Lithuania and formed a Cabinet on December 26, 1918. Perceiving an imminent threat to the state, he issued a proclamation several days later. Directed at Lithuanian men, the proclamation invited volunteers to join a force to defend the country. Lithuanian volunteers who agreed to join the military force were promised free land. Fulfilling its Armistice obligation to support Lithuanian independence, Germany initially tried to organize a volunteer force from units remaining in Lithuanian territory, but those attempts failed. Crimps were sent to Germany to recruit volunteers. A division of volunteers was soon formed, who were paid 5 marks per day plus 30 marks per month. The first units began arriving in Lithuania during January 1919, although some of them were sent away because they were in poor condition. By the end of January, 400 volunteers were stationed in Alytus, Jonava, Kėdainiai, and Kaunas. They formed the basis for the 46th Saxonian division, renamed in March to the Southern Lithuanian Saxonian Volunteer Brigade. The brigade consisted of the 18th, 19th, and 20th regiments. The last of these German troops would leave Lithuania during July 1919. Belarusians and Lithuanian Jews also participated as volunteers of the Lithuanian Army. After successful attempts at mustering a voluntary force to defend Lithuanian territories, mobilization was begun on March 5, 1919 to expand the Lithuanian armed forces. It applied to men born between 1897 and 1899. At the end of summer 1919, the Lithuanian army numbered about 8,000 men. During the battles that followed, 1,700 Lithuanian volunteers died, more than 2,600 were injured, and 800 were missing in action. Historian Alfonsas Eidintas cites the total deaths as 1,444. War against the Bolsheviks As revolution broke out in Germany, the German government withdrew support for the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which had ceded Lithuania independence from Soviet Russia on November 5, 1918. Meanwhile, the Soviet Russian government renounced the treaty on November 13. The Bolsheviks attempted to conquer Lithuania from the east as part of their global proletarian revolution. Elsewhere, the treaty of 1918 had also ceded independence to Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia in the Near East, and Belarus and Ukraine in Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union attacked these nations as well. But whereas they did fall, Lithuania and Poland would not. On December 8, 1918, a temporary revolutionary government in the capital city of Vilnius was formed, consisting solely of members of the Communist Party of Lithuania.