Bast shoes: Ēvalds Inspēters
Bast shoes – footwear made of woven linden bast fibre – handmade by Ēvalds Inspēters from Sigulda. Born and raised in the Latvian colony of farmers in Bashkiria, not far from the Ural Mountains, Ēvalds Inspēters is one of the very few Latvians who not only remembers the times when people walked around in bast shoes, but still knows how to make them.
Bast shoes for money and for everyday use
Bast shoes are, in a way, characteristic of the handcrafting skills and hobbies of those Latvians living and farming at the base of the Ural Mountains. Read more >
The Inspēters from Vidzeme in Ufa Province
valds Inspēters was born in 1926 in Bashkiria, in the Ķereklu village in Bakaldyn. At the end of the 19th century many Latvian families, including the Inspēters from Vidzeme, moved to Ufa Province where they could get land. Read more >
Ēvalds Inspēters šodien
Over his lifetime, Ēvalds Inspēters has become convinced that – “the more you smile, the longer you live”, and this attitude allows him to view life with joy, no matter what happens. Read more >
Travel map
Further reading
Latvians in Bashkiria
Starting from the late 19th century, hundreds of Latvian families voluntarily moved to the Russian provinces to get their own plot of land, which at that time in Latvia could only be bought or leased for a disproportionately high and unaffordable price for the majority of country people. One of the emigrants’ destinations was the Ufa Province about 2,500 km away, where there was a lot of available land at the time.
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