'Forest brothers' explained

Take note – story published 7 years and 3 months ago

A recent NATO film sketching the story of resistance to occupying Soviet power following World War II caused predictable hysteria among Russian official circles. Diplomats and state-controlled news channels wasted no time in re-hashing their crude and conveniently self-congratulatory interpretation of history.

In the Baltic states, the reaction was calmer and despite (or perhaps because of) the very brief and basic nature of the NATO film it was seen as a useful way of alerting the wider world to the facts of who the 'forest brothers' were and why they embarked upon a lengthy resistance despite an overwhelming imbalance of force against them.

Now the British journalist Edward Lucas has produced a thoughtful and factually accurate piece explaining the whole thing for the Center of European Policy Analysis (CEPA) which we are happy to recommend to anyone not familiar with this chapter of history but interested to learn more.

You can read Lucas' piece HERE

For more on the background to the controversy and the reaction in Russia, you might like to read THIS PIECE by the Digital Forensic Research Lab.

The NATO film in question is below.

 

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