Partisan Units Research Articles

From Lithuanian Riflemen to Forest Brothers: Research on the Development of the Local Military Structure

The article analyses the Thorn Company, a partisan unit that operated in northeast Lithuania, and the link of its partisans with the previously established societal tradition of self-defence and armed activity. The author seeks to reveal the extent to which the partisans belonged to the pre-war Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union and protective squads of small towns and villages which were formed during the uprising of 1941 as well as their participation in the divisions of public and auxiliary police which operated in 1941–1944. The research was carried out using analytical, inductive and statistical methods. The tradition of armed resistance and self-defence had been maturing in the territory of the future area of activity of Thorn Company (Zarasai regional district, Salakas village area). This tradition had been developing ever since the fights for independence in the early part of the twentieth century. Even then the local population who formed a squad of saboteurs actively assisted the Lithuanian army. The mindset of armed resistance to invaders was shaped, their skills of armed fighting were improved, and a framework of self-defence was taking shape. The memory and traditions of freedom fighting were nourished and passed on to the younger generation throughout the two decades of Lithuanian independence in the riflemen’s squadrons, which operated in the Salakas village district. This tradition determined an active role for riflemen from Salakas area in the anti-Soviet June uprising of 1941, and in their participation in policing units during the period of Nazi occupation (the latter activity was determined by anti-Soviet rather than pro-Nazi convictions). The military activity tradition shaped in the context of the above mentioned events was also alive in the postwar period. Throughout the whole period of the military company’s existence, its backbone was made up of fighters who gained fighting experience in riflemen’s squadrons during the independence period as well as in the Naziperiod police and self-defense divisions. Many ff them served in earlier military formations of earlier periods, and thus presumably cherished a certain collective mindset, made up of patriotism, belief in the possibility of restoring Lithuanian sovereignty and a deep anti-Soviet disposition. They must have been inclined to think that the gun was a reliable means of survival, and armed fighting was the most suited form of relating to the occupiers.

Armed resistance of partisans in 1944–1953 and its suppression in Skapiškis rural district

There were similarities and differences between armed resistance activities of partisans that took place in various regions of Lithuania in 1944–1953. Still, irrespective of several regional peculiarities, three main periods of the partisan warfare may be distinguished as characteristic of all Lithuania: 1944–1946 – a period of spontaneous fighting, 1946–1948 – a period of organized fighting and 1949–1953 – the end of partisan warfare. Therefore, if you look closely at armed resistance of partisans and tactics they used in the rural district of Skapiškis, you will see a reduced image of all armed activities against occupants across Lithuania. Like everywhere in Lithuania, in Skapiškis rural district, first platoons featuring great numbers of partisans were formed spontaneously. The partisans here used to apply the tactics of attacking the towns. Therefore, on November the 7th 1944, the town of Skapiškis, the centre of the rural district itself, was assaulted. Like everywhere in Lithuania, in this rural district as well, the very first battles of the partisans brought huge losses – the forces of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) attacked numerous platoons of partisans and frequently destroyed them immediately. The young people from Skapiškis land boycotted mobilization to the Red Army. After the call for legalization appeared, a lot of fighters left the forests and hid they relationship with the partisans. The partisans used to hinder the occupants’ authorities from organizing the local elections. During the second part of fighting, in 1946–1948, the issues of uniting the partisan units and transition to organized fighting became the focus of attention of partisan commanders. At that time, the county of Kupiškis was established and Skapiškis rural district became a part of this county. On May 1st 1947, Algimantas Military District was established, and all partisans of Kupiškis land became subordinate to Šarūnas Special Team of that Military District. The last period of fighting stood out from those above by completing the formation of centralized structures of partisans as well as by their destruction. Refined combinations of agencies, activity of the agents, treacheries, destruction of headquarters and military structures and greatly reduced numbers of partisans were the main causes of defeat of both Skapiškis land partisans and those operating all over Lithuania. It has been estimated that during entire period of partisan warfare (1944–1953), in Skapiškis rural district, 40 partisans, their liaisons and supporters lost their lives.

Volunteer Partisan Movement in Rostov Region During Great Patriotic War

This article examines the volunteer partisan movement in the Rostov region during the Great Patriotic War. It analyzes its content, as well as the general and specific regional characteristics. The sources for this study include both published and newly identified archival materials, some of which are introduced into scholarly discourse for the first time. The author substantiates the conclusion that the local steppe landscape and the lack of natural shelters had a profoundly negative impact on the scale and nature of the partisans’ military operations. It is established that partisan units, under local conditions, were small in number and could only conduct localized military operations. Many operated solely as reconnaissance and sabotage groups. The analysis conducted by the author leads to the conclusion that the primary tactical forms of combat employed by local partisans were swift and brief military raids and strikes, sabotage actions, as well as military incursions. The author identifies that one of the significant features of the partisan movement in the Rostov region was the Cossack factor. It is argued that the majority of Don Cossacks did not embark on a path of collaboration and actively participated in the partisan movement.

Вагітні жінки на фронті та партизанських загонах під час німецько-радянської війни.

The purpose of the research is to investigate the challenges faced by pregnant women in the Red Army and in partisan units during the German-Soviet war to analyze the attitudes of the military command and the Soviet government towards them. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism, systematicity, and objectivism. The methods used in the work include historical analysis, historical-comparative analysis, deduction, and analysis. The scientific novelty. Based on the available historical material, for the first time in domestic historiography, an attempt was made to study the life of pregnant women in combat conditions comprehensively; the differences in the Red Army and in partisan units were shown, a number of inconveniences they had to face in a militarized society were revealed; Soviet legislation regarding them and probable reasons for pregnancy planning were analyzed. Conclusions. It was found that the life of expectant mothers in the Red Army was different from those in partisan units. While women in the Red Army on the sixth month of pregnancy were on maternity leave at the rear and didn’t give birth or reside at the frontline, female partisans had to give birth and care for children in the forest. The presence of children in paramilitary formations, as evidenced by archival sources and memories of partisans, could cost the lives of both mothers and children. The Soviet leadership drew attention to the problem of pregnant military women at the end of the war and reacted accordingly at the legislative level by regulating the length of stay of pregnant women at the front or on maternity leave and by approving social costs for children after birth. However, the problem of pregnant women in the Soviet army remained unresolved.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE BELARUSIAN PARTISANS WITH THE POLISH UNDERGROUND ON THE TERRITORY OF THE BARANOVICHI REGION (1941–1944): ORGANIZATIONAL AND COMBAT ASPECT

The article studies the relationship of the partisan formations of Belarus with the Polish underground on the territory of Baranovichi region in 1941–1944, represented on the one hand by Polish pro–Soviet structures, and on the other handby units that were subordinated to the Polish emigrant government in London. It is concluded that local Soviet underground and partisan structures sought to establish quickinteraction with the emerginggroups of the Polish pro-Soviet underground and direct their activities towards an active fight against the German invaders. Partisan units organized on the basis of such groups were usually included in the Belarusian detachments and brigades. The main factors that influenced the nature of the relationship between the Belarusian partisans and the structures of the Home Army in different periods of the German occupation are shown. The content and forms of the relationship between the Belarusian partisans and the "Akovites" are revealed during two stages: July 1941 – spring 1943 and summer 1943 – July 1944.

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.

Robert Gildea and Ismee Tames, eds. Fighters across Frontiers: Transnational Resistance in Europe, 1936–48.

Resistance in Europe during the Second World War has long suffered from being studied through a predominantly national lens. The weight of postwar narratives of national reconstruction, the logics of funding bodies and of archives, as well as the wish of many historians to locate resistance within national triptychs of defeat, resistance, and liberation, have all deflected attention from the evident reality that resistance was a phenomenon that spilled beyond state borders in its structures and operations, its personnel, and its mentalities. Indeed, much resistance occurred in spaces outside the nation: within local communities and specific social milieux, and among those whose loyalties and experiences transcended state boundaries. It is this last group—the transnational resistance of those who by choice or circumstance found themselves outside the nation—who are the focus of Robert Gildea and Ismee Tames’s Fighters Across Frontiers: Transnational Resistance in Europe, 1936–48. Written collectively by a team of twenty-three historians of fourteen nationalities, it is the first Europe-wide attempt to explore the resistance against fascism, the Third Reich, and its allies by foreign fighters, political exiles, economic migrants, refugees from persecution, and the agents of external powers. This transnational resistance was almost infinitely diverse, and the editors very wisely eschew any attempt to impose a definition on their subject matter, preferring to allow the wealth of primary material to speak for itself. The series of loosely chronological chapters trace the emergence of the multiple forms and spaces of transnational resistance from the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War to the military campaigns of the early war years, the camps of political detainees and POWs, the escape lines created for downed airmen and Jewish civilians, and the armed resistance movements that emerged in German-occupied Europe during the latter war years. Transnational resistance flourished especially in the spaces in between—among the partisan groups that operated in the free zones of the western Balkans, and of Italy after the collapse of Fascist rule, or behind the fluid battle lines of the eastern front. These improvised military units received material and organizational support from the Soviet, British, and American forces. But the primary driving forces behind their development was the social chaos generated by the escalation of the war, the policies of repression imposed by the Nazi rulers and their local allies, and the effective collapse of government in large areas of German-occupied Europe. As national structures disappeared, they created opportunities for new armed groups, often highly local and personalized in character, that operated outside the boundaries of state authority. These drew on the large numbers of exiles and migrants displaced over the previous years by persecution and war, for whom resistance was the expression of their political and ideological beliefs as well as a response to their marginal and illegal status. But their ranks were greatly swelled during the final years of the war by former prisoners of war, Jewish refugees, and labor conscripts, as well as by the many civilians obliged to flee their homes to escape ethnic and military conflict. These formed highly heterogenous units, where the labels of national identity were more symbolic than real. Spanish Republicans featured prominently among the Free French units who marched into Paris with the Allied troops; former Italian soldiers fought in the partisan units that wrested Belgrade from German control; while the Slovak National Uprising in 1944 was carried out by a heterogenous coalition of local fighters, Soviet partisans, and British and American agents, supplemented by diverse groups of escaped POWs and displaced conscript workers.

“They look at us, former officers, as material that, having used it, can be thrown away...”. An unknown letter from a Soviet military specialist about the betrayal of the headquarters of the 14th army in June 1919

The material is a publication of an unknown letter from a Soviet military specialist, former Captain B.F. Chernihovsky-Sokol, to his classmate at the Military Academy G.I. Teodori about the events of the summer of 1919 in Ukraine. At that time, the situation at the front was unfavorable for the Reds: the Whites have captured the Donbass and launched an offensive in the Kharkov and Yekaterinoslav directions. The 2nd Ukrainian Soviet Army was reorganized into the 14th Army, but the name change and reorganization changed little. The army consisted of partisan units of Makhno and Grigoriev, and the troops lacked weapons and ammunition, since the Whites cut off supplies by rail. As a result of the defeat of the Soviet troops, Yekaterinoslav was abandoned by the Red Army units, and a group of employees of the headquarters of the 14th Soviet Army defected to the Whites. The letter details the circumstances of the surrender of Yekaterinoslav by the Reds. The author outlined the dramatic circumstances of the defense of the city, the confusion and lack of centralization in the management of troops, poor leadership on the part of the commander of the 14th Army K.E. Voroshilov, whose location was unknown, abuse of commissars who took staff cars for personal use, as well as ignorance of the operational situation by the headquarters. Of particular interest are the personal experiences of the author of the letter, who wrote about the plight of the military specialists of the Red Army, the inattention of the command to them, the danger for former officers to be captured by the Whites and other moments. The document is stored in the Central Archive of the Federal Security Service and is being introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.

«I Wanted to Avenge the Spilled Innocent Jewish Blood»: Resistance of Mizoch Jews during the Holocaust

The purpose of the study is to uncover the resistance of Volyn Jews during the Holocaust at the local level, in particular the uprising in Mizoch (Mizocz) ghetto in October 1942 and the struggle of Jews after its suppression. The author finds out the background, course, and consequences of the uprising in the ghetto, rescue and survival strategies, and the further fate of the Jews who later struggled in various partisan units, and joined the ranks of the Red Army, etc.
 The scientific novelty of the study is in the fact that, for the first time in the historiography of the Holocaust, the resistance of Mizoch Jews to the Nazis during the uprising in the local ghetto, and the implementation of their individual and collective resistance as the members of various units and groups are studied. New, previously unpublished sources are introduced into scientific circulation.
 Conclusions. The resistance of Volyn Jews to Nazism during the Holocaust at the local level is analyzed in the research paper. The uprising in Mizoch ghetto had the following stages: the creation of an underground in the ghetto, preparation for the uprising – getting cold weapons (they couldn’t have got any firearms), beginning of the action during the liquidation of the ghetto, setting fire to the houses, fighting with the ghetto guards, and the escaping of some Jews to the ‘Aryan side.’ Among the participants of the uprising were the representatives of the Judenrat. During the fire, some Jews died in the flames committing suicide in order not to give themselves up to the occupiers. In this context, setting fire to ghetto houses should be considered as a set of actions for the carrying out of the uprising.
 After the liquidation of the ghetto, the active forms of Mizoch Jews resistance included both individual struggle (attacking the occupiers, harming their lives and health) and fighting in organized groups (participation in Soviet partisan units, Ukrainian underground, Polish self-defense, Czech groups, and detachments of the Soviet Army). Jews took revenge for the death of the representatives of their nation and their relatives not only to the German occupiers, but also to civilians who participated in the slaughtering of the Jews.
 Thus, the Jews were not submissive victims of the Nazis but actively resisted from the first to the last days of the occupation on an individual and group level. The uniqueness of the Jewish resistance consisted in the absence of a single political center for the Jewish partisans to get orders from, and its specificity was in the exceptional cruelty of the Nazi regime against the Jews in comparison with other occupied peoples.

GERMANS AND BOLSHEVIKS IN THE UKRAINIAN-POLISH CONFLICT OF 1939 – 1945 IN THE DOCUMENTS OF THE UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST UNDERGROUND

In this article, with the help of a detailed analysis of the documents of the Ukrainian nationalist underground, which were issued during the Second World War, the topic of the involvement of the "third forces", namely the Third Reich and the Soviet Union, in the Ukrainian-Polish conflict of 1939 – 1945 is raised. Based on the analyzed reports , social and political reviews, etc., the methods used by the Germans and Bolsheviks to incite mutual hatred between Ukrainians and Poles are singled out. It was found out that the Germans created special police departments for their own purposes, where they recruited both Poles and Ukrainians, provided them with weapons, encouraged the Poles to rob the Ukrainian population, and often practiced handing over Ukrainian jobs or farms to Poles, and vice versa. It has been investigated that the Soviets, in turn, contributed to the creation of Polish partisan units, in some places transferred the responsibility for the murders of Poles committed by them to Ukrainians and gave Poles ammunition to fight against Ukrainians. Particular attention is paid to the contemporary phenomenon of informants by Poles against Ukrainians, to which the Ukrainian nationalist underground reacted by distributing warning leaflets addressed to Poles. The article also analyzes those documents in which the Germans and the Soviets are called the enemies of the Ukrainian and Polish peoples and in which the awareness of Ukrainian nationalists that the German and Bolshevik regimes were interested in the Ukrainian-Polish confrontation is traced at the same time. It has been suggested that the strengthening of enmity between Ukrainians and Poles on the part of the Germans and the Soviets could be based in some places on the fear of the deployment of Ukrainian and Polish liberation movements with the aim of creating their own independent states. It was concluded that the documents of the Ukrainian nationalist underground are an informative and noteworthy source in the context of the Ukrainian-Polish struggle during the Second World War. Scientific works related to the specified topic were involved in writing the article. It was found that until now there is no comprehensive scientific work devoted to the issues raised in the article. This requires further research on the impact of the Third Reich on the USSR on the Ukrainian-Polish inter-ethnic conflict of 1939 – 1945.

THE STRUGGLE OF THE SOVIET POWER WITH THE VOLYN INSURGENT ARMY

The purpose of the article is to analyze the formation of underground cells of the anti-Bolshevik insurgent movement in Volyn after the Second Winter Campaign of the UNR army. Coverage of the measures of the Soviet authorities, aimed at the detection, intelligence development and destruction of an underground organization of an insurgent character called the Volyn Insurgent Army, which operated on the territory of the Volyn Province during 1922.
 Methodology. When writing the article, the basic principles of historical knowledge were used: historicism, scientificity, objectivity. Specific search tasks of the research were solved by problem-chronological means (optimal involvement of the thematic literature and source base); historical-comparative (analysis of various sources and formation of relevant research provisions and conclusions); critical analysis (critical attitude to various sources) methods.
 The scientific novelty consists in a comprehensive study of the stages of detection and liquidation by Soviet law enforcement agencies of the Volyn rebel army on the basis of unpublished sources and the available historiographical base. New source material, in particular archival documents, important for solving the problem, was introduced into scientific circulation and analyzed.
 Conclusions. The unsuccessful completion of the Second Winter Campaign of the UNR army accelerated the decline of the anti-Bolshevik insurgent movement, which continued under the repressive policy of the Soviet government. Even in such difficult conditions for the local insurgents, several underground cells began to operate on the territory of Volyn, which later merged into a whole insurgent organization called the Volyn Insurgent Army. The insurgents' activation and lack of conspiracy experience on their part allowed the Soviet authorities to discover that not just ordinary partisan units, but a whole underground organization with its own structure and tasks, began to operate in Volyn. In order to eliminate all the cells and structures of the VPA as effectively as possible, the Bolsheviks decided to infiltrate the rebels with their agents under the guise of members of the anti-Soviet underground. They successfully managed to do this and the work to identify all the participants of the underground continued. The success of the insurgents in expanding their network and their preparation for the uprising forced representatives of the Soviet authorities to quickly draw up a plan to eliminate the VPA. The very liquidation of the organization was quite successful for the Bolsheviks, because most of the members of the VPA were arrested or destroyed, although the underground command staff managed to retreat abroad.

Memories of Sarajevo Jew Benjamin Samokovlija – Damjan about his participation in the National liberation and anti-fascist war in Yugoslavia (1941-1945)

Benjamin Samokovlija (Sarajevo, 31.III.1918 - Skopje, 28.II.1996), comes from a Jewish family. On April 5, 1941 he was mobilized in the ranks of the army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the second half of August 1941, Benjamin joined the ranks of the National Liberation Army and the People's Liberation Army. He took part in numerous battles in the anti-fascist war for the liberation of Yugoslavia. After the Fourth Enemy Offensive of the Supreme Headquarters of the People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia which took place in the first half of 1943, Samokovlija together with part of his partisan unit were captured by the Germans and imprisoned in Zenica. After a month in the Zenica prison, a group of 600 prisoners, including Samokovlija, were transferred to the Thessaloniki concentration camp. In October 1943, through an EAM connection, Benjamin Samokovlija managed to escape and join ELAS. He remained in the ranks of the Greek partisans until the contact with the Macedonian partisans from the First Macedonian-Kosovo Brigade on the territory of the Aegean part of Macedonia in the period between the second half of December 1943 and January 1944. He was admitted to the III Battalion and was in charge of the agitprop of the battalion, from where he was later transferred to the ranks of the II, V and X brigades, acting as a battalion commissioner and participating in the battles for the liberation of Macedonia. At the very beginning of World War II in 1941, Benjamin Samokovlija lost many of his immediate family members, including his parents and wife. As direct witnesses to the measures taken for the physical and economic destruction of the Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the German occupying authorities, their collaborators and the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia, his three sisters joined the People's Liberation War. His eldest sister Laura was killed in 1945. Benjamin Samokovlija is the holder of several military and state decorations. During his tenure, he ran a number of state-owned enterprises. It is particularly important to emphasize that for less than two decades he served as President of the Jewish community in the Republic of Macedonia, building strong friendly relations with other religious communities in the country.

The stay of the 18th Croatian NOU brigade in Posavina in february and march 1944 with special reference to its activities in the area of the present municipalities of Orašje and Domaljevac-Šamac

Significantly decimated in the battles that befell it at the end of 1943 and the beginning of 1944, the 18th Croatian NOU Brigade, after a short consolidation in Semberija, went to Posavina, in order to promote the communist, anti-fascist struggle among the predominantly Croatian population there, and tried to win him over to join her ranks. At the same time, on the military front, the Brigade was supposed to assist the already existing partisan units of the 16th Muslim Brigade and the Posavina-Trebavian partisan detachment in eliminating enemy groups. At that time, there were already well-organized village guards made up of local Ustasha and former home guards in the Croatian villages of Bosnian Posavina, while in the Serbian villages local Chetniks had already been in command for three years, and these two armed groups had a generally correct relationship with each other. The short-term stay of the 18th Croatian NOU Brigade was therefore not overly successful in either of the two mentioned plans, which is why its stay in Bosnian Posavina is reduced to just a few sentences in socialist historiography. Nevertheless, the short stay of the 18th Croatian Brigade in Posavina was not without events. First, on March 4, 1944, the brigade entered the village of Domaljevac, where its members ravaged the parish office of the local pastor, otherwise an ardent supporter of the Ustasha movement, Ante Tepeluk. Bogomir Brajković gave a speech in front of the gathered peasants, which did not bear much fruit. Brajković gave the same speech in the village of Matići a few days later, on March 13 of the same year, but he did not succeed in arousing the interest of the local population there either. The communists within the brigade tried to present themselves to the local Croatian population as a kind of continuation of the pre-war politics of the Croatian Peasant Party, of which individuals, such as the aforementioned Brajković, were indeed members. The Croatian population in Posavina, due to previous experiences fighting against the partisans, had already organized their village guards quite well, so the fighting that took place in mid-March was fierce and disastrous for the partisan brigade. At least nine partisans were killed in the military actions, while around 14 were wounded. The partisans briefly managed to occupy some villages, hold some propaganda speech, but due to the great insecurity, they retreated to the south after that. During the brigade's attack on Orašje, the partisans were joined by some local inhabitants, Bosniaks, which will be the beginning of animosity between Bosniaks and Croats in this area that will culminate in March 1945, but also the creation of connections that will be used in the coming times when a large number of members of the green cadre and members of the SS transferred to the national liberation units. In one military operation, the brigade captured five local legionnaires and sentenced them to death. The sentence was carried out on three, while two managed to escape. The brigade also had several firefights with Chetnik units in Posavina, which were of varying fortunes for them. In one attack, they managed to destroy a small Chetnik headquarters in the village of Batkuši and liquidate the local leader Ignjat Bijelić. In the second skirmish, which took place in the village of Blaževac, Pavle Gajić's Chetniks inflicted a heavy defeat on the brigade. The 18th Croatian Brigade withdrew from Posavina when the German 13th SS Division appeared in these areas. The aim of this work is, on the basis of available historical sources and historiographical and memoir literature, to show in detail the stay of this Brigade in Posavina, with special reference to its activities in the area of today's municipalities of Orašje and Domaljevac-Šamac, that is, the eastern part of Posavina County.

Three Accounts—Two World Wars—One Town: Narratives of War and Genocide in Eastern Galicia

This article belongs to the special cluster, “Biographies of Belonging in the Holocaust”, guest-edited by Natalia Aleksiun and Hana Kubátová. This article argues for using personal accounts in reconstructing the inner lives of interethnic communities in Eastern Europe in times of crisis. Focusing on the Eastern Galician town of Buczacz as representative of numerous other such communities, it also suggests that the events of the Holocaust must be seen within the larger context of coexistence and violence since 1914. After briefly examining the relevant historiography, the article turns to a close analysis of the diary of a Polish headmaster, written in 1914–1922; the World War II diary of a Ukrainian gymnasium teacher, and recollections of the Holocaust by a Jewish radio technician, composed in 1947. All three men lived in Buczacz; all three wanted their accounts to be read by others, but they are only now being made available to the public by the author. Each provides a strikingly different perspective: that of a Polish nationalist educator whose sons were fighting to create an independent Poland; that of a Ukrainian activist who resented Polish rule and Jewish influence but felt ambivalent about wartime and genocide profiteering by fellow Ukrainians; and that of a young Jew who meticulously recorded both collaboration and rescue by his gentile neighbors and ended up fighting in a local Polish partisan unit. And yet, seen together, these personal narratives shed light on aspects of mass violence in that region largely missing from more general or nationally oriented histories.

«Ya znayu, chto znachit vojna». Nacistskaya okkupacionnaya politika protiv detstva (na materialah Severo-Zapada RSFSR)

The article shows the Nazi occupation policy towards children and adolescents in the North-West of the RSFSR during the Great Patriotic War. For its analysis, official documents were used (acts of district and village commissions to investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders, questionnaires of citizens who returned from forced labor, reports, memorandums, summaries, reports and other documents of the command of partisan units and individual partisans on the situation in the occupied areas), as well as the memories of children and adolescents. The article shows the facts of the crimes of Nazism, which have become an expression of a cruel punitive policy against children and adolescents.

Romantic relationships at the front and in Soviet partisan units during the German-Soviet War

Romantic relationships at the front and in Soviet partisan units during the German-Soviet War

Porucznik Jerzy Rożałowski (1912–1944?) – kawalerzysta i żołnierz konspiracji

The aim of this article is to present the biography of a forgotten officer of the Polish Army – Jerzy Rożałowski, who, after graduating from the Cavalry Cadet School in Grudziądz, started his service in the 1st Cavalry Regiment of Krechowiecki. In the years preceding the outbreak of World War II, he took part in over a dozen horse competitions, winning numerous awards. The promising career of a cavalryman was interrupted by German aggression and the necessity to fight for independence. After the surrender of the Polish army, Lieutenant Jerzy Rożałowski evacuated to the territory of Lithuania, where he was interned and imprisoned in a camp. In Lithuania, he then meets his future wife – Krystyna Bichniewicz, the daughter of the landowner and the great-great-granddaughter of Fryderyk Chopin’s eldest sister Ludwika Jędrzejewiczowa, with whom he married in 1940. After escaping from the internment camp, Rożałowski joined the underground and, under the name of Ryszard Porębski, commanded the 1st Infiltration and Partisan Center of the Vilnius District of the Home Army, from which in June 1944 an independent partisan unit was formed, numbering about 200 soldiers. At the same time, Rożałowski worked closely with the 7th Vilnius Brigade of the Home Army. Lieutenant Jerzy Rożałowski went missing on July 11, 1944 in Vilnius during an attempt to contact the command of the Home Army.

Kosova Devletinin Temeli Olarak Bujan Konferansı

In April of 1941 the fascist allies attacked Yugoslavia and disbanded the country. At the time Kosova was part of the Yugoslav Kingdom, therefore the new invading forces occupied Kosova and later divided the territory into three demarcation zones: the German, the Italian and the Bulgarian zone. The paper analyses the beginning of the conflict among various occupying forces and their collaborators against the partisan units, and those who fought for the liberation of Kosova and for a solution to the Albanian case. The most prominent event of this period is arguably the Conference of Bujan, held on December 31st 1943 until January 2nd 1944, where the Albanian people expressed their will for Kosova to unify with Albania proper after the war.

Życie i działalność ks. Stanisława Sikorskiego (1910–1993)

Niniejszy artykuł jest próbą syntetycznego opracowania monografii radomskiego kapłana. Analiza polegała na chronologicznym odtworzeniu poszczególnych etapów życia ks. Sikorskiego zgodnie z zebranym materiałem źródłowym. W pracy przedstawiono środowisko, z którego wyrósł, oraz scharakteryzowano pierwsze miejsca jego pracy kapłańskiej na wikariatach i posługę kapelana oddziałów partyzanckich AK. Omówiono okres probostwa w Głowaczowie wraz ze specyfiką prowadzonego duszpasterstwa, odbudową kościoła parafialnego oraz kontaktami z władzą państwową. W dalszej części ukazano działalność proboszcza w radomskiej parafii św. Jana Chrzciciela, opisano duszpasterstwo, wysiłki, które ks. Sikorski podejmował na rzecz powstawania nowych obiektów sakralnych w Radomiu, oraz postawę, jaką prezentował, pełniąc funkcję dziekana radomskiego. W pracy wykorzystano kościelne i państwowe źródła archiwalne oraz dostępne opracowania.

Biti partizan, vaški stražar ali domobranec

The article presents some motives that caused individuals during the Second World War to join either Village Guards, Partisan units, or Home Guard units. Of course, we recognise that there were also other reasons for this. We focus only on collected testimonies and other sources connected to the area of the southern Notranjska region, i.e. the six wartime municipalities of Begunje, Bloke, Cerknica, Rakek, Stari trg and Sv. Vid, which are today the municipalities of Bloke, Cerknica and Loška dolina.