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Lithuania Partisans – Bandits The official version of history in the Lithuanian Soviet Republic was that the country had joined the Soviet Union voluntarily. After the German occupation Lithuania was "liberated" again. The Lithuanian resistance against this new annexation by the Soviet Union in 1944 was declared treason, the anti-Soviet partisans became bandits. A deviation from this official history was only possible in exile. The topics treated there, especially the suffering of Lithuanians caused by the Soviet Union, slowly returned to Lithuania during Perestroika and have marked the historiography of the independent state since 1991. |
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In the post-War period the Lithuanian regime attempted to prevent a glorification of the anti-Soviet resistance by equating the fighters with war criminals and calling them gangs of bandits and murderers. Several feature films took up this line. The greatest success was achieved by the film "Nobody Wanted to Die", produced in 1965. The title does not differentiate between the parties. The film tells a story of revenge. After the chairman of the kolkhoz is shot dead by so-called bandits, his sons are called upon to revenge the murder. Although the roles in this film are clearly divided between the good (the sons) and the bad (the bandits), the bad guys have a human face. The viewer could recognize the inner conflicts and motivations of the bandits in the dialogue – no doubt more than the Soviet censors suspected. The poster shows one of the sons who will die in a fight with the bandits. The entire background of the poster appears to be torn – a metaphorical interpretation of the division of society. |
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The public discussion of Soviet crimes against the Lithuanian people began at the latest in 1989. The performance of the drama "The Awakening" based on the eponymous novel by exiled writer Antanas Škėma shocked Lithuanian society due to its brutal scenes in the interrogation cellars of the NKVD. The description of Soviet terror during the first occupation in 1940/41 was also stifling. A short time later film director Jonas Vaitkus adapted the play for the screen. The film poster shows the Soviet system as a dragon, as if painted on a porous canvas. The dragon is dissolving on the edges, but it is still there. |
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