Arnis Lapiņš, Latvia
Laura Lapina interviewed her father, Arnis, who was a doctoral candidate in history in 1986. At a time when Soviet newspapers hesitated to publish any information at all about the accident, Arnis and had access to the „special funds” section in the university library which consisted of newspapers from abroad.
My father Arnis Lapiņš was born in 1960 in Cēsis- a small town in northern Latvia. He is the younger of two sons and both of his parents were teachers (mathematics and sports). They lived in a small village and his memories from childhood are pleasant.
He was a very motivated student in school and liked to read a lot. Apart from that he was also very interested in sports and trained together with his father in volleyball.
As they lived in the countryside they also had to take care of the land and to do the chores. Altogether he describes his family as a rather typical for that time period – they always talked and dreamed about buying a car, never discussed politics, didn’t practice religion and generally didn’t bother thinking about things they couldn’t influence.
After high school Arnis Lapiņš went to the capital to start history studies in university. Soon he met his wife Irina there and in 1983 they got married. The same year their first child was born – a son named Artis which was followed by daughter Laura in 1990. Nowadays Arnis works in PR, but at the time of the Chernobyl accident he was a candidate for a doctor’s degree in history.
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