Latvian partisans
Similar anti-Soviet resistance groups fought against Soviet rule in Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Galicia (Eastern Europe).
As Stalinist repression intensified over the following years, thousands of residents of this country used the heavily forested countryside as a natural refuge and basis for armed anti-Soviet resistance.
Resistance units varied in size and composition, ranging from individually operating guerrillas, armed primarily for self-defence, to large and well-organised groups able to engage significant Soviet forces in battle.
They secured Alūksne on July 5, but that evening strong Red Army forces, retreating from the Germans, reached the town, and the partisans withdrew without a fight.
At the village of Mālupe the partisans attacked the headquarters of the 183rd Rifle Division, killing its commander and several staff officers and capturing their supplies and transportation.
[4] Longer-lived resistance units began to form during the last months of the war; their ranks were composed of a good number of Latvian Legion soldiers as well as civilians.
[6] The adoption of the Declaration was an attempt to restore de facto independence to the Republic of Latvia, in hopes of international support and by taking advantage of the interval between changes of occupying powers.
Some of the most prominent LCC accomplishments are related to its military branch – General Jānis Kurelis group (the so-called "kurelieši") with Lieutenant Roberts Rubenis battalion which carried out the armed resistance against Waffen SS forces.
[7] Others, such as Waffen SS commanders Alfons Rebane and Alfrēds Riekstiņš escaped to the United Kingdom and Sweden and participated in Allied intelligence operations in aid of the partisans.
And also this poor support diminished significantly after MI6's Operation Jungle was severely compromised by the activities of British spies (Kim Philby and others) who forwarded information to the Soviets, enabling the KGB to identify, infiltrate and eliminate many Latvian partisan units and cut others off from any further contact with Western intelligence operatives.The conflict between the Soviet armed forces and the Latvian national partisans lasted over a decade and cost at least thousands of lives.
[7] In some 3,000 raids, the partisans inflicted damage on uniformed military personnel, party cadres (particularly in rural areas), buildings, and ammunition depots.
The Soviets gradually consolidated their rule in the cities, help from rural civilians was not as forthcoming, and special military and security units continued to be sent to control the partisans.
[9] Many of the remaining national partisans laid down their weapons when offered an amnesty by the Soviet authorities after Stalin's death in 1953, although isolated engagements continued into the 1960s.
[10] Possibly, the last of the national partisan groups was one of three men that had been operating since 1944 under the leadership of Polish-Latvian fighter Staņislavs Zavadskis (nom de guerre “Pans”) in Cesvaine district, received a special invitation from Latvian SSR KGB chairman Jānis Vēvers.
[11] Some individual guerrillas are reported to have remained in hiding and evaded capture into the 1980s, by which time Latvia was pressing for independence through peaceful means (Baltic Way, Singing Revolution).
