| Abstract [eng] |
After the partial mobilization of the army on 17 September 1939, Lithuania had perhaps the highest number of troops in its history. Mobili- zation itself, same as the demobilisation took place in several stages. The special military exercises were announced on 28 August, 1939, and mobilization of border security battalions according to the schedule No. 4 – on 1 September. These actions were caused by the increased threat of eventual invasion by the belligerent German and Polish armed forces. Mobilization of the border guard battalions (only the battalions 4-12 were mobilized), plans for the concentration of troops in southern Lithuania confirm this. Due to the rising threat that units of the beaten Polish army would try to enter the territory of Lithuania, decision was made on 16 September 1939, - to declare a partial mobilization of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, which began the very next day, on 17 September. Such a decision might have been stimulated by rumours of a Soviet invasion of Poland, but the decision on the partial mobilization of Lithuania was adopted before the Red Army crossed the Polish border. Decentralized territorial mobilization system enabled the Lithuanian Army to get mobilized within 24-48 hours, and to prepare in time for possible surprises, not only from the Polish army, but also the Red Army. And cover military operations could be carried out by some units already after 6 hours, as from August 1939, when the army had 22,508 soldiers, the army had already been increased to 37,279 troops prior to the partial mobilization of 17 September, 1939. After the partial mobilization, the Lithuanian Armed Forces had increased to 90,137 troops and this size could be determined by the expected number of internment Polish troops - 2-3 infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade of up to 52,000 troops. The decision on military demobilization in Lithuania was adopted on 23 September 1939, after the end of the mass internment of Polish troops, and there are no grounds to associate it with the subsequent Soviet Union – Lithuanian negotiations regarding mutual assistance agreement and the return of Vilnius region to Lithuania. In addition, the demobilization itself was only partial and took place gradually and without hurry; one month after the announcement of demobilization, on 27 October 1939, the army still had 41,352 troops, i.e., 84% more than in the late summer of 1939. The general context of other small countries in the region: Latvia, Estonia and Finland, suggests that the response of the Lithuanian Army to eventual threats by strengthening its military power, was much broader than in Latvia and particularly Estonia. Of course, Finland, in response to the rising threat from the Soviet Union, increased its forces most significantly of all four states in both absolute numbers and relative terms, and this yielded the result - the Winter War; besides, the country avoided the Sovietization, although in 1939-1940 Finland’s geopolitical status differed significantly from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. |
