GalleryLATVIAN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
A Fisherman's Life
WHEN I was a young man I worked as a stoker on merchant ships. I travelled far and wide and visited many countries. Then for years I was a fisherman in Latvia.
We fished from sailing boats and row-boats too frail to weather any sort of storm. Often mothers, wives and children waited in vain for their men—but the boats never returned. A few days later the cold waves would wash up wreckage, torn nets and clothing.
Old fishermen in Latvia have sad memories of life as they knew it in the past, a life of anxiety and privation. But when the talk turns to life today faces brighten and wrinkles disappear.
In Soviet times Latvia's fishermen have come to lead a life that is rich and rewarding. Today they fish from big trawlers that carry them thousands of miles out into the Atlantic and the North Sea, over to Canada.
Three big trawlers now bring in as much fish as did Latvia's entire fleet before the war. The republic today holds third place in the world in fish production per head of the population.
When he was still a boy Ansis went to work for a rich landowner while his father fished along the coast from early morning till late at night. It was hard for Caspar Ustits to feed his big family, so his sons and daughters had to go to work while they were still children.
Caspar fell ill and died at the time of the First World War, and Ansis became head of the family. Following in his father's footsteps, he turned to fishing for a livelihood.
Need forced him to spend most of his time out at sea. His catch he sold to agents who resold it for three times what they paid him for it.
"Will life ever be different for us?" Ansis used to ask his mother wearily after a day of unremitting toil. "It isn't any better for any of our neighbours, either, for that matter."
The years passed. Ansis married and began to raise a family, but he was still forced to live in poverty.
"What about Ansis today?" you may ask. He is mechanic on a motor boat in the Sarkana Baka (Red Beacon) fishing co-operative. Though the hair at his temples is grey Ansis feels young at heart.
He lives in a five-room house which the artel helped him to build, as it has helped so many other fishermen to put up their own homes.
The house is well furnished. In his garden Ansis raises all the vegetables his family needs. A paved drive leads to the garage behind the house where he keeps his car.
His children are grown up now and doing well at their chosen occupations. Ansis earns about 30,000 roubles a year. This is more than enough for food, clothing and recreation.
On Sundays he and his wife drive out to the country, or go to the cinema, or see a new play.
That's how life has changed for the working people of Latvia. That's how Latvia's fishermen live today.
as part of the series "THE FIFTEEN SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS OF TODAY AND TOMMORROW."
We do not endorse the Soviet account of historical events or their circumstances contained therein as factual.
