The following is a translation of the four-page Top Secret covert activity plan of the Lithuanian Department of State Security, dated 7 July 1940, calling for the arrest and elimination of the leadership of “anti-state” parties. This would be the first of a series of repressive activities by Soviet internal affairs and state security agencies in Lithuania which led to the creation in the autumn of 1940 of the Lithuanian Activist Front (Lietuvių Aktyvistų Frontas, LAF), an underground nationalist organization closely linked to German intelligence services. On June 22, 1941, immediately after the Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, armed LAF units began operating in Lithuania.
Top Secret
Approved
Director of the Department of State Security
7 July 1940
PLAN
for the operational elimination and preparatory work to eliminate the leadership of anti-state parties: Nationalists, Voldemarovites, Populists, Christian Democrats, the Young Lithuania Party, Trotskyites, Social Democrats, Socialist Revolutionaries, Riflemen, etc.
The operation is to be carried out simultaneously across all of Lithuania overnight from 11 to 12 July 1940.
By July 10, prepare information on all individuals who are to be put under lockdown. Information on all arrested individuals must include their surname, given name, patronymic, year and place of birth, nationality, education, social status, financial status (property), last place of employment and position held, party affiliation and for which party they work, a brief summary of the incriminating material, and a confirmed permanent residence address at the end of the information. If they live in a dacha (or have one), then include the dacha address and home telephone number.
Once the specified information has been collected, five groups of 1-4 people each will be formed from the operational staff of the First Department and the Kaunas Okrug. The work will be distributed among them as follows:
The first group — 4 people — gathers information on the Nationalist leadership. The group leader is Krastinas.
The second group – 2 people – gathers information on the Voldemarovite leadership. The group leader is Dembo.
The third group – 1 person – is Finkelstein, who gathers information on the Trotskyites and Socialist Revolutionaries.
The fourth group – 4 people – gathers information on the Christian Democrats. The group leader is Komodayte [sic].
The fifth group – three people – gathers information on the Populists and Social Democrats. The group leader is Mackevičius.
Responsibility for providing this information as quickly as possible lies with the head of the First Department, Todesas.
The head of Department II, Gailevičius, is responsible for ensuring that the addresses of arrested individuals were duly identified and verified. To this end, an appropriate number of surveillance officers must be selected and instructed to observe the strictest precautions during the identification and verification of addresses.
To carry out the operation by July 10, set up the required number of task forces, led by special agents. Determine in advance which individuals each group is to arrest.
Agent Zhdanavičius: In order for the operation to go smoothly, a special instruction for searches and arrests must be developed and issued to the group leaders on the eve of the operation.
Agent Gailevičius: In order to provide operation groups with communications equipment, 30 vehicles must be prepared before the day of the operation.
Agent Sniečkus: Since sealed-off rooms and apartments may be needed during the operation, instruct the head of the secretariat, Slavinas, to order 10 wax seals, and they should be ready by July 9.
By that same day, Slavinas must prepare 20 pocket flashlights.
To ensure the operation is successful and local assistance is provided, operations personnel must be deployed from Kaunas to the appropriate locations:
- Vilnius – 8 individuals;
- Šiauliai – 1 individual;
- Ukmergė – 1 individual;
- Marijampolė – 1 individual;
- Panevėžys – 1 individual.
Heads of all departments and the Kaunas District must submit a list of all full-time employees in their department to the Department Secretariat by July 8.
Agent Slavinas: Head of the Investigation Department Razauskas is instructed to prepare arrest warrants along with compiled lists of task forces.
Razauskas, together with the head of the Kaunas prison, Kucinskas, must organize the reception of arrested persons and the items and documents seized from them during the investigation.
To ensure strict isolation is maintained until July 11, when the list of arrested persons is approved, it must be determined which of these persons will be in which cell. This must be done so that defendants in the same case do not end up in the same cell.
After the detainees have been placed, the required number of cells in Kaunas Prison must be vacated by July 11, assuming 200 detainees. Cadres of trusted guards must be created by that time.
Prison Warden Kucinskas must fortify prison security by July 12.
A special team of officers must be assigned to begin investigations of the aforementioned individuals, who are among the leaders of anti-state parties, immediately after their arrest.
Agent Razauskas: Organize external surveillance of high-profile state criminals from July 9 until the day of their arrest. The head of the Second Department is instructed to establish eight external surveillance points.
On July 9, summon district commanders with prepared materials on the operation to agree on candidates to arrest the specified individuals and to give instructions on how to conduct the operation itself.
Supervisor Sniečkus: Develop a special code for telephone conversations with district commanders, as well as for transmitting messages about the preparation and results of the operation.
Agent Sniečkus: At a meeting of district commanders, make it known that those arrested should be sent to Kaunas and Vilnius after the operation.
Agent Sniečkus: Due to the possibility that individuals targeted for arrest, or those not yet on the list, may wish to cross the state border, make arrangements with the border guards to strengthen security from July 9 and close the border starting on July 11 for 16 days.
Agent Sniečkus: The operation to isolate Polish refugees among those arrested will begin on July 8.
All operatios officers and police officers participating in the operation will be provided with firearms. For those who are untrained in their use, special training will be organized, lasting two academic hours, including a trip to the firing range.
Agent Zhdanavičius: This plan must be carried out without any excuses or deviations, although individual points, taking into account the circumstances, may be changed or amended by the director or his deputy.
Chief of Police of State Security Zhdanavičius
LYA. F. K-1. Op. 10. D. 1. P. 231 – 233. Original text in Lithuanian. Publ.: Maslauskienė N., Petravičiūtė I. Okupantai ir kolaborantai: Pirmoji sovietinė okupacija (1940 – 1941) = Occupants and Collaborators: The First Soviet Occupation (1940 – 1941). Vilnius, 2007. P. 233 – 235 (photocopy)
Translation © 2025 by Michael Estes and TranslatingHistory.org
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