Petras Kubiliūnas


Petras Kubiliūnas was a Lithuanian Lieutenant General and Chief of Lithuanian General staff in 1929–1934.

World War I

Kubiliūnas graduated from a gymnasium in Riga and continued his education in Vilnius military school, graduating in 1914. During World War I he participated in military operations in Riga's Latvian regiment.
In August 1919, Kubiliūnas was mobilized to the Lithuanian Armed Forces and participated in the Lithuanian–Soviet War until December 1919. He commanded a battalion of the 3rd Infantry Regiment and later became deputy commander of 4th Infantry Regiment. In February 1920 Kubiliūnas was transferred to the 1st Border Guards Regiment, and in 1923 became a commander of its battalion. In 1924 Kubiliūnas became commander of a tank battalion, later on a motorized battalion.

Independent Lithuania

Kubiliūnas continued his education: in 1925 he completed Advanced Courses for Officers in Kaunas, in 1927 he attended the Czechoslovakian General Staff Academy, in 1929 he took courses in Paris. From 1927 to 1929 Kubiliūnas a member of Lithuanian General Staff. In 1929 he was promoted to Lieutenant General and took the position of Chief of the Lithuanian General Staff and also Chief Commander of the Lithuanian Army. He was active in military education reforms, establishing a school of higher military education.
In 1934 for his support to the unsuccessful coup d'etat against President Antanas Smetona by followers of Augustinas Voldemaras, Kubiliūnas was sentenced to death by a military tribunal. Later the punishment was changed to a life sentence in a heavy labor prison. Kubiliūnas was released from the prison in 1937.

World War II

Under Soviet occupation he was arrested and mauled, his fingernails were torn out. He was released from prison after revolt against Soviet troops in June 1941.
When in 1941–1944 Lithuania was occupied by Nazi forces, he was the first General Counsel, an institution formed by the occupation administration of General District Lithuania in the Reichskommissariat Ostland from late August 1941 till July 1944. He signed several documents on forced mobilization of Lithuanians into Nazi SS forces, actively resisted by the Lithuanian anti-Nazi underground. His actions were multiple times criticized by the Lithuanian anti-Nazi resistance press.
Kubiliūnas fled to Germany and reached the British occupation zone, but in 1945 he was kidnapped by Soviet agents, tried and executed in Moscow.