The Forest Brothers (also: Brothers of the Forest, Forest Brethren; Forest Brotherhood; in Estonian: metsavennad, in Latvian meža brāļi, in Lithuanian miško broliai) were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet rule and for German Nazis during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II. Similar anti-soviet resistance groups fought against Soviet rule in Poland, Romania and western Ukraine. Look up partisan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Guerrilla warfare (also guerilla) is the unconventional warfare and combat with which small group combatants (usually civilians) use mobile tactics (ambushes, raids, etc) to combat a larger, less mobile formal army. ... Soviet redirects here. ... The occupation of Baltic states generally refers to the occupation of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) by the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany during World War II, and to the Soviet presence in the Baltics from 1945 until the re-establishment of their independence. ... The three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania The Baltic states refer to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Anti-Sovietism and Anti-Soviet refer to persons and activities actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or the Soviet power within the Soviet Union. ... A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. ...

The Red Army occupied the formerly independent Baltic states in 1940–1941 and, after a period of Nazi German occupation, again in 1944–1945. As Stalinist repression intensified over the following years, more than 170,000 residents of these countries hid from the authorities, often using the wooded countryside as a natural refuge and basis for armed anti-Soviet resistance. For other organizations known as the Red Army, see Red Army (disambiguation). ... Belligerent military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory belonging to a state passes to a hostile army. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... Political repression is the oppression or persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take part in the political life of society. ...

Resistance units varied in size and composition, ranging from individually operating guerillas, armed primarily for self-defence, to large and well-organised groups able to engage significant Soviet forces in battle.

Background

Origins of the term

The term forest brothers first came into use in the Baltic region during the chaotic Russian Revolution of 1905. Varying sources refer to forest brothers of this era either as peasants revolting^[1] or as schoolteachers seeking refuge in the forest.^[2] ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ...

Caught between two powers

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had gained their independence in 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire and a generation had come of age by the outset of World War II. The ideals of nationalism and self-determination had taken hold with many people as they had in other parts of the world. Allied declarations such as the Atlantic Charter had offered promise of a post-war world in which the three Baltic nations could re-establish themselves. Having already experienced occupation by the Soviet regime followed by the Nazi regime many people were unwilling to accept another occupation. Anthem God Save the Tsar! The Russian Empire in 1914 Capital Saint Petersburg Language(s) Russian Religion Russian Orthodoxy Government Monarchy Emperor  - 1721–1725 Peter the Great  - 1894–1917 Nicholas II History  - Accession of Peter I May 7, 1682 NS, April 27, 1682 OS²  - Empire proclaimed October 22, 1721 NS... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Self-determination is a principle in international law that a people ought to be able to determine their own governmental forms and structure free from outside influence. ... Churchill meets FDR aboard USS Augusta at their 1941 secret meeting at Argentia, Newfoundland. ...

In 1944 the Nazi authorities had created an ill-equipped but 20,000-strong "Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force" under General Povilas Plechavičius (unlike Estonia and Latvia, Lithuania never had its own Waffen-SS division) to combat Soviet partisans led by Antanas Sniečkus but quickly came to see this force as a nationalist threat. The senior staff were arrested on May 15, 1944 (General Plechavičius was deported to the concentration camp in Salaspils, Latvia), but approximately half of the standing forces formed guerilla units and dissolved into the countryside in preparation for partisan operations against the Red Army as the Eastern Front approached.^[3][4] National Socialism redirects here. ... Local Lithuanian Detachment (Lietuvos vietinÄ— rinktinÄ—) - short lived anti-Soviet resistence movement created and disbanded in 1944 in Lithuania. ... Povilas Plechavičius was General of the army of Lithuania in the interwar period. ... Waffen-SS recruitment poster; Volunteer to the Waffen-SS The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Schutzstaffel. ... The Soviet partisans were members anti-fascist resistance movement which fought against the occupation of the Soviet Union by Axis forces during World War II. At the end of June 1941, immediately after the Germans crossed the Soviet border, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) (see... Antanas Sniečkus (07 January 1903 (O.S. 25 December 1902)) in Bublelai village - 22 January 1974 in Druskininkai) was First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party [LKP] between 08. ... is the 135th day of the year (136th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Salaspils (population 21,106 in the census of 2000, known as Kirchholm until 1917), is a town 18 km south-east of Riga in Latvia, on the western bank of Daugava river. ... Combatants Soviet Union,[1] Poland, Tannu Tuva (until 1944 incorporation with USSR), Mongolia Germany,[2] Italy (to 1943), Romania (to 1944), Finland (to 1944), Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Spain (to 1943, unofficial) Commanders Joseph Stalin, Aleksei Antonov, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky, Ivan Bagramyan, Kirill Meretskov, Ivan Petrov, Alexander Rodimtsev, Konstantin Rokossovsky...

The guerilla operations in Estonia and Latvia had some basis in Hitler's authorisation of a full withdrawal from Estonia in mid-September 1944 — he allowed any soldiers of his Estonian forces, primarily the 20th Waffen-SS Division (1st Estonian), who wished to stay and defend their homes to do so — and in the fate of Army Group Courland, among the last of Hitler's forces to surrender after it became trapped in the Courland Pocket on the Latvian peninsula in 1945. Many Estonian and Latvian soldiers, and a few Germans, evaded capture and fought as Forest Brothers in the countryside for years after the war. Others, such as Alfons Rebane and Alfrēds Riekstiņš escaped to the United Kingdom and Sweden and participated in Allied intelligence operations in aid of the Forest Brothers. Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Estnische SS-Legion - estnisches SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Bataillon Narwa Estnische SS-Freiwilligen-Brigade 3. ... Army Group Courland (German: Heeresgruppe Kurland) On the 25 January 1945 Hitler renamed three army groups. ... Coat of arms of Courland Courland (Latvian: ; German: ; Latin: Curonia / Couronia; Lithuanian: ; Estonian: ; Polish: ; Russian: ) is an historical Baltic province now part of Latvia. ... Alfons Rebane Alfons Vilhelm Robert Rebane (born June 24, 1908, in Valga, Estonia; died March 8, 1976, in Augsburg, Germany) was an Estonian military commander. ... Waffen-Unterscharführer der SS (Corporal) AlfrÄ“ds RiekstinÅ¡ Arm shield, Latvian SS Volunteer Legion Born January 30, 1913 in Matkule, Tukuma county, Latvia. ... A representation of the changes in territory controlled by Allies and Axis powers over the course of the war. ...

While the Waffen-SS was found guilty of war crimes and other atrocities and declared a criminal organization after the War, the Nuremberg Trials explicitly excluded conscripts in the following terms: In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ...

Tribunal declares to be criminal within the meaning of the Charter the group composed of those persons who had been officially accepted as members of the SS as enumerated in the preceding paragraph who became or remained members of the organisation with knowledge that it was being used for the commission of acts declared criminal by Article 6 of the Charter or who were personally implicated as members of the organisation in the commission of such crimes, excluding, however, those who were drafted into membership by the State in such a way as to give them no choice in the matter, and who had committed no such crimes.

In 1949-1950 the United States Displaced Persons Commission investigated the Estonian and Latvian divisions and on September 1, 1950 adopted the following policy: A displaced person (sometimes abbreviated DP) is the general term for someone who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration. ... September 1 is the 244th day of the year (245th in leap years). ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The Latvian government has documented that the Latvian Legion (primarily comprised of the 15th and 19th Latvian Waffen-SS divisions) was neither a criminal nor collaborationist organization.^[6] Mart Laar (Prime Minister of Estonia, 1992-1994 and 1999-2002), in his 1992 book War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944-1956^[7] rejected Soviet propaganda that had painted the Baltic resistance as having been orchestrated by wealthy landowners and Nazi officials and noted that the Forest Brothers counted among their ranks anti-Nazis and former Soviet partisans. Nevertheless, for some, the links between some Forest Brothers and the Nazi regime remain controversial. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian) was formed 1943 when the newly formed Lettische SS-Freiwilligen Legion was upgraded to a division. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

The ranks of the resistance swelled with the Red Army's attempts at conscription in the Baltic states after the war, with fewer than half the registered conscripts reporting in some districts. The widespread harassment of disappeared conscripts' families pushed more people to evade authorities in the forests. Many enlisted men deserted, taking their weapons with them.^[7]

The partisan war

By the late 1940s and early 1950s the Forest Brothers were provided with supplies, liaison officers and logistical coordination by the British (MI6), American, and Swedish secret intelligence services. This support played a key role in directing the Baltic resistance movement, however it diminished significantly after MI6's Operation Jungle was severely compromised by the activities of British spies (Kim Philby and others) who forwarded information to the Soviets, enabling the KGB to identify, infiltrate and eliminate many Baltic guerilla units and cut others off from any further contact with Western intelligence operatives. The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), more commonly known as MI6 (originally Military Intelligence Section 6), or the Secret Service, is the United Kingdom external security agency. ... The initials SIS may stand for: Secret Intelligence Service, UK intelligence agency, also known as MI6. ... Operation Jungle was an early-Cold War MI6 program for the clandestine insertion of intelligence and resistance agents into the Baltic states between 1948 and 1955. ... Harold Adrian Russell Kim Philby or H.A.R. Philby (OBE: 1946-1965), (1 January 1912 – 11 May 1988) was a high-ranking member of British intelligence, a communist, and spy for the Soviet Unions NKVD and KGB. In 1963, Philby was revealed as a member of the spy... The Cambridge Five (also sometimes known as the Cambridge Four) was a ring of British spies who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and into the early 1950s. ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... The term Western world, the West or the Occident (Latin occidens -sunset, -west, as distinct from the Orient) [1] can have multiple meanings dependent on its context (e. ... Intelligence (abbreviated or ) is the process and the result of gathering information and analyzing it to answer questions or obtain advance warnings needed to plan for the future. ...

The Forest Brothers often used cellars, tunnels or more complex underground bunkers such as the one depicted here.

The conflict between the Soviet armed forces and the Forest Brothers lasted over a decade and cost at least 50,000 lives. Estimates for the number of guerillas in each country vary. Misiunas and Taagepera^[8] estimate between 10,000 and 15,000 in Latvia and 170,000 for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania combined. Image File history File links Bunker_of_lith_partisans. ... Image File history File links Bunker_of_lith_partisans. ... Rein Taagepera (born 28 February 1933) is an Estonian-American politician and political scientist. ...

In Estonia

August Sabbe, the last surviving Forest Brother in Estonia, was discovered and killed ^[9] by KGB agents in 1978. August Sabbe (September 1, 1909 – September 27, 1978) was one of the last surviving Estonian members of the Forest Brothers, a group of rebels in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania who fought against the Soviets for the liberation of the three nations. ...

In Latvia

In Latvia, preparations for partisan operations were begun during the German occupation, but the leaders of these nationalist units were arrested by Nazi authorities.^[10] More durable resistance units began to form during the last months of the war; their ranks were comprised of a good number of Latvian Legion soldiers still on Latvian soil, as well as of civilians.^[11] To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

In Latvia, the number of active combatants peaked at between 10,000 and 15,000, while the total number of resisters was as high as 40,000.^[10] (One author gives a figure of up to 12,000 grouped in 700 bands during the 1945-55 decade, but definitive figures are unavailable.)^[12] Over time, the partisans replaced their German weapons with Russian ones. A Central Command of Latvian resistance organizations maintained an office on Matīsa Street in Riga until 1947.^[10] In some 3,000 raids, the partisans inflicted damage on uniformed military personnel, party cadres (especially rural ones), buildings, and ammunition depots. Communist authorities reported 1,562 Soviet personnel killed and 560 wounded during the entire resistance period.^[12] Coordinates: Founded 1201 Government  - Mayor Jānis Birks Area  - City 307. ...

The Latvian Forest Brothers were most active in the border regions. Areas where they were most active included Dundaga, Taurkalne, Lubāna, Aloja, and Līvāni. In the eastern regions, they had ties with the Estonian Forest Brothers; in the western regions, with the Lithuanians. As in Estonia and Lithuania, the partisans were killed off and infiltrated by the MVD and NKVD over time, and as in Estonia and Lithunia, Western assistance and intelligence was severely compromised by Soviet counter-intelligence and Latvian double agents such as Augusts Bergmanis and Vidvuds Sveics.^[13] Furthermore, the Soviets gradually consolidated their rule in the cities, help from rural civilians was not as forthcoming, and special military and security units were sent to control the partisans.^[12] The last groups emerged from the forest and surrendered to the authorities in 1957.^[13] Dundaga is a large rural community in Talsu county, Latvia. ... Lubāna is a Latvian provincial town situated in the district of Madona by the Aiviekste river. ... Aloja in Catalan legend are genies who are favorable to birth and fertility, who give life and constantly regenerate creation. ... Livani (LÄ«vāni) is a small town (population approx. ... The acronym MVD can stand for: Mitral valve disease, or Mitral regurgitation. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Counter Intelligence A uk label started and owned by John Machielsen. ...

In Lithuania

Among the three countries, the resistance was best organised in Lithuania, where guerrilla units were effectively able to control whole regions of the countryside until 1949. Their armaments included Czech Skoda guns, Russian Maxim heavy machine guns, assorted mortars and a wide variety of mainly German and Soviet light machine guns and submachine guns.^[3] When not in direct battles with the Soviet Army or special NKVD units, they significantly delayed the consolidation of Soviet rule through ambush, sabotage, assassination of local Communist activists and officials, freeing imprisoned guerillas, and printing underground newspapers.^[14] Captured Lithuanian Forest Brothers themselves often faced torture and summary execution while their relatives faced deportation to Gulags. Reprisals against collaborators' farms and villages were harsh. The NKVD units, named People's Defense Platoons (known by the Lithuanians as pl. stribai, from the Russian: izstrebiteli - destroyers) used shock tactics to discourage further resistance such as displaying executed partisans' corpses in village courtyards.^[3][15] Å koda Works (Czech: Å kodovy závody; today Å koda Holding, a. ... The Pulemyot Maxima na stanke Sokolova (Пулемёт Максима на станке Соколова) /Maxims machinegun on Sokolovs mount/ (also known as the Pulemyot Maxima PM1910 Maxim machine gun 1910) was a heavy machine gun used by the Russian Army during World War I and the Red Army during World War II. It was adopted in... US soldier loading a M224 60-mm mortar. ... A Romanian soldier aids a U.S. Marine in clearing a RPK during the weapons familiarization phase of Exercise Rescue Eagle 2000 at Babadag Range, Romania, on July 15, 2000 A light machine gun (LMG) is a categorization type, or class of machine guns that are generally lighter than other... A submachine gun is a firearm which combines the automatic fire of a machine gun with the ammunition of a pistol, and is between the two in weight and size. ... This does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... Torture is defined by the United Nations Convention Against Torture as any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he... Deportation is the expelling of someone from a country. ... Gulag (from the Russian ГУЛАГ: Главное Управление Исправительно— Трудовых Л&#1072... Look up Plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ...

The report of a commission formed at a KGB prison a few days after the October 15, 1956 arrest of Adolfas Ramanauskas ("Vanagas"), chief commander of the Lietuvos Laisvės Kovotojų Sąjūdis (LLKS) or "Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters", noted the following: The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... is the 288th day of the year (289th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Qiryat Shemona Airport (IATA: KSW, ICAO: LLKS) is an Israeli airport located in Qiryat Shemona. ...

Pranas Končius (code name Adomas), was the last Lithuanian anti-soviet resistance fighter killed in action by Soviet forces on July 6, 1965 (some sources indicate he shot himself in order not to be captured on July 13). He was awarded the Cross of Vytis posthumously in 2000. Pranas Končius, nicknamed Adomas (born in 1911 in Bargaliai, Kretinga district) was the last Lithuanian anti-soviet resistance fighter killed in action by occupying soviet forces on July 6, 1965 (or according to other sources shot himself in order not to be captured on July 13). ... is the 187th day of the year (188th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... is the 194th day of the year (195th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Order of the Cross of Vytis is a Lithuanian Presidential Award conferred on people who heroically defended Lithuania’s freedom and independence. ...

Benediktas Mikulis, one of the last known partisans to remain in the forest, emerged in 1971. He was arrested in the 1980s and spent several years in jail. Benediktas Mikulis was a Lithuanian nationalist who lived in hiding for 27 years – first from the Nazis during World War II and later from the Soviets during the Cold War. ...

Winding down of hostilities

By the early 1950s, the Soviet forces had gained the upper hand in the fight against the Forest Brothers. Intelligence gathered by the Soviet spies in the West and KGB infiltrators within the resistance movement, in combination with large scale Communist mop-up operations in 1952 cleared most of the last remaining guerilla fighters.

Many of the remaining Forest Brothers laid down their weapons when offered an amnesty by the Soviet authorities after Stalin's death in 1953, although isolated engagements continued into the 1960s. The last individual guerillas are known to have remained in hiding and evaded capture into the 1980s, by which time the Baltic states were pressing for independence through peaceful means. (See Sąjūdis, The Baltic Way, Singing Revolution) All three republics regained their independence in 1991. Look up Amnesty in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Georgian: , Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili; Russian: , Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[2] – March 5, 1953), better known by his adopted name, Joseph Stalin (alternatively transliterated Josef Stalin), was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unions Central Committee from... S is the nineteenth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. ... Human chain formed in Lithuania The STEBUKLAS stone in Vilnius Cathedral Square, in the place where, according to an urban legend, the Baltic Way started Baltic way (also Baltic chain, Estonian: Balti kett, Latvian: Baltijas ceļš, Lithuanian: Baltijos kelias) is the event which occurred on August 23, 1989 when approximately... Singing revolution is the common title for events in 1988 - 1990 that led to the renewal of independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. ...

Aftermath, memorials and remembrances

A persisting motivation for many Forest Brothers was the hope that Cold War hostilities between the West (who never formally recognized the Soviet occupation) and the Soviet Union might escalate to an armed conflict in which the Baltic states would be liberated. This never materialised, and according to Laar^[7] many of the surviving former Forest Brothers remained bitter that the West did not take on the Soviets militarily. (See also Yalta Conference, Western betrayal) For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... This does not cite any references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Baltic States. ... The Big Three at the Yalta Conference, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin. ... Western betrayal is a popular term in many Central European nations (including Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, the Baltic States, and East Germany) which refers to the foreign policy of several Western countries during the period from the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 through World War II and...

As the conflict was relatively undocumented by the Soviet Union (the Baltic fighters were never formally acknowledged as anything but "bandits and illegals"), some consider it and the Soviet-Baltic conflict as a whole to be an unknown or forgotten war.^[3][16][17] Discussion of resistance was suppressed under the Soviet regime. Writings on the subject by Baltic emigrants were often labelled as examples of "ethnic sympathy" and disregarded. Laar's research efforts, begun in Estonia in the late 1980s, are considered to have opened the door for further study.^[18] The Korean War (Korean: 한국전쟁), from June 25, 1950 to July 27, 1953, was a conflict between North Korea and South Korea. ...

In 1999, the Lithuanian Seimas (parliament) formally signed into law a declaration of independence that had been made on February 16, 1949 (the 31st anniversary of the February 16, 1918 declaration of independence) by elements of the resistance unified^[3] under the "Movement of the Struggle for the Freedom of Lithuania". Seimas is the Lithuanian parliament. ... A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modelled after that of the United Kingdom. ... A declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...

In Latvia and Lithuania, Forest Brothers veterans receive a small pension. In Lithuania, the third Sunday in May is commemorated as the Day of The Partisan. As of 2005, there are about 350 surviving Forest Brothers in Lithuania.^[20]

In a 2001 lecture in Talinn, U.S. Senator John McCain acknowledged the Estonian Forest Brothers and their efforts to liberate their country.^[21] County Harju County Mayor Jüri Ratas Area 159. ... For McCains grandfather and father, see John S. McCain, Sr. ...

Ülo and Aivar Voitka ("The Voitka brothers"), two men who evaded authorities in the forests of Estonia from 1986 to 2000 and received a great deal of attention in the Estonian media were often referred to as modern-day Forest Brothers.^[22] Ãœlo Voitka (7 October 1968) is an estonian freedom fighter, forest brother, pro-anarchist. ... Aivar Voitka (17 March 1967) is an estonian freedom fighter, forest brother, pro-anarchist. ...

Dramatizations

The 2004 film Utterly Alone (Lithuanian: Vienui Vieni) portrays the travails of Lithuanian partisan leader Juozas Lukša who travelled twice to Western Europe in attempts to gain support for the armed resistance. Utterly Alone (Lithuanian: Vienui Vieni) is a 2003 film directed by Jonas Vaitkus, based on real events, about Juozas LukÅ¡a (Daumantas), a Lithuanian partisan who fought against the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in the years immediately following World War II. The film is set in 1950-51 and shot... Juozas LukÅ¡a who is also known by nickname Daumantas or Skirmantas, was born on August 10, 1921 in JuodbÅ«dis village, MarijampolÄ— district and was killed September 4, 1951. ... The borders of Western Europe were largely defined by the Cold War. ...

The 2005 documentary film Stirna tells the story of Izabelė Vilimaitė (codenames Stirna, Sparnuota), an American-born Lithuanian who moved to Lithuania with her family in 1932. A medical student and pharmacist, she was an underground medic and source of medical supplies for the partisans, eventually becoming a district liaison. She infiltrated the local Komsomol (Communist Youth), was discovered, captured, and escaped twice. After going underground full time, she was suspected of having been turned by the KGB as an informant and was nearly executed by the partisans. Her bunker was eventually discovered by the KGB and she was captured a third time, interrogated and killed.^[23][24] Komsomol (Комсомол) is a syllabic abbreviation word, from the Russian Kommunisticheski Soyuz Molodiozhi (Коммунистический союз молодёжи), or Communist...

See also

• Romanian anti-communist resistance movement
• Cursed soldiers
• Hovhannes Bagramyan
• Estonian anti-German resistance movement 1941-1944

Map of Romania with main armed resistance areas marked as red points The armed resistance against the communist regime in Romania lasted between 1948 and the early 1960s. ... This is a monument to the Armia Krajowa in Sopot, Poland. ... Hovhannes Khachatury Bagramyan (In Armenian: ; December 2 [O.S. November 20] 1897 – September 21, 1982) was a Soviet Armenian military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union. ... The Estonian resistance movement (Estonian Eesti vastupanuliikumine) was a small-scale pro-Soviet underground movement to resist the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany (1941–1944) during World War II. Due to the unusually lenient terms given to Estonia by the German occupation authorities, especially in contrast to the preceding...

Notes and references

December 22 is the 356th day of the year (357th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Rein Taagepera (born 28 February 1933) is an Estonian-American political scientist and politician. ... is the 274th day of the year (275th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar). ... is the 256th day of the year (257th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1999 Gregorian calendar). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... is the 195th day of the year (196th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Robert C. Frasure Robert C. Frasure (born April 12, 1942 in Morgantown, West Virginia – died August 1995 in Sarajevo, Bosnia) was an American diplomat and the first American Ambassador to the modern Republic of Estonia. ... is the 236th day of the year (237th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Further reading

External links

• Museum of Occupations of Estonia
• Occupation Museum of Latvia
• Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
• Lithuanian Tauras District Partisans and Deportation Museum
• War Chronicle of the Partisans – Chronicle of Lithuanian partisans, June 1944–May 1949, prepared by Algis Rupainis
• What Happened in Lithuania in 1940? – Article by Alfred Erich Senn
• Crimes of Soviet Communists – Wide collection of sources and links
• Vienui Vieni ("Utterly Alone") – 2004 film about the Lithuanian Forest Brothers, based on the real life events of Juozas Lukša aka Juozas L. Daumantas
• Could the Baltic States have resisted to the Soviet Union? – Forum discussion, includes many links and pictures of Lithuanian partisans