Jonas Misiūnas

Jonas Misiūnas also known by his codename Žalias Velnias (green devil) (15 January 1911 – 11 March 1947) was a commander of the anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisans and the founder of the Didžioji Kova military district.

Misiūnas joined the Lithuanian Army in 1931. During World War II, he worked in railway security and volunteered for the short-lived Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force. After the force was disbanded in May 1944, he went into hiding and started organizing men near Musninkai to fight the approaching Soviets. The group quickly numbered some 200 men and grew into the Didžioji Kova military district. The NKVD held Misiūnas's three young children as hostages but released his wife in hopes that she would persuade him to surrender. She was killed in February or March 1945. Misiūnas was arrested when he attended a meeting of partisan leaders (a trap organized by NKVD agents) in Vilnius in August 1946. He was executed in the Butyrka Prison in Moscow.

Early life and service Misiūnas was born in near Pušalotas in the present-day Panevėžys District Municipality into a family of a blacksmith. The family raised ten children, four sons and six daughters. The family did not own land or smithy and frequently changed their residences.