Latvians in the USSR. In the 1920s and 1930s, while remaining in Russia, Ukraine, and elsewhere, held leading positions in the Cheka, the military, and the Communist Party, built up the Soviet economy, created a specific Latvian culture, or did very simple work. What drove them—ideals, ambition, or survival? Career aspirations? Was the tragedy that befell them during Stalin's repressions in the "Latvian operation" inevitable? The statistics are grim – more than 22,360 people were arrested. More than 16,500 were sentenced to death. The filmmakers chose to base their story on the life stories of several characters they selected themselves, as well as on a general outline of the conditions in which our compatriots who remained in the USSR lived in the 1920s and 1930s.