Latvijas Pase

Here a Latvia Passport issued in 1928 is described.

1st page
In the standard case the first page of a passport hold the family name and the first name of the person. The present passport, I am describing here, belonged to Matilde Valdovskis born Pētersons. The Russian type spelling of the name - Valdovskij is also mentioned for this name, because it is of Polish or may be of Russian origin.

This Passport was valid not only in the period of independent Latvia but also during both the Soviet 1940/1941 and the Nazi German 1941/1944 periods. A German official of the 8. Revier Schutzmannschaft Riga, that is the 8^th Order Service district of Riga, made the notes on the first page that the passport was registered on September 19, 1942 i.e. more than one year after the German Army entered Riga. The note certified that the Passport should be valid until March 19, 1943.

2^nd page
contains the birth date - June 18, 1893, the birth place - Rīga and the family status - married.

3^rd page
In this page the children of the passport holder were registered - a daughter Valdovskis Erika Margrieta, b. November 29, 1921 in Riga.

4^th page
describes the relations to the military matters. Being a woman, M.Valdovskis had nothing to do with these activities.

5^th page
The page bears a photograph of the passport holder, 2 of her signatures - one on the photograph and another one on the page of the passport, and the fingerprint of the index finger of the right hand.

6^th page
It informs what documents were the ground for issuing the passport. This passport replaced the passport issued in Rīga prefecture (Police office) on July 31, 1920. Unfortunately, I have not any previous passport except the Passport described in another Page that was made in Daugavpils, but I suppose the first passports in Riga city were different.

7^th page
The institution that issued the Passport. It was the III district of Rīga prefecture (Police office) and the director of the district was Julijs Timmermanis. Actually he was not the director but the assistant director and only signed the passport instead of the director.

8-9^th pages
These pages should have contained the information about the issuing of passports to the children of the passport holder when they reached the age of 16. The only daughter of M.Valdovskis received her Passport on February 17, 1938

10-11^th pages
The pages with information about changes in the marital status of the passport holder. M.Valdovskis did not get a divorce and did not marry again, so these pages remained blank.

13-28^th pages
These pages were reserved for registrations at the places of residence. The first inscription informs that M.Valdovskis was registered in Riga on August 4, 1920 in Dzirnavu str. 33 apt.1, that is some days after her first Passport was made. The second inscription concerns the situation to the moment when this Passport was issued i.e. on February 8, 1928, and then she lived at Dzirnavu 53a, apt. 1. She was also registered in Sigulda town where he lived as a summer resident in 1934.

29-32nd pages
These pages were reserved for the registration of the participation in the elections and the referenda. M.Valdovskis voted for Latvia parliament in 1928 and in 1931, the last time when the Parliament was elected. The stamp printings informed that the ballots were received, and in this way it was guaranteed that a person could not vote several times.

She also took part in the elections of 1940 that took place on July 14 and 15, 1940, when the Soviet troops had invaded Latvia, and the Soviet regime practically was introduced - the electors had only one candidate in each one of the regions. In this case the stamp printing not only prevented repeated voting but also informed that the passport holder took part in the elections. In the Soviet time the participation in elections was an indicator of person's loyalty to the Soviet system, though in the proper Soviet passports the participation in elections was not registered.

32nd page
The page was reserved for registration of the participation in the elections, but in this Passport it bears some marks made by Nazi officials. The first one informs that M.Valdovskis has received the buying ticket Nr. 1., but the second mark was made to certify that the Maintenance booklet (Bezugsbüchlein) was handed on September 2, 1941.

The page also contains the mark that M.Valdovskis took part in the elections of Riga city municipality in 1928.

On the inner side of the last cover a mark was also printed on May 16, 1942, which was not possible to decipher.