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Описание: Happy New Year of 1940. A greeting card from a Soviet pilot in Latvia, my granddad. He most probably was among the first military forces to enter Latvia and settle in Ventspils before the actual occupation which happened later in the summer of 1940. Latvia was forced to sign the agreement on the 5th of october 1939, allowing 20 000 of Soviet troops on its soil. One of the zones was a military base at Wentspils on the Baltic shore. As I understand he was lucky in many ways. He was from the family of a known communist, that expiated you from early repression, but the communist died heroically in the Civil War and so did not live up to be accused of some opposition or other and be wiped out with the rest of the Old Guard Heavy Duty party members. He was in the army diring the surges of repression but did not rise so far as to be affected by Stalin's army purges. He wasn't a mere soldier at the beginning of WWII and so wasnt thrown outright into the meatgrinder by the unprofessional command that allowed millions to be killed by Germans like in a shooting gallery. On the other hand, he was a pilot, and most pilots up to 1943 had only a slim chance to survive in the fight with German Luftwaffe. He even flew in early bombing raids over Germany in the first days of the war, as relatives say. But he got lucky again and was dispatched to hauling planes that came as part of Lend-Lease from US. Other relatives werent so lucky.. as many other Soviet folks, as we know from the history. Uploaded this image to WikiCommons. In Russian: Цитата из Википедии: "2 октября аналогичные советско-латвийские переговоры начались по инициативе Латвии. От неё СССР также потребовал доступ к морю — через Лиепаю и Вентспилс. В итоге 5 октября был подписан договор о взаимопомощи сроком на 10 лет, предусматривавший ввод в Латвию 25-тысячного контингента советских войск[6]."

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