In Lithuania, in 1924, the Union of Lithuanian Nationalists (Tautininki) party was created. The union reflected the interests of the big urban and rural bourgeoisie, the landowners. Its leaders, Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras, were influential politicians. Smetona was the first president of the Republic of Lithuania (1919 - 1920). In addition, until 1924, he actively participated in the activities of the paramilitary organization "Union of Lithuanian Riflemen" (Šaulists).
In December 1926, a military coup took place in Lithuania. Power was seized by nationalists. Smetona became the new president, and Voldemaras headed the government and at the same time became the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Smetona and his Union party remained in power until 1940. Smetona in 1927 dissolved the Diet and declared himself "the leader of the nation." Lithuanian nationalists sympathized with the Italian fascists, but eventually condemned him in the 30s. Also, the Tautian did not find a common language and the German National Socialists. The reason was the territorial conflict - Germany laid claim to Memel (Klaipeda).
The issue of Lithuania's outward orientation caused a conflict between the two leaders of the Lithuanian nationalists. Smetona advocated a moderate authoritarian dictatorship, in an outward orientation he was at first opposed to an alliance with Germany and for an alliance with England. In domestic politics, he wanted to work with peasant democrats and populists, relied on conservative forces and the church. Voldemaras stood for a tougher fascist dictatorship, did not want to cooperate with other parties, and oriented Lithuania's domestic and foreign policy towards Germany. He was supported by radical youth. In 1927 Voldemaris founded the Lithuanian fascist movement "Iron Wolf". Due to disagreements with other leaders of the Lithuanian nationalists, Voldemaris was dismissed in 1929, and then into exile. In 1930, the Iron Wolf movement was banned, but it continued to operate underground. In 1934, the "wolves" tried to overthrow Smetona, but failed. Voldemaris was arrested and expelled from Lithuania in 1938. In 1940 he returned to Soviet Lithuania, was arrested and died in prison in 1942. Smetona fled abroad in 1940, died in 1944 in the United States.
Lithuanian dictator Smetona ultimately leaned towards integration with Germany. Apparently, this was caused by the rapid strengthening of Germany under the Nazis. In general, this is not surprising, back in 1917 Smetona headed the Lithuanian Council (Lithuanian Tariba), which adopted the Declaration on Lithuania's accession to Germany. Then this plan was not implemented due to the death of the Second Reich. As a result of negotiations between the Lithuanian leader and Berlin in September 1939, the "Basic Provisions of the Defense Treaty between the German Reich and the Republic of Lithuania" were developed and signed. The first article of the agreement stated that Lithuania would become a German protectorate. However, the plans of the Lithuanian leadership and Berlin were able to be destroyed by Moscow. As a result of a difficult military-diplomatic game, Stalin managed to obtain permission from Lithuania to deploy Soviet military bases and troops on the territory of the republic. Then elections were held in Lithuania, supporters of the pro-Soviet orientation won. Lithuania became part of the USSR.
Lithuanian President Antanas Smetona inspects the army
After the annexation of Lithuania to the USSR, a nationalist underground arose in the republic, oriented towards the Third Reich. Lithuanian nationalists aimed at overthrowing Soviet power by force of arms at the time of the German invasion. In addition, there were foreign structures. The headquarters of the Union of Lithuanians in Germany was located in Berlin; under its leadership, the Front of Lithuanian Activists (FLA) was created in Lithuania, headed by the former Lithuanian ambassador to Berlin, Colonel Kazis Škirpa, who was also an agent of German intelligence. To conduct military operations and sabotage actions at the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR, FLA created military units of the Lithuanian Defense Guard, which were secretly located in various cities and, on the instructions of German intelligence, recruited and trained personnel. On March 19, 1941, the Front sent a directive to all groups, which contained detailed instructions on how to act with the outbreak of the war: to seize important objects, bridges, airfields, arrest Soviet party activists, start terror against the Jewish population, etc.
With the outbreak of war, the FLA and other underground organizations immediately revolted. The size of the organization has increased dramatically. Communists, Komsomol members, Red Army men, employees of Soviet institutions, members of their families, Jews, etc., all who were considered opponents of Lithuanian independence, were seized on the streets. Mass lynching began. In fact, the Front seized power in the republic. The Provisional Government was established, headed by Juozas Ambrazevicius. The government was supposed to be headed by Skirp, but he was arrested in the Reich. The provisional government operated until August 5, 1941. After the capture of Lithuania, the Germans refused to recognize the Lithuanian government and formed an occupation administration. A. Hitler never promised independence to Lithuania, the Baltic states were to become part of the German Empire. At the same time, the Germans did not prevent various nationalists from harboring illusions about a "brilliant" future.
The Germans pursued a traditional occupation policy, which showed the future of Lithuania very clearly: higher education was curtailed; the Lithuanians were forbidden to have newspapers in the Lithuanian language, the German censorship did not allow the publication of a single Lithuanian book; Lithuanian national holidays were banned, and so on. Not having received "independent Lithuania" from Hitler, the Front disintegrated. Most of its activists and members continued to cooperate with the Germans, served the occupiers, and received the right to a well-fed life in the form of servants of the "master race". Skirpa spent almost the entire war in Germany, then lived in various Western countries. Ambrazevicius also moved to the West. Most of the rank-and-file members of the Front either died during the war in battles with partisans, the Red Army, or were arrested and convicted of genocide of civilians.
Thus, part of the underground was cleared out by the Soviet state security organs: from July 1940 to May 1941, 75 underground anti-Soviet organizations and groups were opened and liquidated in Lithuania. However, despite their vigorous activity, the Soviet authorities of the State Security Service were unable to liquidate the Lithuanian "fifth column". The remaining Lithuanian "wolves" became more active a few days before the start of the Great Patriotic War. On June 22, 1941, the uprising began. In particular, in the town of Mozheikiai, the nationalists seized power and began to arrest and destroy the Soviet party activists and the Jewish community. In total, in July - August 1941, about 200 Soviet and party leaders and more than 4 thousand Jews were killed in Mozheikiai alone.
Similar processes took place in other Lithuanian cities and places. They were actively attended not only by members of nationalist movements who went underground, but also by those who “changed their colors” and seemed loyal to the Soviet regime. So, immediately after the start of the war, in the 29th Rifle Corps of the Red Army (created on the basis of the army of the Republic of Lithuania), mass desertions began, and even attacks on the retreating Soviet troops. The local insurgent underground, not completely destroyed by the Chekists, even managed to take control of Vilnius and Kaunas (Kovno) left by the Red Army. Already on June 24, 1941, a Lithuanian commandant's office (then the Headquarters of security battalions) began operating in Kaunas under the command of the former colonel of the Lithuanian army I. Bobelis. The formation of auxiliary police battalions began. From the Lithuanians, 22-24 battalions were created (the so-called "noise" - schutzmannschaft - "security teams"). Lithuanian police battalions included German liaison groups of an officer and 5-6 non-commissioned officers. The total number of servicemen of these formations reached 13 thousand people.
During the German occupation, Lithuanian punishers "became famous" for the mass destruction of civilians in the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine. The local Nazis began the extermination of the civilian population of Lithuania from the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, with the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Already in June, a concentration camp for Jews was set up in Kaunas, which was guarded by Lithuanian "security detachments". At the same time, the local Nazis, without waiting for the approach of the Wehrmacht, took the initiative and, after the retreat of the Red Army, killed 7,800 Jews.
It is worth noting that many Lithuanians entered the service of the German occupiers not for nationalistic motives, but for mercantile reasons. They served a strong master and received handouts, the opportunity to live well. Lithuanians who served in police units and their family members received property previously nationalized by the Soviet government. The punishers received a large payment for their bloody deeds.
In total, during the war, about 50 thousand people served in the German armed forces: about 20 thousand in the Wehrmacht, up to 17 thousand in auxiliary units, the rest in the police and self-defense units.
After the liberation of the republic from German occupation in 1944, Lithuanian nationalists continued to resist until the mid-1950s. The resistance was led by the “Lithuanian Freedom Army” created back in 1941, the backbone of which were former officers of the Lithuanian army. After the Great Patriotic War, about 300 groups with a total number of about 30 thousand people acted in Lithuania. In total, up to 100 thousand people took part in the Lithuanian forest brothers movement: about 30 thousand of them were killed, about 20 thousand were arrested.
In 1944 - 1946. the Soviet army, state security and internal affairs bodies defeated the main forces of the "forest brothers", their headquarters, district and district commands and individual units. During this period, entire military operations were carried out with the involvement of armored vehicles and aviation. In the future, the Soviet forces had to fight against small rebel groups, which abandoned direct clashes and used partisan-sabotage tactics. The "Forest Brothers", as before the punitive ones during the German occupation, acted extremely brutally and bloody. During the confrontation in Lithuania, more than 25 thousand people were killed, with the overwhelming majority of Lithuanians (23 thousand people).
The Soviet state security agencies stepped up their intelligence work, identified and destroyed the leaders of the rebels, actively used extermination battalions (volunteer formations of Soviet-party activists). An important role was played by the large-scale deportation of the Baltic population in 1949, which undermined the social base of the "forest brothers". As a result, by the early 1950s, most of the insurgency in Lithuania had been liquidated. The 1955 amnesty summed up this story.
Group photo of members of one of the units of the Lithuanian bandit underground "forest brothers", operating in the Tel district. 1945 g.
The bodies of the Lithuanian "forest brothers" liquidated by the MGB. 1949 g.
Group shot of the Lithuanian "forest brothers". One of the militants is armed with a Czechoslovak-made submachine gun Sa. 23. In military uniform - the commander of the local "forest brothers" (second from the left) with an adjutant. In civilian clothes, saboteurs who have just been abandoned in Lithuania, after training at a sabotage and reconnaissance school created by the Americans in the city of Kaufbeuren (Bavaria). The far left is Juozas Luksha. The Association of Lithuanian Jews was included in the list of active participants in the genocide of the Jewish population. He is accused of killing dozens of people during the massacre in Kaunas at the end of June 1941. In September 1951, after being ambushed, he was liquidated by the employees of the USSR Ministry of State Security. Photo source:
