Adolfas Kubilius (26 July 1918 – 9 March 1946), also known by his codenames Balys, Radvila, or Vaišvila, was a Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan and a commander of partisans in the

Samogitia Samogitia, often known by its Lithuanian language, Lithuanian name ''Žemaitija'' (Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see Samogitia#Etymology and alternative names, below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five ...

region. Kubilius was a teacher during interwar Lithuania. In 1940 he was conscripted into the

Lithuanian army The Lithuanian Armed Forces () are the military of Lithuania. The Lithuanian Armed Forces consist of the Lithuanian Land Forces, the Lithuanian Navy, the Lithuanian Air Force and the Lithuanian Special Operations Force. In wartime, the Lithuan ...

but was quickly demobilized due to the

Soviet occupation of Lithuania The occupation of the Baltic states was a period of annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania by the Soviet Union from 1940 until its dissolution in 1991. For a period of several years during World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the Baltic st ...

. At the beginning of

Nazi occupation of Lithuania The military occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany lasted from the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, to the end of the Battle of Memel on January 28, 1945. At first the Germans were welcomed as liberators from the repress ...

, Kubilius studied

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

Vytautas Magnus University Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) (, VDU) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known as the University of Lithuania, but ...

, though after persecutions by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

began, he went into hiding and joined the Lithuanian Liberty Army, becoming one of its leaders, and began organizing men in Samogitia, establishing the Samogitian Legion. He was captured in 1945 and sentenced to be shot in 1946.

Biography

Early life

Adolfas Kubilius was born on 26 July 1918 in the village of in the Kretinga district to Leonas Kubilius and Ona Daugintaitė. In 1936 he graduated from the

Kretinga Kretinga (Yiddish: קרעטינגע) is a List of cities in Lithuania, city in Klaipėda County, in north-western Lithuania. It is the capital of the Kretinga District Municipality. It is located east of the popular Baltic Sea resort town of Pala ...

gymnasium, staying there working as a teacher afterwards. In 1940 he was conscripted into the

and served in a battalion of

uhlan Uhlan (; ; ; ; ) is a type of light cavalry, primarily armed with a lance. The uhlans started as Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, Lithuanian irregular cavalry, that were later also adopted by other countries during the 18th century, including Polis ...

light cavalry. However, Lithuania would soon be occupied by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

under the treatise of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

, and Kubilius would be demobilized in the autumn of the same year.

German occupation

Following demobilization, Kubilius set to work in the

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

radio broadcast service and later the Vilnius tobacco factory. Kubilius began studying journalism in the

. After the

began persecutions, Kubilius went into hiding. In 1943 he joined the Lithuanian Liberty Army (LLA), heading its organizational communications department in the headquarters in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

under the rank of captain. Kubilius took care of the distribution of the anti-Nazi press, as well as recruiting new members. In 1944 Kubilius departed for a reconnaissance school in

East Prussia East Prussia was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1772 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's ...

under the initiative of the LLA. After completing its courses he was sent back to the forests of Lithuania.

Later years and death

Upon return, Kubilius began establishing bunkers as well as initiating communications with the LLA's

Šiauliai Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 202 ...

district, as well as other partisan groups in Samogitia. Along with fellow partisan Adolfas Eidimtas he established the Samogitian Legion, a progenitor of the

Žemaičiai military district Žemaičiai military district () was a military district of Lithuanian partisans which operated in 1945–1953 in the counties of Telšiai County, Telšiai, Kretinga, Mažeikiai, and some parts of Tauragė county. It is named after ethnographic reg ...

. It encompassed resistance units of the LLA in the region. He took care of the acquisition of weapons, collected information about the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

, the as well as deployment of its military units, and the movement of equipment. The received knowledge was transmitted to Germany. Kubilius maintained relations with the bishop of Telšiai,

Vincentas Borisevičius Vincentas Borisevičius (23 November 1887 – 18 November 1946) was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic bishop of the Telšiai Diocese. The process of his beatification was initiated in 1990. Born to a family of well-off Lithuanian farmers, Borisevičiu ...

, from whom he received support by food. In 1945 Kubilius was discovered and arrested, and sent to be held in captivity in Vilnius. In January of 1946 he was sentenced to be shot, and the order was carried out two months later, on 9 March 1946. His remains were buried in the vicinity of the

Tuskulėnai Manor Tuskulėnai Manor () is a neoclassical manor in Žirmūnai elderate of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is best known as burial grounds of people executed by the KGB in 1944–1947. After Lithuania regained independence in 1990, the manor was reconstruc ...

, and were re-discovered in 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kubilius, Adolfas 1918 births 1946 deaths Lithuanian resistance members executed by the Soviet Union People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm

Biography

Early life

German occupation

Later years and death

See also

Further reading

References