Povilas Morkūnas (26 November 1920 – 19 June 1953) was an anti-Soviet
Lithuanian partisan and a commander of the
Kęstutis and
Prisikėlimas military districts.
He was known by many codenames, such as ''Ežerietis'', ''Dilba'', ''Arvydas'', ''Černius'', ''Brizgis'', ''Kyras'', ''Mažvydas'', ''Lastas'', but mostly as Rimantas or Drakas.
Biography
Early life
Povilas Morkūnas was born on 26 November 1920 in the village of Zbaras near
Šiluva
Šiluva is a small town of less than 700 inhabitants in Lithuania. It is located in the region of Samogitia. It is a major site of Catholic pilgrimage in Lithuania.
History
Šiluva was first mentioned in 1457 in relation to the building of th ...
to farmers
Kazimieras Morkūnas and Marijona Kmitaitė. He was the eldest of nine children. In 1935 he finished the Šiluva primary school, during which he participated in scout activities.
For some time after that he studied at the
Raseiniai agriculture school.
He also worked as a policeman.
In 1939 he joined the
Lithuanian army
The Lithuanian Armed Forces () are the military of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of the Lithuanian Land Forces, the Lithuanian Naval Force and the Lithuanian Air Force. In wartime, the Lithuanian State Border Guard Service (wh ...
and served in an artillery regiment. For his exemplary service he received the
NCO rank of sergeant.
Operation Barbarossa
His unit was incorporated in the
Soviet army after the
Soviet occupation of Lithuania. During
Operation Barbarossa the unit was dislocated near the
Narach lake in
Belarus. It was ordered to scout ahead, but Morkūnas and his men deserted back to
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
, as they were hopeful that the German army could still liberate Lithuania. After giving away his units' horses in a nearby village, they set off and were met by the Germans, who let the men return to their country. Morkūnas participated in the 1941
June uprising.
Morkūnas spent the time of
German occupation of Lithuania in his home village of Zbaras working at his parents farm. In 1944, when Germany was retreating, Morkūnas organized the anti-Soviet resistance around Šiluva.
Life as partisan
Morkūnas began his career as a member of the Žebenkštis unit operating around Raseiniai,
which contained four squads, one of which was headed by Morkūnas. In 1945
Jonas Žemaitis
Jonas Žemaitis (also known under his ''nom de guerre'' ''Vytautas''; March 15, 1909 in Palanga – November 26, 1954 in Moscow) was one of the leaders of the Lithuanian partisans, armed resistance against the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, a ...
joined the unit and replaced its previous commander J. Čeponis as senior leader. Morkūnas fought in the famous battle near Virtukai on 22 July 1945. On 6 July 1946 Morkūnas and Žemaitis commanded the largest battle in
Žemaitija
Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuani ...
against the NKVD in Pyragiai.
On 3 March 1948 Morkūnas became the head of the weakened ''Maironis'' unit (previously named the
Povilas Lukšys unit)
and began to organize local partisans into smaller subdivisions and re-establish discipline.
With his second-in-command
Juozas Paliūnas he inspected the partisan squads of other areas,
took care of various documents and demanded squad leaders to make reports. In 1949 by the orders of the leadership of the
Prisikėlimas military district
Prisikėlimas (''Resurrection'') military district - was a military district of Lithuanian partisans which comprised Šiauliai, Joniškis, partially - Kėdainiai, Panevėžys and Raseiniai counties.
Leaders
Structure of Lithuanian partis ...
Morkūnas was responsible for the publishing of the district headquarter-curated newspaper ''Prisikėlimo Ugnis''.
The newspaper was a collection of various partisan poems and songs of the surrounding areas. In 1950 the newspaper was re-published by the efforts of Morkūnas.
Rise to leadership
In the 2 February 1949 meeting of the partisan leadership in the village of
Minaičiai, Morkūnas was selected as the head of the Prisikėlimas military district, with his term starting on 1 August 1949.
Morkūnas was almost detained when his bunker was surrounded by the NKVD, who offered him to surrender. He accepted but used the time of discussing the terms to win time and to think of a plan to escape the situation. With improvised coordination between him other partisans they engaged in a firefight during the night, during which Morkūnas silently escaped to the forest. His term ended on 1 August 1951,
and on 2 August he was reassigned to be head the partisan West Lithuanian (Sea) Area.
Juozas Paliūnas replaced him as the commander of the Prisikėlimas military district.
On 20 May 1952 he replaced
Krizostomas Labanauskas as the head of the
Kęstutis military district.
Due to Morkūnas's capability of publishing three volumes of the partisan poem and song collections and providing them for every organizational unit of the
LLKS, on 1 January 1952 Jonas Žemaitis, then the chairman of the union, awarded Morkūnas the 2nd degree of the freedom fighter cross.
Final years
As organized partisan resistance was becoming significantly weaker, Jonas Žemaitis and Morkūnas reportedly once made plans to get fake documents and move to
Poland and further abroad. In 1952 the
MGB captured a high-ranking partisan officer by the name of Leonas Juška-Kariūnas, who gradually revealed information like communicators, liaisons and other headquarter information. In exchange for freedom, Juška also agreed to participate in eliminating the rest of the partisans. The MGB often unsuccessfully tried to invite Morkūnas via letter to meet and discuss various partisan matters by using recruited former partisans. The agents succeeded in June 1953 in luring Morkūnas to the forest of Plauginiai. In the ensuing fight, Morkūnas was shot dead.
His sister Juzefa Morkūnaitė-Lakštingala was also a partisan of the Prisikėlimas district who died on 9 August 1950.
Remembrance
Morkūnas was posthumously awarded the
Order of the Cross of Vytis, 3rd degree as well as the rank of colonel in 1999.
See also
*
Anti-Soviet partisans
Anti-Soviet partisans may refer to various resistance movements that opposed the Soviet Union and its satellite states at various periods during the 20th century.
During Russian Civil War and Interwar Period
* Basmachi movement
*Green armies
*A ...
*
Forest Brothers
Further reading
* Povilas Gaidelis, ''Lietuvos kovos dėl laisvės. 1941–1953 m.,'' 2022.
* Vykintas Vaitkevičius, Aistė Petrauskienė, ''Lietuvos partizanų valstybė'', 2019,
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morkunas, Povilas
1920 births
1953 deaths
Lithuanian partisans killed in action
People shot dead by law enforcement officers in Lithuania