Dirva = Field. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1915-current, 1946-09-27
(Reprint from Chicago Herald
American-Wed., Sept. IL, 1496)

NhepIluG IrOH CnlcdgO herald
American-Wed., Sept. IL, 1496)
Hiding in forests and marshes,
nearly $4,000 patriots are engaged
actively in resistance movement
in Soviet-held Lithuania against
Red soldiers, according to official
documents which were brought out
through Russias iron wall and OBJ
tanned today by the Chicago Herald
American.
Obtained from Lithuanian UNDER
ground sources, the documentary
evidence, which includes partisan
newspapers and NKVD death de-
crees to captured partisans, paints
a picture of Soviet terror during
the second occupation by the Reds
of the tiny Baltic nation, starting
in the Summer of 1914.
MUST FIGHT TO LIVE.
Printed on letter-size paper, one
of the Lithuanian partisans' news
papers, "Laives Varpas' (''The Bell
of Freedom"). dated April 5, 1945,
and which was passed out among
the towns and villages of Lithuania,
warned:
Fellow Lithuanians and Patriots! !!
The Soviet NkVD, Russian military
police, is conducting a systematic
annihilation of the Lithuanians. But
history proves no nation can be ut
terly destroyed if that nation wish
es to live-and fights to live... We
must fight this Soviet bloody octo-
Among the documents-the first
ever to reach the United States from
beyond the Russian iron wallis
an order, signed by Commissar
Bratashiunas, decreeing death to
the partisans and deportation of
their families.
ORDER EXHIBITED.
Dated Feb. Is, 1946-one day be-
fore Lithuanias independence day
celebration-the order was issued in
Vilnius and was exhibited on all
public buildings and public meet
ing places. More than 100000 cop
les were printed.
The Lithuanian partisans, cOmpOs-
ed mostly of peasants, the intelli-
gentsia and priests for the purpose
of restoring liberty in Lithuania,
are smeared by the Russian rulers
as 'bandits, natiOnalists, capitalists
and bOurgeOise."
Written in the Lithuanian Ian
guage, a translation of paragraph
three of the commissar's order fol-
lows:
"3-Participants of the bands, who
by force are not permitted by the
leaders of the bandits to give up
to the Socialist Lithuanian Repub-
lie government, / decree that these
leaders should be killed, and then
that the participants should come
with their arms to the offices of the
Commissar of the Interior. Those
who escape from the bandit groups
or any of their followers will not
be considered guilty of murder
Paragraph five reads:
"5. The families of known ban
dts and members of bourgeOise ma
tionalist organizations will be ar
rested and deported."
Despite the order, resistance grew
on a much larger scale throughout
the nation, the partisan newspapers
reveal. Lithuanian songs and their
church hymns, forbidden by the pre-
sent Soviet rulers, were heard IN
the forests and in villages on Feb.
16, Lithuanian's Independence Day.
OPEN NATIONWIDE DRIVE.
AS the movement grew against
Russia, the Soviet rulers launched
a nationwide drive against the Llth-
uanian partisans in June, 1946, with
$4,000 NKVD military police and
the Red soldiers fighting Lithuan-
ian forces in the forests near kau-
mas, Lithuanian capital city,.
In a battle near the marshes of
Silavota, near Prieniai, the Sovlets
killed a partisan leader, several OF