Lithuanian partisans
Anti-communist guerrilla war in Lithuania | |||||||
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Part of the guerrilla war in the Baltic states and the Cold War | |||||||
Lithuanian partisans of the Vytautas military district Tigras (Tiger) team, 1947. | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Lithuanian Forest Brothers | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Joseph Stalin Lavrentiy Beria Pavel Sudoplatov Viktor Abakumov |
Juozas Lukša-Daumantas † Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis † Jonas Misiūnas-Žalias Velnias Justinas Lelešius-Grafas † Lionginas Baliukevičius-Dzūkas † | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
Destruction battalions | LLKS | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
200,000 NKVD personnel 2000–5000 " stribai "1,500 NKGB personnel |
50,000 partisans more than 100,000 support staff[1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
70,000 killed[2] |
20,323 killed 20,000 captured[2] | ||||||
90,000 civilians killed, circa 200,000 deported (including partisan supporters) |
Eastern Bloc |
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Lithuanian partisans (
At the end of
Background
Lithuania
Unlike Estonia and Latvia where the Germans conscripted the local population into military formations in the
On July 1, 1944, the
The Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas, VLIK) was created on November 25, 1943. VLIK published underground newspapers and agitated for resistance against the Nazis. The Gestapo arrested most influential members in 1944. After the reoccupation of Lithuania by the Soviets, VLIK moved to the West and set as its goal to maintain the non-recognition of Lithuania's occupation and dissemination of information from behind the Iron Curtain – including the information provided by the Lithuanian partisans.
Former members of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, the Lithuanian Freedom Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces and Lithuanian Riflemen's Union formed the basis of Lithuanian partisans. Farmers, Lithuanian officials, students, teachers, and even pupils joined the partisans. The movement was actively supported by Lithuanian society and the Catholic church. By the end of 1945, an estimated 30 000 armed people lived in the Lithuanian forests.
Organization
The resistance in Lithuania was well organized, and
The partisans were well-armed. During the 1945–1951 Soviet repressive structures seized from partisans 31 mortars, 2,921 machine guns, 6,304 assault rifles, 22,962 rifles, 8,155 pistols, 15,264 grenades, 2,596 mines, and 3,779,133 cartridges. The partisans usually replenished their arsenal by killing istrebiteli, members of Soviet secret-police forces or by purchasing ammunition from Red Army soldiers.[10] Every partisan had binoculars and few grenades. One grenade was usually saved to blow themselves and their faces to avoid being taken as prisoner, since the physical tortures of Soviet MGB/NKVD were very brutal and cruel, and being recognised, to prevent their relatives from suffering.
Armed resistance
Year | Partisans | Soviets | Pro-Soviet civilians |
---|---|---|---|
1944 | 2,436 | 258 | 258 |
1945 | 9,777 | 3,419 | 447 |
1946 | 2,143 | 2,731 | 493 |
1947 | 1,540 | 2,626 | 299 |
1948 | 1,135 | 1,673 | 256 |
1949 | 1,192 | 1,018 | 338 |
1950 | 635 | 494 | 261 |
1951 | 590 | 292 | 195 |
1952 | 457 | 92 | 62 |
1953 | 198 | 14 | 10 |
Total | 20,103 | 12,921 | 2,619 |
Rise: summer 1944 – summer 1946
In the first year of partisan warfare, about 10,000 Lithuanians were killed – about half of the total deaths. Men avoided conscription to the Red Army and hid in the forests, spontaneously joining the Lithuanian partisans. Not all groups were armed or intended to actively fight the Soviets. Partisan groups were relatively large, 100 men and more. There were several larger open engagements between the partisans and NKVD, like in Kalniškė, Paliepiai, Seda, Virtukai, Kiauneliškis, Ažagai-Eimuliškis and the village of Panara. Since the Soviets had not established control, the partisans controlled entire villages and towns.
In July 1945, after the end of World War II, the Soviets announced an "amnesty" and "legalization" campaign for those hiding in the forests to avoid conscription. According to a Soviet report from 1957, in total 38,838 people came forward under the campaign (8,350 of them were classified as "armed nationalist bandits" and 30,488 as deserters avoiding conscription).[citation needed]
Maturity: summer 1946–1948
In the second stage of partisan warfare, the partisan groups became smaller but better organized. They organized themselves into units and military districts and sought better centralization. The territory of Lithuania was divided into three regions and nine military districts (Lithuanian: apygarda):
- Southern Lithuanian or districts,
- North – Eastern Lithuanian or Kalnų (Mountains): Algimantas, Didžioji Kova, Vytis and Vytautas districts,
- Western Lithuanian or Jūros (Sea): Kęstutis, Prisikėlimas and Žemaičiai districts.
Open engagements with NKVD/MGB were replaced by more clandestine activities. It was important to keep up people's spirits. Therefore, the partisans hid in bunkers and engaged in political and propaganda activities. In particular they protested and disrupted elections to the
To combat the guerillas, in May 1948 the Soviets carried out the largest deportation yet from Lithuania,
Decline: 1949–1953
Juozas Lukša was among those who managed to escape to Western countries; he wrote his memoirs – Forest Brothers: The Account of an Anti-Soviet Lithuanian Freedom Fighter, 1944–1948 – in Paris, and was killed after returning to occupied Lithuania in 1951. By the early 1950s, the Soviet forces had eradicated most of the Lithuanian nationalist resistance. Intelligence gathered by the Soviet spies in the West and KGB infiltrators within the resistance movement, in combination with large-scale Soviet operations in 1952, managed to end the campaigns against them.[12]
Structure
LLKS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Western Lithuania (Jūra) region | Southern Lithuania (Nemunas) region | Eastern Lithuania (King Mindaugas) region | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Žemaičiai military district | Prisikėlimas military district | Kęstutis military district | Tauras military district | Dainava military district | Algimantas military district | Vytautas military district | Vytis military district | Didžioji Kova military district | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alka | Maironis | Vaidotas | Vytautas | Dzūkas | Žalioji | Tigras | Krikštaponis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Šatrija | Duke Žvelgaitis | Birutė | Žalgiris | Šarūnas | Šarūnas | Liūtas | Briedis | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kardas | Juozapavičius | Butigeidis | Geležinis vilkas | Kazimieraitis | Duke Margiris | Lokys | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lietuvos žalioji | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Aftermath, memorials and remembrances
Many nationalist partisans persisted in the hope that Cold War hostilities between the West, which never formally recognized the Soviet occupation, and the Soviet Union might escalate to an armed conflict in which Lithuania would be liberated. This never materialized, and many of the surviving former partisans remained bitter that the West did not take on the Soviets militarily.[15]
As the conflict was relatively undocumented by the Soviet Union (the Lithuanian fighters were never formally acknowledged as anything but "bandits and illegals"), some consider it and the Soviet-Lithuanian conflict as a whole is an unknown or forgotten war.[4][16][17] Discussion of resistance was suppressed under the Soviet regime. Writings on the subject by the Lithuanian emigrants were often labelled by Soviet propaganda as examples of "ethnic sympathy" and disregarded.[18]
In Lithuania, freedom fighter veterans receive a state pension. The third Sunday in May is commemorated as Partisan's Day. As of 2005, there were about 350 surviving partisans in Lithuania.[19]
Žaliukas ("Green man") is the Lithuanian partisan-inspired qualification patch in the Lithuanian Special Operations Forces given tp the very best. Žaliukas is the word for the state of alert of the unyielding part of the nation in the face of danger.[20]
Legal assessment
Lithuanian courts view Soviet repressions against Lithuanian partisans as crimes against humanity. In 2016, the Supreme Court of Lithuania ruled that the systematic extermination of the partisans by the Soviet regime constituted a genocide.[21] In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the view of the national courts that these Soviet repressions could be deemed genocide.[22]
Dramatizations
The 1966 film Nobody Wanted to Die (Lithuanian: Niekas nenorėjo mirti) by Soviet-Lithuanian film director Vytautas Žalakevičius shows the tragedy of the "brother against brother" conflict. Despite being propaganda shot from a Soviet perspective, the film alludes to the possibility of alternative points of view. The film brought acclaim to Žalakevičius, and to a number of young Lithuanian actors starring in the film.
The 2004 film Utterly Alone (Lithuanian: Vienui Vieni) portrays the travails of Lithuanian partisan leader Juozas Lukša who traveled twice to Western Europe in attempts to gain support for the armed resistance.
The 2005 documentary film Stirna tells the story of Izabelė Vilimaitė (codenames Stirna and Sparnuota), an American-born Lithuanian who moved to Lithuania with her family in 1932. A medical student and pharmacist, she was an underground medic and source of medical supplies for the partisans, eventually becoming a district liaison. She infiltrated the local Komsomol (Communist Youth), and was twice discovered and captured, and escaped. After going underground full-time, she was suspected of having been turned by the KGB as an informant and was nearly executed by the partisans. Her bunker was eventually discovered by the KGB and she was captured a third time, interrogated and killed.[23][24]
In 2008, an American documentary film, Red Terror on the Amber Coast was released, documenting the Lithuanian resistance to the Soviet occupation from the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.[25]
In 2014, The Invisible Front, a documentary focusing on Juozas Lukša, was released in the US.[26]
In 2021, Icelandic composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds released a track titled Partisans, honoring the Lithuanian partisan resistance.[27]
See also
- Anti-Soviet partisans
- Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
- Estonian partisans
- Latvian partisans
- Territorial Unit (Lithuania)
Notes and references
- ^ Rock 2009: p. 262
- ^ ISBN 9955-408-67-7. [KGB Data, '44–'53]
- ISBN 5-420-01585-4.
- ^ a b c d Kaszeta, Daniel J. Lithuanian Resistance to Foreign Occupation 1940–1952, Lituanus, Volume 34, No. 3, Fall 1988. ISSN 0024-5089
- ^ Mackevicičius, Mečislovas. Lithuanian Resistance to German Mobilization Attempts 1941–1944, Lituanus Vol. 32, No. 4, Winter 1986. ISSN 0024-5089
- ^ Lučinskas, Gintaras. "12 16. Lietuvos Laisvės Armija – partizaninio karo pradininkė Dzūkijoje". Retrieved 28 September 2019.
- ^ "Istorinė Lietuvos laisvės armijos reikšmė pasipriešinime okupantams". www.xxiamzius.lt (in Lithuanian). Retrieved 29 September 2019.
- ISBN 88-07-99058-X
- ^ Unknown author. excerpt from Lithuania's Struggle For Freedom, unknown year.
- ISBN 978-609-437-250-6.
- ISBN 9955-408-67-7.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link - ^ "Activities of Lithuanian Partisans in the West" (PDF). kam.lt. Lithuanian Military Digest. KAM. p. 16. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
"Documentary material (lists of repressed people, photos of killed freedom fighters, etc.) was of great importance. <...> By using it, the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK, lith.) prepared a comprehensive memorandum on pn the genocide matter, which was copied and distributed to all UN members. This memorandum was the first one to get the attention I need," J. Lukša wrote later.
- ^ "XXI amžius".
- ^ "Mūsų Ignalina - Kaip Lenino ordininkė 33-ejus metus namuose slėpė paskutinį Lietuvos partizaną". Archived from the original on 2017-02-16. Retrieved 2014-04-17.
- ISBN 0-929590-08-2
- ISBN 9986-757-59-2
- ^ Tarm, Michael. The Forgotten War Archived 2006-05-08 at the Wayback Machine, City Paper's The Baltic States Worldwide, 1996.
- ^ Huang, Mel. Review of Mart Laar's War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944–1956 Archived 2017-03-02 at the Wayback Machine. Central Europe Review, Vol. 1, No. 12, September 13, 1999. ISSN 1212-8732
- ^ "We Put Off This Day As Much As We Could". Kommersant. 19 April 2005. Archived from the original on 25 April 2005. Retrieved 2006-07-14.
- ^ "War after war. Armed anti-Soviet resistance in Lithuania, 1944–1953" (PDF). Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^ "S. Drėlingo veikoje – visi genocido nusikaltimo sudėties požymiai". Supreme Court of Lithuania (in Lithuanian). 12 April 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
- ^
"European Human Rights Court upholds landmark ruling on Soviet genocide in Lithuania". LRT. 11 September 2019. Archived from the original on 4 March 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
- Sagatienė, Dovilė (November 2020). "The Debate about Soviet Genocide in Lithuania in the Case Law of The European Court of Human Rights". Nationalities Papers. 2020 (4): 776–791. S2CID 229400342.
- Sagatienė, Dovilė (November 2020). "The Debate about Soviet Genocide in Lithuania in the Case Law of The European Court of Human Rights". Nationalities Papers. 2020 (4): 776–791.
- ^ Krokys, Bronius. "The Winged One". Bridges, April 2006.
- ^ "Naujas dokumentinis filmas "Stirna"" (in Lithuanian). Septynios Meno Dienos, No. 690. 2006-01-06. Retrieved 2006-07-05.
- ^ Documentary focuses on Lithuanian resistance to Soviet control, The Providence Journal, January 8, 2009
- ^ "Crushed by a Giant, With No White Knight in Sight – 'The Invisible Front,' on Lithuania's Postwar Resistance". New York Times. 2014-11-06. Retrieved 2014-11-17.
- ^ Teel, Eric (27 October 2021). "Ólafur Arnalds, 'Partisans'". NPR.com. Retrieved 30 October 2021.
Further reading
- Daumantas, Juozas L. (December 1975). Fighters For Freedom: Lithuanian Partisans Versus the U.S.S.R. (2nd ed.). New York: Manyland Books. LCCN 74-33547.
- Razgaitis, Darius. Forest Brothers from the West, research thesis, 2002.
- Vardys, V. Stanley, ed. (1966). "The Partisan Movement in Postwar Lithuania". Lithuania Under the Soviets. Portrait of a Nation, 1940-65. New York: Frederick A. Praeger.
- S2CID 159755578– via Project MUSE.
- Baliukevičius, Lionginas (2008). The Diary of a Partisan: A Year in The Life of the Postwar Lithuanian Resistance Fighter Dzukas. Pasauliui Apie Mus. Vilnius: ISBN 978-9955463207.
- Vitkus, Gediminas, ed. (2014). Wars of Lithuania. Vilnius: Eugrimas. ISBN 9786094372759.
- Ramanauskas, Adolfas (2018). Many Sons Have Fallen in the Partisan Ranks. Vilnius: ISBN 978-609-8037-76-0.
- Kemeklis-Kerštas, Bronius (2020). We could not but resist genocide / Memoirs of an ordinary partisan. Vilnius: ISBN 978-609-8037-93-7.
- Gehler, Michael; Schriffl, David, eds. (2020). Violent Resistance: From the Baltics to Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe 1944–1956. Schoeningh Ferdinand GmbH. ISBN 978-3506703040.
- Ziemele, Ineta, ed. (2021). International law from a Baltic perspective. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-43314-4.
- Streikus, Arūnas, ed. (2022). The Unknown War: Anti-Soviet armed resistance in Lithuania and its legacies (1st ed.). ISBN 9781032185088.
- Baliukevičius, Lionginas (2006). Partizano Dzūko dienoraštis [The Diary of the Partisan Dzūkas] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: ISBN 9986-757-50-9.
- Anušauskas, Arvydas (2018). Aš esu Vanagas [I'm a Hawk] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Dominicus Lituanus. ISBN 978-609-8227-07-9.
- Girnius, Kęstutis K. (1987). Partizanų kovos Lietuvoje [Partisan fights in Lithuania] (in Lithuanian). Chicago: Į laisvę fondas. ISBN 978-609-8227-07-9.
- Kerulis, Leonardas (1988). Pokario Lietuvos laisvės kovotojai [Postwar Lithuania's freedom fighters] (in Lithuanian). Chicago: Pasaulio lietuvių archyvas. ISBN 978-609-8227-07-9.
(Contains a registry of Lithuanian partisans)
- Kemeklis-Kerštas, Bronius (2015). Nesipriešinti genocidui negalėjom [We Had to Fight Against the Genocide] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: ISBN 9786098037470.
- Vaitkevičius, Vykintas; Petrauskienė, Aistė (2019). Lietuvos partizanų valstybė [The State of the Lithuanian Partisans] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: ISBN 9786090139479.
- Kuckailis, Ernestas (2020). Dešimt kautynių [Ten Battles of Lithuanian Partisans] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: ISBN 9786098088335.
- Wnuk, Rafal (2018). Lesni bracia [Forest Brothers] (in Polish). Warsaw: ISBN 978-8311152618.
External links
- Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
- Activities of Lithuanian Partisans in the West, p. 16
- Lithuanian Tauras District Partisans and Deportation Museum
- Soviet Terror In Lithuania During The Post-War Years
- War Chronicle of the Partisans – Chronicle of Lithuanian partisans, June 1944 – May 1949, prepared by Algis Rupainis
- Historynet – Lithuania vs U.S.S.R.: A secret hot fight in the Cold War