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59-490: The LF engaged in nonviolent resistance to Nazi Germany 's occupation of Lithuania by sabotaging German exploitation of forced labour , suppression of Lithuanian education and the creation of a Lithuanian Waffen-SS Legion. For example, the LF issued a edict on 10 October 1941 against the registration of Lithuanian men by the occupying German administration. The Lithuanian resistance avoided combat because it wanted to avoid helping

118-472: A genocide . In 2019, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the view of the national courts that these Soviet repressions could be deemed genocide. The 1966 film Nobody Wanted to Die ( Lithuanian : Niekas nenorėjo mirti ) by Soviet-Lithuanian film director Vytautas Žalakevičius shows the tragedy of the "brother against brother" conflict. Despite being propaganda shot from a Soviet perspective,

177-484: A state of emergency was declared and protests paused after a brutal crackdown was launched against protesters, including doctors and bloggers. Nearly 3,000 people have been arrested, and at least five people died due to torture while in police custody. Protests resumed after lifting emergency law on 1 June, and several large rallies were staged by the opposition parties, including a march on 9 March 2012 attended by over 100,000. Smaller-scale protests and clashes outside of

236-829: A critical role in fifty of sixty-seven transitions from authoritarianism . The " Singing revolution " (1989–1991) in Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania , led to the three Baltic countries ' restoration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 . Recently, nonviolent resistance has led to the Rose Revolution in Georgia . Research shows that nonviolent campaigns diffuse spatially. Information on nonviolent resistance in one country could significantly affect nonviolent activism in other countries. Many movements which promote philosophies of nonviolence or pacifism have pragmatically adopted

295-476: A state of war against the Soviet Union and ordered all able-bodied members to mobilize into platoons stationed in the forests and not to leave Lithuania. The departments were replaced by two sectors – operational, called Vanagai (Hawks or Falcons; abbreviated VS), and organizational (abbreviated OS). Vanagai , commanded by Albinas Karalius (codename Varenis), were the armed fighters while the organizational sector

354-680: The Iron Curtain – including the information provided by the Lithuanian partisans. Former members of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, the Lithuanian Liberty Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces and Lithuanian Riflemen's Union formed the basis of Lithuanian partisans. Farmers, Lithuanian officials, students, teachers, and even pupils joined the partisans. The movement was actively supported by Lithuanian society and

413-661: The Jeans Revolution in Belarus, the fight of the Cuban dissidents , and internationally the Extinction Rebellion and School Strike for Climate . Although nonviolent movements can maintain broader public legitimacy by refraining from violence, some segments of society may perceive protest movements as being more violent than they really are when they disagree with the social goals of the movement. A great deal of work has addressed

472-590: The Lithuanian Special Operations Forces given to the very best. Žaliukas is the word for the state of alert of the unyielding part of the nation in the face of danger. Lithuanian courts view Soviet repressions against Lithuanian partisans as crimes against humanity . In 2016, the Supreme Court of Lithuania ruled that the systematic extermination of the partisans by the Soviet regime constituted

531-749: The Lithuanian diaspora throughout the Cold War . Many of the members of LF remaining in Lithuania were arrested by the Soviets, but some managed to become anti-Soviet partisans. Nonviolent resistance Nonviolent resistance , or nonviolent action , sometimes called civil resistance , is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests , civil disobedience , economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha , constructive program , or other methods, while refraining from violence and

590-664: The Red Army pushed the Eastern Front towards Lithuania. The Soviets invaded and occupied Lithuania by the end of 1944. As forced conscription into Red Army and Stalinist repressions escalated, thousands of Lithuanians took to the forests in the countryside as a refuge. These spontaneous groups became more organized and centralized culminating in the establishment of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters in February 1948. In their documents,

649-503: The Soviet Union , to re-occupy it. The resistance wanted Germany to be defeated by the Western Allies . Regardless, the resistance prepared for military resistance in case it was necessary. The goals of the LF were to preserve the population of Lithuania and strengthen the country's unity, cultural institutions, enterprises, and farms. Its slogan was "Lithuanian for Lithuanian" ( lietuvis už lietuvį ), emphasizing Lithuanian unity in

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708-566: The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR in February 1947. They published bulletins, leaflets and newspapers. Almost 80 different periodicals were published by the partisans. MGB also changed its tactics and began to recruit agents and organize destruction battalions . The partisans responded by organizing reprisal actions against collaborators with the Soviets. To combat the guerrillas, in May 1948

767-652: The Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas or the Vilnius University during the Nazi occupation. All higher education institutions in Lithuania, including both universities, were closed on 17 March 1943 and 46 Lithuanian intellectuals deported to Stutthof concentration camp as a result of Nazi repressions in the aftermath of the successful Lithuanian resistance to the creation of a Lithuanian Waffen-SS Legion. There

826-611: The 31st anniversary of the Act of Independence of Lithuania , the Joint Staff of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters signed a declaration on the future of Lithuania stating that the reinstated Lithuania should be a democratic state that would grant equal rights for every citizen based on freedom and democratic values. It did declare that the Communist party was a criminal organization. The document of

885-562: The Catholic church. By the end of 1945, an estimated 30 000 armed people lived in the Lithuanian forests. The resistance in Lithuania was well organized, and uniformed guerrilla units with a chain of command were effectively able to control whole regions of the countryside until 1949. Their armaments included Czech Škoda guns , Russian Maxim heavy machine guns , assorted mortars and a wide variety of mainly German and Soviet light machine guns and submachine guns . When not directly fighting

944-632: The LAF meant that there was no longer any legal cover for nationalist activity. On September 20, Leonas Prapuolenis delivered a memorandum to the German military headquarters in Kaunas against the German occupation of Lithuania. The memorandum was signed by 30 of the most important members of the LAF and the Provisional Government of Lithuania . The next day, on September 21, Gestapo arrested Prapuolenis and seized

1003-619: The Liberation of Lithuania ( Lithuanian : Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas , VLIK) was created on November 25, 1943. VLIK published underground newspapers and agitated for resistance against the Nazis. The Gestapo arrested most influential members in 1944. After the reoccupation of Lithuania by the Soviets, VLIK moved to the West and set as its goal to maintain the non-recognition of Lithuania's occupation and dissemination of information from behind

1062-508: The Lithuanian anti-Nazi resistance into that Committee. The Lithuanian Front was represented by Adolfas Damušis (vice-chairman of the presidium until when he was arrested by the Gestapo in June 1944, whereupon he was replaced by Povilas Šilas  [ lt ] ). The chairman of the committee's political commission was Juozas Ambrazevičius, while the chairman of the commission for the determination of

1121-399: The Lithuanian emigrants were often labelled by Soviet propaganda as examples of "ethnic sympathy" and disregarded. In Lithuania, freedom fighter veterans receive a state pension. The third Sunday in May is commemorated as Partisan's Day . As of 2005, there were about 350 surviving partisans in Lithuania. Žaliukas ( "Green man" ) is the Lithuanian partisan-inspired qualification patch in

1180-505: The Lithuanian partisans. Not all groups were armed or intended to actively fight the Soviets. Partisan groups were relatively large, 100 men and more. There were several larger open engagements between the partisans and NKVD , like in Kalniškė, Paliepiai, Seda , Virtukai, Kiauneliškis, Ažagai-Eimuliškis and the village of Panara. Since the Soviets had not established control, the partisans controlled entire villages and towns. In July 1945, after

1239-786: The Lithuanians as pl. stribai , from the Russian : istrebiteli – destroyers ) used cruel repression to discourage further resistance, e.g. displaying executed partisans' corpses in village courtyards. The partisans were well-armed. During 1945–1951 Soviet repressive structures seized from partisans 31 mortars, 2,921 machine guns, 6,304 assault rifles, 22,962 rifles, 8,155 pistols, 15,264 grenades, 2,596 mines, and 3,779,133 cartridges. The partisans usually replenished their arsenal by killing istrebiteli , members of Soviet secret-police forces or by purchasing ammunition from Red Army soldiers. Every partisan had binoculars and few grenades. One grenade

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1298-657: The Nazi authorities authorized the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force (LTDF) under General Povilas Plechavičius to combat Soviet partisans led by Antanas Sniečkus and the Polish partisans of the Home Army . The LTDF soon reached a strength of 19,500 men. The Germans, however came to see the LTDF as a nationalist threat to their occupation regime and its senior staff were arrested on May 15, 1944. General Plechavičius

1357-553: 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 guerrillas, and printing underground newspapers. Captured Lithuanian Forest Brothers often faced torture and summary execution , while their relatives faced deportation to Siberia (cf. quotation ). Reprisals against pro-Soviet farms and villages were harsh. The NKVD units (known by

1416-514: The Soviet Union in 1944–1953. Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups, also known as Forest Brothers and cursed soldiers , fought against Soviet rule in Estonia, Latvia and Poland. An estimated total of 30,000 Lithuanian partisans and their supporters were killed. The Lithuanian partisan war lasted almost for a decade, thus becoming one of the longest partisan wars in Europe. At the end of World War II ,

1475-426: The Soviets carried out the largest deportation yet from Lithuania, Operation Spring , and some forty to fifty thousand people associated with the "forest brothers" were deported to Siberia. In February 1949, partisan leaders met in the village of Minaičiai and established a centralized command, the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters . Brigadier General Jonas Žemaitis was elected chairman. On February 16, 1949,

1534-466: The West did not take on the Soviets militarily. As the conflict was relatively undocumented by the Soviet Union (the Lithuanian fighters were never formally acknowledged as anything but "bandits and illegals"), some consider it and the Soviet-Lithuanian conflict as a whole is an unknown or forgotten war . Discussion of resistance was suppressed under the Soviet regime. Writings on the subject by

1593-452: The borders of Lithuania was Zenonas Ivinskis . In April 1944, the LF contributed to the creation of the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force . According to the Lithuanian historian Dalia Kuodytė , few members of either the LF or LLKS remained in Lithuania when the Soviet Union re-occupied it in 1944, because all of them had already been deported to Nazi concentration camps or emigrated westwards. The Lithuanian Front continued to operate in

1652-406: The capital have continued to occur almost daily. More than 80 people had died since the start of the uprising. Nonviolent resistance is often but wrongly taken as synonymous with civil disobedience . Each of these terms—nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience—has different connotations and commitments. Berel Lang argues against the conflation of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience on

1711-592: The declaration survived and was preserved by the KGB . In 1999, the Lithuanian Seimas (parliament) formally recognized this declaration as a Declaration of Independence. Juozas Lukša was among those who managed to escape to Western countries; he wrote his memoirs – Forest Brothers: The Account of an Anti-Soviet Lithuanian Freedom Fighter, 1944–1948 – in Paris, and was killed after returning to occupied Lithuania in 1951. By

1770-426: The early 1950s, the Soviet forces had eradicated most of the Lithuanian nationalist resistance. Intelligence gathered by the Soviet spies in the West and KGB infiltrators within the resistance movement, in combination with large-scale Soviet operations in 1952, managed to end the campaigns against them. Adolfas Ramanauskas (code name Vanagas ), the last official commander of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters,

1829-569: The end of World War II, the Soviets announced an "amnesty" and "legalization" campaign for those hiding in the forests to avoid conscription. According to a Soviet report from 1957, in total 38,838 people came forward under the campaign (8,350 of them were classified as "armed nationalist bandits" and 30,488 as deserters avoiding conscription). In the second stage of partisan warfare, the partisan groups became smaller but better organized. They organized themselves into units and military districts and sought better centralization. The territory of Lithuania

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1888-590: The extent and intensity of the violence is limited by the non-revolutionary intentions of the persons engaging in civil disobedience. Lang argues the violent resistance by citizens being forcibly relocated to detentions, short of the use of lethal violence against representatives of the state, could plausibly count as civil disobedience but could not count as nonviolent resistance. Lithuanian partisans [REDACTED]   Soviet Union Lithuanian partisans ( Lithuanian : Lietuvos partizanai ) were partisans who waged guerrilla warfare in Lithuania against

1947-546: The face of the foreign occupations of Lithuania. Because the organisation was illegal, paperwork was avoided and most of its functions mainly carried out by verbal agreements. The predecessor of the Lithuanian Front and organizer of the anti-Soviet June Uprising , the LAF, was banned on 26 September 1941 by the order of Adrian von Renteln , the General Commissioner of German-occupied Lithuania . This suppression of

2006-668: The factors that lead to violent mobilization, but less attention has been paid to understanding why disputes become violent or nonviolent, comparing these two as strategic choices relative to conventional politics. In 2010, A "White Intifada" took hold in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Activities included weekly peaceful protests by Palestinian activists accompanied by Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem and Israeli academics and students against settlers and security forces. The EU, through its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has criticised Israel for convicting an organiser of

2065-445: The film alludes to the possibility of alternative points of view. The film brought acclaim to Žalakevičius, and to a number of young Lithuanian actors starring in the film. The 2004 film Utterly Alone ( Lithuanian : Vienui Vieni ) portrays the travails of Lithuanian partisan leader Juozas Lukša who traveled twice to Western Europe in attempts to gain support for the armed resistance. The 2005 documentary film Stirna tells

2124-415: The grounds that the necessary conditions for an act instancing civil disobedience are: (1) that the act violates the law, (2) that the act is performed intentionally, and (3) that the actor anticipates and willingly accepts punitive measures made on the part of the state against him in retaliation for the act. Since acts of nonviolent political resistance need not satisfy any of these criteria, Lang argues that

2183-510: The latter being was meant for the organisation's members. Sometimes the print circulation of Į laisvę reached as many as 10,000. Affiliates of the LF also published the newspapers Vardan tiesos and Pogrindžio kuntaplis , which was more satirical. On 25 November 1943, the Lithuanian Front, together with other organisations, founded the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania . The LF played an important role in centralizing

2242-589: The methods of nonviolent action as an effective way to achieve social or political goals. They employ nonviolent resistance tactics such as: information warfare , picketing , marches , vigils , leafletting, samizdat , magnitizdat , satyagraha , protest art , protest music and poetry, community education and consciousness raising , lobbying , tax resistance , civil disobedience , boycotts or sanctions , legal/diplomatic wrestling, Underground Railroads , principled refusal of awards/honors, and general strikes . Current nonviolent resistance movements include:

2301-514: The organization was depended too much on Veverskis and other top commanders. In 1946 the remaining leaders and fighters of the LLA started to merge with Lithuanian partisans. In 1949 all members of the presidium of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters – captain Jonas Žemaitis-Tylius, Petras Bartkus-Žadgaila, and Bronius Liesys-Naktis ir Juozas Šibaila-Merainis – came from the LLA. The Supreme Committee for

2360-481: The organization's political programme and published and distributed illegal anti-Nazi press, while the Financial Department raised funds for the press and other matters. From 1943 onwards, the LF published the illegal newspaper Į laisvę  [ lt ] (To Freedom) (editor Antanas Strabulis), and the political weekly Lietuvių fronto biuletenis  [ lt ] (Lithuanian Front Bulletin), with

2419-466: The partisans emphasized that their ultimate goal was the recreation of independent Lithuania. As the partisan war continued, it became clear that the West would not interfere in Eastern Europe (see Western betrayal ) and the partisans had no chance of success against a far stronger opponent. Eventually, the partisans made an explicit and conscious decision not to accept any new members. The leadership of

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2478-530: The partisans was destroyed in 1953 thus effectively ending the partisan war, though individual fighters held out until the 1960s. Lithuania regained its independence in 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire . As pre-war tensions rose in Europe, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence . Subsequently, Lithuania

2537-408: The peaceful movement and said that she was deeply concerned about the arrest of Abdullah Abu Rahmeh. There have been two fatalities among protesters and an American peace activist suffered brain damage after being hit by a tear gas canister. On 14 March, Saudi -led GCC forces were requested by the government and entered the country, which the opposition called an "occupation". The following day,

2596-544: The political spectrum, was impossible because of the deep divisions between the former parties. Many former LAF members, mostly from its Catholic wing, regrouped as the Lithuanian Front and began underground anti-Nazi activities. So, the LF in some ways was the organizational and ideological successor to the LAF. LF was mainly composed of activists from the Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party and Catholic youth organisations such as Ateitis . The LF

2655-402: The premises of the LAF headquarters in Kaunas. On September 22, they banned the whole LAF and confiscated all of its properties. Leonas Prapuolenis was deported to Dachau . After the LAF was banned, there were practically no more organizations left in Lithuania that could defend Lithuanian interests and oppose the occupiers. Another organisation like the LAF, which united political groups across

2714-503: The repressive Soviet rule and made plans to reestablish independent Lithuania . However, the attitudes soon changed as the occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany continued. Unlike Estonia and Latvia where the Germans conscripted the local population into military formations in the Waffen-SS , Lithuania boycotted German recruitment calls and never had their own Waffen-SS division. In 1944,

2773-446: The story of Izabelė Vilimaitė (codenames Stirna and 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), and was twice discovered and captured, and escaped. After going underground full-time, she

2832-943: The threat of violence . This type of action highlights the desires of an individual or group that feels that something needs to change to improve the current condition of the resisting person or group. Mahatma Gandhi is the most popular figure related to this type of protest; United Nations celebrates Gandhi's birthday, October 2, as the International Day of Non-Violence . Other prominent advocates include Abdul Ghaffar Khan , Henry David Thoreau , Etienne de la Boétie , Charles Stewart Parnell , Te Whiti o Rongomai , Tohu Kākahi , Leo Tolstoy , Alice Paul , Martin Luther King Jr. , Daniel Berrigan , Philip Berrigan , James Bevel , Václav Havel , Andrei Sakharov , Lech Wałęsa , Gene Sharp , Nelson Mandela , Jose Rizal , and many others. From 1966 to 1999, nonviolent civic resistance played

2891-502: The two categories of action cannot be identified with one another. Furthermore, civil disobedience is a form of political action which necessarily aims at reform, rather than revolution. Its efforts are typically directed at the disputing of particular laws or groups of laws while conceding the authority of the government responsible for them. In contrast, political acts of nonviolent resistance can have revolutionary ends. According to Lang, civil disobedience need not be nonviolent, although

2950-423: Was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 . The Soviets instituted Sovietization policies and repressions. In June 1941, the Soviets deported over 17,000 Lithuanians to Siberia , with most of the deportees dying in the harsh winters. When a few days Germany launched an invasion of Russia , Lithuanians organized a popular anti-Soviet uprising . Initially, the Lithuanians greeted the Germans as liberators from

3009-564: Was arrested in October 1956 and executed in November 1957. The last Lithuanian anti-Soviet resistance fighters killed in action were Pranas Končius (code name Adomas ) and Kostas Liuberskis (code name Žvainys ). Končius was killed on July 6, 1965 (some sources say he shot himself on July 13 in order to avoid capture) and awarded the Cross of Vytis in 2000. Liuberskis was killed on October 2, 1969; his fate

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3068-577: Was deported to the Salaspils concentration camp in Latvia. However, a large proportion of the LTDF succeeded in escaping deportation to Germany and formed guerrilla units, dissolved into the countryside in preparation for partisan operations against the Soviet Army as the Eastern Front approached. On July 1, 1944, the Lithuanian Liberty Army ( Lithuanian : Lietuvos laisvės armija , LLA) declared

3127-426: Was divided into three regions and nine military districts ( Lithuanian : apygarda ): Open engagements with NKVD/MGB were replaced by more clandestine activities. It was important to keep up people's spirits. Therefore, the partisans hid in bunkers and engaged in political and propaganda activities. In particular they protested and disrupted elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in February 1946 and to

3186-586: Was led by a central board and had five districts across Lithuania. The most important organizers and leaders of the Lithuanian Front were Juozas Ambrazevičius and his right-hand man Adolfas Damušis  [ lt ] , who were the acting prime minister and government minister, respectively, of the former Lithuanian Provisional Government, as well as former LAF members such as Zenonas Ivinskis , Antanas Maceina and professors Pranas Padalis and Vladas Viliamas  [ lt ] , in addition to other prominent cultural and political figures. All of them taught at

3245-470: Was no strict centralization and the organization mostly functioned through its district committees. The LF was divided into 3 branches: military, political and financial. The military section accumulated weapons and organized armed units. On May 5, 1942, the LF founded Kęstutis , a military political organisation that was subordinated to it. Many of Kęstutis' members became anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisans . The Political and Information Department formulated

3304-591: 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. In 2008, an American documentary film, Red Terror on the Amber Coast was released, documenting the Lithuanian resistance to the Soviet occupation from the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 to

3363-464: Was tasked with passive resistance , including supply of food, information, and transport to Vanagai . In the middle of 1944, the LLA had 10 000 members. The Soviets had killed 659 and arrested 753 members of the LLA by January 26, 1945. Founder Kazys Veverskis was killed in December 1944, and its headquarters were liquidated in December 1945. This represented the failure of highly centralized resistance;

3422-434: Was unknown until the late 2000s. Stasys Guiga (code name Tarzanas ) died in hiding in 1986. Many nationalist partisans persisted in the hope that Cold War hostilities between the West, which never formally recognized the Soviet occupation , and the Soviet Union might escalate to an armed conflict in which Lithuania would be liberated. This never materialized, and many of the surviving former partisans remained bitter that

3481-475: Was usually saved to blow themselves and their faces to avoid being taken as prisoner, since the physical tortures of Soviet MGB/NKVD were very brutal and cruel, and being recognised, to prevent their relatives from suffering. In the first year of partisan warfare, about 10,000 Lithuanians were killed – about half of the total deaths. Men avoided conscription to the Red Army and hid in the forests, spontaneously joining

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