Captain Paulis Zolts
I World War I, I Wars of Independence

Paulis Zolts (in some sources Pauls Zolts) was born on August 10, 1880 in Vecstārastis, Sēļi parish, graduated from the local parish school, teacher's seminary and surveying school in Gorki. He worked as a surveyor, served in the Russian regiments during the First World War. He was awarded four times for outstanding heroism. He was drafted into the Russian Empire in 1914. He was assigned to the 79th artillery brigade and spent the entire First World War on the Caucasus Front. After the end of the war, he returned to Latvia and in January 1919, he voluntarily joined the Latvian army. He was a platoon commander, later a company commander. In the separate student battalion with the rank of captain. He participated in the first battles of the Kalpak battalion in Kurzeme.

The latter, P. Zolts, commanded the II Company and the III Separate Battalion, which were assembled in Liepāja from volunteer young workers of this city, they were poorly trained and learned their art of war in battle. On May 13, the company reached the Kaugurciems dunes. Zolts was confident in his warriors, even though they were young and inexperienced in war, but he knew that if necessary, they would prove what they were capable of. Such a moment came quickly. It was Sunday morning, May 18, 1919. On this very day, when 2 Bolshevik regiments occupied fortified positions near Kauguries and ours were forced to retreat, Zolts and his company went on a counterattack, defeated the enemy in a bayonet attack, recovered the machine guns lost in the battle and forced the Bolsheviks to flee, leaving more than 50 fallen on the battlefield. In this battle, Paulis Zolts also fell a hero's death at the head of his company.

And only after several years — on November 25, 1934 — Sloka public organizations unveiled a modest granite memorial sign in the Kaugurciems dunes, with scant words engraved on it: "Here fell for Latvia on May 18, 1919, LKOK captain Zolts Paulis, first lieutenant Grintāls Eduards, soldiers: Melngalvis Andrejs, Siliņš Fricis, Kārkliņš Jānis, Pūlītis Žanis." After the Second World War, it was destroyed, but the heroic deed was not forgotten, and since May 18, 1989, a memorial sign has once again stood at the end of Zolta Street in the Kaugurciems dunes, telling about the events of 1919.

First, those who fell in Kaugurciems were buried in the Brothers' Cemetery near the Ķemeri banzīca. After the war, Zolts was reburied in his native Mazsalaca cemetery. For the heroic deed performed on May 18, 1919, which was unparalleled in the entire history of the liberation struggle of Latvia, Pauls Zolts was posthumously awarded the Lāčplēsis War Order, 3rd Class. Later, Zolts' son Pēteris also continued his father's chosen profession of officer. He fought in World War II against the same enemy as his father. He fell in 1944 and was buried next to his father.

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

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