Guerrilla War Research Articles

Turcophile, Religious Zealot, and Rebel: The Hungarian Noble Pál Szepessy's Encounters with Grand Vizier Ahmed Köprülü (1661–76)

Abstract Pál Szepessy (1636–1685), a Calvinist noble, dedicated his life to the goal of turning Habsburg Hungary into an Ottoman vassal state. He spent much time in the Ottoman world, met with Grand Vizier Ahmed Köprülü (r. 1661–76) on at least four occasions, and regularly visited other Ottoman dignitaries. Szepessy outlined the traumatic effects of Habsburg military occupation and Counter-Reformation on Hungarian society. He was driven by the conviction that God had chosen the Ottomans as his avengers to liberate Hungary from the yoke of the Austrian Antichrist. Szepessy won Köprülü's support for armed uprisings and a guerilla war against the Habsburgs. He also influenced the grand vizier's decision to end the Polish-Ottoman war (1672–76) and turn the Ottoman army against the Habsburg Empire. When Köprülü died in November 1676, the blueprints for Habsburg Hungary's defection to the Ottoman Empire were already in place. They were reactivated by Kara Mustafa in 1682–83. Szepessy's initiatives (and similar efforts by other Hungarians) have been ignored by scholarship; their traces remain dispersed in the Austrian and Hungarian archives. My research draws on Szepessy's appeals to Köprülü; his correspondence with fellow Protestant nobles, family, and Transylvanian supporters; reports of Habsburg spies; dispatches of Habsburg residents at the Porte; and deliberations of the Habsburg War Council. Taken together these sources open a window on the life of an important trans-imperial subject whose life throws into question the clash of civilizations narrative that still dominates much of Habsburg and Central European historical studies.

Punitive Operations Carried out by Lithuanian Partisans in Alytus County in 1944–1952

To compare with guerrilla wars in the 20th century in Europe, participants of Lithuanian partisan movement after the WW II were particularly involved in fighting collaborationism; they were struggling to overcome challenges related to support showed by their fellow citizens to the Soviet authorities. In the majority of cases, the punitive operations were precalculated actions, by which it was sought not to allow the Soviets to entrench deeply their authority in this country; yet, in part, it had been spontaneous responses towards substantial reforming of social relations and world view norms prevailing in Lithuania (especialy in the countryside). New norms had to comply with the bolshevist communist ideology version. In the beginning, fighting collaborationism had not been the most important part of partisan activity, yet, under conditions of increasing involvement of local people in the schemes of repressive structures (first of all, those of NKVD and MGB), the number of counter-punitive operations increased. Especially violent fight of this kind broke out in South Lithuania, first of all, in Dzūkija, as in this region, Dainava and Tauras military districts of partisans were established. Those two military districts were stronger and resisted longer to compare with other ones. It is likely that earlier, the leaders of first military groups of partisans acted spontaneously, they were following their own understanding of ethics. Although a part of them had to have access to the Order of 10th November 1944 of Headquarters of Lithuanian Freedom Army formally functioning across Lithuania. The Order contained information related to citizens behaviour concerning collaborationism. Later, the leaders of partisan military districts drafted legal acts, more or less adapted to war time conditions, regulating partisan fight tactics and methods against collaborations. Statistics collected when preparing this article shows that in 1941 – 1952, in the biggest Dzūkija county, Alytus county, Lithuanian partisans claimed the lives of more than 1 450 people (this number includes victims of clashes with the NKVD and MGB units). About 300 (21 per cent) of them were killed during mass assaults on one or several villages; later these events were named Bartholomew‘s Day Massacre. The majority of the victims were people who contributed more or less to entrenchment of Soviet system in Lithuania, although it is problematic to determine the exact number of such people, because, when investigating concrete cases, frequently, one is not able to reconstruct all circumstances of the event. Those cases when entire families were killed together with underage children are to be considered criminal offences unambiguously – no justification documents have been found concerning such actions in the written legacy of the partisans (several concerete cases demonstrate that partisan leaders considered a person of 14 years of age fully responsible for his / her actions).

Worth of three doctor's degrees (On Bernardas Gailius "The Guerrilla War of 1944-1953 in the Historical, Political and Legal Culture of Contemporary Lithuania")

Worth of three doctor's degrees (On Bernardas Gailius "The Guerrilla War of 1944-1953 in the Historical, Political and Legal Culture of Contemporary Lithuania")

Child Rights Violation in Iweala’s Beasts of No Nation: A Study of Traumatic Experience of Child Soldier Agu

This paper examines various aspects of the life of protagonist Agu and other child soldiers evolved in the war in Uzodinma Iweala’s novel, Beasts of No Nation. The concern of this paper is to explore the after-effects of West African Freedom War on the life of children from the perspective of child soldiers. The effects of trauma on the ruined life of child soldiers in their post war life formulate their social status regarding future generation too. The question of child right during guerilla war in unnamed West African country is the major concern of the novel including other factors those have serious impact upon the lives of the people living in West Africa. The research tool used for research is traumatic effects for the development of psychology in life of people with reference to Cathy Caruth, Van der Kolk and Ruth Leys. The research methodology used for analysis is library research textual analysis. The major finding is that the study of the discourse of traumatic effects of child rights violations that Iweala builds up in Beasts of No Nation with the psychological nuances creating mental disorder in the life of child soldiers. It tries to do so through a spotlight on how the novel presents trauma as post-war life experience of children where the traumatic experience distorts life of children.</

Cuba and Chile: Revolutionary Dialogues for Latin America

This article analyses the structural challenges of the Latin American revolution in the early 1970s, which echoed from Fidel Castro’s extensive road trip around Chile during the Salvador Allende administration in November 1971. Castro’s presence promoted massive mobilizations of Chilean workers and peasants who came in droves to listen to his speeches. By then, an interesting dialogue between the Cuban and Chilean revolutionary paths had developed on a mass-collective basis, considering the dialogical skills of both leaders, Castro and Allende, who participated together in many mass demonstrations during the 24 days that the Cuban leader spent in Chile. While Cuba experienced an insurrection and guerrilla war, Chile was promoting a “peaceful road to socialism” through electoral victories. This article investigates the relations between the two revolutionary processes through the dialogues during this visit. This article is based on press materials from those days, Castro’s and Allende’s speeches and other primary sources. It concludes that the Cuban and Chilean Revolutions were more complementary than antagonistic, contrary to the historiography that emphasizes rivalry between them.

MEMÓRIAS DE UM EX-GUERRILHEIRO: NARRAÇÕES DA GUERRILHA DO ARAGUAIA EM AZUL CORVO (2014)

: In Azul Corvo (2014), Adriana Lisboa portrays the events of the Araguaia Guerrilla War from the perspective of a former guerrilla, Fernando. It is from his accounts that we can revisit the past, since he exposes episodes that are not part of the official history. In this sense, the present study aims to reconstruct the history of the Araguaia Guerrilla War through the exile’s point of view. Furthermore, we also seek to understand how generational memory contributes to the retaking of the historical past, given that it extends to many other generations and brings to light the sufferings experienced by the direct victims of the dictatorship. To this end, we resorted to the studies of Márcio Seligmann-Silva (1999), Paul Ricoeur (2003), Alfredo Bosi (2002), Tânia Sarmento-Pantoja (2010), Augusto Sarmento-Pantoja (2012; 2019), among others. The relationship between the critical-theoretical considerations worked on by the researchers and the narrations, the representations of the past, and the reconstruction of memory about Brazilian history help us realize that the events described by the ex-guerrilla build knowledge about an unknown past and transmit the experience lived in traumatic moments, so that the character’s experiences and perspectives also become part of our memory.

Survival Strategies and Non-Aggression Pacts Between the Guardia Civil and the Republican Guerrilla in Spain's Irregular War, 1936–1952

Existing literature on the anti-Francoist guerrilla has focused on the origins, development and decline of guerrilla parties. However, many aspects of the irregular war of 1936–1952 that pitted rebel forces, and later the Francoist dictatorship, against Republican resistance fighters remain unexplored. Historians have often cited civil guards as sources on killings and torture that took place in spaces of anti-guerrilla warfare, and the violence employed by the guerrilla has also been the subject of a significant amount of research. In contrast, this article looks at how civil guards deployed in the irregular war and guerrilla fighters not only interacted peacefully, but in fact came to establish non-aggression pacts as a survival strategy. The existence of such agreements was known not only to the men on both sides, but also to the civilian population and the dictatorship itself.

Banana Ketchup

Banana ketchup is an iconic marker of Filipino cultural identity. Across the homeland/diaspora divide, the Filipino public celebrates the memory of Maria Y. Orosa, the food scientist, early immigrant to the American West Coast, and anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter, for her creation of the country’s favorite sauce or sawsawan. The history of this beloved food item is often recounted as a narrative of scientific innovation, anticolonial resistance, and sovereignty. This essay explores the work that such narratives do, noting not only how they are invoked as frames for Filipinos and Filipino Americans’ critiques of gustatory coloniality but also how they can themselves veil other political realities deserving of attention. At banana ketchup manufacturing plants in the Philippines, laborers and allies reimagine the condiment not as a proud symbol of identity but rather as a vessel of labor exploitation, union busting, and police brutality. This alternative narrative is often eclipsed by modes of storytelling that elevate Orosa’s ingenious substitution of a native fruit like bananas for an imported product like tomatoes as an emblem of gustatory independence. Documenting an essential piece of Filipino food history yet to receive much scholarly attention, this essay ultimately asks how ways of remembering food history can themselves become ways of forgetting. Its aim is to offer an intervention toward bringing cultural memory and contemporary labor struggles between the Filipino homeland and diaspora into political relation.

Proving Disloyalty: Enslaved People and Resistance in Missouri’s Guerrilla Households

Abstract: This work highlights the central role that enslaved people played in Missouri’s guerrilla conflict. During the Civil War, with the loss of male labor to armies and guerrilla bands, households in Missouri became ever more reliant on enslaved labor. This included guerrilla households, meaning that enslaved people played a much more active role in maintaining guerrilla bands than has been previously acknowledged. By aiding guerrillas’ domestic supply lines, enslaved people gained information that could prove their enslaver’s disloyalty. Aware that such information could be exchanged with US officers in return for freedom papers, enslaved people across Missouri seized the opportunity to escape. In effect, their actions created a second supply line, one that moved information out of Missouri’s slaveholding households and onto the desks of provost marshals. Enslaved people made the domestic supply line a tool of resistance and redefined the relationship between the army and Black refugees in Missouri.

General Soedirman: History Learning Media Based on Digital Comics

Purpose of the study: This research aims to address the low student interest and engagement in the history learning subjects of General Soedirman’s Guerrilla War by developing a digital comic-based history learning media and examining its effectiveness in enhancing the student learning motivation and achievement.
 Methodology: The research uses the Research and Development (R&D) method adapted from the ADDIE development design. The research subjects are 20 students in senior high school in Surakarta and Pakistan. The data collection technique is a test.
 Main Findings: The research data shows that the digital comic-based history learning media of General Soedirman’s Guerrilla War is effective and suitable for use. The validation by material experts shows that the learning media material has a very good quality with an average score of 89.6%. The media validation results show that the learning media is very good and suitable for application in the learning process with an average score of 84.6%. The results of the One-to-one Test, Small Group Test, and Field Test show that the learning media can improve the student learning motivation and achievement with an average score of 71.4%, 74.2%, and 78.8%, respectively, exceeding the expected outcome of 70%.
 Novelty/Originality of this study: The research novelty to develop a digital comic-based history learning media of General Soedirman’s Guerrilla War, which is a significant historical event in Indonesia. The research has implications for the improvement of the history curriculum and the student learning interest and engagement in history subjects.”

Women in Freedom Fights: state of research and methodological insights

The topic of the article is women in the Lithuanian guerrilla war. The authors review the development of the topic in Western historiography and the changing theoretical and methodological approaches, and then discuss the case of the Lithuanian guerilla war. Firstly, the image of female partisan war participants (participation in a broad sense, from combatants to assisting the resistance in different ways) is reviewed in a broad time perspective, from the period of partisan struggle to the Second Republic of Lithuania. Secondly, Lithuanian historiography is analyzed. The research reveals that, just like in the Western historiography, in the early period, while the partisan struggle was still ongoing, the first collective images appeared as uncritical, little reflected, idealized, and propagandized. Under the conditions of the Soviet regime, Lithuanian historiography did not develop, so after independence was restored, the same images – now supported by several of the earliest narrative sources (Juozas Lukša’s memoirs, Lionginas Baliukevičius’s diary) – crossed over into historiography, and are still widespread in the popular historical consciousness to this day. Propaganda about the Lithuanian guerilla war of the Soviet period did not offer any specific images of the female participants. In the last decade new multicentric efforts to approach the research of women in the Lithuanian armed resistance (in terms of theory and methodology), as well as in social history in general, are observed. Finally, the authors formulate possible guidelines for further research: to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data collected so far, to present a detailed statistical analysis of women in the partisan war; to study women within the context of social history, combining research on women’s participation in guerrilla warfare with the social development of the society; to study the history of war memory simultaneously with the research of guerilla war; to use the interview method more extensively, since examples in Western research have revealed that conventional written sources do not capture the specific experiences of women.

Moterys laisvės kovose: tyrimų būklė ir metodologinės įžvalgos

The topic of the article is women in the Lithuanian guerrilla war. The authors review the development of the topic in Western historiography and the changing theoretical and methodological approaches, and then discuss the case of the Lithuanian guerilla war. Firstly, the image of female partisan war participants (participation in a broad sense, from combatants to assisting the resistance in different ways) is reviewed in a broad time perspective, from the period of partisan struggle to the Second Republic of Lithuania. Secondly, Lithuanian historiography is analyzed. The research reveals that, just like in the Western historiography, in the early period, while the partisan struggle was still ongoing, the first collective images appeared as uncritical, little reflected, idealized, and propagandized. Under the conditions of the Soviet regime, Lithuanian historiography did not develop, so after independence was restored, the same images – now supported by several of the earliest narrative sources (Juozas Lukša’s memoirs, Lionginas Baliukevičius’s diary) – crossed over into historiography, and are still widespread in the popular historical consciousness to this day. Propaganda about the Lithuanian guerilla war of the Soviet period did not offer any specific images of the female participants. In the last decade new multicentric efforts to approach the research of women in the Lithuanian armed resistance (in terms of theory and methodology), as well as in social history in general, are observed. Finally, the authors formulate possible guidelines for further research: to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data collected so far, to present a detailed statistical analysis of women in the partisan war; to study women within the context of social history, combining research on women’s participation in guerrilla warfare with the social development of the society; to study the history of war memory simultaneously with the research of guerilla war; to use the interview method more extensively, since examples in Western research have revealed that conventional written sources do not capture the specific experiences of women.

The Protracted Survival of Boko Haram From a Revolutionary Warfare Perspective

Since 2009 Boko Haram has been carrying out terrorist attacks in the northeastern part of Nigeria. In 2015 the group was seen as the world‘s deadliest terrorist organization, however, due to internal disagreements in 2016, Boko Haram split into two factions, namely the Islamic State – West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Jamā’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jihād (JAS), which is still often referred to by its original name – Boko Haram. While the competition between these factions made way for the Nigerian government to retake formerly lost territories, attacks from Boko Haram continue, and government forces have yet to fully quell the insurgency. This article surveys the protracted survival of Boko Haram through their operating practices by basing itself on the two primary models of revolutionary warfare (people’s war by Mao Zedong and Foquismo by Che Guevara). It takes note of the similarities between traditional revolutionary and contemporary jihadist ways of thought. Despite these similarities, crucial distinctions can also be made between the two factions of Boko Haram in order to explain their comparatively different levels of success. The article is divided into 3 primary bodies, each examining one of the three pillars (ideological, popular-support and military) that are required for a successful revolution. Comparisons between ISWAP and JAS are made in each section. Finally, the addition and comparison of the results stemming from each part are summarized and aid in trying to understand the protracted survival of Boko Haram.

Foreign Movies and TV Dramas as the Source of Political Argot in an Authoritarian Context: Memes and Creative Resistance in Chinese Social Media

ABSTRACT In the Web 2.0 era, memes have emerged as playful and versatile forms of communication in the daily interactions of social media users. In countries that embrace digital authoritarianism, memes have been deployed as a vehicle of political communication under the online surveillance system. Based on long-term observation of Chinese cyberspace, the author adopts a deep China approach and conducts multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) of a series of political memes which poach transnational TV series and movie scenarios or characters. The remix of symbols from foreign TV dramas and movies with indigenous Chinese symbols devotes to three fundamental dimensions of meaning-making strategies: direct captures, reproduction of the original scene, and the reworking of specific elements. By producing, deploying, and proliferating ironic political memes, Chinese netizens have the capacity to engage in innovative discursive guerrilla wars under the rapidly evolving landscape of surveillance.

Debord et Jouffroy, alliés en instance de poésie

Alain Jouffroy and Guy Debord belong to the same generation, "attracted" by suicide and revolution, being in touch with surrealism and the Marxist movement(s) of May 68. Jouffroy never became a member of the Situationist group, but in the frame of "Poetry of real-life" he wrote the poems that the Situationists refused to produce. His poetry had a grasp of the everyday situations/meetings, by criticizing the capitalist society, and overcoming the very notion of poetry without abandoning the poetic means, proving, thus, that criticism of capitalism and criticism of poetry are both compatible with poetry itself. Jouffroy applies sabotage and guerilla war methods—as well as Situationist methods such as the textual-détournement—on his own texts to provoke a poetic-language revolution. Situationnists used to criticize Jouffroy's views. All the same, by publishing Revolutionary Individualism, Jouffroy enters into virtual dialogue with Debord, mainly, on The Society of the Spectacle. Jouffroy discusses Situationist topics including textual-détournement and the overcoming/abolition of art. In his Trans-paradis-express poetry collection, he stages his imaginary meeting with Debord and Ducasse. Finally, he inverts the course of history, officializes his alliance with Debord by establishing him as ``the poet of Paris'', an image that emerges from Debord's own films, life and autobiographical works. He inscribes Debord's project in his own poetical and revolutionary project: Revolutionary Individualism and the "Poetry of real-life". In this way, he justifies Debord's work as well as his own.

ANALYSIS OF WEAPON TECHNOLOGY AND DEFENSE RESOURCES USED IN THE INDONESIAN GUERRILLA WAR 1945 – 1949

Guerrilla War strategy became an important part of the history of Indonesia's struggle. The limited weapon technology and defense resources used in the Guerrilla War made the choice of strategy become important. Therefore, an analysis of the utilization of weapon technology and defense resources used during Indonesian Guerrilla War from 1949 to 1949 will provide a deeper understanding of how limited resources can be effectively utilized in the struggle for independence. This method uses a qualitative method with a narrative/historical approach to analyze the utilization of defense equipment technology and weaponry resources in the period of the Indonesian guerrilla war in 1945-1949. Through this analysis, it can be seen that the guerrilla strategy succeeded in maximizing the potential and effectiveness of limited weaponry resources. Environmental factors, battle tactics, and the courage of fighters were successful in maintaining independence. In the perspective of asymmetrical warfare, Indonesia's guerrilla warfare strategy succeeded in balancing superior forces.

Defense Economics in Indonesian “Semesta” War Strategy

The strategy of the Semesta War is part of an Indonesian National Defense System. The purpose of this study is to show that the strategy of the Semesta War was not a total war and was not just a guerrilla war, although guerrilla tactics were part of it. It is also different from the People’s War from Mao’s Strategy. So, what is Semesta War looks like? We can understand this strategy from Indonesian History. A Trikora operation was the largest military strike Indonesia had ever planned and titled, with the aim of a massive attack on the Dutch military forces in the land of West New Guinea. But rather than showing the Semesta War Strategy succeeded, The studies will show the impact of the Semesta War strategy from a Defense Economics perspective. The writing employs historical methods of heuristic criticism consisting of internal and external criticism and the historiography of history in which interpretation, exposition, and presentation from a literature study of the writings of the perpetrators of Trikora history. The results suggest that operation Trikora is one of the implementations of the Indonesia Semesta War Strategy, it was successful to achieve its strategic goal, but, with expensive sacrifice.

Attacking the grid: Lessons from a guerrilla conflict and efforts for peace in Colombia: 1990–2018

Colombia has suffered a decades long internal conflict with leftist guerrillas. Its power grid has been attacked, causing significant damage to Colombian industry and disruption to citizens. This article uses data from ISA and XM (operators of the Colombian power grid) and from Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP), a non-profit organization tracking the internal conflict in Colombia), to compare patterns of tower attacks to the general conflict with two main leftist guerrilla groups, the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) and the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Using time series analysis, trends of violence, tower attacks, and peace attempts from 1990 to 2018 are examined to see if structural breaks in violence correspond to critical junctures in negotiations. Attacks on the power grid are shown to be a popular guerrilla tactic to pressure the government.

Brides in Rags! Conflict, Political Organization, Political Settlements and Uganda’s Transition to Multi-Party Politics Since 1986

Following a long-drawn-out five-year insurgency (1981‒1986), Uganda moved from a crisis to stability where political organizations were progressively transformed, albeit with institutionalized roadblocks. The former insurgent army – the National Resistance Army (NRA) and its political wing the National Resistance Movement (NRM) pursued a post-conflict transformation process, which was essentially driven by neo-liberal reforms, but metamorphosed into a dominant political party, undermining the hither to traditional political parties. Through historical interrogation, this paper seeks to bring to the fore reflections to the questions; “Why did the post war-NRA/NRM undertake a rapid shift in political ordering after the guerrilla war in 1986? Why did the new government pursue a pseudo neo-liberal agenda that sought free-market style policies and nested democratization after the guerrilla war?” These preliminary questions are asked for two fundamental reasons. One; it is common knowledge that in the early 1970s Museveni –The NRA warlord was a Marxist–Leninist and therefore in hot pursuit for socialism as a mode of statecraft. However, he became less of a socialist particularly at the end of his rebellion. Why? Secondly, post-war state-building theory, presupposes that after rebels have captured power following a civil war, their propensity to pursue liberal free-market type of politics is habitually low. Why then did NRA/NRM with extremely negative views for free-market style of politics undertake to institute multi-party politics? What political settlements did NRM pursue and how have they been institutionalized and instrumentalized overtime? What have been the attendant effects of these settlements in Uganda and how can these impacts be profiled in light of other war-to peace states in Africa?

Posttraumatic Memories and Feelings of Guilt in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried

Writing has long been related to communicating emotional experiences. One of these experiences is war, and the Vietnam War was a long brutal struggle divided into two periods. The first is called the good Vietnam War, covering the years from 1964 to 1968. The second spanned from 1968 to 1972, known as the bad Vietnam War, through which fighting turned into guerilla war. Battles of the second phase were characterized by savage killings of soldiers and mass murder of unarmed civilian Vietnamese. This bad war inspired many literary narratives in drama, fiction, and poetry. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried is considered one of the most read and vivid works about this struggle. The text reflects combatants’ engagements in foreign lands and their inability to adjust to the trauma after the war is over. The paper investigates the situations of various characters in the novel and how their experiences were influential in preventing them from normally continuing with their lives. Post-traumatic memories and permanent feelings of guilt and confusion are the main obstacles veterans face preempting them from indulging once again in society.