State Border Guard Service (Lithuania)

The State Border Guard Service is the organisation charged with controlling and maintaining the Lithuanian Border. The State Border Guard Service (hereinafter, the SBGS) falls under authority of the Ministry of the Interior, which supervises and controls the implementation of border guard policy.

History of SBGS

1918-1940

Following the Declaration of independence on February 16, 1918 the state had to ensure its border protection. This was a difficult task to fulfil, because the borders were changing (Lithuanian authority over the Klaipėda region was restored, and a demarcation line was established on the border with Poland), and the bodies protecting the border were changing as well (the customs and patrol guards, militia and army).

The formation of the first border regiment was started on 1 February 1920. On 26 January 1922, the Lithuanian defence minister, Jonas Šimkus, issued an order designating 29 June as Border Regiment Day. At that time, border regiments protected the border, and the State Border Police was formed in the Klaipėda region on 18 June 1923. Later, border regiments, units of the Ministry of Defence, were disbanded, and the border police of the Ministry of the Interior took over the protection of the state border on 1 January 1924. Before the first Soviet occupation, the number of Lithuanian border police was not large: 1,656 policemen in 1931 and 1,934 in 1933.

This strength was maintained until June 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania....
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