. . . . "Forest Brothers"@en . . "~50,000"@en . . . . "Baltic states"@en . . . . . "National liberation"@en . . . "1940"^^ . "Forest Brothers"@en . . . "British, American and Swedish intelligence services, Finnish army"@en . . . . . . "The Forest Brothers (also Brothers of the Forest; Forest Brethren; Forest Brotherhood; , , ) were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II. Similar anti-Soviet Eastern European resistance groups fought against Soviet and communist rule in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and western Ukraine. The Red Army occupied the independent Baltic states in 1940\u20131941 and, after a period of German occupation, again in 1944\u20131945. As Stalinist repression intensified over the following years, 50,000 residents of these countries used the heavily forested countryside as a natural refuge and base for armed anti-Soviet resistance. Resistance units varied in size and composition, ranging from individually operating guerrillas, armed primarily for self-defense, to large and well-organized groups able to engage significant Soviet forces in battle."@en . . . . . . . "the guerilla war in the Baltic states"@en . . . "The Forest Brothers (also Brothers of the Forest; Forest Brethren; Forest Brotherhood; , , ) were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II. Similar anti-Soviet Eastern European resistance groups fought against Soviet and communist rule in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, and western Ukraine."@en . . .