Eastern European Countries. Germany
Let us now
move to Eastern Europe, to Czechoslovakia and Poland, to countries where the
Resistance had its own very specific features due to the harsh occupation
regime.
Here we will
also consider the attempts to fight the authoritarian regime in Germany and the
Resistance groups that existed in concentration camps.
Czech Republic and Slovakia
Historical review
Germany's
aggression against Czechoslovakia began even before the start of World War II:
in 1938, in accordance with the Munich Agreement, with the consent of Great
Britain and France, Germany occupied the western part of the Czech Republic, populated
mainly by ethnic Germans (the Sudetska area).
The entire
territory of the Czech Republic was occupied in the spring of 1939. At the same
time, Slovakia, which had been fighting for independence, declared it and
became an ally of the Third Reich. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was
established on the territory of the Czech Republic with a puppet government
controlled by the German administration. Thus, the history of the Resistance in
the Czech Republic and Slovakia proceeded separately and differed
significantly. — check Document 1.
Underground
groups preparing a national uprising began to form in the Czech Republic as
early as the spring of 1939, but the repressive regime of the occupiers was so
powerful that by the fall of 1941 the underground movement had almost
disappeared, its leaders were arrested. Thus, the guerrilla movement in the
Czech Republic did not happen. The only heroic exception was the successful
assassination attempt on the head of the protectorate R. Heydrich in May 1942,
organized by local patriots, British intelligence and Czechoslovak military
personnel transported by plane from Britain.
In Slovakia,
the opposition groups that emerged in 1940 were crushed by the security forces.
The underground (National Council of the Slovak Republic– NCOSR) began to
revive in late 1943, when the advancing Soviet troops approached the eastern
border of the country, but there were no forces or opportunities to form combat
groups. Therefore, in June 1944, the Central Committee of the All-Union
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided to send 10 guerrilla detachments and 15-20
organizational groups from among the Ukrainian guerrillas , as well as Czechs
and Slovaks who were in the USSR, to operate in Slovakia. The transfer of
detachments began in July 1944, and about 3 thousand guerrillas were involved.
Due to the
possibility of Soviet troops invading Slovakia and the dissatisfaction of the
army and the population with the regime, the country's government called on
Germany to occupy Slovakia. In response, the NCOSR on August 30, 1944, called
on the Slovaks to begin a national uprising. However, in October, the Nazis
managed to defeat the main forces of the rebels. The surviving units retreated
to the mountains, where they fought until the spring of 1945. The burden of
active struggle against the occupiers fell on the shoulders of the Soviet
guerrilla units.
A similar
attempt to transfer guerrilla units to the Czech Republic was undertaken by the
Soviet command in September 1944. However, the presence of a German group
there, numbering almost 1 million people, prevented the expected result: local
guerrilla units did not emerge.
However, as
in Slovakia, Czech patriots rose up to fight the occupiers: on May 5, an
uprising began in Prague, in which soldiers of the 2nd division of the Russian
Liberation Army (RLA) also took an active part. On May 6, the rebels liberated
most of the city, fierce battles continued on May 7, and on the 8th, the German
garrison capitulated and left Prague. Soviet units transferred from Germany
entered the city on May 9.
Kaluga citizens as the participants of the Resistance Movement in the
Czech Republic and Slovakia
As for the
participation of Soviet citizens in the Czech and Slovak Resistance movements,
until July 1944, the activity of guerrilla units with the participation of
Soviet people was very insignificant, primarily due to the lack of weapons; the
goal of the unit members during this period was survival. Their activities
intensified only from mid-1944.
* * *
A striking
example of not only survival, but also armed struggle in the Czech Republic is
the biography of Ivan Matveevich Vikhlichev. — He served as a tank driver from
the beginning of the war, was shell-shocked in May 1942, and was captured.
After staying in a prisoner of war camp, he was taken to a labour camp in
southern Germany. He escaped twice and was caught. The third escape attempt,
from a camp in the Czech Republic in 1944, was successful. I.M. Vikhlichev was
helped to hide by the Lin family from the village of Ugelnica (I.M. Vikhlichev
corresponded with members of the family after the war). In Ugelnica, I.M.
Vikhlichev managed to gather a group of Soviet prisoners of war and begin
guerrilla actions in the fall of 1944. Soon his group became part of the Czech
guerrilla detachment ”Rudiyj Orjol” (Red Eagle) and operated with it until May
1945. — check Documents 2–7.
Vikhlichev
I.M. left detailed memoirs, which are impossible to tear yourself away from. We
offer you a description of the battle near the village of Ledets (mentioned in
Document 53):
«The place for the operation was
chosen: as soon as the last [enemy detachment] left the village of Ledets. And
the “bag” was to be tied at the signal of the green rocket. In the morning, an
ambush was set up. Everyone was armed: 40 of our people had only “faustniks”,
and the remaining 200 people [with] machine guns, automatic weapons and
grenades.
At about 12 o'clock in the
afternoon, our motorcyclist sentry reported that [the enemy] was moving in our
direction, with tanks and self-propelled guns ahead. We turned around and
camouflaged ourselves. I stood at the observation post at the exit, the senior
lieutenant at the entrance. Suddenly, motorcyclists ahead, about 8 of them,
climbed into the “bag” at high speed, but I decided to let them through so as
not to make noise. A few minutes later, 6 tanks and several self-propelled guns
appeared, followed by columns of troops. When they came close to me, the senior
lieutenant gave a green flare: this was [a signal] that everyone had entered,
and I gave the command: “Red flare! Stop it…” — Before the flare had time to
land, a cannonade opened up from all the weapons we had It was hard to
understand or see anything: everything was exploding, thundering, and burning
all around. I gave a green flare, which was agreed upon to cease fire and
advance. The fire was stopped, the guerrillas stood up and rushed to the road.
The Germans opened fire from three buses. I gave the signal again: lie down and
fire! Everything flew into splinters for another five minutes. When it became
quiet — neither ours nor theirs started shooting — and [we] surrounded the
column, the Germans were lying in heaps in the ditches, under the cars. Many
were so shell-shocked that the living lay like dead. The guerrillas became so
brutal [that] when they had already surrendered, and the German weapons were
thrown down, and the guerrillas were trampling on their machine guns and
submachine guns, [then] for some reason they looked for the SS men and shot
them at close range.
I gave the order to the Russians to
drive away the prisoners, and to the Czechs to load weapons into the vehicles
and remove the dead. All the living Germans were driven away from the place of
the operation and driven to the headquarters in the village of Brzezno. Of the
Germans, 50% remained alive. We lost 13 killed and 27 wounded».
* * *
An example
of guerrilla activity in Slovakia is the story of Grigory Spiridonovich
Korovushkin. A professional aircraft mechanic, he was deployed at the beginning
of the Slovak National Uprising to support the insurgents as part of a
Czechoslovak fighter regiment. After the uprising was suppressed by the
occupiers, Korovushkin was appointed chief of staff of the 4th guerrilla
Brigade by the guerrilla movement headquarters in Czechoslovakia. This brigade,
numbering up to 1,000 men, operated in the Slovak mountains. In
January-February 1945, the brigade actively participated in the destruction of
highways and bridges to hinder the enemy's retreat. In March-April, they
primarily engaged in reconnaissance work for the 4th Ukrainian Front. — check Documents 8–9.
This is how
he recalled his service with the guerrillas:
«… As chief of staff, I prepared and
developed all guerrilla operations. Particular attention was paid to
coordinating the organized activities of the detachments: I strived to
eliminate unorganized actions that could be detrimental to relations with the
local population.
I will highlight two personal
episodes. The first is from November 7, 1944, when I participated with the
Sokol detachment in an operation code-named “Klačany.” The goal was to
demonstrate the strength of our socialist state, which was celebrating its 27th
anniversary. The operation was carried out as follows. On the night of November
6, the detachment descended from the mountains through the Klačany valley to
the village of Klačany, where a German garrison of about 100 men was stationed
in two barracks. We spent the night in the nearby forest, without fires,
carefully concealed. At 5:00 am, upon a signal from the mountain, a group of
guerrillas surrounded the barracks, opening automatic fire on the windows,
doors, and other exits. The Germans, in a panic, jumped out, but were met by
guerrilla bullets. Survivors tried to break through to the river, and from
there, across the mill, to the neighbouring village of Ľubča. As planned, I was with a group of
guerrillas by the river, where the Germans were expected to retreat, with the
task of eliminating them. A third group was supposed to carry the prepared
provisions to the forest.
The battle unfolded like this: a
large group of Germans, numbering 48 men, were killed or seriously wounded on
the spot, in the barracks. Another 19 were killed or wounded trying to escape
the village, and only a few managed to get away unscathed. During the battle,
some of the Germans managed to set a shed on fire, which served as a signal for
the Germans stationed in the neighbouring village.
Carried away with the destruction of
the Germans fleeing Klačany, my comrades and I did not notice the approach of
Germans from the neighbouring village, as a result of which we were surrounded
and cut off from Klačany. An unequal battle was imposed, we were pushed back to
the river, and by 1:00 pm, having lost three comrades from the air regiment –
three Petrovs: Medvedev, Ranosey, and Shokun – I was left alone. Deciding to
escape, I dove into the water; the swift mountain river carried me out of the
German encirclement. Having scrambled ashore, under heavy fire, I managed to
reach the forest. The Germans did not pursue me into the forest. So, frozen and
wet, I made my way back to my own.
The second episode is from early
April 1945. A man was brought to the detachment headquarters who had arrived as
a parliamentarian from a unit of Vlasov's army, proposing the defection of
their battalion to the guerrillas. The offer was accepted. The next day, at the
appointed time and place, 300 men arrived with their command. The entire unit
consisted of Uzbeks. Having contacted the command, I received orders to
transfer them across the front line and hand them over to the appropriate
authorities. The village of Jasenie was designated as the handover point. And
so, with a small group of guerrillas, I escorted them across the mountain pass
into the Jasenie valley. The crossing lasted about a day. The Vlasovites were
allowed to keep their weapons and command, so as not to let them understand
what awaited them after being handed over to the Soviet authorities. This whole
operation ended in the village…».
Poland
Historical review
The invasion
of Nazi Germany of Poland on September 1, 1939 marked the beginning of the
Second World War. By the end of September, Poland had been defeated, and its
territory dismembered: the western regions were ceded to the Third Reich, the
eastern regions to the USSR, and a general government with a German
administration was established in central Poland. Poland became the first
country where the Nazis began systematically using genocide. — check Document 10.
The
President and the government of Poland immigrated to France and then to the UK.
Polish army soldiers who managed to leave the country and emigrants formed
military units that fought in France in 1940, then were taken to Britain and
then fought with the British in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
Spontaneous
resistance to the invaders began immediately after the seizure of the country,
but the organized struggle began later. — In 1940-1942 there were two anti-Nazi
movements in the country: first, the Union of Armed Struggle was formed,
focusing on the Polish government in exile (in the UK), whose detachments the
Armia Krayowa (the Home Army (AK)) They were preparing for a national uprising.
Later, detachments subordinate to the Polish Communists were formed, at first
they were called the Gwardia Ludowa (People's guard) (GL), and from the
beginning of 1944 – the Armia Ludowa (People's army) (AL). — check Document 11.
In 1942, the
detachments of both movements still acted together, carried out sabotage, but
since 1943 their paths have diverged due to political differences on the
question: what should be the political structure of Poland after the victory?
There were even armed clashes between AK and GL.
The position
of the Communists (AL) increased dramatically with the entry of Red Army units
and Soviet guerrilla detachments into Poland in 1944 (as in Slovakia). The NKVD
detachments of AK detachments were detained and disarmed. This prompted the AK
leadership to take more active action: they decided to start an uprising in
Warsaw. It began on August 1, 1944. However, the Soviet troops were stopped by
the Nazis on the outskirts of the city, and the forces of the rebels were
inferior to the German garrison. As a result, on October 2, the AK leadership
decided to surrender. In January 1945, by the decision of the AK, all its
detachments were disbanded.
Kaluga citizens as the participants of the Resistance Movement in Poland
The
formation of small guerrilla detachments by Soviet prisoners of war who escaped
from the camps began in the autumn of 1941. In the spring of 1942, there were
about 1,000 people in 32 detachments. Later, their number increased to 7-8
thousand (including about 1 thousand in the AK detachments).
* * *
The
biography of Vasily Fedorovich Belyaev is the story of an indomitable, tireless
fighter. — In 1938, he was drafted into the Red Army, and joined the party in
1939. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he fought in Ukraine. At the
end of 1941, he was captured. He was in prisoner of war camps, from where he
made five escape attempts in the winter of 1941/1942. In April 1942, he was
transported to Germany, to a labour camp in Magdeburg. In July, he escaped
again, this time successfully. I took the train to southern Poland. I spent the
winter in a peasant family.
In the
spring of 1943, a guerrilla detachment of 6 Russians and 15 Poles was formed in
the forests near the town Umelets. The detachment was commanded by Pole V.
Wojciechowski, Belyaev V.F. headed the Russian group. By 1944, the detachment
had grown to 60 men. The guerrillas blew up the railways, attacked the convoy
of the occupiers, they freed 280 Soviet prisoners of war from the camp in the
town of Dembice.
In June
1944, V.F. Belyaev was sent to the San River to establish contacts with Soviet
guerrilla detachments. Here, on July 6, he joined the guerrilla detachment
named after him. Karmelyuk was under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union V.
Yaremchuk and was there until August 6, 1944. After that, he was drafted into
the Red Army, where he fought until the end of the war. — check Document 12-13.
Here is a
fragment of V.F. Belyaev's memoirs about his escape from the camp and actions
as part of a Polish guerrilla detachment in 1943-1944:
«In 1942, in the month of April, he
was sent from [camp] Krivoy Rog to Nazi Germany, to the camp of the city of
Magdeburg. In the summer of 1942, he escaped from the Magdeburg camp. The
escape was carried out as follows: in the camp [I] worked in a shoe workshop.
The German shoemakers who worked with me (the Communists) helped me escape. —
They took me to the station, covered me under the tarpaulin of a passing train,
and gave me a loaf of bread.
[I] jumped 80 km to the mountains
[ode] Krakow and went on foot to the east. I've been around cities. In August
1942, the Poles advised us to stay in the village of Smykali, near the town of
Melets. [I] stayed here all winter, helped with local affairs, recovered from
exhaustion in the camps.
In the spring of [March] 1943, we
already went out with the created detachment (6 Russians and about 15 Poles)
into the forest. From that time on, my guerrilla life began. The Poles were
commanded by Wojciechowski Wojtek (he commanded our entire group), and I
commanded the Russians. The commissioner was Mikhail Vetrov (Volzhanin) from
the city of Saratov. By 1944, the group had grown to 60 members. There were 4
more Russians. — They came to us from the Russian prisoner of war camp we
liberated [in] Dembica. — A total of 280 people were released. The prisoners of
war [from this camp] served the German landlords. Of all those released, only 4
people joined our squad. The others didn't go. This operation was prepared and
carried out in 1944, in the summer, by Mikhail Butkevich, a Pole.
Throughout 1943, Wojciechowski's
detachment took horses from German convoys and gave them to the population.
They did not allow the timber to be exported to Germany. German convoys were
disarmed (it was impossible to kill Germans, since 10 Poles were shot for 1
German). They hunted the Germans, ambushed them, took them into the woods and
shot them. More than 50 people were killed. In the summer of 1944, a group of
16 fascists was captured and destroyed on the Dembitsa–Melets railway
(narrow-gauge railway), which was transporting equipment to the Dembitsa
landfill.»
* * *
Mikhail
Ivanovich Lyasnikov's path of war was equally heroic. — He met the beginning of
the war when he was a soldier in the Red Army in Belarus. In the summer of
1941, he was surrounded and captured. An attempt to escape from the prisoner of
war camp proved unsuccessful, and in the fall of 1941 he was transported to
Germany, to a labour camp.
In May 1943,
he escaped from the camp with a group of comrades. They managed to get to
Poland and found a Polish guerrilla detachment in the area of Demblin, in which
there was a group of Russian fighters. The detachment mainly carried out
sabotage work, avoiding direct clashes: they undermined railway tracks and bridges,
destroyed communication lines, and gathered intelligence. Sometimes the field
gendarmerie units were attacked. The detachment operated until August 1944,
before meeting the advancing Soviet troops. Lyasnikov M.I. was again drafted
into the Red Army, where he served until the end of the war. After
demobilization, he, a native of the Tula region, moved to live in the Kaluga
region.
Lyasnikov's
achievements were noted by both the Soviet and Polish governments: in addition
to the Orders of Glory of the 2nd and 3rd degrees and medals, he was awarded
the Polish Guerrilla Cross.
As mentioned
above, the squad was mainly engaged in blowing up railway tracks and bridges,
but there were exceptions. Here are two episodes from the memoirs of M.I.
Lyasnikov:
«Combat operations were forbidden to
us. However, sometimes the guerrilla nature could not stand it. I remember that
[we] blew up the combat echelon. — This place was later guarded by sentries. —
And we were resting after another sabotage, but we were haunted by these three
Germans who loomed at the booth every day. Of course, they didn't decide the
fate of [the war], but at least three fascists, but fewer, we decided; and the
three of us, with the guys, dealt with them. The most remarkable thing in this
case [was] the fact that the Germans then stormed the booth before lunch,
believing that large forces [of guerrillas] were entrenched in it, or near it,
although we, having finished off the Germans, closed the booth and went to our
own.
The Polish population provided us
with great help, but we also did not remain in their debt. — I remember the
Poles told me that in the villages of Malaya and Bolshaya Khuta, the German
pilots were too wild: they robbed the Poles, mocked them. We waited for an
opportunity when the pilots left the village as part of the convoy. There was a
bush and a hollow between the [Big and Small], where we hid ourselves. When the
Germans caught up with us, we shot them. Only one of the 12 who was not killed,
wounded, crawled towards the village. I rushed to intercept him. The German
shot back, but I was saved by a rather thick tree, behind which I hid. [I]
threw a grenade (the German stubbornly did not want to give up, but, hiding
behind a hill, continued to shoot), stunned, he jumped up, raised his hands. He
didn't have a weapon. I had to check more carefully: I found a miniature pistol
in the trousers, which were grabbed at the bottom with a belt from the
leggings, and I killed the fascist with it. But in this fight we lost one
comrade, Mikhail Morozov (Moscow). He was shot in the stomach by an explosive
bullet. When we disappeared into the forest, planes began to sweep the forest
with machine-gun fire. We still have enemy submachine guns, a machine gun, and
ammunition as trophies.»
Germany
Historical review
The
Resistance movement in Nazi Germany was completely different from the
Resistance in other European countries. The totalitarian regime had been
forming since 1933, and it had such a developed and effective apparatus of
repression that it was simply impossible to wage an underground struggle, not
to mention a guerrilla one. All oppositionists, who were primarily members of
the German Communist Party, had either emigrated, or got into prisons or
concentration camps by the middle of the 1930s.
Throughout
the history of the Third Reich, all attempts to counter the regime were
successfully put down by the police, the Secret State Police (Gestapo[1]) and the SD[2] (SS
security service). Thus, the Red Orchestra group, which supplied the Soviet
government with intelligence data, and the Kreisau Circle of opposition
politicians were defeated. On July 20, 1944, the participants of the
assassination attempt on A. Hitler were executed or repressed.
An extensive
system of camps was created in the Third Reich, the most notorious ones were
concentration camps intended for opponents of the regime. There were “death
camps” for the extermination of Jews and Gypsies. And there were a lot of
labour camps (branches of concentration camps), the prisoners of which (prisoners
of war and “labour force” brought from other countries) worked at German
facilities. The latter mainly contained prisoners of war and deported civilians
of the USSR. — check Document 16.
Kaluga citizens as the participants of the Resistance
Movement in Germany
Here,
we’re concerned with the Resistance movement against Nazism, which was formed
in concentration camps exclusively. More than 3.5 million Soviet prisoners of
war were held in concentration camps by the fall of 1942. And resistance groups
began to form among them in late 1942 and early 1943. They were in contact with
the groups created by prisoners of other nationalities, primarily the German
Communists. They formed combat teams for the future uprising, helped the sick
by getting scarce medicines. Moreover, members of these groups arranged
diversions at the facilities where they were taken to work, committed acts of
sabotage there, and conducted counter-propaganda against recruitment into the
Russian Liberation Army (ROA).
With
the end of the war approaching, the leadership of the concentration camps was
preparing mass prisoners’ executions, which the underground discovered.
Thereby, they attempted uprisings. In particular, the night assault on the
fence at the Mauthausen camp in early February 1945 was attempted in order to
carry out a mass escape, but failed. The prisoners' revolt in the Ebensee camp
had been prepared by the underground since January 1945, and the rebels managed
to defeat the camp governor and seize camp documentation at the end of April.
As a result, the camp guards fled on May 6.
* * *
Dmitry
Vasilyevich Kanishchev, a native of the Kursk region, was one of the prisoners
of the Dachau concentration camp. He was recruited into the Red Army in October
1941, then sent to a unit, but on the way he was surrounded and sent to the
camp. After that, he escaped and returned to his homeland. But in April 1942,
while trying to cross the front line and join the Red Army, he was detained and
sent to Dachau camp in Germany.
D.V. Kanishchev
fled in the summer of 1942, while working at a stone pit, and tried to get to
Italy, to the guerrillas. He was captured and, after being held in prison in
the Austrian town of Spittal an der Drau, returned to Dachau. He was a member
of an underground organization, a member of a combat squad, and conducted
agitation work among prisoners.
In May 1945,
he was repatriated after American forces liberated the camp. He passed an
inspection in a filtration camp, served in the Soviet Army, then settled in the
Kaluga region.
Here are
D.V. Kanishchev’s memories about his stay in Dachau from the summer of 1944 to
the end of April 1945:
«When the Allies, the United States and Britain,
opened the Western front in the summer of 1944, it was something extraordinary.
[The prisoners] stood [on the parade ground, as punishment] for days and
nights, no matter what the weather was. New SS men arrived, but the Communists
felt even more united in the struggle for existence. There was a peculiarity in
the fact that Munich was bombed every day and night, and the Dachau camp was
bombed, too. There was a lack of water and food, typhoid fever was spread in
the camp. The number of prisoners has increased to 80 thousand. But when our
forces reached other countries, things got a little better in the Dachau
concentration camp: Russians were allowed to communicate with other people of
other nationalities, and [the representatives of] all nationalities could move
freer around the camp.
For the first time, I heard Russian on the radio in
October 1944, when our forces were advancing along the entire front. The
Communists made it my duty to inform our other comrades every evening which
towns and districts were liberated by our army. I was happy to do it.
In February and March [and] until the end of April
1945, severe typhus and typhoid fever were spreading. The camp was in
quarantine, the prisoners were not taken to the [camp] square any more: the
inspection took place in the barracks. The food has become worse. People died
by the hundreds. The crematorium was smoking its yellow smoke day and night.
But the prisoners did not lose heart, they kept faith in victory. The German
and French Communists urged them [to hold on].
And the day of blood came: fascist fiends ordered to
destroy the Dachau camp. Everything fell silent, everyone was thinking how they
were to wage this bloody struggle unarmed against heavily armed fascists, with
machine guns, submachine guns and dogs. But that didn't happen. The governor of
Dachau camp did not give such a command, i.e. he did not follow the order to
destroy the camp. When his deputy arrived and demanded from him a command to
open fire on the camp and destroy it, he [the governor] did not do this, and
then he was killed for not following the order. Despite everything, the
prisoners buried him with respect, and that [deputy] was hanged when planes
flew in and began firing machine guns at the camp towers. At that time, the
prisoners signalled [the planes] with flags.
Cars with American soldiers arrived at 5 in the evening,
and the Dachau concentration camp was liberated. The red flag and flags of
other countries were waving over the Dachau camp. Everyone was shouting at the
time: “Long live freedom!”. It was April 29, 1945.
During the retreat the Fascist torturers found out
that the Dachau camp had not been destroyed, [they] decided to take revenge,
i.e. launched a counteroffensive to capture the Dachau camp and destroy it. In
the evening, at 20 o'clock, artillery preparation began at the Dachau. These
were moments of worrying, but when the American tanks arrived, this danger
passed».
Another
source telling about D.V. Kanishchev's stay in the concentration camp are the
memoirs of N.F. Mikhailov, the former chairman of the International and
National Committees in the concentration camp Dachau. — check Document 17-18.