Bakaloriskes mass murder

Red Guerrilla 1944 January 29th the village of Kaniukai was attacked and mercilessly destroyed (burned), the massacre of its people (a total of 38 people of this village were killed) was unfortunately not the only mass punitive (revenge) action carried out against the armed villages of Southeast Lithuania, the so-called armed local self-defense. The Red Guerrillas carried out a similar criminal act of violence in 1944. Easter: April 12th. they completely burned down Bakaloriskes village (about 40 homesteads) in Onuškis district in Trakai county, terrorizing and killing people in this and other villages.

Genrikas Zimanas 1944 March 3 In a letter to Antanas Snieckus, Chief of the Lithuanian Partisan Movement Headquarters (LPJŠ) in Moscow, he briefly reviewed the red guerrillas of Rūdninkai Forest against self-defense villagers of the armed villages of Southeast Lithuania, the criminal actions against a village on the western edge of the [Rūdninkai Forest] which closes us to the west. They [self-preservationists of this village. - R. Z.] fires on almost every group of us, and we have had quite a few due to their casualties. We would have fixed them so long ago that they would not be so bad with the ammunition, but I hope that when you receive this letter we will have it fixed. ”

There is no doubt that G. Zimanas was referring to the Bakaloriskes village of Onuskis district in Trakai county and his armed self-defense.

At the age of 1944 In the spring of 1944, the mood of G. Zimanas and all the other red guerrillas operating in Rūdninkai Forest improved, especially after April after a long hiatus (since October 1943), which led to a massive "famine" of weapons, planes carrying weapons, ammunition, people and other "cargo" began to fly from the Soviet back (known as the "Great Land"). The first airplane with weapons hit the Ziman partisans happily in 1944. April 5th night into 6th

Not only weapons and ammunition from the Soviet back, but also improved natural conditions, most importantly, the approach of the Red Army to Lithuania aroused the enthusiasm and "fighting spirit" of the Red guerrillas and finally opened up wider opportunities for guerrilla warfare. On receiving the first shipment of weapons, G. Zimanas warmly thanked the Chief of the Lithuanian Defense Forces A. Snieckus. April 7th In his letter, he promised to pay for the "fighting work", regretting that the latter could not see the joy with which people had accepted this "support". Mr Zimanas ironically rejoiced: "Partisans, those brutal 'bandits', as children jumped for joy, kissed, dreamed of occupying Berlin and so on."

It was far from Berlin, and Bakaloriskes, one of the self-defense villages of Southeast Lithuania, was close by and dealt with immediately, as soon as it received weapons as the biggest, hated enemy, as if there were no military and police crews (resistance points). ). Guns and ammunition from the arriving airplanes were "taken" on the night of April 5th to 6th, and already on April 6th. The LCP (b) Trakai County Underground Committee considered a rude question "About the counter-revolutionary bandit nest in Bakaloriškės village". The whole village (without any reservations) was ruthlessly destroyed. Such decisions were made by Peter (real name - Mikhail Afonin), Sparrow (Theofiliss Monciunskas), Sokolov (Joseph Nikitin), Nameless (Jonas Ciulada) and Bird (Jonas Molis). The verdict for Bakaloriškės village is motivated and worded as follows: “Given that the counter-revolutionary nest of bandits in Bakaloriskes village does not succumb to our political influence and continues to kill our people (inaccurate data, about 300 Soviet people have been killed by bandits in this village). Tamulevicius and his sister in Alytus County, commissioned platoon commander drg. The sparrow is armed with force to destroy the village. '

The Red Guerrilla warfare and later written sources are full of false, absurdly inflated, demagogic facts and evaluations of the self-preservation of villages in southeastern Lithuania, but the accusations of 300 "Soviet people" being killed by bakaloriskieciai can be considered as the pinnacle of such demagogy. It is interesting to note that these "impressive" data sent from Rudninkai Forest to Moscow by radio transmitter were mentioned in summaries of the most important information and propaganda data of the Lithuanian Communist Party and the LPJ, but apparently were not widely used in propaganda against "bourgeois nationalists" ".

What were the main reasons and motives for the burning of such evil propaganda and Bakaloriskes village? Why did the fortunes of the Kaniukai from many armed and trying to resist the red partisans in the villages of Southeast Lithuania west of the Rudninkai Forest hit Bakaloriškes?

Although the activities of Bakaloriskes village self-preservationists in Soviet sources are undoubtedly significant and exaggerated, their statements and facts have been mentioned relatively,