Silvestras Žukauskas (, ; 31 December 1860 – 26 November 1937) was a Lithuanian General. He first served in the Imperial Russian Army, where he distinguished himself during World War I, rising to the rank of major general and ending the war as divisional commander. Later he joined the Lithuanian Army and was its Chief Commander three times: May–September 1919, February–June 1920, and June 1923 to January 1928.
Žukauskas joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1881, studying at the Vilnius Military School from 1883 to 1887, reaching the rank of polkovnik in 1913. When World War I started, he commanded the new 314th Novooskolsk Infantry Regiment, fighting at its head in present-day Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. He was demobilized in February 1918, when Germans captured most of the 1st Infantry Division which he commanded.
In early 1919, as Chief of the General Staff of the newly created Lithuanian Army, he pushed the invading Soviet forces out of Lithuania by the end of August 1919 with a successful offensive. However, he was dismissed from command as the organizers of the Polish coup d'état attempt planned to make him a military dictator. Although Žukauskas was likely unaware of this plot, he was known as a Polish sympathizer, speaking Polish, and generally faced resistance from younger Lithuanian officers. These tensions forced him out of the command twice more, but he was brought back in February 1920 after communist-inspired soldier's mutiny in Kaunas and in October 1920 following the Lithuanian defeat in the Battle of Sejny. He commanded Lithuanian forces fighting against Żeligowski's Mutiny in Autumn 1920. He is reputed as a key figure in the Lithuanian Wars of Independence. He resigned from active military duty in June 1921, being brought back from retirement in June 1923 as the Lithuanian Army's commander until January 1928.
In 1927, on the 40 year anniversary of Žukauskas becoming an officer, the government gifted him the Davalgonys estate near Ramučiai, which was frequently visited by Lithuania's president Antanas Smetona and his wife. During this final retirement, Žukauskas became a founder of and its nominal manager. The company built bicycles, cars, buses and car garages.
Biography
Russian Empire Imperial Russian Army Žukauskas was born on 31 December 1860There is some ambiguity about the year of birth. Many documents from his lifetime list the year as 1864. His death certificate lists 1860 which is used by most reference works. His baptismal records have not been located. in the village of near Pakruojis. He was born on the Saint Sylvester's Day and was likely named in the saint's honor. Very little is known about his parents; it is believed that they were landless nobles, possibly of Polish roots. After completing six grades at the Marijampolė Gymnasium, he enlisted with the , 28th Infantry Division of the Imperial Russian Army on 30 June 1881. From 1883 to 1887, he studied at Vilnius Military School. After the graduation, he was reassigned to the stationed in Šančiai. Žukauskas was born into a Roman Catholic family which made it difficult for him to pursue a military career as various Russification policies discriminated against the Catholics because they were seen as "unreliable" after the anti-Tsarist Uprising of 1863. In October 1894, he married Josephine Hasdorff (Juzefina Hasfordaitė) of German descent and Evangelical Lutheran faith. The marriage certificate listed Žukauskas' faith as Evangelical Reformed (Calvinism). This prompted his biographers to speculate whether his conversion was genuine or for career reasons.
In 1900, he was promoted to captain. In 1902, he was reassigned outside of the present-day Lithuania to the stationed in Rivne in the present-day Ukraine. In July–August 1905, he completed artillery courses for officers in Orenburg and was assigned to the 33rd Infantry Division as the commander of its machine gun company. According to the interwar Lithuanian press, Žukauskas fought in the Russo-Japanese War (specifically, in the Battles of Liaoyang and Shaho), but this is not reflected in surviving service records of Žukauskas.
In February 1907, he was reassigned to the . In 1908, he was promoted to podpolkovnik and given command of a battalion of the 131st Infantry Regiment. In 1913, he was promoted to polkovnik (colonel) and reassigned as junior assistant to the commander of the 176th Perevolochna Infantry Regiment.
World War I As Russian Army mobilized in preparation for World War I, Žukauskas was reassigned as commander of the newly created 314th Novooskolsk Infantry Regiment which was being formed in Kursk. Until mid-October, the regiment was stationed at the Novogeorgievsk Fortress. It was then deployed in the Battle of the Vistula River and Battle of Łódź. The regiment fought near Sochaczew and Iłów. On 17 November, the regiment lost almost the entire 4th Battalion. On 20 November 1914, Žukauskas was injured in his left leg and returned to the front only in January 1915. The regiment continued to fight near Brochów and Święcieniec until 25 April.
On 4 May 1915, the 314th Infantry Regiment was moved to present-day Lithuania. It fought in the present-day Raseiniai District Municipality until mid-July 1915 when it was reassigned to the 3rd Army Corps and rapidly retreated from Šiauliai to Salos Manor. For the defence of Šiauliai, Žukauskas was awarded the Saint George Sword. On 28 July, the regiment was reassigned to the 37th Army Corps and was moved to Jaunjelgava to attack Nemunėlio Radviliškis and Biržai. On 14 August, Žukauskas became ill but returned to the front a month later. The regiment continued to fight on the right bank of the Daugava River near Koknese until 5 February 1916. In March, the regiment was assigned to the 60th Infantry Division and attacked on the left bank of the Daugava.
On 18 April 1916, Žukauskas was promoted to brigade commander of the 1st Infantry Division and continued securing positions along the Daugava. On 21 June 1916, while in the trenches, he was injured in the head by shrapnel. On 21 November 1916, he was promoted to major general. From December 1916 to July 1917, the division protected Daugavpils. On 31 May 1917, Žukauskas was promoted to commanders of the 1st Infantry Division. In August 1917, the division was moved to the reserves of the Southwestern Front in Volhynia. After the capture of Riga by the Germans in September 1917, the division was returned to present-day Estonia to guard the Baltic coast near Pärnu. In February 1918, while Žukauskas was on vacation, Germans took most of the division as prisoners of war. Division's remnants escaped to Smolensk where Žukauskas was demobilized. The demobilization was a result of Bolshevik policies to remove old Tsarist commanders from the army.
Lithuanian Wars of Independence Lithuanian–Soviet War
After leaving the Russian Imperial Army, Žukauskas temporarily lived in Kyiv. In December 1918, he arrived in Vilnius and was immediately appointed as Minister of Defence in the newly formed government of Prime Minister Augustinas Voldemaras. However, Žukauskas did not assume the position because he became seriously ill with typhus and later with pneumonia. He was officially dismissed from the ministry on 24 December 1918 and departed to Warsaw to seek treatment. After recovering, he returned to Lithuania and became Chief of the General Staff on 26 April 1919. At the time, the newly formed Lithuanian Army was facing the invading Bolshevik forces that captured roughly of the Lithuanian territory. Up to that point, the Lithuanian Army only engaged in small-scale defensive actions.
Žukauskas decided to mount an offensive in northeastern Lithuania. The first objective was to take over Ukmergė which was accomplished on 3 May. The operation was risky as for awhile Kėdainiai was unprotected opening a path to Kaunas, but also very successful: some 500 Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner and about 50 Poles, captured by the Soviets in the battles near Vilnius, were liberated and returned to Poland. On 7 May, Lithuanians entered Širvintos, where they found Polish troops. Lithuanians and Poles mounted a joint operation to take Giedraičiai on 9 May. These were the first larger successful offensive operations by the Lithuanian Army.
On 7 May, Žukauskas assumed command of the entire Lithuanian Army and initiated a complete reorganization of the Lithuanian forces into two groups. The first brigade, stationed in Ukmergė, was known as the Vilkmergė Group and was ordered to push along the Utena–Zarasai line. The second brigade, was known as the Panevėžys Group, was charged with capturing Panevėžys and then pushing along the Kupiškis–Rokiškis–Obeliai line. On 18 May, the reorganized army carried out its first operation and captured Kurkliai and Anykščiai. The army successfully pushed forward and captured one town after another. By mid-June, Lithuanians had the Soviets cornered in a small region around Zarasai. After more than a month of the relatively stable front, the Lithuanians attacked on 23–29 August and pushed the Soviets across the Daugava River. On 28–29 June, Žukauskas distributed the first military awards, then merely a ribbon, which later became the Cross of Vytis.
Žukauskas frequently visited the front lines and commanded the men directly earning, the trust and respect of Lithuanian soldiers. When the enemy was driven out from the Lithuanian territory and across the Daugava River, Žukauskas planned to redeploy the main Lithuanian forces elsewhere, including protection of the demarcation line with Poland and the planned attacks against the Bermontians in northern Lithuania. However, on 26 September 1919, Žukauskas was dismissed as commander of the army because of his role in the Polish coup d'état attempt in August 1919.
Polish coup d'état attempt
Poland's Chief of State Józef Piłsudski sought a union with Lithuania in hopes of reviving the old Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (see Międzymorze federation). He planned a coup d'état to be carried out by the Polish Military Organization (PMO). During the coup, the rebels were to replace the Council of Lithuania and the Lithuanian government by a pro-Polish cabinet and Žukauskas as a military dictator of the new Lithuanian government. Žukauskas most likely was not aware of the plot, but undoubtedly had strong connections to Poland, spoke Polish and gained a reputation of a Polish sympathizer. One of his contemporaries, , called Žukauskas as "of Polish culture" and "close to Poles and Russians". Historians have noted Žukauskas' sympathy towards Poland. In early August he had a meeting in Kaunas with major Tadeusz Kasprzycki, Piłsudski's envoy to Lithuania, during which he supposedly said that he considers himself Polish and that he took the lead of Lithuanian Army only to bring about an agreement with Poland. Žukauskas did not have children but adopted and raised his niece who lived in Poland and was engaged to a Polish military officer. During the action of Lithuanian intelligence against the Polish Military Organisation in Kaunas on the night of 28–29 August he was almost arrested by Liudas Gira, but saved only by the personal intervention of President Antanas Smetona; Gira supposedly called him a "Polish adherent who cannot be trusted". Nonetheless, his aide-de-camps general (Vytautas Otockis, later colonel in the Polish Army) and Leonardas Vojtekūnas were arrested. Žukauskas helped them to get released during their trials.
Žukauskas was removed as Chief Commander of the Lithuanian Army but continued to serve in the General Staff as deputy commander for special matters. He was later appointed as a Lithuanian representative to the Entente commission, chaired by French General Henri Niessel, that was tasked with overseeing the evacuation of the Bermontians from the Baltic States. He later supervised the transfer of equipment and other property from the Bermontians to Lithuania.