| Alfreds Čepānis |
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Interviewer. It was a beautiful summer day in August. Alfreds Čepānis had gone to visit his electoral district…
A. Čepānis. In Valka, yes. And I was on my way back.
Interviewer. Back then, I remember, I also travelled around often; back then many did… I guess, since you had your own electoral district, a lot of people came…
A. Čepānis. Of course.
Interviewer. Everyone wanted to know. You couldn’t choose whether to go or not. Now you don’t have your electoral district; you are from somewhere.
A. Čepānis. Like most members of the Supreme Council, I had specific times arranged to meet with the people, the inhabitants, the voters. You had to be there and listen to smart or stupid ideas, but you had to be there and listen to them all. Many came just to talk; many came to see what kind of a guy you were. But most came to talk about flats… dear God!... they came to talk about household matters, and they thought that a member of the Supreme Council could solve any problem. Just like that! After one of those meetings, I was on my way back to Riga. I turned on the car radio, and I heard that the State Committee for Emergency Situations had been set up, and it was all about to blow. Well, then I was… did I have a family or not? Was I single? I really don’t remember… No, I probably wasn’t single; I had just married Ilma [Čepāne (nee Briņķe), member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia]… Well! She lived on Lubānas iela, but I was still living on Palmu iela. And then the first thing I did was that I took all of my hunting rifles to my garage and hid them there. Afterwards I…
Interviewer. On your way back from Valka?
A. Čepānis. Exactly! I drove home. It was evening. I put all the rifles in the car…
Interviewer. That must have been the evening of 19 August.
A. Čepānis. Yes, it was.
Interviewer. When you drove into Riga, had the armoured personnel carriers arrived already?
A. Čepānis. No, not yet. So I hid all those rifles, and then I started to worry again – it’s damp there; they will rust and so on… But, thank God, three days later everything was resolved, and there were no problems.
Interviewer. And then?
A. Čepānis. Then, Jānis [Gavars, interviewer, member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia], my heart trembled, to be honest, because, as I mentioned, I was aware of the reach, so to speak, the Communist Party had and the real methods it used to maintain power.
Interviewer. There were rumours, although there are no documents to prove it, that there was some kind of a hit list. Have you heard anything about that?
A. Čepānis. I have heard of it, but only fleetingly. Someone said: “You, Čepānis, were number fifteen on the list!” I don’t know if it was true or not. I can’t say. I have only heard rumours about this.
Interviewer. All right. So you arrived…
A. Čepānis. But there could have been such a list; it’s possible.
Interviewer. Yes. So, on the evening of 19 August you arrived at your flat on Palmu iela, hid the weapons. What did you do next?
A. Čepānis. I drove over to Lubānas iela, to Ilma; she already knew…
Interviewer. What was going on there – at the MPs’ house [apartment building for members of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia]?
A. Čepānis. At the MPs’ house I saw some national-radical members of the Supreme Council taking paintings and silverware, loading all of it into cars and taking off.
Interviewer. Really?
A. Čepānis. Yes, of course! I won’t give any names; let God be their judge, not me… But, yes, there was panic.
Interviewer. All right. The television building had been captured, but the radio was still broadcasting on the evening of 19 August, I think. There was no information. How did you feel? You’re sitting with Ilma, your new family…
A. Čepānis. I felt terrible, extremely terrible, because you didn’t know what would happen an hour later. We practically lived in the Supreme Council building; we did not go home. Then the armoured personnel carriers arrived at the Dome Square…
Interviewer. And what happened on 21 August?
A. Čepānis. Indulis Bērziņš [member of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia, Chairman of the Latvian Popular Front faction] said: “Stop blabbing! Stop debating! OMON will be here any minute! We have to adopt the Constitutional Law!” And then, thank God, it was adopted. And if everything had gone haywire, then at least we would already have had a legal grounding, so to speak. Well, as Deputy Chairman [of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Latvia] back then, I was in charge of trade, utilities and whatnot… I went to the Ministry of Trade and no one… I went to the Union of Consumer Associations, and no one there knew what would happen either. But when the Putsch failed, thanks to Yeltsin, that is when total joy broke out; there was cognac on the tables, men were applauding in any office you peeked into. Well, that was…
Interviewer. But did you realise then that that was true freedom?
A. Čepānis. Yes! Yes!
Interviewer. Did you?
A. Čepānis. You know, it was…
Interviewer. Or did it feel as if something could still…
A. Čepānis. No, no! I had a feeling, I knew what kind of a person Yeltsin was and that he would not turn back. Thank God for what happened!
Interviewer. Well, but in that Chamber – it was around 1 p.m. – armoured personnel carriers were really coming from the Dome Square. And you had to push the button… Wasn’t your hand trembling then?
A. Čepānis. Not in the least! Not at all!
Interviewer. Were you sure?
A. Čepānis. Absolutely! Absolutely!
Interviewer. All the same – the worst may still have been ahead…
A. Čepānis. It could have gone any number of ways, but there was no trembling. I say that without bragging… |
