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People from Nowhere
People from Nowhere
Start date: Nov 26, 2015,
End date: May 25, 2018
PROJECT
FINISHED
People from Nowhere is a personal story from the daughter of Cold War double agent.In 1978, Ieva Lesinska was a university student in Soviet Latvia. She had just spent a heady month in New York visiting her father, Imants Lesinskis, a Soviet translator working at the United Nations. He was an employee of the KGB and a member of the Communist Party. During her trip to the US, Ieva’s father informed her that he and his wife Rasma were about to defect and gave her a blunt choice: She could take a taxi to the Soviet Embassy and denounce him as a traitor, or she could stay with him and never again see her mother or her homeland of Latvia. She chose to stay.This story is Ieva’s search for truth about her father and the investigation of a Cold War in which she herself, unwittingly, took part. Audience has often perceived spy stories as thrilling and somehow romantic. Story of Lesinskis’ family pulls off the curtain of this romantic mystery as it reveals real people, real emotions and sufferings. Even 25 years after the story began and after great efforts have been taken to clarify these past events, destinies of persons involved have not yet been sorted out and are unclear not only for contemporaries but also for the family, especially Ieva. Ieva’s father’s wife still have not got back her real identity, circumstances of his unexpected death is unclear, as is the information about his activities in the US and Europe. Although 25 years have passed since the Cold War has ended, the KGB archives both in Latvia and Russia are still inaccessible. While for a person 25 years is a long time, for KGB it is still yesterday. The reconstruction of these events and search for truth is only possible via memories people have shared or still are willing and able to share. This personal story of a young woman caught in the middle of spy games in which she had to make a choice that severed her from her former life for good will reveal recent history that still has many secrets.