Coup of the Volunteers ( ) was a stand-off that occurred in summer 1993 in Lithuania near Kaunas between a group of about 150 men from the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Forces ( then known as or SKAT ) and the Lithuanian government . There was mutual distrust between SKAT and the newly elected leftist Democratic Labour Party of Lithuania ( LDDP ) . Several SKAT members ( usually referred to as volunteers ) abandoned their posts , took their arms , and retreated to a wooded area near Kaunas in July and August 1993 . The crisis escalated when the government issued an order for the volunteers to secure their weapons at designated locations in September . Interpreting the order as confiscation of their weapons , a total of about 150 armed men gathered near . They expressed their mistrust and dissatisfaction with the new LDDP government and raised social and political demands . After a week long negotiations , the men agreed to return to their posts if no one would be persecuted for their role in the coup . Although it concluded peacefully , the stand-off if one of the most controversial and little understood episodes in the early years of Lithuania 's independence . Sociologist evaluated the events as a " stress test " of the Lithuanian democracy and the new relationship between the anti-communist and ex-communist elites . The anti-communists , which were now in opposition , did not use the opportunity to return to power . It was followed by two related and unsolved bombings of the Bražuolė railway bridge in November 1994 ( no casualties ) and of a passenger car in January 1997 ( SKAT officer Juras Abromavičius killed ) . The events remain controversial and subject to numerous theories and conspiracies . The political right accuses Russian secret services , while political left points to the conservatives
Bražuolė railway bridge
Bražuolė bridge bombing
Coup of the Volunteers