Returning Home — A Place to Stand

My grandfather, Aleksejs Ulachovičs, in the uniform of the Latvian National Army, in a photograph attached to an identity certificate issued in 1925.

Skārņu iela, in Rīga's Old City. On the right is St John's church, constructed between the 13th and 19th centuries.

Rīga's Freedom Monument, May 2017

Prisoners' exercise yard at Rīga's 'Corner House,' headquarters of the KGB during the Soviet Occupation, 1944 – 1991

'The Earth Will Grieve for Us for a Long Time,' photographic exhibition in the courtyard of the 'Corner House' in Rīga, July 2016

Soldiers of the Latvian National Army, ca. 1920, with my grandfather, Aleksejs Ulachovičs, seated front left

The photograph album I began putting together as a teenager, with a photograph of my grandmother, Tatjana, taken in Rīga in the 1940s. Behind it are the few photos of her family that she saved.

Foyer of the Latvian State Historical Archives in Rīga.

My mother Irena examing her father's passport at the Latvian State Historical Archives in Rīga, with the genealogist Antra Celmins, 2017

My grandfather Aleksejs Ulachovičs' identity certificate, in the Latvian State Historical Archives in Rīga

Enlistment book from 1944 held at the Latvian War Museum in Rīga

Entry 2607, "Vlachovics Aleksejs," the record of my grandfather's conscription in 1944

Photograph of my grandfather, Aleksejs Ulachovičs, in his identity certificate

Photograph of my great-grandmother, Praskovja Ulachovičs, in her identity certificate.

Bruņinieku iela in Rīga, where my mother and grandparents lived in the early 1940s.

My mother Irena standing outside the apartment building where she lived in the 1940s, 2017.

All Saints' Orthodox Church, Rīga, 2017.

Interior, All Saints' Orthodox Church, Rīga, 2017.

Registry Office, Rīga, 2017.

My mother Irena at the railway station of the beach resort of Jūrmala, where she spent summer holidays as a young child, 2017.

Jēkabs Šķērstēns (1890 – 1940), Stained glass after a folk song motif, Latvian Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, Rīga

My mother, Irena, walking on the beach at Kape Kolka during our trip to Latvia, 2017

Rīga's Freedom Monument.