Partizanų baudžiamoji praktika Kauno apskrityje (1944-1952)

ENPart II of the article deals with the punitive campaigns of Lithuanian partisans conducted in the Kaunas Region during the period between 1946 and 1952, summarises the entire period of the guerrilla warfare and also the punitive campaigns carried out by the partisans in that region between 1944 and 1952. Beginning with 1946, tactics of the partisans changed considerably. Due to heavy losses sustained by the partisans, full-scale attacks were launched and assaults upon centres of small rural districts were carried out much rarer. The tactics of small groups were begun to be applied. In 1946, the aim of the partisans was to disrupt the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. As many as 176 people died at the hand of the partisans in 1946. In the same year, a certain guerrilla warfare fatigue was felt, many partisans legalised themselves as they believed the promises of the Soviet authorities not to do any harm to them. The year 1947, especially its first quarter, was marked by punitive campaigns of partisans against the families who openly supported the soviet authorities: all members of those families, including children, were killed. However, the number of people who died at the hand of the partisans decreased significantly - as many as 59 people were killed in the Kaunas district by the partisans throughout 1947. In 1948, the number of partisan punitive campaigns decreased even more significantly; it was for the first time that there were small rural districts where not a single person perished at the hand of partisans from 1944. When deportations of the families to remote locations in Siberia started, in 1948, the partisan movement was delt a painful blow by the soviet authorities, a part of partisan supporters was also deported.During the deportation operation Vesna that was carried out on 22-23 May 1947, as many as 517 families, a total of 1807 people, were deported from Kaunas district. In 1948, the number of people that perished at the hand of the partisans totalled 29. At the beginning of February 1949, a meeting of Lithuanian partisan leaders took place in Prisikėlimas military district during which the central partisan management centre called the Lithuanian Freedom Fight Movement was established. From that time, it was in charge of all partisan and anti-Soviet underground struggle in Lithuania. Very significant political changes took place in the international policy - free democratic states established the defence union NATO. Rumours about the approaching third world war spread in Lithuania, therefore the activities of the partisans intensified. The Soviet authorities responded to them by unleashing new repressions and the largest scope of deportations in the Baltic States, under the code name Priboj. In the course of the year 1949, as many as 44 people perished at the hand of the partisans.In 1950, an administrative reform was carried out in Lithuania: districts and small rural districts were abolished, provinces and regions were established in their place. Jonava, Panemunė, Vilijampolė, Vilkija regions, partly Ariogala and Kėdainiai regions, were created in place of Kaunas district. The years been 1950 and 1952 marked the end of organised partisan resistance in Lithuania. As many as 29 people were killed in Kaunas district and the former territory of Kaunas district between 1950 and 1952. In the course of the period between 1944 and 1952, as many as 1394 violent deaths in Kaunas district and the territory of Kaunas district were recorded in documents, including 538 deaths of the partisans: 290 deaths of the people belonging to local authorities and power structures, 224 civilians and 24 persons whose social situation or profession is not specified.