Who the Baltic forest brothers really were: independence fighters or pro-German terrorists

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

By October 1944, the Soviet army controlled most of Latvia (with the exception of Courland). In the Baltic forests began to leave the inhabitants who were on the side of the fascist occupation authorities in the person of officials, policemen, soldiers and officers of the Latvian SS. In turn, German military intelligence from the Wehrmacht military personnel that had departed to Courland, Pomerania, East Prussia began training agents. These cadres were intended for conducting a sabotage and partisan war against the Soviet regime. The clashes between the Soviet armed forces and the Baltic national partisans lasted about 10 years and claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides.

Formation of forest squads and pro-German terrorists

For the first time the phrase "Forest Brothers" appeared in the Baltics at the beginning of the 20th century, when, during the Russian revolution of 1905-1907, local partisans burned down landlord estates and killed Russian officials, seizing them in rubles. Then this movement died out along with the revolution, reviving a few decades later. Today, when it comes to the "forest brothers", we mean the Baltic armed formations that acted against the Red Army. Members of this movement called themselves champions of the anti-Soviet regime and formally advocated the restoration of the independence of the Baltic republics. The backbone of the movement consisted of former servicemen of the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian armies of the bourgeois period (until the 1940s).

Collaborators from the occupation administration formed by the Third Reich also went to the Forest Brothers. They were forced to join the partisans: during the period of the German occupation, such people managed to celebrate the elimination of communists along with their families and participation in the Baltic Holocaust. The “fight against the Jews” was carried out in the Baltics especially actively, and mainly by the forces of the local population. In the fall of 1941, Estonia declared itself "Judenfrei" - a state without Jews. It is unlikely that the "heroes" could count on leniency with such a track record. The forest guerrilla movement was also made up of wealthy locals who lost substantial property with the arrival of the USSR in the Baltic States.

Forest sabotage weekdays

The "Forest Brothers" lived in the Baltic forests, scattering tent camps in the thickets and occupying bunkers near farms. The saboteurs dressed in the uniform of the Latvian army, SS troops and the Wehrmacht. After some time, this uniform began to be combined with all sorts of elements of ordinary civilian clothing. The "forest brothers" were armed for the most part with German small arms. The partisan detachments were equipped with radio communications and an encryption system. In terms of strategic preference, a surprise attack tactic was used against Soviet military patrols. During the raids on the volost centers, representatives of the new administrations, communists, Komsomol members, social activists and civilians who fell under suspicion of having connections with the above were destroyed.

Features of subversive activities in the republics

The underground movement “Forest Brothers” reached the largest volumes in Lithuania. At its peak in 1945-1946, this army numbered at least 30,000 people. It was a well-organized formation that entered into combat clashes with the professional army, as well as the NKVD and the MGB. But the high activity did not help the Lithuanian saboteurs - in 1947 they were defeated. The Red Army men and their local followers liquidated the main headquarters, district and district commands, after which the surviving "brothers" operated in small groups for some time.

Estonian partisans began an armed confrontation with the authorities of the USSR in the summer of 1941, counting on the imminent arrival of the German army and looming independence. The “summer war,” as the post-war clashes of local partisans with units of the Red Army were called in Estonia, engulfed most of the regions of the republic. According to the historian I. Kopytin, after the official end of the Second World War, tens of thousands of people were hiding in the Estonian forest belts, some of whom offered armed resistance to the coming Soviet power. But, despite the significant number of armed formations, a unified striking force was never created. National Estonian partisans were focused on supporting the American, British and Swedish special services, waiting for a convenient moment in the event of a military conflict between the USSR and the West.

The struggle of the Latvian "forest brothers" began in 1944 and continued until 1956. According to the assumption of the Latvian historian Strods, up to 20,000 partisans were active in Latvia during this period (other scholars assume that their number reached 40,000). Latvian underground fighters traditionally attacked Soviet institutions and officials, polling stations, retail outlets and milk collection points. There were also rare full-fledged clashes with units of the Red Army. Among the local dissenters, women were seen living in the forests with their husbands who had gone to the partisans. In 1945-1946, the head of one of these associations was considered a Catholic priest Anton Yukhnevich.

Results of the 10-year war

Anti-Soviet armed guerrilla attacks in the Baltics continued until 1956, taking the form of a protracted civil conflict. On the side of the Soviet forces were the so-called extermination battalions, formed from pro-Soviet local forces. Thousands of battles and terrorist attacks killed thousands of Soviet supporters, servicemen and fighters of the extermination battalions. In the same battles, the "forest brothers" also perished. By the end of the 50s, the anti-Soviet underground came to an end. The Soviet government took up the restoration of the Baltic territories, the construction of new enterprises, schools, hospitals. Tired of military conflicts, people chose a peaceful life, so the slogans coming from the forests ceased to attract them.

As for the fate of the surviving "forest brothers", many who voluntarily surrendered either escaped punishment altogether, or received short sentences. Those captured in battles were condemned for up to 25 years, but later they were released under an amnesty. In the 60s, most of the forest underground workers were free, and the deported received permission to return home. Many ex-brothers who survived until the collapse of the USSR were retrained in the already independent republics as national heroes who were entitled to a substantial pension. And in 2011, Lithuania presented the “Book of Remembrance of Victims of Partisan Terror”, which lists the names of more than 25,000 civilians killed by members of partisan patriotic detachments.

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