From February 7 to April 2, 2024, the thematic exhibition "Who were you, Anna Bērziņa?" will be on display at the Aleksandars Čaks Museum. The exhibition has been extended until May 23.
The exhibition is dedicated to A. Čak's wife Anna Erika Elizabete Berzina (1911-1999), and the lesser-known facts and legends of their life together, which surround the personality of the poet. As the addition, the recording of Anna's voice, which the museum received as a gift in 2023, will be heard in the exhibition.
"Who were you, Anna Bērziņa?" – this is a very simple, but at the same time a very complex question. Anna Elizabete Erika Berzina was the wife of the Latvian poet Aleksandars Čaks - a social, economic, good conversation partner and an attractive woman.
In the 1930s, Anna Erika Elizabete Berzina published several of her poems in the newspaper "Jaunākās Ziņas" (“Latest news”) under the pseudonym Anita Berzina. In October 1944, Anna, together with her work colleagues and medical staff, left Latvia with an echelon carrying wounded soldiers, officers and their families. A. Čaks had a reserved seat on the train, but he stayed in Latvia. As the departure took place in a great hurry, A. Berzina did not manage to take her diaries, photo album and handicrafts with her. Information about A. Berzina did not appear in the press of Soviet Latvia, and for a long time she was excluded from A. Čak's biography, leading a quiet life in Detroit, United States of America.
All private belongings left by Anna Erika Elizabete Berzina in Latvia are now stored in the collection of the Aleksandrs Čaks Museum, some of which can also be seen in the exhibition. The exhibition can be viewed at the museum until May23, 2024.
Publicity image: Anna Erika Elizabete Bērziņa in her youth. Photo from the collection of the Aleksandrs Čaks Museum.