A Little Robeznieks Family History

Here is an article that was recently published in Cesis, Latvia about the Robeznieks family and family home. We have paper copies but I wanted to post it here as well as a "back-up."

Translated from the original newspaper article that was published in Latvian in Cesis, Latvia.

Ed wrote: “This article came about because Bake’s son was attending the chemistry lectures that I gave at Riga Technical University in 2012(?). I happened to meet him on a train that I was taking to Cesis. He told me that his mother was interested in historical issues relevant to Cesis and sometimes writes articles for the newspaper. We made contact by telephone and I agreed to do an interview with her. That produced this article.”

At the July, 1991 World Latvian Scientists Congress, one of the participants was University of Wisconsin (later, Michigan) chemistry professor Edwin Vedejs who, as a small boy less than four years old, along with his family had been taken away in exile due to changing times (the 1944 Russian occupation of Latvia). His memory is forever imprinted with the fear he felt on the deck of the refugee ship on the way to Danzig, Germany, but the vision of the home and its feeling, as he grew up, was planted by his mother with stories of her memories. “Mother remembered every oak, forest path, spring, the smell of bird-cherry trees and jasmine, and of course, the stories of friends from her youth and their fates. I heard about this all my life and therefore I may now be considered at least partly a native of “Cesis” writes Edwin Vedejs. 1991 was also the year he first saw his family home “Lower Pushklaipi”. He brought back a photograph from his homeland of “Lower Pushklaipi” to his mother – living quarters of the building were empty and the surroundings neglected. Mother watched the discouraging view of the home and her face showed bitterness. In that moment Edwin understood the unintended impact of the photo. Was it best to not raise the topic again? Was it his duty to do something to restore the former appearance of the family home? Was it enough to bring some order to the property? It took more than 10 years to think this through, to settle local boundary and inheritance issues. In 2002, 90 years after Edwin’s grandfather Janis Robeznieks purchased “Lower Pushklaipi”, the home returned to family ownership. “60 years of accumulated refuse and trash piles have been removed, and there again is a decent roof, foundation, windows and walls. The home’s blessing, the well, has been restored. We are not in a hurry with the rest. Work on the home and forest will last a lifetime”, says professor Edwin Vedejs.

The story of the home begins in 1912, when “Lower Pushklaipi” was purchased by Janis Robeznieks, while on assignment from Moscow as a Russian Forestry Department appraiser. Though born in Latvia, Birzhu parish not far from Viesites, as many other Latvians at that time who wanted to acquire an education, Janis Robeznieks’ road led him to Russia, Gorki Surveyors-Appraisers school. Robeznieks also attended Moscow’s Sanavska University. While his family and work were in Moscow, he fell in love with the beautiful forest and sheer sandstone cliffs along Gauja river and decided to buy the property. Later it became evident that he had been farsighted.

The 1917 Russian revolution turned the course of his life. Robeznieks with his family returned to his homeland. Learned forestry specialists then were rare in Latvia, and Robeznieks was offered a position as North Latvia Civil Service Bureau Forest Manager. The family settled in Cesis, in the city post office building, and children started grade school, but the family nest was and remained “Lower Pushklaipi”. In 1920, Robeznieks was promoted to Forestry Department Vicedirector. The family moved to Riga, but free moments,

summers, and work continued at “Lower Pushklaipi”. Here a friendship developed with Postal Director, later Cesis Mayor, Rudolf Kauce family, Cesis hospital doctor Akermanis, Prof. (later Minister of Education) Julijs Aushkaps, and other families in Cesis society. Robeznieks was responsible for organizing hunting trips for certain prominent people. Guests included foreign envoys and were hosted at “Lower Pushklaipi”.

As representative of the Forestry Department Robeznieks initiated and actively directed founding of the Zoo in Riga. In 1932 he was elected the first Chairman of the Board of the Zoological Society of Latvia.

In 1926 Robeznieks was awarded the Three Stars medal, IV Class (which is now kept by his grandson Edwin) for outstanding merit in forestry and community service. He died March 23, 1940, without experiencing the Soviet occupation and the Terrible year of deportations that followed, which certainly would have resulted in him dying at a Gulag in Siberia.

In June, 1941, at “Lower Pushklaipi” lived Janis Robeznieks and wife Aleksandra with her daughter VeltaVedejs and her little boys Guntis and Edvins. Later they were joined by her daughter-in-law Karina Robeznieks. Other family members worked in Riga. The new regime appropriated the house and turned it over to the caretaker (who rented part of the house year round). In fear of a second wave of deportations, about ten people had taken shelter in the Pushklaipi forest. Among them were “Lettonia” fraternity members from Riga as well as the Lutheran minister of Cesis, Arturs Piebalgs, who had written in his diary: “June 24. Last church service in terrible times. From the dressing room I am heading to the forest.” Women from “Lower Pushklaipi” brought food for the refugees and left it at a prearranged place, while fearful of attracting the caretaker’s attention.

The situation changed with the German occupation of Cesis a short time later, as the war between Germany and Russia began in late June, 1941. The distrusted caretaker vanished, apparenlt leaving with the Russian army. Life in the countryside slowly returned to familiar patterns, but Pushklaipi remained “nationalized”, but this time by the German occupying forces. In early 1943 Aleksandra Robeznieks received a document in German, with official seals and signatures, which solemnly gave her back her own property – “Lower Pushklaipi”. The document credits the “sacrifice of the German army” for these developments, and arrived a few months before the Germans began actively recruiting local “volunteers” for their military.

Karina Robeznieks worked at “Valdes Vestnesis” (Government News). A few days after Germans entered Riga, Karina found a list of names for the 1941 deportations. All of the Robeznieks family members appeared in a June 28 deportation list, which could not be realized due to the start of war a few days earlier. Just as many other Latvians, the Robeznieks family feared repression and eventually chose exile when the Red Army returned three years later.

That was not easy for Janis Robeznieks’ daughter Velta Vedejs, alone with her small children and aging mother. Without an able bodied man in the family, it was not easy living in the Fishbach Displaced Persons camp in Germany and obtaining an invitation to emigrate. In 1950 she succeeded, with help from a church in America. After a brief stay in Wisconsin, the new home was in Michigan, in a poor neighborhood. It meant heavy work in a factory at low pay and life at the poverty level for 10 years.

Today Edwin Vedejs is a University of Michigan professor and world renowned scientist in organic chemistry. His list of awards and accomplishments is very long, but he says: “of all the awards that I have received, the most significant for me is the Three Stars medal. Maybe because my grandfather also had one.”

He has followed the road to his goal with real ancient Latvian toughness. Edwin Vedejs remembers: “though we had almost no financial resources, and at school I was bullied for my accent, I had a sense of superiority due to family traditions. We were familiar with culture, had our self-esteem, and highly valued an education. I knew that I would not stay in that neighborhood for long. My first job was selling newspapers on the street. When I was 17, in winter months I worked as a laboratory assistant at a local college. In the summers I worked in a factory, cleaning floors, working on an assembly line, and loading and unloading huge trucks. The work was heavy, but it wasn’t digging ditches, and I enjoyed my assignments. Most important was getting paid, for I knew that I would have to pay for higher education. I studied at the famous University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I started my Doctorate at University of Wisconsin, and then probably got lost in science forever. I received a scholarship to study prostaglandin chemistry at Harvard with the eventual Nobel Prize Laureate, E. J. Corey. After that, there were some hard years as Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin until I received my own grant support. Once that happened, I always had grants to pay for my science. In this regard I was lucky and will finish my career without debts.

Truly great men are essentially simple. Such is also Prof. Edwin Vedejs who does not like to tell about his accomplishments and credits, except that he really wants to do something for Latvia. Ties to the homeland started in 1984 when he received a letter from academician Janis Stradins, with a friendly invitation to submit scientific articles for a Chemistry Journal. “His role in my life is tremendous. I’m saving that letter, and it will be among my last posessions…” And perhaps the best among all the things that Edwin Vedejs has given and continues to give Latvia is sharing his experience. Every year for one and a half months, without remuneration, he lectures at Riga Technical University. “It gives me immense pleasure to meet with Latvian students, the relationship with lecturers here is better than in America. They are polite and show respect towards elders. In the Western world that is rare. I enjoy that… Latvia has a tradition of education. Studies at the Bachelor level are stronger here than abroad (here I can speak to subjects that I know – math, chemistry, physics, and biology). People who think that education in Latvia is not strong simply don’t understand. In other countries, there are only better instruments, and nicer chairs to sit on. But is the chair more important than your accomplishments? In America Prof. Vedejs directs Doctorate and post-Doctoral studies and has been able to regularly include students from Latvia: “If I had spent my whole career working with students like those in Latvia, I would have gotten twice as far. I have had to pull and push American students. Over all the years, maybe 10 – 15 American students have been like all of my Latvian students.”

It is just as much of a pleasure for the professor every time to meet again his family home and to do practical work with his hands. This summer descendants of the Robeznieks family marked the 100 year anniversary of “Lower Pushklaipi” home.

University of Michigan Prof. Edwin Vedejs with his wife Patricia Anderson: “I married Pat in 1981 and we have been together over 30 years. She willingly accepted and supported my long work days, six days a week, 12 hour days; accepted travel to conferences and lectures, took care of our children and relatives, and understood that I’m a Latvian.

“Lower Pushklaipi” in Priekuli parish – Robeznieks family home, 1930.

Aleksandra and Janis Robeznieks in Moscow, around 1914. At the time J. Robeznieks was an officer in the Czar’s army.

Photo from refugee camp in Germany. From left: Velta Vedejs with sons Guntis and Edvins and mother Aleksandra Robeznieks, 1949. The photos had to be enclosed with documents requesting asylum in other countries.