On March 25, 1949 Kārlis Guļevskis from Valgale saved his bedridden granddaughter from being deported by the Soviet authorities. The rest of the family was sent to Siberia and returned only after Joseph Stalin died, reported Latvian Radio on March 24.
Žanis Fonzovs (1916-1990), a Latvian fisherman, helped refugees trapped in Kurzeme reach the island of Gotland during the second world war. For as long as the Red Army had not invaded Kurzeme, he continued carrying refugees across to Sweden, ferrying 28 boats full of people to safety.
In the 19th century Tsarist Russia fought several wars with the Ottoman Empire, with the last one taking place in 1877, notable as mass conscription was called in the Russian Empire. Many Latvians fought against the Turks, but it's a lesser known fact that hundreds of Ottoman Turkish prisoners of war made it to the wintry hills of Latvia.
