Qualla: War School of Kaunas

War School of Kaunas: Introduction

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. On 8 March 1919, in a building on Donelaitis Street near the St. Michael the Archangel Church in Kaunas, 124 teenagers showed up to become officers in an army that did not really exist yet. Lithuania had declared independence the year before. There were almost no premises, no curriculum, no instructors, and no functional Lithuanian military. The school's deputy director, Pranas Tvarionas, had copied the syllabus from a four-month Russian praporshchik course he had attended in Chistopol during World War I. The cadets were paid in German marks. Within four months, 96 of them had graduated and been sent to the front to fight Bolsheviks, Bermontians, and Poles. Five would die. The War School of Kaunas had begun.

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War School of Kaunas: Improvising an Army

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus / Vytautas the Great War Museum (image), CC BY 4.0. Lithuania had a paper independence, declared in February 1918, but no army to defend it. When the Lithuanian-Soviet War broke out in December 1918, the new state called up Lithuanian veterans of the Imperial Russian Army. About 400 responded - half what the government had hoped f...

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Image: Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus / Vytautas the Great War Museum (image) | CC BY 4.0

War School of Kaunas: Three Classes Sent to the Front

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Between March 1919 and October 1920, the school produced 434 men in three rushed classes. Fifteen were killed in action during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence. They fought against the Bolshevik Red Army, against the West Russian Volunteer Army of Pavel Bermondt-Avalov, and fi...

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War School of Kaunas: From Front-Line School to Academy

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, CC0. After the wars ended, the school could finally start to behave like a school. Studies were extended from a few months to a full year in 1920, then to two years in 1922, then to three years in 1935. The school moved out of the city center to Panemunė, a quieter district better sui...

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War School of Kaunas: Swords and a Cadet Magazine

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus / Vytautas the Great War Museum (image), CC BY 4.0. The graduation ceremony evolved into something elaborate. After speeches, the cadets changed into their officer uniforms, then knelt as the President touched each man's shoulder with a ceremonial sword engraved with the Lithuanian coat of arms and the dates of major Lithuanian mi...

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Image: Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus / Vytautas the Great War Museum (image) | CC BY 4.0

War School of Kaunas: Liquidation

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus / Vytautas the Great War Museum (image), CC BY 4.0. On 15 June 1940, the morning after the Soviet ultimatum, the cadets returned to Kaunas by train from a training ground near Pabradė. The Lithuanian government, including the army with its 600 men at the War School, had been ordered not to resist the Red Army crossing the border. ...

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Image: Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus / Vytautas the Great War Museum (image) | CC BY 4.0