On 5th May of 1943 not far from Bukmuiža,

not far from Altenieku village, near bridge partisans

encountered enemies ambuscade. From 10 meters

distance nation`s betrayers - policemen and Germans -

opened fire and Jānis Baško, who was in the front line,

was  impaled by whole submachine gun.

Jānis Baško was born in 1923 in farmer’s family, in Kastīre parish, Preiļi municipality. There were six children in Jānis family, so he had to put up with poverty. The oldest brother Eduard brought Janis in movement of revolutionary youth and Janis became an editor of underground literary journal «Olūts», by attracting more and more youth. The journal was exposing dark sides of Ulmanis regime. Jānis also worked as Komsomol secretary of Nīcgale parish. From the very first days of war Jānis stood out for his bravery, sense of duty and  great responsibility about the tasks he was assigned to do. The life of partisans was closely tied to combat operations. in this period main kinds of partisans combat operations were detonation of railways and enemy’s echelons, night attacks of occupation authorities and police stations, sudden attacks from ambuscades of cars and trucks. 

 Address: Altenīki, Ezernieku parish, Krāslava municipality