We presume that there were two large-scale deportations from the territory of the Republic of Latvia: in 1941 and 1949 (also s. section 5.3).
The first and most barbaric deportation of Latvian citizens is connected to the date of June 14, 1941. Considerable numbers of this stream of exiles were transported to our region. About its ethnic structure we can say that it mainly comprised Latvians and Latgals, but there were also many Belorussians and Poles from Latgalia, as well as Russians from the eastern districts of Latvia. There were also Jews among the exiles.
The deportees from Latgalia (the southern part of Latvia) happened to get to the east of our region, to the districts of Nizhneingash and Abakan, from where almost all of them were transferred to Igarka in the summer of 1942. Many deportees from the western parts of Latvia were driven away into exile to the districts east of Achinsk.
Numerous Latvian citizens, who were hit by this stream, found themselves in exile on a Sovkhoz called Molokovo in the Yartsevo district in the 1940s. Others happened to get to settlements in the districts of Turuchansk and Igarka, which were situated near the river.
According to information available to us there was only one transport of exiles from Latvia, from the southern part of the country, that left for our region in the late 1940s. This train was unloaded in Reshoty (Nizhnaya Pumya station) in the spring of the year 1949. The exiles were scattered in the forest ranges in the district of Nizhneingash.
In 1947 they released all those exiles of the first stream that had yet been under age in 1941. But in the late 1940s almost all of them were arrested again and sent back into exile. In a great number of cases they were taken to their former places of exile, but we know about exceptions. To give an example: many of those who were repeatedly exiled ended up in the Birilyussy district, and among them there were some that later returned home from exile from the Irkutsk region.
A considerable number of the exiles was released in 1957 or 1958. But many of them could not return home. The Soviet regime caused them a variety of impediments and difficulties.
In addition to the abovementioned streams of exiles, we have to point out one that shows different characteristics. We are talking about the stream of exiles that hit Latvian citizens, mainly ethnic Russians, from the annexed (annexed to the region of Pskov) east-Latvian areas (Abrene and others, i.e. the districts of Pytalovo, Kachanovo and Palkino). This stream of exiles dates back to the month of May 1950. The train was unloaded in Krasnoyarsk on June 10, 1950. Many exiles remained in the town (in the brickworks and the like); information about other places of exile are not known to us. This exile stream was belatedly "legalized" by the OSO (= Special Board) of the MGB (= Ministry of State Security) in the autumn of 1950. The exiles that had been hit by this stream were released earlier than the other Latvian citizens, i.e. already in January 1956.