Resistance against Soviet regime after World War II
For other uses, see Lithuanian partisans (disambiguation).
Anti-communist guerrilla war in Lithuania
Part of the guerrilla war in the Baltic states and the Cold War
Lithuanian partisans of the Vytautas military district Tigras (Tiger) team, 1947.
Date
1 July 1944 – May 1953
Location
Lithuania
Result
Partisan movement suppressed; Partisan movement became symbol of national revolt of Lithuania
Belligerents
Soviet Union
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
Lithuanian Forest Brothers
Commanders and leaders
Joseph Stalin Lavrentiy Beria Pavel Sudoplatov Viktor Abakumov
Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas Antanas Kraujelis-Siaubūnas † Juozas Lukša-Daumantas † Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis † Jonas Misiūnas-Žalias Velnias Justinas Lelešius-Grafas † Lionginas Baliukevičius-Dzūkas †
Units involved
NKVD NKGB MGB 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
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
Bulgaria
China (until 1961)
Congo
Cuba
Czechoslovakia
East Germany
Ethiopia
Grenada
Hungary
Kampuchea
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
Brașov 1987
Tbilisi 1989
Ukraine 1989–1991
Baku 1990
Lithuania 1991
Riga 1991
Cold War events
Marshall Plan
Czechoslovak coup
Tito–Stalin split
Berlin Blockade
Korean War
Secret Speech
Sino-Soviet split
Albanian–Soviet split
De-satellization of the Socialist Republic of Romania
Berlin Wall
Cuban Missile Crisis
Vietnam War
Cuban intervention in Angola
Afghan War
1980 Moscow Olympics
1984 Los Angeles Olympics
Gulf War
Fall
Singing Revolution
Polish Round Table Agreement
Revolutions of 1989
Fall of the Berlin Wall
January Events
Barricades in Latvia
Breakup of Yugoslavia
Yugoslav Wars
End of the Soviet Union
Post-Soviet conflicts
Fall of communism in Albania
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
v
t
e
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.[3] The Lithuanian partisan war lasted almost for 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 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, 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.
^Rock 2009: p. 262
^ abLietuvos istorijos atlasas. – Briedis, 2001. – P. 25. – ISBN 9955-408-67-7 . [KGB Data, '44–'53]
^Vaitiekūnas, Stasys (2006). Lietuvos gyventojai: Per du tūkstantmečius (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos institutas. p. 143. ISBN 5-420-01585-4.
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Global Information
Lithuanian Forest Brothers
Joseph Stalin
