In Lithuania, a paramilitary group of over 10,000 people is training to counter a possible invasion of the country by Russia. The Lithuanian government funds and supports this group and allows its members to purchase weapons. And while all of this sounds pretty worrying to people in Western Europe, there are similar groups in almost every European country that borders Russia.
In peacetime, these groups, regulated as a military hierarchy, equipped with uniforms and insignia but formed by private individuals, have statesupporting functions: They conduct scoutlike activities for boys and girls, support local civil protection and organize sporting events. But after the invasion of Ukraine, paramilitary groups are again part of a larger defense system against the possibility of Russian aggression. In Lithuania, the paramilitary group is called Lietuvos šaulių sąjunga, Union of Lithuanian Riflemen, and recently the country’s Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė has also joined its members.
Similar groups exist in different countries of the region: in Estonia there is the Estonian Defense League, in Latvia there is the Latvian National Guard, in Poland there is the Territorial Defense Force and so on. Each group has its own history and characteristics, but virtually all have one thing in common: Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the number of new members or rather, recruits has increased dramatically.
“Before the invasion of Ukraine, there were about 5,000 to 6,000 adult members of the riflemen’s union,” says Albertas Dapkus, the union’s commander. “After the outbreak of war they doubled. The membership applications received over the last few weeks have been so numerous that we are having difficulty accepting them all. People want to learn how to use guns because they fear that Russia’s next target will be the Baltic countries ».
At the moment, an invasion of the Baltic countries by Russia is a rather unlikely possibility, especially after the military failure of the Russian army in Ukraine. But Lithuania has a long and very harsh history of invasion and domination by the Tsarist Empire and the Soviet Union and wants to be prepared for that. In addition, its territory is one of the most exposed and least protected among all NATO countries due to its geography.
The recruits of the Schützenbund who registered after the invasion of Ukraine are not yet full members because they first have to complete basic training. “The course consists of two parts, says Dapkus. “A theoretical part online and then a stay of up to two weeks in a training camp, the use of which is approved by the army. During the training, new participants learn the safe use of firearms and ammunition, as well as other military and survival techniques in the great outdoors. Some medical terms are also taught, for example first aid techniques ».
The Lithuanian government provides financial support to the shooters’ union and has recently increased the funds available. It also allows members of the organization to buy guns: last week parliament passed a law (virtually unanimously, with no dissenting votes) allowing Lithuanian shooters to buy automatic firearms and store them in their homes, i.e. those with high potential for destruction. However, these types of guns require a license that must be registered, subjected to security checks, and not allowed to be taken out of the home.
The commander of the Union of Riflemen, Albertas Dapkus (Photo Eugenio Cau / Il Post)
In the eyes of a Western European observer, the fact that a paramilitary group of over 10,000 people (in a country of 2.7 million people) is being trained and armed with government approval might appear alarming and subversive. In fact, the Union of Shooters in Lithuania does not have exclusively military functions and is deeply integrated into society: it includes employees, university professors, TV presenters, artists and famous politicians. Among the volunteers are the President of Parliament, the Mayor of Vilnius and last but not least the country’s Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė.
Šimonytė was sworn into the Union of Riflemen on March 11 this year, on the anniversary of Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union: “I’ve been thinking about joining the Union for a number of years and I’ve decided that this is the right time to do it, to be a role model for people who ask themselves: What can I do? ».
“You don’t necessarily have to have military skills to join the Union,” Šimonytė continues. “You can also be a paramedic or a good computer programmer and contribute in those areas. The organization is a kind of bridge between civil society and the military, and its purpose is to support the functions of the state: the union has been very useful during the coronavirus pandemic, for example in hospitals or in controlling traffic during the lockdown ».
Prime Minister Šimonytė will be sworn into the Union of Riflemen on March 11, 2022 (Photo by Lithuanian Ministry of Defense)
According to commander Dapkus, until a few months ago the Union of Riflemen had more similar tasks as “a civil defense support group than a military group”. Just last month, after the invasion of Ukraine, the organization has refocused on military activities because all new members want to learn how to use weapons to defend themselves.
Karolis Kaupinis, 34, is a Lithuanian director who is also quite successful abroad, and he wants to join the Union of Riflemen at its headquarters in Vilnius: “If someone had told me two years ago that I would train with a rifle, I would have have also replied that it was impossible, he says.
In addition to Lithuanian, Kaupinis speaks Russian, English, French and Italian and is a wellknown figure in the artistic and cosmopolitan environment of the Lithuanian capital. After the invasion of Ukraine, he and a group of friends decided to join the Union of Riflemen to form a combat unit with them. Almost all of them are artists, or at least regular guests of the country’s cultural circles: there is a sculptor and teacher at the art academy, the producer of a national theater, the culture officer of an important politician. None of them have military experience and they are all a bit hesitant, but they want to do something.
“When Russia invaded Ukraine, I felt helpless,” says Kaupinis. “I thought about Lithuanian history and the decades of Soviet occupation: in the 1940s and 1950s, intellectuals like me were sent to the gulags in Siberia.”
Karolis Kaupinis (Photo by Il Post)
The history of Russian and Soviet rule over Lithuania has a lot to do with the struggles and anger felt by some people in the country since the invasion of Ukraine began.
Long story short: Lithuania, a country with a great independent history, was conquered by the Tsarist Empire at the end of the 18th century. It regained its independence after World War I, but was recaptured by the Soviets in 1940. A year later it was occupied by the Nazi regime and returned under Soviet rule from 1944 despite a long partisan struggle that lasted part of the 1950s. During this period, thousands of people, mostly teachers and intellectuals, were deported to the gulags. Virtually every Lithuanian family has a relative who suffered from Soviet persecution: some returned home after Stalin’s death, many did not.
In 1991, Lithuania was the first country in the Eastern bloc to declare its independence: Russia then sent tanks to Vilnius.
Many Lithuanians are aware of this history of invasion and domination, and today see an example in the Ukrainians defending themselves against Russian aggression and the Riflemen’s Union as a way to prepare to do the same, although an invasion is not currently envisaged.
The Union of Riflemen was formed in 1919 as a protective group against the Bolshevik threat: it was abolished during the Soviet era but reestablished in 1989. Their history has not always been positive: during the German occupation, some of their members collaborated with the Nazis in the extermination of local Jews, even though the union had, at least officially, already been dissolved by then.
Today the Riflemen’s Union is regulated within the Lithuanian system: its leadership consists of professional soldiers and reports to the Chief of Staff.
The Lithuanian government aims for the union to have at least 50,000 members. In this regard, there are various initiatives: for example, after 2014, some famous people in Lithuania created a combat unit, which includes journalists, TV personalities and famous athletes. This celebritystudded unit is used to publicize Union: one of its members, rally driver Benediktas Vanagas, explains that in the event of an invasion, the goal is that “every man or woman poses a potential threat. The Russians have to be afraid of every single bush, every single door, every single window».
Lithuania is a tiny country with a very small population: and despite the presence of NATO troops on its territory, it still faces the possibility of invasion. The government’s strategy is therefore to make the country as “indigestible” as possible for an enemy army and to mobilize as large a part of the population as possible similar to what happened in Ukraine last month.
The Shooters Union is just the clearest example of Lithuanians preparing for the eventuality of an invasion.
In 2015, after the Russian invasion of Crimea, the government decided to reintroduce conscription, which it had abolished just a few years earlier. The draft is not universal: a certain number of men between the ages of 18 and 23 are drawn at random each year. But the volunteers in the army are so numerous that every year the quota of new recruits is filled without having to carry out the extraction. However, Parliament is discussing the possibility of reintroducing universal conscription.
The Lithuanian Armed Forces also have another group of volunteers, the Voluntary National Defense Force, whose members have a larger deployment than that of the Union of Shooters. But even in this case, the requests for entry are so numerous that it is impossible to include them all.
According to a 2017 study by Ainė Ramonaitė, a professor at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University, 77 percent of Lithuanians are sure or fairly sure that the state will have to defend itself if Lithuania is attacked. . In addition, 42 percent of Lithuanians are willing to “personally contribute” to the country’s defense (25.2 percent of Lithuanians would not want to contribute, while more than 30 percent do not know or do not answer). Another more recent survey (conducted in March this year), but less thorough, seems to show that after the invasion of Ukraine, the number of people willing to join the armed forces in the event of an invasion has increased: now they are 52 percent of the population.
“My perspective has always been to lead an intellectual life, but things changed with the invasion of Ukraine. For now, joining the Shooters Union means sacrificing a few weekends a month for training and other activities, says Karolis Kaupinis. “When the Russian army arrives, I will destroy at least one tank. Then we’ll see.”