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The Forest Brothers were a set of anti-communist guerrilla organizations that operated in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) from the latter part of World War II into the 1950's. This video is an introduction to them and what they did.
The lecture is given by Dr. Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius of the University of Tennessee.
Story from the lecture (20:01 - 21:48):
Quote:
In 1946, a Soviet Army officer who was ethnically Estonian had gotten leave to visit his home. And so he decided to take a shortcut … in southern Estonia.
As he walked home through the woods, he suddenly came upon a summer festival, with a roaring, cheerful campfire lighting up the darkness. Around the campfire, people were dancing to the music of a band, laughter was ringing, and moonshine vodka was flowing.
He assumed that this was one of the countless village feasts of high summer. And so the Soviet Army officer sat down and he was welcomed by his smiling hosts. Everyone was drinking and having a good time.
Then, after a while the Soviet Army officer started hearing more clearly the songs that were being sung around the campfire. They were songs he did not know. And one of the songs started “I want to be home when Estonia is free”. At this, the officer began looking around. And he finally noticed the stacks of rifles and neatly placed machine guns nearby.
All at once, he realized to his horror that he had blundered into a party thrown by the Forest Brothers. At just this moment, his hosts, who had kind of been wondering how long it would take him to realize this, laughed and grabbed him.
They took his gun and his documents. And then with more laughter, they sat him down again and gave him another mug of vodka, and everyone continued to party.
Later, the partisans let him go unharmed.
The Soviet Army officer reported his adventure to his superiors, and he was punished severely for this adventure.
There were also anti-Soviet guerrillas in Albania (the Balli Kombëtar and supporters of King Zog I), Belarusia, Bulgaria (the Goryani), Croatia (the Crusaders), Hungary (Revolution of 1956), Moldova, Poland ('the cursed soldiers'), Romania, Russia (the White Movement), Serbia (the Chetniks), Slovenia, and the Ukraine (Ukrainian Insurgent Army).
The Forest Brothers were a set of anti-communist guerrilla organizations that operated in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) from the latter part of World War II into the 1950's. This video is an introduction to them and what they did.
The Forest Brothers began operating during the early part of the war, when the Soviets occupied the Baltics. After the Germans invaded, some resisted them. Others became part of ethnic-based German military units - some SS - fighting on the Eastern front. Once the Red Army retook the Baltic states, they again fought the Soviets. With the Cold War developing, the western powers then covertly aided the Forest Brothers.
Yes, the forest brothers were active in the Baltic states, especially in Lithuania and especially in western Ukraine until the mid-1950s. However, their unequivocally idealistic and noble role as idealistic fighters of freedom, as some 'patriotic' historians are trying to prove, is debatable.
The Forest Brothers were a set of anti-communist guerrilla organizations that operated in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) from the latter part of World War II into the 1950's. This video is an introduction to them and what they did.
The lecture is given by Dr. Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius of the University of Tennessee.
Story from the lecture (20:01 - 21:48):
There were also anti-Soviet guerrillas in Albania (the Balli Kombëtar and supporters of King Zog I), Belarusia, Bulgaria (the Goryani), Croatia (the Crusaders), Hungary (Revolution of 1956), Moldova, Poland ('the cursed soldiers'), Romania, Russia (the White Movement), Serbia (the Chetniks), Slovenia, and the Ukraine (Ukrainian Insurgent Army).
Yeah, let's dwell on the "Ukrainian Insurgent Army" in particular.
The person who wrote this post in "Most talented field commander WWII" should know that's exactly who killed commander N. Vatutin. That's who those "partisans" were.
And while "fighting the Soviets," they "fought" someone else as well;
I was at the end of October of 1944 (Estonia was under Soviet control since September of 1944. a.) a regular 13-year-old schoolboy and studied at Patküla Primary School. However, we had to go to the lessons to the Tõrva Primary School because Patküla School had been bombed.
Lessons started at 12.30 and ended at 18.00. The teaching was tense because the material that was set for 45 minutes was taken in 30 minutes. At home, there was no electricity and lamp oil. Moreover, we were left behind for nearly two months in our studies.
The way home was about 5 kilometers long and had to walk through the dusk, with the fear of the bandits' (i.e. forest brothers. The author of the letter uses this word.a.) violence.
On the third school day it happened. On the way back from school, I had reached the bosk of the neighboring farm. My little growth, the gray-haired breeches of home-made fabrics and the worn schoolbag shouldn't have created the misconception that there would be a communist or a monster ...
Suddenly, two armed men with German rifles appeared out of the shadow of the haystack and started shooting in the direction of me. The distance could be 50-60 meters. The bullets did not hit me - I was saved by evening twilight, my little growth and my desperate run.
I wiped the tears of fear and sweat and reached my home farmhouse's woods. It was only now that I heard the spikes of the bullets and their slight strokes in the tree trunks. In the greatest anguish of my life, I got home by breathing.
The mother sighed and said, "I heard gunshots behind the woods. Don't tell the little brothers about it-they won't dare to go to school. "
I suffered of nervous shock from the fear of death for several days. Then I started schooling again by fear of death, choosing a different path each time. All three of my school trips were dangerous because I had to go across the wilderness and through several forest stands. In the spring, I graduated with good and very good grades.
At the same time, there was a war in the world, demanding thousands of victims every day, including Estonians.
Dear ex-forest brothers! The forest brothers must now be loved and respected. Well, how can I love you ?! I would like to ask you a public question: "Who authorized you to fight in Estonian forests, kill and scare people?"
I would like to emphasize that there are some other opinions that do not look at the activities of forest brothers as negative. But this was an opinion, an opinion of one perfectly ordinary person.
As I have already described before, I have not well understood what the purpose of the op is: to make a tribute thread to the forest brothers or to have a thread to analyze the activities of the forest brothers. However, taking into account the general orientation of our forum, I expect the latter.
Nationalists of Baltic countries have made about the forest brothers and the heroic representation of their activities one of their main talking points, I know but I will give my opinion which is maybe a bit less idealistic and sorry for it.
For example, as a small child, I was afraid of forest brothers. Of course, the forest brothers no longer acted then, but the older relatives talked about them. Those gloomy tales about the 40ies and early 50ies somehow frightened me, I remember. One of my many grandaunts had only one leg. It a bit scared me as a little child and even more so the story of how it happened. What had happened? At that time, in 40ies there was little buses in Estonia. So, when people wanted to drive from point A to point B, they just drove on the truck platforms where benches were seated. My aunt drove once with such a truck and suddenly the car had been attacked by forest brothers and they opened fire. The leg was amputated and so the rest of the life she had to live with the prosthesis. My grandaunt had nothing to do with politics.
There is another argument. The activity of the forest brothers is presented as an idealistic activity for the freedom of the fatherland. In reality, the people of the big farms often became forest brothers. So those from whom the Soviet land reform had taken off some of their the land. With land reform, some land was taken from large farms and distributed to poor peasants. The forest brothers often frightened those poor peasants who had received the land. Land withdrawal always activated the number and activity of forest brothers. Perhaps the Soviet propagandistic history (yes, there was a lot of propaganda in it) was still at least partly correct when it claimed it to be a class war?
Weren't the forest brothers betrayed by the moles in the British spy agencies like Kim Philby? That's how the Soviet occupation forces in the Baltic got them?
The forest brothers just highlights the tragic situation, the vise grip of the big countries Germany and Russia / Soviet Union on the Baltic states and Eastern Europe in general. It was a choice between two great evils and both had nothing but occupation and subjugation of the Baltics in mind. If it weren't for America today the situation would still be desperate. I wonder how the Baltics feel about the joint German-Russian sea gas pipeline and other projects.
Excerpt from the lecture in the video in the OP (23:00-23:24):
Quote:
The Soviet security forces also on occasion set up bands dressed like Forest Brothers who brutalized the population to ruin their reputation. Alternatively, if a family aided such a fake group, it would be proof that they were opposed to the Soviet regime and the household would face deportation.
Who could know what the knock on the door in the middle of night would really mean?
1) (CAUTION TO YOUNG AND SENSITIVE PEOPLE) Viewers might want to restrain young people from watching the section of the video that extends from 16:20 to 17:00. Displayed there are the heads of victims of Communists who were dug up from mass graves. Apparently, at least some of them were tortured.
2) Film published on YouTube by the owner. This film is owned by periscope.com, but it was published on YouTube in the channel PeriscopeFilm.
3) Temporary sound loss. The sound drops out at 0:15, but returns at 0:28.
3) The YouTube title of the film refers to the Soviet occupation of the "Balkan" states. Of course, it should have said "Baltic".
4) I didn't see a specified copyright date. I think that the film was probably made some time in the 1950's.
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