The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands

Thanks to a tip I found this book today, it was published in August 2013. The Soviet COIN experience has appeared before, mainly in Afghanistan and there is a thread I think on the resistance - in the forests - of the Baltic states. The campaigning after defeating Hitler's Germany lasted into the early 1950's, without I expect any media or external coverage.

Amazon.com:http://www.amazon.com/dp/1107616476/..._zKd1ub0C27R0V

Amazon.uk:http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soviet-Count...rn+Borderlands


From the publishers reviews:

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One of the most obscure aspects of Soviet history has long been the violent pacification of the Soviet borderlands after the end of World War II. Professor Statiev has for the first time produced a strikingly original, honest, and comprehensive account of that hidden history. Free of polemic and prejudice, his account will become the standard work.

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An Amazon reviewer in part:

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I would like to add from my perspective is that chapter nine on police tactics is my favorite section of the book with its focus on the tactics, techniques and procedures employed to counter this threat. In particular is the coverage the soviet use of pseudo operation and units to penetrate, isolate and eliminate the partisan and guerrilla human and physical infrastructure. It is by far the best coverage I have read on the use of this strategy by the soviets.

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Hopefully it comes out in a Kindle version.

I reckon there's a big vacuum that still needs filling on post WWII late 40's/early 50's Eastern Europe.

And hopefully a bit more on late stage Soviet/Warsaw Pact implosion around 80's Poland and external support received.

Another tip. Two sources. The first is a blog article on the 'Forest Brothers' resistance in Estonia:https://globalecco.org/226

Interesting to note Estonia is only 45,227 sq kms (or 17k sq miles), there were only 130 hiding in the forests - active over a small area - and in March 1949 30k suspected contacts were deported.

There is an article too on the 'Forest Brothers' after the 1940 "voluntary union" with the USSR. Note then there were 12k 'Brothers'. Link:https://globalecco.org/estonias-fore...s-and-outcomes

There is British aspect to the Cold War period, covered in a 1993 book, with SIS mounting operations and being totally outfoxed by the KGB:
http://www.amazon.com/Red-Web-MI6-Ma.../dp/0749314788

There are a number of posts on this theme in another Historians thread:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=12227 Worth checking out.

On 18th October 2023 the Centre for Geopolitics, Cambridge University, England held an event in which Dan Kaszeta talks to Donatas Kupciunas about his book: The Forest Brotherhood: Baltic Resistance against the Nazis and Soviets.

They discussed the impact of this important history on contemporary geopolitics in the Baltic Sea region. A common view is that the Second World War in Europe ended in May 1945. However, fighting continued for over a decade in the Baltic states. Stuck between Stalin’s USSR and Hitler's Reich the populations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had been subjected to a brutal Soviet occupation in 1940, Nazi invasion in 1941, and Soviet re-occupation in 1944, falsely branded as ‘liberation’. The video recording is now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU3BrgfYt30 (1h 31m).