Juozas Vitkus, known by his partisan codename Kazimieraitis was an anti-Soviet Lithuanian partisan commander.
16 Facts About Juozas Vitkus
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Juozas Vitkus was an officer in the interwar Lithuanian army and a lector in the War School of Kaunas.
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Juozas Vitkus was born on 10 December 1901 in the Ketunai village of the Mazeikiai District to peasants Juozapas Vitkus and Marijona Plonyte.
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Juozas Vitkus later called upon the family to emigrate as well, in order to avoid the consequences of the Russo-Japanese war, but in 1906 the family got stuck in London.
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Juozas Vitkus completed primary education in Tirksliai, where he learned to play the violin.
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Juozas Vitkus married Genovaite Grybauskaite in 1927, with whom he had 7 children.
7.
Juozas Vitkus actively participated and collaborated in publications like Kardas, Karys, and Musu zinynas.
8.
In 1941, Juozas Vitkus was a staff member of the Lithuanian Activist Front in Vilnius, which organized an uprising on June 22,1941.
9.
Juozas Vitkus founded the "partisan district A", and in the spring of 1946, together with the Tauras partisan district, he formed the southern Lithuanian partisan district and was elected its commander.
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Juozas Vitkus prepared a partisan statute, as well as signed a decree announcing the main principles of the restoration of Lithuania and its independence.
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Juozas Vitkus modeled the partisans in the form of the Lithuanian army, enforcing strict discipline as well as the use of codenames, uniforms, as well as creating a mobilization plan.
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Juozas Vitkus was later taken into custody but died while being driven to headquarters in Leipalingis.
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The death of Juozas Vitkus-Kazimieraitis was reported to Stalin himself.
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Juozas Vitkus's body was not discovered until 2022 in the yard of former MGB headquarters in Druskininkai.
15.
In independent Lithuania in 1997, via the president's decree, Juozas Vitkus was awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis, 1st degree.
16.
Juozas Vitkus's son has created a series of memoirs about his father entitled Pulkininkas Kazimieraitis.