Operation Spring; Russian: Опера́ция «Весна́») was a mass deportation of the armed opposition to the Soviet power in the occupied Lithuania carried out by the forces of the Ministry of State Security (MGB) on May 22–24, 1948.
According to the February 21, 1948 decree № 417—160сс of the USSR Council of Ministers, deportations were to target the "forest brothers" (Lithuanian: miško broliai), members of their families, and "various helpers of anti-Soviet partisans, including kulaks."
[4] The majority of deportations were to Krasnoyarsk Krai (23,467), Irkutsk Oblast (11,495) and Buryat-Mongolian ASSR (4,038).
About 25,000 worked in forest industry, and the rest in coal mines and kolkhozes.
Many "settlers" were arrested an put to Gulag labor camps for various violations: trying to escape, singing Lithuanian "nationalist" songs, etc.