Cycling from Baltinava to Malnava: a Hitler bunker story and a resistance figure
In a travelogue published by Zemgales Ziņas, the author cycles from Baltinava through Kārsava to Malnava in eastern Latvia, where a bunker in the manor park is said to have hosted Adolf Hitler. Resistance movement member Valentīne Lasmane worked at the manor in 1941–1942.
On the morning of Sunday, 18 October, the author of the Latvian regional newspaper Zemgales Ziņas set off by bicycle from the village of Baltinava in Northern Latgale, in eastern Latvia. The route ran along the P45 highway to Kārsava, twenty kilometres away, and on to Malnava. The travelogue is the concluding part of a series that began in the 29 October issue.
The author began along Tilža Street towards the centre of Baltinava. Looking at a map later, he realised a shorter route would have been via Skola Street, which leads to the Baltinava secondary school built in 1959 and now a primary school. In Kārsava he saw a sign to Kārsava station, the first railway station in Latvia on the Petersburg–Warsaw line, built in 1852–1862. Because of Russia's aggressive policy, the line is currently not operating. The Kārsava secondary school building dates from 1961 and follows the same design as the school in Baltinava.
A bunker in the Malnava manor park
The centre of Malnava parish is home to Malnava manor, which houses Malnava College, attached to the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies (LBTU). An agricultural school was founded at the manor in 1921, with counterparts in Kandava and Priekuļi. In the park, two boys were playing disc golf, and a bench bore the inscription “Be a Malnava local!”.
A local resident told the author about a bunker in the manor park, where Nazi Germany's leader Adolf Hitler is said to have stayed for some hours or even days during the Second World War. The bunker is locked. The author notes that the Wolf's Lair in Poland, a command post of Nazi German forces, is now a significant tourist attraction.
A teacher and resistance member
The author came to the manor for another historical figure: in 1941 and 1942, Valentīne Lasmane, a member of the Latvian National Resistance Movement, worked here teaching the Latvian language during the German occupation. Her life story, published in 2020 in the book “Nakts jau nav tikai gulēšanai”, does not mention Hitler's arrival in Malnava. The author concludes that it was not a widely known event at the time.
