Who were the Lithuanian partisans?

Abstract

The aim of this chapter is to analyse the social composition of Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisans (1944–1953) and to answer the question: What segment of independent Lithuanian society did the Lithuanian partisans principally represent? The research was conducted by analysing the biographies of partisans Juozas Lukša-Daumantas and Kazimieras Pyplys-Audronis within the context of a study of biographical information of a total of 1,000 partisans. The analysis revealed that these partisans represented a generation of people born and raised in independent Lithuania between 1918 and 1940. This period consolidated the national identity of Lithuanian society. The linguistic and confessional distinctiveness of Lithuanians was strengthened by a national education system, a market economy, and a socio-economic way of life based on private ownership. A paramilitary culture promoted in society became one of the sources for patriotism, resistance to occupation, and skills. The partisan war would also not have been possible without the experience of the first Sovietization of Lithuania (1940–1941), and the resistance to Soviet and the Nazi occupations (1941–1944). During these occupation periods, Lithuania developed the experience of underground resistance organizations and practical paramilitary action in provincial communities, consolidating groups of local communities most resistant to the Soviets.