BioGraphy

From forest to camp

Armed resistance in Lithuania

1. Especially in the later years, the fight was really hard... Everyone had lost hope. All their energy, all their ideas were stifled... Lithuania had bled too much, as they say, much too much... Those of us who were left were ready to die, we didn’t even believe ourselves that we would managed to change anything. The times were hard. I remember that when we were marching in 1945, it was something else completely. Everywhere you went, everyone invited you in, respected you, loved you. But later, people got fed up. Not that they were actually fed up, but they began to be afraid. Almost all of us were eliminated, only a few were left. When you went to someone’s house, they didn’t want you to stay. In the later years the fight was particularly difficult. You could say that these great difficulties began after 1949. Until 1947, the Russians did not set up any ambushes, we were masters once night fell. But later they set up huge ambushes and clearing operations, there would be tens of thousands of them surrounding the forest, setting fires all over and then searching the forest inch by inch. Later, we separated into larger groups. In 1945, the groups had 20-30 men. Later, it was just to keep the armed resistance alive. Morale fell, each of us realised that even if we weren’t beaten, the fight was lost. I survived by a miracle, I had seven bullets in me altogether, passing through my clothes and... 

2. Sometimes I think about it and I say to myself that Lithuania bled too much in the post-war years. If they were now all alive, those 26,000 who died in the forests, most of them young men, they would have started families. Most, perhaps 80%, were men of conviction, patriots. They would now have families and the face of Lithuania today would be completely different. But we saved Lithuania’s honour.

Thinking back to the armed resistance

Sometimes I think about it and I say to myself that Lithuania bled too much in the post-war years. If they were now all alive, those 26,000 who died in the forests, most of them young men, they would have started families. Most, perhaps 80%, were men of conviction, patriots. They would now have families and the face of Lithuania today would be completely different. But we saved Lithuania’s honour.

Life at Kengir camp

“It was strange there, they took us there and lined us up. I saw people coming back from work grey, covered in dust. The columns made their way forward one after another, 250 in each column, in ranks of five, all holding each other’s arms. You couldn’t walk free, as you wished. You had to hold each other’s arms. Every one numbered, the numbers shining bright, even if they were black. Faces tanned, I looked at them and they all looked like Asians. Out there, it was very hot in summer and the wind tanned us too. People worked in the open air.”

Life at Kengir camp
Underground life

“At the start, they kept us in quarantine, it was compulsory for 20 days. There were Lithuanians who came and asked us where we came from, why, how. We immediately joined the underground. The underground organisation there was strong. I was introduced, they asked where I came from, why and how. I said I was a partisan, I’d been captured and arrested. I gained more of their confidence in that way. We joined the struggle straight away.”

The Kengir uprising put down

“That morning, 26 June, I think I was in the women’s area, Hut 5. Suddenly we heard a loud noise, the sound of tanks, gunfire, blanks obviously. When a tank fired, the cloth wadding went up in the air. They were loaded with wadding, what mattered was the noise. They drove past at top speed, without looking to see if there were any men, with their tracks covered in blood. There was a Latvian woman, they drove over her and afterwards there were only strips of clothing left, no woman. They put us in huts and surrounded them. I was in a hut with a Ukrainian man, soldiers all around. I looked at the soldiers, they were in front of us, the hut door was open. The man put his head out to look, the other asked him how many they were. He put his head out and bang, right in his head, he fell down. He only had one year’s camp to do. We took him and laid him on wooden slats. He just gurgled, that’s all, he died. I say, a good thing it wasn’t my head. That’s what a man’s fate can be sometimes.”