Adolfas Ramanauskas

Who was Adolfas Ramanauskas?

Adolfas Ramanauskas codename Vanagas was one of the prominent leaders of the Lithuanian partisans. Ramanauskas worked as a teacher when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1944–45. He joined anti-Soviet resistance, advancing from a platoon commander to the chairman of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters. From 1952 he lived in hiding with fake papers. Ramanauskas was the last partisan commander to be captured. Betrayed, he was arrested, tortured, and eventually executed by KGB. After Lithuania regained independence in 1990, Ramanauskas was posthumously awarded the Order of the Cross of Vytis and promoted to brigadier general. His daughter, Auksutė Ramanauskaitė-Skokauskienė, was elected to the Seimas in 2008.