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The History of the Lithuanian State and the Armed Forces
Formation of the Lithuanian State
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th – 18th-century
Lithuania under the Domination of Russia in 1795 -- 1915
Restoration of the Lithuanian State
Two decades of the Independent State of Lithuania (1920 – 1940)
Lithuania under the Occupations of 1940 –1944
Armed Resistance to regain the Independence of Lithuania in 1944 – 1953
Unarmed Resistance to regain the Independence of Lithuania in 1954 – 1990
Re-establishment of the Lithuanian Armed Forces and Withdrawal of the Occupant Troops
Formation of the Lithuanian State
At the turn of the 10th -century the dominant powers of Europe “discovered” the Baltic area thus causing a threat to the historic survival of the Baltic tribes.
Comparatively distant location of Germany to Lithuania served as a protective measure but simultaneously blocked the advent of European civilization. At the end of the 10th -century -- the start of the 11th -century, the Roman Catholic Church embarked upon the Catholic mission in the Baltic area. These were the initial contacts of Lithuania to Europe. The first mention of the name Lithuania (Litua) in a written source, the annals of the German town Kvedlinburgh, goes back to 1009.
At the time of the second encounter of the “Latin” Europe and Lithuania, the expansion into the East was conducted along the routes that had previously been developed out by the Crusaders.
Yet Lithuania became the barrier that had prevented the German colonies from taking over the Baltic lands. The Lithuanian areas were highly integrated and able to resist the military onslaught from outside. By their military potential and skills, the Lithuanian Armies were prevalent in the Baltic area.
In the 13th -century the historic development of the Baltic area followed the pattern characteristic of the total European civilization of the 9th–century. The Lithuanians adopted the role of the Vikings: they were the Vikings of the Baltic area defending their existence from within the inland.
The “Viking” Lithuanian State was shaped in the period of Duke Mindaugas who unified the Lithuanian territories and became the first King of Lithuania. At the start of the 13th – century, mighty Lithuanian troops ravaged the territories of disintegrating Russia. The German Crusaders, who would systematically attack Lithuania, received the first significant defeat in the Battle of Šiauliai, in 1236. This facilitated the establishment of the State of Lithuania at the moment when hostile political powers were approaching Lithuania from three directions.
On July 6 of 1253, Duke Mindaugas was crowned King of Lithuania. In
the tumults of war, Lithuania was recognized as equal of other Christian kingdoms.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 14th –18th-century
After the formation, for almost two hundred years, the Lithuanian State was fighting a defensive war to protect the Lithuanian territories and resist massive invasions of the Crusader Order (Teutonic Order). Simultaneously, the Lithuanian State was rapidly expanding southwards and eastwards.
Thus the Lithuanian State, a pagan metropolis, was dominating the Christian territories of several times its size, which was unique for the historic period.
Lithuania achieved this status in the 13th –15th- century, with two powerful Asian and European powers, the Germans, and the Tatars, threatening the integrity of the
State on two frontlines.
High was the price paid for the independence of the Lithuanian State; techniques of the most sophisticated military-diplomatic warfare had also been utilized for this aim.
In the 14th-century, a major part of Lithuania was turned in the battle arena. Decisive defensive operations were launched in Pilėnai (1336), and Kaunas (1362). The efforts of expanding the Lithuanian State culminated with the rule of Vytautas the Great (1392 – 1430) who stretched out the borders of Lithuania to reach the coastal areas of the Black Sea.
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania assimilated diverse religious denominations and cultures with the main defensive potential still being Lithuanian and Lithuanian lands being the territorial basis of the kingdom.
At the start of the 15th-century, the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was as large as 1 million square kilometers. This was the culminating point of the Lithuanian State expansion and the enlargement of the area of Lithuanian dominance.
Having reached this culmination, in 1837, Lithuania went into the Commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania and converted to Christianity. In 1410, the Armies of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy fought in the battle of Žalgiris (Grunwald) along with the Polish troops to completely defeat the Teutonic Order and end the epoch of the wars against the Crusaders. Having experienced enormous losses, the Lithuanians and Poles stopped the Crusader troops at the mouth of the Nemunas river. Yet the Grand Duchy of Moscow was gathering strength to enter the war against the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the intent to retrieve the Slavonic areas that had gotten under the Lithuanian domination.
In 1494 –1522 the Grand Duchy of Moscow seized about one third of the territories of the Lithuanian State ruled by Vytautas the Great. Due to the unfavourable international situation, Lithuania had to seek for a compromise with the Kingdom of Poland. In 1569 Lithuania and Poland signed the Lublin Union to enter into the Commonwealth of Two Nations (Republic). Lithuania retained its sovereignty: Lithuanian laws (the Statutes of Lithuania), its own territory and governmental institutions, the state treasury and the Armed Forces. Strong royal power could not be institutionalized in Lithuania because of the democratic tradition supported by the Lithuanian gentry; this did not facilitate to the formation of absolute monarchy either, in contrary to what happened in neighboring states. Yet the Lithuanian nobility were rapidly losing their ethnic identity.
Constant wars against Russia and Sweden would deliver severe blows to the existence of the Lithuanian State, the consequences of which would be ever harder to overcome. The aggression of neighboring countries would be only temporarily stopped by occasional victories of the Lithuanian troops, such as the victory against the Swedish Army near Salaspils, the fame of which spread all over Europe. In the middle of the 16th-century, two hundred years since the wars against the Crusaders, troops of foreign armies stepped into the territories of Lithuania again.
In 1655 the Russians occupied the town of Vilnius for the first time. Since the end of the 17th-century, the interference of foreign states into the politics of the Lithuanian State became ever more significant because of the internecine conflicts of the local nobility. At the start of the 18th-century, an extended period of the Russian intruding into the domestic issues of the Lithuanian State had commenced which lasted up to the final disintegration of the State. The end of the 18th-century saw the partitioning (in 1772, 1793, and 1795) of the Commonwealth of Lithuania and Poland by Russia, Austria and Prussia caused by domestic weakness of the Polish-Lithuanian Union and foreign aggression. On March 24, 1794, patriotically minded groups started the revolt against the domination of Russia with the aim to restore the territorial integrity of the Commonwealth of Lithuania and Poland. The Lithuanian Army supported the rebels. Russia became the main suppressor of the uprising and the antagonist of the Commonwealth of Lithuania and Poland. In 1795, with the third and final partitioning of the Commonwealth of Lithuania and Poland, Lithuania was annexed by Russia. Thus the Lithuanian State of 600 years was liquidated as well as the Lithuanian Armed Forces with their unique traditions and their own Military School. The old traditions of military schooling in the State of Lithuania could be exemplified by the fact that “Artis magnae artileriae” (The Great Art of Artillery) written by Kazimieras Simonavičius, of Vilnius University, and published in Amsterdam in 1650, had been the most important scientific treaty on artillery in Europe for a hundred and fifty years. In it, the concepts of multi-staged rockets and missile artillery were considered for the first time.
Lithuania under the Russian Domination in 1795 – 1915
With the incorporation of Lithuania into the Russian Empire, the Russian dominance was established, foreign to Lithuania. The attempts at the restoration of the Lithuanian State were emphatically expressed in 1812, with the marching of Napoleon troops across Lithuania, as well as in the National Liberation revolts of 1831 and 1863. The revolts were suppressed. 9 thousand of the participants of the 1831 revolt and almost 10 thousand of those that had participated in the revolt of 1863 were arrested and deported to Siberia. Vilnius University, one of the oldest universities in East Europe (founded in 1579) was closed as generating too much resistance to the domination of Russia. In 1864 the Lithuanian press was banned as well as schooling in the Lithuanian language.
But the Lithuanians developed their own underground education system due to which the Lithuanian population had the highest literacy index compared to the other areas of the Russian Empire. For distribution (or “smuggling” into the country) of Lithuanian books, reading and educating children in the native language, the Lithuanians were persecuted and deported to Siberia. The lift of the ban on the Lithuanian press on May 7, 1904, was the victory of the Lithuanians in the battle against the repression of the nation’s rights, suppression of the freedom of press and speech. In 1905 the Grand Assembly of Vilnius composed of representatives of the Lithuanian nation generated the idea to establish an autonomous Lithuanian State. When the World War I broke out, the German Army occupied Lithuania. The Lithuanian Council, established in 1917 at the Conference of the Lithuanians, embarked upon the restitution of the Independent Lithuanian State with the ethnic territories of the former Lithuania.
Restitution of the State of Lithuania
At the end of the World War I, on February 16, 1918, The Council of Lithuania declared the re-establishment of the Independent State of Lithuania, based on democratic foundations, with the capital town of Vilnius.
As the Russian Communist troops followed closely the retreating German troops,
the Lithuanian State was forced to faster organize the Lithuanian Armed Forces to defend the nation from foreign invasion. The Lithuanian Armed Forces were shaped and fortified in the battles of the Independence War against Russian Communist troops and Polish Volunteer Forces.
By the fall of 1919, the volunteer-based Lithuanian Armed Forces pushed the Red Army away from the Lithuanian territory; by the end of the same year, Lithuanian troops forced the German-Russian volunteer units under Col. P. Bermont retreat.
In July of 1920, the Peace Treaty with Russia was signed to establish the border of the Lithuanian State considerably further eastward and southward compared to what it is nowadays. The ethnic areas of Lithuania, with the lakes of Narutis and Svyrė, the towns of Lyda, Gardinas and Vilnius with the District of Vilnius, were all established as Lithuanian.
Thus the Independence of the State of Lithuania was protected. But on April 20, 1920, Poland occupied and annexed Eastern Lithuania and the town of Vilnius. The battles on November 18 –21, in 1920, near Širvintos and Giedraičiai, won by the Lithuanian Armed Forces over the Polish troops, were the last 20th-century armed conflicts to Poland. Yet the Poland’s control of Vilnius was complicating the Lithuanian – Polish relations through the entire between the two-war period.
Two Decades of the Independent State of Lithuania
( 1920 – 1940)
In 1920 – 1940, the Parliamentary Republic of Lithuania (Presidents Aleksandras Stulginskis, Kazys Grinius) implemented important reforms to support the Lithuanian State. In 1920, during the first democratic election, the Constituent Assembly
(or the Seimas of Lithuania) was elected; in 1922, the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, the first up to date fundamental law was adopted. Lithuania was received in the League of Nations to enjoy a full-fledged membership of the organization. The Republic of Lithuania received international recognition. On July 25, 1922, Lithuania was recognized by the USA, Great Britain, France, Italy, Japan. In January of 1923, the Lithuanian Uprisal in Klaipėda Region, that had been occupied and dominated by Germany, liberated the area to become part of the Lithuanian State for the first time in its history.
The Land Reform started in 1922, as well as the introduction of the Litas as the national currency, had a stimulating effect on vital functions of the country. Several thousands of the first volunteers of the Lithuanian Army were given the land to become their property.
After the military coup d`état of December 17, 1926, the parliamentary tradition of government was abandoned. President Antanas Smetona became the leading figure of the State to retain presidential powers and act as the head of the Lithuanian Republic until 1940.
During two decades of independence significant changes in economy and culture of Lithuania took place. The Armed Forces of Lithuania were organized and equipped in a way to meet the requirements of the time. For the peace time the Lithuanian Armed Forces numbered 25 thousand soldiers, and the number could be increased up to 150 thousand in case of mobilization. Of mention is the input of the Div.Gen. Stasys Raštikis, Brig. Gen. Antanas Gustaitis, Gen. Juozas Kraulevičius into further development and modernization of the Lithuanian Army. At the beginning of 1940, the Lithuanian Armed Forces consisted of 3 infantry divisions, 4 artilery regiments, 3 cavalry regiments, military aviation and heavily equiped military units with the total assets of more than 700 pieces of ordnance, 118 military aircrafts, 10 armored vehicles and other military equipment manufactured in Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Switzerland, and other states of West Europe.
On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the secret protocols to the Molotov – Ribbetrop Pact, partitioning by this East Europe. On September 28, the Indepenence of Lithuania ended with a new secret protocol under which Lithuania was placed in the zone of influence of the Soviet Union.
After Poland was taken over and divided on October 10, 1939, Lithuania was forced to sign the treaty which was used by the Soviet Union as an excuse to bring their military troops into the territory of Lithuania (the same scenario was used for Latvia and Estonia).
Simultaneously, Lithuania was given back the capital town Vilnius and a minor part of the ethnic territories which had been assigned to Lithuania by the Peace Treaty of 1920.
Occupation of Lithuania in 1940 – 1944
On July15, 1940, the Soviet troops crossed the borders of Lithuania and violently entered the territory of the Lithuanian State. The Lithuanian Armed Forces did not resist complying with the political decision of the Government of Lithuania. The President of the Lithuanian State who was also the Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, emigrated abroad. The Lithuanian Army was liquidated, with the fragments of it incorporated into the Red Army. The Lithuanian State was destroyed. This marked the beginning of the fifty years of occupation. Mass repressions of Lithuanian citizen were undertaken, and thousands, no matter what social class or stratum, were arrested, massacred and deported to Siberia. On August 3, 1940, Lithuania was illegally annexed to the Soviet Union. The resistance against the occupant SSSR broke into a revolt on June 22, 1941. The revolt was supported by numerous Lithuanian military units that had been incorporated into the Red Army before yet split from it to join the Lithuanian resistance fighters.
2 000 rebels and defenseless civilians were massacred in the battles or due to the Soviet terrorism.
During the revolt, thousands of political prisoners were released or broke away from prisons. The Interim Lithuanian Government was formed; yet in 43 days of its existence it was unable to restore the Lithuanian State and its operations were terminated with the German Occupation and the newly introduced German Administration.
The fact that Lithuania was the only of the occupied Baltic States where the Germans were unable to form the Lithuanian SS units was determined by the civil noncompliance movement in the country. (In Europe the same resistance model was chosen by the occupied Greece).
Efforts were made to preserve the vitality of the nation in hope that with the end of War independence would be restored to Lithuania. To support the vision of the would-be independence, Vietinė (Local) Brigade of volunteer fighters was formed that existed between February to May 1944 and numbered twenty thousand men in its ranks. The Local Brigade was expected to become the nucleus of the independent Armed Forces of Lithuania, as happened in 1919 – 1920, and to protect the borders of Lithuania. When Gen. Povilas Plechavičius, Commander of the Local Brigade, refused to comply with the German orders, 100 Lithuanian militaries were executed by firing, commanders were thrown to prison. The rest of soldiers of Local Brigade were disarmed, and either deported to Germany or had to escape.