The regime sought to eradicate the last vestiges of the period of independence. The independent farming class that had provided the political base of the independence period was especially targeted. Opposition proved particularly pronounced and dramatic in rural areas, especially in Lithuania, then still an overwhelmingly agrarian society. National guerrilla opposition developed by late 1944 and lasted into the early 1950s. It proved especially acute during two waves in 1948-49 of forced collectivization accompanied by mass deportations. It has been estimated that between 1946 and 1953 deportations and guerrilla deaths reached 95,000 in Estonia, 125,000 in Latvia, and 310,000 in Lithuania. After 1953 many of the surviving deportees were allowed to return, though in many cases not to their former homes.