Memories of the beginning of the establishment of the War Museum

"One of the most urgent tasks of our day is to gather and compile all the evidence of the years of devastation and war that have turned our homeland into a pile of rubble. Waves of war have gone like floods and recessions, and yet it was only from these ruins that a new Latvia was destined to be reborn. Our heroic rifle battalions were the first to witness the first battle group for their land and won our freedom only with weapons in hand. Therefore, before it is too late, we have to get back to work and collect all materials about this era in the War Museum and Archives, illuminating the situation of Latvia before the war, the exodus of Latvians and the lives of riflemen and the war, occupation, The first steps of the Latvian state. The Latvian War Museum was established in November 1916, when Latvian rifle regiments were allowed to collect relevant materials, trophies, etc. At the beginning of 1917, his activities had already begun, and the staff and museum collections gradually increased. 1917 in May there were about 8,000 items. His activities expanded considerably after he joined the archives of the Refugee Supply Committee, which contained a lot of material and is now the only collection of refugee documents after the destruction of the Moscow Cultural Bureau and the St. Petersburg archives. In addition to the trophy collection, which includes many of the German war supplies, there are also other chapters. A large part of the published German war literature on the Baltics and various documents, newspapers, letters, etc. are collected. The archive contains full sets of wartime newspapers and other printed materials, invitations, posters, regulations, etc. companies, families of fallen heroes, memoirs of soldiers, diaries, letters describing the era, etc. have a section that describes the rest of the soldiers - their equipment, aluminum castings, etc. The war museum has had to deal with various difficulties in recent years. In 1917. it was difficult to transfer the trophies directly to the museum, because they had to flow in general order through the divisions, etc. to the Central Trophy Collection in St. Petersburg. The museum was free to receive, the soldiers were not officially free to hand them over, which caused great inconvenience. During the occupation, the Germans had excavated the collection, but it was arranged through the care of those interested. Also during the Bolsheviks, the museum had to be urgently removed from his former premises, where communist committees gathered. However, the energetic actions of the employees managed to keep him and add to the collection this time as well. Now the War Museum is reopening with a certain past and collections. The following stages are widely described: 1917 in Riga and Vidzeme before the occupation, the refugee era and the times of the Bolsheviks in Latvia. The collections on the occupation of Kurzeme, Latvian soldiers in Russia, the life of prisoners in Germany and foreign information during the war should be supplemented as a matter of urgency. Therefore, we ask all friends of the museum to help this work again, to provide them with relevant objects, documents and collections. ”