on the way to Riga, or after we had reached Riga-- Cipus told me that he was on a mission to see
Lenin himself at the behest of the American communist party. After the communists came to power in Russia, a conflict arose
within the American socialist party. First, of course, the communists, i.e. the left wing, had split off; and then there were
divisions among the communists themselves. One part wanted to be just as radical as the Russian communists, and wanted to
have the say-so [teiksana]. One group-- I have forgotten which one-- had selected Cipus to travel to see Lenin himself to
decide which side would be deemed right, and which would then be the 'true' party. His travel was paid for by the party, and
his wife, Tilla, arrived later with money-- as Cipus put it, with a belt around her containing gold coins. I don't remember
exactly when Tilla arrived; perhaps it was in late September.
While waiting for permission to travel, we familiarized ourselves with Riga, which was quite empty and quiet, especially
Pardaugava. We looked up Dr. Pauls Kalnins [no relation] to get acquainted with the strength and activity of the Social Democrats.
We went to a writers' evening at the National Theater. The schoolteachers held a congress which we also had to attend. We
had to visit a meeting for founding (organizing) the university [augstskola, or school of higher learning], where I talked
with Dr. Kundzins, senior, about work teaching English. He explained that Dr. Turkin-Lerche, who had studied in England and
knew the dialects, would be helping in that area. We went everywhere that something promised to be interesting or informative.
Most often we wandered around in the Daugavmala market.
It was already getting towards autumn [1919]; the war was continuing on the Latgale front, which was the reason we were
made to wait for travel permits. In order that we wouldn't come down to not being able to buy anything in the marketplace,
we started to lay in winter provisions. We bought a good cow, butchered it and salted it away in half-barrels. We brought
home several sacks of wheat and flour, so that there wouldn't be a shortage of bread. Supposedly these things came from Bauska
[a town near the Lithuanian border south of Jelgava], or from Lithuania through Bauska. In the same manner, we laid in and
cut up cabbages [for sauerkraut, I assume], and set aside a hoard of potatoes. When Tilla arrived she took over the organization
and direction of domestic matters; we were left to carry out her orders. In the market, we did best with our Catherines and
Peters, which we had bought in Stockholm. There was still a lot of respect for, and faith in, the old tsar's money: surely
it would still function. The Latvian money was still new and unaccustomed; it seemed wrong to refer to it as a 'ruble', the
proper ruble would be better.
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