Military Vilnius

The construction of the Vilnius defensive wall began in the first half of the 16th century on the initiative of Alexander Jagiellon (Alexandras Jogailaitis). By the 17th century, ten defensive gates had been constructed in the wall; the Gate of Dawn being one of the first five to be built after 1503. Eventually, the Latin name Porta Acialis, meaning ‘Sharp Gate’, may have been adopted because of its location in the southern ‘sharpening’ part of the city. The origin of the name Dawn, which was adopted during the Lithuanian national movement, is unclear. Some people associate it with the shrine and worship of ‘Our Lady’ as the ‘Morning Star’ (‘Aušros žvaigždė’ in Lithuanian). Others associate it with the orientation of the gate to the southeast. 

The entrance was guarded by two double gates and a raised grille. The wall up to the Subačiaus Gate was carved with machicolations. As usual, the gates were decorated with sacred paintings to protect the city from various calamities. At the beginning of the 18th century, it was through this gate that the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania invaded the city, liberating it from Swedish occupation. During the 1794 Uprising, the Russian army tried to storm this gate, but the defenders managed to repel them. After the last partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Tsar ordered the demolition of Vilnius’ defensive wall and gates, leaving only the Dawn Gate standing.

A ‘lady with a fox’ skedaddles down the street towards the Aušros Vartai Student Hostel. A girl operating under the pseudonym Elžbieta Banievič and wearing a fox-fur collar was sought by two special agents from Warsaw in the early 1930s. Her real name was Marcelė Kubiliūtė, and she was often called the silent heroine of Lithuania. She lived in a small room, worked for Lithuanian intelligence, and nursed and buried Lithuanian soldiers in occupied Vilnius. She was instrumental in helping to prevent a Polish-organised coup d’état in Kaunas. Together with Petras Vrublevskis, she would go for a walk along Aušros Vartai Street, visit her workplace – a nearby bookshop, and have rendezvous in churches. These were not romantic trysts but meetings to develop a plan to intercept and hand over secret enemy documents to Kaunas. Jonas Budrys, a Lithuanian diplomat between the wars, wrote in his memoirs, “In 1919, the fate of Lithuania was in her hands”. Marcelė Kubiliūtė continued to care about Lithuania later on: she was involved in various activities in Kaunas, rescued Jews during the Nazi occupation, and later became active in the anti-Soviet underground, which led to her exile. She is the only woman to have been awarded all of Lithuania’s most important decorations for her merits. 

The Vilnius Ghetto was home to the United Partisan Organisation (Yiddish: Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye)), a group of about 300 Jews. This organisation prepared for the uprising in the ghetto, gathered weapons, and established contacts with the Soviet partisans. 

August 1943 marked the beginning of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, with the prisoners being transported out in stages. On 1 September 1943, the Nazis surrounded the ghetto in another campaign. The leadership of the United Partisan Organisation decided that this was the beginning of the final destruction of the ghetto and started mobilising fighters. This street, now Žemaitijos Street (at the time, it was called Strašūnas Street), was to become their stronghold. The fighters took up residence in the ghetto library and other buildings. When German soldiers appeared, the rebels opened fire. During the exchange of fire, the fighter Yachiel Sheinboim was killed. The Germans retreated but blew up the buildings a few days later.   

Seeing that their strength was limited, the fighters began to retreat in groups from the ghetto to the forests around Vilnius, where Soviet partisans were operating. Vilnius Ghetto was finally destroyed on 23 September 1943, the same day a group of the remaining fighters of the United Partisan Organisation and other ghetto inmates left the ghetto through a network of underground tunnels.

When you enter the palace courtyard, you will see the monument dedicated to Jan Karol Chodkiewicz (Jonas Karolis Chodkevičius), which was sculpted by Martynas Gaubas and erected in 2021. In 1600, an armed confrontation took place near the palace between the Chodkiewicz and the Radziwiłł (Radvilas) families over the dowry of Princess Sophia Olelkovych. It is said that Chodkiewicz had gathered an army of several thousand and turned the palace into a fortress with 24 cannons. Both sides were ready for a fight, but after the intervention of the Polish King Sigismund Vasa, the conflict was resolved. The actual military career of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz began in the conflict of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with Sweden over Livonia. In this war, his abilities as a military commander were clearly revealed; he demanded strict discipline from his soldiers and punished any misconduct. Soon after, in 1605, he received the title of Grand Hetman, and in September, he won the Battle of Kirchholm against King Charles IX of Sweden. Just before the battle, Charles IX’s advisors warned him to be cautious because “you will sooner see the Daugava flowing backwards than see Lithuanians and their Hetman fleeing the battlefield”. Indeed, only the Swedes fled the battlefield that day. Later, the Grand Hetman won several spectacular battles against the armies of Moscow and Turkey. Chodkiewicz is one of the most famous Lithuanian and 17th-century European military leaders.

This building was the seat of a Jesuit novitiate in the 17th century. The buildings belonging to the monks suffered from wars and fires in the 17th and early 18th centuries and were rebuilt several times. After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the buildings of the former monastery housed a regiment of the Russian Imperial Army. Between 1804 and 1807, the buildings and the church were converted into barracks and apartments. During the First World War and the inter-war period, various German and Polish military administrational offices were located here. The church was reconstructed between 1925 and 1929 and adapted for religious purposes. 

In the autumn of 1939, Vilnius was returned to Lithuania; the building became the headquarters of the Vilnius Commandant’s Office of the Lithuanian Army, and the barracks housed Lithuanian soldiers. After the Second World War, the buildings were used as a school and dormitory for some time, but later the complex was handed over to the Soviet Military Commissariat. When Lithuania regained its independence, the Ministry of National Defence took over the buildings. 

In 1999, a monument to the Lithuanian partisan leader Jonas Žemaičius-Vytautas was erected in front of the building (sculptor Gintautas Lukošaitis, architect Mindaugas Mačiulis). 

A monument to Laurynas Gucevičius (sculptor Vladas Vildžiūnas) stands in the square in front of the Church of the Holy Cross (Brothers Hospitallers or the Bonifraters). Many know Gucevičius for his reconstruction of Vilnius Cathedral and Town Hall and for the mansions he built for the nobility, but his talent was not limited to that. In the Architecture Department of the Lithuanian High School of Architecture, his course included topics related to military architecture. In addition, in 1794, the architect joined Jakub Jasiński and actively participated in the uprising against Russia as commander of the Vilnius City Guard. Laurynas Gucevičius took the oath of office on 30 April together with the other participants of the uprising; in May, he drew up a project for the armament of the citizens of Vilnius, and soon afterwards, he organised a guard of 1,500 citizens. In June, Laurynas Gucevičius was seriously wounded in the battle of Varonava (Salos), a town near Ashmyany, and had to return to Vilnius. Unfortunately, the Guards had to surrender after intense fighting (although they managed to defend Vilnius in a street battle in July), but they surrendered on the condition that they would not be punished for participating in the uprising. Laurynas Gucevičius was granted amnesty but was not allowed to continue teaching architecture in the ‘new state’.

The buildings on this site date back to the 16th century, when the Bishops’ Palace was established here. After the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was partitioned, the Palace became the residence of the Governors-General. During the 19th and 20th centuries wars, several prominent European military leaders stayed here. 

During the Franco-Russian War of 1812, the palace was the home of Emperors Alexander I, and Napoleon, and the Russian military leader Mikhail Kutuzov stayed here several times. In 1915, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and his famous generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff saluted their troops at the Palace.

In the interwar period, the square in front of the palace was named after Napoleon to commemorate his visit. At that time, the residence was the home of various high-ranking Polish military and political figures, including Józef Piłsudski and Edward Rydz-Śmigłas.

At the end of the Second World War, the occupiers turned the palace into a home for Soviet officers and named the square after Mikhail Kutuzov. 

This square, which is attached to Vilnius University and has hosted so many famous military leaders, was renamed after the historian Simonas Daukantas when the country regained its independence. Now, every Sunday, it hosts a ceremony for the raising of the three national flags, attended by members of the Lithuanian Armed Forces Honour Guard Company.

The current appearance of the bell tower of Vilnius Cathedral dates back to the beginning of the 19th century, but its purpose at the beginning of the state’s history was different. Since the 13th century, this area has been a strategically important place, and the first defensive fortifications – the castle, the defensive wall and its towers – were built here. It is one of the oldest surviving architectural structures in Lithuania. The base of the old defensive tower with three rows of windows – firing ports – has been preserved in the ground part. The tower was connected to the defensive wall by a rifle trail on the third floor, and a doorway to the trail has been preserved in the northern wall. The shape and size of the firing ports on this floor suggest that they were designed for crossbow, bow, and even cannon firing. Exactly when the tower was repurposed is not clear. It is known that in 1598, the Cathedral Chapter decided to repair the bell tower from the foundations and to raise it, and it is likely that the third span of the bell tower was built then. However, in 1610, the buildings of the Lower Castle and the Bell Tower were burnt down in a fire. After the fire, the bell tower was restored by Wilhelm Pohl: the masonry was repaired, the roof was covered with tin, and the bells, which had been damaged by the fire, were recast. At the end of the 18th century, when Laurynas Gucevičius began to reconstruct the cathedral, the appearance of the Bell Tower was changed once again.

On 16 February 1918, the State of Lithuania was restored, but the declared words had to be put into practice under difficult geopolitical conditions. Augustinas Voldemaras became the first Prime Minister and served as Minister of National Defence. The Lithuanian military saw the danger of losing statehood in its infancy and called for the organisation of armed national defence forces as soon as possible. However, the Prime Minister stressed that Lithuania was not waging war against other countries, so there was no need for an army – small units would be enough to perform the functions of the police. The Bolshevik invasion put an end to these discussions – as soon as on 23 November, the foundations for a modern Lithuanian army were laid in this building, with the first order for the organisation of the army being issued and the citizens being called upon to defend their homeland. The three rooms (and a small storeroom), where important documents were prepared, and the first volunteers were registered, marked the beginning of the army that defended the Lithuanian state by force of arms in the 1919-1920 War of Independence.

Several thousand Polish troops were stationed in Vilnius between 1923 and 1924, with military units deployed in various locations around the city. Work on the fortification of Vilnius also began, but the Polish military in Vilnius lacked housing. Therefore, at the end of the 1930s, on the initiative of Józef Piłsudski, the Army Accommodation Fund was established. Its aim was to provide for the construction of housing for military officers. The plan was that twelve, eighteen, or even more officers’ families would be able to live in such houses. 

In 1931, a five-storey, fifty-apartment officers’ house with monumental forms in a modernised neoclassical style was built on what is now Vilniaus Street, to a design by Polish officer Polkowski. Its massiveness, architectural design, and decoration set it apart from other typical apartment blocks built for officers at the time. 

The design included a large ground floor space for a café and smaller spaces for shops. On the other floors, three-room flats for officers’ families were built. 

The history of the Polish army in Vilnius ended in September 1939. The city was bombed by the Nazis at the outbreak of the Second World War, and on 19 September, the Soviets invaded Vilnius.

The terror of the population and the Sovietisation of the country, which began in 1940, made it necessary to prepare for organised resistance. This building was the command centre of the Lithuanian Activist Front, which organised the Vilnius uprising in 1940-1941. Vytautas Bulvičius, a former Lithuanian military officer, took the initiative in forming the resistance leadership. He was very keen to involve civilians in the organisation of the Resistance, as well as other officers, of course. The entire leadership structure consisted of 5-10 people, but the exact composition is not known.  

The resistance was complicated by the arrest of Bulvičius and other commanders on 8 June 1941. However, the uprising in Vilnius flared up on the afternoon of 23 June after the outbreak of the war between Germany and the USSR. It developed spontaneously, with several hotbeds of fighting. The fighters successfully seized the militia offices, the radio station, and the post office. The Lithuanian rebel soldiers deployed in various parts of the city were active. The most active battles took place in Antakalnis, in the vicinity of Gediminas Castle and the Hill of Three Crosses, in Trakų, Pylimo and some other Streets, as well as near the railway station. On 24 June, the German army entered Vilnius.

It is not known exactly how many rebels died in Vilnius. According to some estimates, over 30 fighters were killed, while other estimates put the death toll at around 80. 

Today, Lukiškės Square is a place for meetings, gatherings, and events. It used to be a bustling market square in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Perhaps because it was such a public space, it was also the square of choice for the public executions of the rebels during the uprising of 1863-1864. 

This cross commemorates the participants of the uprising who were executed here. At least 21 rebels are known to have been executed in the square. On 22 May 1863, the priest Stanisław Iszora was killed. A few days later, the rebels Rajmund Ziemacki and Albert Laskowicz were executed. Soon, some fighters were hanged, while others continued to be shot. The first hanging took place on 28 May 1863, after the execution of the captive Bolesłav Kołyszko.

The same square was also used for the executions of Zygmunt Sierakowski (15 June 1863) and Konstanty Kalinowski (10 March 1864), the leaders of the 1863-1864 uprising. Both were hanged. 

After these executions, the rebels were buried in the grounds on the hill of Gediminas Castle near the castle tower. There was then a closed fortress area. During archaeological research in 2017-2019, the remains of 20 rebels were found, identified, and ceremoniously buried in Rasos Cemetery. 

On the morning of 13 January 1991, people began to build barricades in front of the Supreme Soviet, carrying what they could from nearby construction sites. First, Gediminas Avenue was blocked, and then the Supreme Soviet building (now the Seimas – the Lithuanian Parliament) was covered with reinforcing nets and other materials. Heavy machinery blocked the roads. Some of the structures on the barricades were so huge that it seemed impossible to move them without special machinery. But dozens of people picked them up, carried them, and assembled them.

It was quickly realised that such barricades would only stop the tanks for a short time, so the construction of reinforced concrete barriers started the same day. The materials were transported from the stadium being built in Šeškinė, the maternity ward being built in Pilaitė, and from elsewhere. The first barricade blocked access to the Supreme Soviet building from the Neris River, and barricades were soon erected at other access points.

The Parliament was defended. After the danger had passed, the barricades were dismantled in November 1991. The fortifications remained in front of the Parliament for the longest time, until the autumn of 1993, when the Soviet army withdrew from Lithuania. Some of the barricades were moved to a memorial site. Memorial pillars mark the locations of the former fortifications in various places.

In 1991, the first checkpoint was located on this site, the only permanently guarded entrance to the territory of the Supreme Soviet. On the evening of 21 August 1991, Soviet troops stormed the post. In a clash between them and Lithuanian volunteers, a volunteer, Artūras Sakalauskas, was killed, and several other soldiers were injured. At the time, Moscow was witnessing an attempted military coup initiated by conservative state and party figures to oust Mikhail Gorbachev, President of the USSR. The situation was uneasy not only in Moscow but also elsewhere, with internal troops or the Soviet army patrolling the streets, taking control of some buildings and staging provocations. 

Sakalauskas was born in 1963 in Alytus. His grandfather participated in the Lithuanian War of Independence, so the family often remembered the struggle for freedom. Artūras was still at school when he got a police record for commemorating 16 February (the Day of the Restoration of Lithuanian Independence in 1918). After graduating from Alytus 5th Secondary School, Artūras attended a vocational school, where he became a metalworker and assembler. Until 1991, he worked at the Alytus Machine-Building Plant. In January 1991, he joined the Voluntary National Defence Service. Until his death, he served on duty, guarding various objects.