The Unknown War

Anti-Soviet armed resistance in Lithuania and its legacies

Buch | Hardcover

174 Seiten

2022
Routledge (Verlag)
978-1-032-18508-8 (ISBN)

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The 1944 armed anti-Soviet resistance movement in Lithuania has yet to become established in the common narrative of contemporary European history. Responding to the growing need for unbiased historical research, six scholars from Vilnius University address the diverse aspects of this phenomenon and its role in memory culture and politics.

The armed anti-Soviet resistance movement which arose in the second half of 1944 in Lithuania, as Soviet forces began to reoccupy the Baltic countries and Galicia, sparking a nearly decade-long fierce military conflict, has yet to become established in the common narrative of contemporary European history. However, controversy regarding the nature of this `war after the war' and its legacies constitutes one of the core elements in the contemporary information warfare waged by Russia against its neighbouring countries. The origins of various distortions surrounding the story of the partisan war in the western borderlands of the Soviet Union can even be traced to the final stages of that war, when Soviet propaganda sought to discredit the campaign as a battle waged by criminal elements. In this example of a historical event charged with controversial memories and geopolitical connotations, a thorough academic approach is extraordinarily instrumental.

Responding to the growing need for historical research capable of providing international readers with the latest findings in the thematic field under question, six scholars from Vilnius University address the diverse aspects of this phenomenon as well as its role in the culture and politics of memory. Toward this end, this analysis – among the most comprehensive explorations of this history to date – is being released in both Lithuanian and English.

Arūnas Streikus is a professor at the Vilnius University Faculty of History and head of its Modern History Department since 2017. His research interests include the contemporary history of Catholicism and the cultural and political history of Lithuania under Soviet rule. He is the author of numerous articles and books on these topics. Most recently, he has co-authored the volumes Churches, Memory and Justice in Post-Communism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021); and La Chiesa Cattolica in Europa Centro-Orientale di fronte al Nazionalsocialismo 1933-1945 (Gabrielli Editori 2019).

List of figures and tables

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Glossary of vernacular terms and abbreviations

Introduction

ARŪNAS STREIKUS

Part One: A Strange Long War

1 Lithuanian Anti-Soviet Armed Resistance in the Context of 20th Century Partisan Wars

KĘSTUTIS GIRNIUS

2 Who Were the Lithuanian Partisans?

DAINIUS NOREIKA

3 Partisan Supporters: The Unseen Participants of the Resistance

ENRIKA KRIPIENĖ

Part Two: From a Memory War to a Heroic Narrative

4 The Memory of the Armed Anti-Soviet Resistance during the Cold War

MINGAILĖ JURKUTĖ

5 The Partisan War in Lithuanian Memory Culture after 1990

AISTĖ PETRAUSKIENĖ

6 Archaeology in the Study of the Anti-Soviet Lithuanian Partisan War

GINTAS VĖLIUS

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	23.05.2022
Reihe/Serie	Europa Country Perspectives
Zusatzinfo	1 Line drawings, black and white; 8 Halftones, black and white; 9 Illustrations, black and white
Verlagsort	London
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 234 mm
Gewicht	426 g
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918)
	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Zeitgeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
ISBN-10	1-032-18508-2 / 1032185082
ISBN-13	978-1-032-18508-8 / 9781032185088
Zustand	Neuware