Lilita Ozoliņa’s Childhood Writings: A Rare Archive Discovered by Ornithologist Ruslan Matrozh

They got to the ornithologist, swan researcher Ruslan Matrozh. He is the only historian of ornithology in Latvia, who has collected an impressive archive of bird research in our country, but this time Matrož’s hands had fallen into the hands of theater diva Ozoliņa’s childhood writings.

Lilita Ozoliņa’s notebook. (Photo: Ruslans Matrozis)

“How did these materials get to me? Totally random. Taking over the private archive of zoologist Zand Spur (1923-1998), among various materials, I also found a number of documents from his relatives. His mother’s sister Zenta Valdmane (1901-1998) from 1951 worked at the 8th secondary school in Riga as a 1st-4th grader. class teacher.

Lilitas Ozoliņa’s first teacher, Zenta Valdmane, photo taken in 1922.

Her student was Lilita Ozoliņa, who later became a well-known actress, so the teacher left these compositions as a memory. After 65 years, they came to me as part of the Spura archive,” says Matrozis.

Lilita Ozoliņa wrote in a very neat handwriting as a child. (Photo: Ruslans Matrozis)

One was a calligraphy notebook from 1953, when Lilita was learning to write each letter, and nine separate compositions written between 1953 and 1956. The mentioned school is nowadays the Rīga Jānis Poruk secondary school and is located in Čiekurkalnā.

Farewell to the great actress Lilitas Ozoliņa