An Occupied Army

The first Soviet occupation of Lithuania during World War II began in June 1940 with the arrival of Red Army troops and the establishment of Soviet military bases in the country. This was a tense time during which Lithuanian citizens understood that their freedom was evaporating, but the impression of autonomy remained. One of the concessions Lithuania received from the Soviet Union for its "cooperation" was the return of the historic capital, Vilnius, to Lithuanian territory. An expression from that time, "Vilnius mūsų, o mes Rūsų" ("Vilnius belongs to us, and we belong to the Russians"), clarified that people digested the reality of the situation.

The Soviets conducted staged elections that June to secure public approval for the terms of cooperation. There was only one way to vote on the ballot. If workers failed to vote, then they lost their jobs; if school children didn't show up at pro-Soviet rallies, carrying red carnations, then the schools expelled them. Authorities required each home to have a "Red Corner," or a pro-Soviet shrine. The corner was to feature a portrait of Josef Stalin, a copy of the Communist Manifesto, and some red items to honor the Soviet Union.

Lithuanians engaged in subtle resistance. They stopped wearing red clothing. My Mom recalls dumping a pair of favorite red shoes. Red flowers were out. New phrases slipped into the language. For example, if there was an area of a room that was unkempt, cluttered, chaotic, or otherwise disorderly, people referred to it as the "raudonas kampelis" ("little Red Corner"). The phrase lives on today in our household.

During the three months that followed, the Soviet Union initially absorbed the independent Lithuanian army into its own troops and permitted senior officers to serve under Russian colors. Both my maternal Grandfather, Jake, and my paternal Grandfather, Vytautas, changed uniforms. The epaulets of the Lithuanian uniform disappeared, and the collar insignias with the "Gedinimo Stulpai" vanished.

Kaunas, Lithuania, Summer 1941. My paternal Grandfather, Vytautas, poses in the Soviet uniform.
 

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Kaunas, Lithuania, Summer 1941. My maternal Grandfather, Jake, poses in the Soviet uniform.
 

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The façade of cooperation lasted until August 1940, when the Soviets occupied Lithuania. The other Baltic States fell within days.
 
Members of the former Lithuanian army now lost their jobs. Many officers—and ordinary citizens— were executed or deported to Siberia. Jake's and Vytautas's names were on the second of the "deportation lists." Both men and their families listened at night as trucks pulled up to houses and Soviet soldiers quietly knocked on doors. My Mom, who took a job tutoring two (mischievous) school girls while her father, Jake, was unemployed, did not know whether she would find Jake at home when she returned from work. Jake and Vytautas escaped Siberian deportation only because another occupying army, that of Nazi Germany, expelled the Soviets from Lithuania before the "deportation lists" had been fulfilled.