As a Pole, i love baltic states really, i think its my favourite part of Europe, but also i think Polish people were suffering more during ww2 than Baltic states :)
@@airiss14 me myself, i love Lithuania Latvia and Estonia too, i would love to visit baltics because there are many similarities beetwen Poland and baltics
@@mafin2183 We both are living in a territorry where soldiers were having a field trip back and forth since Napolean times. It's pointless arguing on that because it's asking for jews to enter the chat which ALWAYS puts discussians on soviet crimes to the background as if it's not a valid complaint.
What could be emphasized is that the Forest Brothers partisan movement is the largest partisan movement by ethnical population percentage and the longest lasting resistance movement in European History.
Thats correct , even Beria offered to Stalin saying fk them let them go we loosing too many red army soldiers in the Lithuanian forests , but stalin said no we have to go to till end
@@rv1251 When they caught Žemaitis Beria wanted him to come to Moscow where Beria and Žemaitis talked for 1 hour nobody know what it was exactly, but it’s probably was about Lithuanian independence, but sadly next day both were killed.
No, I believe it was Yugoslavian far lasting and deffinitely amounted a highe precentage. It was also the most successful resistance movement in WW2. Yugoslavian partisans single handedly kicked out italian faschists and nazi germans out of their territories, without the support of Russia nor the West.
"While 2nd world war ended in 2. september 1945 for the rest of the world, it didn't for the baltic people until 1991/1994 when the last russian troops left."
I wouldn't agree. At least in Lithuania people lived normally along with the Soviet government. Comparing to today's modernised world life was a bit harder in some ways, but people at least had their basic needs fulfilled, there was verry little those who lived in poverty. Everyone had an occupation, a home, some land, got any necessary healthcare, etc. The revolution of late 80's early 90's was what caused the most suffering. People's everyday lives were torn down to the point where they couldn't affort any food, since all earnings had lost their worth. These were the horrible times. Now there's so much propaganda against the Soviets/Russia (which currently doesn't really make sense as well), the bandits of the past are praised, the history became totally biased. Anything to make people comply to the current state i guess, all away from the left.
@@rebataciabata which part was normal? Be told how to think? Have no freedom of speech? Be tortured or killed by KGB? Forced to forget our history, our language? Long queues for food? I think you missed your soviet train in the 90s, along with the soviet troops. But the borders are open, no one is stopping traitors from leaving.
@@andriuslengvinas9935 It's true, censorship was active in the post-war ussr. I don't think it was much different from now. Then authorities could show up if you hang an independent Lithuania's coat of arms, now they can show up if you hand a nazi or commie flag. Then you could be reported for spreading anti-communist ideas (that could lead to persecution and punishment), now you're arrested for protesting or spreading radical idealist ideas. The punishment may in a way be different but the actions didn't change. It's just turned around and twisted towards conservatist diplomacy or whatever's hiding under that term. Kgb then did virtually the same stuff cops do now. By the way people weren't forced to forget their history or language, everyone could freely speak, write and read Lithuanian (What is it? Book smuggler times?), the history simply wasn't forgotten, plus, how would it benefit the ussr for lithuanians to forget what has happened something years ago? It was all taught just like today, maybe only without the anti-commie propaganda. Long queues for food in Lithuania had started in my mentioned mid-late 80's, because of the deficit and monetary overhang. By the way the borders are closed.
@@Falcon0160 They might be radical, but they don't do anything, they don't hurt anyone, they just want to be ready. They are patriots, they are not some random crazies: they are high-level politicians, soldiers, businessmen, entertainers... Knowing what a certain group of people did and still can do, it's not unreasonable to be careful.
Exactly. I don't like these kind of "russians" who live in our countries for over 10 years and still don't want to learn our native languages and just keep speaking their own. Those who accept our language are usually pretty nice people.
@UCOIXz3neSGIQx72OoaZtgWQ We want them to either learn a "universal" language (english) or our native language, because they came here to live not the other way around.
As Estonian/British I too feel happy that the Baltic states have been given the chance to have our story told because let’s face it the Baltics are mostly ignored them it comes to history about ww2 in favor of the big players
I'm from Latvia. There are still many Russians in Baltics. Every year on 9th of may they gather and celebrate the great victory. They do it here on our soil. But for us it was not victory. It was only the beginning of suffering and repressions. So imagine how we feel when they celebrate it. They do not understand it. That's why there is a lot of hate.
Piekrītu, pilnīgi vēlētos redzēt ''Uzvaras'' pieminekli demontētu, bet nu tas jau neko neatrisinātu, vēl vairāk saasinātu šo eksistējošo naidu. Fakts, ka 120K cilvēki sapulcējās bariņos Rīgā, lai atcerētos, kā krievi sakāva vāciešus ir diezko absurdi, kā iepriekš minēts. Baltieši (ieskaitot man 2 vecvecākus) tāpat tika deportēti, tāpat cilvēki tika ieslodzīti/nošauti, ja protestēja, tāpat bija cenzūras. Gribētos teikt, ka Nikolaja komentārs ir nedaudz naivs, jo liela daļa krievvalodīgie šodien lepojas ar šo dienu. Saprastu, ja šo dienu svinētu Krievijā vai savās mājās privāti.
I think its ridiculous that people are celebrating the victory of communism while living in a free country. They say that Nazis were worse, but in the end both of the regimes killed so many people, so why celebrate them? But I guess there is still enough people who don't appreciate their freedom and wants comunism to come back.
The Balts were not occupied by the Russians. The Balts and Russia were occupied by the Communists. Most of the communists like Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky Beria etc. were not Russians. The Balts use communism as an excuse to discriminate against the Russians. Russians are not celebrating communism but the victory over you Nazis. If you had won the war, all Slavs and Jews would have been kiIIed.
I saw russians population in Latvia and Estonia are pretty big. Thankfuly we in Lithuania have a little less of them. They don't celebrate in public, but i saw many youtube videos of russians in Lithuania celebrating at home. Sad. They are in our country's.
As Estonian, my great grandfather was a forrest brother and my grandfather’s family was sent to Siberia because they did well and had a farm. Also a lot of his uncles died.
When it comes to World War Two, EVERYBODY knows the Leningrad Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich. But who has heard of the Latvian composer Lūcija Garūta or her cantata Dievs, Tava zeme deg! premiered in Rīga Cathedral during the 1944 Battle of Rīga, and in the original recording of the work, one could hear the sounds of the battle.
Even before WWII, the Baltic States suffered under the Czars and the Kaiser. A relative gave us a tour of the old family farm. Pointed to a spot, and said “that’s where we had our first house; but the Germans had their artillery on that hill, the Russians on the other. That was the end of that house.” That was WWI. WWII, supported the Forest Brothers/Partisans, deported to Siberia. Amazingly, most survived, and once de-collectivized, got back some of the farm after independence.
@@IronWolfOverland Lithuania maybe. Latvia and Estonia were under different foreign rules since 13. century. Major political force in those countries under all country rule were German land owners.
@@kirillassasin no, pretty much, here is the surfice history of Lithuania: 1236 we become a country 1253 first and only king crowned 1410 battle of Žalgiris 1569 we unite with Poland and become Pl-Lt commonwealth 1795 after the third land occupation, Lithuania and Poland are parts of Russia, Austria and Prussia 1918 we get our independence back 1939 occupation by the Soviets 1941 occupation by Germany, 200 000 jews die in Lithuania 1944 we are occupied by the Soviets 1990 we become independent 1991 January events 2020 one of the most effected countries by Covid 19 lol There might be a few mistakes, but those are pretty much the most important dates
It's so strange to think that this all happened not long ago. My mamma often talked about how she and her brothers-sisters spent months hiding in the forest with -30 degrees while suffering from pneumonia. People had barely anything to eat and no proper roof on top of their head!!! Most of them were sure that they will die in the forest but no matter - they weren't ready to surrender.
MY great grandfather was taken to Nazzi Germany to work at their farms, somewhat easier penalty than a concentration camp. He was allowed to return home briefly: married, had a family, built a farm. When asked about his experience in Germany he replied only with one sentence: "only stones are not edible". And the Soviets came, his whole family, was exiled to Syberia for collaboration with Nazzis. There literally was no win situation during those times... 😥 Luckily most of them were allowed to come back home 10 years later so we are here to tell their stories.
@@tntcerveris same with the Germans and the fact that at several points we were invaded by the Danes Swedes and Poles but it was mainly the Germans and the Russians
By the way, biggest deportation to Siberia of Lithuanians by soviets was only 8 days before Germans attacked USSR. No wonder Germans initially were welcomed as savers.
As a person with Lithuanian ancestry I am happy you mentioned the forest brothers a Lithuanian partisan group that resisted both Soviet and Nazi tyranny they will not be forgotten 🇱🇹❤️🇪🇪❤️🇱🇻
Theres one important fact that is perhaps not stressed enough. That baltic waffen-ss were seen by allies (and also soviets) as something different than rest of waffen-ss units, being more alike wermacht and totally different in ideology and purpose. Something even Nuremburg trials aknowledged- it wouldve been also been perfect chance to link your earlier video about said soldiers being guards in Nuremburg trials!
Those foreign waffen ss units were all largely deemed not guilty of the crimes of ss by even the biased allied courts after the war. Its not like these people especially in Soviet occupied territories had any other choices. I think it was estonian ss troops that allies later used to guard the actual nazis and many were later allowed to move to usa, canada or elsewhere so they wont have to go back to ussr, where they would have most likely been sent to Siberia or shot.
"baltic waffen-ss were seen by allies (and also soviets) as something different than rest of waffen-ss units" actually also by the Germans, that's the reason why they called those divisions "division of the SS" not "SS division". For example they called Estonian division "20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS " instead of "20th SS Division"
@@itsKarlDesigns Correct- the unit you think of is 4221. guard company, which had estonian flag as its symbol and was mainly composed of former 20th waffen-ss grenadier division "Estland" soldiers
My grand grandmother got informed to hide at a forest for the night. She did what the mystery person said, tommorow she came back to a empty place no poeple no electricity everyone was sent to either holocaust or somewhere else, im so lucky to be alive.
There is a good movie called "1944" it is about estonian soldiers. Half of estonians fought for Germany and half for Soviet union. It shows both sides. Were intresting movie actually and the most important thing is that there is no propaganda.
havent seen it myself (shame on me i guess as an estonain). doubt there is no propaganda at all tho. german side is generally viewed more fondly (but in general still quite negatively) due to the victory of the soviets and their eventual 50 year occupation due to that.
@@hullmees666 czcams.com/video/X1ZUChPpyMg/video.html. Yeah I agree with you. And here is that movie. I cant say that you will like it but give it a try. By the way I am Lithuanian.
And thaaaat's basically the motto during the USSR when they asked "Why don't you like us?" Well, it's nice of you to come and free us, but you forgot to leave
9:55 Interesting story behind that: when mobilisation for Waffen-SS began only 77 young men showed up in Kaunas, which had population of over 150 000. 68 of them were criples therefore unfit for the military. Bacause mobilisation failed, 46 famous people were arested and sent off to Stutthof concentration camp. Among those was a writer Balys Sruoga which later wrote satyrical book based on his experiences "Forest of Gods". The book was released to the public only 10 years after writer's death. Some speculate that Soviet goverment was reluctant to release it because similar practices were executed in USSR.
There's nothing satirical about that book, it's pain and agony from cover to cover. And I've read a pretty old issue, where the last chapter was quite clearly re-written by somebody else, since it focused solely on how the Soviet tanks "saved everyone." That last part was absolutely disgusting. On a completely different note - why are you Lithuanian girls always so goddamn attractive? =D
@@kraanz Satyrical as in utilising satire.... the book is FULL of it. It's like a coping mechanism for the absurdity and cruelty of what was happening. From what we covered in school the main issue Soviets had with the book seemed to be that it didn't paint them as heroes and that sort of jazz.
Feels good being validated in a video like this. As a Latvian we only yet had history of the blockade in Rīga in the 90s but not yet times like this, thank you for making this video.
I'm Estonian and very proud of my country now. Changes is impressive. It's in top 30 most democratic countries now. Giant step further in last 30 years.
@@ExMion Ko tu redzi Latvijā, klauns, vispirms vismaz salabojiet ceļus galvaspilsētā, un pēc tam rakstiet savus veiksmes stāstus. Nemaz nerunājot par to, ka Baltijas valstis ir ASV vasaļi :/
@@ExMion ahaha lol ko es nezinu, tu gribi pateikt, ka Latvija nav zem ASV kontroles, ka rīkojas vienīgi savās interesēs?? :DD, aizver visus tirdzniecības un tranzīta ceļus un pirma ierosina idiotiskas sankcijas, no kurām viņa pati cieš visvairāk, atšķirībā no ASV, kurām tas tikai dod labumu. ka Latvija nav viena no nabadzīgākajām ES valstīm un nabadzīgākā Baltijas valsts, ka autoceļi Rīgā nav tādi kā kaut kādā Sibirijas krievu pilsetā? Vēsturi un ģeopolitika es pārzinu 5 reizes labāk nekā tu, jo es lasu gan Rietumu, gan Krievijas avotus un varu salīdzināt faktus. Bet no tevis es neredzēju nevienu faktu. Izmaiņas 30 gadu laikā ir notikušas Emirātos, Singapūrā un Korejā un t.t,. Kādas ir izmaiņas šeit? KUr ir mūsu veikali un kompānijas? Viss pieder ārvalstu uzņēmumiem. Varbūt tikai iedzīvotāju skaits drīz būs 2 reizes mazāks. Cik tev vispār ir gadi? IR aizdomas, ka es runāju ar bērnu.
Part of the so-called. the forest brothers joined the Finnish army and were called Finnish boys. These Estonian brothers and soldiers of ours, who were called the boys of Finland, then joined the Finnish army as volunteers. The Finnish boys received / will receive a war veteran pension from the Finnish states as long as they live! The link below has texts in Finnish, but anyone who reads this can use the google translator. sotaveteraanit.fi/2018/01/04/suomen-pojat-virolaiset-heimo-ja-aseveljemme/ www.rul.fi/suomenpojat/
@@HunterXStyle123 Now I’m not quite 100% sure what you mean by that question? Do you mean the so-called tradition guild or the Latvian warrior who fought in the ranks of the Finnish army. If you mean that frontline soldier's pension, then that link I put is a paragraph with a few sentences below. Equal treatment of all veterans (including foreign volunteers) who have served in Finnish wars has been one of the goals of the Finnish War Veterans Association since its establishment. The changes made through the 1990s, in turn, improved the status of foreign veterans and the benefits paid to them. sotaveteraanit.fi/2018/01/04/suomen-pojat-virolaiset-heimo-ja-aseveljemme/. You can use a google translator to translate that link into your native language if you want.
@@diipadaapa9701 Same in Lithuania. But in other words.. "victims pension" (soldiers listed there too) And I want to mention this.. Putin increased allowances for former soldiers who destroyed partisans seeking to restore Lithuanian independence during the Soviet occupation. (And he done this not the first time)
@@pastuh these pensions are something unreal... Partisans were criminals, they did way more harm to the peaceful citizens of Lithuania than the system they opposed.
My great grandmother's dad was the "book carrier". Only God knows how many horrible encounters and torture he went through during the years. Unfortunately, the whole family was slaughtered out in the end, and only my great grandmother survived as she was away in town. Imagine her coming back home and not being able to open the door as the bodies of her parents, brothers and sisters were tortured and fallen from bullets. My great grandfather from dad's side also been exiled to Siberia for years and his poor wife had to look after all the kids and the farm all by herself knowing her husband is being tortured and most likely she will never see him alive again. Luckily he survived and got back. I even have his release paperwork framed as the biggest treasure and history of my family. There was so much cruelty, torture but there was also just as much unity and stories of fallen heroes out there that did their share to keep the Baltics free.
A few years back I saw a video of a NATO German troop convoy driving through the Baltic’s. In the clip you can see an older gentleman, with missing legs, cheering for the convoy. God knows what he has seen.
There are noone from the baltic states, whose family wasnt affected by ww2. My fathers grandfather escaped deportation as he was able to jump off the train somewhere between Narva and St. Petersburg and hiking back home, and theres a collapsed forest brother bunker on the farm territory of my grandfather from my mothers side. Also ive heard of hushed talks about guns still hidden on the property, although my grandfather doesnt know where. Just shows how almost every family in estonia atleast and probs the other states suffered from the war
My great grandfather was a partisan. My grandpa didn't know him, and his mother was sent to Siberia. Up until this day he keeps trying to use the internet to read about the partisans or find any information he can about what happened to his dad.
The reason why he used it is cause Lithuanians was the largest force of the forest brothers who heavily resisted the Soviets. Latvians and Estonians having smaller resistance. I think he should've credited Lithuania to be the most suffered out of the three Baltic states in WW2.
And this my friends is why no one in Eastern Europe is going to respect a Twitter warrior from America who thinks communism is great, and proudly states it on their bio. Your grandfather wasn't part of the 3000 who survived. Who fought on the Russian side, then the German side, and then our side! Bless all my brothers from Lithuania and Estonia! And thank you The Front for bringing this topic up and speaking about the atrocities that the Russians committed! To this day those same people live here and refuse to speak or learn our language. Forcing us to learn Russian if we want work opportunities.
Hi im from Lithuania and i want to say thank you most people eather dont know about our egsistance or just don't care. Its fun to watch someone like you to notice not just our country but also our baltic sisters. So as a lithuanian i will accept the honor to tell you that lithuania is now a safe escape for you in trouble
Myself being Lithuanian but going to school in UK at 2004, history books at that time(not that long ago if you think about it) did not have Lithuania marked, jt was still showing as part of Russia. Makes you think the educational system at that time, hence why at that time no one knew where Lithuania was lol.
I'm Scottish and we knew where Lithuania was. I was studying at university in Glasgow during the January events and we had a large amount of Scotrish/Lithuanian students. We followed it closely. I ended up moving to Lithuania in 95. I worked there for 12 years, learnt the language, married a Lithuanian and had kids. We moved away due to work but still visit. Oh and I can still speak Lithuanian kaip Biržietis.
@@BrokenBackMountains wow! Nice job. Yeah i was talking about school in 2004, and i know there is a big difference between Scotland and Britain, maybe thats why? Either way, very impressed! ✌️💪👍
@@condedooku9750 Germans were better than Soviets-not very much but Germans treated baltic states better than Soviets did. Nobody missed the fucking Soviets.
@@endkatana3530 I am not a Soviet apologist or anything but Germany was planning to literally exterminate most of the population of the Baltic countries and deport or enslave the rest, the USSR was hell, but Nazi Germany managed to dig a hole darker and more sinister than Hell itself: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalplan_Ost
@@condedooku9750 USSR for example made Estonia's ethic Estonian population to 50%. They started Sovietizing Estonia and took almost every private lands from Estonians. I agree that Nazi Germany was hellish.
Very easy to explain for the Lithuanian part. Lithuania declared independence, the Germans were loosing. Then, some regiments of the White Army called "Bermontians" attacked from the Latvian border. With help of left-over German soldiers, Lithuania defeated them. Then the Bolsheviks attacked. However, again, with the help of left-over German soldiers (and the Soviet Union being in no shape to fight) the Soviets agreed to defeat and offered a treaty, under which they recognized Lithuania with actually considerably larger territory than Lithuania claimed (parts of Northern Belarus). Then the Polish attacked Vilnius, they were stopped by the Lithuanian Army from advancing further. The Lithuanian Army was actually launching a quite good counter-offensive to recapture Vilnius, but was ordered to stop by the League of Nations for peace's sake. Needing international recognition more than ever, Lithuania agreed. The end.
@@rytisliaucys3444Same for us. Latvia with some help from french and english artilery defeated the Bermontians. We have a memorial day dedicated to that.
@@andriusambrutis343 Also easy. Memel (Klaipėda) was for the absolute majority of its existence a German town. With a catch. During the times of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later Polish Lithuanian commonwealth, even in German maps this area was referred to Lithuania Minor (or Little Lithuania). The people there considered themselves a special blend of Germans and Lithuanians and called themselves "lietuvninkai" (something like Lithuanianiers in English). They embraced both German and Lithuanian cultures, especially the Lithuanian language while it was in decline in the Commonwealth due to Polish influenced, and one can say that these German-Lithuanians saved and preserved the Lithuanian language. After WWI, Memel was an independent city seeking complete independence and was under Allied control. The Lithuanian Army faked a coup there by dressing up Lithuanian soldiers as Memelians, took over the city and annexed it into Lithuania. Needless to say, Memel didnt want to be neither Lithuanian nor German, so the region was rather hostile. Due to strong Lithuanisation efforts, they sided with Hitler and ended up being returned to Germans pre WWII after Hitler issued an ultimatum to Lithuania. Later, as Germans fled Memel in the end of WWII, Lithuanians moved in and it became a Lithuanian city.
estonia's war is quite easy and straightforward. germany pulled back. estonia declared independence. russians invaded. were stopped quite close to the capital. then pushed out of estonia. after that helping liberate northern latvia from soviets and baltic germans and joining russians whites on the offensive on petrograd(petersburg). Due to disagreements with whites about estonia's independence estonia pulled back and defended its borders until russia was ready to sign the peace treaty (1st country in this conflict to sign it with russia as far as i know and heavily criticized by the entente cause they wanted estonia to fight against reds) to send troops to other fronts.
When I worked on a farm in the early 1960's I met Urnst. He was from either Latvia or Lithuania. My father , the local Policeman, was dealing with his naturalisation papers. Urnst, had been severely injured whilst fighting against the Russians. He had massive burns to the right side of his body and was missing part of his right hand. Somehow he had got to England in the chaos at the end of the war, along with his wife. He hated the Russians with real venom but feared them also. He could never go home. He got his naturalisation papers and settled down in the English countryside. As a teenager I had never heard about the Baltic States until I met Urnst, his story showed me the stupidity of war and the duplicity of Governments.
My father was Lithuanian and was captured by the Germans, made to fight for them or be shot . He was shot in the leg running from a german officer yet somehow also made it to England where he met my English mother and had me and some of my brothers before moving here to New Zealand . Thank God for me but he died before Lithuania got its independence back and so never saw any of his family again . So sad for all in these horrible wars .
my grandmas family survived deportation to siberia. She keep telling me that I need to eat everything I have, because in siberia they were lucky to get some potatoe peel while russians ate all the good things and laughed at deported people.
@@polishherowitoldpilecki5521 Which is 100% Justified! Perception is reality. We remember the horrific Crimes against humanity which caused the horrific deaths; murders of Millions of innocint victims of the Soviet Russian criminality and terrorism perpetraited by the home grown Traitors, the Red Army and NKVD. All of which were the diabolically influenced Criminal Terrorist organs of the Soviet Russian government. It's very Interstesting just how your comment mirrors that of you boss Vladimir Putin in timing and text. You probaby got a Victory Day Bonus on your paycheck!
G’day my fellow baltic brothers (Latvians and Estonians) and other brothers. This video means kinda a lot to everyone, a lot of people even forget we exist. This is probably a reminder that the Baltic Brothers really suffured.
The thing with Baltic States was also the fact, that they had fought against Russia in WW1 where they finally gained their independence (except for Lithuania of course, that had been a kingdom in the past) from Russia. So when the WW2 came and Red Army marched in, the people who had fought against Russia during WW1 or had anything to do with the governance of the republics, were either shot dead, sent to Siberia or sent to Siberian Gulag camps.
As an Estonian I will say that it is a very dark thing to talk about among the people. Thousands of people were sent to Siberia for “death camps”. Btw Estonia was really badass in WW1 they beat the Russian invasion and also freed Riga from the Germans. But also it is history and there is no hate to Russians because history has done what it has done and our purpose is to look forward and learn from the past :)!
i mean russians ocupied lithuania killed a bunch of people then the germans came in, alot of people celebrated but then the same thing happened more then 1 mil. people died throught all that
Sometimes when I feel sad I go read comments of modern russians judging the peoples of the baltik states and eastern Europe for siding with the germans after what the red menace had done to them. A great laugh when it doesn anger.
We have a day dedicated to the fallen legionaires. People gather around our freedom monument to put flowers there and there are always russians protesting.
Baltic states is 3 countries that unfortunately stuck in no win situation, firstly got oppressed by Russian Tsardom, then by Russian Empire and German Empire, then in war between Russians and Sweds, then in 1940 annexed by Soviets, then Germans, then Soviets again, and today it can’t be said it’s save around here.
yup, gotta love modern instrumental Russian propaganda. It's the same with the atom bomb - Putin always talks about how "Stalin would never have used the bomb against a Germany that was already sure to lose". In reality, Truman informed Stalin at the Potsdam conference that the US has the atomic bomb and Stalin hoped that the US could "make good use of it against the Japanese". There's pretty much not a single correct thing that comes out of the Russian official historical discourse 1920-1950. Source: Truman's memoirs.
My grandmother and grandfather was seperate in train wagons, grandfather was sent to Germany and from that day my grandmother never saw him.. so many people was shot without reason in front of people’s eyes 👀
Lietuva!! Hello all Baltic sisters, Latvia and Estonia. If someone attacks. And NATO can't help. All 3 countries will become as one again, and fight as one again. But NATO will help. Btw Laba dien and Terë.. Fun fact. When soviet union crashed estonians said "We will fight, until last Lithuanian dies" (for independence The baltic road).
From Russia with love. Despicable that the Wedt turned the blind eye to all the atrocities commited by Stalind and his henchmen to the Baltic States and Poland
I'm from Latvia. Brothers or relatives being in the opposite sides in the war (conscripted or else) was pretty common. One of my grandfathers fought on the USSR side and the other in German. They shot at each other near their own village where they went to school together. That's pretty well sums up of the Baltics destiny in the war.
Fun fact about the diplomacy between Latvia and the USSR at the time: the countries signed a peace treaty in 1920, in which the USSR agreed to forever give up any claims they had on the land of Latvia. But in Soviet lingo forever turned out to mean about 20 years. I'm not sure about the other Baltic states, but I assume they had something similar going on.
Yes, Estonia has the Tartu Peace Treaty and it is still a legal document and even to this day Russia actually pretty much denies it, we even have the original copy of it and to this day Russia is still occuping some territories that are supposed to be under Estonian rule. This is why we still do not have an actual border agreement with Russia. There is just this document that describes the temporary border that we have with them right now. There are some Estonians still living under Russian rule to this day and we have asked many times for them to just give us the terrotory as it has no value to russia to hold these plots of land. But of course as they are russia, they disagree because their weird sense of proudness doesnt allow them to be a normal neighbour to do trade with and forget about the past. Giving us those small territories back would go a huuuge way of making a grand jesture towards noramlizing reltionships with Estonia and propably the whole EU. Yet they wont do it because they are not interested in peace and prosperity, they seek conflict at every corner they can.
Touched upon but not explained. The "Orzel incident" was 'amazing' in it's own right and shows how stupid the politics where. Basically when USSR went to war with Poland. A Polish submarine came to port due to sick people in Estonia, they actually escaped with force as Estonia was trying to make them disarm. Now the 'amazing' sentence. Basically USSR who just had declared war on Poland, said that Estonia was working against USSR by helping their enemies - Poland. Like how far can you stretch the logic. Poland that was getting whooped by a combined Soviet/German force was suddenly a threat, and by proxy Estonia also a threat. Kind of strange to think that now the current modern Russian spin on the story is that the Soviet state came in support to Poland to help against the Germans. Also some who say "Baltics should of fought", we just did - well we just had more like. During WW1, when Russia went into civil war. All these Baltic nations fought an independence war. By that time we were among "Europe" in losing plenty of good men and civilians. I mean sure, most European nations lost men but to small states this is even more of a stepping stone to follow up one independence war with basically another one against someone with the possibility to outmatch your entire population with their army. Remember during WW1 Russia at least was fighting other European powerhouses. At the start of WW2 Russia, or then USSR, had most of their forces ready and without any other big wars. It's the definition of a lose-lose situation. Gamble with losses against a powerhouse or hope they won't drag your nation down going the diplomatic route. At the end though at least independence was won back for all these nations.
@@Cofeeman911 the younger is a person , the worse his life was under the Stalin... ure just funny hatefull hamsters ... czcams.com/video/0vVPolPR008/video.html
Greetings from Latvia in X-mass, and thanks for video buddy! :) you should talk about history so all can learn from it (and not do old mistakes) , as all good people should be known and remembered.
The fact that the Estonian population is only 200k bigger almost 90 years later shows how devastating the war was for Estonia. Also before the war most of the population was Estonian, versus today, the population is 25% Russian
Thank you for recognising the Baltic states. My pop fled latvia to Germany with his family as a young boy in ww2 where he later immigrated to Australia after the war ended
2:59 well he did got some stuff wrong like here he said that forest brothers were estonian, when they were half latvian and half lithuanian, mostly Lithuanian tho.
@@Gloverfield I don't know the official statistics of Lithuania, but in Latvia there were approximately 20 thousand partisans and 80 thousand people who supported them, via giving them food or other supplies
@@garaldtheexplorer8416 Those statistics depends on time period. At first, Lithuanians started at 12 000 partisans. In 1945 spring it was 30 000 partisans, but then numbers were getting lower and lower, because in Lithuania, there was so much soviet supporters who betrayed those mans.. A lot of killing was happining there.. ugh.. but when I think about the whole Baltic statistic, omg, we are so small but our Forest brotherhood summarized 100 000 thousen of solders so yeah.. we cool with it 😈
As a Lithuanian I am glad that there are people talkin about our Baltic brother ww2 atrocities. (Also the 9th fort near Kaunas was the Baltic equivelent of Aushwitz)
as a Lithuanian i am proud for what people have done to resist the occupations.. we have gone through alot and allmost nobody knows how how much we suffered back then. i am glad somebody brings that up.
I'm Lithuanian, and the history is sort of accurate if comparing to school and grandparents, just one thing that is really important, lithuanian language, Russians killed us for speaking lithuanian, lithuanian books were banned, schools teached only russian, but when guards went away, the teacher taught us lithuanian, we had these people called "Knygnešiai" (book carriers) basically these people brought lithuanian books for us to learn from, we had a portable school where these "teachers" taught us lithuanian, when the guards heard that there was a secret school they'd arrest or kill the people involved if they caught them or had snitches, if it wasn't for knygnešiai, i wouldn't be able to speak lithuanian as i can now. All of this info is from relatives, where I typed 'us' i meant by my relatives POV. this was just an important part of history for me, since lithuania is truly a beautiful language, although its hard, i can be proud of having a unique and beautiful language :)
Forest brothers werent international organisation, it wasnt even entirely national- forest brothers groups worked together within countries to some degree (to my knowledge there wasnt any cross-border relationship, although people were aware), but outside war years and immideate post-war years, this cooperation was lessened due to soviets pressure. With some exceptions of course as forest brothers were force when they saw a chance- lithuanian ones were most successful with temporarily keeping parts of country under control. Also estonian forest brothers for instance had liberated southern shore of Tartu before germans got anywhere near it during operation Barbarossa, plus did a lot to help keeping casualties of soviets murdering folk to a minimum during 1941 withdrawal (like even Kautla massacre wouldve been lot worse) As for Germany- they were seen mostly as lesser evil and tought to be inevitable to lose the war. Heres extra fact to illustrate just how bad soviet 1940-1941 occupation was- before 1940, most estonians and latvians honestly hated germans more than russians, seeing germans as historical enemies who robbed us our own freedom for basically 700 years since northern crusades from 1200s. Yet just 1 year of soviet occupation flipped this image over Oh! and you know creepy part? 1940 occupations. Russia still follows same pattern- the 2014 Crimea occupation went trough very similar route. Heck, they even shot down passanger plane (albeit not over crimea but the other ukrainian areas) like in 1940- when soviets shot down Junkers JU 52 civilian passenger plane wearing estonian colors heading from Tallinn to Helsinki in 14th june 1940. All 9 people on board died. Its also 2nd known instance of civilian commercial airplane being shot down by army in history.
And why were there no Baltic Germans in all of this? Because after the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, when the Germans knew the Soviets would likely be invading the Baltics and killing the landowners there (many of whom were still German in 1939) in a Red Terror, they evacuated all German citizens from the Baltics and other areas the Soviets might take, resettling them in West Prussia and Wartheland, which Germany had just regained from Poland and was attempting to Germanize. Then after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany tuned the Baltics, or Eastland as they called it, into a new settler colony for mainly the families of SS men, effectively displacing the existing Baltic Germans to save them from Communism, but then upon reconquest keeping them elsewhere and instead inviting a whole new generation of warrior settlers to the Baltic, as a re-creation of the 1918-19 German Baltic settlement campaigns which were a huge part in perpetuating the “stab in the back” theory.
First the Nazis fell and then the Soviets... and the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian flags still fly high))) I'd love to visit Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn very soon. I'm currently in Belarus 🇺🇸 🤝 🇪🇪 🇱🇻 🇱🇹
As a latvian, i just want to say thank you for giving us and our baltic brothers some love.
Love brother ✌️
Nu jam kka ta
Same from LTU
Thank you brother
We had it tough 😅 but we're still here as a country.
Basically Soviet or German, the people of the Baltics were stuck between a no win situation.
@Nicolau Dyakov-Tinoco what do you mean good?
@Nicolau Dyakov-Tinoco why was that good?
@Nicolau Dyakov-Tinoco so what's the joke here?
@Nicolau Dyakov-Tinoco you shouldn't be surprised that people don't get the joke, coming from someone with a hammer and sickle profile pick
@@mantassutkus4710 btw are you lithuanian?
Everyone: *Poor Poland has gone trough so much in ww2...*
Baltic states: *Hello? Anyone here?*
As a Pole, i love baltic states really, i think its my favourite part of Europe, but also i think Polish people were suffering more during ww2 than Baltic states :)
@@ExMion bro, there were russian soldiers till 1989 in Poland, Poland was free from war, but in Poland , russians were still ruling the country
@@mafin2183 I agree with you. But the point is that we never get so much recognition as you buds 😅
@@airiss14 me myself, i love Lithuania Latvia and Estonia too, i would love to visit baltics because there are many similarities beetwen Poland and baltics
@@mafin2183 We both are living in a territorry where soldiers were having a field trip back and forth since Napolean times. It's pointless arguing on that because it's asking for jews to enter the chat which ALWAYS puts discussians on soviet crimes to the background as if it's not a valid complaint.
What could be emphasized is that the Forest Brothers partisan movement is the largest partisan movement by ethnical population percentage and the longest lasting resistance movement in European History.
Thats correct , even Beria offered to Stalin saying fk them let them go we loosing too many red army soldiers in the Lithuanian forests , but stalin said no we have to go to till end
@@rv1251 I mean he wasn't wrong. He knew everyone who survived would conspire against the regime
@@rv1251 When they caught Žemaitis Beria wanted him to come to Moscow where Beria and Žemaitis talked for 1 hour nobody know what it was exactly, but it’s probably was about Lithuanian independence, but sadly next day both were killed.
yeah it actually has its roots even in the russian empire times here in latvia
No, I believe it was Yugoslavian far lasting and deffinitely amounted a highe precentage. It was also the most successful resistance movement in WW2. Yugoslavian partisans single handedly kicked out italian faschists and nazi germans out of their territories, without the support of Russia nor the West.
As i Lithuanian, i am Proud that our Patriots didn't gave up and kept fighting for decades. So now, i can enjoy our freedom
"While 2nd world war ended in 2. september 1945 for the rest of the world, it didn't for the baltic people until 1991/1994 when the last russian troops left."
I wouldn't agree. At least in Lithuania people lived normally along with the Soviet government. Comparing to today's modernised world life was a bit harder in some ways, but people at least had their basic needs fulfilled, there was verry little those who lived in poverty. Everyone had an occupation, a home, some land, got any necessary healthcare, etc. The revolution of late 80's early 90's was what caused the most suffering. People's everyday lives were torn down to the point where they couldn't affort any food, since all earnings had lost their worth. These were the horrible times. Now there's so much propaganda against the Soviets/Russia (which currently doesn't really make sense as well), the bandits of the past are praised, the history became totally biased. Anything to make people comply to the current state i guess, all away from the left.
@@rebataciabata which part was normal? Be told how to think? Have no freedom of speech? Be tortured or killed by KGB? Forced to forget our history, our language? Long queues for food? I think you missed your soviet train in the 90s, along with the soviet troops. But the borders are open, no one is stopping traitors from leaving.
@@andriuslengvinas9935 It's true, censorship was active in the post-war ussr. I don't think it was much different from now. Then authorities could show up if you hang an independent Lithuania's coat of arms, now they can show up if you hand a nazi or commie flag. Then you could be reported for spreading anti-communist ideas (that could lead to persecution and punishment), now you're arrested for protesting or spreading radical idealist ideas. The punishment may in a way be different but the actions didn't change. It's just turned around and twisted towards conservatist diplomacy or whatever's hiding under that term. Kgb then did virtually the same stuff cops do now. By the way people weren't forced to forget their history or language, everyone could freely speak, write and read Lithuanian (What is it? Book smuggler times?), the history simply wasn't forgotten, plus, how would it benefit the ussr for lithuanians to forget what has happened something years ago? It was all taught just like today, maybe only without the anti-commie propaganda. Long queues for food in Lithuania had started in my mentioned mid-late 80's, because of the deficit and monetary overhang. By the way the borders are closed.
Oh by the way we're still told how to think, just constantly, everywhere.
@@rebataciabata Then think otherwise, nothing is stoping you from thinking otherwise unlike duing soviet times.
Fun fact: In Baltic states natives don't celebrate Victory day. Only russians does. For us it is reminder of ocupation.
Not really that fun.
Also fun fact: some patriots are observing and taking notes on everyone celebrating russian holidays.
If shit hits the fan, they will know who's who.
@@Cofeeman911 these aren't patriots, these are radical right wing
@@Falcon0160 They might be radical, but they don't do anything, they don't hurt anyone, they just want to be ready.
They are patriots, they are not some random crazies: they are high-level politicians, soldiers, businessmen, entertainers...
Knowing what a certain group of people did and still can do, it's not unreasonable to be careful.
@Anna Hagen before making historic claims, be sure to do your research first next time
And Russians still ask why the Baltics don’t like them...
*Shocked Pikachu face*
Exactly. I don't like these kind of "russians" who live in our countries for over 10 years and still don't want to learn our native languages and just keep speaking their own. Those who accept our language are usually pretty nice people.
@@f0nt Russian is a beautiful language
@@catholicracialist776 Not saying that it's not, but they just refuse to learn anything else, and because of them we have to learn their language
@UCOIXz3neSGIQx72OoaZtgWQ We want them to either learn a "universal" language (english) or our native language, because they came here to live not the other way around.
Best wishes to our Estonian, Lithuanian brothers and sisters from Latvia !
As a Latvian person myself, it makes me really happy that our (As in Baltic States, not just Latvian) history is finally getting some recognition
Me too😃
As Estonian/British I too feel happy that the Baltic states have been given the chance to have our story told because let’s face it the Baltics are mostly ignored them it comes to history about ww2 in favor of the big players
Finally, someone speaks about us :D
Ew, foreigners. :P
@@charliespurr7325 okay americaj
init
Yay! We love giving everyone recognition!
@@TheFront how about us malaysians?
Finally the baltics never get like any attention during history and the Baltic people during world War 1 and 2 suffered a lot
Also Estonians.
@@eksiarvamus Yeahm he said Baltic, Estonia is part of Baltic states :)
@@tomsmaizitis8064 Part of the Baltic states because for outside convenience. Estonia is not really Baltic per se.
@@eksiarvamus Yep thats, true as onely Latvia, and Lithuania are part of Baltic language group
You know what they say... For lithuanians, latvians are brothers and estonians - cousins.
Thanks for the video. I thought everyone forgot we existed in ww2.
My Great Grandfather was part of the 16th Lithuanian Rifle division.
My great grandfather was part of the estonian waffen ss
@@robertssmilgainis3459 Damn, that's sounds Interesting.
Yeah, his grandfather killed soviet citizens
@@theanglo-lithuanian1768 the best part is that his wife was a die hard communist
@@MM-wd5hb yeah... shit happens
I'm from Latvia. There are still many Russians in Baltics. Every year on 9th of may they gather and celebrate the great victory. They do it here on our soil. But for us it was not victory. It was only the beginning of suffering and repressions. So imagine how we feel when they celebrate it. They do not understand it. That's why there is a lot of hate.
@@nwwwu on 9th of may come to Latvia than, you will see 😁
Piekrītu, pilnīgi vēlētos redzēt ''Uzvaras'' pieminekli demontētu, bet nu tas jau neko neatrisinātu, vēl vairāk saasinātu šo eksistējošo naidu. Fakts, ka 120K cilvēki sapulcējās bariņos Rīgā, lai atcerētos, kā krievi sakāva vāciešus ir diezko absurdi, kā iepriekš minēts. Baltieši (ieskaitot man 2 vecvecākus) tāpat tika deportēti, tāpat cilvēki tika ieslodzīti/nošauti, ja protestēja, tāpat bija cenzūras. Gribētos teikt, ka Nikolaja komentārs ir nedaudz naivs, jo liela daļa krievvalodīgie šodien lepojas ar šo dienu. Saprastu, ja šo dienu svinētu Krievijā vai savās mājās privāti.
I think its ridiculous that people are celebrating the victory of communism while living in a free country. They say that Nazis were worse, but in the end both of the regimes killed so many people, so why celebrate them? But I guess there is still enough people who don't appreciate their freedom and wants comunism to come back.
The Balts were not occupied by the Russians. The Balts and Russia were occupied by the Communists. Most of the communists like Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky Beria etc. were not Russians. The Balts use communism as an excuse to discriminate against the Russians. Russians are not celebrating communism but the victory over you Nazis. If you had won the war, all Slavs and Jews would have been kiIIed.
I saw russians population in Latvia and Estonia are pretty big. Thankfuly we in Lithuania have a little less of them. They don't celebrate in public, but i saw many youtube videos of russians in Lithuania celebrating at home. Sad. They are in our country's.
As Estonian, my great grandfather was a forrest brother and my grandfather’s family was sent to Siberia because they did well and had a farm. Also a lot of his uncles died.
same
When it comes to World War Two, EVERYBODY knows the Leningrad Symphony of Dmitri Shostakovich. But who has heard of the Latvian composer Lūcija Garūta or her cantata Dievs, Tava zeme deg! premiered in Rīga Cathedral during the 1944 Battle of Rīga, and in the original recording of the work, one could hear the sounds of the battle.
Wow, thats interesting
It’s a beautiful piece
Whoa Im Lithuanian and I think I understood the meaning of that cantata name :O It translates to "god, your land is burning" if I'm correct ?
@@kebabozaurus It is Latvian, but your native language is closely related.
@@kebabozaurus that's exactly right!
Lietuva 🇱🇹 Latvia 🇱🇻 Estonia 🇪🇪 brothers for life
Latvia is our brother and estonia cousin nobody likes haha jkjk Estonia is our sister but maybe different countries call it differently.
Im estonian lol
Brāļi uz mūžu ✊
Epic brother Gamer moment it's pretty fun and nice In Latvia here, lots of nature, and epic stuff, but kids are like extremely rude
Most of kids are rude these days but yeah prob Latvia has one of worts, like me. Im from latvia.
Even before WWII, the Baltic States suffered under the Czars and the Kaiser. A relative gave us a tour of the old family farm. Pointed to a spot, and said “that’s where we had our first house; but the Germans had their artillery on that hill, the Russians on the other. That was the end of that house.” That was WWI. WWII, supported the Forest Brothers/Partisans, deported to Siberia. Amazingly, most survived, and once de-collectivized, got back some of the farm after independence.
Aren’t Baltic States oppressed by Russians like for 1000 years? They certainly were in no win situation during war between Russia and Sweden.
@@kirillassasin , oppressed since 1790s; free for many centuries prior to that
@@IronWolfOverland Lithuania maybe. Latvia and Estonia were under different foreign rules since 13. century. Major political force in those countries under all country rule were German land owners.
@@namejsliepins2577 , good point! I should remember that their history is very different.
@@kirillassasin no, pretty much, here is the surfice history of Lithuania:
1236 we become a country
1253 first and only king crowned
1410 battle of Žalgiris
1569 we unite with Poland and become Pl-Lt commonwealth
1795 after the third land occupation, Lithuania and Poland are parts of Russia, Austria and Prussia
1918 we get our independence back
1939 occupation by the Soviets
1941 occupation by Germany, 200 000 jews die in Lithuania
1944 we are occupied by the Soviets
1990 we become independent
1991 January events
2020 one of the most effected countries by Covid 19 lol
There might be a few mistakes, but those are pretty much the most important dates
"If we had to summarize countries and their history, countryballs would probably be the best way to do it."
Nice
Agreed, nice
Countryballs are cool fam
@@TheFront ah i see your a man of culture as well
-General George S Patton
It's so strange to think that this all happened not long ago. My mamma often talked about how she and her brothers-sisters spent months hiding in the forest with -30 degrees while suffering from pneumonia. People had barely anything to eat and no proper roof on top of their head!!! Most of them were sure that they will die in the forest but no matter - they weren't ready to surrender.
MY great grandfather was taken to Nazzi Germany to work at their farms, somewhat easier penalty than a concentration camp. He was allowed to return home briefly: married, had a family, built a farm. When asked about his experience in Germany he replied only with one sentence: "only stones are not edible". And the Soviets came, his whole family, was exiled to Syberia for collaboration with Nazzis. There literally was no win situation during those times... 😥
Luckily most of them were allowed to come back home 10 years later so we are here to tell their stories.
awful
God bless
no choices that don't suck when you neighbors are Stalin and Hitler
Lithuanians sided more with germany but the most were partisans fighting against both
Well not just Stalin, Russia was a problem in baltics since Ivan the Terrible. It has been arm wrestling contest happening for last 500 years.
@@tntcerveris same with the Germans and the fact that at several points we were invaded by the Danes Swedes and Poles but it was mainly the Germans and the Russians
@BladeCast "Lesser evil" Наvе уоu неаrd аьоuт тне ноlоcаusт? Нітlеr наd vеrу еvіl рlаns.
@@SaakeliSaatana. At least He didn't Kill a lot of Their own People like Stalin
By the way, biggest deportation to Siberia of Lithuanians by soviets was only 8 days before Germans attacked USSR. No wonder Germans initially were welcomed as savers.
Well you know.. antisoviet forces and collaborators.
Same with latvija
@@Annija_Dziesma_T_officialas soon as germans occupied latvia mass tortures, murders and executions started to happen in latvia
As a Latvian I can say that this was pretty much an unfair war, the baltics were just getting punched around by Russia and Germany
In present days Germany at least regrets its shit and Russia actually is proud what did to us.
💯
Finnaly someone speaks about us!
Ja, jauna lieta
As a person with Lithuanian ancestry I am happy you mentioned the forest brothers a Lithuanian partisan group that resisted both Soviet and Nazi tyranny they will not be forgotten 🇱🇹❤️🇪🇪❤️🇱🇻
Been to all 3 baltic states, you guys have come a long way since being occupied, I loved visiting your countries and hope to visit again 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹
Theres one important fact that is perhaps not stressed enough. That baltic waffen-ss were seen by allies (and also soviets) as something different than rest of waffen-ss units, being more alike wermacht and totally different in ideology and purpose. Something even Nuremburg trials aknowledged- it wouldve been also been perfect chance to link your earlier video about said soldiers being guards in Nuremburg trials!
Those foreign waffen ss units were all largely deemed not guilty of the crimes of ss by even the biased allied courts after the war. Its not like these people especially in Soviet occupied territories had any other choices. I think it was estonian ss troops that allies later used to guard the actual nazis and many were later allowed to move to usa, canada or elsewhere so they wont have to go back to ussr, where they would have most likely been sent to Siberia or shot.
"baltic waffen-ss were seen by allies (and also soviets) as something different than rest of waffen-ss units" actually also by the Germans, that's the reason why they called those divisions "division of the SS" not "SS division". For example they called Estonian division "20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS " instead of "20th SS Division"
@@itsKarlDesigns Correct- the unit you think of is 4221. guard company, which had estonian flag as its symbol and was mainly composed of former 20th waffen-ss grenadier division "Estland" soldiers
They didn’t kill any innocent people, I bet they were against Nazi ideology at all, not all of them perhaps, but most of them.
Cannot be called baltic waffen-ss because lithuania did not have waffen-ss
As a lithuanian i want to say thank you for giving us and our baltic brothers love
More on the forest brothers please
K
Here:
czcams.com/video/qRD54bWyAfc/video.html
My grand grandmother got informed to hide at a forest for the night. She did what the mystery person said, tommorow she came back to a empty place no poeple no electricity everyone was sent to either holocaust or somewhere else, im so lucky to be alive.
There is a good movie called "1944" it is about estonian soldiers. Half of estonians fought for Germany and half for Soviet union. It shows both sides. Were intresting movie actually and the most important thing is that there is no propaganda.
I remember that one!!
havent seen it myself (shame on me i guess as an estonain). doubt there is no propaganda at all tho. german side is generally viewed more fondly (but in general still quite negatively) due to the victory of the soviets and their eventual 50 year occupation due to that.
@@hullmees666 czcams.com/video/X1ZUChPpyMg/video.html. Yeah I agree with you. And here is that movie. I cant say that you will like it but give it a try. By the way I am Lithuanian.
What have we learned? Well if Russia ever wants to send in troops for drinks and snacks. They don't leave and all their friends turn up uninvited.
They love to liberate everbody 😏
@@rapator9270 Especially the school girls
And thaaaat's basically the motto during the USSR when they asked "Why don't you like us?"
Well, it's nice of you to come and free us, but you forgot to leave
@@kestutisvaiciunas8663 Why should we leave? The school girls said we could stay
@@kestutisvaiciunas8663
Why should they leave? Name me one good reason the USSR should leave after winning ww2 and losing 27 million people?
Finally someone speaks about us and not Poland even though we suffered literally the same.
Better Dead than Red. Love from Lithuania🇱🇹🇪🇺
Glory to Ukraine🇺🇦 down with Putler
Yaaas hello baltic brother:D
As a Lithuanian i gotta say you did gives us and our baltic brothers attention that we needed so thank you from the bottom of my heart
9:55 Interesting story behind that: when mobilisation for Waffen-SS began only 77 young men showed up in Kaunas, which had population of over 150 000. 68 of them were criples therefore unfit for the military. Bacause mobilisation failed, 46 famous people were arested and sent off to Stutthof concentration camp. Among those was a writer Balys Sruoga which later wrote satyrical book based on his experiences "Forest of Gods". The book was released to the public only 10 years after writer's death. Some speculate that Soviet goverment was reluctant to release it because similar practices were executed in USSR.
There's nothing satirical about that book, it's pain and agony from cover to cover. And I've read a pretty old issue, where the last chapter was quite clearly re-written by somebody else, since it focused solely on how the Soviet tanks "saved everyone." That last part was absolutely disgusting.
On a completely different note - why are you Lithuanian girls always so goddamn attractive? =D
@@kraanz Satyrical as in utilising satire.... the book is FULL of it. It's like a coping mechanism for the absurdity and cruelty of what was happening.
From what we covered in school the main issue Soviets had with the book seemed to be that it didn't paint them as heroes and that sort of jazz.
@@crazydragy4233 Yeah, okay, I see your point, I mean the name of the book itself, for one =]
Hello from Lithuania ty so much for The support guys ❤️❤️
Feels good being validated in a video like this. As a Latvian we only yet had history of the blockade in Rīga in the 90s but not yet times like this, thank you for making this video.
I'm Estonian and very proud of my country now. Changes is impressive. It's in top 30 most democratic countries now. Giant step further in last 30 years.
@@ExMion Ko tu redzi Latvijā, klauns, vispirms vismaz salabojiet ceļus galvaspilsētā, un pēc tam rakstiet savus veiksmes stāstus. Nemaz nerunājot par to, ka Baltijas valstis ir ASV vasaļi :/
@@ExMion ahaha lol ko es nezinu, tu gribi pateikt, ka Latvija nav zem ASV kontroles, ka rīkojas vienīgi savās interesēs?? :DD, aizver visus tirdzniecības un tranzīta ceļus un pirma ierosina idiotiskas sankcijas, no kurām viņa pati cieš visvairāk, atšķirībā no ASV, kurām tas tikai dod labumu. ka Latvija nav viena no nabadzīgākajām ES valstīm un nabadzīgākā Baltijas valsts, ka autoceļi Rīgā nav tādi kā kaut kādā Sibirijas krievu pilsetā? Vēsturi un ģeopolitika es pārzinu 5 reizes labāk nekā tu, jo es lasu gan Rietumu, gan Krievijas avotus un varu salīdzināt faktus. Bet no tevis es neredzēju nevienu faktu. Izmaiņas 30 gadu laikā ir notikušas Emirātos, Singapūrā un Korejā un t.t,. Kādas ir izmaiņas šeit? KUr ir mūsu veikali un kompānijas? Viss pieder ārvalstu uzņēmumiem. Varbūt tikai iedzīvotāju skaits drīz būs 2 reizes mazāks. Cik tev vispār ir gadi? IR aizdomas, ka es runāju ar bērnu.
@@ExMion But,about 30 years,that's for real,i see lot of changes. klauns
thanks to dotations from EU, funny that people forget about that part
@@vasjanihrenashin9610 ko iepīpēji?
Forest brothers is a great topic
Part of the so-called. the forest brothers joined the Finnish army and were called Finnish boys. These Estonian brothers and soldiers of ours, who were called the boys of Finland, then joined the Finnish army as volunteers. The Finnish boys received / will receive a war veteran pension from the Finnish states as long as they live! The link below has texts in Finnish, but anyone who reads this can use the google translator.
sotaveteraanit.fi/2018/01/04/suomen-pojat-virolaiset-heimo-ja-aseveljemme/
www.rul.fi/suomenpojat/
@@diipadaapa9701 is it towards only estonian forest brothers or latvian and lithuanian as well?
@@HunterXStyle123 Now I’m not quite 100% sure what you mean by that question? Do you mean the so-called tradition guild or the Latvian warrior who fought in the ranks of the Finnish army. If you mean that frontline soldier's pension, then that link I put is a paragraph with a few sentences below. Equal treatment of all veterans (including foreign volunteers) who have served in Finnish wars has been one of the goals of the Finnish War Veterans Association since its establishment. The changes made through the 1990s, in turn, improved the status of foreign veterans and the benefits paid to them. sotaveteraanit.fi/2018/01/04/suomen-pojat-virolaiset-heimo-ja-aseveljemme/. You can use a google translator to translate that link into your native language if you want.
@@diipadaapa9701 Same in Lithuania. But in other words.. "victims pension" (soldiers listed there too)
And I want to mention this..
Putin increased allowances for former soldiers who destroyed partisans seeking to restore Lithuanian independence during the Soviet occupation.
(And he done this not the first time)
@@pastuh these pensions are something unreal... Partisans were criminals, they did way more harm to the peaceful citizens of Lithuania than the system they opposed.
My great grandmother's dad was the "book carrier". Only God knows how many horrible encounters and torture he went through during the years. Unfortunately, the whole family was slaughtered out in the end, and only my great grandmother survived as she was away in town. Imagine her coming back home and not being able to open the door as the bodies of her parents, brothers and sisters were tortured and fallen from bullets. My great grandfather from dad's side also been exiled to Siberia for years and his poor wife had to look after all the kids and the farm all by herself knowing her husband is being tortured and most likely she will never see him alive again. Luckily he survived and got back. I even have his release paperwork framed as the biggest treasure and history of my family. There was so much cruelty, torture but there was also just as much unity and stories of fallen heroes out there that did their share to keep the Baltics free.
A few years back I saw a video of a NATO German troop convoy driving through the Baltic’s. In the clip you can see an older gentleman, with missing legs, cheering for the convoy. God knows what he has seen.
Please make a dedicated video about the "Forrest Brothers".
Pretty sure Cold War channel already did, a while ago.
czcams.com/video/qRD54bWyAfc/video.html
There are noone from the baltic states, whose family wasnt affected by ww2. My fathers grandfather escaped deportation as he was able to jump off the train somewhere between Narva and St. Petersburg and hiking back home, and theres a collapsed forest brother bunker on the farm territory of my grandfather from my mothers side. Also ive heard of hushed talks about guns still hidden on the property, although my grandfather doesnt know where. Just shows how almost every family in estonia atleast and probs the other states suffered from the war
As strange as it sounds my wasnt. my grandfather was 15 so he couldnt be enlisted and we dodged it somehow!
My great grandfather was a partisan. My grandpa didn't know him, and his mother was sent to Siberia. Up until this day he keeps trying to use the internet to read about the partisans or find any information he can about what happened to his dad.
that's actually really sad...
Right? Maybe start a Facebook group for him so other people who want to help can ?
2:58
The photo is actually of Lithuanian Partisans
Left to right:
Klemensas Širvys-Sakalas,
Juozas Lukša-Daumantas,
Benediktas Trumpys-Rytis
The reason why he used it is cause Lithuanians was the largest force of the forest brothers who heavily resisted the Soviets. Latvians and Estonians having smaller resistance. I think he should've credited Lithuania to be the most suffered out of the three Baltic states in WW2.
And this my friends is why no one in Eastern Europe is going to respect a Twitter warrior from America who thinks communism is great, and proudly states it on their bio. Your grandfather wasn't part of the 3000 who survived. Who fought on the Russian side, then the German side, and then our side! Bless all my brothers from Lithuania and Estonia! And thank you The Front for bringing this topic up and speaking about the atrocities that the Russians committed!
To this day those same people live here and refuse to speak or learn our language. Forcing us to learn Russian if we want work opportunities.
Hi im from Lithuania and i want to say thank you most people eather dont know about our egsistance or just don't care. Its fun to watch someone like you to notice not just our country but also our baltic sisters. So as a lithuanian i will accept the honor to tell you that lithuania is now a safe escape for you in trouble
Myself being Lithuanian but going to school in UK at 2004, history books at that time(not that long ago if you think about it) did not have Lithuania marked, jt was still showing as part of Russia. Makes you think the educational system at that time, hence why at that time no one knew where Lithuania was lol.
I'm Scottish and we knew where Lithuania was. I was studying at university in Glasgow during the January events and we had a large amount of Scotrish/Lithuanian students. We followed it closely.
I ended up moving to Lithuania in 95. I worked there for 12 years, learnt the language, married a Lithuanian and had kids.
We moved away due to work but still visit. Oh and I can still speak Lithuanian kaip Biržietis.
@@BrokenBackMountains wow! Nice job. Yeah i was talking about school in 2004, and i know there is a big difference between Scotland and Britain, maybe thats why?
Either way, very impressed! ✌️💪👍
As a latvian, it's really nice to see something about us on the internet
Thank-you for putting this out... I am Lithuanian ... The Balts are the most amazing people...very special people ♥️🇱🇹🇱🇻♥️
For the people out of Baltics, just think how much worse must USSR have been if Germany was seen as a liberator?
Europa the last battle
Rather think of how horrible the Germans were to make people miss the Soviets in just 3 years.
@@condedooku9750 Germans were better than Soviets-not very much but Germans treated baltic states better than Soviets did. Nobody missed the fucking Soviets.
@@endkatana3530 I am not a Soviet apologist or anything but Germany was planning to literally exterminate most of the population of the Baltic countries and deport or enslave the rest, the USSR was hell, but Nazi Germany managed to dig a hole darker and more sinister than Hell itself:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalplan_Ost
@@condedooku9750 USSR for example made Estonia's ethic Estonian population to 50%. They started Sovietizing Estonia and took almost every private lands from Estonians.
I agree that Nazi Germany was hellish.
Thank you for this video! I love seeing me and my brothers getting the attention that we usually never get. Paldies Jums visiem!
TĒTUK ULMANI?!?!
@@HunterXStyle123 Sveiki, Hanter Baiden.
@@karlisulmanis3810 ko blyat?
@@karlisulmanis3810 ka tu uzdrošinies?
@@HunterXStyle123 Nezinu, vecais, nezinu.
I CANNOT MAKE THIS UP THE GUY IN THE MIDDLE IS MY GRAND UNCLE 3:01 🇱🇹
Wow thats cool!
You are the chad among chads.
I read his memorials and it was fascinating.
Much love to the Baltic states from Georgia, we know what you've been through.
You should make a video about the independence wars in the baltic states during 1919. That the most confusing conflict ive ever seen.
Very easy to explain for the Lithuanian part. Lithuania declared independence, the Germans were loosing. Then, some regiments of the White Army called "Bermontians" attacked from the Latvian border. With help of left-over German soldiers, Lithuania defeated them. Then the Bolsheviks attacked. However, again, with the help of left-over German soldiers (and the Soviet Union being in no shape to fight) the Soviets agreed to defeat and offered a treaty, under which they recognized Lithuania with actually considerably larger territory than Lithuania claimed (parts of Northern Belarus). Then the Polish attacked Vilnius, they were stopped by the Lithuanian Army from advancing further. The Lithuanian Army was actually launching a quite good counter-offensive to recapture Vilnius, but was ordered to stop by the League of Nations for peace's sake. Needing international recognition more than ever, Lithuania agreed. The end.
@@rytisliaucys3444 And after that comes Memel 1923 and so on... We can keep going for like a day.
@@rytisliaucys3444Same for us. Latvia with some help from french and english artilery defeated the Bermontians. We have a memorial day dedicated to that.
@@andriusambrutis343 Also easy. Memel (Klaipėda) was for the absolute majority of its existence a German town. With a catch. During the times of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and later Polish Lithuanian commonwealth, even in German maps this area was referred to Lithuania Minor (or Little Lithuania). The people there considered themselves a special blend of Germans and Lithuanians and called themselves "lietuvninkai" (something like Lithuanianiers in English). They embraced both German and Lithuanian cultures, especially the Lithuanian language while it was in decline in the Commonwealth due to Polish influenced, and one can say that these German-Lithuanians saved and preserved the Lithuanian language. After WWI, Memel was an independent city seeking complete independence and was under Allied control. The Lithuanian Army faked a coup there by dressing up Lithuanian soldiers as Memelians, took over the city and annexed it into Lithuania. Needless to say, Memel didnt want to be neither Lithuanian nor German, so the region was rather hostile. Due to strong Lithuanisation efforts, they sided with Hitler and ended up being returned to Germans pre WWII after Hitler issued an ultimatum to Lithuania. Later, as Germans fled Memel in the end of WWII, Lithuanians moved in and it became a Lithuanian city.
estonia's war is quite easy and straightforward. germany pulled back. estonia declared independence. russians invaded. were stopped quite close to the capital. then pushed out of estonia. after that helping liberate northern latvia from soviets and baltic germans and joining russians whites on the offensive on petrograd(petersburg). Due to disagreements with whites about estonia's independence estonia pulled back and defended its borders until russia was ready to sign the peace treaty (1st country in this conflict to sign it with russia as far as i know and heavily criticized by the entente cause they wanted estonia to fight against reds) to send troops to other fronts.
When I worked on a farm in the early 1960's I met Urnst. He was from either Latvia or Lithuania. My father , the local Policeman, was dealing with his naturalisation papers. Urnst, had been severely injured whilst fighting against the Russians. He had massive burns to the right side of his body and was missing part of his right hand. Somehow he had got to England in the chaos at the end of the war, along with his wife. He hated the Russians with real venom but feared them also. He could never go home.
He got his naturalisation papers and settled down in the English countryside.
As a teenager I had never heard about the Baltic States until I met Urnst, his story showed me the stupidity of war and the duplicity of Governments.
Thanks for the story
My father was Lithuanian and was captured by the Germans, made to fight for them or be shot . He was shot in the leg running from a german officer yet somehow also made it to England where he met my English mother and had me and some of my brothers before moving here to New Zealand . Thank God for me but he died before Lithuania got its independence back and so never saw any of his family again . So sad for all in these horrible wars .
my grandmas family survived deportation to siberia. She keep telling me that I need to eat everything I have, because in siberia they were lucky to get some potatoe peel while russians ate all the good things and laughed at deported people.
Kill them next time. Never Forget Never Again!
This is why there’s so much russsophobia in the west.
@@polishherowitoldpilecki5521
Which is 100% Justified! Perception is reality. We remember the horrific Crimes against humanity which caused the horrific deaths; murders of Millions of innocint victims of the Soviet Russian criminality and terrorism perpetraited by the home grown Traitors, the Red Army and NKVD.
All of which were the diabolically influenced Criminal Terrorist organs of the Soviet Russian government.
It's very Interstesting just how your comment mirrors that of you boss Vladimir Putin in timing and text.
You probaby got a Victory Day Bonus on your paycheck!
Better dead than red.From Lithuania💛💚❤
G’day my fellow baltic brothers (Latvians and Estonians) and other brothers. This video means kinda a lot to everyone, a lot of people even forget we exist. This is probably a reminder that the Baltic Brothers really suffured.
The thing with Baltic States was also the fact, that they had fought against Russia in WW1 where they finally gained their independence (except for Lithuania of course, that had been a kingdom in the past) from Russia. So when the WW2 came and Red Army marched in, the people who had fought against Russia during WW1 or had anything to do with the governance of the republics, were either shot dead, sent to Siberia or sent to Siberian Gulag camps.
ah yes, the elite "disappeared". The actual end of many is still unknown, the secrets locked away in the archives of the kremlin.
FINALLY SOMEONE WHO GIVES ATTENTION TO THE BALTCS
I don't understand why they are so underrated
As an Estonian I will say that it is a very dark thing to talk about among the people. Thousands of people were sent to Siberia for “death camps”. Btw Estonia was really badass in WW1 they beat the Russian invasion and also freed Riga from the Germans. But also it is history and there is no hate to Russians because history has done what it has done and our purpose is to look forward and learn from the past :)!
Finally, someone talks about our suffer... Latvians, Lithuanians, my Baltic States brothers and sisters... We will go all the way together🇱🇻🇱🇹👊
i mean russians ocupied lithuania killed a bunch of people then the germans came in, alot of people celebrated but then the same thing happened more then 1 mil. people died throught all that
Thanks! 🇱🇹
As a Latvian ,Thanks for giving some love . This is awsome.
As a Lithuanian American, i'm happy you made a video about the baltics, we have a rich history and very unique events from 1900-2000. 🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪💪🏼
Sometimes when I feel sad I go read comments of modern russians judging the peoples of the baltik states and eastern Europe for siding with the germans after what the red menace had done to them. A great laugh when it doesn anger.
We have a day dedicated to the fallen legionaires. People gather around our freedom monument to put flowers there and there are always russians protesting.
Well siding with the Germans didn’t really work out did it 😂
@@republic0_032 Well they had so many other options at that time💩
Baltic states is 3 countries that unfortunately stuck in no win situation, firstly got oppressed by Russian Tsardom, then by Russian Empire and German Empire, then in war between Russians and Sweds, then in 1940 annexed by Soviets, then Germans, then Soviets again, and today it can’t be said it’s save around here.
yup, gotta love modern instrumental Russian propaganda. It's the same with the atom bomb - Putin always talks about how "Stalin would never have used the bomb against a Germany that was already sure to lose". In reality, Truman informed Stalin at the Potsdam conference that the US has the atomic bomb and Stalin hoped that the US could "make good use of it against the Japanese".
There's pretty much not a single correct thing that comes out of the Russian official historical discourse 1920-1950.
Source: Truman's memoirs.
My grandmother and grandfather was seperate in train wagons, grandfather was sent to Germany and from that day my grandmother never saw him.. so many people was shot without reason in front of people’s eyes 👀
It was terrible time that harmed a lot of our people, thank you for discussing this important issue, greetings from Lithuania 🇱🇹
Lietuva!! Hello all Baltic sisters, Latvia and Estonia. If someone attacks. And NATO can't help. All 3 countries will become as one again, and fight as one again. But NATO will help. Btw Laba dien and Terë.. Fun fact. When soviet union crashed estonians said "We will fight, until last Lithuanian dies" (for independence The baltic road).
Labdien kaimiņ!
@@bowman.8891 Laba diena kaimyne! Almost same as Latvians. Glad I am Lithuanian
Hello dear baltic neighbour!
From Russia with love. Despicable that the Wedt turned the blind eye to all the atrocities commited by Stalind and his henchmen to the Baltic States and Poland
I vaguely recall a Japanese diplomat arranged passage to China for some of the Jews in one of these nations.
Sugihara, he worked in Kaunas, Lithuania
@Sar Dbr You are correct!
It's so sad to see what my country suffered in these hard times. (Latvia)
I'm from Latvia. Brothers or relatives being in the opposite sides in the war (conscripted or else) was pretty common. One of my grandfathers fought on the USSR side and the other in German. They shot at each other near their own village where they went to school together. That's pretty well sums up of the Baltics destiny in the war.
Would love to know more about Latvia, or any country in depth
Fun fact about the diplomacy between Latvia and the USSR at the time: the countries signed a peace treaty in 1920, in which the USSR agreed to forever give up any claims they had on the land of Latvia. But in Soviet lingo forever turned out to mean about 20 years.
I'm not sure about the other Baltic states, but I assume they had something similar going on.
Yes, Estonia has the Tartu Peace Treaty and it is still a legal document and even to this day Russia actually pretty much denies it, we even have the original copy of it and to this day Russia is still occuping some territories that are supposed to be under Estonian rule. This is why we still do not have an actual border agreement with Russia. There is just this document that describes the temporary border that we have with them right now. There are some Estonians still living under Russian rule to this day and we have asked many times for them to just give us the terrotory as it has no value to russia to hold these plots of land. But of course as they are russia, they disagree because their weird sense of proudness doesnt allow them to be a normal neighbour to do trade with and forget about the past. Giving us those small territories back would go a huuuge way of making a grand jesture towards noramlizing reltionships with Estonia and propably the whole EU. Yet they wont do it because they are not interested in peace and prosperity, they seek conflict at every corner they can.
Touched upon but not explained. The "Orzel incident" was 'amazing' in it's own right and shows how stupid the politics where. Basically when USSR went to war with Poland. A Polish submarine came to port due to sick people in Estonia, they actually escaped with force as Estonia was trying to make them disarm.
Now the 'amazing' sentence. Basically USSR who just had declared war on Poland, said that Estonia was working against USSR by helping their enemies - Poland. Like how far can you stretch the logic. Poland that was getting whooped by a combined Soviet/German force was suddenly a threat, and by proxy Estonia also a threat.
Kind of strange to think that now the current modern Russian spin on the story is that the Soviet state came in support to Poland to help against the Germans.
Also some who say "Baltics should of fought", we just did - well we just had more like. During WW1, when Russia went into civil war. All these Baltic nations fought an independence war. By that time we were among "Europe" in losing plenty of good men and civilians. I mean sure, most European nations lost men but to small states this is even more of a stepping stone to follow up one independence war with basically another one against someone with the possibility to outmatch your entire population with their army.
Remember during WW1 Russia at least was fighting other European powerhouses. At the start of WW2 Russia, or then USSR, had most of their forces ready and without any other big wars. It's the definition of a lose-lose situation. Gamble with losses against a powerhouse or hope they won't drag your nation down going the diplomatic route. At the end though at least independence was won back for all these nations.
The Russians disliked this video😂
Well, there aren’t many of them
you are such clowns. the video said that the Nazis killed a lot more Latvians, but you don't even see it ... zombies
@@vasjanihrenashin9610 Russia was badder then Germans
@@vasjanihrenashin9610 Imagine being so bad that everyone was happy to be occupied by Hitler.
@@Cofeeman911 the younger is a person , the worse his life was under the Stalin... ure just funny hatefull hamsters ...
czcams.com/video/0vVPolPR008/video.html
Greetings from Latvia in X-mass, and thanks for video buddy! :)
you should talk about history so all can learn from it (and not do old mistakes) , as all good people should be known and remembered.
FINALLY someone actually talks about what happened on the baltic turf in ww2, man im proud of the front.
The fact that the Estonian population is only 200k bigger almost 90 years later shows how devastating the war was for Estonia.
Also before the war most of the population was Estonian, versus today, the population is 25% Russian
Thank you for recognising the Baltic states. My pop fled latvia to Germany with his family as a young boy in ww2 where he later immigrated to Australia after the war ended
at 11:41 Jānis Pīnups is Latvian not Lithunian, you mention him in Lithunian part of the video anyways great video
2:59 well he did got some stuff wrong like here he said that forest brothers were estonian, when they were half latvian and half lithuanian, mostly Lithuanian tho.
@@Gloverfield I don't know the official statistics of Lithuania, but in Latvia there were approximately 20 thousand partisans and 80 thousand people who supported them, via giving them food or other supplies
@@garaldtheexplorer8416 Those statistics depends on time period. At first, Lithuanians started at 12 000 partisans. In 1945 spring it was 30 000 partisans, but then numbers were getting lower and lower, because in Lithuania, there was so much soviet supporters who betrayed those mans.. A lot of killing was happining there.. ugh.. but when I think about the whole Baltic statistic, omg, we are so small but our Forest brotherhood summarized 100 000 thousen of solders so yeah.. we cool with it 😈
As a Lithuanian I am glad that there are people talkin about our Baltic brother ww2 atrocities. (Also the 9th fort near Kaunas was the Baltic equivelent of Aushwitz)
This is honestly really cool! Glad to have a famous channel talk about us and deal us justice.
Thanks for making this, love from Latvia !! :D
Thank you for making this
Hey great seeing the spotlight on the baltics. I would love a video about Estonia.
as a Lithuanian i am proud for what people have done to resist the occupations.. we have gone through alot and allmost nobody knows how how much we suffered back then. i am glad somebody brings that up.
I'm Lithuanian, and the history is sort of accurate if comparing to school and grandparents, just one thing that is really important, lithuanian language, Russians killed us for speaking lithuanian, lithuanian books were banned, schools teached only russian, but when guards went away, the teacher taught us lithuanian, we had these people called "Knygnešiai" (book carriers) basically these people brought lithuanian books for us to learn from, we had a portable school where these "teachers" taught us lithuanian, when the guards heard that there was a secret school they'd arrest or kill the people involved if they caught them or had snitches, if it wasn't for knygnešiai, i wouldn't be able to speak lithuanian as i can now.
All of this info is from relatives, where I typed 'us' i meant by my relatives POV. this was just an important part of history for me, since lithuania is truly a beautiful language, although its hard, i can be proud of having a unique and beautiful language :)
To be fair this isn't exactly on topic information. Knygnešiai are a pre-soviet era relic.
Hello I am from Latvia and I am surprised you made a video about us thanks!
Forest brothers werent international organisation, it wasnt even entirely national- forest brothers groups worked together within countries to some degree (to my knowledge there wasnt any cross-border relationship, although people were aware), but outside war years and immideate post-war years, this cooperation was lessened due to soviets pressure. With some exceptions of course as forest brothers were force when they saw a chance- lithuanian ones were most successful with temporarily keeping parts of country under control. Also estonian forest brothers for instance had liberated southern shore of Tartu before germans got anywhere near it during operation Barbarossa, plus did a lot to help keeping casualties of soviets murdering folk to a minimum during 1941 withdrawal (like even Kautla massacre wouldve been lot worse)
As for Germany- they were seen mostly as lesser evil and tought to be inevitable to lose the war.
Heres extra fact to illustrate just how bad soviet 1940-1941 occupation was- before 1940, most estonians and latvians honestly hated germans more than russians, seeing germans as historical enemies who robbed us our own freedom for basically 700 years since northern crusades from 1200s. Yet just 1 year of soviet occupation flipped this image over
Oh! and you know creepy part? 1940 occupations. Russia still follows same pattern- the 2014 Crimea occupation went trough very similar route. Heck, they even shot down passanger plane (albeit not over crimea but the other ukrainian areas) like in 1940- when soviets shot down Junkers JU 52 civilian passenger plane wearing estonian colors heading from Tallinn to Helsinki in 14th june 1940. All 9 people on board died. Its also 2nd known instance of civilian commercial airplane being shot down by army in history.
And why were there no Baltic Germans in all of this? Because after the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, when the Germans knew the Soviets would likely be invading the Baltics and killing the landowners there (many of whom were still German in 1939) in a Red Terror, they evacuated all German citizens from the Baltics and other areas the Soviets might take, resettling them in West Prussia and Wartheland, which Germany had just regained from Poland and was attempting to Germanize. Then after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany tuned the Baltics, or Eastland as they called it, into a new settler colony for mainly the families of SS men, effectively displacing the existing Baltic Germans to save them from Communism, but then upon reconquest keeping them elsewhere and instead inviting a whole new generation of warrior settlers to the Baltic, as a re-creation of the 1918-19 German Baltic settlement campaigns which were a huge part in perpetuating the “stab in the back” theory.
First the Nazis fell and then the Soviets... and the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian flags still fly high))) I'd love to visit Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn very soon. I'm currently in Belarus 🇺🇸 🤝 🇪🇪 🇱🇻 🇱🇹
As a Lithuanian i want to say thank u for giving us more attention
Txn for covering the mostly unknown history of my fatherland.