Atslēgas EN ep10 EN / 1949 March Deportations and Lielvārde's incredible escape

After the WW2, the Soviet regime resumed the eradication of Baltic intelligentsia and the upper class. 25 March 1949 saw the most horrific deportations in the history of Latvia. This time, the hardest blow was aimed at the farmers - anyone who was capable of running the farm somewhat successfully.

But there was one rural territory in Latvia, from which not a single soul was deported that March: Lielvārde. There, on the banks of the Daugava, where the legend of Lāčplēsis was born, once lived a real Soviet hero, Edgars Kauliņš. It is told that he was the one who saved the locals from deportation. Who was the man behind the myth? Is his tale also a folk legend, or the truth?