Agapitova and the rescued ones

Images of a landscape of frozen rivers, snowy hills and abandoned cottages portray the desolate location were once thousands were forced to survive. During the 1940s, deportation to Soviets gulags in Siberia has been a death sentence for the majority. However, in this film the director visits six Latvian children who survived the exile and the hardships in the gulags. After 60 years, they still live in Siberia, and have come to see it as their home.

Political Relevance

After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic states in 1940. This involved the incorporation into the USSR. Accordingly, throughout the 1940s mass deportations from the Baltic states were carried out to eliminate resistance. Thousands of people were deported to gulags across Siberia. The majority of the people in exile either died of starvation, diseases or froze to death.