Imperial and national Those who are interested in post-colonial English literature and cinema are familiar with this plot situation: a certain family, immigrants from a former English colony, move to the British Isles. Life in the former metropolis

The creation of Slovakia was proclaimed, which remained formally an independent state, in fact, completely subordinate to the Third Reich.

The balance of forces of the parties

rebels

The rebel troops were divided into 6 tactical groups:

• 1st "Krivan" (Banska Bistrica, Garmanec) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Josef Tlach.
• 2nd "Fatra" (Brezno) under the command of Colonel Michal Shiritsa.
• 3rd "Gerlach" (Zvolen), under the command of Colonel Pavol Kun (since October 23, Colonel Mikulas Markus).
• 4th "Muranj" (Prievidza, Gandlova, Kremnica) under the command of Colonel Mikulas Markus (since October 23 Lieutenant Colonel Jan Malar).
• 5th "Dumbier" (Drazhkovce, Lyupcha) under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Emil Perko.
• 6th "Zobor" (Liptovska Osada) under the command of Colonel Jan Czernek.

In Banska Bystrica, the Kollar aviation group was stationed under the command of Major Josef Toth.

Nazis and their supporters

On August 31, 1944, SS Obergruppenführer and General of the SS troops Gottlob Berger was appointed to the post of head of the SS and police "Slovakia", he was tasked with crushing the uprising.

Initially, Berger had the following forces at his disposal:

On September 14, 1944, Berger was replaced by SS-Obergruppenführer, General of the SS and Police Troops Hermann Höfle ( Hermann Hofle), who commanded the SS division "Galicia".

The course of the uprising

The uprising began prematurely.

On August 23, 1944, the government of J. Tiso turned to Hitler with a request to provide military assistance to fight the partisans. In the following days, additional German units began to arrive in Slovakia, they were stationed in villages along the railways.

On September 25, 1944, the workers of the city of Zvolen built an armored train " Hurban", which came into the hands of the rebels.

On October 7, Divisional General Rudolf Viest was appointed commander-in-chief of the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia, General Jan Golián became his deputy.

Participation of foreign anti-fascists in the Slovak National Uprising

Representatives of more than 30 nationalities took part in the Slovak National Uprising. In addition to Czechs, Slovaks and citizens of Czechoslovakia of other nationalities, citizens of other states took part in the uprising: about 3 thousand Soviet citizens, more than 100 Yugoslavs, 70-100 Poles, 50 British and Americans, as well as Greeks, Belgians, Dutch, Italians and Austrians.

Help for the uprising from the USSR

On July 25, 1944, even before the start of the uprising, the first Czechoslovak-Soviet organizing partisan group under the command of a Soviet officer P. A. Velichko was parachuted into Central Slovakia; On August 9, 1944, Yegorov's group arrived at its base, on August 16, 1944 - Volyansky's group, on August 28 - Paula and Ushyak's groups.

Small organizing groups under the command of Soviet officers Snezhinsky, Martynov and Ivanov were transferred to Eastern Slovakia, who established contacts with the partisans operating here and prepared a landing site for receiving Soviet aircraft with weapons and ammunition.

Soviet partisan detachments began to move into the territory of Czechoslovakia from the territory of Western Ukraine and Poland.

• arms shipments have begun.

culture

The Slovak national uprising became a landmark event in the history of Slovakia, was the subject of a number of films and books, including the film epic "Insurgent History" (1985), which was also shown on Soviet television in September 1986.

Notes

See also

Literature and sources

• M. Gisko. Slovak popular uprising. Bratislava, 1954.
• J. Dolezal. Slavne povstani. Prague, 1959.
• cand. ist. n., Major General A. Grylev, Colonel I. Vyrodov. Loyalty to international duty (about the assistance of the USSR to the Slovak national uprising) // "Military History Journal", No. 10, October 1968. pp. 44-57
• G. Husak. Testimony of the Slovak National Uprising. M., 1969
• Jan Chierny. Slovak national uprising and international relations. Bratislava, 1974
• Pavel Bosak. Z bojových operácii on the fronte SNP. Bratislava, Nakladateľstvo Pravda, 1979. - 288 s.
• IN AND. Klokov. Partisans of the Slovak Mountains (on the Slovak National Uprising). Kyiv, Politizdat of Ukraine, 1986. - 271 pages, illustrations.
• This is how brotherhood was born: memoirs of participants in the Slovak National Uprising / comp. V.A. Kvitinsky, A.P. Svyatogorov. Kyiv, Politizdat of Ukraine, 1990. - 412 pages, illustrations.

Links

The fascist German leadership attached particular importance to holding the occupied territories of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the Balkan countries, which was explained by both economic and military-strategic reasons.

After the loss of Romanian oil, Germany was in dire need of in obtaining fuel from Hungary, as well as other strategic raw materials from the Balkans. Czechoslovakia was a supplier of many types of weapons and military equipment for the Wehrmacht. The loss of the Balkans threatened to cut off Army Group E in Greece and exposed the southern strategic flank of the German troops. This allowed the Soviet Armed Forces to deliver coordinated strikes against the Wehrmacht from two directions - from the east and south.

By the end of September 1944, the Nazi command concentrated large forces in Slovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. On the front from the Dukla (Dukelsky) pass in the Carpathians to the Bulgarian-Greek border with a length of over 1500 km, part of the forces of the Northern Ukraine Army Group (since September 23 - Army Group A), the troops of the Southern Ukraine Army Group (since 23 September - Army Group "South"), Army Groups "F" and "E". They were supported by the 4th Air Fleet. Using the mountainous nature of the theater of operations, the Nazis created strong lines of defense.

As a result of the defeat of a large Nazi group in the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the liberation of Romania and the liberation campaign of Soviet troops in Bulgaria, as well as thanks to the victorious uprisings in these countries, the military-strategic and political situation in the Balkans changed radically ", In September, the troops: 2 th and 3rd Ukrainian fronts were located near the borders of Yugoslavia and Hungary. The purpose of the further offensive of the Soviet troops was to defeat the right wing of Army Group A and the troops of Army Group F, cut off the escape routes of Army Group E, withdraw Hungary, Germany's last ally in Europe, from the war, and provide assistance to the peoples of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia in liberation from the Nazi invaders and go directly to the borders of the Reich from the south. The solution of these tasks was entrusted to the troops of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts. The operations also involved Czechoslovak, Romanian, Bulgarian troops, who were operationally subordinate to the Soviet command, and the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. The ground forces were supported by the 2nd, 8th, 5th and 17th air armies, they were assisted by the Danube military flotilla.

The Soviet troops had to break into the heavily fortified defenses of the Nazi troops, overcome difficult mountain passes, and cross numerous rivers. This required new enormous efforts from them, outstanding military skills, perseverance and perseverance in the performance of combat missions.

The struggle for the liberation of Czechoslovakia began with the East Carpathian operation undertaken by the Soviet troops in September 1944 with the aim of providing direct assistance to the Slovak rebels.

By the middle of 1944, a revolutionary situation had developed in Slovakia. The outstanding victories of the Soviet Armed Forces over the Nazi invaders had a decisive influence on this process. In the distant roar of cannonade, growing from the east, the Slovak people felt the approach of the long-awaited hour of liberation from the oppression of Hitlerism and internal reaction. Under the leadership of the Communist Party, he sought to unite his liberation struggle with the efforts of the Soviet Army, which came close to the borders of Czechoslovakia.

The working people of Slovakia became more and more active against national and social oppression. The entry of Soviet troops to the borders of Czechoslovakia, shoulder to shoulder with which the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps (CHAK), formed in the USSR, fought, caused a powerful upsurge in the national liberation struggle in the country. At this time, two main directions of the liberation movement were most clearly manifested. One of them reflected the aspirations of the masses, led by the Communist Party and persistently advocating the expansion of the nationwide armed struggle and the preparation of a nationwide uprising against the dominance of the Nazis and the domination of Slovak clerical fascism. Another direction was determined by the political goals of the leaders of the bourgeois groups who pursued the policy of the London government in exile and President E. Beneš. They sought to limit the liberation struggle to a mere military coup that would put representatives of the liberal bourgeoisie in power. Which of these directions prevailed, depended not only on the scale and nature of the resistance movement, but also on the post-war development of the country.

The Slovak working people were determined to overthrow the clerical-fascist regime of Tiso. The Communist Party of Slovakia, being an integral part of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, managed to intensify the activities of local national committees, which actually performed the functions of underground organs of people's power.

An important evidence of the growing crisis of the Tiso regime was the change in mood in the Slovak army. Many soldiers not only refused to fight against the partisans, but entire units went over to their side. According to G. Husak, the Slovak army began to gradually turn from an instrument of the fascist regime into an instrument of the national liberation struggle (364) . The military center set up by the emigrant government for the preparation of the uprising was headed by the head of the headquarters of the command of the rear troops, located in the city of Banska Bystrica, Lieutenant Colonel J. Golian.

However, an acute shortage of experienced partisan leaders and weapons held back the development of mass armed struggle. The foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, who was in Moscow, turned to the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) for help. On June 17, 1944, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, at the direction of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, adopted a resolution “On rendering assistance to the Czechoslovak Communist Party in organizing a partisan movement on the territory of Czechoslovakia.” In accordance with this decision, the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement (UShPD) was instructed to form and send organizing partisan groups to the territory of Transcarpathian Ukraine and Slovakia. The foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia got the opportunity to have its representative at the UShPD, and the training of Czechoslovak partisans began in the special school of the USHPD (365).

In the summer of 1944, the first organizing groups were formed from Czechs and Slovaks and transferred to Slovakia, headed by such experienced partisan leaders as P. A. Velichko, A. S. Egorov, E. P. Volyansky and others.

During August 1944, from among specially trained soldiers and officers of the Czechoslovak corps and Soviet partisans, 20 more such groups with a total number of 300 people (366) were created and transferred to Czechoslovak territory.

In the summer, a number of partisan detachments and formations crossed from the territory of Poland and Transcarpathian Ukraine to Czechoslovakia. They quickly replenished with local patriots and began active operations. From mid-July to the end of August, in Eastern Slovakia alone, the partisans carried out about 60 combat actions. Partisan detachments in Slovakia usually had a multinational composition. Not only Slovaks and Czechs fought in their ranks, but also Russians, French, Poles, Bulgarians, Serbs, and representatives of other nations.

In an attempt to prevent the growing outburst of popular indignation and to suppress the partisan movement, the Tisovo government on August 12 declared Slovakia under martial law. However, this did not help the clerical-fascist rulers.” Slovak patriots were actively preparing for a decisive battle.

The military center under the Slovak National Council (SNC), which included anti-fascist army officers, presented President Beneš with a plan for a military coup. This plan provoked fundamental remarks from the Communist Party, since it provided for the participation in the speech against the existing regime of only army units, which then also alone, without the people, were to complete the liberation of Slovakia together with the advancing Soviet troops. Therefore, representatives of the Communist Party in the SNA achieved the introduction of significant changes and additions to the plan, primarily provisions on the deployment of an armed uprising, the involvement of the masses of the people, and above all partisans, on close coordination of the actions of the organizers of the uprising with the plans and plans of the Soviet Supreme High Command (367) .

By decision of the SNA, in early August, one of the leaders of the SNA, a member of the underground leadership of the KPS, K. ​​Schmidke, and a member of the SNA, Lieutenant Colonel M. Ferienchik, arrived in Moscow. K. Gottwald and other members of the Foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia approved the activities of the representatives of the Communist Party in the SNS and the plan of armed uprising developed taking into account their proposals. The directive of the Foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia of August 23 emphasized that it would be advisable to start the uprising when the Soviet Army entered the territory of Slovakia, or after the Nazis undertook an open occupation of the country.

At this time, the liberation struggle in Slovakia acquired a large scale. By mid-August, the partisans already controlled entire areas over a vast territory: between the Western Carpathians - in the north and Transcarpathian Ukraine - in the east, the border with Hungary - in the south and the Nitra River - in the west. In only one decade - from 20 to 29 August - they carried out more battles in Central Slovakia than in the entire previous period of the national liberation struggle. Despite exceptional difficulties, their interaction with the patriots operating in the occupied Czech lands intensified.

In many cities, including Martin, Brezno, Zvolen, the partisans, with the support of the workers and soldiers who had gone over to their side, disarmed the small garrisons of the Tisovo troops and the gendarmerie, and destroyed the Gestapo agents. In settlements, the power of the national committees of the SNA was established. Local party organizations and national committees, receiving specific instructions from members of the leadership of the CPS and the Presidium of the SNA, acted extremely actively in those days, did a lot of work to strengthen the popular struggle.

The situation in Slovakia was heating up. Losing influence in the army every day and not having sufficient forces to suppress the popular struggle, Tiso twice (August 23 and 25) urged the leadership of fascist Germany with a proposal to send troops to Slovakia, although it had already long decided to occupy it at the right moment. . Meanwhile, at that time, a successful offensive of the Soviet Army was launched along the entire Soviet-German front, which marked the beginning of the liberation of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe; the uprising in Warsaw continued; the Antonescu regime in Romania was overthrown; Allied troops, having opened a second front in Europe, advanced across France, the Nazi garrison of Paris capitulated to the French patriots. In this extremely unfavorable political and military-strategic situation for Germany, it was important for Hitler to prevent a popular explosion at all costs in the very center of Europe - in Czechoslovakia. On August 29, the Slovak Minister of Defense, in his speech on the radio, said that the government had invited German troops to restore “order” in the country. On the same day, Nazi punishers invaded Slovakia from all sides. This aroused the indignation of the Slovak people and significantly accelerated the start of the uprising.

On August 29, Slovak soldiers and partisans offered armed resistance to the Nazi troops advancing on the city of Zilina. The Slovak national uprising acquired a nationwide character.

In order to direct disparate speeches into a single channel, the leading bodies of the uprising were concentrated in Banska Bystrica - the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, the Slovak National Council and the newly created Military Council. To repulse the invaders, Soviet and Slovak partisans and Slovak troops who had gone over to the side of the insurgents came to the border. In the very first battles, they showed perseverance and the will to win. Partisan detachments and rebel units of the Slovak army occupied the important airfield "Three Oaks", located near the city of Zvolen.

The military council, in accordance with a preliminary agreement with the Soviet command, set the task for the East Slovak corps to strike at the German troops from the rear, capture and hold the Lupkovsky and Dukla passes through the Carpathians in order to facilitate the exit of Soviet troops to Slovakia. However, as a result of the betrayal of the corps commander, General A. Malar, and the irresponsible behavior of his deputy, Colonel V. Talsky, who was appointed commander of the rebel forces in Eastern Slovakia, the Nazis disarmed the corps troops from August 31 to September 4. Only a few of his units, having retained their weapons, were able to connect with the partisans. Thus, at the very beginning of the action, the rebels lost the armed forces, on which they seriously counted.

Nevertheless, the uprising engulfed almost all of Central and part of Eastern Slovakia. The liberated territory consisted of more than 30 administrative districts with a total area of ​​over 20 thousand square meters. km with a population of 1.7 million people (368). On September 1, the Slovak National Council took over the supreme power here. K. Schmidke (from the CPS) and V. Schrobar (from groups of bourgeois leaders) became chairmen of the Presidium of the Soviet. G. Husak, a member of the Presidium of the SNA, played a prominent role in it.

The Slovak National Council became the body directing the further development of the revolutionary process in Slovakia. In a declaration of September 1, the SNA defined the goals of the uprising and the principles for building a people's democratic state. He spoke in favor of the restoration of a single Czechoslovak state, which would guarantee complete equality of the two fraternal peoples - Czechs and Slovaks. During its existence, the SNA adopted a number of other important decrees. Some of them reflected fundamental economic and social problems.

The most influential, leading political force in the liberated part of Slovakia was the Communist Party. It has grown in numbers, especially at the expense of young people. The newspaper Pravda, the central organ of the CPS, was published regularly. In its first post-legalization document, in the appeal “To the Workers, Peasants and Laboring Intelligentsia”, published on September 2, the Communist Party called on the working people to unite to consolidate and deepen the victory (369) . At the same time, the Soviet command made a decision on the additional allocation of weapons and ammunition for the rebels (370) .

The CPS persistently sought to strengthen the unity of the working class and its parties. On her initiative, on September 17, a uniting congress of the communist and social democratic parties was held in Banska Bystrica, at which they merged into the Communist Party of Slovakia, based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism. This played an important role in consolidating the forces of the working people. On October 15, a trade union conference (371) was held in the industrial center of Slovakia, Podbrezova.

The underground leadership of the CPS maintained contact with the Foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The arrival from Moscow to Slovakia at the end of September of representatives of the Foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia J. Shverma and M. Chulen was important for the further revitalization of the party’s activities and increasing its role in leading the uprising. During this period, Beneš and the government in exile sought more and more insistently to restrict the activities of the SNA, to increase the influence of the bourgeois parties on the masses, and to restore the pre-war regime. For this purpose, General R. Viest, who was appointed commander of the armed forces of the uprising instead of J. Goliana, Minister F. Nemets, a number of deputies of the state council and other political figures of pre-Munich Czechoslovakia, flew to Banska Bystrica. Under the pretext of establishing contact with the rebels and providing them with assistance, on September 17, British and American military missions arrived in Slovakia.

Under these conditions, one of the most difficult problems that the leadership of the SNA had to deal with was the organization of armed defense of the gains achieved and the creation of a truly people's army. The task was complicated not only by the fact that it had to be solved while being in a dense ring of Nazi troops, but also by the sabotage of bourgeois leaders who adhered to their old concept of an apex coup without involving the broad masses of the people.

During the uprising, the following balance of forces developed. At the end of August, 18,000 soldiers and officers immediately went over to the side of the rebels from the disintegrated Tisovo 42,000 rear army. The mobilization carried out in early September and material assistance received from the USSR made it possible to increase the personnel of the insurgent army to 47 thousand people. It was armed with 40 thousand rifles, 1500 light and 200 heavy machine guns, 200 machine guns, 160 guns and mortars, 12 tanks, 20 aircraft. Partisan detachments in Slovakia numbered 17 thousand people (372). The Nazis had up to 30 thousand soldiers and officers. In the second half of September, the fascist German command transferred tanks, planes and military units withdrawn from the front here.

Thus, in terms of numbers, the rebel forces significantly outnumbered the enemy. However, a significant part of the soldiers and officers of the rebel army was in the rear in various training and service units (373) . The Defense Council of Slovakia, created on September 12, headed by J. Golián, and later with Viest, did not provide qualified leadership in the combat operations of the rebel troops, insufficiently coordinated them with the plans and ideas of the General Staff of the partisan movement, which was headed by Ko Schmidke.

When the uprising began, a spokesman for the German Foreign Office boasted that the "disturbances" in Slovakia could be quelled by "ordinary police action." Soon, the fascist German command was forced to throw significant forces against the rebels, which by mid-September intensified their operations. Despite the heroic resistance of Soviet and Czechoslovak partisans and soldiers of the insurgent Slovak army, the Nazi units managed to capture most of the liberated territory. By the end of September, a territory equal to 5.5 thousand square meters remained under the authority of the SNA. km. However, the Nazis could not advance further. There was a lull on the front of the insurgent army that lasted almost a month. The parties pulled up fresh forces and prepared for new battles.

The Soviet Union comprehensively supported the Slovak people in their heroic struggle. On the night of September 5, after the appeal of K. Gottwald and the envoy of the Czechoslovak Republic to the USSR Z. Firlinger to the Soviet government with a request to provide immediate military assistance to the Slovak uprising, the first planes with weapons and ammunition landed at the Three Oaks airfield. Subsequently, dozens of Soviet aircraft arrived here almost every night. During the uprising, only from the central base of the People's Commissariat of Defense, the pilots delivered to Slovakia 2050 rifles, 1702 machine guns, 461 machine guns, more than a hundred anti-tank rifles and other weapons (374). From Slovakia, the planes took out seriously wounded rebels to the hospitals of the Soviet Army.

On September 17, the 1st Czechoslovak separate fighter aviation regiment, consisting of 20 La-5 aircraft, formed and trained in the USSR, was relocated to the liberated territory of Slovakia. The very next day, the pilots of the regiment attacked the enemy airfield in Piestany and inflicted significant damage on it (375). Soon, the transfer to Slovakia of the 2nd Czechoslovak airborne brigade, formed on the territory of the Soviet Union, began.

In September, at the request of the Foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and personally K. Gottwald, the Soviet command sent a new group of experienced partisan commanders to Slovakia, headed by Colonel A. N. Asmolov, whom the SNS soon appointed chief of the General Staff of the partisan movement. Thanks to the help of Soviet officers, the work of headquarters, the combat and political training of the personnel of the units improved, and the interaction between the insurgent army and partisans was improved.

During the armed uprising, the Soviet command continued to increase assistance in organizing the partisan struggle. By September 26, 15 detachments with a total number of 215 people and more than 30 tons of cargo arrived here by plane. In addition, 12 USHPD officers were sent to Slovakia to strengthen the leadership of the partisan movement.

Partisan struggle intensified in the “protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”. By this time, 21 partisan brigades and 13 separate detachments were operating in Czechoslovakia.

When an armed uprising was unfolding in the center of Slovakia, Soviet troops fought tense offensive battles on the sector of the front adjacent to Czechoslovakia. They lasted two and a half months and diverted significant enemy forces. “Without the all-round assistance of the Soviet Union - military, material, political and moral assistance,” G. Husak emphasizes, “the insurgent people of Slovakia could not have waged a hard open struggle against the superior forces of the Nazi divisions for two months” (376) . But at that time it was not possible to change the worsening situation in the region of the uprising.

After the ultimatum of the Nazis “to stop resistance” was rejected on October 19, the German troops launched an offensive from several directions. The rebels, with difficulty restraining their onslaught, were forced to retreat. On October 24, the cities of Brezno and Zvolen fell, and on October 27, the Nazis entered the center of the uprising - Banska Bystrica (377). However, the loss of the liberated territory did not mean the capitulation of the patriots and the cessation of the armed struggle against the Nazi invaders and the Tiso regime. The main insurgent forces, under the cover of special units of the army and partisans of the Yegorov brigade, retreated to the mountains. The rest of the partisan brigades went to the occupied territory for operations behind enemy lines. Many soldiers went home and were taken prisoner by fascist punishers.

The Communist Party of Slovakia, the national committees and the SNS went underground in order to continue the struggle for the freedom of the Czechoslovak people in the new situation with the fraternal assistance of the USSR. Some of the members of the leadership of the KPS and the SNS were airlifted to the liberated territory of Transcarpathian Ukraine, others went to the mountains to lead the fight behind enemy lines. On November 10, during one of the transitions in the mountains, the national hero of Czechoslovakia, a prominent figure in the Communist Party J. Shverma, died.

Having suppressed the uprising, the Nazis and their accomplices flooded Slovakia with blood. They extended to the Slovak territory the occupation regime previously introduced in the "protectorate of the Czech Republic and Moravia" they had created. The Nazis executed many hundreds of rebels, about 30 thousand people were imprisoned in concentration camps. But the struggle against the Nazis continued. Soviet partisans and Slovak patriots who retreated to the mountains fought against fascist punishers, rendered all possible assistance to the troops of the Soviet Army who entered Slovakia.

The failure of the Slovak National Uprising is explained by a number of reasons, and above all by the fact that the fascist German command sent large forces to suppress it. The rebels failed to mobilize the entire population to fight the enemy. They did not firmly establish revolutionary order in the liberated territory. At the beginning of the uprising, effective coordination between the SNA and the Soviet command was not established. During the fighting, a centralized leadership of all the armed forces of the rebels was never established. The command staff of the rebel army did not have sufficient combat experience. The Slovak communists did not pay due attention to work in the army, as G. Husak pointed out in a report sent to K. Gottwald in February 1945 (378) . The re-education of military personnel, especially officers, who until recently were allies of the Wehrmacht, proceeded extremely slowly. The military leaders of the rebels at the beginning of the uprising adhered to a defensive strategy (in the Zvolen, Banska Bystrica, Brezno triangle) and did not seek to expand the liberated territory as much as possible. The rebel army was unable to capture the passes through the Carpathians and provide passages through them for the Soviet troops, who broke into the deep enemy defenses.

One of the important reasons for the failure of the rebels was the position and actions of the London government in exile and President Beneš, who at first hampered the preparation of the uprising, and then, intervening in its leadership, sought to prevent it from turning into a popular action to solve not only national, but also social problems.

Despite the failure, the uprising occupies a prominent place in the history of the Slovak and Czech peoples. It was the beginning of a national and democratic revolution. The rebellious people showed that they rejected the pre-Munich bourgeois state system, and demonstrated their determination to forever unite their fate with the fraternal Czech people in a single Czechoslovak state, created on the principles of equality of nations and oriented towards fraternal friendship with the Soviet Union (379).

By its nature, the uprising was a nationwide armed uprising with the aim of expelling the Nazi occupiers, overthrowing the clerical-fascist regime, and establishing the power of the working people. Its driving force was the workers, peasants and soldiers. They were supported by some circles of the national bourgeoisie, dissatisfied with the dominance of the German monopolies.

The Slovak uprising had a deeply international character. This was expressed in the orientation of the Slovak patriots towards the further strengthening of friendship with the USSR and in the participation in it of representatives of more than 20 nationalities. In the ranks of the Slovak rebels, 2,000 Czechs fought against a common enemy. The blood shed together in the fight against the Nazis further strengthened the friendship between the two fraternal peoples of Czechoslovakia.

The most influential and militant political force, which from the very beginning of the uprising consistently and firmly led the Slovak patriots in their struggle for the freedom and independence of their homeland, was the Communist Party of Slovakia - the fighting detachment of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Comprehensive assistance in preparing and during the uprising was provided to the rebels by the Foreign leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and personally by K. Gottwald.

“For the destinies of the peoples of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak national uprising was of historical significance,” was emphasized in the greetings of the leaders of the CPSU and the Soviet government to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the government of Czechoslovakia and the fraternal Czechoslovak people in August 1974. “Coming out with arms against the Nazi invaders and their servants, the rebel the people raised the banner of struggle for a united, truly democratic Czechoslovak Republic. On the liberated territory, organs of people's power arose, which became the prototype of the people's democratic system of post-war Czechoslovakia” (380) .

In the national liberation struggle, especially in the armed uprising, the leading role of the working class, headed by the Communist Party, became stronger.

The uprising was also of great military importance. It led to the collapse of the clerical-fascist Slovak army. Courageous Slovak patriots, together with Soviet partisans, fought for a long time against significant enemy forces and disabled more than 6.5 thousand km of communications important to the Nazis for two months. They also thwarted the plans of the occupiers to turn Slovakia into a bastion of their defense and thus assisted the Soviet troops.

During the uprising, enemy communications were disrupted, and eight of his divisions were pinned down in Slovakia. The invaders, according to incomplete data, lost 10350 people killed, 100 guns and mortars, 55 aircraft, 2 armored trains, 30 armored cars and 1000 vehicles (381).

The entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia and the development of partisan struggle in Slovakia also found a warm response among patriots in the Czech regions. The most active political force in the Czech Resistance movement in the autumn of 1944 was still the underground organizations of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. The defeat by the Gestapo of the third illegal leadership of the party greatly complicated the anti-fascist activities of the party organizations. She revived again after in December 1944. the fourth central leadership of the HRC was created (382) . The Resistance Movement managed to withstand the blows of the invaders and again consolidate its ranks.

In areas where partisans were active, acts of sabotage on communications and armed clashes with the Nazis became more frequent, anti-fascist leaflets were published, and sabotage at enterprises spread. The leader among the resistance groups in the Czech regions was the Avangard group, which consisted mainly of young people.

Since the autumn of 1944, the Soviet command had the opportunity to increase assistance to the partisans in the Czech lands. Several landing groups of Czech and Soviet partisans, led by M. Ya. Savelyev, P. V. Fedorov, I. A. Labunsky and others, were thrown here. The first large formation of partisans that penetrated from Slovakia to Moravia at the end of September was a brigade under the command of J. Ushjak.

The HRC organizations in Bohemia and Moravia intensified their work on the creation of new underground national committees and prepared the ground for the formation of the central body of the Czech resistance movement - the Czech National Council.

The intensification of the anti-fascist struggle throughout the territory of Czechoslovakia and the offensive operations of the Soviet Armed Forces brought nearer the long-awaited day of the liberation of the peoples of this country from the German fascist yoke.

In November of the same year, she was forced to return part of her southern territories to the Kingdom of Hungary.

Territorial losses, the apparently impending collapse of Czechoslovakia through the policy of Nazi Germany aimed at annexing Czech lands, as well as the threat of a complete division of the territory of Slovakia between Hungary and Poland, contributed to the consolidation of Slovak political forces. Such consolidation ensured the adoption by the Slovak parliament on March 14, 1939 of a decision previously agreed with the German Führer Adolf Hitler on declaring the independence of Slovakia.

The civil democratic resistance coordinated with the Czechoslovak government-in-exile, headed by former Czechoslovak President Eduard Beneš. At the same time, the activities of the communist resistance were coordinated with the leadership of the USSR. Therefore, decisive for the consolidation of the efforts of the anti-fascist underground in Slovakia was the conclusion of a 1943 agreement between Eduard Benes and representatives of the USSR, which, in particular, provided for joint actions to liberate Slovakia from the pro-German regime with the subsequent restoration of Czechoslovakia. The logical continuation of these agreements was the signing in December of the same 1943 by representatives of all the main opposition political forces in Slovakia of the so-called christmas agreement, which created the Slovak National Council (SNS) - the single governing body of the resistance movement in the country. The purpose of the activities of the SNA was the organization of a nationwide uprising and the leadership of such an uprising.

The key to the future uprising was the addition of representatives of the Slovak army to the resistance forces. At the initial stages of the existence of a formally independent Slovak state, army circles were distinguished by a high degree of loyalty to the ruling regime. Thanks to military-technical assistance from the Third Reich, the level of support for the Slovak army increased significantly compared to the period of Czechoslovakia, and the creation of an independent army opened up significant prospects for promotion for Slovak officers. Therefore, oppositional moods in the army began to develop only in 1943-44, after a series of military failures of the allies of Slovakia on the Eastern Front and in Italy. In addition, the morale of the Slovak military was significantly undermined by the actual loss of combat-ready units of the national army - the First Division - in the cordon during the Battle of Stalingrad. Finally, pockets of resistance forces began to appear among the soldiers and officers of the Slovak army, one of the most powerful of which formed around the chief of staff of the Rapid Division, Lieutenant Colonel Jan Goliana, who in the spring of 1944 was appointed by the SNA to be responsible for preparing a nationwide uprising.

3. The course of the uprising

3.1. Training

The center of preparation for an armed nationwide uprising was the city of Banska Bystrica, where the command of the Slovak Land Forces was located, the chief of staff of which, from the beginning of 1944, was the military leader of the future uprising, Jan Golián. However, direct preparatory work was carried out in all parts of the country - the command structure of the resistance forces was built, underground stockpiles of weapons, ammunition, medicines and food were created. To finance the needs of the future uprising, with the assistance of officials who supported the resistance movement, from Bratislava to the central regions of the country, should become the center of the uprising, a significant part of the funds was transferred from the state reserve of Slovakia.

One of the important elements of the military preparation for the uprising was the transfer to Pryasov, in the eastern part of Slovakia, of two divisions of the Slovak army, which were called the East Slovak Corps. These divisions were tasked with defending the Dukelsky Pass, the main line of the Red Army's advance into Slovakia. However, the leadership of the underground Slovak People's Rada expected that when the Soviet troops approached, these divisions would start a nationwide uprising, opposing the Wehrmacht temples together with the advancing units of the Red Army.

3.2. The beginning of the uprising

Situation in the early days of the Slovak National Uprising

In August 1944, units of the Red Army were already in the area of ​​the Polish city of Korosno, which is 40 kilometers from the Slovak border. At the same time, partisan formations became more active in Eastern Slovakia, the total number of which by that time had already reached 12-14 thousand people. Under such conditions, the government of Josef Tiso on August 12, 1944 introduced a state of emergency in the country, and on August 23 it was decided to turn to Germany for military assistance. By that time, a partisan war was already in full swing in the country - only on August 25-26, partisan detachments captured the cities of Ružomberok, Poprad and a number of others.

However, the start date of the Slovak National Uprising is considered to be August 29, 1944, the day when units of the regular Slovak army opposed the German and loyal to the government of Tiso Slovak units. This was preceded by the introduction of German army and police units into the territory of Slovakia on August 28, which was announced on the radio by the country's Minister of Defense Ferdinand Chatlosh on the morning of August 29. The first armed battle of the uprising is considered to be an attempt by the Slovak garrison of Žilina under the command of Major Jozef Dobrovodsky to prevent the German units from passing through the city, which were sent to fight the partisans.

The German units, aimed at the occupation of Slovakia, attacked from different directions. The Slovak National Council addressed the citizens by radio with an appeal to join the uprising and provide armed resistance to the advance of the German troops. In the first days of the uprising, a significant part of the Slovak military units in Central Slovakia joined it, thousands of volunteers joined them. Under the control of the rebels turned out to be 20 thousand km? territories in the central part of the country, at the same time the command of the Slovak military units in the eastern and western lands was delaying the decision to join the uprising, and these units were mostly fought by the Germans.

The most for the insurgent forces was the loss of forty thousand East Slovak corps, located in Presov. The commander of the corps, General Augustin Malarme, on whom the hopes of the SNA were pinned, considered the start of the uprising premature and doomed to failure without operational support from the Red Army. With the beginning of the uprising, he left for Bratislava, from where he turned to the Slovak troops with a request not to resist the German units. Malarme's deputy, Colonel Talsky, who was one of the organizers of the uprising at the planning stage, also retired from the leadership of the corps at a key moment and flew along with the corps air group to the territory controlled by the Red Army. There is no generally accepted point of view regarding the motives for Talskaya’s act, however, in any case, the corps forces did not wait for the directives regarding armed resistance to German units, its personnel were unarmed, some of the soldiers later joined the partisans, some went home, and some were sent Germans in concentration camps.

On September 1, 1944, the Slovak National Council announced the takeover of power in the country. The day before, the Minister of Defense of the government of Czechoslovakia in exile issued an order to create the 1st Czechoslovak army in Slovakia, which included all Slovak military units, as well as civilians who took part in the armed uprising.

3.3. fighting

Slovak anti-aircraft gunners who participated in the uprising.

A convoy of insurgent Slovak troops.

Immediately with the start of the Slovak National Uprising, official representatives of Czechoslovakia in Moscow turned to the Soviet government with a request for military assistance to the Slovak rebels. On the night of September 2, 1944, a meeting of the USSR State Defense Committee was held, at which a decision was made to provide such assistance. And already on September 8, the East Carpathian operation of the Red Army began, within the framework of which, in particular, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal I.S. Konev launched an offensive in the direction of Slovakia through the Dukel Pass. However, the advance of the Soviet troops was slow - during the first month of the operation, units of the Red Army only managed to reach the Slovak border, so until the final suppression of the uprising, the rebel units resisted the German troops without military assistance from outside.

The period of hostilities during the uprising is conditionally divided into three stages. At first, from the end of August to September 9, 1944, the resistance of the Slovak offensive units of the German military units was unorganized and ineffective, the territories controlled by the rebels were rapidly decreasing, and the retreating Slovaks left equipment and ammunition to the enemy.

In the second phase of the uprising, from September 10 to October 18, the German offensive slowed down as the rebel troops managed to regroup and began to operate in a more organized and coordinated manner. Instead of a rather general division into two defense zones rebel forces were reorganized into 6 units, called tactical groups. On September 18, the Slovak National Council held the second stage of mobilization, bringing the total number of the rebel army to 60,000 by the end of the month, not counting the partisan units, whose strength is estimated at another 18,000. On October 6, from Moscow, where he was part of the Czechoslovak delegation, a member of the Czechoslovak government in exile, General Rudolf Viest, arrived in Banska Bystrica, replacing Brigadier General Jan Golián as commander of the armed forces of the rebels.

The decisive and fatal stage for the uprising began on October 18, 1944 with a large-scale offensive from the territory of Hungary by German troops, the overall leadership of which, instead of Obergruppenführer Gottlob Berger, was taken over by Obergruppenführer Hermann Hoeffl. This massive attack from a new direction for the rebels allowed the Germans to quickly reach the center of the uprising - Banska Bystrica, the loss of which on October 27 marked the actual end of resistance in the form of regular hostilities. On the same night, the rebel commander Rudolf Wiest ordered the remnants of his army to switch to guerrilla warfare, which continued until the complete liberation of the territory of Slovakia by the Red Army in the spring of 1945.

On October 30, 1944, a military parade was held in Banska Bystrica to mark the suppression of the uprising, during which Slovak President Josef Tiso and General Hoeffl presented awards to German soldiers and officers who distinguished themselves in this operation.

4. Consequences

The Slovak national uprising did not achieve its main goal - the removal from power of the pro-Nazi regime of Josef Tiso and the corresponding withdrawal of the country from among the military allies of the Third Reich. Although, after the uprising, the Slovak army de facto ceased to exist loyal to the ruling regime and the paramilitary police of the Glinka Guard remained the only combat-ready unit of the country's armed forces, formally the Slovak Republic remained a belligerent, and the further arrival of the Red Army on its territory was considered as a seizure of enemy territory. In addition, the Slovak Republic largely lost even the formal signs of independence, its lands fell under the direct control of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS. German punitive Einsatzgruppen began to actively operate on the territory of the country, carrying out massacres of civilians, suspected of assisting rebels and partisans.

Organized resistance on the territory of the country completely turned into a partisan war, and the activities of partisan detachments and formations were completely controlled by the USSR. Thousands of Slovak soldiers and officers who participated in the uprising or were suspected of collaborating with the rebels were sent to concentration camps and killed. In particular, the military leaders of the uprising, Jan Golián and Rudolf Viest, were executed in the Flossenburg concentration camp.

From a military-strategic point of view, the Slovak National Uprising helped the Red Army to a certain extent in advancing to the west, since the existence of another battlefield in its own rear fettered up to 8 German divisions, which at that time were necessary to maintain the front in Romania, Hungary and Poland . In addition, the uprising directly deprived the reserves of the Wehrmacht of virtually the entire Slovak army, on which certain hopes of the German command were placed. During the entire period of the uprising, the transport infrastructure of Slovakia also remained inaccessible to German military needs, which was essential for the transfer of reserves, supplying the front, as well as the withdrawal of German troops from the Balkans, which was just beginning.

Politically, the uprising had several consequences. With the end of the Second World War approaching, the question of the post-war future of Czechoslovakia was raised. In general terms, it was predetermined by the existence of the government of Czechoslovakia in exile, was recognized by all members of the Anti-Hitler Coalition. However, the distribution of political forces in the future revived Czechoslovakia remained uncertain. In this context, the Slovak National Uprising, which was preceded by the consolidation of the anti-fascist forces of the country, contributed to the strengthening of the position of the communists, who became one of the largest powerful political forces in Czechoslovakia. This was also facilitated by the fact that with the suppression of the uprising organized resistance in Slovakia was actually completely concentrated in the partisan movement controlled by the communists. As a result, the coalition government of post-war Czechoslovakia had a strong communist component, which eventually initiated the 1948 coup, as a result of which the country joined the socialist camp.

5. Historical estimates

Monument to the Slovak National Uprising in Banska Bystrica

The Slovak national uprising, as a component of the armed struggle of the peoples of Europe against the Nazi regimes during the Second World War, is generally positively assessed by post-war historiography. The exception is individual representatives of radical Slovak nationalist circles, who tend to view the uprising as an armed rebellion inspired from outside against the first independent Slovak state in history.

The key differences are in the historical assessments of the uprising to its driving forces and reasons for failure. Conventionally, two historiographical traditions can be distinguished: "communist" and "bourgeois-democratic". The first of them was actively developed in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia during the period of Czechoslovakia, and continues to be popular in modern Russian-language materials on the subject of the Slovak National Uprising. The second is inherent in Western historical and political studies and is dominant in assessing the events of the uprising in modern Slovakia.

According to the "communist" view, the main driving force of the Slovak National Uprising was the Czechoslovak and Slovak communist organizations, which maintained close contact with the Red Army command and received from the Soviet Union everything necessary for the armed struggle. At the same time, special emphasis is placed on the effective operation of partisan detachments, partly transferred from the territory of the USSR, and partly were formed by Soviet commanders from prisoners of war and the local population directly on the territory of Slovakia. The failure of the uprising is associated primarily with the indecision of the Slovak high army command, oriented towards the "bourgeois" Czechoslovak government in exile, and in the decisive first days of the uprising could not ensure the transition of the combat-ready units of the Slovak army to the side of the rebels. In this regard, the East Slovak corps is most often mentioned, which was given a key place in providing armed support for the uprising, but whose commanders, General Malarme and Colonel Talsky, who were loyal to the Beresh government, did not give a timely order to join the rebels.

However, both historiographical traditions agree that the cooperation of the two camps as part of the Slovak resistance movement was not distinguished by coordination and coherence. Loyal to the Czechoslovak government in exile, the Slovak military and ideologically communist partisans had a different vision of the future of Slovakia, therefore, they often neglected joint tactical goals in order to achieve their own strategic goal.

On the other hand, other individual researchers of the division's activities note that during their stay in Slovakia, the Galicia divisionalists, on the contrary, built good relations with the local population and even defended it from the "Red partisans".

Notes

Sources

• I. V. Repin "Slovak national uprising - a prerequisite for the Red Army troops to carry out the East Carpathian operation" - www.nbuv.gov.ua/portal/soc_gum/vnv/2009_11/165-176.pdf - "Military Scientific Bulletin", 2009, No. 11, p.165-176
• Memorial site for the 60th anniversary of the Slovak People's Uprising - www.snp.sk (English)
• Website of the Museum of the Slovak People's Uprising - www.muzeumsnp.sk (English), (Slovak)
• Czechoslovak politics behind the scenes of the 1944 Slovak National Uprising - www.radio.cz/en/article/57534, Czech radio.(English)