Formed from forcefully mobilized Lithuanian men, the division was poorly supplied, faced major morale issues, and suffered from mass desertions.
[1] As soon as the Red Army pushed German Wehrmacht forces out of eastern Lithuania as a result of the Operation Bagration in summer 1944, Soviets started a mobilization of Lithuanian men.
Many men had to be forcefully taken by the NKVD, others hid in forests giving rise to the armed anti-Soviet resistance which continued until the 1950s.
Generally, Soviets attempted to send non-Russians to their national military formations of the Red Army.
[4] This division was established in August 1944 and was based in a summer camp near Yartsevo, Smolensk Oblast.
[1] As winter approached, which would have made living conditions even worse, permission was given to relocate the division to Lithuania.
In a 15 December 1944 letter to Lavrentiy Beria, Soviet Minister of Internal Affairs, his deputy Sergei Kruglov reported that between October and mid-December about 1,750 men deserted and SMERSH agents had information about another 1,500 men who planned to desert.
[2] Beria forwarded the letter to Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Georgy Malenkov, and other officials.