Mrs. Ineta Ilenane remembers that when the Soviets ruled many bad things happened. Between 1941 and 1944, many people were sent away in the middle of the night, people did not have enough food, and no one had much money. Ineta doesn't think that there wasany good from Soviet rule. When Ineta was in college, she didn't have many choices in what she studied, she had to learn Russian  more than Latvian, because university classes were mainly taught in Russian.

Ineta also remembers that there were many strange rules, but when she did something "bad" that the Soviets didn't like, her parents weren't angry. During this time, she and her family celebrated all the traditional Latvian holidays, but no one knew. This was also not allowed.

Growing up, Ineta Ilenane lived in a shared apartment with her family until 1996 when she moved out with her own family. It was an 8-room apartment that was owned by her grandfather. When the Soviets took over, they placed three Russian families in the apartment with Ineta's family. Each family lived in one room but they all had to share the bathroom and kitchen.  

The first family was a man and wife. The man was an alcoholic and tried more than once to kill Ineta's family. "One time the alcoholic came into our room and tried to kill us with an ax! We had to call the police many times,” said Mrs. Ilenane. "His wife was a nurse who worked at a hospital for drunks, so I guess she saw her husband pretty often… "

The other family was a man and wife with two very loud children and the last family was a woman with a son who had been out of jail for 3 months!

“Never should any one have to live with other people!” said Ms. Ilenane.