Dirva = Field. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1915-current, 1946-09-27
UNDERGROUND
PAPERS REVEAL
LITH STRUGGLE
reprint from Chicago Daily Tri-
bune. Sept. ID, 49,
TELL OF OPPRESSION AND
TORTURE BY REDS
By f.. r. NODERER
By E. R. NODERER

LONDON, Sept. Underground
newspapers smuggled from Lithua-
mia reveal the extent to which the
inhabitants of this once free Baltic
republic are undergoing torture and
oppression at the hands of the Rus
sian occupation forces.
Mimeografed on ordinary type
writer paper in the depths of for
ests and distributed by stealth to
Partisans and their many support
ers, they disclose that behind Rus
sla's iron curtain struggle for
freedom goes on.
One paper, called the Bell of Free
dom, describes two instances of the
cruelty of the Russians in attempt
ing to stamp out the underground.
"It is our duty to tell the whole
world the abominable cruelties the
soviets inflict upon our people," it
says.
Drag Bodies Thru Streets
'In the little town of Veivirai,
group of the NKVD (Russian Sec
ret police). having seized our free
dom fighters, our Partisans, drag
ged their bodies thru the streets
and brought them to the market
place. There, in a frightful orgy,
they danced around the bodies and
defiled them. In the town of Uk-
merge. NKVD soldiers, having seiz-
ed young girl, stripped her and
set dogs upon her, hoping she ev-
entually would betray the Partisans,
of whom she knew nothing"
The Kremlin, which has incor-
porated Lithuania into the U.S.S.R.
keeps 100000 Red army troops in
Lithuania, or one for every eight
inhabitants, according to man
who escaped the country less than
two weeks ago. The Russians are
engaged in constant clashes with
armed resistance groups, he said.
"Part of World Struggle"
Other articles in the Bell of
Freedom indicate that the Lithuan-
ians regard their struggle as part
of the world conflict against bolshe-
vism.
One says: every day we suffer
the brutality of the bolshevik enemy
in the blood of our brothers and in
the cries of the innocent who are
massacred and deported. We Won
der if the world knows of our mis-
cry and our hard and heroic battle
for the rights of freedom and hu-
manity, which are real democratic
ideals openly declared by the great
men of the western democracies.
Each drop of blood spilled in our
battles against bolshevism is an Of
fering not only for the freedom of
Lithuania. but also for the freedom
of the rest of the world. We are
in the forefront, the vanguard of
the struggle against bolshevism."
Partisan Forces Grow
Altho the Partisans have sustain
ed heavy losses in clashes with su-
perior forces of Russian soldiers
and police, they have increased in
number rather than diminish. He
attributed this to the fact that the
movement gets recruits from the
youth of the country and not just
from soldier groups who remember
the freedom of the country in the
days before the republic was over
run by the Red hordes.
The movement is described as a
kind of maquis (French under
ground). It's spirit is kept aglow
by the underground newspapers.
Another of these papers is cal
led On the Road to Battle. The
banner on the front page bears the
slogan: "Lithuania for the Lith-
uanians," as we'll as the shield with
a cross, which the Partisans wear
on their armbands.
One issue of this paper reveals a
boycott of the election which the
Lithuanian puppet government at
tempted to carry out last February.