19.01.2019, Vilnius.
The Lithuanian Seimas granted the Freedom Award to seven members of the “Forest Brothers” bandit groups who collaborated with the Nazis, the Parliament’s web site reported on January 13.
At the award ceremony, the Chairwoman of the Award Committee Radvilė Morkūnaitė-Mikulėnienė said that the members of the terrorist bands were fighters for independence who struggled against “Soviet occupation.”
In his acceptance speech, one of the awarded former fighters Jonas Kadžionis said that “the godless Soviet occupation” destroyed the body and soul of the Lithuanian people.
According to a statement of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs made in November 2018, the glorification of the “Forest Brothers” by the Lithuanian authorities today is an act of history revision, and it insults the memory of the victims of criminal terror as well as the memory of the actual heroes of Lithuania who fought against fascism.
The “Forest Brothers” fought against civilians; the most of their victims were ethnic Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians. They served in Nazi units, guard squads, and SS troops; they were responsible for the killing of Soviet prisoners of war. According to the Director of the Russian Military Historical Society Mikhail Myagkov, the “Forest Brothers” killed 80% of the Baltic States’ Jewish citizens.
“There are terrifying numbers: for example, in Lithuania, 25 thousand people were killed or tortured to death, and these were ethnic Lithuanians. Of course, military servicemen were among those killed as well. The majority, however, approximately 80%, were civilians, including over one thousand children,” he stressed.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
