In late November and early December 1918, preparations for the formation of workers soviets took place in Kaunas, Šiauliai, and Panevėžys.
[1] On 17 December 1918 the Communist Party of Lithuania and Belorussia organized a strike and protest in Kaunas, calling for Soviet power.
The communists called for a boycott of the City Council election, arguing for the Soviet as the sole form of government.
[4] Seeking to curb shortages, the Soviet banned the transport of food and industrial produce out of the city without its permission.
[1] The Kaunas Soviet resolved to adopt an eight hour work-day, and introduced work place protection for labourers.
[1] The German government issued an order (co-signed by Friedrich Ebert and Hugo Haase) to the Soldatenrat of the Eastern Front to expel the Kaunas Soviet and transfer the civil control of the city to Lithuanian moderates.
It included many followers of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and thus reluctant to take actions against the Kaunas Soviet.
The delegation also met the USPD leader Haase, who implied that the order to disband the Kaunas Soviet was issued under pressure from the Entente.
[1] On 2 April 1919 a prisoner exchange took place in Kaišiadorys between the Germany Army and the Socialist Soviet Republic of Lithuania and Belorussia, whereby the German Army released 24 prisoners (including members the Kaunas Soviet) in exchange for 13 detained members of the German delegation in Vilna (led by G. von Trützschler).