“Politician Sandra Kalniete’s Book on Latvian Deportations Comes to Mikhail Chekhov’s Riga Russian Theater”

The performance of writer and politician Sandra Kalniete’s popular book “With ball shoes in the snow of Siberia” (2001), translated into 15 languages, on the stage of Mikhail Chekhov’s Riga Russian Theater is a big event. It is the first time that one of the most tragic pages of Latvian history – the deportations carried out by the Soviet regime – will be discussed in this theater. “This topic is still very painful for our society. Every second family living in Latvia has faced this pain – deportation to Siberia. It seems to us that the Russian Theater is the place where a dialogue should be started,” says the theater director at the press conference of the play hosted by Dana Bjork.

“In this work, there is a great motivation to live and survive, to continue living in the thoughts, books and memories of others. We Latvians have a specific history, and in the show we share the stories of our fates, they feed us, educate us and show us the way to move forward ,” says actress Inga Misāne-Grasberga. She is assigned the main role in the show.

Inga Misāne-Grasberga graduated from the acting course of the Latvian Academy of Culture and has been working at the Latvian National Theater since 2004. During her studies, she met her husband, actor Gundar Grasberg, their family has three sons. After 18 seasons and about 40 roles, Misāne-Grasberga stopped working at the National Theater on January 1 of this year. In the conversation, the actress admits that when she left the theater, she was ready to leave the acting profession as well. “Something just closed, and there was such a great feeling of inferiority and insecurity that I wanted to get away from it all, I wanted to be with myself. At that time, it didn’t seem that anyone would ever mention me again,” reveals Missane-Grasberg. And then there was a call from the Chekhov Theater.

You were born in Merdzene, Ludza district.

Yes, once it was Ludza district, then Kārsava district, and now, it seems, Ludza. Merdzene is the village where I spent my childhood, it flowed from one affiliation to another.

I looked before our conversation Deportee’s cardseveral large families were sent from Merdzene – Lipski…

Yes, lots of Lipskis.

Kazicani, also Ozolini and several other families. Tell me, did you talk to your parents about deportations?

No, they didn’t talk about it in my childhood, I hadn’t even asked my grandparents about it. I don’t know why, but there were no exiles in my family. The first time I encountered the subject of deportation was when I was a teenager, during school, my cousin told me about it, once my mother also mentioned that it was from Merdzene… that people were deported. And then you realize that in the place where you live now, right next to it, the lives of your neighbors were simply… (Silence.) Put on a train.