Catholic bishop of Telšiai in Lithuania, executed in 1946 on charges that included supporting the partisans
Born to a family of well-off Lithuanian farmers, he studied in Saint Petersburg, at the Sejny Priest Seminary and at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. In the First World War he was a chaplain in the Russian Imperial Army, and from 1927 he was rector of the Telšiai priest seminary until the Soviet occupation closed it in 1940. He became bishop of Telšiai in 1943 and refused to retreat to the West in 1944. Accused of anti-Soviet activities including support for the partisans, he was arrested by the NKVD in December 1945 and again in February 1946, and refused an offer of a pardon in exchange for cooperation. Sentenced to death for treason on 28 August 1946, he is believed to have been executed on 18 November and was buried in a mass grave at Tuskulėnai Manor in Vilnius. At his trial three Jews testified that he had helped Jews hide. His beatification process began in 1990.
Career timeline
- 1910Ordained priest
- 1916–1917Chaplain of the 10th Army of the Russian Imperial Army
- 1927–1940Rector of the Telšiai priest seminary
- 1943Became bishop of Telšiai
- 1946Arrested by the NKVD and executed
Officer who founded the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters in 1949 and led the partisan resistance as its chairman
Born in Palanga, he graduated from the War School of Kaunas in 1929 as an artillery officer and studied at the School of Applied Artillery in Fontainebleau, France, in 1936–1938. In the deportations of June 1941 his sister’s whole family was sent to Siberia; under the German occupation he retired rather than serve the Nazis. In 1944 he joined the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, and when the Red Army returned he joined the Lithuanian Liberty Army and the partisans, rising to the leadership. In February 1949 he founded the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters and became its chairman, working to unify the partisan units and give their struggle a legal framework. Paralysed by a cerebral haemorrhage in December 1951, he was arrested on 30 May 1953, interrogated in Moscow by Beria and executed in Butyrka prison in 1954. In 2009 he was officially named the fourth President of Lithuania.
Career timeline
- 1929Graduated from the War School of Kaunas; artillery officer
- 1936–1938School of Applied Artillery, Fontainebleau
- 1944Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, then the partisans
- 1949Chairman of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters
- 1953Arrested
- 1954Executed in Butyrka prison, Moscow
Partisan commander “Vanagas” who led the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters from 1952, the last commander to be captured
Born to a Lithuanian immigrant family in New Britain, Connecticut, he came to Lithuania at the age of three. He graduated from the War School of Kaunas in 1940 and worked as a teacher, and after the NKVD pressured him to spy on his students he joined the partisans in early 1945 under the nom de guerre Vanagas (“Hawk”). He commanded the Dainava military district and the Southern Lithuania Region, published underground newspapers, and in 1949 became first deputy chairman of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters. Succeeding Jonas Žemaitis as its leader in 1952, he ordered an end to armed struggle in favour of passive resistance. Betrayed by a former classmate, he was arrested in October 1956, tortured and executed in November 1957. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has alleged that a unit he commanded in the June 1941 uprising took part in killing Jews; the Lithuanian government denies this.
Career timeline
- 1940Graduated from the War School of Kaunas
- 1945Joined the partisans; brigade commander
- 1947Commander of the Dainava military district
- 1949First deputy chairman of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters
- 1952Leader of the Union
- 1956–1957Arrested and executed
Lithuanian partisan leader who crossed the Iron Curtain in 1947 to seek Western support and was killed by the MGB after returning
Born to a farming family in the village of Juodbūdis near Kaunas, he joined the Catholic youth organisation Ateitis and the far-right, antisemitic and anti-Soviet Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) at secondary school, and was imprisoned by the NKVD during the Soviet occupation of 1940–1941. After the Red Army returned in 1944 he worked in the Kaunas underground, joined the armed resistance in 1946 and commanded the Birutė brigade of the Tauras military district. At the end of 1947 he crossed the Iron Curtain with partisan documentation for the West, was trained by French intelligence and the CIA, and wrote Fighters for Freedom. Parachuted back by the CIA in 1949–1950, he was killed by the MGB near Pabartupis in the autumn of 1951. According to several witnesses he took part in the Lietūkis garage massacre in Kaunas in 1941; the Lithuanian government denies this.
Career timeline
- 1940–1941Imprisoned by the NKVD
- 1946Joined the armed resistance; commander of the Birutė brigade
- 1947Crossed the Iron Curtain to the West
- 1949–1950Parachuted back by the CIA
- 1951Killed by the MGB
