How Latvian government officials fooled the Bolshevik supporters of Pampali

[…] 1919

In 1919, around January 6, members of the Latvian government and People's Council fled to Liepāja via various routes, avoiding the Bolshevik streams flowing towards Venta.

A former student of ours (who graduated in 1914 [school year]), Žanis Kummermanis, had organized a Bolshevik group in the Pampāļi manor and was already ruling Pampāļi for several days before the appearance of Soviet troops in Pampāļi.

Fricis Vecpuisis, the owner of the Stunguri houses, the head of the Ulmanis government's war construction department, an officer with some other Latvian state employees, while retreating to Liepāja, had driven into "Stunguri" in a good, government-requisitioned limousine to spend the night. A group of Pampāli partisans were informed about this and immediately arrived in "Stunguri" to take the limousine to Pampāli. Vecpuisis did not resist - let him take it, because he could not go any further anyway, the gasoline had run out to the last drop. The simple servants of the manor believed him and went to Pampāli with such a message. Having found out there what kind of official Vecpuisis was, they set off early in the morning with 4 or 6 of the best horses to transport the car. They found neither the limousine, nor Vecpuisis, nor other government men in "Stunguri."

The archive contains information that Fricis Vecpuisis, born in 1890, from the Stunguri house, was deported on June 14, 1941.

Level: Case Number: 20035

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The former director of the Pampāļi School (until 1959), Alfred Brown, has personally typed an impressive book about the history of the Pampāļi School and historical events surrounding it, with authentic photographs. The book is in Pampāļi, at the home of Artūrs Hartmanis, who owns an impressive private collection of various antiques and World War II artifacts found in the Pampāļi area.