Could the Baltic States have resisted to the Soviet Union?

[Bacilla]

the "forest brothers," who took to the woods of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in a determined, if unsuccessful, effort to resist the re-Stalinization of the Baltic states. The forest brothers were most numerous in Lithuania, but an estimated 40,000 partisans existed in Latvia at the time; Resistance ended in mid 50`s, after Stalins death, when represions were more or less stopped, and there was no hope for western help...

[e.polis]

Interesting, were these 40,000 partisans in Latvia ex 15 & 19 WSS members who stayed or returned to fight against the Soviets or were they civilians or a mixture of both, what armaments and equipment did they use

[Terranix]

just wondering why there was no such resistance fro the other two Baltic countries, Estonia and Latvia, or was there but we just don't know about it.

I remember reading in an article about the Narva battles that some of the Estonians attacked the Germans as they withdrew towards Riga and seized weapons and things for their own guerrilla campaign, but that's about the extent of my knowledge there.

[riho123]

Esteemed Cipiao;

Let’s consider the Baltic States on their own; that is, no alliance with Finland or Poland, etc. Just the three. Theoretically, if Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had combined all of their armed forces into one large “Baltic Army" in 1939, they could probably have fielded close to 500,000 men within 72 hours of mobilization - and this figure is surely on the high side. This “Baltic Army” would have contained the following land forces (regular army and reservists have been combined here):

Estonia: Four infantry divisions (120.000 men)
Latvia: Eight infantry divisions (200.000 men)
Lithuania: Six infantry division (170.000 men)

A theoretical “Baltic Army”: 18 infantry divisions (490.000 men)



Arvo L. V.

Where did you get those numbers????I just had a test on WW II and estonian army was 15 000 men.Soviet Uninon had about 40 000 men allready waiting on the border.

[finnjaeger]

Mika68: The role of Russians in annihilate natzis were enourmously. Russians sacrified millions of soldiers and civilians. That's why i think that also Finnish president Halonen must take part of victory ceremonies.

It is utterly disgrace towards finnish soldiers and civilians who fought and died to preserve our way of life in WW2 to our president to take part in such celebrations. By doing so Halonen makes a statement that we were wrong and the occupation and annexation of finnish land to Soviet Russia was somehow justified. I totally disagree with you on this one. Remember those russian "partisans" who killed helpless finnish civilians were among the celebrated russian veterans.

best regards, TK

[Bacilla]

Nobody should celebrate the ending of the world war, there is nothing to celebrate. Celebrate with Russians is not fair, celebrate with west? Remember Dresden, union with USSR… All major countrys made so many bad things. Germany Japan at least are sorry, Russia and America are proud what they did, yes they saved Europe from Nazis, but remember the cost: Half of Europe was left behind iron curtain, and trust me, they were not celebrating may 9, the war was not over to them. The war was just unfair, we should remember it silently, there is nothing to celebrate.

[Victor]

You are drifting off-topic. Leave the discussion on current events for the appropriate sections. Please return to the original subject.

[Leegionär]

3 States were small, and none of them could mobilise more then 100 000 men.


Estonia had in 1939 100 000 reservist and in ww2 abaut 70 000 fighted german side-Estonian 20.SS legion.
The latvians had two divisions there was abaut 150 000 soldiers-18.and 19. Latvian SS legions
More than 30 000 estonian men fighted russian side-Laskurkorpus.

[Martime]

i have a paper here in front of me done on the basis of Latvian mobilization plans for years 1936./37. and it states that:
- mobilization should (could?) be done within 3 days
- there are (were) 160 000 trained reservists available (including 17 000 NCOs and 4000 Officers)
- active army at that time - 18 000 to 20 000
- max nr for personel reserves (trained and not trained together) were estimated at 200 000
- due to the lack of supply (Latvian Army) operational planers of those days estimated war time army to be between 130 000 and 135 000 (as it was the number of weapons available).


so, 200 000 for Latvia would be possible just in very very very best case, but 130 000 looks really realistic to me.

[Der Weisse Wolf]

I feel almost ashamed that I don't know much about that guerilla warfare in Baltics after the war. I did know something about "forest brothers", but I tought it was on much smaller scale. Brave men, indeed. Too bad that Baltic states were too small, since they obviously had some serious fighting spirit.

At least Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are part of NATO now and good for them. May be some day Finnish leftist politicians pull their heads out of their behind and join NATO too.

[edited by moderator]

[Victor]

Der Weisse Wolf, please watch your language and stay within the WW2 timeframe.

[nickknock]

My grandfather was a Lithuanian partisan and got a bullet in his head for his trouble. Resistance is easy to talk about and hard to fight especially after just going though so many brutal wars.

[Alex Yeliseenko]

I feel almost ashamed that I don't know much about that guerilla warfare in Baltics after the war. I did know something about "forest brothers", but I tought it was on much smaller scale. Brave men, indeed. Too bad that Baltic states were too small, since they obviously had some serious fighting spirit.

At least Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are part of NATO now and good for them. May be some day Finnish leftist politicians pull their heads out of their behind and join NATO too.

[edited by moderator]

In Finland clever politicians. They see prospect. The state having the political sovereignty never greetings in the territory another's divisions, tanks and planes.

[Alex Yeliseenko]

the "forest brothers," who took to the woods of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in a determined, if unsuccessful, effort to resist the re-Stalinization of the Baltic states. The forest brothers were most numerous in Lithuania, but an estimated 40,000 partisans existed in Latvia at the time; Resistance ended in mid 50`s, after Stalins death, when represions were more or less stopped, and there was no hope for western help...

Resistance has ended to Stalin's death - in 1952.

In Estonia - in the end of 1945

In Latvia - spring of 1947

In Lithuania - in December, 1952

Amnesty of inhabitants of the Baltic republics USSR which are at war on the party of Germany, has begun in 1946-1947. Punishment is softer, than for the soldier of general Vlasov.

[Reigo]

In Estonia - in the end of 1945

If you mean that in Estonia the resistance ended in the end of 1945, then you are wrong. For example the largest military resistance organisation in Estonia, "Relvastatud Võitluse Liit" (The Alliance of Armed Fight) acted 1945-1949. After the mass deportation of 1949 the resistance started to decrease. Last more large armed clashes were in 1953.