THE FARMSTEAD RESIDENTIAL HOUSE
"VIMBAS"
The "Vimbu" house, as a residential building, was constructed in the Brūklāju village around the end of the 18th century. "It is a rectangular building measuring 15x7 meters, oriented in a roughly north-south direction. The foundation is strip-shaped, built from field stones with a lime gravel mortar. The walls are made of half-hewn logs in a log cabin construction, with the corners joined in cross notches..." /1/
The history of the collective farm "Uzvara" began with the end of the three-hundred-year history of the Brūklāju village, when in the spring of 1947, seven farming families united to form the agricultural collective "Uzvara" in the Mūsas River left bank region of the Ceraukste parish, Bauska district. It was destined to become one of the best collective farms (kolkhozes) in Latvia, and possibly in the entire former Soviet Union. The farm’s success was linked to a legendary figure – the long-standing chairman of the kolkhoz "Uzvara," Ivars Jansons, who was re-elected to the chairmanship repeatedly since 1957. /2/ In an interview from 1975, I. Jansons recounts that in celebration of the farm's thirtieth anniversary, the idea to create a museum of the kolkhoz's history and development emerged. It had already begun to take shape, but was scheduled to be opened to the public for its thirtieth anniversary.
I. Jansons says: "Initially, we burned two abandoned houses from the Brūklāju village, but we decided that such a bonfire was rather wild and probably shouldn’t be shown to the younger generation."
During the museum’s creation, Jansons himself went to visit a dismantled homestead to examine an old threshing machine, which they wanted to preserve as a witness to times gone by. I. Jansons says: “Initially, we burned two abandoned houses from the Brūklāju village, but we decided that such a bonfire was quite wild and probably shouldn’t be shown to the young people. The past, I suppose, cannot be so easily burned, and it shouldn’t be used to fertilize the fields with its ashes. After all, this is our fathers' sweaty life. We dismantled the buildings as remnants of the past. Some of the logs will still come in handy. We are also transplanting trees. We are moving the 'Vimbu' small house to the center, where we will establish the museum. In ten years, it will be the last and only homestead in our area." /3/
In preparation for moving the building, a photo documentation was carried out in 1972 (currently about 123 photocopies are on display), a technical description of the building was created, and a methodical-technological description of the marking of the building’s details was prepared. In total, about 500-550 plaques were planned for marking the wooden parts of the entire residential building. /4/
At that time, in the Bauska Communism Road, following an interview with the future director of the kolkhoz "Uzvara" and the upcoming "Farmstead and Agricultural Machinery Museum," Māris Bērziņš, when asked by a journalist: "A two-room 'smoke house' with wolf doors, small 'blind windows,' and huge beams made of hewn logs. Isn’t all this too archaic to believe that a kolkhoz farmer lived here?", M. Bērziņš responded: "Indeed, the house is distinctly ethnographic. We specifically chose this building to vividly demonstrate the folk architecture of Zemgale. Speaking of its inhabitants, it is true that kolkhoz workers lived in this museum house up until around the 1970s. Of course, this is no longer characteristic for that time, so we will furnish the rooms as they were twenty years ago." /5/
Currently, the "Vimbu" residential house is one of the buildings in the Farmstead complex of the "Miķelis" museum. The interior has been preserved as it was originally arranged by Māris Bērziņš. Changes to the exhibition are made while maintaining the ambiance of a rural residential house from the early 20th century.
IT WAS AND STILL IS THE FIRST BUILDING OF THE RECREATION COMPLEX!
SEE YOU AT "VIMBAS"!
Kartes no www.vesture.doties.lv 1920-1940 kadastru karte un 1963. gada ģenerālštāba karte
1. “Vimbu” māju dzīvojamās ēka Bauskas raj. Gailīšu c.p. Ēkas tehniskais apraksts
2. 1975. gada 11. oktobra Komunisma ceļš (Bauska Nr. 122)
3. 1975. gada 6. septembra Komunisma ceļa (Bauska Nr. 107)
4. Būvdetaļu marķēšanas metodiski-tehnoloģiskais apraksts
5. 1977. gada 29. septembra Komunisma Ceļš (Bauska Nr. 118)
Materials prepared by AK "Miķelis" museum educator Sanita Behmane Baibakova.