The counterintelligence section of the General Staff of the Lithuanian Army issued an order to arrest members of the Workers' Group in April 1923.
Lithuania declared independence in February 1918, but was able to start organizing its government institutions only after the German defeat in World War I in November 1918.
In December 1918, Lithuania was invaded by the Bolshevik forces who established the short-lived Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
[3] In January 1922, Zigmas Angarietis (who lived in Moscow) sent an instruction to prepare a candidate list under the name of Workers' Group.
[7] The first public announcement of the Workers' Group was published on 16 July 1922 in the legal communist newspaper Žarija (Ember) edited by Liudas Adomauskas.
[3] It called for the creation of a unified workers' front and contained a list of 21 political, mainly populist, agenda items.
[9] These items included improving workers' conditions (e.g. livable wage, 8-hour workday, unemployment and health insurance, et.)
[10] Other items concerned the confiscation of large landholdings and their distribution to poor peasants, revocation of martial law, release of political prisoners, abolition of indirect taxes, etc.
Only one item concerned foreign policy and called for "ceasing any military adventures" against the Soviet Union and rejection of any treaty with the Second Polish Republic.
For example, they called for the abolition of religious organization, state security agencies, Lithuanian Riflemen's Union, and even the police.
For example, Land and Freedom (Žemė ir laisvė) had a similar populist platform aimed at poor peasants.
[3][24] The main goal of such obstruction was to show that democratic parliamentary system was broken and ineffective, and that only a radical revolution could achieve the results.
[26] He once attempted to turn Seimas' session into a rally demanding the release of political (i.e. communist) prisoners even though he had no written proposals or law drafts.
[3] On 28 November 1922, Mykolas Krupavičius presented a document handwritten by Dominas when he was drafted for the mandatory military service.
[3] In this document, Dominas renounced his Lithuanian citizenship, claimed to be a citizen of Russia, and thus not subject to the military service.
Their list was not registered in the 1st electoral district (Marijampolė), but they regrouped under the name of Lithuanian Small Landowners and Settlers (Lietuvos mažažemiai ir naujakuriai).
[3] On 7 April 1923, counterintelligence section of the General Staff of the Lithuanian Army issued an order to arrest members of the Workers' Group.
[3] That was just a few days after the election to the Third Seimas on 8–10 May was won by the left-wing Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union and Social Democratic Party of Lithuania.
[43] To prevent further setbacks in the negotiations of the Soviet–Lithuanian Non-Aggression Pact (concluded on 28 September 1926), Moscow ordered the Communist Party of Lithuania to temporarily cease any demonstrations or rallies.
[45] Nevertheless, the rally allowed to keep the narrative of "Soviet threat to Lithuania" which became the official pretext for the 17 December 1926 coup d'état which installed President Antanas Smetona.