page_title: Coup of the Volunteers
section_title: Coup
hierarchical_section_title: Coup of the Volunteers / Coup
caption_attribution_description: English: Abandoned homestead in the forest after a fire in 1993, Riogliškiai, Kaunas district. Lithuania Русский: Заброшенная усадьба в лесу после пожара в 1993 г., дер. Рёглишкяй, Каунасский р-н, Литва
context_page_description: The Coup of the Volunteers was a stand-off that occurred in summer 1993 in Lithuania near Kaunas between a group of about 150 men from the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces and the Lithuanian government. There was mutual distrust between SKAT and the newly elected leftist Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania. Several SKAT members abandoned their posts, took their arms, and retreated to a wooded area near Kaunas in July and August 1993. The crisis escalated when the government issued an order for the volunteers to secure their weapons at designated locations in September. Interpreting the order as confiscation of their weapons, a total of about 150 armed men gathered near Riogliškiai. They expressed their mistrust and dissatisfaction with the new LDDP government and raised social and political demands. After a week long negotiations, the men agreed to return to their posts if no one would be persecuted for their role in the coup.
  Although it concluded peacefully, the stand-off is one of the most controversial and little understood episodes in the early years of post-Soviet Lithuania.
context_section_description: On 31 July 1993, SKAT officer Jonas Maskvytis gathered his weapons that he had personally purchased from the retreating Russian Army and left Kaunas to nearby forests. He later explained that he was helping an acquaintance who was defrauded by a group of criminals who trafficked in counterfeit Deutsche Marks. Maskvytis fired at a car with the criminals and corrupt police officers. Upon learning that he would likely be arrested and that he was dismissed by the Minister of National Defence Audrius Butkevičius, Maskvytis decided not to give in and retreat to the forests. He was accompanied by three men and soon joined by others. They took over a homestead of professor Liudvikas Lašas in Riogliškiai. 
  The crisis escalated after the government issued an order to collect weapons from SKAT units on 14 September. Because Minister Butkevičius was away in Turkey, the order was signed by his deputy Gediminas Pulokas. While the Russian Army was present in Lithuania, the volunteers kept their weapons so that they could respond almost instantly to a threat. When the last convoy of Russian troops left Lithuania on 31 August, the government ordered the weapons secured and kept in depots. The volunteers protested taking of their weapons and Maskvytis was joined by company commander Alvydas Pangonis and his men on 16 September. The men, now numbering about 150, expressed their dissatisfaction with the new LDDP government and President Algirdas Brazauskas and raised social and political demands. The men also claimed to have the support of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. In 2007, Brazauskas publicly claimed that the volunteers planned his assassination and wrote in his memoirs that some of the demands were typed on Seimas computers and sent via Seimas fax machines. The government first responded on 17 September with an order from the Armed Forces Staff to surrender the weapons or face consequences for anti-government actions.
  The coup took place during the withdrawal of Russian troops from Lithuania and the visit of Pope John Paul I on 4–8 September (one of the volunteers fired in the air during the pope's public appearance in Kaunas). Comparisons were also drawn with the unsuccessful attempt to disarm mutinous paramilitary forces by President Abulfaz Elchibey of Azerbaijan in June 1993. The government decided to seek a peaceful resolution and negotiated with the volunteers. The agreement was reached on 22 September when a special parliamentary commission led by Nikolajus Medvedevas visited the camp and promised not to prosecute any of the volunteers for their role in the coup. The government reserved the right to prosecute volunteers who had otherwise committed criminal acts. When the volunteers returned to Kaunas, they captured the SKAT headquarters in Kaunas and disarmed commander Juras Abromavičius, who retreated to the Seventh Fort of Kaunas Fortress. Abromavičius then alerted his superiors, newly appointed SKAT commander Arvydas Pocius, via the M-1 radio station and Lithuanian National Radio and Television, but reportedly was ordered not to escalate the situation. The men were found in violation of the SKAT statute and faced disciplinary actions, including removal from offices and reshuffling of SKAT leadership. Minister of Defense Butkevičius resigned and was replaced by Linas Antanas Linkevičius on 22 October 1993 (with the effective date of 28 October).
caption: Remnants of the homestead that housed the volunteers
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