Attempt to escape from the USSR

The border area of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was strictly guarded during the Soviet era. Every evening, the beach was run down to the sea, so that in the morning you could see the footprints of the alleged border violators. People who did not accept life in the Soviet Union showed a lot of creative imagination to get out of the USSR illegally. For the most part, these attempts were unsuccessful.

The last known escape from Liepaja took place in 1984, later led by Raimonds Biteniekis, the founder of LCTAG * "Helsinki-86". On a windy night, two brave people together with their teenage children push a boat into the sea at the end of Pērkones Street and head towards the free world. The course is set for Gotland, which fate has not decided to achieve. The waves are too high for a small boat, which is thrown like an egg shell by a storm at sea. The water constantly overturns the boat and stops the engines. Children are constantly taking out the water. The situation is becoming critical. Trying to start the silent engines, Raimonds' friend is hit overboard in a storm and breaks his arm. However, no one loses their nausea. Neutral waters have been reached and the refugees are firmly in the hope that they will be accommodated by a Swedish ship. It happens differently. At dawn, the border guards have noticed the traces left on the beach and raised the alarm. Instead of the hoped-for Western world, one has to enjoy KGB interrogations and Soviet prisons (State Security Committee (in Russian)). The Latvian human rights group "Helsinki-86" was founded by Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks and Mārtiņš Bariss in the summer of 1986 in Liepaja.