"Diary of Occupied Latvia" by local researcher Žanis Skudra
Žanis Skudra donates all his free time to local research, all his vacations to tours of Latvia. This is how materials, photographs were collected, and the "Book of Occupied Latvia Days" was published by the Latvian National Fund in Stockholm under the pseudonym Jānis Dzintars.
On June 7, 1978, Žani Skudra was arrested in Tallinn and in November of the same year, the Supreme Court of Riga sentenced him to twelve years of imprisonment for treason and espionage.
Žanis Skurda was born on June 19, 1924 in the former Vecauce Parish (now Vadakste Parish), Bileiķu "Elguči", he studied at the Vītiņu 6-year elementary school of the Vecauce Parish and the Auces High School, he completed his knowledge at the University of Latvia, obtaining the qualification of a public instructor of chemical technology, he worked at the Riga Biological in the experimental factory of preparations, for some time also as a bus driver, but after retirement he farmed in his native "Elguči". Worked at the collective farm in the Priedula construction brigade.
During the Second World War, neither the German nor the Russian armies were drafted due to poor health. After the war, he served in the Soviet army, interrupting his high school education.
From 1934, he started to collect and archive various news about Latvia - the fates of farmsteads, churches, historical buildings, pubs, mills and also nature. Žanis Skudra donates all his free time to local research, all his vacations to tours of Latvia. This is how materials, photographs were collected, and the "Book of Occupied Latvia Days" was published by the Latvian National Fund in Stockholm under the pseudonym Jānis Dzintars.
On June 7, 1978, Žani Skudra was arrested in Tallinn and in November of the same year, the Supreme Court of Riga sentenced him to twelve years of imprisonment for treason and espionage, which he is serving in the camp of Chusovaya district of Perm region. In the autumn of 1988, Žanis returned from detention to his native "Elguči" and continued to work on writing the history of Bileikai, but the work remained unfinished.
Žanis Skudra died on June 14, 1994 and rests in Bileikai in the Lanka cemetery.
Literary pseudonym - Makaris, Zeks, Dzintars, Jānis Dzintars
https://novadpetnieciba.saldus.lv/novadnieki/zanis-skudra/
https://vadakstesmantojums.saldus.lv/novadpetnieks-zanis-skudra/
https://vadakstesmantojums.saldus.lv/foto-arhivs/
https://vadakstesmantojums.saldus.lv/gramata/
Related timeline
Related objects
Ezere local history repository “Muitas Nams” (Customs House)
The Ezere Customs House is located in Ezere near the Saldus-Mažeikiai highway at the Latvian-Lithuanian border. The act of surrender of the German Army units ‘Kurzeme’ (Kurland) surrounded in the so-called ‘Courland Pocket’ was signed in this building on 8 May 1945. It is believed that World War II actually ended in Ezere. The customs house has an exhibit covering the events of the end of World War II and exhibits detailing the history of Ezere parish from ancient to modern days. In the morning of 7 May 1945, the commander of the Leningrad Front, Marshal L. Govorov, sent an ultimatum to the command of the army group ‘Kurzeme’ to lay down arms. The act of surrender was signed by the involved parties on May 8 and it detailed the procedure of surrender, weapons collection points, documents and information to be submitted and other practical measures.
