This year marks 82 years since the deportation of June 14, 1941, as a result of which 15,425 Latvian residents (Latvians, Jews, Russians, Poles) suffered, including 3,751 children under the age of 16. For more than twenty years, the “Children of Siberia” foundation has been inviting people to gather together, commemorating the people deported to Siberia. It is important that we mention Siberia, our attitude towards what happened is important.

At 10:00 a.m., a meeting of the repressed with the State President Egils Levits took place in the Riga Palace. Several hundreds of the repressed and their children and grandchildren had arrived. The exiles and those born in Siberia shared their memories. The winners of the drawing and composition competition were awarded. Musicians performed Continue reading “Commemorative events on June 14, 2023”

About the 2023 schoolchildren’s essay competition, which once again, so that the facts do not disappear from the memories of Latvian history, is organized by the “Children of Siberia” foundation.

      This year, unlike the essays of previous years, a new breeze can be felt. If earlier, when writing about the dark years of exile, people’s suffering, their strength to overcome it and to do everything to save those who cannot stand on their own, figured in the main place, then new features appear in these works. It could be said that they show warning signs that, according to the ancient folk saying that the wolf sheds a feather, but does not change; virtue, there is concern that the violence of the cruel, treacherous neighbor may escalate again. Today, this is confirmed by the invasion of the great Russia into the peaceful Ukraine. About what? Why? It is good that our young people have not remained on the sidelines as indifferent spectators. It’s good if they also have thoughts about what a “friendly” neighbor we have in the east. Is it really possible to find a logical explanation for all that is happening? Can’t and shouldn’t. It is commendable that many of the essays contain harsh thoughts about the need to do everything to end this horror.
                                                                                                              Kaspars Pūce

Thank you to everyone who participated in the creative contest. Thank your teachers for informing and encouraging you. But the teachers could talk and talk, if you weren’t interested in yourself, nothing meaningful could come of it. As in every competition, there are more successful and less successful works. Addressed by those where you are truly yourself, so if in the future this topic does not seem interesting to anyone, write! This will be your personal opinion. Your thoughts will have supporters and doubters, but you will be genuine and touch the subject from the heart. Nowhere is there a law that says – you don’t need to write it! Many of your works are memorable. They are mostly based on your family stories. And the feeling is that you yourself have been present at these terrible events. What were people deported for? Because they loved the land of their fathers, worked for it. Believed in the idea of a free state of Latvia. Didn’t give it away!
Do we also believe in Latvia? No need to answer with a loud: yes! The main thing is to build it. May you all have a bright path as you open the door to the future.
                                                                                                                             Valdis Lūriņš

The drawing competition organized by the “Children of Siberia” foundation has again resulted in a considerable number of works. The jury lays out the paintings and graphics next to each other in a long carpet on the floor of the television corridor and notices how one or the other work stands out – with its message and artistic language. In a way, the pages continue each other – endlessly long trains travel through them and countless people overwhelmed by ignorance and turmoil, unjustly oppressed. The cruel context – the war in Ukraine, which continues so closely even today, makes a thinking person aware every day of the fragility and vulnerability of our usual peaceful reality. This cannot be a natural way to live. It also makes you tired and in a way dull at times. However, one must be able to awaken the humanity in oneself again and again. Ask a question – what is it. Educators of young people are of considerable importance here, whose ability to explain history and devote time to a serious conversation can give impetus to a personal journey into the roots of the family and Latvia. To enable the revelation of human unity in the past and present. Painting and drawing is that unusual way of being that places the author in other times, places and situations – when you have a brush, pencil, charcoal or chalk in your hands, the one who looks through a barred window, freezes in an endless winter or experiences the death of a loved one, that moment is you himself. That moment of creation becomes the most real truth, which continues to form the thoughts, ideas and beliefs of the personality in the depths. Therefore, returning to Siberian stories is a value – a journey in consciousness that enriches everyone who allows their heart to be touched.
Ieva Jurjāne

Works of laureates. The youngest group

Works of laureates. Medium group

Works of laureates. The oldest group.

2023 On March 21, the director Dzintra Geka-Vaskas and the composer Pēteris Vasks met шт the Riga Ēbelmuiža elementary school students to tell about March 25, 1949 – the day of remembrance of the victims of the Communist genocide. Hearing-impaired children study at Ebeluiža elementary school. Dzintra Geka-Vaska regularly visits Ēbelmuiža elementary school and this time she presented the book “Mothers in Siberia”, which was donated to the school library.