Aftermath, Memorials and Remembrances
Many nationalist partisans persisted in the hope that Cold War hostilities between the West, which never formally recognized the Soviet occupation, and the Soviet Union might escalate to an armed conflict in which Lithuania would be liberated. This never materialised, and according to Laar many of the surviving former nationalist partisans remained bitter that the West did not take on the Soviets militarily. (See also Yalta Conference, Western betrayal)
As the conflict was relatively undocumented by the Soviet Union (the Lithuanian fighters were never formally acknowledged as anything but "bandits and illegals"), some consider it and the Soviet-Lithuanian conflict as a whole to be an unknown or forgotten war. Discussion of resistance was suppressed under the Soviet regime. Writings on the subject by the Lithuanian emigrants were often labelled as examples of "ethnic sympathy" and disregarded.
In 1999, the Lithuanian Seimas (parliament) formally enacted a declaration of independence that had been made on February 16, 1949, the 31st anniversary of the February 16, 1918 declaration of independence, by elements of the resistance unified under the "Movement of the Struggle for the Freedom of Lithuania".
| “ | a universal, organised, armed resistance namely, self-defence, by the Lithuanian State, did take place in Lithuania during 1944-1953, against the soviet occupation the goal was the liberation of Lithuania, relying upon the provisions of the Atlantic Charter and a sovereign right acknowledged by the democratic world, by bearing arms against one of the World War II Aggressors The Council of the Movement of the Struggle for Freedom of Lithuania constituted the supreme political and military structure and was the sole legal authority within the territory of occupied Lithuania. | ” |
In Lithuania, nationalist veterans receive the pension. The third Sunday in May is commemorated as Partisan's Day. As of 2005, there were about 350 surviving partisans in Lithuania.
Read more about this topic: Lithuanian Partisans
Famous quotes containing the word memorials:
“My titillations have no foot-notes
And their memorials are the phrases
Of idiosyncratic music.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)