Slītere State Reserve in the border regime zone

Vilnis Skuja: During the Soviet era, I worked at the Slītere State Reserve. We had to meet with the border guards often, but we tried to avoid such meetings, because in the border area the employees of the reserve - men with binoculars in hand, a map bag and a camera - made each border guard stop for a moment and find out the circumstances. Then there was an explanation, which usually lasted at least half an hour. If you managed to spot the border guard car in time, you quickly hit the forest. We even had such a shout "green drive"! At that moment, everyone automatically hid somewhere. If there was a need (for example, bird migration observation, records, etc.) to go to the beach, we always officially apply for the so-called. There was no problem then, because there were also sensible people in the border guards who did not oppose us or other locals with any repression or ill-treatment. The exception was when the person (local or immigrant) was sharp and asked for trouble himself.

Border guards also committed various irregularities. Saw a tree, dig sand or trench not where it is needed. They were once caught in the Kolka dump, where wild boar had been shot illegally. There were cases when army-hired workers managed to get a Kalashnikov to go on an illegal hunt. Although fishing between Kolka and Ventspils was officially banned, under the guise of border guards, locals could not go to sea and fish quite legally. They "paid dung" to the border guards for doing so. And that was the only way fishing could take place.

Border guards were lost in Kolka and Mazirbe. At one time, as a props or mock-ups, towers were also built in Saunaga and Pitrags. Spotlights that illuminated the sea and shore at night were located near Kolka and Mazirbe. Mazirbe beach was allowed to be (in summer) from 08 00 to 22 00 and was warned about it in two languages. Mazirbe had one of the largest beaches. The other Liv villages had only small stretches of coastline where civilians were allowed to stay. In the eighties, it was even supposed to be an idea to build a continuous barbed wire fence along the entire coast. For this purpose, pulpwood had already been purchased from the Slītere reserve.

Alanda Pūļiņa: When I was still working in the Slītere State Reserve during the Soviet era, the administration of the reserve was located in the Liv People's House. I remember the border guards' raids that there were increased controls - the border guards carried out raids with bobsleds and even asked the same people to present documents more than once. From that time on, I still had a propusks (pass in the border regime area). If you were driving to Mazirbe from Dundaga, the border regime zone started already in Jaundundaga, where there was a hit and a border guard post.