The trip to Riga. Summer 1995.

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The man Karl didn't think much of him:

- That's a KGB man, said Karl, but it wasn't always true. Karl's opinions didn't always match reality. The man had probably been a policeman, but that doesn't mean he was KGB.

We took the night train from Tapa and had some difficulty sleeping on the train. The railways in the Baltics are (like the roads) of accepted Soviet standard and very uneven. When one looked along the rail at Tapa station, one could with the naked eye see how the tracks swayed from one side to the other. Without making any great speed (75-80 km/h) the train shook its way to Riga and we were met by car by Elfride. We came to their residence at Avg. Deglava 124 - 65 and were immediately treated to breakfast. Their current situation was not particularly good, Elfride was at risk of losing her job due to lack of knowledge of Latvian, about the man she said nothing. He pottered about with something in one of the rooms and did not participate in our breakfast. After a while he came out of the room and was going to his work. Besides a bag in his hand he also had something that without too much imagination could be determined to be a weapon case - probably with a Kalashnikov in it. I did not want to ask any intricate questions, but Karl told afterwards that the man probably worked as a guard somewhere in a bank or some other institution.

We spent the morning with Elvy and Elfride. In the afternoon, Elfride took us into town and we visited the old town of Riga. I had been in Riga twice before. It was the Swedish Coast Fleet's visits, one in the mid-60s and one about 10 years later.

Riga has, like other Baltic cities, livened up considerably. There were plenty of cafés and outdoor seating. We sat for a while at a place, watched street life and admired the newly renovated houses. The city had taken on a completely different character in a very short time. Much of the Soviet was still there, but noticeable improvements and sprucing up were still visible.

In the central parts the streets were in fairly decent condition, the sidewalks didn't "dare" and you could walk on the sidewalks without risking tripping all the time and having to watch your step.

Before we returned to Tapa I made a recording with Elvy. She told about her life and that story follows below.

Elvy died at her daughter Elfrida's and her family's home in Riga 1998.

Conversation with Elvy (uncle Karl's daughter) in Riga 1995-06-13

The cousin Elvy tells about her life

Jag

There came a decree according to which everyone who had no papers should report to the Soviet authorities. All who were hiding somewhere had to come forward to the authorities to obtain a passport. Without a passport one could not take any employment. I went to the village soviet and reported. It was sometime in the autumn of 1930-31, I don't really remember anymore. We were not deported immediately, but had to move into a Russian house. My father was old and I myself risked being commanded God knows where. We lived unregistered. In the village soviet I got my passport and a request to move within 24 hours, according to the new decree, so that I was not closer than 101 km from either Pskov or Leningrad. The term "101 km" became a well-known concept later. It became the norm for distances to the larger cities for those who were displeasing or resisted the new government. Now it became a problem for me - where would I settle? I had some relatives, but no addresses for them, which was required upon registration. My godfather Rist and his wife were already back from the Murmansk area, they had a brother in Novgorod and settled there. My aunt's husband took care of them in the new location while they acquired some domestic animals: a cow and a pig. With the relatives' help they began a new life. I got their address and headed off to my aunt - to the town of Krest, it was a small town deep in the great forests, with mainly forest industries. Quite by chance I was lodged with the daughter of my aunt's brother, my cousin, and it was a godsend.

In Krest worked the niece of my aunt's brother-in-law and her husband was a station master. By pure chance I met him, the station was small and I had nowhere to go when I arrived there. There I sat with my few belongings when the railway master Paul Jacobsson came up and said:

- It is not allowed to stay here overnight!

- I have nowhere to go, I answered, only in the morning I might get a ride, it was to an estate I had in mind, Staryi, a beautiful place out in the countryside.

- The railway official asked me where I was from and where I was going and I explained to him that I was headed to the Starryi estate. There I have an aunt and her husband, I wanted to go to them.

- What are their names? asked the official.

- They are called Rist, I answered

- That's good, he replied. Take your things with you, you can come to us!

I went with him and they offered me food, then they made a bed for me on the floor and I got food. In the morning we will do an "obrabotka", i.e., get necessary papers.

When I had slept it off we went to the administration and I got my "obrabotka" and could start work.

- You can stay here, said Paul, the Rists are our relatives, and I explained to him that I had no papers allowing me to live within the 101 km limit, only a "spravka" (a certificate) from which the regulations that applied to us were clear and that I needed some other papers to be able to stay.

- We'll arrange that, said Paul. He had some acquaintances in higher places in the NKVD and he helped me arrange that matter.

I went to the passport authority and showed my "101 km" document. The official took all the papers and said I should return for my documents later in the day - after lunch.

- Actually, this is not right, but we will register you here and you will get a passport initially for three months. That was the usual time period..

When I came back to pick up the passport, it took quite a long time to get it ready and I was afraid there would be no passport at all. When I was to sign my signature I saw that the passport was issued for a full three years and that I could stay in the locality. I started working at a forest camp: There timber was cut and sawed into boards at a sawmill. There was a canteen there and that was to be my workplace. They took me in. It was a large logging camp and they had many tractors to haul out timber. I worked there a few months, but gradually I began to long for the city and I decided to try to get over to some canteen in the city and find work there.

I came to Krest and got work as a waitress in a food service.

I came to the Rists again and stayed there for about 6 years, but then the war began in June. There were some partisans in the town and its surroundings and I stayed until October 3. My aunt and her husband were also still there. The front had now advanced to Novgorod (the city was at a distance of 40 km from us).

The Germans came and bombed the town Krest. Just outside the town there was an airfield and the Germans wanted to destroy it. It was terrible when the bombing was going on, there were alarm signals every now and then. "Тревога – отбой – тревога - отбой!» (Larm - larm over).

Ja meid siis korjatti kokku, rohkemb eestlasi, tehti echeloon ja viidi siist meid sõjajalust Siberiasse, oli väga kole. Kahe fronti vahel kuiki olime, saime Jaroslavlile ja linn oli täis echeloone, Moskvast ja kost kõik olivad, ja me esimese liini peal.

In October 1941 they gathered all Estук and loaded them on the train for evacuation. Now began the for non-Russians almost standard journey to Siberia, but before that we ended up in Yaroslavl between two fronts. When we arrived at Yaroslavl the city was full of people and the railway area overcrowded with all sorts of trains: from Moscow and all other places.

Yaroslavl was dark, but the whole sky was lit up by searchlights. After a few hours our train set moved because we were in the front on the line. We were taken at first and quartered in a school, then moved to a forest, how far from the city I don't know, the move was by rail. Through the goods wagon doors we could see how Yaroslavl was burning. I don't remember how many cars were from one Moscow train set, 6 or 7 of them were coupled to our train and the journey began. It was at the beginning of the war, June or July and in October 1941.

The transport lasted two months. The train stopped at every other station, at some we had to perform certain tasks, but I don't remember which. Each car had its own elder and in the train there was also a kiosk where we could buy bread. In that way the journey continued, we got food and were counted now and then. The authorities wanted to check that no one had escaped along the way.

We came to Sever-Bazaicha in Siberia, the city lay in a deep valley surrounded by high mountains. The valley was so deep that during most of the time the sun did not reach the settlement.

There horse carts were ready to transport us to a place between the mountains. There were no other larger cities nearby. We arrived at a barrack town, the caretaker had heated up some barracks and we got to settle in one of them. Three families had to share one barrack. One of the families was of German origin.

I went to the command post, showed my passport and was registered in the locality. The Rist family was placed under the command post, but I myself did not know where to go. The local people said that at a distance of about 30 km there was an administrative center for the area, Schalos. Together with a German young man I went there to seek out the settlement. We arrived at Schalos, slept overnight in a shelter and the next day went to the canteen, got food without paying. All evacuees were entitled to free food. I went and registered while the German boy was taken into custody and sent to a labor camp.

I stayed with the Kusti Võsu family, he had been a miller, and there was one a couple of kilometers away. The Võsus had come to Siberia earlier and I got a room with them. The Võsus lived a couple of kilometers from Schalos, where there was a shoe factory, a mill and a felt factory. I got work at the hotel, in its registration office and we were three girls working in three shifts.

In the registration office I stayed until the end of the war, until the time when they began to transport us back. It became too expensive to live there, bread was very expensive, and so were milk and all other products, the salary was small, it was not possible to live there. The war ended on May 9. After the war ended I came back, it was some time in 1945. It was not long before opportunities arose to return to the homeland. But where? Most seemed to have been bombed to pieces.

I returned to Jacobsson, they were still in the area and in good health. They had their own house and had also built a house for their daughter. The Jacobssons lived in Krest and I was going to visit my cousin Anna in Leningrad. I got into conversation with some soldiers and an officer said that they were actually on their way to Estonia. The soldiers were going there by car and asked if I wanted to come along.

I asked the officer how long they planned to stay in Leningrad with the car and they answered no longer than a couple of hours.

I went to my aunt, got food and said that since I couldn't stay with her, I would go to Estonia. She asked me where in Estonia I planned to go and if I intended to settle in the country. I replied that I didn't know anything about that yet, perhaps I would find some work somewhere there. Then she said that in Estonia lived Sass (Alexander) Jürgenson. She gave me the address and I consequently had a point of contact. I was glad to have someone to go to.

So I traveled to Estonia. We drove through the border station in Narva and they checked the cars regarding who was to enter Estonia. I was not permitted to go there. The soldiers hid me under the seat (for a certain compensation, of course) and thus I entered Estonia under escort. The car arrived in Tapa, but there I could not stay even temporarily without an invitation. I tracked down Sass Jürgenson and lived with him for a while, without having been registered there. I was in need. Sass had settled in a house transported there by the Germans and worked at a ....... The household people recommended that Sass should move there and I lived in a village (Karkus) for a while. With registration there were still problems and someone recommended me to go to the military sovkhoz (voennoje chozyiaistvo) at Pruna manor, a military sovkhoz with cows and pigs, which was run by the military and I got work there in the camp's kitchen. The kitchen work was quite heavy. While I worked there, I became pregnant, little Elfride was born, and the question now arose of where I should go with the child. I could not leave the child with anyone and I heard through someone or it was Sass who had heard it, that the railway had a day nursery for its employees' children, if I could get work there. I left the child temporarily with a girl I shared a room with, and went to the railway administration with the question of whether I could work for them. They were very favorably disposed and I got work in the crèche itself, where I stayed until Fride turned three years old.

After three years she could get a place at the day nursery and I myself took work on the railway and got a small house to live in. Richard Tamberg had lived there, but he now got a larger apartment and I could take over the little shack. It was a rather dilapidated shack, not exactly a dwelling fit for human beings, but that was how it was for most people after the war.

At first I, Elfride and mother Emely lived together in this hut. Emely initially lived with someone else, but gradually moved in with me. I lived there and when the Germans left and the barracks became empty, they were taken over by the railway. We moved into one of the barracks and life began to become somewhat more bearable. We got some repairs done. I worked on the railway for 23 years impregnating sleepers. It was heavy work, ugh how heavy it was! Then I had various jobs, e.g. I carried heavy, fresh planks to the drying room. Later I got work at .......

Frida came to Bronitchevo, went to school, completed secondary school, got an apartment

She continued at the university in the evenings and trained as a lawyer, got work in Riga and was able to take me in and now I have been living with her for several years.

(Elvy died at the end of 1996.)