LITHUANIAN PARTISAN MILITARY DISTRICTS 1949-1950 Territories where no active organized partisan resistance took place State border of the Republic of Lithuania Region border District border © Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania Corps border © UAB Žemėlapių artelė Justinas SAJAUSKAS Unforgettable Names of Lithuania Novel of miniatures The General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania Unforgettable LithuaniaNames of Justinas SAJAUSKAS Novel of miniatures Vilnius 2015 UDK 821.172-31 Sa79 The photographs published in the book were taken from Justinas Sajauskas and Stanislovas Sajauskas’ photograph Contents album ‘Marijampolė. Partizaninis karas’ (‘Marijampolė. Partisan War’) published in Kaunas, 2012. On the cover: monument for the partisans of the Tauras military district in Marijampolė. Unveiled in 2003. Monument designer: Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas. Taken from J. Sajauskas ‘Neužmirštami Suvalkijos vardai’ (‘Unforgettable Names of Suvalkija’) Foreword / 6 Preface / 10 I. THE CENTRE / 20 II. THE EAST / 36 © Justinas Sajauskas, 2015 III. THE SOUTH / 120 © Neringa Sajauskaitė-Juknevičienė, translation into English, 2015 © Eugenijus Vosylius, foreword, 2015 IV. THE WEST / 222 © The General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, 2015 © Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania, 2015 V. THE NORTH / 264 Supplements / 314 ISBN 978-609-8074-37-6 Photographs / 331 ISBN 978-609-8037-50-0 5 The partisan war was at its peak in the period of 1944–1953. This period can be divided into three stages: the first stage – a spontaneous resistance Foreword to the occupation that encompassed all the nation (July 1944–May 1946); the second – the struggle of well-organized partisan squads against the occupant government settling in the country (May 1946–November 1948); and the third – the activities coordinated by the unified partisan military and political command and the suppression of the resistance (November 1948–May 1953).* To fully understand the tremendous loss that Lithuania suffered during the partisan war – people killed at war together with the executed, imprisoned and deported to Siberia – one must be aware that there were around 3 000 000 citizens of Lithuania according to the data of the 1940 census.** Not less than 456 000 of Lithuanians became victims of the Soviet terror, genocide and Before the reader starts turning the pages and abuse.*** As various sources state, more than 20 000 gets absorbed into the happenings described in fighters were killed during the partisan war. this book, one must be introduced to the basic facts about the partisan war and the number of deportations in Lithuania. This book focuses * Nijolė Gaškaitė, „Pasipriešinimo istorija 1944-1953 metais“, on Southwest Lithuania; however, the partisan Atviros Lietuvos Fondas, http://www.partizanai.org/failai/html/ war took place in all the country, not only in the pasipriesinimo_istorija.htm#d17, 2013 12 17 ** Adolfas Damušis, „Lietuvos gyventojų aukos ir nuostoliai Antrojo southwestern region. It was a large-scale, all- pasaulinio karo ir pokario 1940-1959 metais“, Second edition, http:// embracing and organized resistance movement partizanai.org/failai/html/lietuvos-aukos.htm, 2013 12 17 that lasted long years in the territory of Lithuania. *** Adolfas Damušis, „Lietuvos gyventojų aukos ir nuostoliai Antrojo pasaulinio karo ir pokario 1940-1959 metais“, Second edition, http:// partizanai.org/failai/html/lietuvos-aukos.htm, 2013 12 17 6 Colonel Eugenijus Vosylius 7 FOREWORD This was, and still is, a huge loss for Lithuania written by Lithuanian authors and translated into because buildings and economy can be quickly foreign languages. rebuilt, but it takes much more time to recreate the demolished intelligence, the stratum of farmers, I hope that this book – more fiction than the class of educators or the destroyed military documentary – will expand the knowledge of the force. When the brightest minds and the most foreign reader: it will provide more information active people of the nation were annihilated, the about this period in Lithuania or will induce the Lithuanian identity was broken for a long time. Up interest. Justinas Sajauskas does not write about until now, we have felt the consequences of this numbers or death toll statistics in his book. loss, and we will continue to feel it. Instead, he reflects the feelings of the postwar Lithuanians, their everyday experiences and There were a lot of memoirs and articles published insight about “stribs”, chekists, or the “activities” about the partisan war and suffering of political of the Soviet soldiers in Southwest Lithuania. The exiles and deportees to Siberia after the restoration author masterfully depicts events in miniatures of Lithuanian Independence in 1990. Many and comments on them in the voice of an ordinary historians issued their essays on this topic, several villager, town dweller, partisan or another character feature films and documentaries were also made. showing exactly how inseparably partisan war was Yet when we talk to European foreigners or people related to all strata of society. from more distant parts of the world, we notice that they either have very little knowledge or do I believe this book will help the foreign reader to not know anything about the postwar partisan empathize with the postwar Lithuanians – what struggle or resistance movement in Lithuania at they felt, how they lived; it will help to comprehend all. They are not aware of the imprisonment and the fragility of the human existence and the thin deportations of the Lithuanian people to the cold line separating life from eternity in the fighting Siberia in the period of 1940–1941 and later, after Lithuania of those days. 1944. This “blank spot” in the minds of foreigners exists not because of the information shortage in foreign languages on the Internet. Those who are interested in the Lithuanian history or partisan Colonel Eugenijus Vosylius war can easily find the main information. But Commandant of The General Jonas Žemaitis there are very few fiction books about the Postwar Military Academy of Lithuania 8 Colonel Eugenijus Vosylius 9 FOREWORD survived – as well as the narratives of their liaison agents and supporters, women who loved them and were loved in return, and their brothers Preface and sisters. They also include the collections of documents and diaries that contain thoughts of the fallen, written down, perhaps, with no hope ‘...It is enough to consider the partisan struggle. How many men there were in the first days – strong as oaks and brave as lions. that anyone would ever read and understand them. Only a few of those have remained amongst us to this day. The Sometimes they also include academic research faces of the fallen pass, again and again, in front of our eyes. and monographs of professional historians. In And how numerous they are – a whole world of the dead! Who any case, one may state with confidence that the will understand, who will describe their heroism, whose like the world has not heard of until now? Will the future know how to partisan war is well-known, at least in Lithuania, give what is due to the heroic sacrifice of these people? Part of and that its names, dates and events are known as the nation will understand them, but there will be some who will well… What kind of history we will write for it, trample all this into the mud…’ time alone will show. As someone unoriginally, but aptly put it, every generation writes its own * LIONGINAS BALIUKEVIČIUS-DZŪKAS* history, or history for itself, interpreting in its own Commander of the Dainava Military District peculiar way the causes, effects and motivations of the historical events. Yet such considerations are less important than the need for this period of FOR FREEDOM AND FATHERLAND history to find its proper place both in collective memory and academic studies. There are dozens of books that narrate, in various ways, the story of an extraordinary decade in the In contrast to the sources already mentioned that history of Lithuania – the decade of the partisan may help us in our study of partisan history, a huge resistance. These books include the narratives archive of partisan photographs has been unduly of the partisans themselves – of the ones who neglected. Those photographs may be approached from two points of view. On the one hand, one may * Partisans’ battle-names, assumed for the reasons of conspiracy, are use them as documentary material for studying printed after a hyphen. Sometimes there are more than one alias – additional ones follow partisans’ everyday life, dress and armaments. after comma. Wherever these aliases, appellations of military districts, On the other hand, one may observe faces and periodical titles vel sim are translatable, their translation is provided within square brackets. eyes of young men and women, and sometimes 10 11 PREFACE these are more eloquent than most texts. The district? It is true that some of the commanders, photographic evidence consists of thousands of such as Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis, Jonas photographs scattered in museums and public Žemaitis-Vytautas and several others, are hardly as well as private archives throughout Lithuania. ever to be found in the photographs. Yet this does From a more pragmatic standpoint, this testimony not alter the nature of the problem, for even these of a period fraught with extraordinary tension commanders did not forbid taking pictures, nor raises controversial