Kazys Skučas (3 March 1894 in Mauručiai, Marijampolė district – 30 July 1941 in the Butyrka prison) was a

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

n politician and General of the

Lithuanian Army The Lithuanian Armed Forces () are the military of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of the Lithuanian Land Forces, the Lithuanian Navy, the Lithuanian Air Force and the Lithuanian Special Operations Force. In wartime, the Lithuan ...

. Skučas was the last

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

of independent Lithuania. He was a target of anti-Lithuanian

Soviet propaganda Propaganda in the Soviet Union was the practice of state-directed communication aimed at promoting class conflict, proletarian internationalism, the goals of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the party itself. The main Soviet cen ...

in the days leading to the 1940 Soviet ultimatum and occupation of Lithuania. Right after the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

invaded Lithuania on 15 June 1940, Skučas was directed to leave the country by the then-President

Antanas Smetona Antanas Smetona (; 10 August 1874 – 9 January 1944) was a Lithuanian intellectual, journalist and politician. He served as the first president of Lithuania from 1919 to 1920 and later as the authoritarian head of state from 1926 until the Occu ...

but was arrested at the border several days later by the then acting Lithuanian President Antanas Merkys and handed over to the Russians, transported to Moscow, and executed in 1941.

Early life and career

After graduation from the Veiveriai Pedagogical Seminary in 1912, Skučas worked as a teacher for a few years. He then enrolled to the Pedagogical Institute of Petrograd. However, in 1915 he was drafted into the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

and served in the

Romanian front The Romanian Front (, FR) was a moderate fascist party created in Romania in 1935. Led by former Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, it originated as a right-wing splinter group from the mainstream National Peasants' ...

with the 249th Infantry Regiment. In 1918 he returned to Lithuania and volunteered for the

, where he began by organized police forces in Daugai. Skučas steadily rose through the ranks and in March 1928 he became the commander of the 2nd Infantry Division and the

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

garrison A garrison is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city ...

. From 1934 to 1938, Skučas worked as a

military attaché A military attaché or defence attaché (DA),Defence Attachés
''Geneva C ...

in Russia. After his return, he was promoted to brigadier general, but he soon retired. He then joined the 20th cabinet (Prime Minister Jonas Černius) as the Minister of the Interior. Formed after the government crisis in the aftermath of the

1939 German ultimatum to Lithuania On 20 March 1939, Nazi Germany's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop presented an oral ultimatum to Juozas Urbšys, foreign minister of Lithuania. Germany demanded that Lithuania give up the Klaipėda Region (also known as the Memel Territo ...

, the 20th cabinet included four generals. Skučas retained his position when Prime Minister

Antanas Merkys Antanas Merkys (; 1 February 1887 – 5 March 1955) was the last Prime Minister of independent Lithuania, serving from November 1939 to June 1940. When the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding that it accept a Soviet g ...

formed the 21st cabinet in fall 1939.

Soviet persecution

In spring 1940, the Soviet Union heightened its anti-Lithuanian rhetoric and increased diplomatic pressure. The Lithuanian government was accused of kidnapping, torturing, and interrogating two Russian soldiers, stationed in Lithuania according to the

Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty The Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty (, ) was a bilateral treaty signed between the Soviet Union and Lithuania on October 10, 1939. According to provisions outlined in the treaty, Lithuania would acquire about one fifth of the Vilnius ...

of 1939. Skučas and Director of the State Security Department Augustinas Povilaitis were singled out as the main perpetrators of the provocations. Despite Lithuanian repeated pledges to fully investigate the incident, the Soviets kept pressing the charges. Just before receiving the Soviet ultimatum, Lithuanian government decided that Skučas should resign. However, it was not enough and the Lithuanians were presented with the ultimatum, listing three demands. The first demand was to put Skučas and Povilaitis on trial. After Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union on 15 June 1940, Skučas and Povilaitis were arrested, by police sent by Antanas Merkys, near the Lithuanian border with

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. For a time they were held in the Kaunas Prison, but then transported to the Butyrka prison in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. After a show trial, Skučas was sentenced to death and executed in July 1941 aged 47. For a long time very little was known about Skučas' trial or execution. Only in 1989 his case documents were made public. They showed that, despite lack of evidence, Skučas was accused not only of provocations against the Russian soldiers, but also of

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...

during the years as military attaché and "brutal actions against the socialist revolution."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skucas, Kazys 1894 births 1941 deaths Lithuanian generals Lithuanian Army officers executed by the Soviet Union Ministers of internal affairs of Lithuania People from Marijampolė County