On Political Terror during the Soviet Expansion into Lithuania, 1918–1919

Abstract

This article deals with a noticeable anomaly of Bolshevik expansion in Lithuania during 1918–1919: the refusal of the Soviet authorities to resort to terror to subdue the local population in order to export the world revolution. The author argues that the Soviets avoided political terror in Lithuania because they did not treat the Lithuanians as a nation capable of sustaining their own state. In fact, anti-Bolshevik forces employed more terror than the Bolsheviks in their attempt to drive out the Reds and uproot Lithuanian support for the Communist regime. The Lithuanian left-wing government of Mykolas Sleževičius sought to contain its radicalized military and to preserve a soft-handed relationship with the local Bolshevik government.

Keywords:

• terror
• Bolshevik revolution
• nationalism
• state-building
• Ober Ost
• Russia
• Lithuania

Notes

1. Some of the well-known Lithuanian intellectuals and artists who cooperated with Kapsukas’ government were Balys Sruoga, Kazys Binkis, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Pranas Mašiotas, Jonas Basanavičius, Jonas Jablonskis, Felicija Bortkevičienė, Ona Mašiotienė, Filomena Grincevičiūtė, Povilas Karazija, Juozas Kairiūkštis, Marcelinas Šikšnys, Stasys Matjošaitis-Esmaitis, Mečislovas Vasiliauskas, Aldona Didžiulytė-Kazanavičienė, Edvardas Volteris, Adomas Varnas, Antanas Žmuidzinavičius, Tadas Ivanauskas, Tadeusz Wróblewski, Konstantinas Galkauskas, Juozas Talat-Kelpša, Petras Vaičiūnas, Juozas Vaičkus, Konstantinas Glinskis, Adelė Nezabitauskaitė-Galaunienė, Jonas Vabalas-Gudaitis, Petras Rimša, Juozas Zikaras, Zigmas Žemaitis, Antanas Purėnas, Konstantinas Jablonskis, Augustinas Janulaitis, and Juozas Žiugžda.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Česlovas Laurinavičius

Česlovas Laurinavičius is a senior researcher in history at the Lithuanian Institute of History in Vilnius. He has published widely on modern Lithuanian history, including state and nation-building, geopolitics, and wars of independence.