Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

Between 1944 and 1953, the Soviet security forces sought to suppress the armed resistance in Western Ukraine and Lithuania by applying similar kinds of measures. These resistance movements were not directly related to each other, but there were similarities and differences. In Western Ukraine, the movement covered a bigger area, with a correspondingly larger number of people living there, and the fighting, especially in the initial period, was fiercer compared to Lithuania. The article compares these anti-Soviet resistance movements according to several criteria. The author puts the main focus on issues of the suppression of the resistance, comparing the situations in Western Ukraine and Lithuania at the time. He examines critically the material left by the Soviet security forces, and analyses the use of the agency and military actions against the partisans. The research is based mostly on Soviet security agency documents preserved in the Haluzevyĭ derz͡havnyĭ arkhiv Sluz͡hby bezpeky Ukraïny (Sectoral State Archives of the SBU, the Ukrainian Security Service) in Kyïv. This material has not yet been widely used by Lithuanian historians, although it is relevant for understanding the mechanisms of the activities of the Soviet security forces, not only in Western Ukraine, but also in Lithuania.