From the first days of the loss of independence in most European countries, a struggle began against the Nazi occupation regime, which was called the Resistance Movement.

Already in the autumn of 1939, centers of anti-fascist resistance began to appear in Poland. Polish resistance was supported by the government of Poland, who was in exile in the UK, headed by V. Sikorsky. The Craiova Army played an important role in resisting the Nazi invaders.

An anti-fascist movement began in France as well. At the end of June 1940, the patriotic organization "Free France" was created in London, headed by Charles de Gaulle. In early July 1941, the forces of the French resistance movement united to form the National Front. In May 1943, the National Council of Resistance was formed, bringing together all the anti-fascist forces in France. In the spring of 1944, numerous organizations of French patriots united in the army of the French internal forces, the number of which reached 500 thousand people.

Anti-fascist resistance acquired the widest scope in Yugoslavia. Already in the autumn of 1941, there were about 70 thousand people in the detachments of the Yugoslav partisans. They liberated entire regions of the country from the enemy. In November 1942, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia was formed.

The resistance movement also unfolded in those countries where pro-German governments operated. Thus, partisan Garibaldian brigades operated in the north and in the center of Italy.

4. Preparing Germany for war with the USSR

The occupation of the countries of Western Europe allowed Germany to significantly strengthen its military and economic potential. At its disposal were the manufacturing enterprises of France, which before the war smelted 97% of iron and 94% of steel, mined 79% of coal and 100% of the country's iron ore. The Reichswerke Hermann Goering concern included in its system the metallurgical plants of Alsace-Lorraine and Luxembourg. The capture of the industry of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and also Poland increased the capacity of the metallurgical industry of the Reich by 13-15 million tons. For example, Belgium delivered 2.3 million tons of steel by 1941. The number of foreign workers and prisoners of war employed in German industry exceeded 1 million people compared to 0.5 million in the autumn of 1939. By the beginning of the war with the Soviet Union, Germany had accumulated significant reserves of non-ferrous metals: copper, zinc, lead, aluminum, etc. The extraction of oil was of great importance for the preparation of the war against the USSR. In addition to its own oil resources, Germany used oil from Romania, Austria, Hungary, Poland and France. The production of synthetic fuel has increased in the country. In 1941, Germany had 8 million tons of oil products. In addition, she seized 8.8 million tons of fuel from France, Belgium and Holland.

In August 1940, a new arms and ammunition production program was adopted. It provided for the acceleration of the production of medium tanks, anti-tank guns and other weapons. The main focus was on achieving superiority over the USSR in terms of the quality and effectiveness of weapons.

Having information about the Soviet advantage in tanks, the German command took care of providing its troops with anti-tank weapons.

RESISTANCE MOVEMENT, patriotic liberation democratic movement against fascist occupiers and regimes, as well as against collaborators in Europe during World War II 1939-45. It developed in the territories occupied by the aggressors and in the countries of the fascist bloc. The activities of the governments of the occupied countries, patriotic organizations and parties in exile also joined the Resistance Movement. The main goals of the Resistance Movement were the liberation of European countries from fascist enslavement, the restoration of national independence, the establishment of a democratic political system, and the implementation of progressive social transformations. Members of the Resistance Movement used a variety of forms and methods of struggle: failure to comply with the orders of the invaders, anti-fascist propaganda, assistance to persons persecuted by the Nazis, intelligence activities in favor of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, strikes, sabotage, sabotage, mass actions and demonstrations, partisan struggle (about partisan struggle, in including in the occupied territory of the USSR, see Partisan movement), armed uprisings. Various social groups and strata of the population participated in the Resistance Movement: workers, peasants, intelligentsia, clergy and bourgeoisie. The Resistance Movement also included prisoners of war, people forcibly driven to work in Germany, and prisoners of concentration camps. The USSR provided the Resistance Movement of many countries with a variety of direct assistance: training and transfer of specialists for the deployment of guerrilla warfare; supplying anti-fascist forces with means of agitation and propaganda; providing members of the Resistance Movement with weapons, ammunition, medicines; evacuation of the wounded to the Soviet rear, etc. Significant assistance to the Resistance Movement was provided by other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition.

The radical wing of the Resistance Movement was led by communist and workers' parties that created liberation organizations and armies that operated in Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, Poland, France, Belgium, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Italy. The communists considered the armed struggle against the invaders and collaborators as a way not only of national liberation, but also of the implementation of revolutionary changes in their countries. The moderate wing of the Resistance Movement, led by emigrant governments, bourgeois organizations and parties, fighting for the independence of their countries, sought to restore the pre-war order or establish a liberal democratic system. Influential bourgeois-patriotic organizations of the Resistance formed in France, the Netherlands, Norway and other countries. In Yugoslavia, France, Greece, Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and a number of other countries, anti-fascist fronts arose, uniting anti-fascist patriots of various persuasions. An important role in the consolidation of the anti-Hitler forces was played by the National Committee "Free Germany", the All-Slavic Committee, the Union of Polish Patriots, and others formed on the territory of the USSR. At the same time, internal political contradictions in the Resistance Movement led in a number of countries (Poland, Greece, etc.) to dramatic struggle between his factions, especially at the final stage of the 2nd World War.

The development of the Resistance Movement was directly influenced by the course of hostilities on the fronts of World War II, especially on the Soviet-German front after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR in June 1941. There are several stages in the development of the Resistance Movement. The period from September 1939 to June 1941 was for the Resistance Movement a stage of organizational and propaganda preparation for a mass struggle, the creation and strengthening of underground organizations, and the accumulation of forces. During this period, under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle, the Free French movement was formed, the French communists began an anti-fascist underground struggle. In Poland, the formation of the Resistance Movement at this stage took place under the leadership of the government in exile in London. June 1941 - the end of 1942 - a period of expansion and intensification of the struggle, the creation of large military organizations and people's liberation armies, the formation of national liberation fronts. In Yugoslavia in July 1941, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, armed uprisings began in Serbia and Montenegro, armed uprisings in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the autumn of 1941, Yugoslavia became a small "second front" in Europe for the countries of the fascist bloc. On November 26-27, 1942, the Anti-Fascist Council for the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia was formed. Established in January 1942, the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) organized partisan detachments, united in the Guard of Ludow. The PPR did not reach an agreement on joint action with the London government and its military organization, the Home Army. In Czechoslovakia, the first partisan groups were formed in the summer of 1942. In Bulgaria, on the initiative of the Communist Party in 1942, the Fatherland Front was created underground, uniting all anti-fascist forces and starting a partisan struggle. The partisan movement of the Albanian people was gaining strength. The most influential force in the Greek Resistance Movement was the Greek National Liberation Front (EAM), created in September 1941 on the initiative of the Communist Party of Greece. The partisan detachments were merged in December 1941 into the Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). The struggle against the invaders intensified in other European countries: France, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands. In 1941-42 there was a consolidation of the underground network of anti-fascist organizations in Italy. The end of 1942 - the spring of 1944 - a period of expansion of the social base of the Resistance Movement, mass protests, the deployment of a diverse in its forms and methods of struggle against the fascist invaders, the development of policy documents on political and socio-economic issues. The victories of the Red Army at Stalingrad and Kursk contributed to a sharp activation of the Resistance Movement. In France, Charles de Gaulle managed to enlist the support of most of the organizations of the internal Resistance. The French Committee of National Liberation was created and began to operate actively in June 1943, uniting 16 organizations and parties, including the French Communist Party. On the basis of partisan detachments, people's liberation armies were created in Yugoslavia, Albania, and Bulgaria. In Poland, the partisan war was waged by detachments of the Army of the People and the Home Army, the Warsaw Uprising of 1943 took place. In Romania, in June 1943, the Patriotic Anti-Hitler Front was founded. In Greece, Albania, Yugoslavia and Northern Italy, entire regions were liberated, where the authorities created by the patriots operated. From the spring - summer of 1944 until the liberation - a period of active mass struggle against the invaders and fascist regimes, armed uprisings and the participation of the Resistance Movement forces in the liberation of European countries from the fascist yoke. The entry of the Red Army into the countries of Eastern Europe and the opening of the Second Front in Western Europe as a result of the landing of the troops of the Western Allies in Normandy in early June 1944 created the prerequisites for a powerful upsurge in the anti-fascist struggle, which in a number of countries grew into nationwide armed uprisings (People's armed uprising 23.8. 1944 in Romania, the September People's Armed Uprising of 1944 in Bulgaria, the Slovak National Uprising of 1944, the People's Uprising of 1945 in the Czech lands). In Poland, after the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, raised on the initiative of the government in exile, who hoped to seize the political initiative, the leadership in the Resistance Movement finally passed to the Polish Committee of National Liberation, created by the PPR in July 1944, which took over the functions of the provisional government. In Hungary, under the conditions of the beginning of the liberation of the country by Soviet troops, on December 2, 1944, on the initiative of the Communist Party, the Hungarian National Independence Front was created, and on December 22, 1944, the Provisional National Assembly formed the Provisional National Government. In Yugoslavia, on November 29, 1943, the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia was created, which served as the Provisional Revolutionary Government, and on March 7, 1945, after the country was liberated by the Soviet and Yugoslav armed forces, the Provisional People's Government of Democratic Federative Yugoslavia. In Greece, the patriots took advantage of the favorable situation created by the rapid advance of the Red Army in the Balkans, and achieved the liberation of the entire territory of continental Greece by the end of October 1944. In France in the spring of 1944, the combat organizations of the Resistance united and created a single French internal force, which began an armed struggle against the German invaders. Its apogee was the victorious Parisian uprising of 1944. French patriots on their own liberated most of the territory of France. In Italy, in the summer of 1944, a united partisan army, the Corps of Freedom Volunteers, was created, which liberated vast areas in the north of the country. In April 1945, a general strike began there, which grew into an uprising, which ended in the actual liberation from the invaders of Northern and Central Italy even before the arrival of the Anglo-American troops (see the April Uprising of 1945). In Belgium, the armed struggle between partisans and patriotic militia culminated in a nationwide uprising in September 1944.

Bulgarian partisans - fighters of the Fatherland Front. 1944.

The Resistance Movement made a significant contribution to the defeat of fascism and had a significant impact on the post-war development of the world, contributed to the strengthening of the influence of democratic and leftist forces, created the prerequisites for the development of revolutionary processes in a number of countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In the colonies and dependent countries occupied by the forces of the fascist aggressors, the Resistance Movement merged with the national liberation struggle against colonial oppression (see the article Anti-Japanese Resistance Movement).

An important feature of the Resistance Movement was its international character, it brought together people of different nationalities, including Soviet citizens who ended up on the territory of other countries (mostly prisoners of war who fled from echelons and concentration camps). In Poland, the total number of Soviet citizens who fought in 90 Soviet or mixed Soviet-Polish partisan detachments and groups was 20 thousand people. A total of 3,000 Soviet partisans fought in Czechoslovakia, over 6,000 in Yugoslavia. In France, at the beginning of 1944, there were up to 40 partisan detachments and almost the same number of groups in which up to 4 thousand Soviet citizens fought. 5 thousand Soviet citizens participated in the partisan detachments of Italy in the fight against fascism. Soviet patriots also fought in the Netherlands (800 people), Belgium (800 people), Norway (100 people), Bulgaria (120 people), Greece (300 people) and other countries. The Resistance Movement in France, as in other countries, was attended by many representatives of the Russian emigration.

Lit.: Resistance Movement in Western Europe, 1939-1945. Common problems. M., 1990; The Resistance Movement in Western Europe, 1939-1945. National features. M., 1991; Resistance movement in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, 1939-1945. M., 1995.

RESISTANCE MOVEMENT 1939-45, national liberation, anti-fascist movement in the territories occupied by Germany and its allies and in the countries of the fascist bloc themselves.

It acquired the greatest scope in Yugoslavia, France, Italy, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Greece, China, Albania. The resistance movement was attended by patriotic representatives of all segments of the population, as well as prisoners of war, people forcibly driven to work, prisoners of concentration camps. Significant role in the organization resistance movement and the mobilization of its forces for the struggle was played by the exiled governments of the occupied states, patriotic organizations and political parties and movements.

common goal resistance movement was liberation from fascism. occupation, the restoration of national independence and the post-war state structure on the basis of democracy. Forces resistance movement used various forms and methods of struggle: anti-fascist propaganda and agitation, assistance to persons persecuted by the invaders, intelligence activities in favor of the allies in anti-Hitler coalition, strikes, sabotage, sabotage, mass actions and demonstrations, partisan movement, armed uprisings, which developed into a national liberation war in a number of countries.

the USSR provided resistance movement many countries direct assistance in the training and transfer of national personnel for the deployment of guerrilla warfare, in the supply of weapons, ammunition, medicines, the evacuation of the wounded, etc.

Scope and activity resistance movement largely depended on the course of the armed struggle on the fronts of World War II. In Sept. – Oct. 1939 in Poland, small partisan detachments began to fight against the German occupation troops, sabotage was carried out at enterprises and railway transport. In Czechoslovakia, political demonstrations, strikes, sabotage at factories were held. In Yugoslavia, immediately after the occupation of the country (April 1941), the first partisan detachments began to be created.

After the defeat of the Germans near Moscow resistance movement began to take on the character of national movements led by the National Fronts in Poland, France, the Anti-Fascist People's Liberation Council in Yugoslavia, the National Liberation Fronts in Greece, Albania, the Independence Front in Belgium, and the Fatherland Front in Bulgaria. On June 27, 1941, in Yugoslavia, the Main (from Sept. - Supreme) headquarters of the people's liberation partisan detachments was created. By the end of 1942, the patriots had liberated 1/5 of the territory of Yugoslavia. In the summer of 1942, the first partisan groups launched combat activities in Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. Dec. 1941 Greek partisan detachments united in the People's Liberation Army.

The time from the end of 1942 to the spring of 1944 was marked by the development of the most active forms of struggle. On August 1, the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 began in Poland. In China, the people's army liberated a number of regions of the country in battles with Japanese troops. From the spring of 1944 forces resistance movement directly participated in the liberation of countries from fascist occupation: the Slovak national uprising of 1944, the anti-fascist armed uprising in Romania, the September people's armed uprising in Bulgaria in 1944, the popular uprising in northern Italy, the May uprising of the Czech people in 1945. troops formed the Hungarian National Independence Front. The struggle against the invaders in France developed into a nationwide uprising, which culminated in the Paris uprising of 1944. French patriots liberated most of the country's territory on their own. In Aug. 1945 The People's Uprising in Vietnam won.

Resistance movement was international. People of different nationalities fought in its ranks. In European countries, an active struggle against fascism were led by thousands of owls. people who escaped from captivity, concentration camps, places of forced labor. In Poland, the total number of owls. citizens who fought in partisan formations reached 12 thousand people, in Yugoslavia - 6 thousand, in Czechoslovakia - about 13 thousand. Several thousand owls operated in France. citizens, more than 5 thousand fought in Italy. In cooperation with German, Romanian patriots, owls. people actively fought against the Nazis in Germany, Romania.

Thousands of owls people involved in resistance movement abroad, awarded owls. orders and medals, as well as signs of military prowess of those countries where they fought. The heroes of the anti-fascist struggle were: in Italy - F.A. Poletaev, M. Dashtoyan, in France - V.V. Porik, S.E. Sapozhnikov, in Belgium - B.I. Tyagunov, K.D. Shukshin, in Norway - N.V. Sadovnikov.

Research Institute (Military History) VAGSh RF Armed Forces

The occupation regime in the enslaved countries. Resistance movement

Nazi "New Order" in Europe

In the occupied countries, where almost 128 million people lived, the invaders introduced the so-called "new order", striving to achieve the main goal of the fascist bloc - the territorial division of the world, the destruction of entire peoples, and the establishment of world domination.

The legal status of the countries occupied by the Nazis was different. The Nazis incorporated Austria into Germany. Part of the regions of western Poland was annexed and settled by German farmers, mostly "Volksdeutsche" - ethnic Germans, several generations of whom lived outside Germany, while 600 thousand Poles were forcibly evicted, the rest of the territory was declared by the German Governor General. Czechoslovakia was divided: the Sudetenland was included in Germany, and Bohemia and Moravia were declared a "protectorate"; Slovakia became an "independent state". Yugoslavia was also divided. Greece was divided into 3 zones of occupation: German, Italian and Bulgarian. Puppet governments were formed in Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Luxembourg was incorporated into Germany. France found itself in a special position: 2/3 of its territory, including Paris, were occupied by Germany, and the southern regions with the center in the city of Vichy and the French colonies were part of the so-called Vichy state, whose puppet government, headed by the old Marshal Pétain, collaborated with the Nazis.

On the conquered lands, the invaders plundered the national wealth and forced the peoples to work for the “master race”. Millions of people from the occupied countries were forcibly taken to work in the Reich: already in May 1941, over 3 million foreign workers were working in Germany. To strengthen their dominance in Europe, the Nazis planted collaborationism - cooperation with the occupation authorities of representatives of various segments of the local population to the detriment of the interests of the nation. To keep the peoples of the occupied countries in obedience, the system of hostage-taking and massacres of civilians was widely used. The symbols of this policy were the complete destruction of the inhabitants of the villages of Oradour in France, Lidice in Czechoslovakia, Khatyn in Belarus. Europe took refuge in a network of concentration camps. Prisoners of concentration camps were forced to do hard labor, starved, and subjected to savage torture. In total, 18 million people ended up in concentration camps, 12 million of whom died.

The policy pursued by the Nazis in different zones of occupied Europe had some differences. The Nazis declared the peoples of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Albania an "inferior race" subject to complete enslavement and, to a large extent, physical destruction. In relation to the countries of Northern and Western Europe, the occupiers allowed a more flexible policy. In relation to the "Nordic" peoples - Norwegians, Danes, Dutch - it was planned to completely Germanize them. In France, the occupiers at first pursued a policy of gradually drawing their influence into the orbit and turning into their satellite.

The fascist occupation policy in various countries of Europe brought national oppression to the peoples, an extreme increase in economic and social oppression, a frenzied revelry of reaction, racism and anti-Semitism.

Holocaust

Holocaust (eng. "burnt offering")- a common term for the persecution and destruction of Jews by the Nazis and their accomplices after Hitler came to power and until the end of World War II.

Anti-Semitic ideology was the basis of the program of the National Socialist Party of Germany, adopted in 1920 and substantiated in Hitler's book "My Struggle". After coming to power in January 1933, Hitler pursued a consistent policy of state anti-Semitism. Its first victim was the Jewish community in Germany, numbering more than 500 thousand people. By 1939, the Nazis were trying by every possible means to "cleanse" Germany of the Jews, forcing them to emigrate. Jews were systematically excluded from the state and public life of the country, their economic and political activities were prohibited by law. Not only the Germans followed this practice. Anti-Semitism has infected all of Europe and the United States. But in no country of Western democracy was discrimination against Jews part of a planned government policy, since it ran counter to basic civil rights and freedoms.

The Second World War turned out to be a terrible tragedy for the Jewish people in its history. After the capture of Poland, a new stage of the anti-Jewish policy of the Nazis began. More than 2 million Jews living in this country turned out to be under their control. Many Polish Jews died, and the rest of the Jewish population who survived were driven into the ghetto - a part of the city fenced off by a wall and a police cordon, where Jews were allowed to live and take care of themselves. The two largest ghettos were in Warsaw and Lodz. Thanks to the ghetto, the Germans provided themselves with almost Jewish slave labor. Lack of food, diseases and epidemics, overwork led to a huge death rate of the inhabitants of the ghetto. Jews of all Nazi-occupied countries were subject to registration, they were required to wear armbands or patches with a six-pointed star, pay an indemnity and turn in jewelry. They were deprived of all civil and political rights.

After the German attack on the Soviet Union, the systematic general extermination of all Jews began. On the territory for the extermination of Jews, 6 death camps were created - Auschwitz (Auschwitz), Belzec, Chełmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek. These camps were equipped with special equipment for the daily killing of thousands of people, usually in huge gas chambers. Few managed to live in the camp for a long time.

Despite the almost hopeless situation, in some ghettos and camps, Jews still resisted their executioners with the help of weapons that they managed to secretly get. The uprising in the Warsaw ghetto (April-May 1943), the first urban uprising in Nazi-occupied Europe, became a symbol of Jewish resistance. There were uprisings in the death camps at Treblinka (August 1943) and Sobibor (October 1943), which were brutally suppressed.

As a result of the ruthless war of the Nazis against the unarmed Jewish population, 6 million Jews died - more than 1/3 of the total number of this people.

The resistance movement, its political orientation and forms of struggle

The Resistance Movement is a liberation movement against fascism for the restoration of the independence and sovereignty of the occupied countries and the elimination of reactionary regimes in the countries of the fascist bloc.

The scope and methods of the struggle against the fascist invaders and their accomplices depended on the nature of the occupation regime, natural and geographical conditions, historical traditions, as well as on the position of those social and political forces participating in the Resistance.

In the Resistance of each of the occupied countries, two directions were defined, each of which had its own political orientation. Between them there was a rivalry for the leadership of the anti-fascist movement as a whole.

At the head of the first direction were émigré governments or bourgeois-patriotic groups that sought to expel the invaders, eliminate fascist regimes and restore pre-war political systems in their countries. The leaders of this direction were characterized by an orientation towards the Western countries of liberal democracy. Many of them initially adhered to the tactics of "attantism" (waiting) - that is, they saved their forces and waited for liberation from the outside by the forces of the Anglo-American troops.

The position of the communist parties in the occupied countries was difficult. The Soviet-German non-aggression pact (1939) actually paralyzed the anti-fascist activities of the communists and led to the growth of anti-communist sentiments. By 1941, there was no question of any interaction between communists and anti-fascists. Only after the German attack on the Soviet Union did the Comintern call on the Communist Parties to resume the anti-fascist struggle. The courageous struggle of the Soviet people against fascism led to an increase in sympathy for the USSR, which also weakened anti-communist sentiments. The decision to dissolve the Comintern, taken in 1943 under pressure from the allies, allowed the communists to act as independent national forces and actively join the resistance movement. Thus, another direction in the Resistance was determined. It was led by communist parties and political forces close to them, which selflessly fought for national liberation and expected to carry out profound political and social transformations after the end of the war. The leaders of this trend were guided by the military assistance of the Soviet Union.

An important condition for the development of the resistance movement was the unification of anti-fascist forces. The general governing bodies of the resistance movement began to form. So, in France, they united under the leadership of General Charles de Gaulle.

The anti-fascist resistance of the population of the occupied countries appeared in two forms: active and passive. The active form consisted in partisan struggle, acts of sabotage and sabotage, in the collection and transfer of intelligence information to the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, in anti-fascist propaganda, etc. boycott of propaganda activities of the Nazis, etc.

The greatest scope of the resistance movement received in France, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia and Greece. In Yugoslavia, for example, at the beginning of 1943, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, led by the Communists, liberated two-fifths of the country's territory from the invaders. The Resistance Movement played an important role in the fight against fascism and hastened its defeat.

The active and consistent struggle of the Comintern and the 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 struggle for national liberation, 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, 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 the international situation, the course of the world war and the resistance movement. The struggle against fascism was also expressed in opposition to its chauvinistic policy, in the defense of 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. These 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 with the expansion of aggression, more and more peoples were drawn into the orbit of the “new order”, 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 of 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 of various directions, etc. The first partisan detachments were created from the remnants of the defeated Polish army, among them the detachment of Major X. Dobzhansky, who fought against the invaders, was especially famous in 1940 in the Kielce Voivodeship ( "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 under particularly difficult conditions, since until 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 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 brake on 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 fall of 1940, and in February 1941 organized a 300,000-strong strike of workers and employees in 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, but 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 rural areas. 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, Nedić 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 repression intensified in Germany with the outbreak of the war 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.