War economy: the damages caused to civilian population by the Lithuanian Army Forces during the War of Independence

• Daugpilio universitetas: leidinio tekstas

ENThe war, which began at the end of 1918, shaped a new type of relationship between civil populations and a new actor - the Lithuanian Army Forces (hereinafter - the LAF). Historiography has previously focused on the LAF's violence against civilians (Petronis 2016, Balkelis 2018) while the damages caused to civilian population by war has attracted little attention from researchers (Kuodys 2010). Besides, the damages of war has been exclusively perceived by the scant research on the compulsory requisition of property (Navakas 1932, Eidintas 1980). Nevertheless, large-scale research based on the insights of the sociology of war proposes that the damages of war falling on civilian populations refers not only to requisitioned property but also to property lost or destroyed as a result of military action (Rasler, Thompson 2002, 245-248). It can be said that a too narrow definition established in Lithuanian historiography prevents from an overall assessment of the damages of war on civilian populations during the 1918-1923 military conflict. In order to fill in the abovementioned historiographic gap, the key objective of this article is to establish the nature of damage to civilian populations caused by the LAF from 1918 to 1923 and the process of its compensation. Key words: war economy, Lithuanian Army Forces, damages of war, civilian populations, process of compensation. [Extract, p. 226]