From Sunday to Saturday in 1918 Exhibition Organiser National Library of Latvia
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The exhibition at the National Library of Latvia 14.11.2018.–15.09.2019. #episodes From Sunday to Saturday in 1918 Exhibition organiser National Library of Latvia Researchers and writers Ruta Almane-Palmbaha, Anita Arājuma, Anda Baklāne, Zane Grosa, Sarmīte Galsa, Elīna Kalniņa, Lilija Limane, Marina Mihaileca, Kristina Papule, Ilze Ramba, Anda Saldovere, Viktorija Surska, Indra Viļumsone, Elita Vīksna, Anda Juta Zālīte, Eridana Žiba Scientific consultants Dr. hist. Vija Daukšte, Dr. hist. Mārtiņš Mintaurs Content editor Ieva Zībārte Project manager Kristiāna Kirša Exhibition and graphic design Una Grants, Anete Krūmiņa Illustrations Tatjana Raičiņeca Exhibition technicians #episodes Ainārs Egle, Jevgenijs Sisojevs From Sunday to Saturday in 1918 Video art Anete Krūmiņa, Kristians Luhaers Sound Renarts Braufmanis Digitalisation 1918 is a year full of chaos and disquiet. Events follow quickly Marika Karlsone, Lāsma Timma one upon the other and everything changes absolutely – front lines, Translations Juris Beņķis borders, political regimes, governments, prices. Despite the harsh conditions, life goes on. Farmers make sure that their city relatives, Special thanks to Jolanta Āboltiņa, Ainārs Roze, Ivars Silārs, Jānis worn-out by food shortages, receive a tasty morsel. Schoolchildren Šiliņš, Maija Zīle, National History Museum of Latvia maintain their joie de vivre. Love blossoms. An art exhibition opens and Inta Robežniece, Latvian National Museum of Art and Vineta Beržinska, Ziemeļblāzma branch of in Rīga. At the beginning of August 1918, a train stands waiting at the Riga Central library and Elita Voicehoviča a St. Petersburg station platform with three carriages decorated All the documents and images used in in the with the inscription Латышская опера – the Latvian Opera. The exhibition are from the collections of the National Library of Latvia, unless indicated otherwise carriages’ seats are occupied by orchestra players and soloists, On the cover – Personnel of the Latvian Opera, around 120 artists in total. season 1918/1919. Photograph by Kārlis Paucītis The Episodes. From Sunday to Saturday in 1918 exhibition presents, on eight levels, miniature stories that reveal testimonies © National Library of Latvia, 2018 about 1918 from the collection of the National Library of Latvia. lnb.lv #lnblv Visitors can get a feel for the atmosphere in the year the state was founded, through the eyes of a child, a politician, a musician, a romantic lover and a censorship official of that time. 2 A level-by-level guide to the exhibition Start your journey at any episode! Level 8 Meeting chaos head on with optimism Libraries and librarians in #1918 Level 4 Level 6 An unsuccessful exhibition Everyday life runs its course 1918 at the Rīga City Museum #1918 in ephemera Level 6 End and beginning The historical landscape in Level 5 #1918 maps Life goes on #1918 in documents, diaries and letters Level 4 Train to the opera From prima donna to lowly chorus member Level 5 From Sunday Level 1: Book in Latvia room to Saturday The Poetry of Life according to Freedom the #1918 calendar Daugava, a series of poems by Rainis, inspires the struggle for statehood Level 7 Find your name! Children and pupils in #1918 Level M Level 3 The deleted year Born alongside Latvia #1918 in the library’s Newspapers and magazines Level 4 secret archive founded in #1918 Sound on shellac records Early Latvian recordings #episodes #1918 #lnb #lnb #1918 #episodes 3 Everyone unites Mārtiņš Mintaurs, PhD in History, answers questions about people’s lives in 1918 posed by the creators of the #episodes exhibition When did the First World were evacuated to Russia with their factories, Latvia saw no new refugee flows in 1917 and War actually end in Latvia? 1918. Rural residents in Vidzeme and Latgale In what is now Latvia, the First World War remained in their homes, but townspeople formally ended on 11 November 1918, suffered shortages of food and fuel – both when Germany surrendered to the Entente coal and firewood. In 1917, Valka became countries or the Western allies – Britain, the refugee centre for those still in Vidzeme. France and the United States. At that time, However, for the Kurzeme refugees, the whole of Latvia was under German returning to German-occupied Latvia was occupation. After the Democratic Revolution very difficult at that time, and it was these of February 1917, the Russian Empire Army losses that were the greatest threat to the had quite rapidly lost its combat capability, future existence of the Latvian people. consequently, as early as September 1917, German troops had occupied Rīga. The Latvian Riflemen Regiment, after heavy fighting defending Rīga at Mazā Jugla, was Was Latvia totally evacuated to Russia, and shortly thereafter, in devastated? January and February 1918, German troops The greatest damage in 1915-17, apart from occupied the whole of Latvia. After the end the abandoned farmsteads in Kurzeme, of the war in Western Europe, in accordance was on both banks of the river Daugava with the terms of the ceasefire agreement and the immediate vicinity of Rīga on its between the Entente and Germany, German western side. This had been the front line troops were to remain on the Eastern front to for two years and bloody battles were protect Europe from attack by the Bolsheviks fought at some places (near Sloka, Ķekava who had seized power in Russia. and in Tīreļpurvs). In 1916, German troops also used chemical weapons at Nāves sala (Death Island) on the south bank of the What were people’s lives like Daugava opposite Ikšķile, which made the area uninhabitable even after the war had after the war? ended. Until the 1919 autumn battles with Unlike the summer of 1915, when either the Bermontians, Rīga had not suffered any by force or influenced by anti-German significant damage; other Latvian towns, propaganda, about 500 000 refugees fled away from the front line, also passed the war Kurzeme and more than 100 000 workers relatively peacefully. 4 What was the economic situation and people’s everyday lives like? At the beginning of 1918, life in Latvia gradually settled down. During the war, the German administration had demanded food levies from farmers and intensified deforestation, building a broad network of narrow-gauge railway lines for this purpose. However, residential infrastructure remained intact generally: schools and hospitals still functioned, newspapers came out in Latvian and German, postal communications worked. The rural population did not suffer from hunger, but unattainable industrial goods could only be bought on the black market at elevated prices. The financial sphere was in something of a mess because German currency and monetary units issued by the former Russian Empire and subsequently by Latvia’s provisional government, were all in circulation. Why exactly was the establishment of an independent Latvian state possible in 1918? The proclamation of the Latvian state in Rīga on 18 November 1918 became possible for a number of reasons. First of all, Germany’s losing the First World War allowed Latvian political organisations (the Latvian Provisional National Council in Valka and the Democratic Block in Rīga), previously prohibited during the occupation, to be legalised. Secondly, the principle of national self-determination was proclaimed in international politics after the end of the war: this meant that in place of the great empires of Europe (German, Austro- Hungarian, Russian), nation states were to be established with one dominant nation at the core of the state. Thirdly, at the end of the war, in addition to the Latvian politicians in western Europe trying to gain the support of the Allies in London and Paris for the right of political self-determination in Latvia, members of the Farmers’ Union and various civil parties became active in Rīga. In just one week from the end of the First World War, between 11 and 18 November, agreement was reached on the founding of the state, also involving those Latvian social democrats not under the influence of the Bolsheviks, who until then, had been reserved about the idea of a Latvian state. #episodes #1918 #lnb #lnb #1918 #episodes 5 Level 1: Book in Latvia room newspapers and magazines about art and The first ‘gramophone’ or record player culture, as well as literary and satirical was patented by the German inventor Emil The Poetry of Freedom publications are printed. Many of them can Berliner in 1887. At first, the records were one- Daugava, a series of poems by Rainis, be termed as one-offs in the truest sense sided, 12 cm in diameter, and made of tin. of this word – only one edition is issued, After several experiments and improvements, inspires the struggle for statehood but there are some that also continue to be a mixture of shellac was identified as the most published after the war. suitable material for production, (until vinyl was Most of Daugava, the dramatic poems The newspapers and journals published discovered), consequently these records are by Rainis, had already been written during by various political and social organisations known as shellac records. The optimum playback the First World War. He completed the work and individuals in the Latvian, German, speed evolved as 78 rpm, although other in 1919, when it was set out in the form it Russian and other languages are each a variations in playback speed existed. The most reached readers before Bermondt-Avalov’s unique fragment of the historical mosaic common size for records was 25 cm in diameter, attack on Rīga in autumn 1919. The first enabling us to examine the events of 1918. and about three minutes of sound could be 4 000 copies sold out in two weeks. Publisher recorded on each side of the record. 30 cm sized Ansis Gulbis printed an extra run. The poems records were also common, used for longer were read by Bermondt’s soldiers and their Level 4 pieces of music, for example opera fragments.