Laas Leivat
In 1948 Richard had completed his assignments in occupied Estonia. The resistance groups in concealment had been formed into a network and he had collected invaluable information for the West.
To find a suitable location on the Western shores for a secret embarkation to Sweden Richard left his bunker in Pärnumaa for one in Läänemaa. The NKVD had anticipated this and had established a series of false smugglers' hideouts for all who needed them for departure abroad. Fishermen and former smugglers were recruited to man these locations. The NKVD used them to send their own agents, in guise of resistance fighters to the West and also to capture those all ready on their wanted lists.
It was said that Richard nearly fell into one of these traps. Either he was warned or his intuition saved him. In either case, he was more convinced than ever that the movement suffered dangerously from wide spread penetrations.
In 1948 he returned to Pärnumaa where he established a bunker with old, trustworthy friends. The spring of 1949 saw the systematic destruction of the network of resistance groups. The mass deportations of March 1949 resulted in the capture of many of the families in different localities, families who had been crucial in supplying the Forest Brothers with food, clandestine shelter, information etc. The threat facing the resistance groups was also more exacerbated with the arrival of hundreds of men personally escaping the deportations. (Pikemalt Eesti Elu 11. jaanuari 2019 peberlehes)
