Eastern European anti-Communist insurgencies

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Central and Eastern European anti-Communist insurgencies
Part of the Cold War
Jozsef korut a Corvin (Kisfaludy) koznel. Harckeptelenne tett ISU-152-es szovjet rohamlovegek, a hatterben egy T-34-85 harckocsi. Fortepan 24854.jpg
Date1945–1965
Location
Result Anti-Communist partisans defeated
Belligerents

Flag of the Soviet Union (1936-1955).svgFlag of the Soviet Union.svg  Soviet Union
Flag of Albania (1946-1992).svg  Albania
Flag of Bulgaria (1948-1967).svg  Bulgaria
Flag of the Czech Republic.svg  Czechoslovakia
Flag of Germany.svgFlag of East Germany.svg  East Germany
Flag of Hungary (1949-1956; 1-2 aspect ratio).svgFlag of Hungary.svg  Hungary
Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svg  Poland
Flag of Romania (1948-1952).svgFlag of Romania (1952-1965).svg  Romania
Flag of Yugoslavia (1946-1992).svg  Yugoslavia

Contents

Supported by:

Flag of Russia.svgNaval Ensign of Russia.svg Russian partisans
Flag of Belarus (1918, 1991-1995).svg Belarusian partisans
Flag of Bulgaria.svg Bulgarian partisans
Flag of Independent State of Croatia.svg Croatian partisans
Flag of Estonia.svg Estonian partisans
Flag of Latvia.svg Latvian partisans
Flag of Lithuania 1918-1940.svg Lithuanian partisans
Flag of Poland (1928-1980).svgFlaga PPP.svg Polish partisans
Flag of Romania.svgFlag of the Iron Guard (Legion of the Archangel Michael or Legionary Movement).svg Romanian partisans
Civil Flag of Serbia.svgNaval Ensign of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.svgChetniks Flag.svg Serbian partisans
Flag of the Slovene Nation.svg Slovenian partisans
Flag of Ukraine.svgOUN-r Flag 1941.svg Ukrainian partisans

Commanders and leaders

Flag of the Soviet Union (1936-1955).svg Joseph Stalin (1945-1953)
Flag of the Soviet Union (1936-1955).svg Georgy Malenkov (1953)
Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Nikita Khrushchev (1953-1964)

Flag of the Soviet Union.svg Leonid Brezhnev (from 1964)
No centralized leadership

The Central and Eastern European anti-Communist insurgencies fought on after the official end of the Second World War against the Soviet Union and the communist states formed under Soviet occupation and support.

Prominent movements include:

The activities of some the groups have been controversial as some of them, like the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and groups associated with the "cursed soldiers", were responsible for ethnic cleansing and mass murder. [1] [2]

In Poland

Jozef Kuras, leader of the anti-communist resistance Jozef Kuras Ogien.jpg
Józef Kuraś, leader of the anti-communist resistance

The 'cursed soldiers' (Polish: Żołnierze wyklęci) is a name applied to a variety of Polish resistance movements that were formed in the later stages of World War II and afterward. Created by former members of the Polish underground resistance organizations of World War II, these organizations continued the struggle against the pro-Soviet government of Poland well into the 1950s. Their history and actions have been controversial, as they have been accused of anti-Semitism and mass murder. [3] [4]

Most of these anti-communist groups ceased operations in the late 1940s or 1950s. However, the last known 'cursed soldier', Józef Franczak, was killed in an ambush as late as 1963, almost 20 years after the Soviet take-over of Poland. [5]

In the Baltic States

Ants Kaljurand, Estonian resistance fighter for the Forest Brothers Ants Kaljurand.jpg
Ants Kaljurand, Estonian resistance fighter for the Forest Brothers

The Forest Brothers (also: Brothers of the Forest, Forest Brethren; Forest Brotherhood; Estonian: metsavennad, Latvian: meža brāļi, Lithuanian: miško broliai) were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II. [6] The Soviet Army occupied the independent Baltic states in 1940–1941 and, after a period of German occupation, again in 1944–1945. As Stalinist repression intensified over the following years, 50,000 residents of these countries used the heavily forested countryside as a natural refuge and base for armed anti-Soviet resistance.

Resistance units varied in size and composition, ranging from individually operating guerrillas, armed primarily for self-defense, to large and well-organized groups able to engage significant Soviet forces in battle.

In Romania

An armed resistance movement against the communist regime in Romania was active from the late 40s to the mid-50s, with isolated individual fighters remaining at large until the early 1960s. The groups were concentrated in the Carpathian Mountains, although a resistance movement had also developed in Northern Dobruja. Armed resistance was the most structured form of resistance against the communist regime. After the overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu in 1989, the details about what was called “anti-communist armed resistance” were made public, thanks to the discretization of the Securitate archives. [7]

Ion Gavrila Ogoranu, fascist activist and leader of Fagaras resistance movement. RezistantaRomanaAntiCommunista-Ion-Gavrila-Ogoranu-tanar.jpg
Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu, fascist activist and leader of Făgăraș resistance movement.

See also

Related Research Articles

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Ukrainian Insurgent Army Paramilitary wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army was a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary and later partisan formation. During World War II, it was engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Soviet Union, the Polish Underground State, Communist Poland, and Nazi Germany. It was established by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The insurgent army arose out of separate militant formations of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera faction, other militant national-patriotic formations, some former defectors of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, mobilization of local populations and others. The political leadership of the army belonged to the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists—Bandera. It was the primary perpetrator of the ethnic cleansing of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. Its official date of creation is 14 October 1942, day of the Intercession of the Theotokos feast. From December 1941 to July 1943, the Ukrainian People's Revolutionary Army shared the same name.

Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was a Ukrainian ultranationalist political organization established in 1929 in Vienna. It was an important and the biggest far-right Ukrainian organization operating in Kresy region of the Second Polish Republic. OUN emerged as a union between the Ukrainian Military Organization, smaller radical right-wing groups, and right-wing Ukrainian nationalists and intellectuals represented by Dmytro Dontsov, Yevhen Konovalets, Mykola Stsiborskyi, and other figures.

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Partisan (military) Member of a resistance movement

A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity. This type of war was invented by Lieutenant General Surena, the Iranian commander, with a small and special tactical army in 53 BC against Crassus with 42 thousand soldiers to the borders of the Parthians in Kareh and defeated the Romans and not only Romans but also his son were killed in this war. This failure was so painful for the Romans that the Roman Senate investigated the reason for the failure of this war and called the type of war a party or partisan. The term can apply to the field element of resistance movements. The most common use in present parlance in several languages refers to occupation resistance fighters during World War II, especially under Yugoslav partisan leader Josip Broz Tito.

Roman Shukhevych Ukrainian nationalist (1907–1950)

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Anti-Soviet partisans

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References

  1. Ivan Katchanovski. "Terrorists or National Heroes? Politics of the OUN and the UPA in Ukraine" (PDF). Cpsa-acsp.ca.
  2. Siemaszko, Ewa. The July 1943 genocidal operations of OUN-UPA in Volhynia (PDF). pp. 2–3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-04-01.
  3. Barbara Engelking-Boni. Zagłada żydów:pamięć narodowa a pisanie historii w Polsce i we Francji. p. 195.
  4. Krzysztof Pilawski (6 March 2011). "Kto zapłaci za zbrodnie podziemia". Tygodnik Przegląd (in Polish).
  5. „Lalek” ostatni partyzant Rzeczypospolitej Archived October 25, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  6. Buttar, Prit (2013). Between Giants, the Battle for the Baltics in World War II. Osprey Publishing. ISBN   9781780961637.
  7. Ion Gavrilă Ogoranu, Brazii se frâng dar nu se îndoiesc, vol II, Editura Marineasa, Timișoara, 2001