Many of the remaining Forest Brothers laid down their weapons when offered an amnesty by the Soviet authorities after Joseph Stalin 's death in 1953 , although isolated engagements continued into the 1960s . The last individual guerrillas are known to have remained in hiding and evaded capture into the 1980s , by which time the Baltic states were pressing for independence through peaceful means . ( See Sąjūdis , The Baltic Way , Singing Revolution ) Many Forest Brothers persisted in the hope that Cold War hostilities between the West , which never formally recognized the Soviet occupation , and the Soviet Union might escalate to an armed conflict in which the Baltic states would be liberated . This never materialized , and according to Mart Laar many of the surviving former Forest Brothers remained bitter that the West did not take on the Soviet Union militarily . ( See also Yalta Conference ) . When the brutal suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 did not bring about an intervention by , or a supportive response from , Western Powers , organized resistance in the Baltic States declined further
Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
Forest Brothers