Jonas Žemaitis
Encyclopedia
Jonas Žemaitis was one of the leaders of armed resistance against the Soviet occupation in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 and acknowledged as the Head of State of contemporary occupied Lithuania.

Žemaitis was born in Jonas Žemaitis and Petronėlė Daukšaitė's family. Despite the fact that his father was non-religious, Žemaitis was christened in Palanga's church. From 1910 to 1917 he lived with his parents in Poland, Lomža. In 1917, Žemaitis returned to Lithuania and settled down in Šiluva's region, Kiaulininkų village. In 1921, he finished Raseiniai Gymnasium First Class. In 1926, started studying in Kaunas War School.

In 1944 he joined the Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force, organized by Povilas Plechavičius
Povilas Plechavicius
Povilas Plechavičius was an Imperial Russian and then Lithuanian military officer and statesman. In the service of Lithuania he rose to the rank of General of the army in the interwar period...

. After the force was disbanded by the Nazis, Žemaitis went into hiding. When the Red Army returned to Lithuania, Žemaitis joined the Lithuanian Freedom Army
Lithuanian Freedom Army
The Lithuanian Freedom Army was a Lithuanian underground organization established by Kazys Veverskis, a student at Vilnius University, on December 13, 1941. Its goal were to re-establish independent Lithuania via political and military means. During the Nazi Germany occupation it opposed German...

 and the Lithuanian partisans
Lithuanian partisans
The Lithuanian partisans can refer to various irregular military units in different historical periods active in Lithuania against foreign invaders and occupiers:...

, steadily rosing to a position of leadership. In February 1949 he established the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters
Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters
The Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters or Movement for the Struggle for Lithuanian Freedom was a resistance organization of the Lithuanian partisans, waging a guerrilla war against the Soviet Union in the aftermath of World War II. The organization was established on February 10, 1949, during a...

 and became its chairman; he worked to continue partisan resistance to Soviet occupation and legitimize the actions of the partisans. In December 1951 he was stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage and became paralyzed. In May 1953 his place of hiding was discovered by Soviet agents and he was arrested. After being transported to Moscow, he was interrogated by Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Beria
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian Soviet politician and state security administrator, chief of the Soviet security and secret police apparatus under Joseph Stalin during World War II, and Deputy Premier in the postwar years ....

 and was executed in the Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison
Butyrka prison was the central transit prison in pre-Revolutionary Russia, located in Moscow.The first references to Butyrka prison may be traced back to the 17th century. The present prison building was erected in 1879 near the Butyrsk gate on the site of a prison-fortress which had been built...

 in 1954.

Jonas Žemaitis is the namesake of the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania
General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania
The General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania is a state-sponsored institution of higher learning based in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was founded in 1994 by the Lithuanian Seimas, and is overseen by the Ministry of National Defense...

. In 1995 a documentary Ketvirtasis Prezidentas (The Fourth President) was released about his life.

Posthumously Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas was awarded the rank of Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...

 and was officially named as the fourth President of Lithuania in March 2009.
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