FOR THE REBIRTH OF THE NATION AND THE DEATH OF THE EXILE
In October 1939, Moscow insisted on stationing troops in Lithuania; the following year the USSR issued ultimatums to all three Baltic states, turning them into Soviet “republics.” Thousands of “anti-Soviet elements” in Lithuania were arrested, disappearing into the Gulag; thousands more were deported to Siberia, as the country was thoroughly “Sovietized.”
When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Lithuanians rose up against their oppressor, only to see their land swiftly occupied by Germany. Most of the pre-war Jewish population — upward of 200,000 — was murdered. Then Moscow retook Lithuania as the tide of war reversed, reimposing Communist rule and restarting deportations. Lithuanians fought a desperate guerrilla campaign that lasted until 1953.
It took about 100,000 Soviet troops to suppress the insurgents; some 30,000 Lithuanians died resisting Communist rule. Another 105,000 were sent to labor camps or deported elsewhere in the USSR, while upward of 400,000 ethnic Germans and Poles were expelled westward.