Cattle wagon used for deportations – museum at Skrunda train station
Museum
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To commemorate the deportations of June 1941 and March 1949, a memorial stone and a four-axle wagon, which also serves as the museum dedicated to deportations, was erected at the Skrunda railway station. This is the first wagon-type museum in Latvia that holds a permanent exhibit of photos, letters, memoirs, documents and various items made by the people deported from the Skrunda station. Skrunda station was a location where deportees were gathered, and one of the three stations in the region to which people from the Skrunda and the Kuldīga area were brought. In 1941, the family of the first President of the restored Republic of Latvia, Guntis Ulmanis, was deported from here to Krasnoyarsk Krai in Siberia.
With the help of deportations, the Soviets dealt with supporters of the national partizans’ and at the same time intimidated the remaining rural population, forcing them to join the collective farms.
Used sources and references:
www.skrunda.lv/lv/turisms/apskates-objekti/skrunda-un-pagasts-/deportaciju-pieminas-vagons-muzejs/
https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/108424-1949-gada-25-marta-deport%C4%81cija-Latvij%C4%81
Link to Gulag and Gulag map: https://enciklopedija.lv/skirklis/36530-Gulags
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