Zvārdenieka's childhood in the shadow of bomb explosions - Polygon summers
Spending my childhood near the Zvārde target range, under the sounds of explosions and flying jet planes, but still sometimes on weekends I could enter the range. After the departure of the Soviet army, the land was littered with bomb craters and many explosive objects, not only from the time of the landfill, but also from World War II.
Polygon summers (1980-1990)
During the Soviet era, residents of the surrounding collective farms could enter the landfill for two weeks to collect hay in the summer. If you were lucky and the weather was good, you could collect a lot of hay, but if the weather failed, then the hay remained in the landfill.
Imitation of two runways
Bombing took place at the training ground from Monday to Saturday, Sundays were a holiday. Two runways - imitations - were built at the landfill, and airplane models made of boards were placed on them. The runways were located about 3-4 km from Kurgan along the Auce road. My father worked at the landfill, building and repairing airplane models and nailing new models from boards if the previous ones were blown up. The bomb pits were also recultivated - my father went to the target area of the landfill with a crawler tractor T-150 on certain days and covered the pits with earth. There was a kind of green area between the two runways, and there were no bushes or trees around, because everything was so bumpy that there was a hole next to a hole.
At the "Lapsu" base, the small piece of asphalt was specially covered with boards so that the father would not damage the asphalt with the tracks.
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About the hair court:
It could have been in 1989 or 1990, when my classmate R. had entered the landfill with a bicycle on a working day and there was a bombing. I was really scared, but everything ended well.
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Zvārde shooting range and former Soviet military base "Lapsas"
The landfill's service base is located approximately 2 kilometres east of Striķu Manor, on the Saldus-Auce road. The former Soviet Military Aviation Target Range (military unit No 15439) in Zvārde is located south of Saldus. The territory of the airfield is home to several sights - the ruins of Zvārde and Ķerkliņi churches, the ruined Rīteļi cemetery, the observation post of the airfield, the so-called "Officers' Kurgan" and the former airfield personnel base and shooting range "Lapsas".
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Soviet Army Observation Tower (Kurgan of Officers)
The "Officers' Kurgan" is located less than a kilometre from the ruins of Zvārde Church. The Kurgan is made of the ruins and remains of the surrounding houses and manor house, which have been bulldozed together. An observation tower was built on the kurgan. According to the inscription, the present tower was built in 1981. The tower was used to record bomb hits. The training bombs had a reduced explosive content, so their hits had to be watched more carefully. Unexploded bombs were neutralized immediately, but not all could be found.
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Soviet air force target firing ground in Zvārde
Zvārde landfill is located in Zvārde municipality, Saldus region. It is a former military aviation training ground of the USSR, covering more than 24 000 hectares.
The territory of the former airfield is home to several sites: the Officers' Kurgan, the ruins of the Zvārde and Ķērkliņi churches, the Rīteļi cemetery, the former army base "Lapsas", and others. Until the Second World War, the site of the observation tower was home to the "Vairogi" house. During the construction of the polygon, what was left of the farm - walls, the remains of the...
Riteli Cemetery
After the airfield was established in this area in 1953 at the request of the USSR Ministry of Defence, the Zvārde Church, the Ķerkliņi Church and the Rīteļi Cemetery were actually located in the centre of the airfield - next to an artificial airfield with access roads and defence positions, which was used as a target by Soviet pilots. Planes flew here from airfields in Latvia and elsewhere in the Soviet Union. In less than 40 years, the church, the cemetery, the former manor house and dozens of surrounding buildings were reduced to ruins. Today, the site is cared for by the Saldus Martin Luther Church. The surrounding area is still contaminated with unexploded ordnance and it can be dangerous to walk off the roads.
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