.. a page from the question book.

Publicēts: 11.09.2023

.. a page from the question book. Juris Zeibārt

The Gulbene County Library continues to fill the pages of the question book. This time, too, the answers are provided by a special person for our county, retired National Armed Forces Major General Juris Zeibārts, whose birthday is in September.

I got my name through the lottery. At least that's what my grandmother once told me, and you just have to believe it. When I was born, choosing a name was important to everyone - mother, father, grandmother, aunts... Unfortunately, everyone had their own suggestion. The grandmother wanted to be called Juri. I don't really remember the rest of the choices from what was told. Since they couldn't really come to a common denominator, the idea came up to draw lots so that none of the names suggested by relatives would be disparaged. They wrote possible words on the pieces of paper, threw them in the hat and entrusted the role of raffle to the grandmother, and the grandmother pulled out a piece of paper with Jura's name. She was very happy about that, she told me, recounting the event. And that's how I found the name and, of course, the surname that my great-grandfather had in our family...

A food that is still associated with my childhood - I could name several here - barley porridge with fried meat crumbs, herring baked on coals in the kitchen stove (I remember that I often burst into my grandmother's mouth - when we would bake herring...). However, I was most impatiently waiting for autumn and the digging of potatoes, because then we lit a fire on the edge of the field and roasted potatoes in coals. Hence, my childhood food - charcoal-grilled potatoes, served with a knob of butter, salt and more cottage cheese. And if you still drink sour milk...

As a child, I read fairy-tale books the most. Somehow, I don't remember that learning to read would have been difficult for me and that the housemates would have trained me terribly. My mom helped me a few times, I remember that. In any case, I went to school already literate. Before school, my favorite book was "Latvian folk tales about animals" - green in color, with a bunny on the cover. I loved it so much that it fell out of the covers when read. Then followed the set of every self-respecting boy - Jules Verne, Thomas Main - Reed, Jack London and others.

From my school years, I remember how, in the 6th grade, the class teacher (Latvian teacher - not quite, as we thought, but thanks to his strictness, I still know how to put punctuation marks correctly) after another prank, he said to me in a serious voice: "Juri! Your mother is such an intelligent woman, but tell me, what will come of you in life?”

I got to the Gulbene People's Theater at the persuasion of teacher Olga Krieva. It was probably in 1986, if I remember correctly. I didn't work at the school, but somehow it happened that one week I had to teach history lessons to high school students at Gulbene High School. In the meantime, the teacher Rieva, who was a legendary figure of the Gulbene amateur theater, grabbed me by the hand and said to me like this: "You must come to the theater! I will not let you go until you agree!” I just had to agree to get out of the teacher's grip. At that time, the teacher Krieva staged Alexander Ostrovsky's play "Innocent Guilty" and that was my first role there. I worked in the theater until 1999, when the course of my service took me to Riga. Then I also had to put an end to playing in the theater. In any case, the time spent in the amateur theater was extremely nice and interesting, it's nice to remember it, as well as all my theater colleagues, to whom I am grateful for the time spent together.

The time of awakening brought to my life the fantastic feeling and belief that nothing is impossible for my people, united for the sake of a great goal. On a purely personal level, I also had the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of both my grandfathers, who once fought for the creation of the Latvian state. I only know my grandfathers from old photos and stories from both grandmothers. Both of them, men in their prime, died in Siberian penal camps and their graves, like many others, are unknown. The time of revival gave me the opportunity to be one of those who fought for the rebirth of the Latvian state and to somehow do something for the memory of my grandfathers. The greatest satisfaction of the revival for me is that we all, especially the younger generation, live in an independent country.

History is sometimes a little misunderstood, being considered only as a science of interest to men of science. Somehow, for most people, history seems like a bunch of annual numbers, distant and ancient events that no one has experienced. However, in my opinion, history is like the roots of a tree, which keeps us in this land and through history we go further. The history of a nation does not begin somewhere distant from us. It begins today in each of our homes and hearts. It starts with old family albums in which our grandparents are still young and beautiful, our parents are visible there younger than we are today.

Service in the Latvian Army taught me precision, as well as time and action planning. General Dwight Eisenhower, former Allied commander in Europe in World War II and later President of the United States, said: "Planning is everything, a plan is nothing." What do I mean by that? Service in the army, at any rank and position, is impossible without planning one's actions and their possible consequences, but... No plan is perfect, so you should also have other plans in your head, if the first one fails... I can't get rid of this habit even now, when I am in active service behind. Yes, one more thing - I can't eat slowly.

On days when the rain is drumming on the roof, I like to read a book. This habit comes from childhood days when you couldn't live outside on rainy days. Then I used to flip through old magazines in the attic of my grandfather's house and listen to the raindrops rattle on the tin roof. Also, the hay above the barn was a good place to read a "burla romance" during the rain...

The book that I recommend to others to read is Marisa Vētra's memoir "Two Dužiņas". Born in the Dārtiņa half-manor of Tirza parish, the native was not only an excellent singer, but also an excellent storyteller. His memoirs are fantastic. "Div' dūjiņas" is the later singer's memories of the freedom battles, in which he, an eighteen-year-old young man, fought as part of the 8th Daugavpils infantry regiment. A little personal - in the same regiment of the Latvian army, only in a different company, my grandfather also fought, only a little older than Marisa Vētra. When reading this book, it seems that my grandfather, whom I never met, could have told it. This book is worth reading especially in the context of today's world events. The book was published in 1935, re-published in 1992 and is unfortunately rarely found today.

Walking through Gulbeni, I would like to see fewer empty houses where no one has been living for some time. It's sad to see that the buildings that were built during the creation of the city and survived both the war and the Soviet era are disappearing from the face of the city recently... Of course, it will be a fantasy, but no one can deny it - I hope that the time will come when, walking along Gulbeni, you will be able to see both the church tower and the restored White Palace.

I always have the last Latvian penny in my pocket together with euro coins in my wallet. You should always be careful not to accidentally spend it, because it is the same size as one cent. Why? Let's call it nostalgia.

I wish the residents of Gulbene district the same as I wish for the whole of Latvia. Let's appreciate and rightly be proud of what we already have, what we have already achieved and done. At the same time, we will be clearly aware of how much still needs to be achieved and done, and maybe we will think and do things ourselves more often, rather than waiting for wise advice from elsewhere or help from outside.

Let's look around and recognize what an endlessly beautiful land we live in! The course of the service has sometimes taken me far from Latvia, but the beauty of my land has always brought me back.

Thanks for the answers! We wish you energy for moving and time for reading books!

 

Sanita Jurkāne
Gulbene county library