Karininkas, partizanas, poetas Benediktas Labenskas-Labėnas (1918–1949)

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Benediktas Labenskas-Labėnas; Partizanai; Poetai; Benediktas Labenskas-Labėnas; Partisans; Poets.

ENIn the morning of March 7, 1949, in Kalesninkai forest, Daugai Parish, Alytus County, the MGB agents Kostas Kubilinskas-Varnas and Algirdas Skinkys-Rytas shot the sleeping commander of the Šarūnas Team Benediktas Labėnas-Kariūnas in the bunker of the Dainava district headquarters. Benediktas Labėnas-Kariūnas was the Acting Commander of the Dainava district since November 10, 1948. Kostas Kubilinskas-Varnas and Algirdas Skinkys-Rytas continued their bloody march and betrayed the Dainava district partisan headquarters. Benediktas Labenskas was born on February 20, 1918 to a tailor’s family in Papečiai village, Lazdijai Parish, Seinai County. He was gifted at poetry and studied well. He wrote a lot of poems and sent them to various Lithuanian newspapers and magazines of that time. Most of his works during the school year were published in the national student magazine Jaunoji Lietuva. Benediktas Labenskas was an active member of the Scout Union. He was a member of the Darius and Girėnas Society of Seinai Scouts in Lazdijai at that time and was also elected the Commander of the Dr. Basanavičius Vyčiai Club. In the spring of 1939, Benediktas Labenskas graduated from Lazdijai State Gymnasium. He entered the Military School as a graduate student. In the spring of 1940, together with other graduate students at the Military School, he changed his surname from Labenskas to Labėnas. On October 1, 1940, after graduating from the Military School, Benediktas Labėnas was to be awarded the rank of junior lieutenant, but Lithuania was already ruled by the Soviet occupiers. Cadets of the XV postgraduate program were not awarded officer ranks for political reasons but were released to the officer reserve. Having returned to his homeland, Benediktas Labėnas soon decided not to serve the occupier and at Akmeniai village, near Lazdijai, left for Germany.After receiving the assignments, he returned to Lithuania. He gathered knowledge about the Soviet army, and even reached Kaunas. He had crossed the green border several times. Benediktas Labėnas returned to Lithuania after the GermanSoviet war. He was offered to work in the Lithuanian Security Police in the Vilnius district. On October 17, 1942, Benediktas Labėnas joined the Lithuanian Language and Literature Department of the Faculty of Humanities at Vilnius University. The Construction Battalion, in which Benediktas Labėnas served in 1943, built roads in Russia and Latvia, felled trees in the forests, and worked as other pioneers of war. He did not take part in direct frontal battles but had to participate in shootings with Russian Red guerrillas or small units of the Red Army that broke through the front line. In 1945, at the end of the war, Benediktas Labėnas was taken prisoner by the Russians near Tukums in Latvia. Together with German prisoners, he was taken to the Far East, to Komsomolsk-onAmur, in the Khabarovsk region. He stayed in the Sevvostlag camp for a year and a half, later he was released and told to go to Lithuania. When he came back, he had to go register. He was detained in Lazdijai, where he was made to sign to co-operate or to be sent to jail. When he returned home, he joined the partisans on the same day. Initially, he was partisan in his own country, in the Mindaugas partisan group of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania around Babrai and Šventežeris in the vicinity of Seirijai. He became a platoon leader, repeatedly participated in battles, and was injured in the right shoulder (a total of 4 injuries). On June 26, 1947, the Šarūnas team, which had belonged to Tauras district for some time, was included in Dainava district.In the minutes of the meeting of the partisan commanders of the Dainava district held on September 24-25, 1947, Kariūnas was already mentioned as the commander of the 3rd platoon of the Officer Juozapavičius group. On October 20, 1947, Benediktas Labėnas-Kariūnas was appointed the commander of the Šarūnas team. On November 10, 1948, Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, the acting commander of the Dainava district, temporarily appointed Benediktas Labėnas-Kariūnas, the commander of the Šarūnas national team, to lead the Dainava district. On March 7, 1999, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death, a modest typical memorial was erected near the site of the former bunker (Kalesninkai forest district, block 5), reminiscent of the tragedy that took place here. In 1991 that place was marked with a cross (author A. Liovė), built by Kariūnas’s sister Eugenija Sušinskienė and her relatives. On May 12, 1999, the Rights Commission of the Resistance Participants (Resistants) of the Lithuanian Centre for Genocide and Resistance Studies recognized the legal status (after death) of the volunteer for partisan Benediktas Labėnas-Kariūnas. On May 19, 1999, by the decree of the President of the Republic of Lithuania, Benediktas Labėnas was awarded the 3rd degree Order of the Vytis Cross (after his death). On May 27, 1999 by the Decree of the President of the Republic of Lithuania No. 465 Benediktas Labėnas was awarded the rank of Colonel of the Lithuanian Armed Forces (after his death). In 2000 local historian Juozas Kuckailis prepared and published the book Benys Labėnas.The Marching Nation (160 pages), which presents the poetry and prose of Benediktas Labėnas’s (Labenskas’s) youth days as a perpetuation of the memory of the poet, warrior, partisan, as a fulfilment of his aspirations and youthful desires and hopes, as a last thank you for him, the writer, the patriot, for his persevering work, his faithfulness to the ideals of the nation’s freedom, for the sacred struggle against the enslavers of our country. [From the publication]