Captain Paulis Zolts I WW1 & Wars of Independence

Paulis Zolts (according to some sources Pauls Zolts) was born on August 10, 1880 in Vecstārasti, Sēļi Parish, graduated from the local parish school, teacher seminar and land surveying school in Gorko. He worked as a surveyor, served in Russian regiments during the First World War. Awarded four times for outstanding heroism. He was drafted into the army of the Russian Empire in 1914. Enlisted in the 79th Artillery Brigade and spent the entire time of the First World War on the Caucasus Front. After the end of the war, he returned to Latvia and in January 1919 joined the Latvian army voluntarily. He was the commander, later the commander of the company. In the separate student battalion in the rank of captain. Participated in the first battles of Kalpaka battalion in Kurzeme.

The latter was commanded by P. Zolts in the 2nd company and the III separate battalion, which was recruited in Liepaja from the young volunteers of the workers of this city, they were poorly trained and learned their martial arts in battle. On May 13, the ornament arrived in the dunes of Kaugurciems. Zolt was convinced of his warriors, even though they were young and inexperienced in the war, but he knew, if necessary, he would prove what he could. That moment came quickly. It was Sunday morning, May 18, 1919. Exactly on this day, when 2 regiments of the Bolsheviks occupied the fortified positions near Kauguri and ours were forced to retreat, Zoltts with his jewelry counterattacked, defeated the enemy in a stab, recovered the machine guns lost in the fight and forced the Bolsheviks to flee, leaving more than 50 on the battlefield. In this battle, Paul Zolt also died at the head of his ornament.

And only after several years - on November 25, 1934 - Sloka public organizations unveiled a small granite memorial in the Kauguri dunes, in which stingy words are engraved: : Blackhead Andrejs, Siliņš Fricis, Kārkliņš Jānis, Prātis Žanis. " After the Second World War, it was destroyed, but the feat was not forgotten, and since May 18, 1989, there is a memorial at the end of Zolta gatve in the dunes of Kaugurciems again, which tells about the events of 1919.

First, the fallen in Kaugurciems were buried in the Brothers' Cemetery near Ķemeri Banzīca. After the war, Zolt was reburied in his native Mazsalaca cemetery. Pauls Zolts was awarded the 3rd class of the Lāčplēsis War Order for his heroic work on May 18, 1919, which was unparalleled in the entire history of Latvia's liberation struggles. Later, Zolt's son Peter continued his father's chosen profession as an officer. He fought in World War II against the same enemy as his father. In 1944 he fell and was buried next to his father.

LKOK Biography. Zolts, Paul. Available at: http://lkok.com/detail1.asp?ID=1774 [accessed: 06.05.2021].

VSIA Latvijas Vēstnesis (15.05.1998, No. 136/137.) The State of Latvia and its men. Available: https://www.vestnesis.lv/ta/id/31979 [accessed: 06.05.2021].