Remembering Latgalian Cultural Figure Juoņs Cybuļskis

The portal lakuga.lv has published an article by Lilija Limane commemorating Juoņs Cybuļskis (born 19 October 1911, died 3 January 1997), a Latgalian cultural figure, book publisher and writer. The piece is written as a recollection and as an introduction to his book "Veritas nostra est" (Latin for "The truth is ours"), published in Rēzekne in 2019. The author argues that Cybuļskis was far more than the grandson of Andrīvs Jūrdžs, a classic of Latgalian literature, and a copyist of his manuscripts.

Life

Cybuļskis grew up in Dekteri, in Nautrēni parish, in a family with five children, and was the youngest. He studied at Aglona Gymnasium, where he befriended Vladislavs Lācis, later a book publisher. His first poems appeared in 1931 in the magazines "Sauleite" and "Zīdūnis" under the pseudonym J. Sylmalīts. He began university studies only in the late 1940s, but an arrest interrupted them.

From 1933 he worked as a religious-instruction teacher in the schools of Viļaka parish and visited remote farmsteads to sell books. He later opened a bookshop, "Centeiba", in Viļaka. In 1939–1940 he and Lācis were involved in publishing. Lācis had found a manuscript by Jūrdžs and sold it to the State Library for 150 lats; Cybuļskis persuaded his mother to return the book Jūrdžs had given the family, so that the 300 lats obtained could fund new publications. Several works came out, including Lācis's novel "Bruoli". The Soviet occupation ended this work.

Repression and life at home

In 1944 Cybuļskis moved to Courland and taught at Raņķi school. In 1949 the Soviet authorities sentenced him to 25 years of forced labour for "betrayal of the homeland". The reason for the charge is unclear. He spent six years working on the Volga–Don Canal and other projects, and returned to Latvia in 1955. Unable to resume teaching, he worked at the Bolderāja fish factory and lived in Dārzciems, on the outskirts of Rīga.

In his garden he set up a sculpture workshop where sculptors Antons Velikāns and Bartulis Buls made monuments to Latgalian cultural figures. The first was dedicated to Andrīvs Jūrdžs, and its unveiling in Nautrēni was a major cultural event.

Literary legacy

Cybuļskis wrote essays, memoirs and reflections, including works on Pēteris Miglinieks and Jūrdžs. He called his reflections "documents explaining the truth" about the place of the Latgalian people and language in the world. He spent the last ten years of his life compiling an explanatory dictionary of Latgalian. The manuscript is held by the Museum of Literature and Music and awaits researchers.