Memento of the Month of June

June is a very tragic month in the history of Latvia. On 17 June 1940, Latvia was occupied by the troops of the Soviet Union, but on 14 June 1941, the first mass deportation took place in which about 15,400 Latvian residents (0.81%) were deported in train carriages from Latvia to remote regions of the USSR.

18-year-old Aina Apšvalks was one of the deportees. She brought along her greatest treasure – a violin. In a forced settlement in Krasnoyarsk, she had to work in the forest. She survived, was released in 1954 and returned to Latvia in 1961.  She died in 2004 and her daughter Irēne Roze gave the violin to the Museum in 2016.