Demobilising, Remobilising
Paramilitary Formations in Lithuania, 1918–1920
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
After the collapse of the empires and the outbreak of the Bolshevik and national revolutions, Lithuania lie in the middle of a “zone of unrest”, where various ideologies competed with one another. The country was the theatre of operations for a series of armed conflicts that formed a single, interminable cycle of violence. Alongside Lithuanian formations, Red and White forces from Russia, German free corps, and various Polish units were involved. The distinction between regular troops and paramilitary units was often fluid. The latter came to play a formative roll. They were a product of the First World War that at the same time exerted tremendous influence on the future of new and old nation-states.
(Osteuropa 2-4/2014, pp. 197–220)