The march of the Ilūkste partisan regiment

I began my fighting career against the Bolsheviks in 1943 in the ranks of the Latvian Legion. In 1944, I graduated from the instructor school in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. In July 1944, I returned to Jelgava County, Lielauce, where I was assigned to a recruit training battalion. When the Russian attack on Jelgava began, we all participated in the battles to defend Jelgava. After that, many of us were behind enemy lines. I secretly went to my native home in Rubene parish, Ilūkste County.

At first, the deserters lived in their homes, only hiding when one of the red spies appeared. Those men whose homes were in the open went to the big forest and began to organize into partisan groups.

We gradually began to recognize each other. Winter was approaching. We built bunkers for partisan groups of 10-15 people. The partisans gradually began to become more active and did not shy away from armed clashes with the "Istrebi" and small Chekist units. The partisans eliminated the most active servants and kangaroos of the new government.

In the middle of winter, on the instructions of a traitor, a well-armed Chekist unit surrounded one of our partisan bunkers. The partisans decided to launch a swift and risky counterattack. The enemy did not expect this, and the entire group escaped the siege without losses. Towards the end of spring, a large group of Chekists traveled from Dviete to Cukuriņi in carts. Their goal was to terrorize and rob the partisans. We unexpectedly attacked this group of robbers and marauders on their way back. As a result of the short but brutal battle, not a single one of the Red Star soldiers returned to their base in Dviete. Our partisans' armament was supplemented with two submachine guns, machine guns, and other weapons.

In the spring of 1945, the life of the forest brothers became increasingly lively. True, we were not yet sufficiently organized, but we knew all those who lived in the bunkers of the great forest well. In May 1945, a partisan I knew well came to me from Latgale. With him was Stanislavs Urbāns. About a week later, Stanislavs Urbāns asked to organize a meeting with the partisan groups living in the great forest. S.Urbāns invited the establishment of the Ilūkste partisan regiment in the great forest. He asked me to take on the duties of the chief of staff of the newly established partisan regiment. From that moment on, our common path began. The unification of the groups into a partisan regiment contributed to the further development of the resistance movement.

The Chekists, with the help of various "spies", gathered information about the location of our bunker and tried to eliminate our support points with their troops and battalions of anti-tank riflemen.

In the summer of 1945, we had a joint action with the partisans of Bebrene parish and the Lithuanian forest brothers. Four of our comrades lost their lives in the battle. After the Battle of the Danube, the partisans of Susejās[A1]-Slote wanted to capture the Susejās village council. However, this intention failed, because the Chekists were rushed by auxiliary forces. Having lost four fallen, the partisans were forced to retreat.

In August 1945, the men of our regiment attacked the Dviete village council. Two police officers were killed in the shelling. Our gain was 10 rifles and a machine gun. Later, the Zariņi village council and several other institutions of the new Soviet government were captured.

In November, a battle took place in which Sudrabiņš's group was unexpectedly attacked by a Chekist unit. In the fresh snow, the scouts had managed to trace tracks that led to a partisan bunker. In the battle, one partisan was seriously wounded and died a few days later. The Chekists left 5 dead and five machine guns at the scene of the battle. The next day, the enemy advanced with much larger forces and came across the camp of our headquarters company. After a small counterattack, we retreated deeper into the forest, because it was not in our power to engage in a serious battle with the army. We lost one dead man.

In the Susėja forest, the enemy surrounded our partisan camp. Once again, a traitor led the enemy on our trail. Thanks to the ingenuity and personal heroism of the unit commander Albert Kaminskis, all the partisans escaped, but the commander fell while covering the retreat. As a result of the betrayal in the Elkšķi-Aknīste forest, the Chekists destroyed all the forest brothers in the partisan camp.

Almost all the partisans who had legalized themselves were arrested and sent to the Gulag slave camps. On March 25, 1949, the families of all the national partisans and their supporters were deported to Siberia. I was also arrested and sentenced to 25 years in the Gulag without the right to ever return to my homeland.

[A1]Drying?