Pokario Lietuvos partizanų bunkeriai Mėnaičių ir Balandiškio k. (Grinkiškio sen., Radviliškio r.)
Lithuanian post-war partisan bunkers in Mėnaičiai and Balandiškis villages (Grinkiškis Eldership, Radviliškis District)

Summary/Abstract: The article presents material from the archaeological investigation of Lithuanian post-war partisan bunkers that existed on the Mikniai family farmstead in Mėnaičiai village and on the Sajai family farmstead in Balandiškis village (Grinkiškis Eldership, Radviliškis District). Eight Lithuanian partisan commanders gathered and conducted meetings in the Prisikėlimas Military District staff bunker constructed under the granary on the Mikniai family farmstead in February 1949. The directive documents for the founding of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters (LLKS), its statutes, the leadership structure, and the districting system were approved in the meetings. On 16 February the partisan commanders signed the political LLKS Declaration proclaiming that the LLKS council was the supreme political organ of the occupied nation until an independent democratic Republic of Lithuania was re-established. From October 1949 to January 1950, the public section of the LLKS operated in the bunker constructed in the storage barn of the Sajai family farmstead in the autumn of 1949 and published the publication ‘Prie rymančio rūpintojėlio’. The article discusses the types of bunkers used by the Lithuanian partisans fighting against the Soviet occupation, the essential details of their construction, and the sources of information. Its aim is to determine how much archaeological investigations of such sites supplement, correct, and perhaps even change the historical information and that provided by witnesses.

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