The Brothers of the Forest were Baltic partisans who fought against Soviet occupation after World War II.

The Soviets marched into formerly independent Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1944. Over the coming years, as Stalinist-style repressions intensified, more than 100,000 Balts fled to the vast, wooded hinterlands to hide. Known as forest brothers, they included everyone from farmhands to professors. Some sought to save their skins as secret police rounded people up for deportation; others formed well-organized partisan groups and engaged Soviet forces in battle.

The bloody conflict that ensued as Soviet forces endeavored to liquidate the woodland refugees lasted for more than a decade and cost at least 50,000 lives. It is one of the forgotten chapters in the history of World War II and its aftermath.

Forests were a natural refuge. Throughout history, for at least 1000 years, Balts had been retreating to the forests for protection from foreign invaders. At their most forbidding, Baltic forests are so thick and impenetrable that they can appear to swallow up the daylight. It's easy to imagine how even the most hardened KGB trooper might have had second thoughts about venturing too far into the forests to try and capture armed, angry men who had nothing left to lose.

Bands of forest brothers organized attacks against the brutal new Soviet regime. In Lithuania, where resistance was best organized, armed guerrillas effectively controlled whole regions of the countryside until 1949. By ambushing Soviet patrols, wrecking power lines and assassinating thousands of local party hacks, Baltic partisans — to put it mildly — became a nuisance for the new Communist authorities. Consolidating Soviet rule had become more bothersome and dangerous than Moscow had bargained for.

Many forest brothers hoped that war would begin between the Soviet Union and the West, and that this would lead to the liberation of the Baltic states. That never happened. According to Mart Laar, Estonian prime minister (1992-1994 and 1999-2002) and author of a book on the post-war resistance, many aging forest brothers still feel bitter that the West chose not to take the Soviets on militarily.

"Nobody believed that Estonia would, for decades and decades, be left in the hands of the Soviets," said Laar. "That wasn't even a possibility. It's only a question of time, everybody thought. But after decades went by, the idea about the West coming to their aid disappeared. The fight in the forest became a personal thing. These people fought because they simply wanted to die as free men."

And die they did, at an alarming rate. By the early 1950s, Soviet forces had clearly gained the upper hand, and an average forest brother could expect to stay alive for a year, maybe two.

The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states ended in people power uprisings against Soviet rule under Mikhail Gorbachev as Eastern Europe struggled to free itself from communist oppression and red army occupation. A lucky few 'forest brothers' did indeed survive to enjoy the freedom for which they had struggled so bravely so long ago. Forgotten by history, the Baltic resistance to Soviet hegemony remains an inspiring story of hope, courage and faith in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

See also

• Occupation of Baltic Republics