Povilas Morkūnas

Povilas Morkūnas (26 November 1920 – 19 June 1953) was an anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisan and a commander of the Kęstutis and Prisikėlimas military districts. He was known by many codenames, such as Ežerietis, Dilba, Arvydas, Černius, Brizgis, Kyras, Mažvydas, Lastas, but mostly as Rimantas or Drakas.

Biography Early life Povilas Morkūnas was born on 26 November 1920 in the village of Zbaras near Šiluva to farmers Kazimieras Morkūnas and Marijona Kmitaitė. He was the eldest of nine children. In 1935 he finished the Šiluva primary school, during which he participated in scout activities. For some time after that he studied at the Raseiniai agriculture school. In 1939 he joined the Lithuanian army and served in an artillery regiment. For his exemplary service he received the NCO rank of sergeant.

Operation Barbarossa His unit was incorporated in the Soviet army after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. During Operation Barbarossa the unit was dislocated near the Narach lake in Belarus. It was ordered to scout ahead, but Morkūnas and his men deserted back to Lithuania, as they were hopeful that the German army could still liberate Lithuania. After giving away his units' horses in a nearby village, they set off and were met by the Germans, who let the men return to their country. Morkūnas participated in the 1941 June uprising.

Partisans of the Prisikėlimas district. Povilas Morkūnas is sitting in the middle while his successor Juozas Paliūnas is on the right

Life as partisan Morkūnas began his career as a member of the Žebenkštis unit operating around Raseiniai, In 1945 Jonas Žemaitis joined the unit and replaced its previous commander J. Čeponis as senior leader. Morkūnas fought in the famous battle near Virtukai on 22 July 1945. On 6 July 1946 Morkūnas and Žemaitis commanded the largest battle in Žemaitija against the NKVD in Pyragiai. On 3 March 1948 Morkūnas became the head of the weakened Maironis unit (previously named the Povilas Lukšys unit) took care of various documents and demanded squad leaders to make reports. In 1949 by the orders of the leadership of the Prisikėlimas military district Morkūnas was responsible for the publishing of the district headquarter-curated newspaper Prisikėlimo Ugnis. His term ended on 1 August 1951,

Final years As organized partisan resistance was becoming significantly weaker, Jonas Žemaitis and Morkūnas reportedly once made plans to get fake documents and move to Poland and further abroad. In 1952 the MGB captured a high-ranking partisan officer by the name of Leonas Juška-Kariūnas, who gradually revealed information like communicators, liaisons and other headquarter information. In exchange for freedom, Juška also agreed to participate in eliminating the rest of the partisans. The MGB often unsuccessfully tried to invite Morkūnas via letter to meet and discuss various partisan matters by using recruited former partisans. The agents succeeded in June 1953 in luring Morkūnas to the forest of Plauginiai. In the ensuing fight, Morkūnas was shot dead.