| Forest Brothers | |
|---|---|
| Participant in the guerrilla war in the Baltic states | |
| Active | 1940–1941, 1944–1956 |
| Ideology | National liberation |
| Area of operations | Baltic states |
| Size | ~50,000 |
| Part of | Occupation of the Baltic states |
| Allies | British, American and Swedish intelligence services, Finnish army |
| Opponents | Red Army, NKVD |
The Forest Brothers (also Brothers of the Forest, Forest Brethren, or Forest Brotherhood; Estonian: metsavennad, Latvian: meža brāļi, Lithuanian: miško broliai) 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 1940–1941 and, after a period of German occupation, again in 1944–1945. 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.