Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents: 1944–1954

1. Armed Anti-Soviet Resistance in Lithuania and Ukraine

Armed fight of Lithuanians and Ukrainians for their countries’ Freedom and Independence has inspired future generations to resist the occupant for decades, to become liberated from the soviet oppression in 1990–1991, and to counter the aggression in 2014 when Russia started a war with Ukraine.

In Lithuania, guerrilla war began in summer of 1944 and lasted until 1953; however, individual partisans acted in later years too. 6 June 1946 witnessed the creation of a unified organisation of resistance – the Movement of Joint Democratic Resistance (MJDR), which in February 1949 was called the Movement of Struggle for Freedom of Lithuania (MSFL). On 16 February 1949, the Council of MSFL adopted a Declaration announcing the will of the Lithuanian nation to restore an independent democratic state.

In Ukraine, resistance against the soviet government commenced since its very establishment in 1922 and lasted until 1954, but small groups and individual insurgents acted until 1960. Organised armed resistance was led by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) founded on 14 October 1942. On 11 July 1944, political leadership was set up, the Chief Liberation Rada of Ukraine, which coordinated the resistance movement. The Rada adopted a political platform and a universal (an appeal to the people of Ukraine) announcing the aspiration to create an independent unified state of Ukraine.

In Lithuania, fighters for Freedom and Independence are called partisans, and in Ukraine – insurgents.

2. Territory of Operation and the Military Structure of Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents

Lithuanian partisans were active almost across all Lithuania, except for several counties of Vilnius and Klaipėda regions. Their operations covered about 60,000 km² with around 2 million inhabitants. Armed resistance included about 100,000 partisans, signallers, and supporters, while around 50,000 fighters were fighting as partisans.

The military territorial structure of Lithuanian partisans developed in 1944–1948 and was provided for in the statute of MSFL adopted in February of 1949. Small partisan squads were joined into larger units – detachments, districts, while the districts were joined into three areas – Southern Lithuania, Eastern Lithuania, and Western Lithuania. In 1947–1948, a joint squad of Lithuanian and Latvian partisans operated in Latvia.

Ukrainian insurgents acted in western regions and partially central regions of Ukraine. Their territory of operations covered around 150,000 km² with about 15 million residents. UPA included over 100,000 fighters. The military territorial structure of Ukrainian insurgents developed in April–December of 1943. Small military units were joined into larger units by organising general military districts UPA-The West, UPA-The North, and UPA-The South, while UPA-The East was not finalised. General Military Staff of UPA was established. The main military units of UPA were hundreds (companies) combining 3–4 squads. The hundreds were joined into battalions comprising 300–800 insurgents.

3. Top Leadership of Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents

The formation of top leadership of Lithuanian partisans commenced in 1944. In July 1946, the Chief Staff of Armed Forces subordinate to MJDR was set up. In February 1949, unified leadership was elected – the Council and Presidium of MSFL, and the Staff of Defence Forces was established. Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas was elected Chairman of the Presidium, and Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, Juozas Šibaila-Merainis, and Leonas Grigonis-Užpalis were appointed his deputies. In 1950, A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas was appointed Commander of Defence Forces of MSFL. The Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania has adopted declarations acknowledging that J. Žemaitis-Vytautas (1949–1954) and A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas (1954–1957) were Heads of State of Lithuania that was fighting the occupation.

The fight of Ukrainian insurgents was led by the General Military Staff of UPA and its chief commanders: in May–November of 1943, Dmytro Kliachkivsky-Klym Savur (Дмитро Клячківський – «Клим Савур»), in 1943–1950, Roman Shukhevych-Taras Chuprynka (Роман Шухевич – «Тарас Чупринка»), in 1950–1954, Vasyl Kuk-Koval, Lemish (Василь Кук – «Коваль», «Леміш»). In 1944–1945, the Chief Liberation Rada of Ukraine was chaired by Kyrylo Osmak-Marko Horiansky (Кирило Осьмак-«Марко Горянський»); following his arrest by the soviet security service, the Rada continued its operation abroad.

4. Women During the Armed Resistance of Lithuania and Ukraine

The majority of the participants of armed resistance were men. However, women of Lithuania and Ukraine also took active part in the fights for Freedom, and in the history of such fights women showed impressive examples of courage, endurance, perseverance, and self-sacrifice.

In units of Lithuanian partisans women undertook various responsibilities: they managed documents, were responsible for the press, for collection of intelligence information, for the maintenance tasks, or for finances, cooked meals, did the laundry and cared for clothes, or worked as nurses. Women partisans also participated in combat and other operations, where many of them perished. Many women acted as partisan signallers and supporters. They maintained liaisons between partisan units, organised meetings and established communication points, passed on messages and documents. Supporters, on their farms, installed hiding places for partisans, supplied partisans with food, clothing, medications, and other items, or distributed partisan press. In Lithuania, about 4,500 women participated in guerrilla war, more than 600 of them perished, and the soviet security service arrested around 2,700 women.

Ukrainian women performed various functions in insurgent units; they were active in the internal security service, and took part in military operations. They were instrumental in having a well-developed communication system. Women published and distributed the insurgents’ press. However, their most important task was helping in the medical field. They provided first aid, set up insurgents’ hospitals in bunkers, and organised rehabilitation of insurgents after hard battles in remote villages. Women also supplied insurgents with food and medications, and took care of their domestic needs.

5. Symbols of Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents

Military structures of Lithuanian partisans and Ukrainian insurgents acted according to the principles of organisation of the regular army. They had anthems, slogans, and symbols as well as distinction systems, published the press and various publications, and the fighters wore military uniforms with insignia.

The slogan of Lithuanian partisans was “Give your Homeland what you must!”, and their logo was a black Cross of Vytis with a red rim on the background of a green rhombus approved by the Council of MSFL in August 1949. Certain units had their anthems and flags. Partisans used to wear military uniforms with insignia. Their symbols were dominated by the state symbols of Lithuania: Vytis (a mounted armoured knight holding a sword and shield; the coat of arms of Lithuania), the Columns of Gediminas, the Cross of Vytis, and the Tricolour Flag (yellow-green-red). Partisans’ distinctions were the Cross of the Struggle for Freedom of three types and three degrees, distinction signs, and thank-you letters. The highest partisan’s distinction was the honorary title of the Warrior of the Struggle for Freedom, which was conferred on 8 partisans.

The slogan of Ukrainian insurgents was the greeting of the fighters of the 1917–1921 Liberation Movement of Ukraine: “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” The insignia and main attribute of UPA was the Trident, and the anthem – the march of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organisation (OUN) “We Were Born at a Great Hour” (in Ukrainian – «Зродились ми великої години»). The units of UPA used a bicolour red-black flag.

The insurgents’ distinction system comprised the gold and silver Cross of Combat Merit of the 1^st and 2^nd degrees and the bronze Cross of Combat Merit (without the degrees), which was conferred for military merit, as well as the Cross of Merit, which was conferred for civil and military merit. In 1944–1952, the Gold Cross of Combat Merit was conferred on 103 insurgents.

6. Tactics and Combat Actions of Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents

In the first post-war years, Lithuanian and Ukrainian fighters conducted active offensive operations against the soviet invaders. Later on they switched from open armed fight to underground struggle.

Lithuanian partisans would attack and briefly occupy towns, make an ambush for units of the Red Army, and perform other offensive operations and special campaigns against the occupant administration, soviet-party activists and other collaborationists. On 16–17 May 1945, one of the biggest battles took place in Kalniškės forest, Alytus county. 100–120 partisans fought the forces of the border army of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the USSR, which were several times more numerous. In the battle, over 40 partisans were killed, and they killed several hundred NKVD soldiers. On 15 December 1945, partisans of Merkio detachment attacked Merkinė and occupied the NKVD headquarters and a prison, as well as an agency of the administrative territorial unit and a post office. After a 3-hour fight partisans retreated. As of 1946, while saving strength and preparing for long-term unarmed resistance, partisans started avoiding clashes with the soviet army and gradually switched to underground operation. Isolated groups of partisans tried to break through to the West. In August 1949, partisans of Kardo detachment, Žemaičių district marched to Poland, and their plan was to get to the USA occupation zone in Germany, but their campaign failed. The management of partisans stayed in contact with Lithuanian political centres in the West and informed the world about Lithuania’s fight for Freedom. In December 1947, representatives of MJDR Juozas Lukša-Skirmantas and Kazimieras Pyplys-Mažytis travelled to the West, contacted Lithuanian political centres, coordinated the issues of representation abroad of the fighting Lithuania and the management of the resistance movement, and brought to the West the documents about the situation in Lithuania, reprisals of the soviet government, and Freedom fights. In the guerrilla war, Freedom fighters killed about 4,000 employees and soldiers of the soviet security system, internal affairs system, and internal army as well as 1,300 extinguisher battalion fighters (people’s defenders) and soviet and party activists.

During the first post-war years, Ukraine witnessed fierce fights of insurgents with soviet invaders. Insurgents had gained a lot of experience in the fight with the Nazis and soviet partisans during World War II. They were well-armed and had mortars of small and average calibre, light canons, tanks, military equipment repair workshops, and the military technical provision system. Insurgents would often attack occupation administration centres, fight the units of the Red Army and the internal army, attack military warehouses, railway and industry sites, place mines and explode railways and railway bridges, damage telephone-telegraph lines, occupy settlements, and control certain territories. On 21–24 April 1944, one of the biggest battles took place at Volyn, close to Hurby village, where 5,000 insurgents fought the forces of NKVD and the Red Army, which were 6 times larger. During the battle, about 100 insurgents perished, and they killed around 2,000 soldiers of the enemy. As the occupant’s offensive intensified, and the insurgents incurred increasingly more losses, they started avoiding larger battles, and from 1946 gradually switched to underground fight. Insurgents organised successful raids to foreign countries, where they spread the message about their struggle. In 1946, they reached Czechoslovakia, in 1947 – West Germany and Austria, and in 1949 – Romania. In 1950, a small unit of insurgents attempted to reach Lithuania via Belarus, but the security forces in Belarus scattered it, several fighters perished, while others returned back to Ukraine. The last battle of insurgents with the soviet security forces took place on 14 April 1960 in Ternopil oblast. In their fight for the Freedom of Ukraine the insurgents killed about 30,700 armed occupants.

7. Suppression of the Freedom Fights of Lithuanians and Ukrainians

To suppress armed resistance of Lithuanians and Ukrainians, the communist regime used large forces of the systems of security and the internal affairs as well as other repressive structures, and units of the active army.

In Lithuania, to fight Lithuanian partisans, about 20,000 soldiers of division No 4 of the internal army of the USSR’s NKVD were deployed in the summer of 1945. In 1944–1954, over 20,000 extinguisher battalion fighters (people’s defenders) were also fighting the partisans. In 1946, to enhance the fight against the partisans, the soviet security service redeployed security major Oleksiy Sokolov from Ukraine to Lithuania. He was tasked with organising groups of agents-strikers in Lithuania similar to the ones already operating in Ukraine. Agents of these special groups infiltrated the groups of fighters of armed resistance and liquidated them, or organised terrorist attacks against inhabitants in the name of the Freedom fighters, etc. In early 1952, 6 groups of agents-strikers operated in Lithuania, with about 80 agents in them. They killed around 500 and took captive over 200 partisans, killed about 60 civil residents, and almost 5,000 partisans and their supporters were arrested because of the agents’ activities. The soviet security service also used other agent-related means against the partisans: recruited agents from among the participants of the underground movement and the residents who supported them, infiltrated agents into the groups of participants of the resistance, or organised operations of discovery, arrest, and liquidation of partisans. In 1951, participants of the armed underground movement were observed and spied on by approximately 27,700 soviet security agents.

During the first post-war years, Lithuanian armed resistance was most commonly supressed by military actions, by organising military operations, such as surrounding large areas of forests or countryside and destroying partisan units present in those territories. Later on, military-Chekist operations were organised: places where partisans were stationed were sought, when partisans were discovered, ambushes were made, partisans were persecuted and destroyed. The army was used only during larger campaigns. To break Lithuanians’ resistance to occupation, the soviet regime persecuted, imprisoned, deported, tortured, and murdered participants and supporters of resistance, as well as other residents. In the guerrilla war, about 20,000 fighters were killed, around 18,000 partisans, signallers, and supporters were taken captive or arrested. About 320,000 residents of Lithuania fell victim to mass terror and reprisals.

At the end of World War II, as the front was passing across Ukraine, armed resistance of Ukrainians was suppressed by large forces of the Red Army of the 1^st and 2^nd Ukrainian fronts, and later on, by other units of the active army. For fighting UPA, in the spring of 1944, about 31,500 soldiers of NKVD internal army were deployed in Western Ukraine, and in 1947, 5 divisions of the internal army were deployed. Other forces of repressive structures, agents, and agents provocateur were widely used. In the summer of 1945, 156 special groups of agents-strikers operated against UPA, with around 1,800 agents in them.

In the first post-war years, large and long-term military operations were organised against the insurgents using tanks, reconnaissance aircraft, or bombing insurgents’ bases and campsites. In April–May 1945, a wide-range military-Chekist operation was conducted in three stages in Stanislav (currently, Ivano-Frankivsk) oblast, in the Carpathian Mountains, with the participation of up to 11,000 soldiers. According to the soviet security service, about 2,000 insurgents perished during that operation. While suppressing Ukrainians’ resistance, the occupation regime used mass terror and reprisals: it imprisoned, deported, tortured, and killed insurgents and their supporters. In the fight, approximately 150,000 members and supporters of UPA perished, over 130,000 were arrested, and more than 200,000 were deported. In Ukraine, about 0.5 million people were repressed for their resistance to the soviet government.

8. Support of the Inhabitants to Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents

A great many inhabitants of Lithuania and Ukraine supported participants of the armed resistance. They provided them with shelter and every kind of assistance regardless of the fact that such support could incur death, arrest, deportation, or labour camp.

Lithuanian partisans were mostly supported by rural residents, who provided them with food, clothing, medication, press means, and other necessities. For donated funds, foodstuffs, and other items, partisans would issue receipts. Supporters of partisans installed hiding places on their farms, they also provided partisans with information about the appearance of extinguisher fighters, security officers, or military units, and treated and tended wounded fighters.

Ukrainian insurgents were supported both by rural and urban residents, who installed bunkers in their homes on solitary farms or in villages, or conspiracy apartments in cities and towns; they would hide insurgents and their family members, provide them with food, clothes, intelligence information, and would tend wounded fighters. Insurgents would be treated by local doctors, many of whom were Jews. Insurgents would acquire foodstuffs and other most necessary items from residents for monetary signs (vouchers, bonds) – “bofons”, the name whereof derived from the abbreviation of the Ukrainian words “combat fund” (in Ukrainian, «БОйовий ФОНд»). “Bofons” were distributed by collecting funds from residents for combat needs and used as a means of promotion.

9. Documentary Heritage of Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents

Lithuanian and Ukrainian fighters tried to preserve their documents for future generations. They kept them in hiding places, or buried them in the ground placed in drums or metal containers. From time to time, buried drums are found in various places of Lithuania and Ukraine. Such drums, like “capsules of time,” testify to self-sacrifice and heroism of Lithuanian and Ukrainian fighters.

The largest collection of the documents of Lithuanian partisans is kept at the Lithuanian Special Archives. It is continuously supplemented with partisans’ documents preserved by people, or buried in the ground and accidentally found.

The documentary heritage of Ukrainian insurgents is stored at the state archives, museums, and other agencies of culture or remembrance and is continuously supplemented through search or with accidentally found documents. In the recent 30 years, several dozen drums with OUN and UPA documents have been found in Ukraine. Some of the most significant findings were discovered in 2009–2021 in Lviv and Ternopil oblasts.

10. Traditions of Lithuanian Partisans and Ukrainian Insurgents and the Remembrance of Freedom Fights

Lithuanian and Ukrainian people respect, cherish, and treasure the memory of fighters for their Freedom and Independence by erecting monuments, conducting historical research, searching for the remains of those perished, arranging exhibitions, creating films, etc. The contemporary armies of Lithuania and Ukraine use the slogans and insignia of the participants of resistance as well as maintain their military traditions.

In Lithuania, the guerrilla war is well-commemorated, and the status of Freedom fighters has been provided for at the state level. Having assessed the meaning of the Declaration of the MSFL Council of 16 February 1949 to the continuity of the state of Lithuania, the Seimas (Parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania passed a law in 1999 providing that the Declaration was a legal act of the state of Lithuania. In 2010, in Minaičių village, Radviliškio district, where the Declaration had been signed, a memorial was unveiled to the Declaration and its signatories. In different locations across Lithuania, monuments have been erected to commemorate the partisans, signs of remembrance have been placed in locations where the partisans were born, perished, or were buried, partisans’ bunkers have been restored, educational routes have been set up along the paths that the partisans travelled. There is intense search and identification of the remains of partisans who were murdered by the soviet security service and whose bodies were buried secretly. The memory and traditions of the Freedom fights are especially cherished by the Lithuanian army because partisans’ fights are an important part of its history.

In Ukraine, to commemorate the Freedom fighters, monuments have been erected and signs of remembrance have been placed to the insurgents and their commanders. The armed forces of Ukraine maintain the insurgents’ traditions and take over their symbols. The words of the OUN anthem have been included into the march of the armed forces of Ukraine. The UPA slogan “Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!” has become the greeting of soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine, and following the attack of Russia on Ukraine, it has also become the slogan of solidarity of people around the world with the fighting Ukrainian nation. In the war with Russia, the voluntary Ukrainian corps “The Right-Side Sector” hoists the UPA red-and-black flag. Soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine use the old nicknames of insurgents as their call-signs. One of the best known current Ukrainian heroes Dmytro Kotsiubailo-Da Vinci (Дмитро Коцюбайло – «Да Вінчі»), who perished on 7 March 2023 while defending Bakhmut, was a grandson of the UPA insurgent.

In the face of a brutal war of Russia against Ukraine, armed anti-soviet resistance of Lithuanians and Ukrainians acquires a special meaning and becomes an example of patriotic and civic fight for Freedom and Independence, which strengthens the spirit of resistance to the aggressor.

Organisers of the exhibition:

Lithuanian Special Archives

State Archive of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance

Authors of the exhibition:

Nijolė Maslauskienė (Lithuania)

Dorota Mordas (Lithuania)

Ihor Kulyk (Ukraine)

Tetiana Lysenko (Ukraine)

Tetiana Prys (Ukraine)

Svitlana Starovoit (Ukraine)

Project manager:

Kęstas Remeika (Lithuania)

Literary editing and proof-reading of the texts in Ukrainian:

Serhiy Kulyk (Ukraine)

Translation of the texts into English:

Beatričė Soroko (Lithuania)

Partners of the exhibition:

Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights of the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania

State Archive of the Ukrainian Security Service

Archive of the Liberation Movement Research Centre

Archive of the Ukrainian Nationalist Organisation (Ukrainian Information Service in London)

Archive of the publication Chronicle of the UPA

Project partially funded by:

Lithuanian Council for Culture