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86-529: In 1947, the poet Kostas Skinkys arrives at a remote village primary school. He has been sent there by the Soviet authorities for his anti-Soviet poems. He now writes poetry in praise of Lenin, which is recited by the school children. He meets his old friend Jule, and shows her his new secret poems against the Soviet occupation. She takes him to the Lithuanian partisans , who are critical of his public support for

172-479: A genocide . In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the view of the national courts that these Soviet repressions could be deemed genocide. 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,

258-673: A popular anti-Soviet uprising . Initially, the Lithuanians greeted the Germans as liberators from the repressive Soviet rule and made plans to reestablish independent Lithuania . However, the attitudes soon changed as the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany continued. Unlike Estonia and Latvia where the Germans conscripted the local population into military formations in the Waffen-SS , Lithuania boycotted German recruitment calls and never had their own Waffen-SS division. In 1944,

344-629: A decade, thus becoming one of the longest partisan wars in Europe. At the end of World War II , the Red Army pushed the Eastern Front towards Lithuania. The Soviets invaded and occupied Lithuania by the end of 1944. As forced conscription into Red Army and Stalinist repressions escalated, thousands of Lithuanians took to the forests in the countryside as a refuge. These spontaneous groups became more organized and centralized culminating in

430-479: A party, they are attacked by Soviet troops. Kostas and Tauras flee to a forest bunker, where they avoid Soviet troops for two days. Then Kostas shoots Tauras and returns to the town. He reveals himself to the troops as a Soviet agent. He returns to Jule, saying they can start a new life in the city, but she shoots herself. Principal photography started on 11 June 2021 and lasted for one month, mainly in Vilnius and

516-547: A settlement they disarmed the insurgents. However, some local institutions (police, various committees) de facto established by the insurgents were later legalized de jure . In the Soviet era, insurgents were persecuted and the uprising was censored from the history books. Memoirs and studies, published mainly by Lithuanian-Americans , inflated the number of Lithuanians activists to 90,000 or 113,000 and casualties to 2,000 or 6,000. After Lithuania regained independence in 1990 and new documents became available, historians revised

602-693: A somewhat autonomous status, akin to the Slovak Republic , was appealing compared to the Soviet occupation. This was not granted by the German occupiers, who steadily replaced Lithuanian institutions with their own and established the Reichskommissariat Ostland on July 17, 1941. Deprived of any real power, the provisional government disbanded itself on August 5. Lithuanians were quickly disillusioned with German obstruction to their independence and their subsequent anti-Nazi resistance

688-482: A state of war against the Soviet Union and ordered all able-bodied members to mobilize into platoons stationed in the forests and not to leave Lithuania. The departments were replaced by two sectors – operational, called Vanagai (Hawks or Falcons; abbreviated VS), and organizational (abbreviated OS). Vanagai , commanded by Albinas Karalius (codename Varenis), were the armed fighters while the organizational sector

774-400: Is restoring the free and independent state of Lithuania. In front of the pure conscience of the whole world, the young state of Lithuania enthusiastically promises to contribute to the organization of Europe on a new basis. The Lithuanian nation, tormented by the brutal Bolshevik terror, decided to build its future on the basis of national unity and social justice. — Leonas Prapuolenis ,

860-888: The Anykščiai region. The production received €475,000 or €600,000 from the Lithuanian Film Center , and crowd-funded €17,500. Lithuanian partisans [REDACTED]   Soviet Union Lithuanian partisans ( Lithuanian : Lietuvos partizanai ) were partisans who waged guerrilla warfare in Lithuania against the Soviet Union in 1944–1953. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups, also known as Forest Brothers and cursed soldiers , fought against Soviet rule in Estonia, Latvia and Poland. An estimated total of 30,000 Lithuanian partisans and their supporters were killed. The Lithuanian partisan war lasted almost for

946-716: The Iron Curtain – including the information provided by the Lithuanian partisans. Former members of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, the Lithuanian Liberty 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

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1032-670: The Lithuanian Activist Front initiated the June uprising for which it had been preparing since late 1940 and formed the short-lived provisional government . The Lithuanian insurgents liberated Kaunas and Vilnius before the Wehrmacht arrived and within a week, all of the Lithuanian territory was free from the occupying Red Army. The June uprising was directed militarily against the Soviets but politically against

1118-546: The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union . The Lithuanian Army was reorganized as the 29th Rifle Corps of the Red Army . The Soviets also closed all non-communist cultural, religious and political organizations. The economic situation steadily worsened and the standard of living decreased. A year later, just a week before the uprising, some 17,000 Lithuanians, mainly the intelligentsia , were taken with their entire families and deported to Siberia , where many died of

1204-562: The Lithuanian Special Operations Forces given to the very best. Žaliukas is the word for the state of alert of the unyielding part of the nation in the face of danger. 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

1290-553: The Luftwaffe against airports, airfields, and Lithuanian cities ( Kėdainiai , Raseiniai , Karmėlava , Panevėžys , Jurbarkas , Ukmergė , Šiauliai , and others). These attacks killed some 4,000 civilians. Most of the Soviet Air Forces ' aircraft were obliterated on the ground (322 airplanes were lost in the air versus 1,489 destroyed on ground). The Germans rapidly advanced, encountering only sporadic resistance from

1376-498: The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence . Subsequently, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 . The Soviets instituted Sovietization policies and repressions. In June 1941, the Soviets deported over 17,000 Lithuanians to Siberia , with most of the deportees dying in the harsh winters. When a few days Germany launched an invasion of Russia , Lithuanians organized

1462-639: The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR in February 1947. They published bulletins, leaflets and newspapers. Almost 80 different periodicals were published by the partisans. MGB also changed its tactics and began to recruit agents and organize destruction battalions . The partisans responded by organizing reprisal actions against collaborators with the Soviets. To combat the guerrillas, in May 1948

1548-558: The Vilnius Region . The Germans amassed some 40 divisions, 700,000 troops, 1,500 tanks, and 1,200 airplanes for the attack on the Lithuanian SSR. The Soviets had about 25 divisions, 400,000 troops, 1,500 tanks, and 1,344 airplanes in the Baltic Military District . 7 rifle and 6 motorized divisions from the 8th and 11th armies were located within Lithuanian territory. The first attacks were carried out by

1634-629: The 31st anniversary of the Act of Independence of Lithuania , the Joint Staff of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters signed a declaration on the future of Lithuania stating that the reinstated Lithuania should be a democratic state that would grant equal rights for every citizen based on freedom and democratic values. It did declare that the Communist party was a criminal organization. The document of

1720-567: The Catholic church. By the end of 1945, an estimated 30 000 armed people lived in the Lithuanian forests. The resistance in Lithuania was well organized, and uniformed guerrilla units with a chain of command were effectively able to control whole regions of the countryside until 1949. Their armaments included Czech Škoda guns , Russian Maxim heavy machine guns , assorted mortars and a wide variety of mainly German and Soviet light machine guns and submachine guns . When not directly fighting

1806-408: The Germans for assistance. The Luftwaffe bombed the tank units and they did not reach the city. It was the first coordinated Lithuanian–German action. The first German scouts, Lieutenant Flohret and four privates entered Kaunas on June 24 and found it in friendly hands. A day later the main forces marched into the city without impediment, almost in a parade . On June 26, the German military command

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1892-479: The Germans, who were against the declaration of Lithuanian independence, the establishment of the Provisional Government of Lithuania and various Lithuanian self-rule institutions. The German Army was greeted by anti-communist Lithuanians as liberators from repressive Soviet rule, because of the widespread hopes that Germany would help to recreate Lithuanian independence. For many Lithuanians, even

1978-581: The Holocaust . The uprising spread to other cities, towns, and villages. The level of rebel activities varied greatly across Lithuania and the uprising was spontaneous and chaotic. Men joined the uprising even though they had never heard of the LAF or organized resistance in Kaunas. In most areas the insurgents followed the pattern set in Kaunas and Vilnius: to take control of local institutions, most importantly,

2064-531: The LAF in the mass executions of Lithuanian Jews in the Seventh fort of the Kaunas Fortress and in the provinces. Jewish survivors and Lithuanian historians have documented that members of the LAF, especially in Kaunas but also in other towns, committed indiscriminate and gruesome excesses against Jewish residents, including mass killings of unarmed civilians, including women and children, often before

2150-445: The LAF, commanded by Vytautas Bulvičius , had been dismantled by Soviet arrests just before the war and at the time Lithuanians formed only a small minority of the city's population. The uprising there was smaller in scale and only started on June 23. The insurgents took over the post office, radio station, and other institutions, and raised the Lithuanian flag over Gediminas' Tower . It was easier to take control of Vilnius as most of

2236-633: 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

2322-432: The Lithuanian border and the Lithuanian soldiers mutinied. At least 120 Lithuanians were killed in various shootouts while attempting to desert . About 1,500 to 2,000 soldiers (of 6,000) of the 179th Rifle Division reached Nevel . Lithuanians hoped that the deserters would form the core of the new Lithuanian Army, but the Germans organized them into police battalions employed by the Germans. Some of them helped perpetrate

2408-399: The Lithuanian emigrants were often labelled by Soviet propaganda as examples of "ethnic sympathy" and disregarded. 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. Žaliukas ( "Green man" ) is the Lithuanian partisan-inspired qualification patch in

2494-505: 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

2580-737: The Lithuanians as pl. stribai , from the Russian : istrebiteli – destroyers ) used cruel repression to discourage further resistance, e.g. displaying executed partisans' corpses in village courtyards. The partisans were well-armed. During 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. Every partisan had binoculars and few grenades. One grenade

2666-735: The Nazi authorities authorized the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (LTDF) under General Povilas Plechavičius to combat Soviet partisans led by Antanas Sniečkus and the Polish partisans of the Home Army . The LTDF soon reached a strength of 19,500 men. The Germans, however came to see the LTDF as a nationalist threat to their occupation regime and its senior staff were arrested on May 15, 1944. General Plechavičius

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2752-527: The Nazi authorities in Berlin insisted that Škirpa and his activists not form any government or make any public declarations without their prior approval. Škirpa agreed to this, but had very little control over the activists in Lithuania itself. At 3:15 am on June 22, the territory of the Lithuanian SSR was invaded by two advancing German army groups: Army Group North , which took over western and northern Lithuania, and Army Group Centre , which took over most of

2838-511: The Nazi occupation, includes 769 people that did not participate in the uprising. The uprising began in the early morning of June 22, 1941, the first day of the war. LAF's main forces were concentrated in Kaunas . At 10:00 am LAF held a meeting in Žaliakalnis , dividing responsibilities. It decided that its main goal was not to fight the Soviets but to secure the city (i.e. organizations, institutions, enterprises) and declare independence. By

2924-667: The Neman River by boat, or from building a pontoon bridge . In this fighting about 100 insurgents were killed, and 100 Soviets (including several officers) were taken prisoner, and a large booty of equipment (including three tanks which no one knew how to operate) was captured. Other groups secured police stations, shops, warehouses, and attempted to re-establish general order in the city. The insurgents hastily organized their own police and freed some 2,000 political prisoners. They also organized publication of daily Į laisvę  [ lt ] (English: Towards Freedom ). Commander of

3010-533: The Red Army's 188th Rifle Division , Colonel Piotr Ivanov, reported to the 11th Army staff that during the retreat of his division through Kaunas "local counterrevolutionaries from the shelters purposefully and severely fired to the Red Army (which) suffered heavy losses of soldiers and military equipment". On June 24, 1941, the Red Army's tank units in Jonava were ordered to retake Kaunas. The insurgents radioed

3096-621: The Red Army's units were located outside it and retreated rather quickly. The first German units entered the city on June 24. The 7th Panzer Division , commanded by Hans Freiherr von Funck , had expected Red Army resistance in Vilnius and made plans to bombard that city. The 7,000–8,000 ethnic Lithuanians in the 29th Rifle Corps formed after the dissolution of the Lithuanian Army in 1940 deserted, and began gathering in Vilnius starting June 24. The 184th Rifle Division near Varėna

3182-559: The Soviet Army or special NKVD units, they significantly delayed the consolidation of Soviet rule through ambush, sabotage, assassination of local Communist activists and officials, freeing imprisoned guerrillas, and printing underground newspapers. Captured Lithuanian Forest Brothers often faced torture and summary execution , while their relatives faced deportation to Siberia (cf. quotation ). Reprisals against pro-Soviet farms and villages were harsh. The NKVD units (known by

3268-429: The Soviet Union voluntarily in June 1940. The uprising also contributed to unusually rapid German advances against Soviet Union: Pskov was reached in 17 days. The events of June 1941 also caused some controversies. At the time, Lithuanian diplomats abroad, including former president Antanas Smetona and Stasys Lozoraitis , described the uprising as "Nazi-inspired". These statements might have been attempts to persuade

3354-477: The Soviets carried out the largest deportation yet from Lithuania, Operation Spring , and some forty to fifty thousand people associated with the "forest brothers" were deported to Siberia. In February 1949, partisan leaders met in the village of Minaičiai and established a centralized command, the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters . Brigadier General Jonas Žemaitis was elected chairman. On February 16, 1949,

3440-481: The Soviets near Kaltinėnai , Raseiniai , and Šiauliai , and assistance from the Lithuanians. In the Battle of Raseiniai , the Soviets attempted a counterattack , reinforced by tanks, but suffered heavy losses. Within a week, the Germans had sustained 3,362 casualties but controlled all of Lithuania. Soviet losses were heavy and not known precisely; estimates put them at 12–15 divisions. The Red Army also lost most of

3526-740: The United States, Great Britain, and other Western powers that Lithuania was not an ally of the Nazis. The Provisional Government has been criticized for antisemitic slogans and decrees, particularly the Žydų padėties nuostatai (Regulations on the Status of Jews) of August 1. Its military unit, the Tautinio Darbo Apsaugos Batalionas (TDA), was employed by the Einsatzkommando and Rollkommando Hamann and local Lithuanian collaborators often drawn from

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3612-661: The Vilnius Region, under the control of a different army group. Hoping to survive, the government cooperated fully with the Nazi authorities. The Germans did not recognize the new government, but also did not take any actions to dissolve it by force (unlike the government of Stepan Bandera in Ukraine). At first German military administration tolerated the activities of the government as it did not attempt to take control of civilian institutions. The Reichskommissariat Ostland , German civil administration ( Zivilverwaltung )

3698-474: The West did not take on the Soviets militarily. 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 . Discussion of resistance was suppressed under the Soviet regime. Writings on the subject by

3784-401: The advancing Soviet troops, and transported some of the disassembled machinery, inventories, and raw materials to Germany. Despite its failure to establish independence and meager long-term results, as Kazys Škirpa summarized in his memoirs, the uprising demonstrated the determination of the Lithuanian people to have their own independent state and dispelled the myth that Lithuania had joined

3870-513: The aircraft stationed there, tanks, artillery, and other equipment. Despite the generally friendly Lithuanian attitude, the Germans carried out punitive executions . For example, 42 civilians from Ablinga village were killed in response to German deaths: After two German guards in Alytus were shot by unknown perpetrators, the Nazis shot 42 Lithuanian insurgents. The terror in Alytus continued

3956-506: The centers in Berlin, Kaunas, and Vilnius were rather poor. The headquarters in Vilnius suffered heavily from Soviet arrests, especially in early June 1941, and became largely defunct. Most of those arrested activists were executed in December 1941 in the Soviet Union. In March 1941, the LAF in Berlin published a memorandum, titled Brangūs vergaujantieji broliai (English: Dear Enslaved Brothers ), with instructions on how to prepare for

4042-500: The city. The Vilijampolė Bridge across the Neris River received special attention from the insurgents, as they expected the Germans to enter the city across this bridge. When the Lithuanians got there however, it was already wired with explosives. Forty Soviet troops and three armored vehicles protected the bridge and waited for the right moment to detonate. When the Soviets retreated from Lithuanian fire, Juozas Savulionis ran to

4128-607: The declaration survived and was preserved by the KGB . In 1999, the Lithuanian Seimas (parliament) formally recognized this declaration as a Declaration of Independence. 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

4214-652: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2014, The Invisible Front , a documentary focusing on Juozas Lukša, was released in the US. In 2021, Icelandic composer and producer Ólafur Arnalds released a track titled Partisans , honoring the Lithuanian partisan resistance. June Uprising in Lithuania Lithuanian victory [REDACTED]   Soviet Union [REDACTED] Provisional Government of Lithuania 1942 1943 1944 The June Uprising ( Lithuanian : Birželio sukilimas )

4300-426: 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. Adolfas Ramanauskas (code name Vanagas ), the last official commander of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters,

4386-569: 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). 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

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4472-472: The establishment of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters in February 1948. In their documents, the partisans emphasized that their ultimate goal was the recreation of independent Lithuania. As the partisan war continued, it became clear that the West would not interfere in Eastern Europe (see Western betrayal ) and the partisans had no chance of success against a far stronger opponent. Eventually,

4558-400: The estimates down to 16,000–20,000 active participants and 600 casualties. Most insurgents were young men, between 18 and 25 years old. Soviet losses have been estimated at 5,000 men. Attention! Attention! This is Kaunas speaking. Independent Lithuania. Declaration of the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. Formed Provisional Government of the newly reborn Lithuania declares that it

4644-599: The evening of June 22, the Lithuanians controlled the Presidential Palace , post office, telephone and telegraph, radio stations and radiophone. Control of the telephone systems allowed Lithuanians to disconnect all known communist numbers and talk to each other without passwords or codes. The Soviets had sabotaged the radio station, and repairs were carried out at night from June 22 to 23. Spare parts were delivered by medical students driving an ambulance. Despite fears that not enough Lithuanian forces were guarding

4730-580: The fall of 1940, was to re-establish Lithuanian independence. Started by Kazys Škirpa in Berlin , the LAF sought to unify the Lithuanian resistance, and organize and conserve resources for the planned uprising against the Soviets. It acted as an umbrella organization and many groups used the LAF name even though they were not connected with the LAF in Berlin. The LAF established its military–political headquarters in Vilnius and organizational headquarters in Kaunas . The communication and coordination between

4816-445: 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

4902-425: The first announcement of the provisional government through the recently captured Kaunas' radio. On June 23, 1941, at 9:28 am, " Tautiška giesmė ", the national anthem of Lithuania, was played on the radio in Kaunas. LAF member Leonas Prapuolenis read independence declaration Atstatoma laisva Lietuva (Free Lithuania is Restored). Prapuolenis announced the members of the provisional government and also asked

4988-490: The government did not agree to become an instrument of German occupation. The government self-disbanded on August 5 after signing a protest against the Germans usurping the powers of the Lithuanian government. Usurpation of public life continued after the demise of the provisional government. The Lithuanian Activist Front was banned in September 1941 and some of its leaders transported to concentration camps . In December

5074-417: The inhumane living conditions. It was the single most important precipitating event that incited popular support for the uprising and a positive predisposition toward the German invasion. Those who escaped the deportations or arrests spontaneously organized themselves into armed groups hidden in the forests and waited for the wider uprising. The ultimate goal of the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF), formed in

5160-488: The last legal party of Lithuania, pro-Nazi Lithuanian Nationalist Party  [ lt ] , was also banned. Most of the laws adopted by the provisional government remained paper declarations. However, a couple of laws of no immediate interest to the Germans, including local administration and education, had somewhat lasting effects. The remaining government developed local administration staffed with Lithuanians. Thia allowed some passive resistance when German orders from

5246-598: The middle of the bridge, cut the wires, and saved it from destruction. On his way back Savulionis was killed by Soviet fire, becoming one of the uprising's first victims. The bridges over the Nemunas were prematurely destroyed by the retreating Soviets. This forced the Red Army units in Suvalkija to bypass Kaunas and may have saved the insurgents in that city. The Metalas factory became the headquarters of Šančiai insurgents who attempted to stop Soviet soldiers from crossing

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5332-815: The neutrality laws. In June 1940 the Lithuanian government submitted to the Soviet ultimatum and Lithuania was occupied , transformed into the Lithuanian SSR , and incorporated into the Soviet Union . The Soviets began implementing various Sovietization policies, including nationalization of private property, and mass arrests of political activists and others dubbed " enemies of the people ". These arrests targeted many prominent politicians such as Aleksandras Stulginskis , Juozas Urbšys , Leonas Bistras , Antanas Merkys , Pranas Dovydaitis , Petras Klimas , government officials, military officers, and members of

5418-663: The next day: the Germans selected men, age 15–50, and executed them in groups of 20–25. More atrocities were carried out by the retreating Red Army. About 4,000 political and criminal prisoners arrested during the first Soviet occupation were transported to Soviet Union. The NKVD organized prisoner massacres in Rainiai , Pravieniškės and Panevėžys . Forty mass killing sites have been identified in Lithuania. Many others were killed en route to Soviet prisons. The largest such massacre took place near Chervyen in present-day Belarus . A list of NKVD victims in Lithuania, compiled during

5504-521: The organization was depended too much on Veverskis and other top commanders. In 1946 the remaining leaders and fighters of the LLA started to merge with Lithuanian partisans. In 1949 all members of the presidium of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters – captain Jonas Žemaitis-Tylius, Petras Bartkus-Žadgaila, and Bronius Liesys-Naktis ir Juozas Šibaila-Merainis – came from the LLA. The Supreme Committee for

5590-465: The partisans made an explicit and conscious decision not to accept any new members. The leadership of the partisans was destroyed in 1953 thus effectively ending the partisan war, though individual fighters held out until the 1960s. Lithuania regained its independence in 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire . As pre-war tensions rose in Europe, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed

5676-434: The people to guard public and private property, workers to organize protection of factories, public institutions, and other important objects, and policemen to patrol their territories preserving the general public order. The message was repeated several times in Lithuanian, German, and French. The first meeting of the provisional government took place on June 24. LAF activist Juozas Ambrazevičius replaced Kazys Škirpa , who

5762-462: The police, and secure other strategic objects. The insurgents also arrested Soviet activists, freed political prisoners, and hoisted Lithuanian flags. A lack of guns and ammunition was almost everywhere; these were mostly obtained by disarming surrendered Soviet troops. Most active insurgents were in the districts of Švenčionys , Mažeikiai , Panevėžys , and Utena . In some areas like Šiauliai had no noticeable rebel activities. Once Germans entered

5848-403: The radio tower, on the morning of June 23, Leonas Prapuolenis read the declaration of Lithuanian independence and the list of members of the provisional government. The broadcast was repeated several times in Lithuanian, German, and French. Also on the morning of June 23, 1941, insurgents raided Soviet armories in Šančiai , Panemunė , and Vilijampolė . Now armed, Lithuanians spread through

5934-475: The regime. The leader of the partisans, Tauras, urges Kostas to write hopeful poems, as well as satirical poems against the Soviet regime. Kostas attends a writers summit in the city. He is berated by the local commissar, who is aware of his meetings with the partisans, and asks for names and locations. In the forest, Kostas attends a meeting of the partisans. He mentions his meeting with the Soviet authorities, but claims he did not give them any information. After

6020-446: 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

6106-563: The top could be blocked by the bottom. For example, Lithuanians resisted recruiting for a Waffen-SS division, quotas for forced labor in Germany, and the Germanization of Lithuanian schools. However many museums, libraries and other cultural centres were plundered by the Nazis, and the artefacts shipped to Germany. As they retreated from Lithuania, the Nazis burned to the ground hundreds of buildings, plants, bridges and railways before

6192-400: The war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Insurgents were asked to secure strategic objects like prisons, railroads, bridges, communication hubs and factories, guarding them against potential sabotage by the retreating Red Army , while Central Headquarters was to organize a provisional government and declare independence. In April, a list of the members of the provisional government ,

6278-534: Was passive , in order to not aid Soviet victory and save up Lithuanian military power to resist a future Soviet re-occupation . In 1918, Lithuania achieved independence in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution and secured its statehood during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence . Initially prior to World War II , Lithuania declared neutrality and its Seimas passed

6364-481: Was a brief period of the history of Lithuania in late June 1941 between the first Soviet and the Nazi occupations . A year prior, on June 15, 1940, the Red Army occupied Lithuania and established the unpopular Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , which silenced its critics and suppressed resistance with political repression and state terrorism . When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941,

6450-578: Was arrested in October 1956 and executed in November 1957. The last Lithuanian anti-Soviet resistance fighters killed in action were Pranas Končius (code name Adomas ) and Kostas Liuberskis (code name Žvainys ). Končius was killed on July 6, 1965 (some sources say he shot himself on July 13 in order to avoid capture) and awarded the Cross of Vytis in 2000. Liuberskis was killed on October 2, 1969; his fate

6536-422: Was compiled. The prime minister's post was reserved for Škirpa, four ministers were from Vilnius, six from Kaunas, and one from Berlin. The members represented a wide spectrum of pre-war political parties and, as such, claimed to represent a majority of the Lithuanian people. Some have suggested that not all of the designated ministers knew about their proposed appointment to the provisional government. On June 14,

6622-596: Was deported to the Salaspils concentration camp in Latvia. However, a large proportion of the LTDF succeeded in escaping deportation to Germany and formed guerrilla units, dissolved into the countryside in preparation for partisan operations against the Soviet Army as the Eastern Front approached. On July 1, 1944, the Lithuanian Liberty Army ( Lithuanian : Lietuvos laisvės armija , LLA) declared

6708-426: Was divided into three regions and nine military districts ( Lithuanian : apygarda ): 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 Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in February 1946 and to

6794-427: Was established on July 17. Rather than use brute force, the civil administration slowly removed the government's powers (for example, not allowing it to print its decrees in newspapers, or broadcast radio announcements) and supplanted its institutions, forcing the provisional government to either self-disband or to become a puppet institution. Willing to cooperate if that meant recognition and some semblance of autonomy,

6880-400: Was one of the first to face the advancing Germans. Taking advantage of chaos among the Soviet officers, Lithuanians separated from the main corps with only a few losses and gathered in Vilnius. Only 745 soldiers of the 184th Rifle Division reached the Soviet Union. The 179th Rifle Division was ordered to retreat from Pabradė – Švenčionėliai towards Pskov . On June 27, the division crossed

6966-456: Was ordered to disband and disarm the rebel groups. Two days later Lithuanian guards and patrols were also relieved of their duties. According to self-registration in July, there were about 6,000 insurgents, spontaneously organized into 26 groups in Kaunas. The largest groups numbered 200–250 men. Total Lithuanian casualties in Kaunas have been estimated at 200 dead and 150 wounded. In Vilnius,

7052-600: 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. 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

7138-413: Was tasked with passive resistance , including supply of food, information, and transport to Vanagai . In the middle of 1944, the LLA had 10 000 members. The Soviets had killed 659 and arrested 753 members of the LLA by January 26, 1945. Founder Kazys Veverskis was killed in December 1944, and its headquarters were liquidated in December 1945. This represented the failure of highly centralized resistance;

7224-474: Was under house arrest in Berlin, as the prime minister. The new government attempted to take full control of the country, establish the proclaimed independence, and start a de-Sovietization campaign. During its six-week existence over 100 laws, some prepared in advance, were issued, dealing with de-nationalization of land, enterprises, and real estate, restoration of local administrative units, formation of police, and other issues. The government did not have power in

7310-434: Was unknown until the late 2000s. Stasys Guiga (code name Tarzanas ) died in hiding in 1986. 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

7396-424: 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. 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

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