Partisan Movement Research Articles

From the Territorial Defence Forces to the Army of the Republic – The formation of the Armed Forces in light of the Decisions of the Presidency of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina

The organization of the Yugoslav armed forces into two strategic components of which the Yugoslav People’s Army was one, while the others were made up from the territorial defence forces of the Yugoslav republics and autonomous regions, was a concept based on the idea of a massive and general popular resistance, modelled on the partisan movement from the times of the Second World War. From the outset their development and organizational forms were significantly determined, among other things, by the relationship between the unitarist and separatist tendencies and policies, which was a permanent feature of the complete development of the Yugoslav political system that had its final expression in the provisions of the Constitution of the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia that had been adopted in 1974. The Constitution defined as the right and duty of municipalities, autonomous regions and republics that, in accordance with the system of people’s defence, each one could regulate and organize the people’s defence forces on its own territory. The Law on the people’s defence also delimited and stipulated that the relevant organs of the Federation established the basic plans concerning the development and implementation of Yugoslav armed forces as a whole, securing the unity of their actions and organizing and preparing the Yugoslav People’s Army, while the relevant organs of the republics, regions and municipalities organized and prepared the territorial defence forces and secured the unity of its organization, preparation and action on their respective territories. This was the basic constitutional responsibility in terms of defence which was not changed for the duration of the common state’s existence. Interventions regarding the organization of Yugoslav armed forces that were implemented since the 1980’s were reflected on certain formational solutions, some aspects of relations in the command and control lines and in the selection of personnel for the most responsible duties in the detachments and headquarters of territorial defence forces, but in essence it did not affect the doctrine nor did it change or derogate the constitutional authority of the republics or their state organs in the domain of defence. The state organs of Bosnia and Herzegovina attempted to secure an equal position in the process of Yugoslav dissolution, up to the extent to which this was possible and within the framework of their jurisdiction. In official documents that were adopted in the Assembly in October 1991 and which defined the determination and attitudes of Bosnia and Herzegovina concerning the possible arrangement of the Yugoslav union and the future relations within it, the constitutional authority of the Presidency was confirmed in the domain of defence as well as in the command and control over the territorial defence forces. After the proclamation of state independence and its subsequent international recognition, the dramatic political crisis escalated into an armed aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina. By proclaiming the state of direct military threat, the Presidency assumed the responsibilities of the Assembly, and with a set of legal acts quickly defined the forms, organization and dynamic of the development of its own armed forces. This development was quickly initiated on 8 April 1992 with the abolishment of the Republican headquarters of the Territorial defence forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the establishment of the Headquarters of the Territorial defence forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which assumed command over the subordinate headquarters and detachments with an unchanged formation and structure. The Decree with legal power that was passed on 20 May defined that Armed forces in peacetime were made up of the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while in wartime they also included the police forces and all other armed units that placed themselves under their command. It was stipulated that until the Army became established, its function in the Armed forces would be performed by the Territorial defence forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. On 4 July 1992 the Presidency as the highest organ of leadership and command passed a Decision about the organization of the Armed forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, whereby the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina was officially formed and put into function, while the Territorial defence forces stopped existing.

Slovenians in the Anti-Fascist Struggle in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Building the Federal Foundations of Yugoslavia (1941-1945)

Understanding the socio-historical processes after the April War of 1941 and the dismemberment of Yugoslavia presupposes a deeper knowledge of opposing national perspectives since 1918, when this country was created, of the events between the two world wars, as well as their multidimensional characters, since they largely determined wartime polarizations and alignments. The Second World War is one of the most problematic historical periods in the post-Yugoslav area, from a scientific and political point of view. With numerous relief and insufficiently explored components, it still belongs to the so-called “hot memory”. The disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1941 was greeted by its peoples and political subjects with different visions of whether (and if so: how) a new Yugoslavia should be established. The anti-fascist struggle was led by a partisan movement with the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) playing a dominant role. Each Yugoslavia (“old” and “new”) also meant “a new constitutional concept of the relationship between its main peoples/political groups” (Dejan Jović). The history of the Slovenes, wrote Edvard Kardelj at the end of the thirties of the 20th century, “is nothing but a long chain of oppression and trampling of a small nation”. After the First World War (the “Great War”), the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and the collapse of Austria-Hungary divided the Slovenes among four countries. The parcelization of the Slovenian ethnic space did not end there. The territory of Slovenia (Drava Banovina) after the fragmentation of Yugoslavia in 1941 was divided between Germany, Italy and Hungary, into six parts, with different administrative regimes. The Slovenian people were torn apart, humiliated, threatened with destruction and disappearance from the ethnic map of Europe. This people was one of “the most fragmented in Europe and all the occupiers planned to wipe it out through persecution, assimilation and denationalization. Research on refugees and exile is closely related to issues of human rights, nationalism, genocide and ethnocide. This issue has a humanitarian, political, legal and moral dimension. Part of the exiled Slovenes also came to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1941, which was part of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH). Slovenes have a specific place in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the 19th century. They also contributed to the development of the National Liberation Movement ( NOP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by acting in an illegal revolutionary movement and partisan units, as well as participating in the constitution of the new government and defining the future internal structure of post-war Yugoslavia. The war in the territory of occupied Yugoslavia was, among other things, a civil war that destroyed the idea that this monarchist state can be restored in the form in which it was created in 1918. The ranks of the NOP included Slovenians who lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina before the war, as well as those who came as exiles in 1941. Major events related to the construction of the “new” Yugoslavia took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which Slovenians participated, important for the history of Slovenia as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. By actively participating in the anti-fascist war, the engagement and visions of their prominent representatives at the top of the NOP (Edvard Kardelj and others) and in the activities of the AVNOJ in 1943, determining and making its landmark decisions, the Slovenians had a significant share in the victory and establishment of a new, federal the Yugoslav state and the construction of the statehood of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Complex Yugoslav federalism, with scattered forms and models, represented a specific historical phenomenon.

Повседневность учащихся общеобразовательных школ в годы Великой Отечественной вой-ны (на примере Кабардино-Балкарии)

For the first time, based on new archival documents and other sources, a reconstruction of the schoolchildren's daily life in wartime conditions was conducted using the example of the Kabardi-no-Balkarian Republic. This article reveals the influence of a restructuring of the school education system on the daily life of students’ education. The organization of military, physical training and patriotic education of students was analyzed. This work shows the activity of schoolchildren, help-ing the front, wounded soldiers in evacuated military hospitals, participation in the partisan movement. Forms of helping rears are studied: caring for the families of front-line soldiers, or-phans, participating in the restoration of the national economy and agricultural work. The experi-ence of the state work, party bodies and educational institutions in the law’s implementation on universal compulsory education of school-age children is summarized. Problems are analyzed: the introduction of separate education, “Rules for students”, and the quality of students’ knowledge. Difficulties in covering universal education are identified as the main reasons for dropout. It is concluded that the restructuring of the school education system in the interests of the front and rear has significantly affected the daily life of students. Military and physical training, patriotic and labor education of schoolchildren allowed them to help the front and rear and overcome the difficulties of wartime.

Karadağ'daki Ortodoks Kilisesi Ile Ilgili Olarak Radikal Ateizm 1945-1960

The roots of radical atheism in Montenegro can be found at the beginning of the existence of the Yugoslav state in the interwar period. The Podgorica Assembly, which had the goal of formalising the unification of Montenegro with Serbia and other Yugoslav provinces, was held in November 1918. The Assembly proclaimed the decision to merge Montenegro with Serbia. Three members of parliament (MPs) came forward with radical atheistic requests at the Assembly, demanding that all the church’s property should be confiscated and handed over to the state. Some churches and monasteries were to be turned into public chapels for burials, and the others into schools and cultural institutions. During the interwar period, the Communist Party existed mostly illegally in Montenegro, and did not show any greater intent to impose radical atheism. During the Second World War, a strong revolutionary movement led by the Communist Party developed in Montenegro, as did also a counter-revolution. At that time the Communist Party and the partisan movement showed a strong degree of radical atheism, with elements of militant atheism, especially in the killing of a large number of church clergy (monks, priests and graduate theologians) during the war. However, the Communist Party did not implement radical atheism in the fields of ideology and the economy. It would do that only after the Second World War, when it assumed power over all spheres of social and public life. At that time, within the process of nationalisation and agrarian reform, significant material goods (buildings, land, forests and movable property) were taken away from the Orthodox Church in Montenegro. The same was done to the Catholic Church and the Islamic religious community. The process of radical atheism in an ideological sense took place parallel with this process. The intention of the Communist Party was to completely remove the church from social life, and implement atheism among the people, and practically turn them into believers of the new Marxist-Leninist ideology.

SMOLENSK PARTISAN FORMATIONS ON THE TERRITORY OF VITEBSK REGION (1942 – 1944): ORGANIZATIONAL AND COMBAT ASPECT

The article highlights the organizational and combat activities on the territory of the Vitebsk region of Smolensk partisans sent to the region to deploy an armed struggle against the German occupiers in 1942-1944. Examples of joint actions of Vitebsk and Smolensk partisans to create detachments and brigades and the participation in this of the Vitebsk regional committee of the КP(b)b and the command of the 4th shock army of the Kalinin front are given. It is shown that in 1942 the main place of partisan interaction was the enemy’s rear facilities on the Belarusian territory in the triangle of the Vitebsk – Orsha– Smolensk roads. The most significant combat operations carried out jointly by Vitebsk and Smolensk partisans in various regions of the Vitebsk region are mentioned. The conclusions state that the Smolensk partisan formations made a significant contribution to the deployment of the partisan movement in the Vitebsk region during the Great Patriotic War.

Unternehmen „Hermann” — pacyfikacja Puszczy Nalibockiej z perspektywy SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger

The participation of the SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger in the pacifications of the partisan movement in occupied Belarus remains a topic that, despite some discussion in Polish, Russian, English and German sources, demands further scholarly attention. The article brings into focus the events taking place in the summer of 1943 in the German-occupied territory of the Nowogródek and Wilno Voivodeships of the prewar Republic of Poland, which were included the German-occupied General District of Belarus (Generalbezirk Weißruthenien/Генеральная акруга Беларусь) during the war. The anti-partisan operation (Unternehmen “Hermann”) carried out by the Germans with the participation of units consisting of Germans, Austrians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians and Ukrainians was directed against the Soviet and Polish partisans.
 Of course, apart from the extensive use documents of German archives, we drew attention to documents of Polish and Soviet provenance, and in particular to the memories of Polish witnesses inhabiting the area of Naliboki Forest. The aim of this article is to present the latest scope of research on the activities of the SS-Sonderbataillon Dirlewanger in comparison with other counter-insurgency (anti-partisan) units carrying out ruthless pacification measures as part of “Bandenbekämpfung”.

Soviet Partisan Movement in Estonia 1941–1944

Article is giving an overview of the activities of the Soviet partisans in Estonia in 1941–1944. The partisans, trained in the Soviet rear and sent to Estonia over the frontline or parachuted, were mostly recruited from among ethnic Estonians, evacuated to the Soviet rear or mobilised to the Red Army in 1941. Soviet partisans in Estonia were commanded by the Estonian Partisan Movement Headquarters that was subordinated to the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement of the Red Army. Most of the partisans sent to Estonia were captured soon or gave themselves up. The damage caused by the partisans in Estonia was not considerable. There was no national armed resistance in Estonia during the German occupation.

Partisan Movement in Southern France in 1814: The Case of Florian

In the face of the invasion of the Allied troops into the territory of France, Napoleon highly relied on the popular resistance of the French to the enemy. The author considers the history of a partisan detachment operating in the South of France under the command of Florian, a “half-hero” or “half-robber”. What was the real contribution of partisans to the course of military operations? What was the motivation of their leaders? What was the relationship between the military command and the commanders of the partisan detachments? How did the civil authorities and the local civilian population treat the partisans? The paucity of official documents is compensated by sources of personal origin, which make it possible to reveal the human dimension of this “small war”. In 1814, “Captain” Florian, who led a detachment of twenty volunteers, behaved like a free corsair, whose actions at times situationally coincided with the interests of the military command. Lacking an official partisan patent, he attacked the allies’ supply trains, robbed army stores, intercepted English couriers, and did not disdain the capture of officers’ personal luggage. Having had a reputation as a marauder in Spain since 1813, Florian in 1814 allowed himself all sorts of “excesses” in relation to the local population. The civil authorities in the person of the prefect tried to reason with him and certain individuals disinterestedly worked for him as “pointers”. Only in March did Marshal Soult try to intensify the creation of partisan detachments and subordinate them to a single command. Florian claimed to have unlimited powers from Soult. However, the negotiations between Soult’s representative Major Bory de Saint-Vincent and Florian ended in nothing: the complaints of the civil authorities and the reputation of the partisan commander caused discontent on the part of the marshal. The last action of Florian’s partisans was an attack on April 12 on an English courier, from whom a watch and a large amount of money were confiscated according the “laws of war”. Mythologized in popular scholarship and educational literature of the 1870s, the partisan movement in France in 1814 was distinguished by a very modest scale and limited actions, and the line between ordinary robbery and a patriotic action was sometimes difficult to discern.

Italian occupation and the emergence of the Slovenian resistance movement in 1941

The article highlights the political situation in the Slovenian lands occupied by Italy during the Second World War, in the summer of 1941 – the first half of 1942. The focus of the study is the Slovenian resistance movement organized by the communists, whose center was first in Ljubljana, and then in the forests of Kočevje and other remote places. The author analyzes the features of its development in the province of Ljubljana: the creation of the Liberation Front, which managed to attract representatives of various ideological and political trends, the beginning of an armed uprising and partisan movement, the emergence of a liberated territory with the center in Kočevje. The positions and activities of representatives of the national forces that sided with the occupier are also considered: the Slovenian People’s Party (SNP), the Bishop of Ljubljana G. Rozhman, the leader of the ultra-right Catholic movement L. Erlich, etc. The policy of the Italian occupation authorities in the province of Ljubljana, repressive measures carried out by them in order to eliminate the Slovenian resistance movement are covered in detail

Image of a Chinese Revolutionary in the Era of the Civil War in the Far East: An Ideological Aspect (Based on the Novel My Great Brother by Ilya Chernev)

The aim of this interdisciplinary article is to analyse the image of a Chinese character, as well as reflect the historical facts of the presence of the Chinese in Russian fiction. The article focuses on the ideological context. The authors refer to My Great Brother (1954), a historical and revolutionary novel by Ilya Chernev. The novel highlights the main stages of the revolutionary struggle of the Amur and Trans-Baikal proletariat. Most of the key characters in the novel are Chinese people. In the article, following H. Gьnther, the authors single out four diverse characters, the Chinese, that reflect the participation of foreign revolutionaries during the civil war: a proletarian, a warrior, a victim, and a politician. The “historical” component of the article confirms that workers who were subjects of other states and stayed on the territory of Russia were recruited into armed formations to fight counter-revolutionary forces, taking an active part in the partisan movement, and supplying the partisans with food, medicines, and ammunition. The article identifies the reasons why the Chinese joined the revolutionary associations: liberation from exploitation, socialisation, but at the same time, the ideological instability of the Chinese revolutionaries due to the motley social composition and poor knowledge of the Russian language. The article discusses the artistic means Chernev employs to portray the Chinese characters. It is proved that the novel is an example of a work commissioned by the state. Even though the novel My Great Brother has not gained fame, its value is determined by the material itself underlying its artistic canvas. The participation of Chinese citizens in the civil war remains one of the little-studied topics of Russian history, and in literature, the novel My Great Brother is the only work of fiction on this topic.

Predlog mirnodopske organizacije jugoslovenske vojne obaveštajne službe iz aprila 1945. godine

(Summary) n the last days of the Second World War, in the moments when the final operations for the liberation of Yugoslavia were coming to an end, and the outlines of the future Cold War and post-war alliances were becoming clearer, the need to establish a peacetime armed force was imposed in front of the Yugoslav General Staff. An important segment in the establishment of the future armed forces was the organization and work methods of the military intelligence service. Previous war experiences, mostly based on the legacy of guerrilla military operations conducted by the partisan movement during the liberation and civil wars, could only be partially used in the process of peacetime formation of the military intelligence service. That is why it was necessary to create a new model that involved relying on national experiences, primarily the intelligence services of the Army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the period immediately preceding the outbreak of the Second World War and the experience of the allied armies, especially the Soviet Red Army in the war conflict that was coming to an end. The study on the organization of the post-war military intelligence service with emphasis on the organization, scope of work and personnel of the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army was prepared by Colonel Frane Biočić. Colonel Biočić's report contained the burden of the ideological and geopolitical environment in which it was written. Written near the end of the war in the conditions of the absolute triumph of the partisan movement under the leadership of the communists over the occupying, Quisling and rival anti-fascist forces in the liberation and civil war, it contained the undisguised glorification of the partisan war heritage, as well as the negation of the value of the experiences of the pre-war Yugoslav intelligence service, whose professional value was not only denied, but was already declared absolutely unusable due to open accusations against the professionalism and patriotism of its officers and associates. On the other hand, absolutely in accordance with the policy of close wartime alliance with the Red Army and projected post-war cooperation, harmonization with the Soviet intelligence model was forced, reliance on the Soviet war experiences, the Soviet assistance in training and education of intelligence personnel was requested, and close cooperation along military intelligence lines was planned between the Yugoslav and Soviet General Staff.

Yugoslav Guerrilla Hospital Design Features and Operation in World War II.

In the most austere combat conditions, Yugoslav guerillas of World War II (WWII) demonstrated an innovative and effective hospitalization system that saved countless lives. Yugoslav Partisans faced extreme medical and logistical challenges that spurred innovation while waging a guerrilla war against the Nazis. Partisans used concealed hospitals ranging between 25 to 215 beds throughout the country with wards that were often subterranean. Concealment and secrecy prevented discovery of many wards, which prototypically contained two bunk levels and held 30 patients in a 3.5 × 10.5-meter space that included storage and ventilation. Backup storage and treatment facilities provided critical redundancy. Intra-theater evacuation relied on pack animals and litter bearers while partisans relied on Allied fixed wing aircraft for inter-theater evacuation.

Деятельность органов НКВД−НКГБ−МВД−МГБ СССР по обеспечению общественной безопасности на территории Западной Белоруссии в (1939−1953 гг.)

Importance. Interest in the events taking place on the territory of Western Belarus in the period 1939–1953 is supported both by the complexity and inconsistency of the processes that are taking place today in the Russian Federation and abroad, and by the insufficient degree of study of certain issues related to the activities of law enforcement agencies in the history of our state. Topics related to the activities of the NKVD−NKGB−MVD−MGB of the USSR bodies on the territory of Western Belarus in 1939–1953 are currently not sufficiently studied in detail by historical science, which leads to the falsification of historical events of those years. The purpose of the research is to reveal the historical events taking place on the territory of the western regions of Belarus and the activities of the law enforcement agencies of the Soviet state to ensure public safety in 1939–1953 in this region. Materials and Methods. The research is based on declassified archival materials of the Republic of Belarus, the State Archive of the Russian Federation and the Russian State Military Archive. Party materials of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus (CPB), Minsk, Brest and Pinsk regional committees of the CPB, the Political Department of the Red Army, documents of the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement and the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR – the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR (1934–1960) are studied. Both general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as synchronistic and problem-chronological methods are used. Results and Discussion. The German aggression against Poland in 1939 contributed to the reunification of Western and Eastern Belarus, and also put before the state authorities of the USSR the restructuring of all spheres of life of the local population. The features and directions of restructuring the activities of the NKVD−NKGB−MVD−MGB of the USSR to ensure public safety in the specified historical period on the territory of Western Belarus are investigated. Specific measures that were carried out by the law enforcement agencies of the USSR to ensure public security in the western regions of Belarus in the period 1939–1953 are considered. Considerable attention is paid to the activities of the NKVD−NKGB−MVD−MGB of the USSR to eliminate the nationalist underground on the eve of the war and in the post-war period on the territory of Western Belarus. Conclusion. The joint activities of law enforcement agencies and state authorities played an important role in ensuring public safety in the territory of Western Belarus in 1939–1953.

The Confrontation between Soviet Intelligence and Japanese Special Agencies on the Eve of the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation (1945)

The article is devoted to the confrontation between Soviet intelligence and Japanese counterintelligence agencies on the eve of the Manchurian Strategic Offensive operation (1945). According to the point of view officially accepted in Russian historical science, the Soviet military, naval and foreign intelligence agencies were able to provide the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and the General Staff of the Red Army with reliable information about the state of the Japanese grouping of troops in Manchuria and Korea. This became one of the factors of the rapid defeat of the Kwantung army during the Manchurian strategic offensive operation in August 1945. However, the documents put into circulation indicate that, despite the efforts made by the Soviet command to collect intelligence information about the enemy, it had a distorted idea of the combat composition, deployment, number and operational plans of the Japanese troops. The reason for this was the strict counterintelligence and administrative-police regime that Japan established on the territory of Manchuria and Korea that it captured. By the beginning of 1945 there was a passport system, a special regime for staying in the border zone, and military and agent protection of the Soviet-Manchurian border was organized. The diplomatic institutions of the USSR were under close surveillance by Japanese counterintelligence, measures were taken to identify unreliable elements among Russian white emigrants, as a result of punitive operations, the anti-Japanese partisan movement was practically destroyed by 1941. In addition, several well-equipped radio counterintelligence services operated on the territory of Manchuria, which, in cooperation, identified Soviet radio-equipped intelligence groups and, after the arrest of radio operators, conducted radio games.

Partisans go cyber: The hacker ethic and partisans’ legacy

The article discusses the role of hackers and hacktivists in modern hybrid conflicts, in particular the ‘localization’ patterns of hackerism, by focusing on the case of the Belarusian hacker group Cyber Partisans. The study shows the significance of the partisan movement for modern Belarusian identity and historical memory and discusses the attempts of appropriation of this topic by various political actors. The comparison between hacktivism and partisan warfare holds a certain heuristic potential, making it possible to build conceptual categories for the analysis of the hacktivists’ practices and their ethical norms. Parallels may be drawn between the hackers and partisans (along with more common analogies with the pirates and ‘social bandits’) to gain a better understanding of the historical and ideological roots of the hacker movement in the ethical sphere. One of the most famous interpretations of the concept partisan belongs to the German jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt, whose approach accentuates the partisan’s connection with the local territory (the telluric nature of the partisan). An interesting way to compare the hacker and partisan ethic is to look at both of them from the game-related perspective. For example, the situations described in the ‘partisan’ literature have much in common with the prisoner’s dilemma — a popular game theory paradox. These situations of moral choice foster a particular kind of subjectivity which is closely entwined with keeping true and remaining loyal, a subjectivity that is apt to handle certain information with discretion and care. The study explores the heuristic potential of the concept nomos for the analysis of the partisan ethic and hacker ethic. The proposed concept nomos of the swamp develops Karl Schmitt’s ideas and can be applied to reveal the specifics of the partisan activity in Belarus and to analyze partisanship in connection to the historical and modern forms of ‘partisan’ hacktivism.

A life full of struggle

The article is devoted to the consideration and reconstruction of the complete struggle for education and the sciences of life of the partisan writer, prominent prose writer, well-known statesman and public figure, active organizer of education and enlightenment of Kazakhstan, Honored Worker of the Republic, Doctor of Philology, literary scholar-scientist Adi Sharipov. Highlighting the milestones in the life of the front-line writer, the main attention is paid to his personal contribution to the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War. From the point of view of modern humanities, the scientific, educational and creative path of A. Sharipov is analyzed in the context of the development of culture and literature of the Soviet era, in which he lived. The Soviet ideology, its priorities and values are evaluated from the point of view of today.

Russian Orthodoxy is a Terrible Force

Abstract The invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops in February 2022 calls into question the legal status of the Russian Orthodox Church (headed by Patriarch Kirill) as a religious organization claiming Eastern Christian heritage. While the Russian Orthodox Church appropriates the history of Kievan Rus, the top hierarchs of the roc are guided by the ideology of servility and Bolshevism. At the same time, the Catacombers who survived the Bolshevik persecution also consider themselves part of Russian Orthodoxy. They are like the inhabitants of Kitezh-Town, the legendary sunken city hidden under water. The Catacombers are silent participants in the anti-war protest and oppose the ideas of the Russian World and nuclear Orthodoxy. They run a partisan movement of volunteers helping Ukrainian refugees. If one wonders whether Russian Orthodoxy is possible after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, then the answer is seen in the prophecy of the political scientist, V. Kramnik, about the inevitable collapse of the Russian Federation and the appearance of the Republic of Rus instead of it. Citizens of the provisional Kitezh-Town in the Republic of Rus will be the real descendants of Kievan Rus and elective affinities of the Ukrainians.

THE CASE OF PARTISAN COMMANDER LEVANEVSKI – BETWEEN CRIMINAL AND POLITICAL DISCOURSE

The article is part of a larger study of documents related to one of the communist regime's biggest crimes – the massacre without trial and the conviction of local elites (25-30 000 people) in a particularly sadistic way. The study is based on David Ovadia's documentary "Levanevsky" dedicated to a participant in the Partisan Fighters’ Movement, convicted not only for political but also for criminal offences and who led the sadistic murders of innocent civilians after the communist coup. The questions I want to answer to are: what are the reasons for the moral relativism of the author who tries to justify Levanevsky as a legendary hero. How long can anti-fascist rhetoric legitimize any crimes regardless of their scale and cruelty; what are the biographical psychoanalytical causes of communist sadism? The psychoanalytical analysis (linguistic turn in psychoanalysis) reveals a recurring biographical scheme – a despotic mother and an uninteriorized fatherly authority, which is not compensated by the symbolic networks of kinship, religion, school, army, profession. The involvement of criminals in the partisan movement compromises the anti-fascist movement – an atmosphere of fear, power battles, arbitrary killings and robberies was brought about. Reconstracting the life trajectory of Levanevski who was used and misused by the communists (killed without court and sentence after the communists took power) we could consider him as a representative of the peasant anarchism rather than the conscious antifascist struggle. Statistic data about the social and educational status of the Bulgarian partisan fighters (1941 -1944) are also provided.

ISTORIJSKO U ROMANU DOBRICE ĆOSIĆA „DALEKO JE SUNCE“

The plot of Dobrica Ćosić’s novel The Sun is Far Away is deeply rooted in the events of 1942-1943, with reference to other war and post-war years. The second layer consists of the writer’s subsequent political ideas and thoughts, which were then attributed to his literary heroes. Ćosić’s early work, with an emphasis on the novel The Sun is Far Away, cannot be viewed as dissident; according to his motives and conclusions, he is politically engaged and completely “on the Party line”. However, the then open dilemma (whether to fight for freedom at all costs) will follow the author in the following period, and his conclusions presented in 1951 will change in the future. The number of identified historical contents in the novel exceeds the initial expectations and it could be said that for all the basic ideas presented in the book, the author had as inspiration specific historical events and personalities. He shaped them through artistic freedoms, but also in accordance with the ideology of the movement to which he belonged. In our opinion, the motives for the creation of the novel in the early post-war years were also political: to present the Partisan Movement to the Serbian people as part of its historical epic vertical; to make a departure from the USSR and present the Partisan struggle as an independently executed, authentic revolution; to point out the betrayal and crimes of the counter-revolution and the Ravna gora Movement (presented in a politically constructed symmetry as “Serbian Ustashas”), and thus to contribute to the war propaganda that was waged against them even then. In that sense, the novel The Sun is Far Away should not be viewed only as a literary fiction, but as a part of engaged literature which had far-reaching consequences in the formation of the historical consciousness of post-war generations.

Marching the Victorious March: Populism and Memory Appropriation of the Yugoslav Partisans in Today’s Serbia

AbstractThis article examines the changing paradigms in the official politics of memory as linked to the rise of populism and authoritarian democracy in Serbia, focusing on the appropriation of the People’s Liberation Movement and the victory against fascism in the Second World War. The article places the memory of the Second World War in the framework of anticommunism and ethnicization as dominant prisms of historical interpretation within state-sanctioned memory politics in contemporary Serbia. Understanding the populist memory politics in Serbia as based on the dichotomy of heroism and victimhood, this article focuses on the heroic aspect of the dominant narratives as exemplified in the notion of Serbia’s liberation wars. The Victory Day and Day of Liberation of Belgrade are in focus as the most prominent commemorative events that illuminate the tendency of memory appropriation. After theoretical consideration about authoritarianism in Serbia, populism and memory politics and a brief background on the notion of liberation wars, the article moves on to the analysis of memory politics. The study is based on media discourses, state papers and observation of official commemorations and practices.