Guerrilla war in the Baltic states

Guerrilla war in the Baltic states

Lithuanian partisans from the Dainava military district
Date1944–1956
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:
In Latvia: 1,562 killed
560 wounded
In Lithuania: ~12.921		 ~20,000 Forest Brothers killed
~20,000 arrested in Lithuania
In Lithuania: at least 4,000 Soviet collaborators were killed by the partisans. At least 505,000 Latvians, Estonians and Lithuanians were deported to Siberia. The Baltic states lost 20% of their total population to Soviet deportations and anti-partisan campaigns.

The guerrilla war in the Baltic states refers to a series of armed resistance actions led by Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian partisans between 1944 and 1956 against the totalitarian Soviet occupation. Those who participated in the guerrilla war are commonly known as the Forest Brothers.

While the Soviets cracked down on the Forest Brothers, at least 505,000 Baltic states' residents (124,000 from Estonia, 136,000 from Latvia and 245,000 from Lithuania) were deported to forced labor camps in Russian mainland. The Baltic states lost 20% of their total population as a result, including 250,000 who fled to Western countries.

The plan of deportations of the civilian population in Lithuania during the Operation Priboi created by the Soviet MGB.

Overview

Some research estimated that over 50,000 partisans (10,000 in Estonia, 10,000 in Latvia and 30,000 in Lithuania) joined the resistance against Soviet occupation. The partisans resisted the Soviet occupiers until 1956, when the stronger Soviet troops and their infiltration of the partisans made armed resistance hard to continue.

Estonia

Estonian fighters, Järva county in 1953, relaxing after a shooting exercise (colorized photo)

In Estonia, as many as 15,000 men were part of the Forest Brothers between 1944 and 1953. They were most active in the counties of Võru, Pärnu, Lääne, Tartu and Viru. From November 1944 to November 1947, they killed about 1,000 Soviets. They controlled dozens of towns and villages, disrupting Soviet supply routes. August Sabbe, one of the last surviving Forest Brothers, was found by the KGB in 1978 as a fisherman.

Latvia

Memorial site of National Partisans in Ķikuri, Turlava Parish, Kuldīga Municipality.

Latvian partisans fought both the Nazis (1941–44) and Soviets (from 1944 onwards), aiming at restoring the Republic of Latvia. As such, they were persecuted by both the Nazi and Soviet occupiers. About 40,000 Latvians were part of the Forest Brothers, killing 1,562 Soviets. They were active in Aloja, Dundaga, Līvāni, Lubāna and Taurkalne.

Lithuania

Adolfas Ramanauskas ("The Hawk"), commander of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters.

Among the three countries, the Forest Brothers in Lithuania were the best organized. They dominated the whole countryside until 1949. They had assorted mortars, Czech Škoda guns, light machine guns and Russian M1910 Maxim heavy machine guns.

Fighters of the Tauras military district, Lithuania in 1945.
Small group of partisans from the Vytis military district in 1946.

Composition

The Forest Brothers in Lithuania consisted of the former members of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, Lithuanian Liberty Army and Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, followed by farmers, students and teachers.

At least 30,000 Lithuanians were part of the Forest Brothers, many of whom were deported to forced labor camps in Siberia along with their relatives, with a few to no confirmed survivors. The Soviets also dumped some of their bodies at villages to scare others into obeying them.

On October 15, 1956, Adolfas Ramanauskas ("Vanagas"), chief commander of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters, released a report to highlight the brutality of the torture some of them had suffered:

The right eye is covered with haematoma, on the eyelid there are six stab wounds made, judging by their diameter, by a thin wire or nail going deep into the eyeball. Multiple haematomas in the area of the stomach, a cut wound on a finger of the right hand. The genitalia reveal the following: a large tear wound on the right side of the scrotum and a wound on the left side, both testicles and spermatic ducts are missing.

Notable fighters

Pranas Končius (code name Adomas) was one of the last few Lithuanian Forest Brothers, who was killed by the Soviets on July 6, 1965. He was awarded the Cross of Vytis posthumously in 2000. Benediktas Mikulis, one of the last known Lithuanian Forest Brothers to live in the forest, was kidnapped by the Soviets in the 1980s, and spent years in jail.

State funeral of the Lithuanian partisan commander Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas (1918–1957), 2018.
State funeral of the last Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan A. Kraujelis-Siaubūnas (1928–1965), 2019.
Memorial stone in Rõuge Parish to Forest Brothers who died in a battle in Lükka.

Colonization during Cold War

The Soviet regime imported millions of colonizers from other parts of the Soviet Union, changing the Baltic states' ethnic composition forever.

Ethnic breakdown193919701989
Estonians in Estonia 88% 60% 61.5%
Latvians in Latvia 75% 57% 50.7%
Lithuanians in Lithuania 85% 84.6% 80.6%

Contrary to common Russian claims, the Baltic states were exploited subjects rather than beneficiaries from the decades-long Soviet colonization. Declassified archives showed that much more money was taken from the occupied Baltic states than ever invested back, including huge Soviet spending on military infrastructure to oppress the native population.

The myth of "generous Soviet aid in developing the Baltics" is said to be propaganda invented for justifying Soviet colonization under which the Baltic states' population went through decades of oppressive rule.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Clodfelter (2017), p. 538
  2. ↑ Plakans, Andrejs. The Latvians: A Short History, 155. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1995.
  3. ↑ Lietuvos istorijos atlasas. Compiled by Arūnas Latišenka. Briedis. 2001. p. 25
  4. 1 2 3 4 5
    • The Baltic States. Years of dependence 1940-1990 (Romuald J. Misiunas, Rein Taagepera, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1993)
    • "Soviet repression and deportations in the Baltic states". Gulag Online. Retrieved March 15, 2025.
    • Narratives of Exile and Identity: Soviet Deportation Memoirs from the Baltic States (V. Davoliute, T. Balkelis, Central European Press, 2018)
    • A Soviet Story: Mass Deportation, Isolation, Return (Alain Blum, Emilia Koustova in Narratives of Exile and Identity, Central European University Press, 2018)
    • Soviet Mass Deportation from Latvia, briefing papers of museum of the Occupation of Latvia (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia)
    • The History of the Occupation of Latvia[permanent dead link] (Museum of the Occupation of Latvia)
  5. 1 2 "The Brothers of the Wood. Bandits, Says Russia; Politicians, Says Prisoner's Counsel". The Sun. New York, New York. June 25, 1908. p. 9. Retrieved February 13, 2022.
  6. 1 2 "Jan Pouren Case". The Independent. Vol. 65, no. 3120. New York. September 17, 1908. p. 673.
  7. ↑ Strods, Heinrihs; Kott, Matthew (2002). "The File on Operation 'Priboi': A Re-Assessment of the Mass Deportations of 1949". Journal of Baltic Studies. 33 (1): 1–36. doi:10.1080/01629770100000191. ISSN 0162-9778. JSTOR 43212456. S2CID 143180209. "Erratum". Journal of Baltic Studies. 33 (2): 241. 2002. doi:10.1080/01629770200000071. S2CID 216140280.
  8. ↑ Ziemele, Ineta (2005). State Continuity and Nationality: The Baltic States and Russia. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 25. ISBN 90-04-14295-9.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Buttar, Prit (2013). Between Giants, the Battle for the Baltics in World War II. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1780961637.
  10. ↑ "Raadil pühitseti mälestuskivi eelviimasele metsavennale". ERR (in Estonian). October 16, 2007. Retrieved January 18, 2025.
  11. 1 2 Edgars Andersons, Leonīds Siliņš "Latvijas Centrālā padome – LCP". Upsala 1994 ISBN 9163017466
  12. 1 2 Plakans, Andrejs. The Latvians: A Short History. Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, 1995.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
  14. ↑ Kuodytė, Dalia and Tracevskis, Rokas. The Unknown War: Armed Anti-Soviet Resistance in Lithuania in 1944–1953, 2004. ISBN 9986-757-59-2
  15. ↑ #6 Prozariškės Archived 4 June 2024 at the Wayback Machine
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Hiden, Johan; Salmon, Patrick (1994) [1991]. The Baltic Nations and Europe (Revised ed.). Harlow, England: Longman. ISBN 058225650X.
  17. ↑ "Last USSR census 30 years ago counted largest-ever number of residents". Eesti Rahvusringhääling (EER). January 28, 2019. Retrieved March 18, 2025.
  18. 1 2 3 "Statistical yearbooks of Lithuania". Statistikos Departamentas (in Lithuanian). Archived from the original on November 14, 2010. Retrieved March 18, 2025.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  19. 1 2 3 4