Seda Water Mill Memorial site

In the town of Seda, on the wall of a mill near the Varduva River, you can see a plaque telling about the Seda Commandant's Office.

The Seda Commandant's Office was established on 10 December 1918 by Povilas Plechavičius, a Lithuanian army general known for his battles against the Bolsheviks and Bermontites. Shortly before, on 25 July 1918, having returned to Lithuania from Russia, P. Plechavičius settled in Samogitia and organised volunteer partisan units to fight against the Bolshevik and Bermontite forces, with whom he fought in the areas of Seda, Mažeikiai, Kretinga and Telšiai.

P. Plechavičius led the coup d'état in Lithuania on December 17, 1926, which brought President Antanas Smetona to power. From 1927, he was the Chief of the General Staff of the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

In 1940, after the USSR occupied Lithuania, P. Plechavičius fled to Germany, but returned to Lithuania in 1941. In 1944, P. Plechavičius founded the Local Squad - a Lithuanian volunteer military unit to fight against Soviet partisans and Home Army fighters in Lithuania.

After the Nazis abolished the Local Team, P. Plechavičius was arrested and sent to the Salaspils concentration camp, later taken to present-day Gdansk, then to Klaipėda. As the USSR army approached, he fled to Germany, and in 1949 emigrated to the United States.

Although it is not known exactly where the former commandant's office is located in Seda, in 2019 the location for the commemorative plaque was chosen near the wall of the mill of Colonel Aleksandras Plechavičius, Povilas' brother.