Forest brothers

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The Forest Brothers ( Estonian metsavennad , Latvian mežabrāļi , Lithuanian miško broliai ) were Estonian , Latvian and Lithuanian resistance fighters who fought as partisans or guerrillas against the invasion and occupation of their countries by the Soviet Union during and after the Second World War . The name Waldbrüder was already used by partisans during the Russian Revolution of 1905 .

occupation

The Soviet Union had in 1940 after rigged referendums previously independent countries of Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania annexed. After an interim occupation by Germany (1941-1944 / 45), Soviet rule was restored, again mostly against the will of the population. From 1940 and after the restoration of Soviet rule, Stalinist repression intensified , including the deportation of large parts of the population to the Asian part of the country, which caused over 100,000 residents of these countries to hide from the authorities, often calling them wooded or swampy parts of the country used natural shelter and base for armed resistance against the Red Army .

The extent and nature of this resistance varied. There were both independently operating partisans, acting mainly for their own protection, as well as large and well-organized groups that were more or less able to take up combat with Soviet garrisons .

Logistic support

Herring Gull- class speedboats in Kiel

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many of the Forest Brothers received logistical support through supplies, liaison officers and coordination from the British MI6 , American CIA and Swedish intelligence . From the sea side, the partisan groups were supported by the British Baltic Fishery Protection Service , which operated with German speedboats as part of Operation Jungle .

However, this support declined noticeably after the operation was betrayed to the Soviet Union by Kim Philby and other spies in Great Britain, whose information enabled the KGB to identify, infiltrate and eliminate many Baltic partisan units and thus keep other Forest Brothers out of contact cut off western intelligence.

Victims and successes, collaborators and bandits

The forest brother Ants Kaljurand

The struggle between the armed Soviet forces and the Forest Brothers lasted more than a decade and cost at least 50,000 lives. The resistance was best organized in southern Lithuania ( Dzūkija ), where partisan groups were able to control larger areas of rural areas until 1949. In the cities, the Forest Brothers had neither influence nor support worth mentioning.

Even if they did not engage in direct combat operations with the army or special KGB units, they caused considerable losses and damage, for example by ambushing Soviet military strips, cutting off the power supply and local Communist Party cadres , persons who favor collectivization , the Komsomol or the party, killed, sometimes also their relatives.

It is difficult to distinguish it from terrorism , as civilians in the countryside who were suspected of collaboration were not spared either. The supply of food and clothing was provided by sympathizers or by force. The so-called Stribai (in Russian Istrebitel ) were installed as a countervailing force against the forest brothers, who are known as bandits . They acted with similar means against relatives of partisans or suspects. Blackmail and denunciation were the order of the day in both directions. Civilians who had been shot were presented as bandits, the killing of which was rewarded by the state authorities.

motivation

Many of the Forest Brothers were driven by the hope that a war between the Soviet Union and the West would break out sooner or later and lead to the liberation of their home countries. That hope was not fulfilled, however, and according to Mart Laar , Prime Minister of Estonia (1992–1994, 1999–2002) and author of a book on post-war resistance, many of the surviving former Forest Brothers still feel bitterness that the West is the has shied away from military confrontation with the Soviets. In contrast, the existence of the Forest Brothers underscored the fact that the Baltic region was occupied by a foreign power and thus the argument that statehood would never have been given up.

By the early 1950s, Soviet troops had clearly gained the upper hand in fighting the Forest Brothers . Secret service knowledge gathered by Soviet spies in the West and KGB agents within the resistance movement led to large-scale "purges" in 1952 and the elimination of most of the remaining partisan groups.

The end of the resistance

Many of the remaining forest brothers laid down their arms in 1953 when the authorities granted them an amnesty after the death of Josef Stalin . Individual independent partisans were able to remain in hiding until the 1970s and avoid capture.

Probably the last Estonian forest brother August Sabbe (September 1, 1909 - September 27, 1978) was not killed until 1978 when two KGB agents tried to arrest him.

Culture of remembrance

Forest Brothers veterans at a memorial service
On the wall of the former KGB headquarters in Vilnius, each stone has the name and the dates of the national partisans who were shot here.

After the “ Singing Revolution ” and the subsequent independence of the Baltic countries from the Soviet Union, the partisans are mainly celebrated as heroes in the local culture of remembrance . A critical reappraisal, as it was done for the Resistance , is missing so far. On the one hand, this is due to nationalist motives and, on the other hand, the fact that mainly residents of rural regions, whose voices are rarely heard in the media, suffered from the Forest Brothers. Documentation on the activities of the forest brothers is currently being collected and systematized, in Lithuania, for example, by the Center for Research into Genocide and Resistance and Associations of Partisans Still Living and their representatives.

Various museums, such as the Latvian Occupation Museum in Riga , the Occupation Museum in Tallinn and the museum in the former KGB prison cells in Tartu , are reminiscent of communist oppression and resistance to it.

In 2013, Peter Grimm and Eckart Reichl shot the documentary “Forest Brothers - The Partisans from the Ile Bunker” .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c NATO stabs a historical hornet's nest, NZZ , August 3, 2017.
  2. KGB cells museum (KGB kongide muuseum) on the website of the Tartu City Museum (English, Estonian)
  3. Rose Salzmann: "Forest Brothers - The Partisans from the Ile Bunker" , event review , memorial library in honor of the victims of communism , 2015.