Anti-Soviet resistance during and after World War II
"Forest Brothers" redirects here. For the Georgian guerrilla group, see Forest Brothers (Georgia).
Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
Part of the occupation of the Baltic states and anti-communist insurgencies in Central and Eastern Europe
Lithuanian partisans from the Dainava military district
Date
1944–1956
Location
Baltic states
Result
Soviet victory
Belligerents
Soviet Union
Lithuanian partisans Latvian partisans Estonian partisans
Strength
Unknown
~50,000
Casualties and losses
~13,000 Soviet fatalities:[1]
In Latvia: 1,562 killed 560 wounded[2]
In Lithuania: ~12.921
~20,000 Forest Brothers killed[1] ~20,000 arrested in Lithuania[1][3]
In Lithuania: at least 4,000 civilians who collaborated with the Soviets were killed by partisans; More than ~300,000 Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians were exiled to Siberia.[1]
Eastern Bloc
Republicsof theUSSR
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Byelorussia
Estonia
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kirghizia
Latvia
Lithuania
Moldavia
Russia
Tajikistan
Turkmenia
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Allied and satellite states
Afghanistan
Albania (until 1961)
Angola
Benin
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China (until 1961)
Congo
Cuba
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Ethiopia
Grenada
Hungary
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Laos
Mongolia
Mozambique
North Korea
Poland (until 1989)
Romania
Somalia (until 1977)
South Yemen
Vietnam (North Vietnam, PRG)
Yugoslavia (until 1948)
Related organizations
Warsaw Pact
Comecon
Cominform
World Federation of Trade Unions
World Federation of Democratic Youth
Dissent and opposition
Anti-Soviet partisans
Albania
Bulgaria
Croatia
Poland
Romania
Serbia
Ukraine
Guerrilla war in the Baltic states
Soviet occupation
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Operation Jungle
Protests and uprisings
Poland 1944–1989
Poznań 1956
1980–89
Plzeň 1953
East Germany 1953
Georgia 1956
Hungary 1956
Novocherkassk 1962
Prague 1968
Invasion
Moscow
Czechoslovakia 1976–90
Romania 1977
Kazakhstan 1986
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Tbilisi 1989
Ukraine 1989–1991
Baku 1990
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Cold War events
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Fall
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Post-Soviet conflicts
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v
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The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Baltic (Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian) partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known alternatively as the "Forest Brothers", the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars" (Estonian: metsavennad, Latvian: mežabrāļi, Lithuanian: žaliukai), these partisans fought against invading Soviet forces during their occupation of the Baltic states during and after World War II.[4][5] Similar insurgent groups resisted Soviet occupations in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Ukraine.
Soviet forces, consisting primarily of the Red Army, occupied the Baltic states in 1940, completing their occupation by 1941. After a period of German occupation during World War II, the Soviets reoccupied Lithuania from 1944 to 1945. As Soviet political repression intensified over the following years, tens of thousands of partisans from the Baltics began to use the countryside as a base for an anti-Soviet insurgency.
According to some estimates, at least 50,000 partisans (10,000 in Estonia, 10,000 in Latvia and 30,000 in Lithuania) in addition to their supporters were involved in the insurgency. The partisans continued to carry out an armed struggle until 1956, when the superiority of the Soviet security forces, largely in the form of secret agents which infiltrated the partisan groups, caused the Baltic population to change tactics and use other forms of resistance.[6]
^ abcdClodfelter (2017), p. 538
^Plakans, Andrejs. The Latvians: A Short History, 155. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1995.
^Lietuvos istorijos atlasas. Compiled by Arūnas Latišenka. Briedis. 2001. p. 25
^"The Brothers of the Wood. Bandits, Says Russia; Politicians, Says Prisoner's Counsel". The Sun. New York, New York. 25 June 1908. p. 9. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
^"Jan Pouren Case". The Independent. Vol. 65, no. 3120. New York. 17 September 1908. p. 673.
^Ziemele, Ineta (2005). State Continuity and Nationality: The Baltic States and Russia. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 25. ISBN 90-04-14295-9.
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