It was not possible to change anything in the flow of events. The Latvian people turned away from Bolshevism, drew closer and felt the only power against outrageousness in their sense of community.

      Latvian soldiers driven on the streets by red politruks, forced to demonstrate against their will, knew how to proudly express their bearing filled with honor and dignity and in suppressed indignation and awareness of being Latvian to separate from everything Bolshevistic.

left: A unit of Latvian soldiers in the demonstrations on International Youth Day. Their deeply serious or ironic faces express anything but joy about Soviet Authority.

      The most pain for the disaster and suffering of their people was felt by Latvian young people. With gloomy, reserved faces, sunk into themselves, they were marching driven by fanfares of May 1st (below) and being aware of the deep misery of the destiny of their people.

      Driven into the Pioneers Organization, so strange and disgusting for a child's soul, little Latvians gloomily carried out imposed obligations. But Bolshevism precisely there - among the youngest - was trying to raise people suitable for themselves. The poison of betrayal was also poured into the hearts of the littlest.

      A unit of Latvian soldiers prior to going to the Saeima election, forced to pose for a press photographer. Officers pointedly turned their backs.

      The spirit of dissatisfaction and resistance among the people was expressing itself in every step.

      The soldiers of a squadron expressed their protest of the absurdities and deliberate cruelty of the Bolsheviks in a daring poster: «We do not have a place to lay down our heads» (right)

      That squadron was for a long time was without a permanent billet and was continuously relocated from one place to another.

      The nation found thousands of ways in which its attitude was spontaneously expressed. The proof of this were ballot papers crossed out or covered with writing, from reports of executive committees on spoiled ballot papers given in during the January 12, 1941 voting (bottom). Regardless of the fact that such ballot papers were useless, they were later used for «rounding up» the percentage of voters.

The spirit of the Latvians remained unbroken through all these trials - including that most terrible known to man - beginning with the KGB and ending with the martyr's path to exile or death.

      Such task of Bolsheviks already from the first days were executed with bustle: those not grabbed by the KGB were banished.

      The decree of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Vilis Lācis, on the banishment of the Latvian War Minister, General Jānis Balodis.

      A receipt for having received for «loading» into a carriage and sentenced for banishment the O. Zaķis family. In the receipt, using numbers, it is written that the family consists of two people, but from the records we see that there were three. This «Certification» indicates that the official for banishment, the chairman of the operative group of the National Commissariat of the State Security of the Latvian SSR, Comrade E. Saulitis, did not properly know how to write or to add.