Vytautas Bulvičius (5 May 1908 – 17 December 1941) was a Lithuanian military officer, major of the General Staff, and leader of the anti-Soviet

Lithuanian Activist Front The Lithuanian Activist Front or LAF () was a short-lived, far-right underground resistance organization established in 1940 after Lithuania was incorporated by the Soviet Union. The goal of the organization was to liberate Lithuania and re-est ...

(LAF). Educated at

War School of Kaunas War School of Kaunas ( lt, Kauno karo mokykla) was a military school for junior officers in Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania. It was established in January 1919 during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence copying the example of Russian 4- ...

and Higher Officers' Courses, Bulvičius became major of the General Staff in September 1938. He taught military discipline and resistance tactics at the

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) ( lt, Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas (VDU)) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was kn ...

and published a treatise ''Karinis valstybės rengimas'' (Preparing the State for War) in 1939 (republished in 1994 and 2018) discussing the upcoming war. After the occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in June 1940, he created the so-called "Bulvičius group", which in 1941 evolved into the

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

branch of the

(LAF). The group planned an anti-Soviet uprising (see June Uprising in Lithuania) at the outbreak of the

German–Soviet War The Eastern Front of World War II was a Theater (warfare), theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Polish Armed Forces in the East, Poland and other Allies of World War II, Allies, which encom ...

. Vilnius LAF was to lead the uprising and Bulvičius was reserved the seat of Minister of Defense in the

Provisional Government of Lithuania The Provisional Government of Lithuania ( lt, Laikinoji Vyriausybė) was a temporary government aiming for independent Lithuania during the last days of the first Soviet occupation and the first months of German Nazi occupation in 1941. It ...

. The group established radio contact with Germany, but this radio signal was detected by the Soviet

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and Bulvičius was arrested on 9 June 1941. Fifteen other people were arrested leading to the near liquidation of Vilnius LAF command. At the outbreak of the war on 22 June, the prisoners were transported to Gorky (now

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

) and tried by the Military Tribunal of the

Moscow Military District The Order of Lenin Moscow Military District was a military district of the Soviet Armed Forces and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010 it was merged with the Leningrad Military ...

. Bulvičius and seven others were sentenced to death and executed on 17 December 1941.

Interwar Lithuanian Army

Vytautas Bulvičius was born to the family of book smuggler and large farmer Juozas Bulvičius and his wife Marija Bulvičienė. Juozas Bulvičius owned the estate of . Vytautas was one of seven children. His elder brother Albinas was an aviation captain and was killed in a German aviation raid on 23 June 1941. In 1925, Bulvičius graduated from the gymnasium of

Vilkaviškis Vilkaviškis () is a city in southwestern Lithuania, the administrative center of the Vilkaviškis District Municipality. It is located northwest from Marijampolė, at the confluence of of and rivers. The city got its name from the Vilk ...

. On 7 September 1925, after graduating from the

, Bulvičius was promoted to

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

and assigned to the 9th Infantry Regiment in

Marijampolė Marijampolė (; also known by Marijampolė#Names, several other names) is a cultural and industrial city and the Capital city, capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad Oblast, and Lake ...

. On 25 September 1928, he was transferred to the armoured vehicle detachment in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Tra ...

. On 23 November 1929, he was promoted to senior lieutenant. On 31 March 1931, Bulvičius transferred to the War School of Kaunas and graduated from

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifl ...

courses at the Higher Officers' Courses on 1 February 1933. The same year he was promoted to captain. In 1934, Bulvičius married Marija Danevičiūtė. In June 1937, he was one of the twenty graduates of the second class of the Officers' Courses of Vytautas the Great. He was then assigned to the

General Staff of Lithuania The Defence Staff ( lt, Gynybos štabas) is the main staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Since 2008, the staff reports to the Chief of Defence. Its main tasks are to plan, lead, and support military operations as well as to prepare strategic mi ...

and promoted to major of the General Staff in September 1938. From 12 March to 19 July 1940, Bulvičius was assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment, deployed in

. In October 1938, he started teaching military discipline and resistance tactics at the

. The course covered basic principles of war, improvements in weaponry, security and defence of small nations,

total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-com ...

, armed forces, World War I, the upcoming war and Lithuania's situation in this war, preparation of armed forces, economic war, and the role of the society in preparing for war. Bulvičius also published articles on military and patriotic themes in military journals ''Kardas'' (The Sword) and ''Mūsų žinynas'' (Our Manual). In 1939, he published monograph ''Karinis valstybės rengimas'' (Preparing the State for War) based on his university lectures. In the book, Bulvičius emphasized the importance of moral and psychological preparedness of the military personnel. The truncated work was republished by the

Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces The National Defence Volunteer Forces or NDVF ( lt, Krašto apsaugos savanorių pajėgos [], previously []) is a branch of the Lithuanian Armed Forces. Volunteer forces were officially established on 17 January 1991 by the law of the Supreme C ...

(SKAT) in 1994 and in full by the

Ministry of National Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in stat ...

in 2018. An English translation is being prepared by the Ministry.

Lithuanian Activist Front

After the occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union in June 1940, the Soviets started the gradual liquidation of the Lithuanian Army. As a result, Bulvičius was sent to the

179th Rifle Division The 179th Vitebsk Red Banner Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. World War II Formation Established at Vilnius on 17 August 1940 as part of the 29th Lithuanian Territorial Rifle Corps ...

of the Red Army's 29th Lithuanian Territorial Rifle Corps. At the same time, he was assigned as lecturer to the War School of Kaunas which was moved to Vilnius and reorganized as the Infantry School. He also taught military preparedness at

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow an ...

. In fall 1940, along with other Lithuanian officers and resistance activists, he created the so-called "Bulvičius group", which in 1941 evolved into the Vilnius branch of the

(LAF). The core of Vilnius LAF comprised thirty people with Bulvičius as their leader. The main task of Vilnius LAF was to start an uprising relying on trustworthy personnel from the liquidated Lithuanian Army at the outbreak of the war between the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The initial plan was to retreat to the woods of

Valkininkai Valkininkai ( pl, Olkieniki) is a historic town in (Valkininkai) eldership, Varėna District Municipality, Alytus County, Lithuania, located about northeast from Varėna and about southwest from Vilnius. At the Lithuanian census of 2001, its ...

and launch a guerilla war against the Soviet forces. The group acquired a portable radio and cyphers and established contact with Germany in hopes of receiving ammunition and arms. They prepared a map with 77 locations where the Germans could drop the munitions. During February and March 1941, Bulvičius, together with K. Antanavičius and Juozas Vėbra prepared a plan for the LAF insurrection. According to the agreement between LAF groups in Kaunas and Vilnius, Kaunas group should solve organisational matters of the uprising, and Vilnius group should focus on political and military matters as most of the members of the former Lithuanian Army were stationed in Vilnius and its environs. During a meeting on 22 April, members of Vilnius and Kaunas LAF agreed on the composition of the

Lithuanian Provisional Government The Provisional Government of Lithuania ( lt, Laikinoji Vyriausybė) was a temporary government aiming for independent Lithuania during the last days of the first Soviet occupation and the first months of German Nazi occupation in 1941. It ...

in which Bulvičius was foreseen as a Minister of Defense.

Arrest and execution

Bulvičius' group was tracked down by detecting their radio sessions. The radio was confiscated on 6 June. Bulvičius was arrested by the

on 9 June. In total, the NKVD arrested a total of 16 people connected with "Bulvičius group". After almost the entire leadership of Vilnius LAF was arrested, the Kaunas LAF took the leading role in the planned uprising. During the

June deportation The June deportation ( et, juuniküüditamine, lv, jūnija deportācijas, lt, birželio trėmimai) was a mass deportation by the Soviet Union of tens of thousands of people from the territories occupied in 1940–1941: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuani ...

which took place a week after Bulvičius' arrest, 236 Lithuanian officers were arrested. On 22 June, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The arrests made the June Uprising against the retreating

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

weaker in Vilnius. Nevertheless, Lithuanian rebels engaged in shootouts with the retreating Red Army and the Germans were able to enter the city without resistance on 24 June. As Germans were rapidly advancing, the NKVD hurried to evacuate 1,700 political prisoners into the interior of Russia. The prisoners were placed in train wagons at the Vilnius railway station. After a German aviation attack, anti-Soviet insurgents managed to uncouple several wagons thus saving the some of the prisoners. At 4am on 24 June, twenty wagons with more than 600 political prisoners, including Bulvičius' group, were deported deep into Russia. On 9 July, Bulvičius was transported to the Prison no. 1 in Gorky (now

). After long torture and interrogation on 26–30 September and trial on 26–28 November 1941, Bulvičius was sentenced to death by the Military Tribunal of the

. Bulvičius was likely executed in the prison and possibly was buried in the nearby . Seven other members of Vilnius LAF were also executed the same day – Antanas Skripkauskas, Juozas Kilius, Juozas Radzevičius, Leonas Žemkalnis, Jurgis Gobis, Aleksas Kamantauskas and Stasys Mockaitis. Seven others were sentenced to 7 to 20 years in prison, and Aleksas Vainorius was acquitted (however, he was not released and died of tuberculosis in July 1942). Marija Bulvičienė, wife of Bulvičius, retreated to the U.S. after the war with their two daughters.

Awards

* 1928: Independence Medal * 16 February 1938:

Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas The Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas is the Lithuanian Presidential Award which was re-instituted to honour the citizens of Lithuania for outstanding performance in civil and public offices. Foreign nationals may also be awarded this ...

(4th degree) * 19 November 1997: Grand Cross of

Order of the Cross of Vytis The Order of the Cross of Vytis ( lt, Vyčio Kryžiaus ordinas) is a Lithuanian presidential award conferred for heroic defence of Lithuania's freedom and independence. November 23 is a holiday in honour of the Order of the Cross of Vytis. Histo ...

(posthumously)

Legacy

On 20 June 2009, a bas-relief by sculptor Stasys Žirgulis of the leaders of the June Uprising was unveiled in the building of the

. The relief honors six professors and students of the university who were the most active leaders of the Lithuanian Activist Front – Vytautas Bulvičius, Adolfas Damušis, Juozas Vėbra, Leonas Prapuolenis, Pilypas Narutis, and

Juozas Ambrazevičius Juozas Ambrazevičius or Juozas Brazaitis (December 9, 1903 in Trakiškiai, Marijampolė parish – November 28, 1974 in South Orange, New Jersey South Orange, officially the Township of South Orange Village, is a suburban township in Ess ...

. A training centre of the

is named after Major Vytautas Bulvičius.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bulvicius, Vytautas 1908 births 1941 deaths Lithuanian Activist Front members Lithuanian anti-communists Lithuanian independence activists Lithuanian people executed by the Soviet Union Lithuanian people of World War II Lithuanian resistance members Officer's Crosses of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Vytis Academic staff of Vytautas Magnus University