Genocidas ir rezistencija
type: channel
description: Founded in 1997 m. The journal publishes articles about crimes of soviet and Nazi totalitarian regimes in Lithuania in 1939–1991, armed and unarmed resistance, and consequences of totalitarian regimes to Lithuanian society.
publisher: Genocide and Resistance Research Centre of Lithuania
language: en
publication name: Genocidas ir rezistencija
issn: 1392-3463
items: Genocide and resistance Nr. 57(1)
items: From Division to Solidarity: Latvian Refugees, the Latvian Central Council, and National Identity in Exile Post 1945
items: Displaced Persons from the Baltic States in Northern Germany: The case of Lübeck and Flensburg
items: Lithuanian community of exiles in the West: return to a free Lithuania
items: Features of the unarmed resistance in Vilnius during the Soviet era
items: Detachment of the Klaipėda Region from Lithuania in 1939 – a catalyst for the Second World War?
items: The 3 June 1944 tragedy of Pirčiupiai village: historiography and sources
items: Punitive Action Against Residents of Onuškis and Daugai Suspected of Collaboration With The Soviets in August 1945
items: Genocide and resistance Nr. 1(1)
items: NKVD kariuomenės dokumentai Rusijos karo archyve
items: German and Lithuanian Security Police (1941–1944)
items: Soviet Anti-Catholic Church Activities (1953–1967)
items: Soviet Saboteurs in Lithuania (1941–1944)
items: The Peculiarities of Memoirs Written in the Vortex of Tragic Events
items: The Structure and Functions of Soviet Security in Lithuania (1941–1954)
items: The Activities of NKVD Forces of Rear Defence Fronts in Lithuania (1944–1945)
items: Special MVD-MGB Troops in Lithuania (1945–1959)
items: Genocide and resistance Nr. 2(2)
items: Status of out of law persons
items: The Activities of War Archives Committee in Collecting Documents about the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes
items: The Basic Non-violence Resistance Forms and Hidden Nationalism as Inner Insubordination to the Soviet Regime in Latvia in seventies and eighties
items: Resistance Movement in Estonia in 1955–1985
items: MGB–KGB Agencies in Occupied Lithuania
items: Armed National Resistance Units – the Medium of the Games of the SSSR/Latvian SSR and Great Britain Special Operative Services in 1945–1956
items: Latvian SSR MGB Special Troops and Special Agents Against National Armed Units in 1946–1953
items: Central War Archive Documents about the Repression against Military Officers of Polish Army in 1944–1956
items: Top Secret Deportation Operation of the Population of the Baltic Countries (in February 25–August 23, 1949)
items: Exiles to the far Regions of the USSR in May–June, 1941
items: Armed Resistance Movement and Guerrilla War in Estonia in 1941
items: USSR NKGB–MGB structure

Genocide and resistance Nr. 57(1)
type: item
description: Full Issue
subject: Full issue
  topic: section
creator: Andrius Tumavičius
creator: Rimantas Zizas
creator: Arūnas Vyšniauskas
creator: Valdemaras Klumbys
creator: Juozas Banionis
creator: Christian Pletzing
creator: Pēteris Kalniņš
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 1
ending page: 220
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.100

From Division to Solidarity: Latvian Refugees, the Latvian Central Council, and National Identity in Exile Post 1945
type: item
description: The solidarity of Baltic exile communities after World War II was not an automatic result of shared national identity, but emerged from historical traumas and the realities of displacement. The destruction of civil society under Soviet rule and the pressures of exile fostered unity among Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians, despite internal divisions. Latvians had particularly deep divisions to overcome. Latvian national consciousness, growing out of a divided regional and cultural past, developed later than Lithuania’s. Political divisions during the period of independence after 1918 were compounded by issues raised by wartime collaboration and resistance. The Soviet reoccupation of 1944 led to mass flight, with Latvian and Estonian refugees removed by sea in German-organised evacuations. In postwar displaced persons (DP) camps, Baltic refugees sought Western protection from Soviet repatriation, reinforcing ethnic solidarity. Latvian exiles established self-governing institutions, schools and cultural organisations, fostering a stronger sense of solidarity in exile than had existed before. Despite this growing unity, wartime political divisions persisted. The example is given of the Latvian Central Council (LCP), formed in 1943 to restore independence, which was uppressed by the Nazis, while Latvian officials who cooperated with German occupiers argued they were acting in the nation’s best interests. These disputes carried into exile, sparking fierce debates over loyalty and legitimacy. Over time, however, the reality of permanent Soviet occupation led former ideological opponents to prioritise a united front over past conflicts. This process of selective historical memory was essential in forging a cohesive Latvian exile identity.
subject: Articles in English
  topic: section
subject: Latvian
  topic: keywords
subject: Baltic
  topic: keywords
subject: exile
  topic: keywords
subject: occupation
  topic: keywords
subject: resistance
  topic: keywords
creator: Pēteris Kalniņš
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 164
ending page: 180
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.107

Displaced Persons from the Baltic States in Northern Germany: The case of Lübeck and Flensburg
type: item
description: The history of displaced persons (DPs) in Germany has been studied extensively since the 1980s, with the focus on Jewish, Polish and Soviet DPs. However, the unique experiences in Germany of the Baltic DPs – Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians – have received little attention. This paper examines the history of Baltic DPs in Northern Germany, particularly in the cities of Lübeck and Flensburg, using local archival sources and Latvian DP camp newspapers. Due to its location on the border between the British and Soviet occupation zones, Lübeck became a central hub for refugees. By the end of 1945, the city was home to approximately 11,580 Baltic DPs – a significant portion of the 53,800 Baltic DPs in the British occupation zone. Many Baltic DPs were initially put up in private housing, but were later moved to DP camps. In Flensburg, a smaller but notable Baltic DP population existed, with 1,254 Latvians, 928 Estonians and 784 Lithuanians registered in 1945. The living conditions in the DP camps varied greatly. Some camps provided adequate shelter, while others were overcrowded and lacked basic sanitation. Over time, authorities attempted to segregate the camps by nationality. Many Baltic DPs engaged in cultural and educational activities, forming their own schools, newspapers and institutions. Baltic DPs were generally viewed more favourably than other DP groups, such as the Polish or Soviet DPs, due to cultural similarities. However, tensions arose over housing shortages and the forced confiscation of German property for DP accommodations. The Baltic DPs enjoyed a vibrant cultural scene in Lübeck, including theatre performances, choirs and sporting events. DP newspapers played a crucial role in maintaining national identity and communication. With the handover of the DP camps to the German administration in 1950, the remaining displaced persons were reclassified as ‘homeless foreigners’. Children were required to attend German schools, and vocational training program…
subject: Articles in English
  topic: section
subject: Displaced persons
  topic: keywords
subject: Northern Germany
  topic: keywords
subject: housing
  topic: keywords
subject: culture
  topic: keywords
subject: organisations
  topic: keywords
subject: newspapers
  topic: keywords
subject: Baltic-German relations
  topic: keywords
creator: Christian Pletzing
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 144
ending page: 163
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.106

Lithuanian community of exiles in the West: return to a free Lithuania
type: item
description: The Second World War and the Soviet and Nazi occupations had a significant impact on the Lithuanian nation, leading to its division and dispersion. As the Second World War’s Eastern Front approached the Baltic countries, over sixty thousand Lithuanians made the decision to leave Lithuania for what they thought would be a temporary stay, until they could return to a homeland that was soon to be free again. They were not just war refugees, but became political exiles, eventually known as “dipukai”. The article highlights the formation of the Lithuanian war refugees in the DP camps into a single organisation, the Lithuanian Exiles’ Community (Lith. Lietuvos tremtinių bendruomenė, LTB). At the same time, it reveals the dedication of our people to preserve Lithuanian identity, maintain national solidarity and prepare for a free, independent Lithuania.
subject: Articles in Lithuanian
  topic: section
subject: war refugees
  topic: keywords
subject: DP Lithuanians
  topic: keywords
subject: dipukai
  topic: keywords
subject: screening
  topic: keywords
subject: LTB
  topic: keywords
subject: Lithuanian Charter
  topic: keywords
creator: Juozas Banionis
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 113
ending page: 142
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.105

Features of the unarmed resistance in Vilnius during the Soviet era
type: item
description: This article analyses the features of the unarmed resistance in Vilnius, explains what made it stand out in the context of Lithuania as a whole, and looks for the causes and consequences of these differences. The focus is on the 1950s and 1970s, when resistance activities were the most visible. The assumption is made that the “capital climate” – the specific state policy in the capital city – encouraged residents to be more adaptable and look for more moderate ways to achieve their goals. The heightened influence of the ideas of Russian dissident on the resistance in Vilnius is evident; this also affected the methods of resistance, with open dissent standing out in Lithuanian underground activities in Vilnius. Also important in the Vilnius resistance were groups with little connection to religious resistance networks.
subject: Articles in Lithuanian
  topic: section
subject: Soviet era
  topic: keywords
subject: resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: dissidents
  topic: keywords
subject: underground
  topic: keywords
creator: Valdemaras Klumbys
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 89
ending page: 112
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.104

Detachment of the Klaipėda Region from Lithuania in 1939 – a catalyst for the Second World War?
type: item
description: In the complex sequence of events, historians often refer to the fact of the enforced detachment of the Klaipėda region from Lithuania and its annexation to Germany in March 1939, without dwelling on it too much, focusing more on the Austrian Anschluss of 1938, the Munich Conference of 1938, and the destruction of Czechoslovakia, with its fateful moments in mid-March 1939. The Klaipėda case, however, is particularly worth mentioning because it represented the last territorial expansion of the German Reich before the war, and it took place without a direct military confrontation, as Lithuania acquiesced to an ultimatum from Berlin. The German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which turned into a world war, overshadowed the extraordinary significance of the annexation of the Klaipėda region to the Reich on 22 and 23 March 1939 in the chain of fateful pre-war events. Here, foreign historians focus on the escalating tensions between Germany and Poland over the German ferry Danzig and the demands for an extraterritorial corridor to East Prussia, the political approximation between Germany and the Soviet Union that led to the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, etc. By using the term catalyst in the title of this article, and by arguing figuratively for the use of this resonant word in the article itself, we aim to underline the extraordinary international significance of the Klaipėda (Memel) issue for the further acceleration of the course of events. This had far-reaching implications for the wider international scene of the time. An examination of the media and other historical sources from the Western democracies in 1939 reveals that the NS Germany’s harsh ultimatum solution to the Klaipėda problem and its threat to use its military forces against a small neighbouring country for an invasion deep into Lithuania accelerated the preparations of other European states for the inevitable armed conflicts and played an important role in the shaping of the fate of the who…
subject: Articles in Lithuanian
  topic: section
subject: Klaipėda region
  topic: keywords
subject: genesis of the Second World War
  topic: keywords
subject: the Baltic states
  topic: keywords
subject: Germany
  topic: keywords
subject: Poland
  topic: keywords
subject: USSR
  topic: keywords
subject: Great Britain
  topic: keywords
subject: 1939
  topic: keywords
creator: Arūnas Vyšniauskas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 61
ending page: 88
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.103

The 3 June 1944 tragedy of Pirčiupiai village: historiography and sources
type: item
description: Pirčiupiai – a village in southeastern Lithuania (Dzūkija), which has entered the history of Lithuania by the fact that on 3 June 1944 German executioners carried out an extremely cruel mass terror action, burnt down the main part of the village of Pirčiupiai – Naujieji Pirčiupiai, massacred the people of the village, burnt them alive or shot them. According to the version of events, which was already established in 1944 and unchanged in the historiography, a total of 119 people were murdered, 61 women and 58 men. The article reviews the historiography of the Pirčiupiai tragedy and the most important archival sources, with the aim of revealing how the events of the village tragedy have been covered over a period of 80 years, and how the narrative of this story has been shaped. It raises the question of the relationship of the rural people to the Soviet partisans, their participation in Soviet partisan activities and other issues as factors that could have contributed to the tragedy of the village, which the Soviet historiography tried to keep silent? The article addresses and attempts to answer the question of what circumstances led to the exceptional brutality of the German executioners, and presents archival evidence that the German losses in the ambush on the morning of 3 June 1944 near Pirčiupiai may have been higher than those reported in Soviet historiography. It is noted that the story of the village tragedy was politicised and used for propaganda purposes: the authors of Soviet historiography unsuccessfully searched for traces of the involvement of Lithuanian “bourgeois nationalists” in the execution of the Pirčiupiai. In response to the Soviet narrative of the Pirčiupiai tragedy, the diaspora authors used counter propaganda measures - they viewed the Soviet partisans and the repressive structures of the NKVD-NKGB as the perpetrators of the massacre of the village, and they raised questions of their moral responsibility. The article attempts to look at how t…
subject: Articles in Lithuanian
  topic: section
subject: Pirčiupiai
  topic: keywords
subject: Soviet partizans
  topic: keywords
subject: crimes by totalitarian regimes in the World War II
  topic: keywords
creator: Rimantas Zizas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 26
ending page: 60
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.102

Punitive Action Against Residents of Onuškis and Daugai Suspected of Collaboration With The Soviets in August 1945
type: item
description: The present article focuses on a punitive operation in which partisans shot several dozen people suspected of collaborating with the Soviets. The objective of the present study is to ascertain whether this operation constituted an organised and targeted reprisal against collaborators with the intention of disrupting the process of Sovietisation, or whether it was an unwarranted terrorist attack motivated by revenge and desperation. The article examines the preparations for the punitive operation and identifies some of the participants. It also analyses the execution of the attack and identifies its victims. The study concludes that the operation was an attack in keeping with the conditions of the time: the partisans were retaliating in order to demonstrate their power to the regime. On the one hand, the operation was planned: the data on the condemned was collected, the action plan was in place, etc. On the other hand, it was a spontaneous decision by a few commanders, driven more by emotion than by well-thought-out tactical objectives. The partisans targeted the most vulnerable: the lowest administrative ranks, family members of the regime’s supporters or peasants. The attack did not target any official from the municipal administration or any individual involved in the deportations of July 1945.
subject: Articles in Lithuanian
  topic: section
subject: punitive operation
  topic: keywords
subject: partisans
  topic: keywords
subject: stribai
  topic: keywords
subject: collaborators
  topic: keywords
creator: Andrius Tumavičius
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 2025-07-03
publication date: 2025-07-03
starting page: 8
ending page: 25
doi: 10.61903/GR.2025.101

Genocide and resistance Nr. 1(1)
type: item
description: Full Issue (paper copy scan)
subject: Full issue
  topic: section
creator: Mindaugas Pocius
creator: Juozas Starkauskas
creator: Inga Petravičiūtė
creator: Vidmantas Tūtlis
creator: Audronė Janavičienė
creator: Arūnas Streikus
creator: Arūnas Bubnys
creator: Arvydas Anušauskas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 1
ending page: 192
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.100

NKVD kariuomenės dokumentai Rusijos karo archyve
type: item
description: Historians studying the armed struggle against the Soviet invaders in 1944–1953 are constantly confronted with the problem of identifying the military structures of occupation. The NKVD army regiments, which were tasked with the military suppression of the armed resistance, were sometimes stationed in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, western Ukraine or western Gudiya (Belarus) for very short periods. They were continuously changing their locations as they followed the frontlines or were relocated for punitive military operations to new territories. It is therefore very important to review and assess the whole system of military suppression in the Soviet Union, not just part of it. The archival sources available in Lithuania made it possible to identify or trace some of the NKVD–MGB troops that were active during the period in question, while the documents of the NKVD–MGB troops were carefully preserved in the Russian State Military Archive. This year, the author of this article was able to consult the files in the Russian State Military Archive.
subject: From the Archives
  topic: section
subject: repression structures
  topic: keywords
subject: archives
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: MGB army
  topic: keywords
creator: Arvydas Anušauskas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 176
ending page: 182
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.108

German and Lithuanian Security Police (1941–1944)
type: item
description: The aim of this article is to examine the structure and functions of the German Security Police and the SD and Lithuanian Security Police during the Nazi occupation. The author has drawn on documents from various archives on the activities of operational groups and the German and Lithuanian security police.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: German occupation
  topic: keywords
subject: Lithuanian security police
  topic: keywords
subject: Holocaust
  topic: keywords
subject: collaboration
  topic: keywords
creator: Arūnas Bubnys
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 160
ending page: 175
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.107

Soviet Anti-Catholic Church Activities (1953–1967)
type: item
description: One of the most important components of the historical process resulting from the Soviet totalitarian regime in Lithuania was the relationship between the totalitarian government and religion, and in this case its institutional expression, the Catholic Church. The ideological basis of the Soviet totalitarian regime was its communist ideology, which treated religion negatively and had a profound impact not only on the social fabric but also on the life of every individual. Moreover, the Catholic Church in post–war Lithuania remained the only legal institution whose internal life was not completely controlled by the totalitarian regime, which allowed the idea of personal and national freedom to flourish. Thus, without a thorough assessment of these relations, it is impossible to have a good understanding of the Soviet period of Lithuanian history. Unfortunately, the situation of the Catholic Church in the Soviet totalitarian system has not yet received sufficient attention from Lithuanian scholars. More attention in historiography and scientific journalism was given only to the situation of the Church in the first post–war years and in the 1970s and 1980s. In the first case, this was due to the desire to reveal the Catholic Church’s links with the armed partisan resistance movement and the tragic nature of this period, while in the second case it was due to the better availability of sources and the Church’s prominent place in the dissenting alliance. However, the period 1953–1967 is important because it was then that the relationship between the totalitarian authorities and religion had revealed itself in its purest form since the Soviet government’s anti–Church policy could no longer be based on the Church’s links with the secular opposition underground.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Catholic Church
  topic: keywords
subject: Soviet religious policy
  topic: keywords
subject: atheism
  topic: keywords
subject: propaganda
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: priests
  topic: keywords
creator: Arūnas Streikus
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 122
ending page: 159
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.106

Soviet Saboteurs in Lithuania (1941–1944)
type: item
description: The author’s aim is to show what the red army partisan squads and groups were like, where they operated, what their ranks were made of, and what their activities were. This is not easy. Although several collections of war documentaries and memoirs of war participants were published during the Soviet period, they are almost devoid of political or military data that is unfavourable to the regime, because they were forbidden by the NKGB agencies controlled by Moscow. Meanwhile, the authenticity of the documents that have recently been preserved and made public and the veracity of the facts are also doubtful. Only fragments of data on the topic of interest have survived in the funds of the Lithuanian Central State Archives (LCVA).
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: German occupation
  topic: keywords
subject: Soviet partisans
  topic: keywords
subject: terror
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: Second World War
  topic: keywords
creator: Audronė Janavičienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 98
ending page: 121
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.105

The Peculiarities of Memoirs Written in the Vortex of Tragic Events
type: item
description: This article uses memoirs and diaries of famous partisans to analyse the circumstances of their formation, peculiarities, similarities, differences, and how they reflect armed resistance and the mentality of partisans.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: memoirs
  topic: keywords
subject: partisans
  topic: keywords
subject: diaries
  topic: keywords
subject: Ramanauskas
  topic: keywords
subject: Dzūkas
  topic: keywords
creator: Vidmantas Tūtlis
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 82
ending page: 97
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.104

The Structure and Functions of Soviet Security in Lithuania (1941–1954)
type: item
description: The topic of the article is the structure and functions of the state security organs of the Lithuanian SSR in 1941–1954. The state security organs of the Soviet Union followed a strict internal structure, with each unit carrying out pre–defined functions. The change in the functions of the units also reflected the topicality of the state’s internal policy.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: repression structures
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: period of Stalinism
  topic: keywords
creator: Inga Petravičiūtė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 66
ending page: 81
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.103

The Activities of NKVD Forces of Rear Defence Fronts in Lithuania (1944–1945)
type: item
description: This is an article on the NKVD army of the 3rd Belarusian background front and is a fragment of a paper on those Soviet military occupying forces (rifle regiments, border regiments and detachments, destruction battalions made up of collaborators) that fought against our partisans during the partisan war (1944–1953) and established the occupiers’ power in Lithuania
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: repression structures
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: frontier army
  topic: keywords
creator: Juozas Starkauskas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 43
ending page: 65
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.102

Special MVD-MGB Troops in Lithuania (1945–1959)
type: item
description: In 1950, V. Abakumov, Minister of State Security of the USSR, ordered the leadership of the LSSR MGB to: “use all means to solve the main task – to penetrate, through the agency, the centres, headquarters and other leadership units of bandits and nationalist formations, to find out their composition, hiding places and to detain all the participants or to physically destroy them”. The LSSR’s MGB carried out the order successfully in 1951–1953.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: repression structures
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
creator: Mindaugas Pocius
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-09-22
publication date: 1997-09-22
starting page: 7
ending page: 42
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.101

Genocide and resistance Nr. 2(2)
type: item
description: Full Issue (paper copy scan)
subject: Full issue
  topic: section
creator: Oleksandr Vovk
creator: Arvydas Anušauskas
creator: Juozas Starkauskas
creator: Arūnas Streikus
creator: Dalia Kuodytė
creator: Aleksandras Kokurinas
creator: Tiit Noormets
creator: Aleksandras Gurjanovas
creator: Heinrihs Strods
creator: Wanda Krystyna Roman
creator: Ritvars Jansons
creator: Janis Vasilevskis
creator: Nijolė Žemaitienė
creator: Viktor Niitsoo
creator: Indulis Zalite
creator: Jan Pięta
creator: Algirdas Šerėnas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 1
ending page: 150
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.200

Status of out of law persons
type: item
description: The whole of society in the emerging and developed socialist Soviet empire was divided according to its harmfulness and harmlessness into several public and non–public categories: the free, the prisoners, the specially detained, etc. Each category was divided into groups, and groups into subgroups, etc. The categories of prisoners and specially detained had their own ‘colour’. This document reflects which groups in society were considered dangerous. The degree of danger was determined by the State Security Operational Trio.
subject: From the Archives
  topic: section
subject: Soviet occupation
  topic: keywords
subject: society
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: political prisoners
  topic: keywords
subject: deportees
  topic: keywords
creator: Algirdas Šerėnas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 128
ending page: 144
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.217

The Activities of War Archives Committee in Collecting Documents about the Victims of Totalitarian Regimes
type: item
description: On 29 June 1992, the Military Archives’ Commission was set up to investigate Soviet repression on Polish territory. The Russian archives were primarily concerned with researching and copying documents relating to the presence of Polish prisoners of war and internees in the Soviet Union in 1939–1949, and to the crimes committed against other groups of society. The collection became the basis for scientific research and pedagogical work. The documents collected have already been used in numerous publications and historical research papers. They are also used by Polish university lecturers and staff of historical research institutions.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Poland
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: Soviet Union
  topic: keywords
subject: totalitarism
  topic: keywords
creator: Jan Pięta
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 122
ending page: 127
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.216

The Basic Non-violence Resistance Forms and Hidden Nationalism as Inner Insubordination to the Soviet Regime in Latvia in seventies and eighties
type: item
description: The non–violent resistance to the Soviet dictatorship by various national groups in Latvia had common and different features. For Latvians, the idea of Latvian independence was the most important, whereas for Jews and Germans the most important was the struggle for the opportunity to leave for their ethnic homeland. Even in the Baltic Military District in the second half of the 1980s, there were open manifestations of nationalism. Taking together the data from the former LKP party archive and the information from ASIO Delta Latvia, it can be said that between 5 and 12 anti–Soviet or nationalist groups would be liquidated in the Latvian SSR each year. This statistical spread of anti–Soviet activities probably depended on the perception of anti–Soviet and/or nationalist activities during the various periods of communist Soviet rule and on the political leadership of the time. Of particular concern to the authorities were the groups and factions involving young people.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Latvia
  topic: keywords
subject: antisoviet resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: civil resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: organizations
  topic: keywords
creator: Indulis Zalite
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 110
ending page: 121
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.215

Resistance Movement in Estonia in 1955–1985
type: item
description: After the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Estonia in June 1940, the Estonian people immediately began to resist foreign rule, which lasted until Estonia regained its independence in August 1991. Initially, it was a passive resistance to the Soviet transformation of Estonia and an attempt to preserve national values. Active resistance began as soon as the conditions were right. When hostilities broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union, many men retreated into the forests, took to arms and began to fight against retreating German troops, destruction battalions and the red army. Under the Soviet totalitarian regime, active resistance could not be massive. With few exceptions (youth demonstrations in 1980), there were no outbreaks of generalised resistance in Estonia until the late 1980s, unlike it was the case in Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968 and Poland in 1956, 1968, 1976 and 1980.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Estonia
  topic: keywords
subject: Soviet occupation
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
creator: Viktor Niitsoo
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 106
ending page: 109
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.214

MGB–KGB Agencies in Occupied Lithuania
type: item
description: The Soviet occupation created a pretext for a part of society to collaborate with the occupying power. Alongside the open supporters of the occupying power, a whole army of secret collaborators – MGB–KGB agents – emerged. Espionage and ideological indoctrination of the population is a prerequisite for the existence of a totalitarian system. The two totalitarian ideologies of this century differed fundamentally only in the fact that the fascist ideology gave priority to physical destruction, while the communist ideology – to mental subjugation.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
creator: Nijolė Žemaitienė
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 97
ending page: 105
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.213

Armed National Resistance Units – the Medium of the Games of the SSSR/Latvian SSR and Great Britain Special Operative Services in 1945–1956
type: item
description: There are very few documentary sources on the activities of the KGB of the Latvian SSR during the period when the KGB organs of the Baltic republics were playing operative games with the intelligence services of Sweden and Great Britain. Based on the available sources, it is possible to give a general outline of the methods of KGB’s operations of the Latvian SSR.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Latvia
  topic: keywords
subject: Great Britain
  topic: keywords
subject: intelligence
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: KGB
  topic: keywords
creator: Janis Vasilevskis
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 89
ending page: 96
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.212

Latvian SSR MGB Special Troops and Special Agents Against National Armed Units in 1946–1953
type: item
description: To suppress the Latvian national resistance movement, the Soviet state security organs had to take special measures. It has been established that the state security organs were able to crush the national resistance movement most effectively not by direct military operations, but by using clandestine methods of operative work. From 1 March 1947, the MGB was given the task of combating the nationalist underground, for which purpose Division 2–N was set up. The operational activity of the state security organs of the Latvian SSR was impossible without an agency, and the fight against the national partisans – without special agents and groups made up of agents–hitmen.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Latvia
  topic: keywords
subject: agents
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: KGB methods
  topic: keywords
subject: repression structures
  topic: keywords
creator: Ritvars Jansons
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 81
ending page: 88
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.211

Central War Archive Documents about the Repression against Military Officers of Polish Army in 1944–1956
type: item
description: The Polish army was a very important element influencing the country’s domestic situation and, to some extent, its foreign policy. The government of the People’s Republic of Poland did not hesitate to use the army to support the anti–democratic political system. The Communist Party had complete control over the Polish army, which was one of the most important elements on which the Party based its power. The army was supposed to suppress political forces hostile to the regime, and it did so. It was therefore necessary first to remove undesirable elements from its ranks. There was no place in the Polish army for officers and soldiers whose military background was not linked to left–wing organisations.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Poland
  topic: keywords
subject: Polish army
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions
  topic: keywords
subject: Armija Krajowa
  topic: keywords
creator: Wanda Krystyna Roman
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 77
ending page: 80
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.210

Top Secret Deportation Operation of the Population of the Baltic Countries (in February 25–August 23, 1949)
type: item
description: The annihilation of the Baltic populations after their ‘liberation’ in 1944–1945 belongs to the third, post–war period of communist genocide in the Soviet Union, when the Communist Party, in addition to the so–called "class enemy", began to suspect both "bourgeois" nationalists and entire nations of not being genuinely committed to the USSR. Among such nations were also the ‘Baltic nations’, for whom a special section ‘the Baltics’ was provided in the Gulag documents. The state–organised communist genocide in the third post–war period was increasingly targeted at the inter–republican level under a top-secret codename and a classified date. In the Baltic states, the largest inter–republican communist genocide operation was the top–secret operation of the USSR MGB on 25 March 1949, codenamed ‘Priboj’ (‘Costal Surf’). Until the collapse of the Soviet empire, this operation was only mentioned, and in the last ten years, the lists of deportees have been published and the operation is considered to be a genocide of the Baltic nations, but given that it was orchestrated at the highest level of the state power, the Communist Party, the ways this operation was carried out are, in my opinion, insufficiently revealed due to the unavailability of the primary archival sources.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: repression structures
  topic: keywords
subject: deportations
  topic: keywords
subject: deportations in 1949
  topic: keywords
subject: Soviet occupation
  topic: keywords
creator: Heinrihs Strods
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 66
ending page: 76
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.209

Exiles to the far Regions of the USSR in May–June, 1941
type: item
description: Between May and June 1941, mass deportations of large groups of the population were carried out from the territories occupied by the Soviet Union under the terms of the Soviet Union – Germany Pact of 23 August 1939 and subsequent treaties with Germany. This was the fourth wave of deportation to the mainland USSR since the outbreak of the Second World War. The first three were carried out in 1940 in the eastern territories of the pre–war Polish state. The 1941 deportation zone covered Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, as well as western parts of Belarus and Ukraine. The following analysis will focus on the number of deportees based on archival material held in the archives of the Russian Federation.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Soviet Union
  topic: keywords
subject: deportations
  topic: keywords
subject: Soviet occupation
  topic: keywords
subject: Baltic countries
  topic: keywords
subject: Poland
  topic: keywords
subject: repressions structures
  topic: keywords
creator: Aleksandras Gurjanovas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 56
ending page: 65
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.208

Armed Resistance Movement and Guerrilla War in Estonia in 1941
type: item
description: Partisan warfare as the highest stage of resistance in Estonia lasted only a few months in the summer of 1941, and the resistance movement began to take shape immediately after the occupation and the coup d'état on 21 June 1940. The first attempt was to create a legal opposition. In July 1940, before the election to the so–called people’s parliament, representatives of the former political parties and activists from the ethnic communities and academia organised the nomination of candidates of the ethnic forces to the parliament as a counterweight to the puppets of the new government. The cancellation of these candidates and even the abolition of formal democratic procedures already before the so–called election also put an end to all further attempts to organise legal opposition activities.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Estonia
  topic: keywords
subject: armed resistance
  topic: keywords
subject: underground organisations
  topic: keywords
subject: Second World War
  topic: keywords
creator: Tiit Noormets
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 52
ending page: 55
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.207

USSR NKGB–MGB structure
type: item
description: This article presents the evolution of the Soviet repressive structures: how many divisions there were and how they changed during the Stalinist period.
subject: Conferences
  topic: section
subject: Soviet Union
  topic: keywords
subject: KGB structure
  topic: keywords
creator: Aleksandras Kokurinas
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
date: 1997-12-18
publication date: 1997-12-18
starting page: 46
ending page: 51
doi: 10.61903/GR.1997.206