Description

After World War II, the number of Russian-speakers in the town increased rapidly, and premises for a new school were needed. Existing buildings were already old and without owners, so in 1952 they were dismantled and the construction of a new school was started. The school building was completed in 1953. It is one of the best examples of typical 1950-ties architecture with “socialistic realism” characteristic of the Stalin-era. This was a standard project No. 22, and school buildings of this type were constructed across the Soviet Union.

As you make your way through the winding little streets of Tukums, a more sharp-eyed observer will easily recognise the buildings from the feature film “Rita” (1957) on Lielā, Talsu and Dārza streets, as well as the Tukums Elementary School No. 3.

The film “Rita” is the début of the director Ada Neretniece. The film tells about the last summer of World War II in a fishing village of Latvia. The ten year old Rita, risking her own life, takes care of and provides all that is necessary to the fishermen’s rescued 4 prisoners of war — a Frenchman, a Russian and two Latvians hidden in the attic of a school building turned into a warehouse by the German army.