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[p.38] We had Inspector Volmars to thank for our quick release from arrest at that time. He had arrived at the place where
we were held, and I assume that he pled his students' case. While we were there, we only saw him going in. On his recommendation
we left school, since he told us that our expulsion orders would certainly come soon, and that further schooling would be
impossible, since we would not receive certificates of political reliability from the police. Without those, no school would
accept us.
I also need to mention that during the time of the punitive expeditions' activity, 33 prisoners were shot to death at
the Valtaiki church, for the most part local people. Later a monument was raised at that spot. A monument was also raised
under the linden tree at the end of the Rokaizi path for Juris (?) Zingbergs. Pauls Kalnins, Chairman of the Saeima [Latvian
parliament], took part in its dedication.
At that time Klostere was not a separate pagasts [parish], but combined with Laza. As a result the question had not arisen
of toppling the old pagasts council and electing a revolutionary executive committee; and no punitive expedition came to Klostere.
Still, this time did not pass entirely peacefully. My friend Juris Grantins's father had been accused of spying, and condemned
to be shot to death at the Birzu tavern. The shots were not fatal, and he escaped. Afterwards, the members of the revolutionaries'
tribunal were caught and tried; one of them, Toms Smalkis, was sentenced to twelve years of hard labor (katorga). He endured
his sentence, and during Latvia's agrarian reform [of 1925] he was issued a farmstead in the middle of the Kikuri estate,
with one building. Toms married Remess's daughter Anna. Here I should add that Remess's youngest daughter Irma married the
son of the Rucava parish secretary, Briedis. In Germany [during World War II], they were killed when the train they were riding
in was strafed by Allied airplanes. Apparently it was taken for a military transport or supply train.
I can't remember in detail how I spent the rest of the year 1906. For a time I stayed in Liepaja's military harbor area
with my godfather [name- Valters?] and my aunt Minne. My godfather had built a red brick (Priekules) building and opened a
store there. Krists and Minne Blumbergs rented the store and sold groceries. Kristaps Kikurs worked as one of the bakers,
and someone named Ozolins was the other. The Pliki blacksmith Fricis Bite's daughter , Ilze (later Golubovska), was a sales
clerk. I was expelled from the harbor district, and escorted to the "devil's village" quarter by the policeman
Sidorovs, who threatened to shoot me if I returned. A short time later Sidorovs himself was shot to death through the window
of his own little home; apparently he was too diligent at catching revolutionaries. In the city of Liepaja one couldn't move
around peacefully without having to show one's documents several times a day. Once I had stopped at Rankis's bookstore window
(on Helenes Street, across from the water pump) when, unnoticed, a policeman "gordovojs -gardavojs" [?] came up
behind me and said he was arresting me; but soon he let me go, and suggested that I keep moving.
During this time my brother Fricis had already gone to America to join our oldest brother Peteris, and I also thought
about going there. I spoke about it with school inspector Volmars, but he recommended that I think it over carefully. I mentioned
that wages were good there, a dollar a day-- which was a ruble and 94 kopecks. Volmars replied that money had a different
value there in terms of what it could buy. Nevertheless I rode to Grobini, the district town, to police prka [prefect?] Meiers,
and asked for a travel passport; he did not give me one. I began to search for other ways to get out.
I should mention that my brother Peteris had left home when he was sixteen, gotten a job on a boat, and later worked on
seagoing ships. He had been in Australia, and roamed around there for a while. When he was in the North Sea, the ship he was
on collided with another [and sank]; Peteris stayed in the water for nine hours until he was rescued. A negro cook drowned,
as did the captain when he went back for the ship's papers. Following the rescue Peteris lay in a hospital in Hull for three
months. After that he moved to the United States.
Fricis had gone to Liepaja to learn a trade, and for a time worked in railroad workshops as an apprentice, and later as
a locksmith. He was also in the workshops of the Liepaja military
harbor. He lived in the "velna ciems" (devil's village) with our aunt, Minne Valters. He joined the party [Latvian
Social Democrats] and a group of fighters [in 1905]. When the persecutions began, he moved first to Finland, then to America.
He settled in Cleveland, and worked for a time on the Burton, a government dredge boat where Peteris worked as the ship's
oiler. My brothers were the destination of my journey, and they paid my traveling costs; I only had to provide myself with
the necessary passport.
[Earlier,] Fricis had been called into military service by lottery. He served three (?) months in Baranovicze, Poland
[now in Belarus, S.W. of Minsk], on a railroad brigade. Our father appealed against his conscription on the grounds that his
oldest son, the breadwinner, had disappeared, and so the second should be freed to provide for the family; and Fricis was
released.
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