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(WDL)07423
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365
947
Letter on Birch Bark from Siberia by Ernests Kirķis, May 1, 1948.
[place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified],
1948-05-01.
1 online resource.
Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
"This document forms part of the collection of letters on birch bark from Siberia assembled for the World Digital Library by the National Library of Latvia. The document is from National History Museum of Latvia."--Note extracted from World Digital Library.
Original resource extent: 1 letter : ink on birch bark ; 9.6 x 14 centimeters.
On August 5, 1940, the independent country of Latvia was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union, after having been occupied by the Red Army in June of that year. Estonia and Lithuania suffered a similar fate. Thousands of Latvians were arrested for having anti-Soviet views, taking part in resistance movements, being farmers, belonging to political parties, or refusing to join a collective farm. Many were deported to Siberia. People who were in prisons, concentration camps, or settlements in Siberia wrote letters to friends and relatives on birch bark, which was often the only available material at places of deportation. This was particularly the case during World War II, when paper was very scarce. Only 19 such letters, dating from 1941 to 1956, survive in Latvian museums. They are important documents for the history of Latvia and of the Soviet era and a vivid record of the effects of mass repression on individual lives. This homemade and handwritten postcard on birch bark with wishes for Whitsunday, dated May 1, 1948, was sent by political prisoner Ernests Kirķis (1913--?) from an unidentified labor camp, possibly in the Ural Mountains, to his mother in Riga. Kirķis had been arrested as a collaborator and Home Guardsman by the Soviet authorities in 1944.
Original resource at:
National Library of Latvia.
Content in Latvian.
Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.
1941 to 1956
Concentration camps
Correspondence
Deportation
Letters
National Memory of the World Register, Latvia
Political prisoners
Siberia
Kirķis, Ernests, 1913-?
Creator.
Latvia
Russian Federation
Siberian Letters on Birch Bark
gdcwdl
wdl_07423
https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.wdl/wdl.7423
wdl/wdlpartner/wdlatvia
s-Online
Electronic Resource