D. Juodis, Dr. Habil. (History), Research Fellow
General Jonas Zemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, Vilnius, Lithuania
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2019.141.10
CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE UNIFICATION OF LITHUANIAN ANTI-SOVIET PARTISANS DURING 1946-1949
In 2019 comes the 70th anniversary of the founding of LLKS – the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters (Lietuvos Laisvės Kovos Sąjūdi). This underground organization had been founded in February of 1949. It united the people, who had been fighting against the Soviet power in Lithuania. Heads of the LLKS were active partisans and they called themselves freedom fighters. In the same time, other people called partisans ‘forest men’, ‘greens’ etc.
The main purpose of this article – to consider the process of unification of the forces of Lithuanian partisans under unified command and to highlight the main circumstances of this process. The article is based on the archival materials and modern research writings. So far, very few research papers about Lithuanian anti-Soviet struggle have been published outside Lithuania. That’s why one of the goals of the author – to provide the information about this episode of the modern history of Lithuania to Ukrainian readers. Perhaps, the similarity with Ukrainian national insurgent movement during the 2nd World War will be found.
The final ambition of the armed struggle of Lithuanian partisans was the creation of free democratic Lithuania. Partisans considered the mistakes of Lithuanian state-building during the interwar period, such as authoritarian regime and weak social politics. Freedom fighters hoped to get help from the West countries – Great Britain of the USA – through the mediation of Lithuanian emigrants. The unification of partisans was difficult because of the activity of infiltrated Soviet security agents.
The chronological framework of the article covers the period of 1946-1949, when where held the main events of the unification of partisans. Active partisan struggle against the Soviet in Lithuania power lasted to 1953.
Keywords: Lithuania, partisans, Jonas Zemiatis, anti-Soviet struggle, LLKS.
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