CIA files expose the Crimes of the anti-Soviet Baltic guerrillas (‘Forest Brothers’)
Glorified in the Anglo-American press as ‘simultaneously anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi’ insurgents, they were denounced by the Soviets as Nazi-collaborationist bandits. This claim had remained largely uncorroborated – until now. Citing the CIA, this article proves the Baltic anti-Soviet guerrilla movements as a network of bandits and death squads organized and armed by the Wehrmacht stay-behind officers.
The History of the USSR & the Peoples’ Democracies
Chapter 13, Section 6 (C13S6)
Saed Teymuri
The role of the Baltic anti-Soviet guerrillas as fascist terror organizations has rarely been studied, beside a number of articles that rely on Soviet and pro-Soviet sources. It goes without saying that most likely for the first time in scholarly history, this section uses anti-Soviet intelligence sources to shed light on the role of the Baltic anti-Soviet guerrillas as Nazi-collaborationist terror organizations.
As the forces of the Third Reich were retreating, they also laid behind them fascist terrorist partisans that would fight off the Red Army for the coming years. In the Baltics, the Germans had established the ‘Forest Brothers’, an army that had many other closely related names. The translator of a book by a leading Estonian ‘Forest Brother’ partisan noted:
The Forest Brothers, called Metsavennad in Estonian, had a number of names – partisans, members of the Green Battalion, guerrillas, men of the Green army, and woodsmen. The Soviet authorities called them "bandits." These names are used interchangeably throughout the text, but refer to the same group of people resisting Soviet rule. (War in the Woods: Estonia’s Struggle for Survival, 1944-1956. Mart Laar, Translated by: Tina Ets, p. XIX)
A 1954 CIA document confirmed that the ‘Green Brothers’ were guerrilla forces created to support the army of the Third Reich against the USSR. The document added that the Green Brothers engaged in terrorist activity against the collective farms:
Zelenyye Brat’ya Movement (Green Brothers)
This movement was organized during World War II in the Estonian SSR by patriots. The specific aim was to aid Germans in driving out the Soviet army and Soviet officials. After the war its organized units devoted most of their efforts to attacking army units, warehouses, and collective farms. In some cases, they even carried out assassinations of government officials. In 1949, Soviet MVD and army units wiped out all active organized resistance in Estonia, including the Zelenyye Brat’ya movement. However, a train had been attacked by partisans in the fall of 1952.
(‘1. Government Measures to Retain Popular Support 2. Resistance Activities and Potential’, CIA. Date Distributed (CIA): August 31, 1954. Date Distributed to US Army: September 30, 1954. p. 4)
In a US intelligence report on the interrogation of Eerik Heine, a member of the Estonian wing of the ‘Forest Brothers’, it was stated that theft was a ‘common’ practice among the anti-Soviet guerrillas:
HEINE claims to have been a member of the "Forest Brothers," an Estonian partisan unit belonging to the anti-Soviet underground. HEINE succeeded in joining this movement following his escape from the Tallinn prison camp together with another Estonian prisoner whose relatives were members of the underground. As a member of the partisan unit, HEINE states that he engaged in various activities common to this existence: he foraged for food to survive, he robbed and stole, he conducted minor forays against Soviet establishments or convoys. (Attached “Summary Analysis” of Eerik Heine, Memorandum for the Record, in: HEINE, ERIK, VOL. 3_0050, CIA, May 10, 1966, p. 10)
In Latvia, it was much the same. Latvju Vards, an anti-Soviet newspaper cited by the CIA, stated that the Latvian partisans were equipped with arms from the German Army:
The partisans in Latvia are equipped with arms of the former German Kurzemes (Kurland ) Army. Special MVD units for combating the partisans are located in Riga, Daugavpils, and several small cities of Latvia. The partisans recently attacked a fairly large MVD camp in Lilaste. All “Chekists” (secret police members) were killed and their quarters burned down. The attacking partisans were under the command of a colonel of the former Latvian Army. (Latvju Vards, March 2, 1950. Cited in: STOCKHOLM REPORT ANTI-SOVIET ACTIVITY IN WESTERN USSR, CIA, Date of Info: 1949-1950, Date of Distribution: October 19, 1950, p. 3)
That the Latvian partisans controlled German weapons in particular should not come as a surprise. The Latvian guerrillas in fact incorporated countless Nazi German military units. A 1949 article cited by the CIA and written by a Latvian nationalist newspaper located in West Germany stated:
Many German prisoners of war who hope to return to their country have joined the [Latvian] partisans. (Says Partisan Movement Revived in Baltic Countries. Newspaper Source: Latvija, No. 108, 1949. In: CIA, Date of Information: 1949, Date Distributed: December 12, 1949.)
Another CIA report acknowledged the reality about the anti-Soviet Lithuanian guerrillas – that the leading 12% of the ‘Lithuanian’ anti-Soviet partisans were actually German Wehrmacht and SS officers who trained the rest of the guerrillas, and that another 10% of the partisans were deserters from the Red Army, who had joined the openly fascist and Nazi-collaborationist ‘Vlasov Army’. The partisans, the CIA document added, utilized force to prevent collectivization from occurring. Below is an excerpt of the CIA document:
1. The territory of the Lithuanian SSR is only nominally under Soviet control and the Soviets can be said to be actually in charge of only such cities as Kaunas, Vilnius (Vilna), Alytai, Kalvariya, Virbaliai (Virballen), Ukmerge, Penevezis (Ponewesch, Ponovesh), Siauliai (SohauLen), Tauraje (Tauroggen), Klaipeda (Hemel), Palanga, Utena, Birzai anti Telsiai. In the country, the predominant social and political factors are the anti-Soviet guerrillas.
2. There are at present about 20,000 guerrillas in Lithuania. (…). The main object of the guerrillas is to prevent by force of arms the collectivization of the land. They seek to drive away the farmers who have been brought to Lithuania from the Soviet Union and sometimes even kill them. Farmers who escaped from East Prussia and took over abandoned farms in Lithuania are not molested.
3. On a percentage basis, the guerrillas are made up of:
70 percent Lithuanians
12 percent Germans - There are about 500 former officers of the Wehrmacht and SS who were trapped at the time of the German retreat. They are generally responsible for the good training the guerrillas have received in the use of arms and tactics.
10 percent Russians - Mostly from the Vlassov Army and the Auxiliary Volunteers who fought on the German side during the war. About 500 of them are former Soviet guerillas who operated in the Vilna area. In November 1944 they were incorporated, into the regular Soviet Army: in June 1945 they deserted because of harsh treatment by the Soviet military authorities. Their operational region is between Trakai (Stare Troki), Jeznas, (Yeznas) and Valkininkai. SW [Southwest] of Vilna.
(‘1. Guerrilla forces in Lithuania, 2. Soviet Troops in Lithuania’, CIA, Date Distributed: November 8, 1949, p. 1.)
A paper by the CIA staff reminded that in 1949, the US intelligence had already confirmed the active collaboration of the Lithuanian partisans with the Germans:
By the end of the 1940s, the CIA's initial reluctance to use pro-Nazi Germans and Eastern European collaborators as intelligence sources and, indeed, as operatives had waned considerably. The wartime roles of many of these individuals and groups became a negligible factor as the CIA began active operations behind the Iron Curtain. The Agency downplayed accounts of the brutality of many of the Eastern European émigré groups and their collaboration with the Nazis. DCI Hillenkoetter, for example, responding to an inquiry from the chairman of the Displaced Persons Committee in the spring of 1949 about the status of certain groups, stated:
A curious anomaly has developed since the end of the war. Several of these organizations (for example, the Melnik and Bandera groups and the Lithuanian Partisans) sided with the Germans during the war … on the basis of a … a strong anti-Soviet bias. In many cases their motivation was primarily nationalistic and patriotic with their espousal of the German cause determined by the national interests. Since the end of the war, of course, these opportunistically pro-German groups remain strongly anti-Soviet and, accordingly, find a common ground with new partners.
The facts clearly demonstrate that the Nazi-aligned anti-Soviet partisans engaged in terrorist activity and banditry against the ordinary people of the Soviet Union. A late 1951 CIA document confirmed that in Estonia:
In order to obtain supplies, the partisans often raid the cooperative stores and dairies, seizing cash, foodstuffs, and other necessities such as clothing footwear, etc. Attacks are also made on cars carrying money. On one occasion in the late autumn of 1948 or 1949, a mail train was held up between Valga (E57-46N, 26-03E) and Voru (57-51N, 27-OOE) and cleared of all valuables.
Civilians who may cross their path are not always molested by the partisans, except suspected Communists on whom the party card is found, or one who has a permit to carry firearms and is discovered armed. Such people are killed without further ado. Similar treatment is also applied to persons who have been active during deportations; and in various parts of the country it has not infrequently happened that militia informers have been too keen" have disappeared, and later their bodies have been found with a note attached stating the "cause of death".
(Partisan Activity in Estonia, CIA, December 13, 1951, p. 1)
Another CIA document emphasized that within the Latvian guerrilla movement, there were numerous ‘criminals and adventurers’:
The group of partisans were organized over the whole country. It is to be emphasized, however, that … in the forests there were also criminals and adventurers. (The Latvian Resistance, CIA, June 17, 1952, p. 2)
The US intelligence documented the looting and banditry conducted by the partisans against ordinary people:
In the winter of 1949-50 partisans robbed stores in many communities on the east coast of Kurzeme. the store in Valgaciems (N57-24, E22-58) was said to have been robbed three or four times; the store in Berziems was robbed three times. In Roja (N57-30, E22-49) the fishing artel storehouse was robbed, and among other items stolen were rubber boots. Other places, too, were robbed in the winter of 1950-1951. This same winter the farmer who collected the milk quota from each farm was robbed three times between Upesgriva (N57-23, E23-00) and Kaltene (N57-28, E22-54). The robberies occurred in the morning between 0400 and 0500. Twice the collectors were found dead. The third time a woman was the collector, and she was robbed but not otherwise molested. (…). The stores in Mersrags (N57-21, E23-07) was also robbed this winter. The partisans took mostly clothes, dry goods, and sugar. Usually these men traveled by truck, loaded the loot onto the truck, and disappeared into the forest. Occasionally they traveled on food. As the partisans shot some of the people who got in the way, the Latvians through they were not real partisans but rather Soviet bandits. It was also said that they were not real partisans but rather Soviet houses the Communists lived and in which houses the non-Communists, and although the source could not cite specific instances it was generally believed that the Latvian partisans robbed not stores but private Communist homes. The Latvian partisans were believed to be supported by the population and therefore would not have had to resort to robbery. In two cases, one in the winter of 1949-50, one in the winter of 1950-51, the MVD captured Latvian partisans in the woods. The source heard of the first instance; the second she knew of more directly because she heard shots and saw blood in the woods later. In (N57-15, E22-35) and Lauciena (N57-14, E22-49), where the woods were very thick; there they captured about 30 partisans while they were eating. In the winter of 1950-51, shortly before Christmas, in the woods near Vandzene (N57-20, E22-48), the Soviets discovered and liquidated a partisan group of 11 persons, one of whom was a woman. The Soviets attacked the partisans as they were going from the woods to a house on the edge of the woods; source thought probably someone who knew of their plans to visit this house had alerted the Soviets. In this fight three or four MVD men and two or three partisans were killed. The fight could be heard as far away as Upesgriva. Six partisans were later sentenced to life imprisonment in Siberia. (‘Conditions in Talsi, Mersrags, and Upesgriva’, CIA, August 7, 1953, pp. 1-2)
|
Join Sovinform’s Mailing List by emailing sovinform.tech@gmail.com Place the following phrase in your email subject/title ‘Join Mailing List’. No further comment necessary. |
Follow Sovinform on |
The terrorist activity of the Baltic partisans can be explained by their kulak backgrounds. Many of the ethnically Baltic partisans came from kulak backgrounds, which is why collectivization harmed them the most. Having resisted the Soviet efforts to deport the kulaks, these individuals joined the Baltic partisans against the Red Army. Morgon Tidningen, the official newspaper of the anti-Soviet ‘Swedish Social-Democratic Party’ cited by the CIA, reported:
Partisan activity has been handicapped considerably in that the private farms have been replaced by kolkhozes. Previously, private farmers sympathetic to the partisans were able to provide them with food, that happens rather seldom now…. (PARTISANS ACTIVE IN BALTIC AREA, Morgon Tidningen, July 30, 1950. Cited in: STOCKHOLM REPORT ANTI-SOVIET ACTIVITY IN WESTERN USSR, CIA, Date of Info: 1949-1950, Date of Distribution: October 19, 1950, p. 2)
US intelligence also confirmed that Lithuanian:
Partisan activity was confined almost exclusively to small raiding expeditions on the kolkhozes, in order to obtain supplies. (General Information on Current Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, September 10, 1952, p. 6)
Listing the known sabotage operations by the Lithuanian partisans, the US intelligence document added:
during the period 1947-1948 … railroad tracks located in the area of SIAULIAI-MAZEIKIAI were blown up. (General Information on Current Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, September 10, 1952, p. 6)
The partisans were also violently chauvinistic towards ‘all Russians’:
Partisan activities are anti-Russian and anti-Communist, directed against all Russians, all Communist Lithuanians, and against all informers and traitors. (General Information on Current Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, September 10, 1952, p. 6)
The Lithuanian partisans, another CIA document again confirmed, stole from the collectivist peasantry:
On the other hand, from farmers who sympathize Communists or who are activists, the partisans, after warning these persons, take everything they need. From the kolkhozy the partisans take pigs and other animals. (Partisan Activity and General Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, October 27, 1952, p. 5)
Under the bloody terror of the fascist bandits, the collectivist peasants (the kolkhozniki) had no choice but to ‘support’ the bandits in order to survive:
The kolkhozniki often support the partisans and give them what they need. (Partisan Activity and General Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, October 27, 1952, p. 5)
In addition:
food was taken [by partisans] from warehouses. (Partisan Activity and General Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, October 27, 1952, p. 4)
In addition:
the plundering of cooperatives [by the partisans] occurred frequently – mostly when the cooperatives supplied with goods or when some employee was going to the rayon bank with cooperative money. (…). There were always judicial investigations after such plunders. Suspicious persons were arrested and were released only if there was no evidence against them. Money has been taken also from the smaller railroad stations. (Partisan Activity and General Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, October 27, 1952, p. 5)
Lastly,:
Money has been taken [by the partisans] also from the smaller railroad stations. (Partisan Activity and General Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, October 27, 1952, p. 5)
In the late 1940s, in what seemed to be one of their many coordinated attacks, the guerrilla bandits reportedly conducted sabotage operations against Soviet infrastructure:
According to a report from Riga to an Estonian weekly periodical in Stockholm, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans, the so-called “Brothers of the Forest,” recently carried out an attack on the Riga-Pskov railroad line. (STOCKHOLM REPORT ANTI-SOVIET ACTIVITY IN WESTERN USSR, CIA, Date of Info: 1949-1950, Date of Distribution: October 19, 1950, p. 2)
There also have been some absurd conspiracy theories stating that the entire Baltic terrorist guerrilla network was a fake opposition network created ‘by’ the Soviet intelligence service itself and that the Soviet government was ‘not’ really interested in combating the terrorists. One can rest assured that this allegation is not true, because as the CIA stated:
The Bolsheviks continually try to exterminate the partisans. (Partisan Activity and General Conditions in Lithuania, CIA, October 27, 1952, p. 2)
In 1951 occurred the Soviet government’s deportations of the partisans and most likely their kulak support base:
In 1951, 6-7000 Lithuanians were deported to Krasnoyarsk, the Donbas, Mongolia, and Vorkuta. The deportations affected the following categories of Lithuanians:
a. all persons connected with the partisan movement, e.g. contact men, the relatives of partisans, partisan supporters
b. all those substantial farmers who had in any way manifested opposition to collectivization.
(‘1. Deportations and Arrests in Lithuania’, CIA, September 3, 1952, p. 1)
The phrase ‘substantial farmers’ obviously referred to the kulaks who formed the base for the terrorist partisans attacking the kolkhoz peasants.
According to Hiden – a top consultant for the British defence and foreign policy ministries – and Patrick Salmon – the official chief historian for the Foreign Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom – the deportations of the Baltics during and after World War II indeed ‘deprived partisans of support among the rural population’:
For the Soviet authorities the elimination of opposition and the transformation of the Baltic economies went hand in hand. Deportations were a key instrument of Soviet policy. They both deprived partisans of support among the rural population and removed the chief opponents of the collectivisation of agriculture. Carried out between 1944 and 1952, the deportations involved much larger numbers and represented a more deliberate attempt to reshape Baltic society than those of 1940-1. After the initial Soviet takeovers in 1940, agricultural land had been confiscated and distributed among landless peasants and smallholders, with only a limited amount of voluntary collectivisation taking place. (‘The Baltic Nations and Europe: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Twentieth Century’, Routledge, John Hiden, Patrick Salmon, 2013)
Note that the phrase ‘only a limited amount of voluntary collectivisation [was] taking place’ does not imply that only a small portion of the collectivization efforts in the Baltics were voluntary, and that the rest were forced; indeed, as confirmed by Stephen Kotkin of the Hoover Institute:
the USSR had refrained from forced collectivization in the Baltic states; (Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941. Stephen Kotkin, 2017, p. 1069)
Click here for Screenshots of Source Documents
_________________________________
Join Mailing List by
emailing sovinform.tech@gmail.com
Place the following phrase in your
email subject/title ‘Join Mailing List’.
No further comment necessary.
_________________________________
Follow Sovinform on
_________________________________
The book The History of the USSR & the Peoples’ Democracies
is now available for easy print.
_________________________________