Documents of Tauras guerrilla unit found in southwest Lithuania

A Lithuanian partisan
R.Kauniečio archyvo nuotr.

The documents were found inside a can, which a farmer unearthed while ploughing his field in the Balsupiai village. He submitted the documents to a local museum, which subsequently forwarded the documents to the Lithuanian Special Archive.

The archive agency said this was the largest set of guerrilla documents found in one place over the past two decades.

Initial examination of the documents revealed that the can may contain about 2,000 pages, including 1943-1944 anti-Nazi publications, 1946 decrees by the Tauras unit chief, minutes of meetings of the Tauras unit, etc.

Restoration of the large amount of documents may take years.

Established in 1945, the Tauras unit county covered the counties of Marijampolė, Šakiai and Vilkaviškis. The last guerrilla of the unit, Justinas Balčius-Plutonas, was killed in 1957.

About 50,000 guerrilla, also dubbed brothers of the forest, fought against the Soviet rule of Lithuania after World War II.

More than 21,000 participants of the resistance movement, their family members and supporters were killed during the rule of Soviet dictator Josif Stalin.

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