The compulsory service of Lithuanian men in the occupant Soviet Army is a topic that has not been studied much in historiography. The research done by historians on the genocide of the Lithuanian nation, carried out by Communist Russia in the first decades of the occupation, is related to assessments of the forced mobilisation of men into the Red Army and the research on the history of the 16th Rifle Division of the Red Army. Historian Vytautas Tininis dedicated his monograph entitled “Prievartinė mobilizacija į Raudonąją armiją” (“Forced Mobilisation into the Red Army”) to this research. Scholars have not allocated much attention to research on the subsequent duty to serve in the Soviet Army that lasted right up until the recognition of the restoration of Lithuania’s independence (1991).
1795
The roots of the traditions of the Soviet Army go back to the times of Imperial Russia. In 1795, after the annexation, the czarist government introduced gruelling 25 years of active service in Lithuania for recruits (which was later reduced). For both rural and urban families of the recruits, this conscription was a genuine tragedy. The Imperial Russian Army was grounded on a system characterised by mushtra and physical punishment of soldiers. Czar Nicholas I (1825–1855) was nicknamed “Nicholas the Stick” because of caning of the soldiers, which was particularly common during his reign. Under the czars, the recruits were beaten with whips and rifle butts; they were exiled and sent to penal colonies. Punching soldiers in the face was a common method of controlling them.
1874
In 1874, after the abolition of serfdom, general conscription was introduced for the Lithuanian men who had been registered by the authorities to draw lots to decide who would have to join the czarist army, and who would remain in the reserve. In Lithuania, about half of the conscripts were taken into the Russian army every year. Men would flee, go into hiding or even emigrate to escape this fate. According to historian Vytautas Steponaitis, among the conscripts of all the nations of the empire, Lithuanians were the second least likely (after the Jews) to show up at the conscription stations in 1908.
1917
After the February Revolution in Russia, Lithuanian soldiers began to group into Lithuanian regiments, hoping to return to the Fatherland. After the October Revolution in 1917, Lithuanian units were forced to disperse; some Lithuanian soldiers were killed by the Bolsheviks or taken into the Red Army. During the Russian Civil War (1918–1920), some Lithuanian soldiers fought on the side of the Bolsheviks, while others fought for the Whites.
1919
In 1919, the White military leaders dismissed Lithuanians from service in their army. Lithuanian officers who returned from Russia began to organise independent Lithuanian army, and the soldiers became participants in the Lithuanian Freedom Struggles.
The new Lithuanian army was a school of comprehensive soldier education and patriotism. Serving in the army at that time was a matter of honour and prestige.
1940
After the occupation and annexation of Lithuania, the so-called Council of Ministers of Lithuanian SSR, on the 30th of August, 1940, named the Lithuanian army the “People’s Army” and effectively liquidated it. Officers and soldiers were not trusted, and patriotic officers were arrested and locked up in prisons or labour camps, where they were tortured and killed, or died from the unbearable conditions of detention. Many of them were killed by the Bolsheviks after the war between Communist Russia and Nazi Germany had begun.
During the war, the 16th Lithuanian Rifle Division was formed in Russia. In fact, most of its soldiers were killed in the very first battle, when they were led to an attack in a bare field of snow without artillery support. In total, 13,000–15,000 soldiers from Lithuania died in the Red Army units.
1944
On the 1st of August, 1944, the Russian authorities announced mobilisation in the occupied territory of Lithuania. In an effort to avoid being killed and forced to defend the interests of the occupying state, Lithuanian men went into hiding, became partisans, deserted USSR conscription stations or military units, and tried to escape this slavery in other ways. Under the leadership of the Central Committee of Lithuanian Communist Party, which blindly followed Moscow’s instructions, the occupier’s military units, other power structures and “destruction battalions” killed the deserters who were in hiding, arrested and tortured those who were caught, burned down the homesteads, confiscated property and exiled the families. The majority of those captured were returned to the front, but this time to “penal battalions”. Others were judged by tribunals and courts, and then sent on to labour camps or execution.
After the end of the war, the Russian authorities announced demobilisation, and up until 1950, Lithuanians were no longer massively called for the compulsory military service, because it was feared that young people would flee to the forests and become partisans. The men, taken into the army, did not inspire much confidence in the occupants, so most of them were sent to serve in starving, ratty construction battalions, which were similar to concentration camps in terms of their order.
1950
Starting from 1950, based on the law of 1949, Lithuanian conscripts were taken into the army for three years, or into the navy for four years. In 1967, the military service was shortened to two years in land units, and to three years in sea units. Lithuanian men performed forced service in all the military districts of the USSR. Internal army recruits guarded labour camps and prisons, and quelled emerging rebellions. Young men, who were politically reliable, physically strong, better educated and more skilled, became soldiers in prestigious units, such as the Air Force, the Navy or the Strategic Rocket Forces. According to the laws that were in force at the time, students at higher education institutions with military departments were not drafted into the army, but after the 1980 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, they lost this “privilege”. Graduates who studied in higher education military departments were awarded officer ranks by military authorities. Reserve soldiers were taken for exercises that lasted from one to three months and often turned into difficult and dangerous physical labour.
Lithuanian men also “served” in Soviet units in the satellite states beyond the borders of the empire: Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia. They were involved in suppressing the Hungarian (1956) and Czechoslovakian (1968) revolutions.
1980–1989
The authorities of Kremlin recruited 5,000 men from Lithuania for the war in Afghanistan (1980–1989), of which 96 returned in zinc coffins, 98 came back disabled, and others suffered long-term psychological trauma. The Chernobyl disaster is another page in the tragedy of Lithuanian recruits. While trying to liquidate the consequences of the nuclear accident, 66 soldiers from Lithuania were killed, and 626 were injured or became disabled.
1987
The Reform Movement of Lithuania that began in 1987 was of pivotal importance to the compulsory service of Lithuanian men in the occupation military units of the USSR.
At rallies and demonstrations and in statements and declarations, the patriotic movements such as the Lithuanian Liberty League, Young Lithuania and Ženeva 49 demanded the restoration of Lithuania’s independence, addressed the need for the occupier’s army to withdraw from the Fatherland, and launched a signature campaign against the illegal presence of foreign troops as well as against the forced conscription of the men of the annexed country, which violated the international law. After taking over this initiative, the Reform Movement of Lithuania collected 1,650,000 signatures. Lithuanian men began to desert from the occupier’s army and went into hiding.
After 1990
By the resolution of the 12th of March, 1990, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania declared that the law on universal conscription of the USSR was not valid on the territory of Lithuania. 1,562 young men refused to serve in the Russian army. The occupying forces took 67 of them to their military units by force, while 20 were sentenced to prison or had criminal cases brought against them, and three were killed.
On the 29th of July, 1991, the Russian Federation recognised the independence of the Republic of Lithuania. On the 14th of June, 1992, the citizens of Lithuania voted in a referendum for the immediate withdrawal of the Soviet Army.
On the 31st of August, 1993, the last unit of the Russian army crossed the border at Kena railway station and left Lithuania. On that day, the occupation ended, essentially concluding World War II in Lithuania.