2. During the first occupation by the Soviet Union in
1940–41, Lukša was a member of the Lithuanian
Activist Front. Opposing the Soviets, he was caught
and imprisoned in Kaunas. After the war started in the
Eastern Front and Nazi Germany invaded Lithuania,
Lukša was released.
Soon he joined the
anti-German resistance.
3. From 1944, after the return of the Red Army, he
engaged in the underground movement. At first he
participated as a student, helping out with clandestine
matters and unarmed resistance in Kaunas. In
1946, after the arrests of many activists, he left the city
and joined the armed resistance. Within a year he
commanded Birutė brigade of Tauras district that was
active in Kaunas area.
4. At the end of 1947, he escaped through the Iron Curtain
as a messenger to the West in hopes to attract support
for the fighters and to establish contacts with
Lithuanians in exile. He first came to Sweden. Later he
was engaged by the French intelligence and thereafter
transferred to CIA, where he received training as an
intelligence agent in West Germany.
5. While in Paris he met Nijolė Bražėnaitė, fell in love
and got married. During the stay in the western
countries, he wrote a book Fighters for Freedom about
the actual situation in the Soviet Union. He was
parachuted back to Lithuania in 1950. For a year he was
intensively
searched
for
by
the
Soviet
counterintelligence. Finally he was betrayed by fellow
fighter Jonas Kukauskas and killed in fall 1951.
6. Adolfas Ramanauskas codename Vanagas was one of the
prominent leaders of the Lithuanian partisans. Ramanauskas
was born to Lithuanian immigrant family in the United States. In
1921, his family returned to Lithuania, bought 6 hectares
(15 acres) of land in Bielėnai near Rudamina, and took up
farming. Ramanauskas graduated from Galiniai primary school
in 1930, and from Lazdijai secondary school in 1937. He
continued his studies at the Klaipėda Pedagogical Institute
(now Vilnius Pedagogical University). Just before graduation
the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory) was ceded to Nazi
Germany; therefore the institute was evacuated to Panevėžys.
The same year, Ramanauskas enrolled into the Kaunas War
School. He graduated with the rank of second lieutenant in
the reserve forces. His class of 1940 was the last class to graduate
from the war school before Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet
Union in June 1940.
7. After graduation Ramanauskas moved to
Krivonys near Druskininkai where he
became a teacher. He participated in the
anti-Soviet June Uprising at the start of the
1941 German invasion of Russia. During
the
Nazi
occupation
of
Lithuania,
Ramanauskas
lived
in
Alytus
and
taught
mathematics, Lithuanian language,
and physical education at the Alytus
Teachers' Seminary
8.
9. As the red army was winning over the
Wehrmacht, Lithuania was again
occupied by the Soviet forces. In
spring 1945, Ramanauskas joined the
Lithuanian partisans who waged an
armed guerrilla warfare against the
Soviets. He chose codename Vanagas
(Hawk)
and
joined
partisan
formations in southern Lithuania
(Suvalkija and Dzūkija), which were
most active among Lithuanian
partisans.
10. From 1952 he obtained
fake documents and
lived in hiding. KGB
operatives, led by Petras
Raslanas and Nachman
Dushanski, continued to
search for Ramanauskas.
He was betrayed by
Antanas
Urbonas,
former
classmate at the Kaunas
War
School,
and
arrested on October
11, 1956.
11. He was taken to KGB
prison in Vilnius (now
Museum of Genocide
Victims) and tortured.
On October 12, barely
alive,
he
was
transferred
to
a
hospital, where doctors
noted
his
many
wounds. Ramanauskas
was sentenced to death
on September 25, 1957,
and
executed
on
November 29, 1957. The
place of his burial is
unknow.
12. Jonas Žemaitis (also known
under his codename Vytautas;
March 15, 1909 in Palanga –
November 26, 1954 in Moscow)
was one of the leaders
of armed resistance against the
Soviet
occupation
in
Lithuania
and
acknowledged as the Head of
State
of
contemporary
occupied Lithuania.
13. Žemaitis was born in Jonas Žemaitis and Petronėlė
Daukšaitė's family. Despite the fact that his father was
non-religious, Žemaitis was christened in Palanga's
church. From 1910 to 1917 he lived with his parents in
Poland, Lomža. In 1917, Žemaitis returned to Lithuania
and settled down in Šiluva's region, Kiaulininkų
village. In 1921, he finished Raseiniai Gymnasium First
Class. In 1926, started studying in Kaunas War School.
14. In 1944 he joined the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force,
organized by Povilas Plechavičius. After the force was disbanded
by the Nazis, Žemaitis went into hiding. When the Red Army
returned to Lithuania, Žemaitis joined the Lithuanian Freedom
Army and the Lithuanian partisans, steadily rising to a position of
leadership. In February 1949 he established the Union of
Lithuanian Freedom Fighters and became its chairman; he worked
to continue partisan resistance to Soviet occupation and legitimize
the actions of the partisans. In December 1951 he was stricken with
a cerebral hemorrhage and became paralyzed. In May 1953 his
place of hiding was discovered by Soviet agents and he was
arrested. After being transported to Moscow, he was interrogated
by Lavrentiy Beria and was executed in the Butyrka prison in 1954.
