August Sabbe, born in 1909, is believed to have been the last Forest Brother, surviving and remaining in hiding until the late 1970s. The KGB finally tracked him down as he was fishing on a river shore on 28 September 1978, almost exactly 40 years ago.
@Mike Cruickshanks Well, if the Russians found them, the whole family would be sent off to a basement at the nearest KGB headquarters and then to Siberia in a cattle car.
As an Lithuanian I need to explain some things: 1. Soviet terror in 1940-41 (mass arrests, deportations and killings of prisoners) alienated Baltic people against the Soviet regime. Nobody expected Soviets to be this cruel. For example, in Lithuania before 1940 Soviet Russia was perceived as a friendly state; 2. as a consequence, a lot of Latvians and Estonians join German forces in WWII and died in the war. Because of this, resistance against the Soviets in Latvia and Estonia after WWII was a little bit weaker; 3. Lithuanians were not willing to join Germans in WWII (there are many historical reasons why it went that way), therefore after the end of the War they had more manpower to resist the Soviets. Therefore in Lithuania resistance movement was the strongest and log lasting; 4. most of freedom fighters were simple men and women, there were very few officers (most of high-ranked military officers fled to Western Europe). As a consequence, many Lithuanian resistance leaders were not military officers, but teachers and etc. Still, Lithuanian resistance forces had quasi-military structure, statute and uniforms - because of this is very easy to recognize Lithuanian partisan photos; 5. the resistance was broken mainly not due direct fighting, but special intelligence operations and betrayals. It's estimated, that around 20-30 thousands of Lithuanian partisans and their supporters died in this struggle; 6. in Lithuania the armed resistance against the Soviets was important because: a) "saving the face" after impotent surrender of 1940 and showing the World that Lithuanians are not "OK" with Soviet occupation (shout out-to Finns for their timely and persistent fight for their freedom); b) It deterred Soviet colonization - Lithuania hast the lowest Russian population % in comparison to other Baltic states; 7. many of the most beautiful Lithuanian songs was written by partisans and their supporters (there was plenty of poets in this movement), and none - on the opposite side. In Soviet times and even now people sing partisan songs in Lithuania. It's a very important component of Lithuanian self-awareness, historical memory and cultural heritage.
@@CarlosMartins-sp6ud I recommend Hannibal Rising if you want to meet forest brothers closely. Lots of them were ex-SS exterminated jews with kids and womans. One of Baltic states still hosts SS vets parades (sic!)
@Thanos 6.0 Lithuanian movies about partisans: "In the Dusk" (Sutemose) "Partizanas" "Vanago portretas" "Purpurinis rūkas" "Owl Mountain" (Pelėdų kalnas) if you want to hear partizan songs just search online "partizanų dainos".
@@ImPedofinderGeneral you will find, that the Lithuanians were the least collaborative with the Germans. Estonians were in the SS but somehow they largely managed not to soil themselves - Estonian SS were used by the Americans as guards in the Nuremberg trials. Latvia was different - thats also where the SS Vets parades are held.
@@aasphaltmueller5178 Yes they were guards because americans already sent most of troops home. No, they *soiled* themselves by executions of jews and pro-communist baltics . For sample - th-cam.com/video/_qcEFnGeZ6A/w-d-xo.html .
I am Latvian. Long story short - as far as I know somewhere between 1944 and 1948 two my grand grand dads were deported to Siberia with all families, where they lived in unbelievably bad conditions. Communists took from theme everything, one grand granddad lost his own farm and died in Siberia in unknown place, the other lost his farm, shop and house in the village (both houses he built with his own hands) We - latvians are small nation and everything we ever wanted, was to live in peace in our small country, but sadly our people destiny was decided by Nazis and Communists.
Germany and Russia have always loved each - other to death. That is true even today - Nord stream 2. The death part of the circle has not happened yet.
@Alek Palm-Leis As I say, the truth history comes only from our grandgrandparents. This occupation destroyed thousands of lifes, peoples, dreames, hopes, homes, families and fates and there is no excuse what soever, for those who organized this occupation! Huge respect to my grandfather, who was left alone, running from deportation while he was 16 years old and his whole family was deported ..... despite that, after many years he was able to bring back all family, except his father (died in Siberia).
Hi, that's a really interesting story, same thing happened to my great grandfather aswell, he was taken away to Siberia, for simply being more wealthy, his farm and house were stolen
Were the rusky boots enters this follows: “In the end, they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Grand Inquisitor. This is a fact and reality in the past and today in the year 2021.
@@picklejuice4638 but hating on another nationality is one of the roots of racism. Not everyone sees Russians as occupiers. Any educated person knows there's a difference between soviet russia, soviet union and Russia. People here think stalin was russian smh.
I was in Lithuania for a school trip where we visited small towns In the country side. We stayed in this town in a heavily forested area of the country called Antilepte. In the town was a small museum where they kept the uniforms and arms of the forest brothers that operated nearby.
partisans fought mostly in rural areas. the reason is simple. in the villages everyone knew everyone (so it was easier to find support and informers, less opportunity to infiltrate enemies). Villages close to forests, better provision of food, many homestead partisans were installed bunkers. It was almost impossible to make it unnoticed in the city, as it was difficult to leave the city. Forests in that year covered about 70% of the total territory of Lithuania. Moving through forests is easier, as are retreat routes.
The last Lithuanian active partisan, Kostas Liuberskis-Žvainys, was killed in 1969 (the last Estonian partisan was killed in 1979). And legendary Pinups wasn't actually a partisan (or combatant). He was forced to Soviet army but fled, as didn't want to kill. Btw, the last Lithuanian partisan to die in Soviet era was Stasys Guiga-Tarzanas, who died in 1986 in hiding (he wasn't actively resisting, sure, at that time, but still was risking Soviet prison and maybe even death penalty if he would have been caught)
Almost all the newly Communist countries had an Anti Communist insurgency. I know here in Bulgaria, the anti Communist insurgents even managed to take over a couple major cities before being crushed. In the Iron Curtain, any mention of these partisans was suppressed, even of anti Yugoslav partisans in Yugoslavia, so even in the modern day many don't know of them.
@@murderouskitten2577 I know the last reports of Bulgarian anti Communist were in the 60's, but overall it may also be longer for the Ukrainians as well. The Communist regimes kept silent about these insurgencies and it's not like these guys broadcasted to the world that they were still fighting.
@@murderouskitten2577 , Last known Baltic (Estonian) Forest brother, August Sabbe, was killed on 28 September 1978. His private war against the Soviet occupiers lasted for 33 years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Sabbe
@@nikodemdyzma9330 They couldn't possibly join the wermacht due to the Geneve Convention, at first the SS legions were set up to fight the soviets and were purely volunteer, yes later in the war people did get consricpted into the legions but they simply fought on the front the same as the Wermacht, they were only called SS to get around the geneve convention law that you cannot use the manpower of an occupied country. At the end of the war these divisons were treated on the same level as the wermacht at the nuremberg trials as they did not particapte in Nazi warcrime, they simply stood up against the soviet ocupation to protect their country. For example the 15th Latvian waffen SS divison surrenderd to the allies and were not trialed, troops from that divison guarded Nazi war criminals at nuremberg wearing Latvian insignia. Before making outrages claims you should do some reasearch on your own.
@@compatriot852 Lithuania also had the largest population. Forest Brothers weren’t one organisation across three countries, but rather local groups, usually max the size of a platoon or two. It was every group on their own but they did support each other where possible. Every country had their own fight and “Forest Brother” was just a name the locals gave to the partisans.
As a Latvian I did not expect this episode but anyways thanks for making episode for such unknown topic, not even here in Latvia people know much about it.
Good stuff. having served in the Estonian military (as most Estonian men) I have so much respect for the people who where able to hold out for so long in the harsh Nordic forests and swamps without any modern gear. This was a very well balanced overview of a very emotional and often misunderstood topic.
Wow, wow, wow, cool it there. Estonia is not a Nordic country, I know it aspires to be one to distance themselves from their original Slavic roots due to Russophobia.
The forest brothers did organize in Lithuania into the "Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters". It's still debated to this day whether this coherent organization was a strength or a weakness.
my grandma and her three brothers were forest brothers when she was alive she used to tell stories about the red army capturing the forest brothers and putting them on their knees next to civilians and when they executed them if someone started crying they would die too my granma watches three of her brothers get executed and she could not cry if she did she would get killed. (sorry for broken english)
Some times a choice is no choice at all. I remember seeing an interview with a Red Army veteran who was at Stalingrad. He said " We had a choice between two maniacs, a Russian one and a German one. Being Russian we chose the Russian one".
Excellent short film about a forgotten topic. Therer has been a radio program in Sweden about the Forest brothers. Nearly all Baltic countries (Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Lettland, Polen) are very aware about Russian interventions, sadly.
Couple weeks ago I talked about this with my grandma. All the men in her family were either in the forest brothers or already shot. I'm trying not to poke her too much with this, because I see how sad she looks when we're talking about it. Truly horrid stories about death, betrayal and subjugation.
@@naponroy no it is forest people idk if you know Bulgarian but the name comes from гора (forest) and from this they were know as горяни (forest people). Next time look it up on internet before writing a comment
One detail - the Soviets started deporting people to Siberia as soon as they annexed the three nations (first deportations by 1941 in Latvia, for example), which was a major factor in seeing the Germans as the lesser evil and perhaps even saviors. Lots of the soldiers fighting on the German side believed their countries would be granted freedom if the Germans won. In reality, the Third Reich wanted to do what the Northern crusades had tried to achieve centuries before - to create the so-called "Lebensraum," literally meaning "living room" or "living space" for German settlers, but they were also smart enough not to suppress such beliefs among the ranks, as it helped keep up the dwindling morale and loyalty.
Germany wouldn't have displaced the Baltic populations. Even if they had won the war there would have been few Germans to settle the vast lands of the east & plenty of sparcely populated land.
Youre comment started out great. As Germany advanced into Russia, they were literally liberating it from communist scum. Russia is huge. There was more than enough room for Everyone. Germany believed in the sovereignty of states and respected that. It would have indeed been a liberation had Germany won. But backed the commies and you all know how that turned out. Half of europe fell behind the Iron Curtain. Good job.
@@TheCol111 aside from Poland, Germany didnt invade any of those countries until AFTER Britain and France declared war on them. Is Germany supposed to just lie down and wait to be invaded? Their actions were in defense of their country from Britain and France. They had no business. Declaring war. And Germany only invaded Poland do take back Danzig. A German city.
Wikipedia: "Day of the Restoration of Latvian Independence - Wikipedia It marks, like the other Baltic republics, the restoration of the Latvian Republic by official declaration by the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR on May 4, 1990." From en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Restoration_of_Latvian_Independence
My dads 2 brothers age 19, 21 went to sign up for the police, army after ww2, never heard from them again. 75 years later iam the only one here in Canada because my father age 16, went to the west.
1. USSR attempted, but often failed; once it splintered the postwar republics went back to their normal state of feuding. The USSR's perceived short term success only created more feuding later on as it exchanged territories to promote unity; but this had unintended consequences of causing more friction upon division. Typically, the greatest successes were in smaller territories such as Konigsberg (mass deportation/cultural genocide), but the UN could not intervene afterward as the majority was already Russian and undoing such an act would require changing the demographics again, which is also technically cultural genocide/mass deportation of the now Russian populace . 2. Germany did this - the quotation marks seem as though you are diminishing the German crimes in the war. The USSR annexing and attempting to annex and colonize peoples does not diminish the crimes of Germany during WWII.
@@shinybreloom4027 Local people could not take better job - for example my dad was dreaming to work as an engineer in a nuclear plant - just a regular physics nerd. He had relatives working at the admition exam commission that selected students for the university. Everything's golden!!! Yeah no, they straight up said to not even try taking those exams as fail rate for local people 100% (russian decent like 25% at most) and that meant that he'd be drafted to the army or was sent to the farms for the rest of his life. He did become physician though, not nuclear one, but he did it. He still works as a programmer. Fun fact he was highly laughing at the HBO show Chernobyl for the first 3 episodes as he could not let go the belorussian nuclear physics lady - that couldn't happen.
@@UtamagUta well... When my mom and dad came here from Latvia, in 1979, father had no problemmo with work, but Mother she had technical university diplomma, and when she came to the factory 4 work, all papers and documentstion was in estonian language, that she dont understand... And one more though about your father: nuclear plant was top secret area, whole nuclear science was top secret area, of cause you cant put estonian anywhere near, it was not enough to be a russian to get there, in those times... Estonians have forest brothers, you guys support germans way more than russians, you got independent after 1st world war, of cause there is a lack of trust... That exactly the same reason why Estonian, Latvia, Lithuanian young guys never were near of missile objects or radars... Lack of trust... That why russian language Will never becomes second country language in the baltic states...history is such bitch if you are the russian😆😆😆🤟...
Thank You for making this and spreading their story to broader audiences. This means a lot for us. For hardcore fans of them, we have preserved few bunkers and they can be visited with tourist groups.
A Lithuanian friend got me interested in her country, researched much, found the "Forest Brothers" thought it was a really interesting and revealing journey, Baltic People are tough and smart.
9:50 correction, in the case of Lithuania, Forest Brothers were much more connected and Jonas Zemaitas was considered one of the main resistance leaders.
@@ТОЛЯН-ц3ю >Invade neighboring countries >Destroy their economy and feed on their production >send people to gulags >Lower quality of life for the people >Countries resist >"W-why are killing the people we sent to wipe you out :(((((" But seriously, what girls and women are you talking about? Forest brother killed the Russian partisan "hunters" who were sent to kill them. I have not heard a single time they have killed actual school teachers, because you have obviously pulled that out of your ass. Also do you actually think that people couldn't read and write before the soviet occupation in the Baltics? Do you have a room temperature IQ?
@@ТОЛЯН-ц3ю As long as they were Russians, everything is OK. By the way, you as Russian can't even understand simple fact that this people could write and read long before Russians did and you forgetting the fact that they had their own languages and writings and schools and those teachers were nothing else but part of occupying Russia . Truly Russians back then and Nazis are the same scumbags, no difference at all and you are the same.
I never knew such groups existed. In China there was a similar group of soldiers - Nationalists on the losing side who continued to fight a guerilla war against the Communists for decades from bases in the remote mountain areas bordering Laos, Burma, and Cambodia. They initially had a big cache of weapons from the USA but over time turned to drug smuggling and became narco lords who sold drugs to American GIs in Vietnam.
Soviets: Make lots of speeches about western imperialism and colonialism. Also soviets: Carry out mass deportations of native populations and replace them with settlers, lebensraum style.
My grandmother was enslaved for work in siberia. She used to work with wood for many years but she got back and she is still alive today.my grandmother's mother russians tried to take but she ran away in to forrest. Russians were doing a lot of killing up until 1991 when their army left. My country (Lithuania)fought against them for many decades as partizans and many of my people were enslaved for work in siberia and most died there(biggest portion are burried under road that they were making to east Russia)
Being from Latvia I didn't know much about the subject - thank you for the video. It's a sad subject, even today you can see the remnants of this war in a lot of places. I went mushroom picking a few months ago in a forest near Liepāja and I ran across a few trenches and scraps of metal here and there, that's a common sight.
This is the best documentary yet I've seen about the Forest Brothers armed resistance to the Soviet Occupation. Good job, and I'm looking forwards to more of your content.
Except that most Belarusians actually help the Russians in enthic cleansing Lithuania. That why the Vilnius region looks so weird, because the other half was stolen by Belarus
"Never heard about this" But of course not the allied propoganda media would never let you know that we saw The German Empire as liberators for the boļševiks.
Some of forest brothers in Estonia were volunteers of finnish army. They left finnish army to prevent Soviet to push in into Estonia. After collapse they became forest brothers.
That was really touching. I pay my deepest respects to those Balt Forest brothers who fought, exiled or perished for their culture, their land and their sovereignty. (As far as I know, In the ancient times they called themselves "The Balts" which means "The Heros" or "The Champions".) It's a very valuable act from The Cold War channel to inform the world about the deeds of those unsung heroes. I wish the channel make the same video about the poor Ukrainians who did the same.
there were Forest brothers, aka Meža brāļi, hiding like 400 meters from my home, in the 40s, and it was so well kept secret, that this secret came out only decades after, there is still a wooden, rock basement/barn, where they were hiding, its in the midle of a medaow atm
My father told me that his Lithuanian relatives ceased correspondence in 1940. Forever. A neighbor who was a young woman in Estonia at the time, now deceased, would say "under the Nazis you had to fear what you said, but under the Soviets you had to fear what you thought."
9:45 - not really true. In Lithuania there were top leaders, there were meetings of regional commands to coordinate the activities in the early resistance.
3:15 soldiers from the Finnish Volunteer Corps (4000 men) arriving in Reval (Tallinn) Estonia in january 1919.They liberated Narva in a daring raid during the Estonian Liberation War 1919.The man to the far left in the thumbnail is Juozas Luksa 1921-1951.He was a dedicated Lithuanian catholic,patriot,and fiercly anti-communist.He lead units of the Forest Brothers in furious guerilla battles against Soviet troops 1945-51.He was killed in action 1951.The photo was taken in 1950.
My friends and I found one of the dogouts of Forest Brothers in Estonia when we were kids. It was so well done and well preserved. Though I truly wonder how anyone could survive there through 9 months of rain, snow and piercing cold. True warriors and patriots of their country who bravely fought for freedom.
I have also i great respect for the people who fought against the antihuman comunist occupation. I know that the forest brothers were very succesefull, but you had it also in Romania or Ucraine people fought till and after 1953 for their familys and their freedom. Thank you for this video.
There's quite a few inaccuracies in this video. Like claim that Forest Brothers never organized. They did organize in Lithuania . Also claim that they were lead by former commanders of Soviet units or foreign leaders is simply false.
9:51 long story short, Lithuanian forest brothers was organized at 1949 and had their leader Jonas Žemaitis Vytautas, who now acknowledged as a President of Lithuania! 🇱🇹 For the sake of Homeland
There was one mistake in the video. The fighters in Lithuania actually organised under central leadership in the beginning of 1949. They called themselves The Movement of Lithuanian Freedom Fights. On 16th February 1949 the Movement issued a Declaration. It is a unique legal act in the global post-war context - no other European nation in the post-World War II resistance to totalitarianism has ever declared its goals, aspirations and values so clearly in any other document. The Declaration is a testimony to the fact that the Lithuanian nation, even during the brutal Soviet occupation, did not give up its state, fought for it, and remained a part of the Western political civilisation. The document politically legitimised the guerrilla movement throughout Lithuania and gave the guerrilla leadership the status of the Provisional Council of the Lithuanian Nation, representing the entire resisting nation. The Council consisted of all leaders of The Forest Brothers. The chairman was Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas. In 12 March 2009 Lithuanian Parliament recognised Jonas Žemaitis as the Head of State of Lithuania fighting the occupation, and as the de facto President of the Republic. His title - The President of Fighting Lithuania.
@@ИванКоромысло-о1п батенька, Вьі дурак? Речь идет о вооруженном анти-большицком сопротивлении местного населения до 62 года. Причем здесь Холокост в Венгрии и Румьінии и на оккупированньіх ими территориях??
@Draugr What about Katyn?Movie by Andzhei Vaida(??) exists.It was one of Stalin's crimes,no more ,no less. But Poland prefer to keep silent about the other side,as we were the only evil.Because other side is the major member of the EU...
Not sure about that intro, but thank you very much for covering this topic. I also want to criticise using a rough map of 1944-5 for talking about the iron curtain.
❤ This is why there is a saying, that the lithuanian flag colors mean : Yellow is the sun in the sky. Green are the majestic forests. And red is the blood that lies in the soil underneith the forests. 🇱🇹
Sest me ei saa ! Ei või ! Ei taha ! Ei taha tiblat teenida. (Because we can't ! We may not ! Don't want to ! Don't want to serve the (tibla = derogative term for a Russian) Thank you ! Greetings from Estonia.
Here in Serbia we had Chetniks. My great-grandfather himself fought communists in the mountains of Dalmatia until 1946. Many of them fought until the mid-50s.
The Romanian anti-communist resistance lasted the longest, with armed groups resisting in the Carpathian mountains as far as 1976 ! That's 31 years after the war's end !
@@tacowilco7515 You attended geography courses with the sport teacher ! The soviet Union and Romania Shared an 800 Kilometers (500 miles) border ,and parts of Romania had been annexed by USSR and re branded as "Moldova" in the same time USSR annexed The Baltic states , namely when USSR had their pact with Nazi Germany called the Ribbentrop=Molotov agreement , there was no problem for the soviets to ally themselves with the Nazi in order to steal territories and to destroy entire populations ! P.S. Romania during communist era had the worst type of Stalinist terror installed in an European communist country , a regime that needed a bloody revolution to fall . And still the majority of the power (economical and political) nowadays is held by the communist turned overnight capitalist !
Then why Russia inherited all the nuclear arsenal , the space program, and the external debt of USSR ? Because USSR Was Russia ! Ukraine or Belarus never stopped soviet tanks to get to Czechoslovakia in '68 or Hungary in '56 ! The USSR fell because Russia kept the other republics captive and didn't let them go !
@Etherospike They din’t,Ukraine had 5000,more than half or Russia’s arsenal,neither the Space Program which was in Kazakhstan.And yes they did do that,Ukrainian and Belorussian troops took part in putting down the Hungarian Uprising as part of the Warsaw Pact and the Prague Spring.And how exactly,Stalin was Georgian,Khrushchev was Ukrainian,and so was Brezhnev, Andrei Gromyko was Belorussian.That is because the USSR was a federation not a unitary republic to begin with.In fact that is why it broke up in the first place,because under Soviet Laws the Republics could break away,and they did.Ukraine as such inhereted its nuclear and military arsenal,which it gave away to Russia,and Kazakhstan gave access to Russia to continue their space program.
To be accurate, Balts joined nazi army because they also, as later the USSR, were waving around the idea of independent Baltic states after they "kick out russians". Not that they "saw it as lesser evil". As we saw later, none of them willingly gave the Baltic states up.
My great great grandfather was a Lithuanian officer who fought against Bolshevik plague but after 41 he was deported to Gulag he died there, his wife from starvation but her son and daughter survived in hard Siberian conditions, they returned to their homeland.
it's actually very dark and complicated subject. apart from some heroic episodes, most stories from those times are about torture, persecutions, betrayal and sheer malevolence... like holocaust, it's definitely not for all ages.
Many don’t know where the baltic states are located and think they are sorta Russia, it’s probably too much for the average Western European or American to know about their history.
@@piotr5270 It's "wyklęci" actually, it has slightly less negative connotation than "przeklęci". It's hard to translate to English, but it's something between "cursed" and "casted out/excommunicated". Referencing how the Communist authority tried to either vilify or remove them from the collective memory. I think they were mentioned in one of previous episodes, the one covering the beginning of Communist rule in Poland. Edit: nope, I remembered wrong. The episode about the sovietization of Poland mentions the persecution of the former members of the Home Army, but doesn't cover how some of them (and others) continued the guerrilla fight.
@@AmarFox6 The issue of the Cursed Soldiers is certainly a complex one. Maybe one day it won't be so damn politicized and we'll be able to have some more balanced view, instead of trying to shove them all into one of two extremely opposite simplified narratives of either heroes or villains. For starters, I think that each unit and its commander should be judged individually and I'm certainly against glorifying, for example, Romuald Rajs "Bury".
There is one glaring distortion in this video. It makes it out as though the people of the Baltics hated the Soviets and Germans equally. They did not. They hated the Soviets more, and they had good reason to. That is not to say they loved the Nazis and wanted to join the Reich. They did not. The Soviets had been there longer and had caused more misery. That is why when the Germans arrived the people of the Baltics were already under arms attacking the retreating soviets (conveniently left out of this clip). Although the Germans did do some bad things, for the most part they were a lot better behaved in the Baltics than they were elsewhere, and certainly better behaved towards the population for the most part than the Soviets were in 1940 and 1941. The overwhelming number of people in the Baltics were clueless about Nazi atrocities since they weren't occurring in their neighborhood and neither the Germans or the allies advertised them until the war was practically over (The Soviet atrocities on the other hand had been witnessed by the people of the Baltics in their own towns and villages). Many of the so called Baltic soldiers that fought for the USSR were either men the Soviets had deported to gulags (where many saw friends die), and as a result they had good reason to defect to the Germans. The ones who remained were largely communists who had been forced to flee their homelands, along with some who could not find a convenient time to defect. The Soviets then restaffed these units with people who had largely never been to the Baltics, but were of Baltic descent. The soldiers who joined the Germans were for the most part not drafted, but volunteers and previous anti-Soviet fighters encouraged by the Estonian leadership to defend Estonia Latvia, and Lithuania in national units, not fight for national socialism. The reason they ended up in the SS is after they had been serving for a while Hitler ordered all foreign anti-communist volunteers transferred to the SS, and so it was not voluntary (the western allies acknowledged this, and did not place these men under the same restrictions as other former SS men). When their countries were overrun many deserted the German units, a small number even took up arms against both the Germans and Soviets hoping to regain control, and Hitler allowed a great many to be released from serving with German forces to go home and fight the Soviets. The Germans intentionally let them take weapons home. There were units of Baltic troops, however, that continued to fight on the German side until the very end in places like Czechoslovakia, but few were "Nazis."
Tell that to the more than 300,000 Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian jews murdered by men like Victors Arajs who actively collaborated with the German Einzatzgruppen to whip up the local population into murderous anti-semitic mobs.
regarding the purge of baltic jews...murder is murder and cannot be condoned but the baltic killers were relatively few in number. furthermore the baltic states experienced significant jewish collaboration with the soviet occupiers in the 1940-41 red terror despite having lived a charmed life there pre 1940. truth has many sides and not all victims are always innocent.
@@stevenhaas9622 Name a country where there were no collaborationists during the occupation. There were also Latvians working for KGB, killing and deporting other Latvians, how about that? Jews had lived happily in Latvia for centuries and you can't blame the whole nation for what certain individuals did at that time. That's about ideology, not nationality. Neither all Germans were Nazis, before and during the war.
@@stevenhaas9622 blaaa blaaaa. even the soviets killed jews. 1953 doctor's plot, various progroms. antisemitism was rampant everywhere in the world till 1945 and to say that people who fought against the soviets were nazis is a form of low iq.
13:00 Actually, the Russians only lost 12,921 soldiers and 6000 supporters. The Baltics lost 20,103 partisans and 10,000 supporters. 33 percent survived. A further 20,000 were arrested by the Russians. Another 600,000 citizens were sent to concentration camps and as many as 100,000 died. During the Russian occupation of the second world war, 1944-1945, over 600,000 Baltic citizens were killed in conflict. This adds up to a minimum of 730,000 Baltic casualties in nine years from 1944-1953. For comparison, 630,562 Americans died in the Price Of Freedom wars from the years 1775 to 2001, 217 years more than the Baltics. And you people say that America had a tough fight for freedom.
Will you do an epsiode on Operation Gladio? Its a topic that needs to be discussed way more in historical media. Maybe it would fit in a broader episode about NATO contingency plans in case of the Soviets overrunning Europe. By the way great work as always. This channel is a true gem.
@@ИванКоромысло-о1п That's what you want to think. Top investor in all Baltic states is Sweden, followed by other Northern Europe countries like Netherlands, Finland and Germany. The larger Russian influence is only in Latvia.
@@ИванКоромысло-о1п It shows what countries are cooperating with Baltics in exchange of political, economical, cultural and even military relationships. That makes them European - not the houses, cars or infrastructure of those countries. The most important thing is the attitude and mentality of people, which gets even more noticeable when you cross anywhere outside the EU.
@@GeneratorOfDarkness in this case all Europians must be Chinese now. And Balts pretends to be "Nord Europeans" because it is a side which pays. We(Russia) don't want to waste money anymore..
August Sabbe, born in 1909, is believed to have been the last Forest Brother, surviving and remaining in hiding until the late 1970s. The KGB finally tracked him down as he was fishing on a river shore on 28 September 1978, almost exactly 40 years ago.
According to Baltic's way of life,I think there are forest brothers still I n the forests.
I mean there were few hiding in forests but I don't know if all of them would be counted as Forest Brothers.
Since the time of the crusaders when they don't let Ests to enter the towns.
Amazing never knew of this in uk
@@jamwri671 don't have enough IRA?
old soviet saying,,
"why do Lithuanians oil their gardens?......to keep their guns from rusting."
Hey, nice saying, where did you found it, couldnt find anything on the web?
same here, would be interested to find it
I heard this 20 years ago,,,where I can not remember.
It was not from the internet.
Lol, good one
@Mike Cruickshanks Well, if the Russians found them, the whole family would be sent off to a basement at the nearest KGB headquarters and then to Siberia in a cattle car.
“The trees speak in Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian”
Tieši tā
@CAVKING19DELTA TEXAS How's the weather in Arkhangelsk?
@CAVKING19DELTA TEXAS Better dead than red
@CAVKING19DELTA TEXAS
Because fighting a desparate war against a genocidal totalitarian regime makes someone a Nazi I guess?
@CAVKING19DELTA TEXAS fighting for independence isnt nazism
As an Lithuanian I need to explain some things:
1. Soviet terror in 1940-41 (mass arrests, deportations and killings of prisoners) alienated Baltic people against the Soviet regime. Nobody expected Soviets to be this cruel. For example, in Lithuania before 1940 Soviet Russia was perceived as a friendly state;
2. as a consequence, a lot of Latvians and Estonians join German forces in WWII and died in the war. Because of this, resistance against the Soviets in Latvia and Estonia after WWII was a little bit weaker;
3. Lithuanians were not willing to join Germans in WWII (there are many historical reasons why it went that way), therefore after the end of the War they had more manpower to resist the Soviets. Therefore in Lithuania resistance movement was the strongest and log lasting;
4. most of freedom fighters were simple men and women, there were very few officers (most of high-ranked military officers fled to Western Europe). As a consequence, many Lithuanian resistance leaders were not military officers, but teachers and etc. Still, Lithuanian resistance forces had quasi-military structure, statute and uniforms - because of this is very easy to recognize Lithuanian partisan photos;
5. the resistance was broken mainly not due direct fighting, but special intelligence operations and betrayals. It's estimated, that around 20-30 thousands of Lithuanian partisans and their supporters died in this struggle;
6. in Lithuania the armed resistance against the Soviets was important because: a) "saving the face" after impotent surrender of 1940 and showing the World that Lithuanians are not "OK" with Soviet occupation (shout out-to Finns for their timely and persistent fight for their freedom); b) It deterred Soviet colonization - Lithuania hast the lowest Russian population % in comparison to other Baltic states;
7. many of the most beautiful Lithuanian songs was written by partisans and their supporters (there was plenty of poets in this movement), and none - on the opposite side. In Soviet times and even now people sing partisan songs in Lithuania. It's a very important component of Lithuanian self-awareness, historical memory and cultural heritage.
Thanks for sharing. Great info and cheers for your people for fighting a good war.
@@CarlosMartins-sp6ud I recommend Hannibal Rising if you want to meet forest brothers closely. Lots of them were ex-SS exterminated jews with kids and womans. One of Baltic states still hosts SS vets parades (sic!)
@Thanos 6.0
Lithuanian movies about partisans:
"In the Dusk" (Sutemose)
"Partizanas"
"Vanago portretas"
"Purpurinis rūkas"
"Owl Mountain" (Pelėdų kalnas)
if you want to hear partizan songs just search online "partizanų dainos".
@@ImPedofinderGeneral you will find, that the Lithuanians were the least collaborative with the Germans. Estonians were in the SS but somehow they largely managed not to soil themselves - Estonian SS were used by the Americans as guards in the Nuremberg trials. Latvia was different - thats also where the SS Vets parades are held.
@@aasphaltmueller5178 Yes they were guards because americans already sent most of troops home. No, they *soiled* themselves by executions of jews and pro-communist baltics . For sample - th-cam.com/video/_qcEFnGeZ6A/w-d-xo.html .
I am Latvian. Long story short - as far as I know somewhere between 1944 and 1948 two my grand grand dads were deported to Siberia with all families, where they lived in unbelievably bad conditions. Communists took from theme everything, one grand granddad lost his own farm and died in Siberia in unknown place, the other lost his farm, shop and house in the village (both houses he built with his own hands) We - latvians are small nation and everything we ever wanted, was to live in peace in our small country, but sadly our people destiny was decided by Nazis and Communists.
Germany and Russia have always loved each - other to death. That is true even today - Nord stream 2. The death part of the circle has not happened yet.
it really goes even before that. Russian empire times, rusification, etc.
I love your country Latvia
@Alek Palm-Leis As I say, the truth history comes only from our grandgrandparents. This occupation destroyed thousands of lifes, peoples, dreames, hopes, homes, families and fates and there is no excuse what soever, for those who organized this occupation! Huge respect to my grandfather, who was left alone, running from deportation while he was 16 years old and his whole family was deported ..... despite that, after many years he was able to bring back all family, except his father (died in Siberia).
Hi, that's a really interesting story, same thing happened to my great grandfather aswell, he was taken away to Siberia, for simply being more wealthy, his farm and house were stolen
As my grandma used to say: "better born ugly than close to the russians"
Were the rusky boots enters this follows: “In the end, they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Grand Inquisitor. This is a fact and reality in the past and today in the year 2021.
amen
Good, we don't like ugly racist bitches.
@@uncappedsmile6416 occupants are not a race
@@picklejuice4638 but hating on another nationality is one of the roots of racism. Not everyone sees Russians as occupiers. Any educated person knows there's a difference between soviet russia, soviet union and Russia. People here think stalin was russian smh.
I was in Lithuania for a school trip where we visited small towns In the country side. We stayed in this town in a heavily forested area of the country called Antilepte. In the town was a small museum where they kept the uniforms and arms of the forest brothers that operated nearby.
partisans fought mostly in rural areas. the reason is simple. in the villages everyone knew everyone (so it was easier to find support and informers, less opportunity to infiltrate enemies). Villages close to forests, better provision of food, many homestead partisans were installed bunkers. It was almost impossible to make it unnoticed in the city, as it was difficult to leave the city. Forests in that year covered about 70% of the total territory of Lithuania. Moving through forests is easier, as are retreat routes.
Antalieptė
y and?
This is where I lived in my past life
My great uncle fought and died as an Estonian forest brother. Long live the forest brothers!!!!
My great uncle was NKVD fighting against Lithuanian Forest brothers.
@les kryvko like he is responsable
@les kryvko most of them were drafted i think, so not so fast
@les kryvkoWTH is your problem?
@les kryvko I'm not a Russian nor a Troll, I'm just not a fan of ppl being attacked for the deeds of their ancestors
The last Lithuanian “ forest brother” killed himself when was surrounded in 1964 ,,,, that’s 19 years after war!!
Pranas Končius (code name Adomas)
The last partisan, Jānis Pīnups, came out of hiding in 1995 at the age of 70, hiding away for 50 years, despite Lithuania gaining independence in 1990
@@tbalciunas333 his name is Latvian - seems like he just ended up in Lithuanian forests.
The last Lithuanian active partisan, Kostas Liuberskis-Žvainys, was killed in 1969 (the last Estonian partisan was killed in 1979). And legendary Pinups wasn't actually a partisan (or combatant). He was forced to Soviet army but fled, as didn't want to kill. Btw, the last Lithuanian partisan to die in Soviet era was Stasys Guiga-Tarzanas, who died in 1986 in hiding (he wasn't actively resisting, sure, at that time, but still was risking Soviet prison and maybe even death penalty if he would have been caught)
The last Estonian Forest Brother died in 1979.
It is crazy how the war was over but in Poland, Ukraine and the Baltics independence fighters fought on for many years. Love the new intro by the way!
Your channel is good. I subscribed to your channel
Ukraine gang rise up
Almost all the newly Communist countries had an Anti Communist insurgency. I know here in Bulgaria, the anti Communist insurgents even managed to take over a couple major cities before being crushed. In the Iron Curtain, any mention of these partisans was suppressed, even of anti Yugoslav partisans in Yugoslavia, so even in the modern day many don't know of them.
@@murderouskitten2577 I know the last reports of Bulgarian anti Communist were in the 60's, but overall it may also be longer for the Ukrainians as well. The Communist regimes kept silent about these insurgencies and it's not like these guys broadcasted to the world that they were still fighting.
@@murderouskitten2577 , Last known Baltic (Estonian) Forest brother, August Sabbe, was killed on 28 September 1978. His private war against the Soviet occupiers lasted for 33 years. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Sabbe
I love how the Baltic States were also the first to declare independence following the collapse of the USSR.
And U love that they participated in SS troops? They could choose Wehrmahtbut they were fanatic nazis
@@nikodemdyzma9330 He didn't say that.
@@nikodemdyzma9330 They couldn't possibly join the wermacht due to the Geneve Convention, at first the SS legions were set up to fight the soviets and were purely volunteer, yes later in the war people did get consricpted into the legions but they simply fought on the front the same as the Wermacht, they were only called SS to get around the geneve convention law that you cannot use the manpower of an occupied country. At the end of the war these divisons were treated on the same level as the wermacht at the nuremberg trials as they did not particapte in Nazi warcrime, they simply stood up against the soviet ocupation to protect their country. For example the 15th Latvian waffen SS divison surrenderd to the allies and were not trialed, troops from that divison guarded Nazi war criminals at nuremberg wearing Latvian insignia. Before making outrages claims you should do some reasearch on your own.
@@nikodemdyzma9330 The Allies declared these SS units as not guilty of any war crimes. They even used them as guards at Nuremberg.
@@eksiarvamus ss galizien is most dredful unit, ss totenkopf, ss lssah, ss roland...and much more....
Thanks for this video! Baltic history is so fascinating yet so over-looked.
everybody gangsta till the forest starts speaking lithuanian
or estonian or latvian
@@hung-upear2659 5:24 the majority of the fighters were Lithuanian.
@@compatriot852 so we are going to erase latvian and estonian soliders?
@@compatriot852 Lithuania also had the largest population. Forest Brothers weren’t one organisation across three countries, but rather local groups, usually max the size of a platoon or two. It was every group on their own but they did support each other where possible. Every country had their own fight and “Forest Brother” was just a name the locals gave to the partisans.
forest going to siberia (historical fact - almost whole nation were relocated for ~10years because of nazi simping)
As a Latvian I did not expect this episode but anyways thanks for making episode for such unknown topic, not even here in Latvia people know much about it.
Tāpat šeit! (same here)
As non-Latvians we did not expect this episode but anyways thanks.
Really? It's constantly talked about here in Lithuania.
I'm upset something like this slipped through my knowledge net until now
@@viliussmproductions I am not suprised since you were most organized. I mean we talk about it but not a lot.
Good stuff. having served in the Estonian military (as most Estonian men) I have so much respect for the people who where able to hold out for so long in the
harsh Nordic forests and swamps without any modern gear.
This was a very well balanced overview of a very emotional and often misunderstood topic.
Wow, wow, wow, cool it there. Estonia is not a Nordic country, I know it aspires to be one to distance themselves from their original Slavic roots due to Russophobia.
@@polishherowitoldpilecki5521 Wow you are stupid, non of the Baltic states are slavic...
@@polishherowitoldpilecki5521 Estonians arent slavs.
@@polishherowitoldpilecki5521 As a Scandinavian, I'm perfectly willing to let them call themselves Nordic if they want.
@@annominous826 Not how it works, but ok.
The forest brothers did organize in Lithuania into the "Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters". It's still debated to this day whether this coherent organization was a strength or a weakness.
When "Metsavendade laul" started playng in the end of the video I shed a tear... I'm Estonian.
@@DavidGarcia-oi5nt Hah, I love you too
Even as a Lithuanian I shed a tear as there was a memorial for Partisans.
aamen! well i get same way little emotional
While I’m not an Estonian, Metsavendade laul is easily my favorite song.
@@GreatRetro "my mother and father were shot and my sweetheart was sent to siberia and now I roam the marshes and roads and I kill Russian tibilas"
Hell yeah, my grandfather and his father built a cabin in the woods and resisted for a while. My grandfather was a teen then.
Respect to your grandfather, man is a legend.
my grandma and her three brothers were forest brothers when she was alive she used to tell stories about the red army capturing the forest brothers and putting them on their knees next to civilians and when they executed them if someone started crying they would die too my granma watches three of her brothers get executed and she could not cry if she did she would get killed. (sorry for broken english)
Real heroes of their people. Imagine taking up arms against the power that's in control. Very brave of them
Especially against the red menace USSR. No thank you.
Wonder what they thought of their Jewish neighbors being rounded up and butchered
Some times a choice is no choice at all. I remember seeing an interview with a Red Army veteran who was at Stalingrad. He said " We had a choice between two maniacs, a Russian one and a German one. Being Russian we chose the Russian one".
Between a rock and Stalin
Stalin was Georgian !
@@etherospike3936 Georgia was considered at the time to be part of Russia.
@@sinisterminister6478 Here's the fact: You have no culture, and you are too stupid to admit it!
Wtf does that have to do with this?
Excellent short film about a forgotten topic. Therer has been a radio program in Sweden about the Forest brothers. Nearly all Baltic countries (Finland, Sweden, Latvia, Estonia, Lettland, Polen) are very aware about Russian interventions, sadly.
Sadly, Sweden was extraditing forest bothers to the Soviets..
Latvia and Lettland refer to the same country. Latvia is English word for it, Lettland is German.
latvia and lettland is the same thing. Lithuania in swedish and german I think is Litauen.
Latvia lettland same thing
During ww2 there was also estonian regiment in finnish army. It was the infantry regiment 200.
JR200, Suomen vapauden ja Viron kunnian puolesta! For Finnish freedom and Estonian honor!
Soome Poisid. Yes my father was in it and the predating units Valija Pajari Division.
Estonians joined Finland and waffen ss.
Thank you for making this video! Greetings from Latvia!
Couple weeks ago I talked about this with my grandma. All the men in her family were either in the forest brothers or already shot.
I'm trying not to poke her too much with this, because I see how sad she looks when we're talking about it. Truly horrid stories about death, betrayal and subjugation.
Really I cannot even image what it would have been like atrocity heaped upon atrocity of that era.
We had them in Bulgaria too. They were called Goriani which means forest people.
@timothy7538 ok boomer
Mountain, not forest
My family came from Kosovo Bulgaria in the early 1900's. I really hope to be able to visit at some point.
@@naponroy no it is forest people idk if you know Bulgarian but the name comes from гора (forest) and from this they were know as горяни (forest people). Next time look it up on internet before writing a comment
@@jsp7410 Your family came from Kosovo to Bulgaria or from Bulgaria to Kosovo
These men and women were heroes.
One detail - the Soviets started deporting people to Siberia as soon as they annexed the three nations (first deportations by 1941 in Latvia, for example), which was a major factor in seeing the Germans as the lesser evil and perhaps even saviors. Lots of the soldiers fighting on the German side believed their countries would be granted freedom if the Germans won. In reality, the Third Reich wanted to do what the Northern crusades had tried to achieve centuries before - to create the so-called "Lebensraum," literally meaning "living room" or "living space" for German settlers, but they were also smart enough not to suppress such beliefs among the ranks, as it helped keep up the dwindling morale and loyalty.
Germany wouldn't have displaced the Baltic populations.
Even if they had won the war there would have been few Germans to settle the vast lands of the east & plenty of sparcely populated land.
Youre comment started out great. As Germany advanced into Russia, they were literally liberating it from communist scum. Russia is huge. There was more than enough room for Everyone. Germany believed in the sovereignty of states and respected that. It would have indeed been a liberation had Germany won. But backed the commies and you all know how that turned out. Half of europe fell behind the Iron Curtain. Good job.
@@BratvaTV ah yes the german respect for the sovereignty of Yugoslavia, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Greece, Poland etc
@@TheCol111 aside from Poland, Germany didnt invade any of those countries until AFTER Britain and France declared war on them. Is Germany supposed to just lie down and wait to be invaded? Their actions were in defense of their country from Britain and France. They had no business. Declaring war. And Germany only invaded Poland do take back Danzig. A German city.
Greetings to our baltic brothers and friends from Germany!
That new intro is sick, my dudes
I know right, actually gave me some chills. Props to the animators!
As a Latvian thank you for talking about, fighting hard in the forests and politics while everyone is celebrating victory over Germany...
Lithuania declared independence in 1990, not 1991 (Latvia and Estonia did).
Teisingai Migle, teisinga pastaba.
youre hot.
ir žinok patys pirmi
@@mylintislietuva4870 Tamst, čia Eglė
Wikipedia:
"Day of the Restoration of Latvian Independence - Wikipedia
It marks, like the other Baltic republics, the restoration of the Latvian Republic by official declaration by the Supreme Soviet of the Latvian SSR on May 4, 1990."
From en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Restoration_of_Latvian_Independence
My Lithuanian family was heavy in resistance fighters. The toll it took on my family still remains to this day.
My dads 2 brothers age 19, 21 went to sign up for the police, army after ww2, never heard from them again. 75 years later iam the only one here in Canada because my father age 16, went to the west.
Me too...
The Soviet union literally replaced whole nations with Soviet people but blaming Germany for "trying" to do the same.
1. USSR attempted, but often failed; once it splintered the postwar republics went back to their normal state of feuding. The USSR's perceived short term success only created more feuding later on as it exchanged territories to promote unity; but this had unintended consequences of causing more friction upon division. Typically, the greatest successes were in smaller territories such as Konigsberg (mass deportation/cultural genocide), but the UN could not intervene afterward as the majority was already Russian and undoing such an act would require changing the demographics again, which is also technically cultural genocide/mass deportation of the now Russian populace .
2. Germany did this - the quotation marks seem as though you are diminishing the German crimes in the war. The USSR annexing and attempting to annex and colonize peoples does not diminish the crimes of Germany during WWII.
@@shinybreloom4027 Local people could not take better job - for example my dad was dreaming to work as an engineer in a nuclear plant - just a regular physics nerd. He had relatives working at the admition exam commission that selected students for the university. Everything's golden!!! Yeah no, they straight up said to not even try taking those exams as fail rate for local people 100% (russian decent like 25% at most) and that meant that he'd be drafted to the army or was sent to the farms for the rest of his life.
He did become physician though, not nuclear one, but he did it. He still works as a programmer.
Fun fact he was highly laughing at the HBO show Chernobyl for the first 3 episodes as he could not let go the belorussian nuclear physics lady - that couldn't happen.
@@UtamagUta fake news your papa just had shit exams
@@UtamagUta well... When my mom and dad came here from Latvia, in 1979, father had no problemmo with work, but Mother she had technical university diplomma, and when she came to the factory 4 work, all papers and documentstion was in estonian language, that she dont understand... And one more though about your father: nuclear plant was top secret area, whole nuclear science was top secret area, of cause you cant put estonian anywhere near, it was not enough to be a russian to get there, in those times... Estonians have forest brothers, you guys support germans way more than russians, you got independent after 1st world war, of cause there is a lack of trust... That exactly the same reason why Estonian, Latvia, Lithuanian young guys never were near of missile objects or radars... Lack of trust... That why russian language Will never becomes second country language in the baltic states...history is such bitch if you are the russian😆😆😆🤟...
Not Soviet Union but Russians
Thank You for making this and spreading their story to broader audiences. This means a lot for us.
For hardcore fans of them, we have preserved few bunkers and they can be visited with tourist groups.
Good episode, as an Estonian, I recommend it!
A Lithuanian friend got me interested in her country, researched much, found the "Forest Brothers" thought it was a really interesting and revealing journey, Baltic People are tough and smart.
9:50 correction, in the case of Lithuania, Forest Brothers were much more connected and Jonas Zemaitas was considered one of the main resistance leaders.
Zemaitas was a Holocaust perpetrator.
These guys were heroes. Still today Putin’s Russia paints them as terrorists.
YES, such a heros. Killing young teachers girls who came to teach there people to read and wright.
@@ТОЛЯН-ц3ю Wow, you're really doing your best in the comments section, aren't you? Ask for a raise next time you meet your boss, you russian troll.
@@ТОЛЯН-ц3ю
>Invade neighboring countries
>Destroy their economy and feed on their production
>send people to gulags
>Lower quality of life for the people
>Countries resist
>"W-why are killing the people we sent to wipe you out :((((("
But seriously, what girls and women are you talking about? Forest brother killed the Russian partisan "hunters" who were sent to kill them. I have not heard a single time they have killed actual school teachers, because you have obviously pulled that out of your ass. Also do you actually think that people couldn't read and write before the soviet occupation in the Baltics? Do you have a room temperature IQ?
@@thesnooper1431 So true. Putin XUILO!!!!
@@ТОЛЯН-ц3ю As long as they were Russians, everything is OK. By the way, you as Russian can't even understand simple fact that this people could write and read long before Russians did and you forgetting the fact that they had their own languages and writings and schools and those teachers were nothing else but part of occupying Russia . Truly Russians back then and Nazis are the same scumbags, no difference at all and you are the same.
You should do an episode about Polish "Cursed Soldiers" - the last one fighting commies until his death in an ambush in 1963.
Romania also had Anti Communist Forest Brothers in the mountains.
Moral of the story, better dead than red!
F yeah!
John... I wholeheartedly agree.
They got their wish.
@Rafael Acosta Give it a break internet tough guy. The cold war has been over for 30 years now
@@SeekerofTruths And so, we should forget what reds did and still capable to do? Are you commie yourself or something...
Suggestion for a new Cold War Special: Kim Phibly Ruins Everything.
Putin is an asshole
@@Johntb100 Yeah
Philby went to hell with Stalin too!!!
Latvia is where my family is from! Glad to see those brave men resisted tyranny! 🇺🇸🤝🇱🇻
I never knew such groups existed. In China there was a similar group of soldiers - Nationalists on the losing side who continued to fight a guerilla war against the Communists for decades from bases in the remote mountain areas bordering Laos, Burma, and Cambodia. They initially had a big cache of weapons from the USA but over time turned to drug smuggling and became narco lords who sold drugs to American GIs in Vietnam.
tis true vty r
There was also Ma Bufang's insurgency in the northwest, iirc it only ended in the 1950s
And those KMT guerrillas became masters of the heroin trade
@@totallynotalpharius2283 fucking chads
Glory to the Baltic heroes!
Soviets: Make lots of speeches about western imperialism and colonialism.
Also soviets: Carry out mass deportations of native populations and replace them with settlers, lebensraum style.
My grandmother was enslaved for work in siberia. She used to work with wood for many years but she got back and she is still alive today.my grandmother's mother russians tried to take but she ran away in to forrest. Russians were doing a lot of killing up until 1991 when their army left. My country (Lithuania)fought against them for many decades as partizans and many of my people were enslaved for work in siberia and most died there(biggest portion are burried under road that they were making to east Russia)
Being from Latvia I didn't know much about the subject - thank you for the video. It's a sad subject, even today you can see the remnants of this war in a lot of places. I went mushroom picking a few months ago in a forest near Liepāja and I ran across a few trenches and scraps of metal here and there, that's a common sight.
This is the best documentary yet I've seen about the Forest Brothers armed resistance to the Soviet Occupation. Good job, and I'm looking forwards to more of your content.
in belarus we had anticommunst fighters as well. last action was recorded in 1956
yuri loukianov but there was no organization resistance, rather individual fighters
Except that most Belarusians actually help the Russians in enthic cleansing Lithuania. That why the Vilnius region looks so weird, because the other half was stolen by Belarus
@@compatriot852 Belarus also stole a lot of land from Poland and forces poles through brutal beatings and genocide to leave the region.
Never heard about this, is very interesting, thank you! Also, nice format, graphics, drawing, hoi4 music, all perfect 👌
"Never heard about this" But of course not the allied propoganda media would never let you know that we saw The German Empire as liberators for the boļševiks.
People, this is why you arm you arm yourselves and stay armed.
Si vis pacem Para bellum.
Thank You from Latvia for telling our story. My both great- grandfathers were deported.
Some of forest brothers in Estonia were volunteers of finnish army. They left finnish army to prevent Soviet to push in into Estonia. After collapse they became forest brothers.
That was really touching. I pay my deepest respects to those Balt Forest brothers who fought, exiled or perished for their culture, their land and their sovereignty. (As far as I know, In the ancient times they called themselves "The Balts" which means "The Heros" or "The Champions".)
It's a very valuable act from The Cold War channel to inform the world about the deeds of those unsung heroes. I wish the channel make the same video about the poor Ukrainians who did the same.
Balta is white in our language. Baltic sea - white sea.
there were Forest brothers, aka Meža brāļi, hiding like 400 meters from my home, in the 40s, and it was so well kept secret, that this secret came out only decades after, there is still a wooden, rock basement/barn, where they were hiding, its in the midle of a medaow atm
My father told me that his Lithuanian relatives ceased correspondence in 1940. Forever.
A neighbor who was a young woman in Estonia at the time, now deceased, would say "under the Nazis you had to fear what you said, but under the Soviets you had to fear what you thought."
"...mercy of Joseph Stalin..." - That's something you don't hear every day.
Oh if you watch World War II in real time you hear it or equivs a lot. It's depressing.
9:45 - not really true. In Lithuania there were top leaders, there were meetings of regional commands to coordinate the activities in the early resistance.
3:15 soldiers from the Finnish Volunteer Corps (4000 men) arriving in Reval (Tallinn) Estonia in january 1919.They liberated Narva in a daring raid during the Estonian Liberation War 1919.The man to the far left in the thumbnail is Juozas Luksa 1921-1951.He was a dedicated Lithuanian catholic,patriot,and fiercly anti-communist.He lead units of the Forest Brothers in furious guerilla battles against Soviet troops 1945-51.He was killed in action 1951.The photo was taken in 1950.
The MOLE who betrayed them to the NKVD should be rotting in hell for that if there is justice.
My thoughts exactly, absolute scum of the earth.
Maybe, he just hated nazi collaborators?
@@ТОЛЯН-ц3ю fuck off you commie.
@@ТОЛЯН-ц3ю Get in the helicopter.
@@1992bfitz What? Truth is painful?
Make a video about romanian anti communist guerilla war, the last fighters were captured in the 70's
So glad I found this channel!! This part of our history isn't nearly discussed enough.
Baltic boyz have some guts ... Sadly USSR just too strong at that times
The USSR just outnumbered them.
My friends and I found one of the dogouts of Forest Brothers in Estonia when we were kids. It was so well done and well preserved. Though I truly wonder how anyone could survive there through 9 months of rain, snow and piercing cold. True warriors and patriots of their country who bravely fought for freedom.
I have also i great respect for the people who fought against the antihuman comunist occupation. I know that the forest brothers were very succesefull, but you had it also in Romania or Ucraine people fought till and after 1953 for their familys and their freedom.
Thank you for this video.
There's quite a few inaccuracies in this video. Like claim that Forest Brothers never organized. They did organize in Lithuania . Also claim that they were lead by former commanders of Soviet units or foreign leaders is simply false.
Gave em hell’ 🇱🇻🇱🇹🇪🇪✊
Thank you for the video! It would be great to hear about Ukrainian resistance to the soviets.
11:36 World in Conflict. Truly you are a man of culture.
I never knew any of this.
Down right inspirational ! 👍
9:51 long story short, Lithuanian forest brothers was organized at 1949 and had their leader Jonas Žemaitis Vytautas, who now acknowledged as a President of Lithuania! 🇱🇹
For the sake of Homeland
Really a topic that should be talked about more often.
In romania there was a similar movement, but reduce in scale. Hope to see this subject covered in the next future
Also in Bessarabia, the part of Romania occupied by the Soviets.
@@sergius993 Bessarabia was part of the Russian empire a long before the kingdom of Romania was created.
@@МаксимБромберг Venice was a part of the Austrian Empire long before Italy was created. Your argument makes no sense.
@@sergius993 Sounds great. But Bessarabia is a part of Moldova, not Romania.
@@МаксимБромберг I meant that Bessarabia was a part of Romania until 1944, when it was occupied by the Soviet Union.
There was one mistake in the video. The fighters in Lithuania actually organised under central leadership in the beginning of 1949. They called themselves The Movement of Lithuanian Freedom Fights. On 16th February 1949 the Movement issued a Declaration.
It is a unique legal act in the global post-war context - no other European nation in the post-World War II resistance to totalitarianism has ever declared its goals, aspirations and values so clearly in any other document. The Declaration is a testimony to the fact that the Lithuanian nation, even during the brutal Soviet occupation, did not give up its state, fought for it, and remained a part of the Western political civilisation. The document politically legitimised the guerrilla movement throughout Lithuania and gave the guerrilla leadership the status of the Provisional Council of the Lithuanian Nation, representing the entire resisting nation.
The Council consisted of all leaders of The Forest Brothers. The chairman was Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas. In 12 March 2009 Lithuanian Parliament recognised Jonas Žemaitis as the Head of State of Lithuania fighting the occupation, and as the de facto President of the Republic. His title - The President of Fighting Lithuania.
There several inaccurate descriptions. Things that are too honest will be banned from you tube.
I am from Lithuania. Big thanks to The Cold War team for objectively portraying our struggles for freedom!
Good video. Glory to the heroes!
Can you make a video about the Anti Communist Armed Resistance in Romania, Bulgaria and Other countries?
Maybe about a Holocaust in Odessa performed by Romanian army?
@@ИванКоромысло-о1п Молодец, 5 рублей заработал)
@@dmitrikaljuznoi1323 По сути возразить нечего,украинец?Вот и сдрысни
@@ИванКоромысло-о1п батенька, Вьі дурак? Речь идет о вооруженном анти-большицком сопротивлении местного населения до 62 года. Причем здесь Холокост в Венгрии и Румьінии и на оккупированньіх ими территориях??
@Draugr What about Katyn?Movie by Andzhei Vaida(??) exists.It was one of Stalin's crimes,no more ,no less.
But Poland prefer to keep silent about the other side,as we were the only evil.Because other side is the major member of the EU...
Not sure about that intro, but thank you very much for covering this topic.
I also want to criticise using a rough map of 1944-5 for talking about the iron curtain.
Yeah, that bothered me so much lol
❤
This is why there is a saying, that the lithuanian flag colors mean :
Yellow is the sun in the sky.
Green are the majestic forests.
And red is the blood that lies in the soil underneith the forests. 🇱🇹
Thank you for this video !
Sest me ei saa ! Ei või ! Ei taha ! Ei taha tiblat teenida.
(Because we can't ! We may not ! Don't want to ! Don't want to serve the (tibla = derogative term for a Russian)
Thank you ! Greetings from Estonia.
Here in Serbia we had Chetniks. My great-grandfather himself fought communists in the mountains of Dalmatia until 1946. Many of them fought until the mid-50s.
The Romanian anti-communist resistance lasted the longest, with armed groups resisting in the Carpathian mountains as far as 1976 ! That's 31 years after the war's end !
I think the reason for this was the distance from the Russian border. Baltic states are unfortunate to have Russia as a neighboring country.
@@tacowilco7515 You attended geography courses with the sport teacher ! The soviet Union and Romania Shared an 800 Kilometers (500 miles) border ,and parts of Romania had been annexed by USSR and re branded as "Moldova" in the same time USSR annexed The Baltic states , namely when USSR had their pact with Nazi Germany called the Ribbentrop=Molotov agreement , there was no problem for the soviets to ally themselves with the Nazi in order to steal territories and to destroy entire populations ! P.S. Romania during communist era had the worst type of Stalinist terror installed in an European communist country , a regime that needed a bloody revolution to fall . And still the majority of the power (economical and political) nowadays is held by the communist turned overnight capitalist !
@@etherospike3936
0 miles with Russia
USSR is not Russia
Then why Russia inherited all the nuclear arsenal , the space program, and the external debt of USSR ? Because USSR Was Russia ! Ukraine or Belarus never stopped soviet tanks to get to Czechoslovakia in '68 or Hungary in '56 ! The USSR fell because Russia kept the other republics captive and didn't let them go !
@Etherospike They din’t,Ukraine had 5000,more than half or Russia’s arsenal,neither the Space Program which was in Kazakhstan.And yes they did do that,Ukrainian and Belorussian troops took part in putting down the Hungarian Uprising as part of the Warsaw Pact and the Prague Spring.And how exactly,Stalin was Georgian,Khrushchev was Ukrainian,and so was Brezhnev, Andrei Gromyko was Belorussian.That is because the USSR was a federation not a unitary republic to begin with.In fact that is why it broke up in the first place,because under Soviet Laws the Republics could break away,and they did.Ukraine as such inhereted its nuclear and military arsenal,which it gave away to Russia,and Kazakhstan gave access to Russia to continue their space program.
To be accurate, Balts joined nazi army because they also, as later the USSR, were waving around the idea of independent Baltic states after they "kick out russians". Not that they "saw it as lesser evil". As we saw later, none of them willingly gave the Baltic states up.
My great great grandfather was a Lithuanian officer who fought against Bolshevik plague but after 41 he was deported to Gulag he died there, his wife from starvation but her son and daughter survived in hard Siberian conditions, they returned to their homeland.
Why don't we know about this in western countries? It's fascinating.
If u care u would know
@@danrook5757 alright chief
it's actually very dark and complicated subject. apart from some heroic episodes, most stories from those times are about torture, persecutions, betrayal and sheer malevolence... like holocaust, it's definitely not for all ages.
Many don’t know where the baltic states are located and think they are sorta Russia, it’s probably too much for the average Western European or American to know about their history.
Y’all should read about Philby, he never faced formal justice because he fled to Moscow in utter disgrace. It’s a ln interesting read
There’s a Rory Gallagher’s song about him too.
My Grandfather was one of the Forest Brothers.
Thank you for this great video!
Nice video. Had no idea these people existed. My compliments to those who made this video a reality.
Please do episode about Cursed Soldiers in Poland.
zolnierze przekleci?
@@piotr5270 It's "wyklęci" actually, it has slightly less negative connotation than "przeklęci". It's hard to translate to English, but it's something between "cursed" and "casted out/excommunicated". Referencing how the Communist authority tried to either vilify or remove them from the collective memory. I think they were mentioned in one of previous episodes, the one covering the beginning of Communist rule in Poland.
Edit: nope, I remembered wrong. The episode about the sovietization of Poland mentions the persecution of the former members of the Home Army, but doesn't cover how some of them (and others) continued the guerrilla fight.
@@Artur_M. bandits steling and killing - not only soviets
@@AmarFox6 The issue of the Cursed Soldiers is certainly a complex one. Maybe one day it won't be so damn politicized and we'll be able to have some more balanced view, instead of trying to shove them all into one of two extremely opposite simplified narratives of either heroes or villains. For starters, I think that each unit and its commander should be judged individually and I'm certainly against glorifying, for example, Romuald Rajs "Bury".
It's definitely an interesting topic to talk about... But right now, it's better to stay away.
There is one glaring distortion in this video. It makes it out as though the people of the Baltics hated the Soviets and Germans equally. They did not. They hated the Soviets more, and they had good reason to. That is not to say they loved the Nazis and wanted to join the Reich. They did not. The Soviets had been there longer and had caused more misery. That is why when the Germans arrived the people of the Baltics were already under arms attacking the retreating soviets (conveniently left out of this clip). Although the Germans did do some bad things, for the most part they were a lot better behaved in the Baltics than they were elsewhere, and certainly better behaved towards the population for the most part than the Soviets were in 1940 and 1941. The overwhelming number of people in the Baltics were clueless about Nazi atrocities since they weren't occurring in their neighborhood and neither the Germans or the allies advertised them until the war was practically over (The Soviet atrocities on the other hand had been witnessed by the people of the Baltics in their own towns and villages). Many of the so called Baltic soldiers that fought for the USSR were either men the Soviets had deported to gulags (where many saw friends die), and as a result they had good reason to defect to the Germans. The ones who remained were largely communists who had been forced to flee their homelands, along with some who could not find a convenient time to defect. The Soviets then restaffed these units with people who had largely never been to the Baltics, but were of Baltic descent. The soldiers who joined the Germans were for the most part not drafted, but volunteers and previous anti-Soviet fighters encouraged by the Estonian leadership to defend Estonia Latvia, and Lithuania in national units, not fight for national socialism. The reason they ended up in the SS is after they had been serving for a while Hitler ordered all foreign anti-communist volunteers transferred to the SS, and so it was not voluntary (the western allies acknowledged this, and did not place these men under the same restrictions as other former SS men). When their countries were overrun many deserted the German units, a small number even took up arms against both the Germans and Soviets hoping to regain control, and Hitler allowed a great many to be released from serving with German forces to go home and fight the Soviets. The Germans intentionally let them take weapons home. There were units of Baltic troops, however, that continued to fight on the German side until the very end in places like Czechoslovakia, but few were "Nazis."
Tell that to the more than 300,000 Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian jews murdered by men like Victors Arajs who actively collaborated with the German Einzatzgruppen to whip up the local population into murderous anti-semitic mobs.
regarding the purge of baltic jews...murder is murder and cannot be condoned but the baltic killers were relatively few in number. furthermore the baltic states experienced significant jewish collaboration with the soviet occupiers in the 1940-41 red terror despite having lived a charmed life there pre 1940. truth has many sides and not all victims are always innocent.
@@stevenhaas9622 Name a country where there were no collaborationists during the occupation. There were also Latvians working for KGB, killing and deporting other Latvians, how about that?
Jews had lived happily in Latvia for centuries and you can't blame the whole nation for what certain individuals did at that time. That's about ideology, not nationality. Neither all Germans were Nazis, before and during the war.
everyone in eastern europe hates the russian more than the germans.
even the poles.
@@stevenhaas9622 blaaa blaaaa. even the soviets killed jews.
1953 doctor's plot, various progroms.
antisemitism was rampant everywhere in the world till 1945 and to say that people who fought against the soviets were nazis is a form of low iq.
13:00
Actually, the Russians only lost 12,921 soldiers and 6000 supporters. The Baltics lost 20,103 partisans and 10,000 supporters. 33 percent survived. A further 20,000 were arrested by the Russians. Another 600,000 citizens were sent to concentration camps and as many as 100,000 died. During the Russian occupation of the second world war, 1944-1945, over 600,000 Baltic citizens were killed in conflict. This adds up to a minimum of 730,000 Baltic casualties in nine years from 1944-1953. For comparison, 630,562 Americans died in the Price Of Freedom wars from the years 1775 to 2001, 217 years more than the Baltics. And you people say that America had a tough fight for freedom.
Will you do an epsiode on Operation Gladio? Its a topic that needs to be discussed way more in historical media. Maybe it would fit in a broader episode about NATO contingency plans in case of the Soviets overrunning Europe. By the way great work as always. This channel is a true gem.
Gladly enough, these countries are today independent and members of the EU.
God bless the Forest Brothers.
You have to do an episode on the Ukrainian resistance, which kept up the fight until 1955.
Baltic states have nothing in common with slavic eastern Europe and never had. All of them belong to northern Europe.
It is what they are thinking .But nobody wants poor relatives.
@@ИванКоромысло-о1п That's what you want to think.
Top investor in all Baltic states is Sweden, followed by other Northern Europe countries like Netherlands, Finland and Germany. The larger Russian influence is only in Latvia.
@@GeneratorOfDarkness investments doesn't make them Europians or something else.
@@ИванКоромысло-о1п It shows what countries are cooperating with Baltics in exchange of political, economical, cultural and even military relationships. That makes them European - not the houses, cars or infrastructure of those countries. The most important thing is the attitude and mentality of people, which gets even more noticeable when you cross anywhere outside the EU.
@@GeneratorOfDarkness in this case all Europians must be Chinese now.
And Balts pretends to be "Nord Europeans" because it is a side which pays.
We(Russia) don't want to waste money anymore..
So fascinating learning more of my most recent past life!!
Can't wait to see a similar episode about these movements in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, etc.