page_title: Stasys Raštikis
section_title: Military reforms
hierarchical_section_title: Stasys Raštikis / Biography / Commander of the Armed Forces / Military reforms
caption_attribution_description: Lietuvių: Lietuvos Respublikos Prezidentas Antanas Smetona Tauragės dvare III dragūnų Geležinio vilko pulkui 1937 metų rugpjūčio 15 dieną įteikia vėliavą. Iš kairės: vidaus reikalų ministras Julius Čaplikas, kariuomenės vadas Stasys Raštikis, krašto apsaugos ministras Stasys Dirmantas, prezidentas Antanas Smetona, brigados generolas Kazys Tallat-Kelpša.
context_page_description: Stasys Raštikis was a Lithuanian military officer, ultimately obtaining the rank of divisional general. He was the commander of the Lithuanian Army from September 21, 1934 to April 23, 1940.
  During World War I, he served in the Imperial Russian Army mostly in the Caucasus Campaign. After return to Lithuania in 1918, he joined the newly formed Lithuanian Army and fought in the Lithuanian–Soviet War. He was severely injured and spent 20 months in Soviet captivity. He returned to the 5th Infantry Regiment and later joined the Intelligence Department of the General Staff. The coup d'état of December 1926 brought his future uncle-in-law Antanas Smetona to power and propelled his career. Raštikis completed military education in Germany and, after a failed military coup in 1934, became commander of the General Staff and Commander of the Armed Forces. He undertook an extensive military reform to standardize, streamline, and modernize the army during the period of increasing militarization and rising tensions in Europe. He placed particular attention on soldiers' and officers' education, organizing and personally commanding various military exercises.
context_section_description: The first task of Raštikis as the new commander of the General Staff was to prepare a military reform. Within a month together with other officers he prepared a proposal which emphasized the need to modernize the army – enlarge armored units, increase anti-aircraft artillery, improve military aviation (led by Antanas Gustaitis), establish the second engineer battalion, strengthen officers' education, and other measures. At the same time, the command structure was reorganized to more clearly separate the duties and responsibilities of the Ministry of Defense (political representation, military tribunal, and defense procurement) and the General Staff (command and structure of the army). A new position of the Commander of the Armed Forces was established and Raštikis took the role effective January 1, 1935. One of the goals of the new structure was to make the General Staff less politically involved hoping that it would make the command more stable: there were 20 commanders of the General Staff before Raštikis and the army lagged behind the newest developments. The reforms were opposed by Juozas Tūbelis, Minister of Finance, as they required significant additional funding to the army that already consumed about 18–19% of the Lithuanian budget. But President Smetona approved the reforms, except for the proposed military alliance with Latvia and Estonia, and they proceeded. 
  Raštikis first undertook the issue of military education. Numerous new statutes were prepared (some 90 statutes were issued in 1935–40) and the education program was revamped to standardize and coordinate activities of the various branches of the armed forces (artillery, infantry, aviation, etc.) Raštikis personally commanded mandatory military exercises and simulations. He emphasized discipline and loyalty within the army and built the trust and authority of the army within the civilian population. He opposed the martial law which was in effect in Lithuania since 1918 as the military was forced to intervene in civilian law enforcement which distracted military officials from their primary duties and earned distrust of the general population. (The martial law was lifted in November 1938 due to German pressure in the months before the ultimatum of March 1939.) The army also acquired new equipment, including light tanks (including 36 Carden Loyd tankettes) and anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery (including 9 Vickers Model 1931 and 151 Oerlikon 20 mm cannons). The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union was restructured so that it fell more easily at the disposal of the Commander of the Armed Forces. Great efforts were made to reduce the time for mobilization from 8–10 days to less than 48 hours, and to develop comprehensive defense plans code-named L (against Poland) and V (against Germany).
caption: Raštikis (second from left) stands behind President Smetona during a military ceremony in Tauragė in August 1937
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