The diary of a partisan: a year in the life of the postwar Lithuanian resistance fighter Dzūkas
ENThe 1944–1953 partisan war in Lithuania against the Soviet occupying power is little known in the West. News about the heroic efforts to resist the occupation and the aspirations to re-establish statehood seldom penetrated the Iron Curtain. The world was well informed about later uprisings against the totalitarian regimes in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland, but the armed resistance to the Soviets, which lasted for almost ten years in Western Ukraine and Lithuania (and almost as long in Estonia and Latvia), remains almost unknown. The Soviet occupation, which started in 1944, claimed about 20,000 partisan lives over a decade. More than 120,000 people were sent to hard labour camps or imprisoned. No fewer than 113,000, most of them old people, women and children, were exiled to Siberia. Lionginas Baliukevičius (1925–1950), the writer of this diary, lived in tragic times. The terrible ordeal which the country had to endure revealed the mature outlook of the young man and his strong principles, according to which he perceived freedom not only as freedom for himself but also for others. His diary shows the tragic personality of an idealist who had the courage to look directly at the world and at his own life. This mirror of the soul reflects his most secret thoughts, doubts and hopes. His views, longings and aspirations are shown against the background of merciless fighting. While writing his diary, Baliukevičius often looked back to the past: to his happy childhood, his experience as a prisoner of war, and his first years as a partisan. Out of the context of everyday life crystallised general statements about essential issues for the survival of the nation and the state.His fervent patriotism and his intense hatred of the occupying power did not stop him taking a critical look at prewar Lithuania. He shows the short-sightedness of the politicians, their squabbles, their pseudopatriotism, and the cowardly stance taken by the leaders at a critical moment for the country. Having accurately pointed out the causes which brought Lithuania to the catastrophe in 1940 and the first Soviet occupation, Baliukevičius analyses the vital political, national and moral issues of postwar times. His understanding of the international and domestic situations was surprisingly clear. Like all of the rest of the country, following closely world developments on the radio, he awaited signs for hope from Western democracies, if not of military action, then at least of moral and political support. The indifference of world powers to the sufferings of his people, and a premonition of his death, made Baliukevičius determined to fight to the end. His determination and his heroism were intertwined with his dreams of seeing a peaceful and free life, and of starting a family. In his diary, Baliukevičius expresses his great love for the motherland, and speaks with sympathy of his poor countrymen, at the same time as expressing his fear about Lithuania’s fate under the occupation. Besides his thoughts, in which the subjects of eternity and his anticipated death are intertwined, the diary also reflects the problems and everyday life of the Dainava partisan district. The writer was happy with the progress made in consolidating the Lithuanian Movement for the Fight for Freedom, and was sad about the misfortunes: the deaths of his comrades, and the mass arrests and deportations of civilians. [p. 7-9].
