Anti-fascist coalition and resistance movement. The resistance movement in Europe during the Second World War. Preparing Germany for war with the USSR

April 10 is the International Day of the Resistance Movement. The resistance movement during the Second World War was called the underground and insurrectionary struggle of the peoples of Europe against Nazi Germany and its allies. The most common forms of struggle against the occupiers were: anti-fascist agitation and propaganda, publication of underground literature; strikes, sabotage and sabotage in transport and at enterprises producing products for the occupiers; armed attacks to destroy traitors and representatives of the occupation administration; intelligence gathering for armies anti-Hitler coalition; guerrilla war. The highest form of the resistance movement was an armed uprising and popular (partisan) war, which covered entire regions and could lead to their liberation from the invaders (as in Belarus, Ukraine and Yugoslavia).

It should be noted that a lot has been said and written about the European resistance movement, which allegedly caused great damage to the Third Reich. And now the highly exaggerated myths about the European Resistance have become part of the revision of the Second World War in the interests of the West.

The scale of European Resistance (excluding the territory of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Greece) was greatly exaggerated for ideological and political purposes even during the existence of the socialist bloc of countries led by the USSR. Then it was good form to turn a blind eye to the fact that many states were members of the Nazi bloc or surrendered to the Nazis with little or no resistance. Resistance in these countries was minimal, especially compared to the support they provided to Nazi Germany. In fact, it was the prototype of the modern European Union led by Hitler. The economic, demographic resources of Europe were combined with the aim of destroying the Soviet (Russian) civilization. Most of Western Europe simply fell under Hitler, as it was in the interests of the masters of the West, who actually created the Third Reich project.

In some states, the appearance of resistance arose only when the Red Army approached (Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic), and when the so-called. The second front, in others it was minimal. However, during the years of the existence of the Soviet Union, they tried not to stick out this fact so as not to offend the allies and European "partners", including the fraternal socialist countries.

The only exceptions were Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece (not counting Soviet Union), where the Resistance took on a wide scope and folk character. However, this was due to the fact that the Balkan region does not quite fit into the Western (European) civilization, preserving the Orthodox and Slavic traditions, the cultural and civilizational type of the Byzantine Empire. In this respect, the countries of the Balkan Peninsula are closer to Russian civilization, especially Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. Although in modern time Westernization has almost already won in the Balkan Peninsula.

Female partisan of the Italian resistance movement in the mountains of northern Italy

The Third Reich was the most striking, outspoken manifestation of the Western project. No wonder the German Nazis took the British Empire and its racist practices as an ideal. The "Eternal Reich" in all colors and very frankly showed the future that awaits all of humanity if the Western project of the New World Order wins. This is a slave-owning, caste civilization, where there are "chosen" and "two-legged tools", slaves, and some people are generally classified as "subhuman" (Russians, Slavs), who were sentenced to total destruction. Huge concentration camps, Sonderkommandos, the total destruction of any opposition, the zombification of people, etc. all this was expected by mankind if the USSR had not crushed the "brown plague". Then the West had to disguise its cannibalistic insides.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire in Europe, with one or another success, they tried to recreate the “pan-European empire” (European Union) - the empire of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire (since 1512 - the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation), the French Empire of Napoleon and the Second Reich. Since 1933, the project of a "pan-European empire" was headed by the Third Reich. The roots of this German aspiration for imperial superiority go very far into the depths. It was not for nothing that Nazi ideologies turned to medieval Germany, the Holy Roman Empire, the empire of Charlemagne, and even further to the Roman Empire. After all, it was the "Germans", however, under the conceptual and ideological leadership of Rome, which was then the "command post" of the Western project, who created a millennium ago what is now called "Europe", the "West". It was Rome and the “Germans” (there was no single people then) that initiated the process of “Onslaught on the East and North”. Therefore, assigning the name “Barbarossa” to the plan of war against the USSR-Russia, by the nickname of the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 to 1190 Frederick I Barbarossa (Red-bearded, from Italian barba, “beard”, and rossa, “red”), had a great meaning. After all, it was the “empire of the German nation” that united a significant part of Western Europe and, one way or another, ruled it for several centuries.

The leaders of the Third Reich considered themselves the heirs of this tradition. Austria was invaded bloodlessly in 1938. In accordance with the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland was annexed. In September 1939, Germany began fighting and by July 1940, she had effectively united almost all of continental Europe under her rule. Finland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria became voluntary helpers of the Eternal Reich. Only the Balkan outskirts - Greece and Yugoslavia - were captured in April 1941.

Greek partisans and partisans in the ranks

At the same time, invading the boundaries of a European country, the Wehrmacht met resistance that could surprise with its indecision and weakness. This was especially surprising in that the Wehrmacht was still in its infancy and reached good level only in the spring of 1941. So, the invasion of Poland began on September 1, 1939, and after a few days serious resistance was broken. Already on September 17, the Polish military-political leadership fled the country, leaving the troops, who still continued to resist. Denmark hoisted the white flag on April 9, 1940 almost immediately. Within an hour after the start of the operation, the government and the king ordered the armed forces not to resist the German troops and capitulated. Norway, with the support of the allies (mainly the British), held out longer until the beginning of June 1940. The Netherlands capitulated during the first five days of the war - May 10-14, 1940. The Belgian campaign continued from May 10 to May 28, 1940. France fell almost instantly , especially if we recall the bloody and stubborn battles of the First World War: German troops began to seize the country on June 5, 1940, and on June 14 Paris capitulated. On June 22, an armistice was signed. And in the first world war The German Empire tried in vain for four years to defeat France.

It is not for nothing that the beginning of the German blitzkrieg in Europe received in France a "strange war", in Germany - a "sitting war", and in the United States - an "imaginary" or "phantom war". A real war, not for life, but for death, began in Europe only on June 22, 1941, when the German-led European (Western) civilization and the Russian (Soviet) civilization clashed. The short-term clashes between the armies of one or another European country with the Wehrmacht looked more like observing a ritual “custom” than a real battle for their land. Like, you can’t just let the enemy into your country, you must maintain the appearance of resistance. De facto, the Western European elites simply surrendered their countries, as Nazi Germany was to lead a new "crusade" to the East.

It is clear that the power of the Nazis, somewhere relatively soft, and somewhere hard, provoked resistance from various social forces and groups in European countries. Resistance to the Hitler regime also took place in Germany itself, in various social groups- from the descendants of the Prussian aristocracy, hereditary military to workers and communists. There were several assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler. However, this German Resistance was not the resistance of the whole country and the people as a whole. As in most other German-occupied countries. Danes, Norwegians, Dutch, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, French and other Europeans initially felt good in the "pan-European empire". Moreover, a significant part of the most passionate (active) part of the population supported Hitler, in particular, young people actively joined the SS troops.

For example, the resistance movement of France was completely insignificant, with a significant population. Thus, according to a thorough study by Boris Urlanis on human losses in wars (“Wars and the Population of Europe”), 20,000 Frenchmen (out of the 40 million population of France) died in the Resistance movement in five years. Moreover, during the same period, from 40 to 50 thousand French died, that is, 2-2.5 times more, who fought for the Third Reich! At the same time, the actions of the French Resistance are often described in such a way that it seems that it is comparable to the battle for Stalingrad. This myth was maintained even in the Soviet Union. Like, we were supported by the whole of Europe. Although in reality most of Europe, as under Napoleon, opposed Russian civilization!

Real resistance to the "Eternal Reich" led by Germany was only in Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece. True, in the same Yugoslavia there was a powerful collaborationist movement, like the Croatian Ustashe. The resistance on the Balkan Peninsula is explained by the still preserved deep patriarchy of this outskirts of Western Europe. The cultural and civilizational code of the Balkan peoples has not yet been fully westernized, suppressed by the Western matrix. Serbs, Greeks and Albanians were alien to the orders that the Third Reich established. These countries and peoples, in their consciousness and way of life, by the middle of the 20th century, in many respects did not belong to European civilization.

Operation to identify partisans among local residents in Yugoslavia

Partisans of the 1st Proletarian Brigade of NOAU, armed with Czech light machine guns ZB vz. 26. The village of Zharkovo near Belgrade

Poland is often ranked among the countries with strong resistance. However, if you carefully consider the situation in Poland, you will have to admit that here, as in France, the reality is greatly embellished. According to the data collected by the Soviet demographer Urlanis, during the Yugoslav Resistance, about 300 thousand people died (out of about 16 million people in the country), during the Albanian Resistance - about 29 thousand people (out of a total of 1 million population of Albania). In the course of the Polish Resistance, 33 thousand people died (out of 35 million of the population of Poland). Thus, the proportion of the population who died in the real fight against the Nazis in Poland is 20 times less than in Yugoslavia, and almost 30 times less than in Albania.

Apparently, the weakness of the Resistance in Poland was due to the fact that the Poles had long become part of European civilization. Catholic Rome has long turned Slavic Poland into a "ram" directed against the Russian people. Therefore, for the Poles, although they hated the Germans, dreaming of a "Greater Poland" including at the expense of the lands of Germany, joining the "pan-European empire" is not was unacceptable. Poles have already become part of European civilization. Their consciousness was distorted, suppressed by the Western "matrix". No wonder the Poles were the worst enemies of the Russians for almost a millennium, an instrument in the hands of the Vatican, and then France and Britain (now the USA).

The number of those who died in the real struggle does not include people who were destroyed by the Nazis as "racially inferior". In the same Poland, the Germans exterminated 2.8 million Jews out of 3.3 million who lived before the start of the occupation. These people were simply exterminated. Their resistance was minimal. It was a massacre, not a war. Moreover, in the extermination of “subhumans” (Russians, Serbs, Gypsies and Jews), not only Germans drugged by Nazi propaganda, but also representatives of other peoples - Croats, Hungarians, Romanians, Balts, Ukrainian Nazis, etc. took an active part.

Thus, it is worth remembering that the strong exaggeration of the European Resistance, originally had a political and ideological significance. And after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when all sorts of denigration of the USSR-Russia became the norm and profitable business, the merits of the European Resistance became even more mythologized in order to belittle the role of the Red Empire and the USSR in the Great War.

In fact, almost all of continental Europe by 1941, one way or another, without much shock entered the empire of Hitler. Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia (separated from the Czech Republic), Finland and Croatia (separated from Yugoslavia) - together with Germany entered the war with the USSR, sending their troops to the Eastern Front. True, Denmark and Spain, unlike other countries, did this without a formal declaration of war.

The rest of Europe, although they did not take a direct, open part in the war with the Soviet Union, but one way or another "worked" for the Third Reich. So Sweden and Switzerland economically supported Germany, their industry worked for the Reich, they were a place for "laundering" gold, silver, jewelry and other good things stolen in Europe and the USSR. Under the Nazis, Europe became an economic entity - the "European Union". France gave the Third Reich such oil reserves that they were enough to start a campaign in the USSR-Russia. From France, Germany got large stocks. The collection of occupation expenses from France provided an army of 18 million people. This allowed Germany not to carry out economic mobilization before the attack on the USSR, and to continue building a network of highways. Implementation of Hitler's grandiose plans began to create a new Berlin - the capital of a united Europe, the "Eternal Reich".

When the famous commander (later to become president) of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower, entered the war at the head of the Anglo-American troops in North Africa in November 1942, he had to first fight not with the German, but with 200 thousand. French army under the French Minister of Defense Jean Darlan. True, the French command, in view of the clear superiority of the Allied forces, soon ordered the troops to cease resistance. However, in these battles, about 1,200 Americans and British, more than 1,600 French, have already died. Of course, honor and praise to the fighters of de Gaulle, the pilots of the squadron "Normandy - Neman." But in general, France fell under the Germans and did not suffer much from this.

Interesting information about the "pan-European army", which fought with the USSR. The nationality of all those who died on Eastern Front is difficult or almost impossible to determine. However, the national composition of the servicemen who were captured by the Red Army during the war is known. Of the total number of 3.7 million prisoners, the bulk were Germans (including Austrians) - 2.5 million people, 766 thousand people belonged to the countries participating in the war (Hungarians, Romanians, Finns, etc.), but still 464 thousand people are French, Belgians, Czechs and representatives of other countries that have not officially fought with us.

The power of the Wehrmacht, which invaded the Soviet Union, was provided by millions of highly skilled workers throughout continental Europe. Only within the territory German Empire employed more than 10 million skilled workers from various European countries. For comparison: in the USSR-Russia in 1941 there were 49 million men 1890-1926. births (out of 196.7 million people in the population as a whole). Relying on the whole of Europe (more than 300 million people), Berlin was able to mobilize almost a quarter of all Germans for the war. In the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War 17% of the population were called up (and not all of them were at the front), that is, every sixth, otherwise there would not be qualified men needed to work at industrial enterprises in the rear).

More or less noticeable resistance appeared in Western Europe only when it became obvious that the European hordes led by Germany would not break the USSR, and the main forces of the Third Reich were defeated on the Russian front. Then London and Washington swept away the concept: it was impossible to wait any longer, it was necessary to actively intervene in the war in Europe so as not to lose it. The resistance forces began to activate. For example, the Warsaw Uprising, organized by the Home Army, began in the summer of 1944, when the Red Army was already near Warsaw. The Poles, backed by the Anglo-Saxons, wanted to show their strength in order to take decisive positions in the country. And the uprisings of the French underground began, basically, after the landing of the troops of the Allied countries in Normandy on June 6, 1944. And in Paris itself, the uprising began on August 19, only 6 days before the Free French forces under the command of General Leclerc entered the city.

Thus, it is worth remembering that the European Resistance is largely a myth. The Nazis met real resistance only on the lands of civilizations and cultures alien to them - the USSR, Yugoslavia and Greece. The resistance movement in most European countries became an influential factor only towards the end of the war, shortly before the liberation of the rebel areas by the Allied armies.

Soviet demolition partisans laying mines railway in Belarus

Young and elderly partisans near a haystack in the Leningrad region

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The national-patriotic forces of the countries occupied by the German-Italian troops played an important role in the fight against fascism. The Free French movement, led by General de Gaulle, was the most important resistance force that participated in the liberation of the country together with the Anglo-American troops. In Yugoslavia, the liberation movement, led by IB Tito, independently defeated the occupying garrisons in the country as the Allied troops approached. In Greece, an attempt by the British to disarm local resistance units led to civil war. The USSR was rather cool towards non-communist factions of the resistance movement in Poland. Their attempt to liberate Warsaw, not coordinated with the Soviet command, was suppressed by German troops, which subsequently gave rise to serious mutual reproaches.

The occupied countries of Europe and Asia suffered significant territorial changes. New states appeared on the world map: Slovakia (1939), Croatia (1941), Burma (1944), Indonesia (1945). But the independence of these states was discredited by cooperation with the aggressors. States such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Luxembourg, Greece were liquidated. Pro-fascist (collaborationist) governments came to power in Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France. The allied states of Germany, Italy, and Japan received significant territorial acquisitions. So, Hungary received Carpathian Ukraine, Transylvania, part of Slovakia and Yugoslavia, Romania - Transnistria, Bulgaria - part of Dobruja, Macedonia, Thrace, Finland returned the territories lost in 1940. The occupation policy in the territory of the occupied Eastern Europe and the USSR was carried out according to the plan "Ost". The occupied Soviet territories were divided into three parts. The rear areas of the German army groups were transferred to the control of the military command, while others were subordinated to the "Eastern Ministry" headed by Rosenberg and divided into two Reichskommissariat - "Ostland" (the Baltic states and most of Belarus) and "Ukraine". Western Ukrainian lands were annexed to the Polish "governor-general". The Nazis sought to create "living space for the German nation" in the territories they had conquered. The local population must be transformed into essentially slaves, the intelligentsia must be eliminated. It was planned to resettle about 10 million Germans in the occupied territories. The local population was supposed to leave about 14 million people. All others were to be destroyed. One of the first colonies of German settlers was created in the Vinnitsa region. The main means that the fascists used in asserting their dominance were inciting some nations against others and physical destruction. Such peoples as Gypsies, Jews, were subject to complete annihilation. From the occupied territories, food and raw materials and other material values were exported to Germany. The population in the occupied territories at first received nothing at all for their work, then they began to receive meager rations for working for the occupiers. 5.5 million Soviet prisoners of war were in terrible conditions, 3.5 million of them died. In order to use cheap labor in Germany, deportations of the able-bodied population were carried out. About 4 million inhabitants of the occupied regions found themselves in a foreign land in difficult conditions. In total, 10 million people became victims of the occupation. Soviet people. The economy of the occupied countries became an appendage of the German war machine. There were about 30 concentration camps in Europe. The largest of them are Dachau, Buchenwald, Majdanek, Auschwitz. The resistance movement was led by socialist, communist, radical and nationalist parties. As a result of the victories on the fronts of the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition, the resistance movement against the invaders in the countries of Europe is significantly strengthened. Many of them created partisan detachments underground organizations. But there were also those who went to cooperate with the invaders, becoming collaborators. In France, the fascist occupation and the collaborationist government of Marshal Pétain were fought by partisan detachments and underground groups led by communists and socialists. The "Free France" organization created by de Gaulle in 1942-1943 established control over the African colonies of France. In November 1942, the French underground concluded an agreement with de Gaulle on joint ventures. In May of the following year, the National Council of the Resistance was created, uniting all the forces that fought against the invaders. In June, the French Committee of National Liberation was formed, declaring itself a government headed by de Gaulle. The people's liberation movement in Yugoslavia gained considerable scope. Since 1941, there have been active military operations against the Nazis. In 1943, the government of the new Yugoslavia was created - the Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia, headed by Tito. Partisan armies were formed in Greece and Bulgaria. The communists played a significant role in this process. Anti-fascist sentiments also intensified in Germany. A group of officers and government officials carried out an attempted coup d'état in order to destroy the fascist regime and end the war. On July 20, 1944, Colonel Stauffenberg left a briefcase with a time bomb in the room where Hitler was. The bomb exploded, but Hitler survived. The performance of the rebels was brutally suppressed. In 1944, anti-fascist uprisings took place in a number of European countries. The uprising raised on August 1 in Warsaw by the Home Army ended in defeat. On August 29, the Slovak National Uprising began with the participation of partisans and the Slovak army. At the cost of great efforts, the Nazis managed to suppress it. In the USSR, the struggle of the people's avengers reached a particularly large scale. It was headed by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement. Belarus was the main partisan base. Here were the most formations and large partisan areas. In Ukraine, the center of the partisan movement was in the northern regions. Detachments of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army also fought against the Nazis. The partisan struggle had not only military, but also political significance. Large-scale sabotage operations of partisans, fighter raids made a significant contribution to the victory over the Nazis. Significant operations were carried out by partisan formations of Kovpak, Fedorov, Saburov, Naumov and others. . In total, over 6 thousand partisan detachments operated on the territory of the USSR, which destroyed about 1 million Nazis. The most large-scale sabotage was carried out in the summer of 1943 during the Battle of Kursk under the name "Rail War" and in September 1943 under the name "Concert". The Nazis were forced to keep significant forces in their rear to protect their communications from the partisans. The armed struggle against the invaders usually went through several stages. At first, these were the actions of separate combat groups and detachments, which gradually became more numerous and powerful. In some countries, the development of the partisan movement led to the creation people's armies. In Yugoslavia, already in the summer of 1941, under the leadership of the Communist Party, an open armed struggle began against the fascist invaders. From the very beginning, it assumed a massive character; at the end of 1941, a special brigade and up to 50 partisan detachments were formed. Later, divisions and corps appeared, and the armed forces became known as the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOAJ).

In Czechoslovakia, the struggle against the fascist invaders acquired a particularly wide scope in the spring and summer of 1944. Under the leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the proletariat became the leader of all the liberation forces united in the National Front. Partisan detachments were active in the country. In August 1944, the Slovak National Uprising took place, and later the May Uprising of the Czech people in 1945. In Poland, small partisan detachments, the core of which were workers, first entered the fight against the Nazi invaders. Later, the Guards of Ludow (GL), created on the initiative of the Polish Workers' Party, joined the armed struggle against the invaders, later transformed into the Army of Ludow (AL).

In Greece, in October 1941, the military center of the Resistance was established, which was then transformed into the Central Committee of the People's Liberation Army (ELAS). In Albania, with the leading role of the Communists, the partisan couples were transformed in the summer of 1943 into the National Liberation Army (NOAA).

The resistance movement in the countries of the Nazi coalition had its own characteristics compared with the occupied states. The anti-fascist struggle was waged here in the most difficult conditions of mass repressions and executions, and the cruel persecution of all democrats. Moreover, the regime of terror and political lack of rights in the countries of the Nazi coalition was combined with especially sophisticated nationalist and militaristic demagogy, which made the anti-fascist struggle extremely difficult. Relying on an extensive system of ideological and political brainwashing of the masses, the Nazis sought to eradicate democratic ideas from the minds of the working people.

An important role in the consolidation of anti-fascist forces was played by the All-Slavic Committee, the National Committee "Free Germany", the Union of Polish Patriots and other organizations created in the USSR. In Italy, in October 1941, under the leadership of the Communist Party, an Action Committee was created to unite patriotic forces at home and abroad. Opposition to the terrorist fascist regime intensified in Germany and other states. In the countries that joined the fascist bloc, the Bulgarian people were the first to rise in a mass armed struggle against the reactionary regime. At the end of June 1941, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Bulgaria, partisan groups were organized, the number of which subsequently grew rapidly. In the spring of 1943, the People's Liberation Insurgent Army was formed and a plan of armed action was developed on a national scale. At the beginning of September 1944, the partisan forces numbered over 30 thousand armed fighters and acted with the support of more than 200 thousand partisan assistants.

Postponing actions Soviet army on the territory of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe and the successful implementation of its liberation mission inspired the patriots even more, instilled in them faith in the final defeat of the fascist regimes. More and more new participants were included in the resistance movement. Thus, the entry of the Soviet Army into the territory of Bulgaria created favorable conditions for the development of mass revolutionary actions. People's government was established in the areas controlled by the People's Liberation Army. On September 9, 1944, as a result of a nationwide, anti-fascist armed uprising, the monarcho-fascist regime was overthrown in the country and the government of the Fatherland Front was formed.

In Romania, in the process of preparing for an armed uprising led by the Communist Party, a large number of militant patriotic groups were created. In the summer of 1944, the National Democratic Bloc was formed, which included the Communist, Social Democratic, National Liberal and National Tsaranist parties. He advocated the immediate overthrow of the fascist government and an end to the aggressive war. The successes of the Soviet Army, above all its outstanding victory in the Iasi-Kishinev operation, hastened the development of the anti-fascist struggle in the country. On August 23, an armed uprising took place in Bucharest, which led to the overthrow of the fascist dictatorship.

Despite the most severe terror, preparations were made for an armed uprising in Hungary, which in March 1944 was occupied by Nazi troops. In May of the same year, at the call of the communists, the anti-fascist Hungarian Front was created, uniting almost all parties and trade union organizations. As the country was liberated by the Soviet Army, local committees were transformed into organs of people's power, which played an important role in democratic and socialist transformations.

Under the influence of the successes of the Soviet Armed Forces, as well as the actions of the American-British troops that landed in the autumn of 1943 in southern Italy, the first partisan formations arose in northern Italy. On the initiative of the Communist Party, they were able to unite in June 1944 into the people's army - the Corps of Freedom Volunteers, which at first numbered 82 thousand, and by April 1945 - already 150 thousand people. A mass resistance movement unfolded in Italy under the leadership of the working class. The performance of the armed forces of the Resistance in the second half of April 1945, supported by a general strike at the call of the Communists, led to the fact that in many industrial centers and cities Northern Italy almost all the fascist German troops and blackshirts laid down their arms even before the arrival of the Anglo-American troops.

Resistance to fascism also existed in Hitler's concentration camps, camps for prisoners of war and foreign workers, where the Nazis used them as slave labor. The prisoners, despite the inhuman conditions of existence, committed sabotage and sabotage at military enterprises, conducted anti-fascist propaganda, and organized mutual assistance. An active role in this struggle was played by Soviet officers and soldiers, who headed many underground organizations and groups.

The resistance movement was an integral part of the liberation struggle of the peoples. This struggle was associated with great sacrifices.

The active and consistent struggle of the Comintern, communist parties against fascism, for the freedom and national independence of the peoples was the most important factor that led to the emergence and development of the mass anti-fascist resistance movement of the peoples of occupied Europe.

In the countries of the fascist bloc, the resistance movement was a continuation of the battles between the forces of democracy and reaction, which had unfolded even before the start of the Second World War.

The anti-fascist resistance movement had a nationwide character, it was a struggle for independence and sovereignty, and in some countries - for the very existence of the nation. As a national liberation struggle, the Resistance movement was rooted deep in the history of the peoples of Europe, relying on the traditions of the Hussite movement in Czechoslovakia, the Garibaldian movement in Italy, the Haiduk movement in the Balkans, the partisan struggle of 1870-1871 in France, etc.

The resistance movement was a struggle against fascist totalitarianism for the restoration and revival of democratic rights and freedoms, for the overthrow of both the fascist regimes themselves and puppet military dictatorships and "governments". Being consistently anti-fascist, the resistance movement thus acquired an anti-imperialist character, for an uncompromising struggle against fascism meant a struggle against those social forces that gave birth to it. And this gave the anti-fascist movement not only a democratic, but also a revolutionary-democratic character.

The resistance movement was international. The struggle against fascism, which threatened Europe and the whole world with enslavement, was the common cause of all freedom-loving peoples. Each national resistance detachment was an integral part of the international front of the struggle against fascism. The composition of its participants in each country was also international. Foreign fighters - internationalists who, by the will of fate, found themselves outside their homeland, rightly believed that they were fighting against a common enemy, "for your and our freedom." The Resistance Movement was the embodiment of the organic unity and interconnection of internationalism and patriotism, it developed the traditions of friendship and cooperation between peoples.

The anti-fascist resistance movement manifested itself in a wide variety of forms - peaceful and non-peaceful, legal and illegal, passive and active, individual and mass, spontaneous and organized. The use of various forms of struggle was determined by the specific situation in the country, the degree of organization and political maturity of the participants in the movement, and the situation on the fronts.

At first, when the population of many countries was shocked by the rapid victories of the armed forces of the fascist states, the defeats of their armies and the betrayal of collaborators, resistance to the invaders was passive and expressed, for example, in ignoring the orders of the authorities, refusing to cooperate with them. Then other, more effective methods of struggle began to be used: a decrease in the intensity and productivity of labor, an increase in defects in work, damage to machinery and equipment, and strikes in the cities; refusal to surrender agricultural products, opposition to requisitions, concealment, and sometimes spoilage of products - in the villages. Such a form of resistance as assistance to patriots who fled from captivity or persecuted and wanted by the occupiers has also found wide application.

Of great importance for strengthening the morale of the enslaved peoples and mobilizing them to fight against the invaders was the illegal anti-fascist press (newspapers, magazines, leaflets and brochures), which contained truthful information about international position, the course of the world war and the resistance movement. The struggle against fascism was also expressed in counteracting its chauvinistic policy, in defending national culture, science and education. Patriots hid the cultural values of national museums, libraries and archives from fascist robbers. Members of the resistance movement organized underground schools and courses to prepare young people for the fight against the invaders.

Already in the first period of the war, various forms of people's armed struggle against the invaders began to develop.

Its striking manifestations were the participation of voluntary worker battalions in the defense of Warsaw, the struggle of the Greek communists who escaped from prisons against the aggression of the Italo-fascist troops, individual armed attacks on the enemy, the creation of the first underground armed organizations in France, Yugoslavia and other countries.

Various classes and social groups participated in the resistance movement - workers and peasants, who were the main driving force of the anti-fascist struggle, progressive intelligentsia, petty and partly middle bourgeoisie. They were people of different political and religious views - communists and socialists, liberals and conservatives, republicans and even sometimes monarchists, believers and atheists. The most active, leading role in the anti-fascist struggle belonged to the working class and its vanguard, the communist and workers' parties. The Resistance organizations they created made the greatest contribution to the struggle against fascism, for the freedom and independence of peoples. Their leading role was explained by the fact that they were the only parties politically and organizationally prepared for the fight against fascism. Bourgeois and social-democratic parties either disintegrated or went into cooperation with the fascist occupiers. The Socialist International (Socintern), according to its leadership, finally became an incapacitated organization and in the spring of 1940 disappeared from the political arena ( From the history of the Comintern. M., 1970, p. 239.).

As for the bourgeois organizations of the Resistance, they did not show noticeable activity for a long time. There were quite a few honest anti-fascist fighters in these organizations, but their leaders were afraid of the development of a nationwide armed struggle against the invaders and therefore hampered it in every possible way, calling on the people “to calm” and waiting for decisive events on the war fronts (the call to “keep guns at your feet”, etc.). P.). Some bourgeois organizations were only nominally part of the Resistance movement (People's Forces Zbroine in Poland, Chrissi Andistasi in Greece, Balli Kombetar in Albania, Chetniks of D. Mikhailovich in Yugoslavia and others). They were created not so much to fight the fascist invaders, but to stand guard over the class interests of the capitalists and landlords of their countries. Therefore, they often even entered into armed clashes with democratic forces and sometimes were allies of the occupiers.

Part of the bourgeoisie of the countries occupied by the Nazis joined the resistance movement in one form or another. The other part of the ruling class - these were, as a rule, big monopolists and landowners - betrayed the national interests of their peoples and went into direct collusion with the fascist invaders. It followed a kind of policy of "double guarantees", designed to preserve the class rule of the bourgeoisie in any outcome of the war. The Resistance movement developed in a fierce struggle with collaborators - direct accomplices of the fascist occupiers.

The first period of the war was the most difficult for the Resistance movement: they had to fight both against the aggressor and against his accomplices - the capitulators. The easy military victories of the fascist armies in Europe gave rise to confusion and passivity among the population, which hindered the development of the anti-fascist struggle. And yet, gradually, as more and more peoples were drawn into the orbit of the “new order” with the expansion of aggression, and its misanthropic essence was more and more revealed, the resistance movement grew and expanded, new social forces were included in it, it became more and more active and popular.

The peoples of dismembered Czechoslovakia and Poland were among the first to take the path of resistance to the fascist invaders. The struggle of the Czechoslovak people at first was predominantly spontaneous in nature and manifested itself for the most part in the form of individual, hidden and passive resistance. But already in the autumn of 1939 and in 1940, in a number of industrial centers In the Czech Republic (Ostrava, Kladno, Prague), workers held strikes, which indicated that the movement was becoming more organized and mass. At the same time, the anti-fascist struggle intensified in many regions of Slovakia.

However, the reactionary bourgeoisie hindered the liberation struggle. She called for waiting for decisive events on the fronts, stating that "the people at home should not make any sacrifices", but only need to calmly "overwinter" ( German Imperialism and the Second World War, p. 783.). As can be seen from the directive of E. Benes, sent in December 1939 to the bourgeois underground organizations, the Czechoslovak bourgeoisie was afraid of the victory of the proletarian revolution after the fall of the fascist regime ( "Internationale Hefte der Widerstandsbewegung", 1961, No. 7, S. 22.).

In Poland, in the most difficult conditions of the occupation that had begun, underground organizations arose - only on the lands annexed to the Reich, they operated in 1939-1942. over 50 ( German Imperialism and the Second World War, pp. 769 - 770.). The main forms of struggle at that time were sabotage and sabotage in production and transport, the publication and distribution of underground newspapers. various directions etc. From the remnants of the defeated Polish army, the first partisan detachments were created, among them the detachment of Major X. Dobzhansky, who fought against the invaders in 1940 in the Kielce province ( "Internationale Hefte der Widerstandsbewegung", 1963, No. 8 - 10, S. 113.).

Gradually, two main directions - right and left - consolidated in the Polish resistance movement. The right direction was represented by organizations operating under the leadership of the government in exile and its representation in Poland - the so-called delegation. He was characterized by anti-communism and anti-Sovietism; it saw its main task in restoring the pre-war regime in the future liberated Poland, that is, the power of the landlords and capitalists.

The left direction, represented by the communists and other progressive forces, developed in a particularly difficult conditions, since before 1942 there was no organized revolutionary party of the working class in Poland. In 1939 - 1941. the leftist organizations of the Polish underground did not have a single leading center and acted in isolation. Fighting against the invaders, they sought to prevent the restoration of the old reactionary order in the future liberated Poland.

The Polish resistance movement developed in the struggle of the right and left directions, which sometimes reached extreme sharpness.

In a difficult situation, anti-fascist resistance was born in the countries of Western and Northern Europe, which found themselves under the heel of the Nazi invaders in the spring and summer of 1940. In Denmark, the capitulation of the Stauning government, approved by parliament and all bourgeois parties, as well as the demagogy of the German fascists, who declared that they had come to the country as friends, to protect it from the threat of invading Western powers, retarded the development of mass resistance. This movement here developed slowly and manifested itself mainly in the form of a passive protest against the policy of collaborationism and the hardships of the occupation regime. The most active role in its organization was played by the Communist Party of Denmark. While all bourgeois parties supported the policy of collaborationism, the Danish communists raised the masses to fight against the invaders, carried out anti-fascist propaganda, and sought to establish cooperation with representatives of other political parties.

In Norway, the resistance of the people to the invaders was also led by the communists. On August 10, 1940, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Norway appealed to the working class to launch a struggle for a future free Norway. In the autumn of 1940, anti-Nazi demonstrations took place in Bergen, Trondheim, Sarpsborg and other cities, and cases of sabotage and sabotage became more frequent. In the spring of 1941, the Nazis imposed a fine of 500 thousand crowns on the cities of Oslo, Stavanger, Haugesund and the Rogaland region for systematic damage to German communication lines ( "Die Welt", 1941, No. 19, S. 592.).

In Belgium, the anti-fascist struggle began shortly after the occupation. Under the leadership of the Communists, in the summer of 1940, the underground publication of newspapers and leaflets was carried out, illegal trade unions and the first partisan groups arose (in the Ardennes) ( Der deutsche Imperialismus und der zweite Weltkrieg. bd. 3. Berlin, 1960, S. 121 - 122.). The hunger strike in Liège and other protests of the working people in the autumn of 1940 showed that the resistance of the Belgian people to the occupiers was growing. In the summer of 1941, the "Wallon Front" was created, which became the embryo of the future broad front of independence. However, in Belgium, as well as in other countries, the passive position of the bourgeois organizations, which avoided coordinating their actions with the left wing of the anti-fascist movement, was a serious impediment to the development of the resistance movement.

In the Netherlands, the Communist Party, which had gone underground, set up the publication of illegal newspapers in the autumn of 1940, and in February 1941 organized a 300,000-strong strike of workers and employees of Amsterdam and its suburbs in protest against the forced deportation of Dutch workers to Germany ( "Internationale Hefte der Widerstandsbewegung", 1961, No. 6, S. 74 - 75.).

The people of France did not bow their heads before the invaders. By his struggle he fully confirmed the proud declaration of the French Communists that the great French nation would never be a nation of slaves. The resistance movement in this country developed both in the fight against the German invaders and their Vichy accomplices. The working people, following the call of the communists, resorted to more and more active forms of liberation struggle. But the French bourgeoisie also claimed leadership of the resistance movement. General de Gaulle, the leader of the bourgeois wing of the movement, who had been sentenced to death in absentia by a Vichy court, twice spoke on London radio in June 1940, calling for unity around the Free French Committee he had created. However, he, in essence, oriented the French people to the expectation of their liberation from outside. Following this attitude, the bourgeois organizations of the French Resistance adhered to passive forms of struggle.

The working people of France, with the help of the communists, found effective forms and methods for the liberation struggle. People's committees set up in factories, residential areas and villages, as well as women's committees, fought to meet the immediate needs of the working people, achieved trade union unity, and led strikes. In December 1940, a major sabotage operation was organized at the Renault factories, as a result of which hundreds of motorcycles were scrapped. A great event was the 100,000th strike of miners in the departments of Nord and Pas de Calais in late May - early June 1941. Its significance was not only that the occupiers received almost a million tons less coal, the strike raised the morale of the working people demonstrating in practice that struggle is possible even under conditions of occupation. Following the workers, the peasants, the intelligentsia, and students rose up against the Nazis.

On May 15, 1941, the Central Committee of the PCF issued a statement about the party's readiness to create a National Front to fight for the independence of France. Soon this front was proclaimed and began to operate ( Ibid., S. 136.).

In the last months of 1940, the French Communist Party, having begun preparations for armed struggle, created the so-called Special Organization, which was "the embryo of a military organization adapted to the conditions of underground struggle and fascist terror" ( M. Thorez. Son of the people, p. 168.). Its combat groups organized the protection of meetings and manifestations, collected weapons, and committed separate acts of sabotage. Following their example, "youth battalions" were created, the first leader of which was the young communist worker Pierre Georges, later the famous Colonel Fabien. The actions of the PCF were guided by the party's executive leadership, which was deeply underground, consisting of the secretaries of the Central Committee M. Thorez, J. Duclos and the general secretary of the General Confederation of Labor B. Frachon.

With the development of fascist aggression in the southeast of Europe, a resistance movement front was formed in the Balkans.

Already in the first months of the occupation, the communists of Greece created underground organizations in different parts of the country (“National Solidarity”, “Freedom”, “Sacred Companies”, etc.), which raised the broad masses of the people to fight against the invaders. On May 31, 1941, the young communist Manolis Glezos and his friend Apostolos Santas tore down the fascist flag with a swastika from the Athenian Acropolis, calling on the people to resist the fascists with their feat. On the same day, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece, in a manifesto addressed to all the people, called for the creation of a powerful popular front and put forward the slogan of a national liberation war ( G. Kiryakndis. Greece in World War II, p. 118.).

The organizer of the mass liberation struggle of the Yugoslav people, like the Greek people, was the Communist Party. Even during the April catastrophe, it sought by all means to strengthen the combat capability of the army and the people. Thousands of communists voluntarily came to the military units to replenish the ranks of the army, but were refused. The Communist Party demanded weapons for the anti-fascists, but did not receive them under the pretext of "the senselessness of the struggle" ( "Internationale Hefte der Widerstandsbewegung", 1963, No. 8 - 10, S. 92.).

On April 10, 1941, the Central Committee of the CPY decided to begin organizational and political preparations for the armed struggle against the invaders. It was headed by the Military Committee under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito. In May - June, military committees are formed throughout the country, the collection of weapons and ammunition begins, shock groups are formed in cities and towns. countryside. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the first battles with the invaders unfolded.

The Communist Party led the course towards the creation of a united front of the broad masses of the people. Its ranks grew continuously. During May - June 1941, the number of communists increased from 8 to 12 thousand, and the number of Komsomol members reached 30 thousand people ( F. Trgo. Review of the development of the national liberation war. In the book: I. Tito. Selected military works. Belgrade, 1966, pp. 330 - 332.).

In Yugoslavia, the resistance movement took the form of an armed struggle from the very beginning. Yugoslav patriots fought not only against the invaders and numerous Yugoslav quislings (Pavelić in Croatia, Nedich in Serbia, etc.), but also against conservative forces, who, after the liberation of the country, counted on the restoration of the old bourgeois-landlord order. The royal government of Yugoslavia, which was in exile, considered the armed struggle to be premature, adventuristic and contrary to the interests of the people. In an address to the people on June 22, 1941, broadcast on London radio, it called for calmly awaiting the future victory of the Allies, who would "bring freedom" to Yugoslavia ( European Resistance Movements 1939 - 1945. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the History of the Resistance Movements held in Milan 26 - 29 March 1961. Oxford, 1964, p. 466.). Such, in fact, was the political line of the Chetniks of Mihailović, who invariably rejected all proposals of the Yugoslav partisans to establish contact with him, and then went into direct armed conflicts with them. But it was no longer possible to extinguish the fire of the partisan war in Yugoslavia, it flared up more and more.

The resistance movement in the countries of the fascist bloc was directed against the regimes that existed in them and the social forces on which they relied, for the restoration of democratic rights and freedoms. In the first period of the war, the anti-fascist struggle was waged here only by small groups of people, convinced revolutionaries, communists, genuine democrats. The instructors of the Central Committee of the KKE R. Halmeyer, G. Schmeer, J. Müller, G. Hanke and other comrades who arrived illegally in Germany worked to create a new central party leadership. Despite the fact that with the outbreak of war in Germany, repression intensified and propaganda of racism, chauvinism and militarism began to be carried out more widely, the struggle against fascism did not stop. Underground anti-fascist groups operated in the country: the "Inner Front" in the Berlin area ( German Imperialism and the Second World War, p. 599.), the W. Knöchel group in the Rhine-Westphalian region ( Ibid., p. 617.), the groups of R. Urich, X. Schulze-Boysen and A. Harnack, X. Günther, Eva and Fritz Schulze and others ( W. Schmidt. Damit Deutschlandlebe, S. 288-336.). These groups carried out anti-fascist propaganda, published leaflets and newspapers in small quantities, and committed acts of sabotage and sabotage. The Gestapo archives testify to the scope of the propaganda activities of the anti-fascist underground in Germany, according to which 228 anti-fascist publications were recorded in January 1941, and 519 in May ( Ibid., S. 330.).

Under the leadership of the communist parties, the anti-fascist struggle unfolded in Italy, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary and Finland.

A special page in the European resistance movement is the struggle of prisoners in numerous Nazi concentration camps. And here, under the leadership of the communists, leaders of the labor movement, underground organizations were created that fought against unbearable living conditions, organized escapes.

The more the scale of the war expanded, the more people realized what fascist aggression was bringing to the peoples, the brighter the anti-fascist liberation struggle flared up, the role of the working masses in the struggle against the enslavers increased. Objectively, conditions were developing in which the fate of the war against the countries of the fascist bloc was increasingly determined by the struggle of the broad masses of the people, in the vanguard of which were the communist and workers' parties.

The Resistance Movement was one of the significant aspects in the fight against Hitlerism and fascism. Almost immediately after the outbreak of World War II, many residents of European countries volunteered for active army, and after the occupation - underground. The resistance movement was more widespread in France and Germany itself. The main events and actions of the Resistance Movement will be discussed in this lesson.

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1944- an organ of supreme power (Craiova Rada Narodova) was created, which opposed the emigrant government.

1944 G.- Warsaw Uprising. The rebels sought to liberate the city from German occupation. The uprising was put down.

France

During the war years, there were many anti-fascist organizations in France.

1940- the "Free France" was created (since 1942 - "Fighting France"), which was founded by General de Gaulle. The troops of the "Fighting France" in 1942 reached 70 thousand people.

1944- an army of French internal forces was created on the basis of the unification of individual anti-fascist organizations.

1944- the number of participants in the resistance movement is over 400 thousand people.

Members

As mentioned above, the Resistance Movement was in Germany itself. The Germans, who no longer wanted to put up with Hitlerism, created an underground anti-fascist organization. "Red Chapel", which was engaged in underground anti-fascist propaganda and agitation, maintained relations with Soviet intelligence, and so on. Many members of the underground organization, created at the end of the 1930s. (about 600 people), occupied responsible civil and military positions and positions in the Third Reich. When, in 1942, the Gestapo ( secret police Germany) revealed the organization, the investigators themselves were surprised at the scale of the work being done. The head of the "Red Chapel" H. Schulze-Boysen (Fig. 2) was shot, like many members of the organization.

Rice. 2. H. Schulze-Boysen ()

The Resistance Movement reached a particular scope in France. The Free French Committee, led by General de Gaulle, led against the Nazis and collaborators(those who made a deal to cooperate with the enemy) a real war. Throughout France, armed formations operated, arranging military and sabotage operations. When the Anglo-American army landed in Normandy in the summer of 1944 and opened the "Second Front", de Gaulle led his army to help the Allies and liberated Paris with their joint efforts.

The situation in Poland and Yugoslavia was rather complex and contradictory. Two opposing anti-fascist groups operated in these countries. In Poland, such organizations were "Army of Home" and "Army of the People". The first organization was created by the exile government of Poland and relied not only on the fight against the Nazis, but also against the Communists. Established in 1942 with the help of Moscow, the Army of the People (People's) was the conductor of Soviet policy in Poland and was considered a truly people's organization. Often there were skirmishes and conflicts between these two armies.

In Yugoslavia, there was, in fact, a similar situation. On the one hand, the Nazis were opposed by the so-called. "Chetniks"(from the Serbian word "four" - combat unit, military detachment) led by General Drazhe Mikhailovich, speaking from pro-monarchist positions, and on the other - partisan detachments of communist Josip Broz Tito, who took shape in the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. Chetniks and partisans not only fought with the enemy, but also fought among themselves. Despite this, and VIn Poland and Yugoslavia, in the end, pro-Soviet forces took over.

The resistance movement was truly massive. It was not only in the occupied countries of Europe, but also in the concentration camps of death. Underground anti-fascist organizations existed and operated in them. Many prisoners died while trying to raise an uprising in Buchenwalde, Dachau, Auschwitz etc., they were burned in crematorium ovens, gassed and starved (Fig. 3).

In total, by the summer of 1944, the total number of participants in the Resistance Movement in different countries numbered about 1.5 million people. It rightfully made its weighty contribution to the fight against fascism and to the common victory over the enemy.

Rice. 3. Uprising in the Sobibor death camp. Some contributors ()

1. Aleksashkina L.N. General history. XX - beginning of the XXI century. - M.: Mnemosyne, 2011.

2. Zagladin N.V. General history. XX century. Textbook for grade 11. - M.: Russian word, 2009.

3. Plenkov O.Yu., Andreevskaya T.P., Shevchenko S.V. General history. Grade 11 / Ed. Myasnikova V.S. - M., 2011.

1. Read Chapter 13 of the textbook by Aleksashkina L.N. General history. XX - the beginning of the XXI century and give answers to questions 1-4 on p. 153.

2. Why did Great Britain become the center and "headquarters" of the Resistance Movement?

3. How can one explain the confrontation between various military and political groups in Poland and Yugoslavia during World War II?

April 10 is the International Day of the Resistance Movement. The resistance movement during the Second World War was called the underground and insurrectionary struggle of the peoples of Europe against Nazi Germany and its allies. The most common forms of struggle against the occupiers were: anti-fascist agitation and propaganda, publication of underground literature; strikes, sabotage and sabotage in transport and at enterprises producing products for the occupiers; armed attacks to destroy traitors and representatives of the occupation administration; collection of intelligence data for the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition; partisan war. The highest form of the resistance movement was an armed uprising and popular (partisan) war, which covered entire regions and could lead to their liberation from the invaders (as in Belarus, Ukraine and Yugoslavia).

The only exceptions were Yugoslavia, Albania and Greece (not counting the Soviet Union), where the resistance took on a wide scope and popular character. However, this was due to the fact that the Balkan region does not quite fit into the Western (European) civilization, preserving the Orthodox and Slavic traditions, the cultural and civilizational type of the Byzantine Empire. In this respect, the countries of the Balkan Peninsula are closer to Russian civilization, especially Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. Although in modern times, Westernization has practically already won on the Balkan Peninsula.

Female partisan of the Italian resistance movement in the mountains of northern Italy

The leaders of the Third Reich considered themselves the heirs of this tradition. Austria was invaded bloodlessly in 1938. In accordance with the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland was annexed. In September 1939, Germany began hostilities, and by July 1940, it had actually united almost all of continental Europe under its rule. Finland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria became voluntary helpers of the Eternal Reich. Only the Balkan outskirts - Greece and Yugoslavia - were captured in April 1941.

Greek partisans and partisans in the ranks

At the same time, invading the boundaries of a European country, the Wehrmacht met resistance that could surprise with its indecision and weakness. This was especially surprising because the Wehrmacht was still in its infancy and reached a good level only in the spring of 1941. So, the invasion of Poland began on September 1, 1939, and after a few days serious resistance was broken. Already on September 17, the Polish military-political leadership fled the country, leaving the troops, who still continued to resist. Denmark hoisted the white flag on April 9, 1940 almost immediately. Within an hour after the start of the operation, the government and the king ordered the armed forces not to resist the German troops and capitulated. Norway, with the support of the allies (mainly the British), held out longer until the beginning of June 1940. The Netherlands capitulated during the first five days of the war - May 10-14, 1940. The Belgian campaign continued from May 10 to May 28, 1940. France fell almost instantly , especially if we recall the bloody and stubborn battles of the First World War: German troops began to seize the country on June 5, 1940, and on June 14 Paris capitulated. On June 22, an armistice was signed. And in the First World War, the German Empire tried in vain for four years to defeat France.

It is clear that the power of the Nazis, somewhere relatively soft, and somewhere hard, provoked resistance from various social forces and groups in European countries. Resistance to the Nazi regime also took place in Germany itself, in the most diverse social groups - from the descendants of the Prussian aristocracy, hereditary military to workers and communists. There were several assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler. However, this German Resistance was not the resistance of the whole country and the people as a whole. As in most other German-occupied countries. Danes, Norwegians, Dutch, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, French and other Europeans initially felt good in the "pan-European empire". Moreover, a significant part of the most passionate (active) part of the population supported Hitler, in particular, young people actively joined the SS troops.

Operation to identify partisans among local residents in Yugoslavia

Partisans of the 1st Proletarian Brigade of NOAU, armed with Czech light machine guns ZB vz. 26. The village of Zharkovo near Belgrade

Interesting information about the "pan-European army", which fought with the USSR. The national identity of all those who died on the Eastern Front is difficult or almost impossible to determine. However, the national composition of the servicemen who were captured by the Red Army during the war is known. Of the total number of 3.7 million prisoners, the bulk were Germans (including Austrians) - 2.5 million people, 766 thousand people belonged to the countries participating in the war (Hungarians, Romanians, Finns, etc.), but still 464 thousand people are French, Belgians, Czechs and representatives of other countries that have not officially fought with us.

The power of the Wehrmacht, which invaded the Soviet Union, was provided by millions of highly skilled workers throughout continental Europe. More than 10 million skilled workers from various European countries worked on the territory of the German Empire itself. For comparison: in the USSR-Russia in 1941 there were 49 million men 1890-1926. births (out of 196.7 million people in the population as a whole). Relying on the whole of Europe (more than 300 million people), Berlin was able to mobilize almost a quarter of all Germans for the war. In the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War, 17% of the population was called up (and not all of them were at the front), that is, every sixth, otherwise there would not be qualified men needed to work at industrial enterprises in the rear).

Soviet demolition partisans mine the railway in Belarus

Young and elderly partisans near a haystack in the Leningrad region

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