In June 1940, the Lithuanian government unconditionally accepted the Soviet ultimatum. Lithuania was occupied, transformed into the Lithuanian SSR, and incorporated into the Soviet Union. The Soviets began implementing various Sovietization policies, including nationalization of private property, and mass arrests of political activists and others dubbed "enemies of the people". These arrests targeted many prominent politicians (e.g. Aleksandras Stulginskis, Juozas Urbšys, Leonas Bistras, Antanas Merkys, Pranas Dovydaitis, Petras Klimas), government officials, military officers, members of the Lithuanian Riflemen's Union. The Lithuanian Army was reorganized as the 29th Rifle Corps of the Red Army. The Soviets also closed all non-communist cultural, religious and political organizations. The economic situation steadily worsened and the standard of living decreased. A year later, just a week before the uprising, some 17,000 Lithuanians, mainly the intelligentsia, were taken with their entire families and deported to Siberia, where many perished due to inhumane living conditions (see the June deportation). It was the single major event that incited popular support for the uprising. That tragedy initially also garnered a positive predisposition toward the German invasion. People who escaped the deportations or arrests spontaneously organized themselves into armed groups, hid in the forests, and waited for a wider uprising.