Memories of the future Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Stasys Raštikis, about the Independence Struggles

The memoirs tell how the future general returned from the Romanian and Turkish fronts to Vilnius after the end of the First World War, registered at the officers' registration office under the State Council and went to his parents in Dūkšta. The future commander of the Lithuanian army already found a self-government committee and militia in Dūkšta, whose representatives bought weapons from the German army. The memoirs tell how German units blew up a warehouse while moving out, and mention how one slavery was followed by another slavery - the Red Army.

S. Raštikis, having convinced his parents that the farm would not suffer without him, volunteered for the army, having previously told his neighbors that he was going to Utena to buy horses, took a "tray", bread, cheese and set out on the 200 km. long road to Kaunas. S. Raštikis' memoirs record that the ladies, when sending their men off to the Lithuanian army, cried out of joy, not out of pain, as they did when sending their men off to the Tsar's army, because they knew that the brave could reclaim Lithuania. According to S. Raštikis, the blood of the first volunteers is not worthy of sadness, but of the greatest respect and pain.

Having successfully overcome the road and crossed the front line, the future army commander volunteered for the Vilnius battalion and immediately noticed that the volunteers were poorly trained and armed. The memoirs describe the Battle of Žąsliai, tell how they tried to march on Vilnius. The moment of the experience of being wounded and taken prisoner by the Bolsheviks is presented very expressively. It was as if something had hit his shoulder and the heat had knocked it out, followed by a second shot, after which he was overcome by thirst and fear that Gen. S. Raštikis would be pierced with a bayonet. Trying to avoid this, he began to pray.

The memoirs describe how the "Russians" approached the wounded man, emptied his pockets, took off his shoes, and took him to Daugavpils. Upon arrival in Daugavpils, the future general was interrogated, during which he deceived the interrogator, and then was admitted to a military hospital.

When Lithuanian army units approached the Daugava River and began bombing Daugavpils, the military hospital and S. Raštikis were transported to Velykij Luki, and later to Moscow, where the future general was tormented by terrible dreams. After leaving the military hospital, S. Raštikis was sent to a prisoner of war camp in Tula, where he contracted typhus and described the hunger and hard work in the camp, until he read in the newspaper about the peace treaty concluded between Lithuania and Russia. Then he wrote a letter to the Lithuanian mission in Moscow and returned to Lithuania.