L'imposition des obligations militaires en Lituanie soviétique, 1940-1953 The Imposition of Military Service in Soviet Lithuania, 1940-1953

From 1940 until Stalin's death, Soviet authorities encountered huge difficulties incorporating Lithuania – the rebel nation , with the strongest independantist guerrilla in the Baltic territories (10% of the population killed, arrested or deported from 1944 to 1953). In particular, the implementation of military service made tens of thousands conscripts join the guerrilla. However, in the middle of the 1950's, for a big part of the young men, military service had already become a marker of virility and a compulsory step before getting married. The Soviet Union seemed to have succeeded apparently in incorporating Lithuania, and in enlisting its youth. Physically and mentally. This article explains how it managed to do so and to what extent.