Anti-fascist underground in Riga
Antifascists are an important actor in the Russian and world political field today. The emergence and active development of the anti-fascist movement in a capitalist society and the growth of xenophobia and nationalism characteristic of it, growing into outright Nazism and fascism, is a natural phenomenon.
Russia, with its strong anti-fascist traditions rooted in the victory over fascism in the 1940s, is no exception. Russian anti-fascists are declaring themselves louder and louder.
With a request to tell about the modern anti-fascist movement, its features, goals and prospects, the editors of the site "Communists of the Capital" turned to an activist of the ROT FRONT party, antifascist Sergei Miroshnichenko.
Comstall: What is, in a nutshell, the ideology of modern anti-fascists?
S. Miroshnichenko: In my opinion, it is impossible to single out any single ideology of antifa other than anti-fascism. Among the antifa in Russia, as in the world, there are people with various political views... There are communists, socialists, anarchists, liberals and even apolitical people.
Comstall: What is Antifa culture?
S. Miroshnichenko: It is very diverse. If we talk about subcultures, then there are skinheads, punks, crusters, rappers and a bunch of other youth subcultures in this environment. The anti-fascist idea remains the same for these people.
Comstall: What organizations are positioning themselves as anti-fascist? How big is the anti-fascist movement?
S. Miroshnichenko: Basically, the anti-fascist movement in Russia is represented by autonomous groups, but there are also organizations positioning themselves as anti-fascist: the Youth Human Rights Movement, the Network against Racism and Intolerance, International Society"Memorial". The youth human rights movement is international. I know very little about them and, to be honest, I can hardly tell what they do. It's easier for me to talk about affinity groups. They do everything from surfing the Internet and painting graffiti to direct action. In general, whoever has the strength and imagination to do something, that is what he does.
It is very difficult to estimate the size of the anti-fascist movement, because it is not Political Party and not a social movement. My opinion is that there are several thousand people in Moscow. It used to be much less, but now this figure is growing.
Comstall: Where did the anti-fascist movement come from?
S. Miroshnichenko: AFA is the successor of World War II anti-fascists. Even the movement symbol, the black and red flags are taken from the Anti-Fascist Action movement ( component Rot Front in Germany).
Comstall: How do anti-fascists view communists?
S. Miroshnichenko: In general, anti-fascists have a positive attitude towards communists. However, as I said, anti-fascists have different political views. The left side of the movement, anarchists and socialists, have a positive attitude towards the communists. The liberal part considers the communists to be the same fascists. This is due to their anti-Stalinist sentiments.
Comstol: Are there any websites, newspapers of anti-fascists?
S. Miroshnichenko: Yes, there are. There are sites like http://www.antifa.fm/ and many others. AFA is widely represented in in social networks... Also, many anarchist sites sanctify their topic. A lot of samizdat magazines and newspapers are published. There is probably no way to list everything here.
In general, we communists need to work closer with these young people. Indeed, in fact, people are represented there with ready-made political views. It is only necessary to help them, to direct them in the right direction, to explain that small autonomous groups cannot solve such a problem as the growth of nationalism and xenophobia. A political organization is needed to fight in political sphere, not just on the streets. Such an organization may well be ROT FRONT. By the way, there are a lot of activists in Autonomous Action who joined them through AFA.
I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that on May 18 a concert of the Nucleo Terco group will take place in Moscow. This is a group of Spanish communists playing oi !, members of RASH-Madrid. They are in Russia for the first time. They will be supported by such teams as Klowns (Kirov), Twenties (Kirov) and Red Office (Moscow). For information about the concert, follow the group on Vkontakte: https://vk.com/nucleo_terco
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15 comments
Aster 06.05.2013 20:46
I wonder how skinheads ended up in anti-fascists?
Oleg 06.05.2013 21:30
Astra, skinheads are a subculture. Nationalists are often found among them, so we are used to classifying them as Nazis and fascists. However, among them there are different ideologies, incl. and the left. An example is red skinheads.
Spiteful "Ych" 07.05.2013 02:04
The most the best way skins turned out to be anti-fascists) Smoke the history of the subculture)
Leopold the cat 07.05.2013 16:26
ANTIFACHISM today is an insidious, hypocritical move of the ZIONISTS 'FULL NATIONALISM, i.e. WORLD FINANCIAL JEWISH OLIGARCHY! Her affairs are bad - the whole World rises against this SPRUT. And she sees her salvation in playing all peoples against each other on the basis of nationalism. This world sect of the richest geeks of the human race since time immemorial, riding the MONETARY of all the peoples of our planet, seeing him approaching HISTORICAL collapse, starts up in all
grave in their BEST, this time, an attempt to deceive the whole World AGAIN !!! PLEASE be ashamed of your TRUE anger and hide IT for the sake of a human-hating SECT!
Alesya Yasnogortseva 07.05.2013 22:07
Cat Leopold. Well, here you are, fell for the Zionists. It is they who reduce all fascism to anti-Semitism, so that it is more convenient for those who are against the Zionists to mold the label of anti-Semites. In fact, Jews have not been discriminated against anywhere since 45. Even in such fascist states as South Africa and Chile.
Fascism is liberalism taken to the extreme. Liberals believe that "inferior" people should die out - the Nazis believe that they should be destroyed. The liberals have defective - those who do not know how to steal and live on the stolen money - the fascists in different conditions differently. Very often the fascists declare as inferior representatives of any nation (not necessarily Jewish!), Sometimes - the followers of any creed.
And the Russian fascists from the RNU are most likely the hirelings of the West. Their activities are aimed at discrediting Russia in the eyes of the peoples former colonies... So that Russia will not become their leader soon, when the communists come to power in the country.
Leopold the cat 07.05.2013 23:33
ANTISEMITISM = FASCISM = NEOPHASCHISM = ANTIFACHISM AND OTHER THESE TERMS INTENTIONALLY THROWN AND CULTURED BY ZIONISM into the community of LOCHOV and GOYEV, as they call all of us non-Jews!
Leopold the cat 08.05.2013 06:00
ZIONISM is the ardent supporter and keeper of CAPITAL. HE is the FLESH and BLOOD OF CAPITAL and the fight against CAPITAL is inevitably the fight against ZIONISM! RUSSIANS! Don't be naive children. DO NOT hide your heads in the sand at the sight of danger. NOT TO THE FACE!
Valery 08.05.2013 12:56
“Divide and conquer” is the slogan of those who want to rule the world.
Aster 09.05.2013 20:03
As far as I know, the skinhead shaving practice stemmed from a desire to hide the true color of their hair. Their ideology is based on racism. And one of the signs of race (for them) is hair color. They believe that blond hair is a sign of a superior race. And since such hair is not often found among Russians, they took such a rule - to shave their heads baldly.
Maybe later it became a youth subculture, like hippies or metalheads. But initially it was a political trend of a certain kind.
Spiteful "Ych" 12.05.2013 12:01
Astra, I will tell you a secret. The custom of shaving skins' heads appeared due to the cheapness and simplicity of this haircut. Indeed, in the 60s of the 20th century in England, working youth did not have much money for fashionable haircuts. About the racism of skins. REAL SKINHADS ARE NOT RACY, We smoke the history of the movement at least here http://tr.rkrp-rpk.ru/get.php?4381 Briefly and meaningfully.
Alexander 12.05.2013 13:18
As it became known (to me), neo-Nazis are being persecuted in Germany because they are against NATO, against the dominance of the Jewish-Masonic USA, their puppet Merhel, and for partnership with a strong Russia (not Putin's, of course). It's not that simple. Antifascists can be puppets in the hands of real Nazi Zionists. Kotyara is right!
A radical turning point in the war, resulting from victories Soviet army at Stalingrad and Kursk, also marked the beginning of the third period of the anti-fascist liberation struggle (1943 - early 1944). As one of the organizers of the Resistance movement in Touraine (Western France) writes. P. Delan, the response to the Stalingrad victory of the Soviet Army “was enormous. The German army is no longer invincible. Increasingly wider strata of the masses in the enslaved countries are imbued with confidence "in imminent liberation. Salient features This stage was the further expansion and intensification of the struggle, especially the armed one, the formation of liberation armies, the final folding of the national fronts and the development of their political and economic platforms.
A great stimulus for the development of the Resistance in France was the landing of Anglo-American troops in North Africa, carried out at the beginning of November 1942. The liberation of the allied armies of Algeria and Morocco made it “possible to create a center for the leadership and organization of all French forces in order to wage a national liberation war. and contribute to the defeat of Nazi Germany. "
Terrible events for fascism took place in Italy, where the anti-fascist Resistance was steadily gaining strength. In March 1943, under the direct influence of the defeat of the fascist troops at Stalingrad, the first mass demonstration of the Italian proletariat in two decades of the power of fascism took place: a general strike of the workers of Northern Italy, organized by the communists. The strike turned into an important test of strength, which clearly showed, on the one hand, the political maturity of the proletariat, its readiness to fight, and on the other, the growing confusion of the ruling circles, the inability of the fascist regime to contain the growing indignation of the masses.
The impending revolutionary situation in the country prompted the right wing of the anti-fascist Resistance to change tactics out of fear that otherwise the leadership of the anti-fascist uprising would be entirely in the hands of left-wing organizations. In June, the first Committees of National Liberation (KNL) were formed in Milan and Rome, which, on the initiative of the communists and socialists, adopted a decision to prepare an uprising. His goal was the Milan CCW proclaimed a break with Nazi Germany, punishment of those responsible for the war, restoration of democratic rights and freedoms.
The consolidation of the Resistance was largely facilitated by the organizational strengthening of the Communist Party and the formation in August 1943 of the Committee for the Restoration of the Socialist Party. The petty-bourgeois Party of Action, formed in the summer of 1942 on the basis of the Justice and Freedom movement, also began to play a noticeable role in the Resistance, which advocated revolutionary methods of combating fascism.
The "palace coup" prepared and carried out at the top on July 25, 1943, which resulted in the overthrow of the Mussolini government, did not completely resolve the political crisis, in the grip of which Italy found itself. The next day, massive anti-fascist unrest broke out in the country. Anti-fascist organizations formed the Anti-Fascist Opposition Committee in Milan, which united, along with the left parties, representatives of the Christian Democratic Party and some other conservative organizations. The committee demanded that the government immediately withdraw from the war, take harsh measures against the fascist elite, and implement the most important democratic reforms. Under the pressure of the masses, whose aspirations and hopes were expressed by the anti-fascist opposition, the government was forced to ban the fascist party. At the same time, it delayed the fulfillment of other demands of the people, pursued a policy of maneuvering and waiting.
The situation in the country changed in the fall of 1943 in connection with the landing of British and American troops in southern Italy. On September 3, an armistice agreement was concluded between the command of the Allied forces and the Badoglio government - an act that led to the occupation German fascist troops throughout Northern and Central Italy, including Rome.
The initiator of the organization of resistance to the invaders was the Communist Party, the leadership of which, on August 31, submitted to the Anti-Fascist Opposition Committee a "Memorandum on the urgent need to organize a national defense against the occupation and the threat of attack from the Germans." The memo was an important policy document that formed the basis for the ICP's subsequent activities to deploy national anti fascist war the Italian people.
On September 9, anti-fascist parties formed the Committee for National Liberation (KNL) in Rome "- the body of political leadership in the struggle to expel the occupiers, to" return Italy to the place that rightfully belongs to it in the commonwealth of free nations. "
The formation of the KNO did not eliminate the contradictions between the currents in opposition to fascism. This concerned primarily the political prospects of the movement. If the left wing of the anti-fascist opposition proclaimed as its goal the establishment of the system of people's democracy and, in the long term, the transition to socialism, then the right wing did not go further in its plans to restore the bourgeois-democratic order.
At this stage of the struggle, the unifying moments - the interest in driving out the invaders and eliminating fascism - outweighed the differences. However, in order to preserve the union, the left parties, especially the Communist Party, had to show maximum political flexibility, not abandon the search for political formulas and tactics acceptable to the entire anti-fascist opposition.
In the fall of 1943, the Communist Party began organizing Garibaldi partisan detachments to conduct an armed struggle against the fascists and to prepare a national anti-fascist uprising. Such a task is clearly overdue, as evidenced by the spontaneous uprisings of the masses against the Nazi invading army, in particular the four-day September uprising in Naples. These speeches demonstrated the readiness of broad strata of the population, primarily the working people, to defend independence and freedom with arms in hand.
With the creation of partisan detachments, the anti-fascist struggle began to develop into a nationwide war against Nazism and fascism. The actions of the detachments formed by various parties were coordinated by the National Liberation Committees led by the KNO of Northern Italy, which served as the headquarters of the armed forces of the Resistance movement:
The defeat of the German fascist troops in the battle on the Volga caused a deepening of the internal political crisis in Germany as well. In these conditions essential acquired a clarification of the political prospects of the anti-fascist movement. As early as December 1942, the Central Committee of the KKE adopted an appeal to the German people - the Manifesto of Peace, which contained an assessment of the military-political situation in Germany. The leadership of the Communist Party stated that the continuation of the war would lead the country to disaster. The only way out that the German people still had was to put an end to the Hitler regime on their own.
The Peace Manifesto proposed a nine-point program that called for the overthrow of the fascist regime and the formation of a national democratic government that would carry out fundamental democratic transformations. "The goals and requirements of the Manifesto represented ... a broad political platform on the basis of which Hitler's opponents from the most diverse segments of the population, belonging to different political currents and religions, could rally and agree on a joint struggle."
In 1943, the communist underground basically succeeded in overcoming territorial disunity. The central operational leadership of the KKE was created, which included representatives of the largest anti-fascist organizations. In its work, the central leadership followed the political line defined by the Central Committee of the KKE. Collaboration between the Communists and Social Democrats has also been strengthened. Communist and Social Democratic groups acted together in enterprises, including military factories. The ties of German anti-fascists with foreign workers were strengthened. All this spoke of the development of the process of unification of truly national patriotic forces.
In the same year, a bourgeois opposition took shape in Germany, which was also an obvious manifestation of the growing internal political crisis. She sought to lead the country out of the war "at the lowest cost", keeping intact the foundations of the domination of monopoly capital. At the same time, the question of guarantees against the revival of fascism was practically passed over in silence.
Aware of the limitations of the bourgeois anti-Hitler movement, the Communist Party, however, looked for connections with it in order to make the base of the fight against the Nazi regime as wide as possible, reflecting the interests of the most diverse layers of the population, including part of the bourgeoisie. The steps taken by the communist underground in this direction did not meet with a response from the right wing of the bourgeois opposition. However, on its left wing there was a group (Colonel Staufenberg and others) that stood for cooperation with the Communists.
Thus, by the end of the third period of the war in Germany, conditions were ripe for a transition to a more coordinated and active struggle against fascism.
A great contribution to the anti-Hitler Resistance was made by the Free Germany movement, which arose among German prisoners of war on the territory of the USSR. Emerged on the initiative of the KKE, the movement absorbed elements opposed to the Hitler regime, belonging to different classes and strata of the population. The Free Germany movement, pursuing anti-fascist and anti-war goals, began to acquire a mass character under the influence of the heavy defeats suffered by Hitlerite Germany at Stalingrad and Kursk. In the summer of 1943, at a conference of representatives of prisoners of war and German anti-fascist public figures, the governing body of the movement was elected - the National Committee for Free Germany (NKSG). His first political act was the issuance of a manifesto to German army and the German people. The Free Germany movement, the document emphasized, aims to unite all German anti-fascists, regardless of their party affiliation, to fight to end the war, liberate the German people and Europe from the Nazi yoke, and create a truly democratic Germany. The NKSG launched a large propaganda work to involve German prisoners of war in the movement against war and fascism. He also made significant contributions to anti-fascist propaganda directed at the German army. In a number of sectors of the front, combat groups of German anti-fascists - commissioners of the Free Germany committee - were active.
The Free Germany movement played a significant role not only in rallying anti-fascist and patriotic forces outside Germany, but also in intensifying the struggle against the Nazi regime inside the country.
The anti-fascist Resistance movement in the occupied countries of Western Europe has made significant progress along the path of rallying forces and coordinating their actions.
In France, in May 1943, the National Council of Resistance (NSS) began its activities, uniting both left-wing organizations (the National Front, the General Confederation of Labor, the Communist and Socialist parties restored in the same year), and the main bourgeois organizations associated with the committee " Fighting France ".
The National Council of Resistance, whose powers extended throughout the country, did a great job to ensure the unity of the armed formations of various anti-fascist organizations. This task was mainly solved with the creation in February 1944. Internal forces Resistances (FFI). They included the French frantier and partisans as an independent unit. The FFI, which numbered 500,000, was headed by the Military Operations Commission (COMAC) subordinate to the NSS, chaired by the communist Pierre Villon.
The formation of the internal army made it possible to significantly expand the area of action against the occupiers and the Vichy gendarmerie, to clear individual points and even areas of them.
On March 15, 1944, the National Council of Resistance adopted a detailed program, based on a project developed by the National Front. Considering the liberation of France as the primary task, a necessary condition for subsequent democratic reforms, the program at the same time put forward far-reaching socio-political demands: the nationalization of banks, the main industries and transport; deep democratization of the entire life of the country; implementation of major social reforms in favor of the working people. Among the most important of them were the right to work and rest, a fixed minimum wage guaranteeing a decent human existence, a wide system social security... A special point of the program was proposed to provide assistance to the working peasantry (setting fair prices for agricultural products), to extend benefits to agricultural workers under the social security system (paid vacations, pensions). Much attention was paid in the program to the punishment of war criminals and accomplices of the German fascist invaders (confiscation of their property, profits, etc.).
“Thus,” the document concluded, “a new republic will be founded, which will sweep away the vile reactionary regime established by Vichy and make democratic and popular institutions effective ... The unity of action of the representatives of the Resistance in the interests of the Motherland should serve as an incentive for all in the present and in the future. French ... "
In other words, the NSS, with its program, sought to consolidate and develop the gains of the anti-fascist Resistance movement, to make its implementation a guarantee against the recurrence of fascism, a starting position not only for restoration, but also for deepening democracy, its actual development into people's democracy.
Anti-fascist underground patriotic organization (APPO)
one of the anti-fascist organizations of Soviet prisoners of war during the Great Patriotic War in the territories of the USSR, Poland and France occupied by German fascist troops. Created in May 1942 in a prisoner of war camp of non-Russian nationalities near Warsaw, in the town of Benaminovo, where the fascist command formed national battalions. The organization was headed by the Central Underground Bureau (CB), which was headed by Major of the Soviet Army S. A. Yagdzhyan. The Central Bank included officers: V. M. Vartanyan, A. A. Kazaryan, D. E. Minasyan, A. M. Karapetyan, B. K. Petrosyan and L. M. Titanyan. In October 1942, some of the prisoners were transferred to Pulawy (Poland), where the Central Bank decided that the underground workers would take command posts in the battalions being formed. APPO has established contact with Polish patriots. A plan was developed for a joint uprising, but it did not take place, since the camp in October 1943 was transferred to France (city of Mand). One battalion was transferred to the area occupied by the Nazis in Maykop. The Gestapo learned about the uprising impending in the battalion and cruelly dealt with the underground workers. Another battalion was sent to the region of occupied Zhitomir, where in August 1943 it revolted. Part of the rebels broke through to the partisans. The underground battalions of the battalions deployed west in 1943 established contact with the French Resistance Movement and the Allied command. A battalion at the Channel and 2 battalions in the Toulon area rebelled and joined the French partisans. Once in the south of France, the Central Bank APPO was transformed into an underground Military Committee of Soviet patriots in the south of France. In August 1944, Soviet partisan detachments in France were reorganized into the 1st Soviet partisan regiment in France, which, for the liberation of hundreds settlements from the invaders was awarded the French battle banner and the Order of the Military Cross. APPO members also participated in the partisan movement of Holland, Yugoslavia, Greece, Czechoslovakia. M. L. Episkoposov.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M .: Soviet encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .
See what the "Anti-fascist underground patriotic organization" is in other dictionaries:
- (APPO) one of the anti-fascists. organizations of owls. prisoners of war during the Great. Fatherland. war. APPO participants acted in 1942 45 on the territory. USSR, Poland and France. Created in May 1942 in the Nerus POW camp. nationalities approx. Warsaw, in a place ... ... Soviet Historical Encyclopedia
APPO- Postgraduate Academy teacher education education and science, St. Petersburg Source: http://www.rosbalt.ru/2004/03/17/150200.html APPO department of agitation, propaganda and press APPO Anti-fascist underground patriotic organization ... ... Dictionary of abbreviations and acronyms
Anti-Fascist Underground Patriotic Organization- (ru. Antifascist underground patriotic organization, APPO) was an anti fascist group of Soviet captives, formed during the World War II on the occupied by fascist armies territories of USSR, Poland and France. […… Wikipedia
APPO- automatic prevention of equipment overloading propaganda political department Anti-fascist underground patriotic organization (1942 1945) department of agitation, propaganda and press ... Dictionary of abbreviations of the Russian language
Resistance movement in Belgium organized resistance German occupation in Belgium during World War II. Contents 1 Organizational structure 2 ... Wikipedia
- "Front de l Indépendance" (fr. Front de l Indépendance) is an underground military political organization that was created in 1941 by the Belgian communists and representatives of the left forces and operated in 1941 1944 on the territory of Belgium, ... ... Wikipedia
- (France) French Republic(République Française). I. General information F. the state in Western Europe... In the north, the territory of F. is washed by North Sea, the Pas de Calais and the English Channel, on the west by the Bay of Biscay ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Qinya, an anti-fascist underground organization, functioned during the late period of the Nazi occupation, from 1943 to 1944. It was in the last year and a half of the German fascist domination that numerous partisan movements in the territory of occupied Latvia became noticeably more active.
Translated from Latvian, Ciņa means "Struggle". Most of the members of the underground movement were students of the Latvian Academy of Arts, as well as a number of actors from some Riga theaters. In particular, the active members of the underground organization "Tsinya" were the artists of Riga theaters: the teacher of stage art and one of the leading actresses of the Working Theater Olga Fritsevna Bormane (1893 - 1968), Arved Karlovich Michelson, who performed under the stage name Rutku Tevs (1886 - 1961 years), who played the main roles in the Main Art Academic Theater of Latvia, as well as the actor and director Theodors Kugrens (? - 1945).
The leaders of this cell of the anti-fascist underground were the former director of the Art Theater, People's Artist of the Latvian SSR Leonid Yanovich Leimanis (1910 - 1974), who acted as the actual founder of this underground organization, as well as a student of the Latvian Academy of Arts, Komsomol member Olgerts Urbans (1922 - 1977), who in the post-war years will be destined to become a portrait painter. In fact, "Tsinya" consisted of student artists and actors from Riga.
Basically, the members of this anti-fascist organization were engaged in the distribution of propaganda posters and leaflets - they voiced a call to sabotage in Riga industrial enterprises, the vast majority of which were forced to serve the interests of the military industry of the Third Reich. Also, "Tsinya" was engaged in collecting weapons and sending them to combat partisan detachments of various organizations of the Latvian resistance movement. In the early spring of 1943, in safe house no. 6 in house no. 3 on Vidus Street, under the guidance of a graduate of the Riga People's Drama Studio high school Leonid Leimanis set up a secret printing house, which, before the liberation of Riga on October 13, 1944, managed to print 19 anti-fascist proclamations of various content, which were promptly disseminated by members of the "Tsini" with a circulation of 780 to 2800 copies.
The predatory plans of the "new order" in Europe and the brutal occupation regime in the enslaved countries have strengthened in the minds of the peoples the idea that German fascism is the main enemy of all freedom-loving humanity. The elements of a just war intensified, and from a bilateral imperialist war it gradually began to turn for the exhausted and oppressed peoples into an anti-fascist liberation war.
In all the occupied countries by this time there was a consolidation of the forces of the Resistance movement with the task of uniting the various centers of leadership in the illegal struggle. The communist party organizations were the force that set in motion the struggle against the fascist occupiers. The communist parties in their program documents indicated the direction and purpose of this struggle and became its organizers. Some active actions against the occupiers were carried out as a call to struggle and announced that the peoples had risen against German imperialism. In the occupied Czechoslovak regions in September 4939, there were strikes and demonstrations against the war, and on October 18, on the 21st anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic, mass demonstrations of communists were organized in Prague, Ostrava, Kladno, Plzen and other cities. In a clash with the fascist invaders, student Opletal was killed, and his funeral turned into a new mass demonstration in Prague.
In response, the fascist authorities closed all higher educational institutions and arrested about 8,000 people in the fall of 1939. Until May 1941, the Gestapo, according to its own data, arrested 5,796 Czech and Slovak communists. Uniting the resistance fighters in Poland proved to be extremely difficult. The country was dismembered, the Communist Party was disbanded before the war, bourgeois circles in the country and in exile took anti-communist positions. Until the end of 1939, the Nazis killed about 100 thousand Poles. In the spring of 1940, a wave of physical destruction by the Nazis of the Polish intelligentsia followed - 3,500 people fell victim to it.
Nevertheless, Polish workers carried out actions of struggle, sabotage in factories, mining enterprises and in transport. In the first year of the occupation, workers at the Stiebler cloth factory in ód spoiled a total of 240,000 meters of production. Universities in Warsaw and Poznan, closed by the fascist authorities, began their studies illegally. Partisan detachments were formed in Kielce, Warsaw, Lublin and other provinces. In the northern countries, workers also took part in the struggle against fascism. According to Danish sources, in the period from April 1940 to June 1941, 19 major raids were carried out on German military installations, as a result of which a large number of aircraft, tanks, railroad cars, petrol storages and transformer substations were destroyed. In Norway, the actions of the Resistance were consistently carried out ranging from boycotts of the Quisling press and German films to anti-fascist demonstrations with clashes and acts of sabotage. On the anniversary of the fascist attack - April 9, 1941 - workers in Norway stopped working for half an hour in protest. At the end of 1940, about 12 thousand Norwegians languished in prisons for speaking out against the occupation authorities.
The communist party The Netherlands very soon succeeded in leading the Resistance movement. Since October 1940, the newspaper De Warheid, the central organ of the Communist Party, began to be published illegally, with a circulation of 10 thousand copies. In October 1940, students at the University of Leiden and the Technical Institute in Delft went on strike for two days against the dismissal of Jewish teachers from high schools by the Nazi authorities. The most significant action of the Resistance was the general political strike in February 1941, in which 300 thousand patriots took part and which covered the most important cities and enterprises of the country. As a result, it failed all the attempts of the German occupation authorities from the Dutch fascists to create a collaborationist government.
In Belgium, there were also major strikes: in June 1940 in Lyutih, in September of the same year in Borinage, where 10 thousand workers took part. April and May new wave the strikes were supported by 20,000 workers in the industrial city of Charleroi. On the anniversary of the attack of Nazi Germany on Belgium - May 10, 1941 - the workers of the province of Lyutih protested against the fascist occupation. The strike was attended by 100 thousand workers under the leadership of the famous communist Julien Lao. The occupation authorities and the collaborationist leadership of the concerns were forced to raise wages by 8%. However, with this insignificant handout, they could not weaken the struggle of the Resistance of the Belgian people. The French Resistance movement was especially strong. The illegal committee of the Communist Party succeeded in retaining leadership of the party organizations in factories and in residential areas and in directing progressive forces within the Resistance movement. In 1939, 16 illegal issues of the “L'Humanite” editions were published, in 1940 there were 79 of them with a total circulation of about 10 million copies. The people's committees, set up by the communists, directed many Resistance actions, which took place under the slogan of fulfilling the demands of the workers. In December 1940, at the Renault plant, the administration was forced to give instructions to dismantle several hundred motorcycles, as they were rendered unusable by workers.
Motors of the "Gnome et Rone" company could not be accepted at the factories due to defects. On November 11, 1940, the day of the armistice of 1918, a demonstration took place in Paris, in the organization of which the famous communist Daniel Kazakova took part. Fascist military units fired at the demonstrators, killing 12 people and wounding about 50 people. In April - May 1941, 100,000 miners went on strike in the Pas-de-Calais department for three weeks. About 2 thousand workers were arrested, and 1500 of them were sent to forced labor in Hitler's Germany. In the fall of 1940, the first partisan detachments emerged. Patriots from other strata of the population also took part in the struggle. The Free France movement, which de Gaulle organized in London, gradually grew into a significant military organization... All these examples testify to the unshakable struggle of peoples against fascist domination, for national independence, for freedom.
Despite the great difficulties that arose before the German Resistance movement after the Wehrmacht's invasion of the Northern and Eastern Europe, it unwaveringly continued the struggle against Nazism and soon entered the broad anti-fascist front that embraced the majority of the peoples. With the arrest of Willie Gall and the defeat of the party organization that he led in Berlin at the beginning of 1940, efforts to create an operational leadership of the KKE in Germany were hampered above all. But other representatives of the Central Committee of the KKE continued to solve this problem. Rudolf Hallmeier, Heinrich Schmeer and Arthur Emmerlich acted in this direction in Berlin. Until his arrest in August 1940, Rudolf Hallmeyer actively worked in the Resistance organization led by Robert Urich. In August, the leadership of this organization was formed, which worked illegally in 1936-1937. In addition to Robert Urich, it included the communists Kurt Lehmann, Franz Mett and the social democrat Leopold Tomshik. This organization of the Resistance had a strong connection with 22 Berlin enterprises, among them AEG, Osram, Siemens, Deutsche Waffen und Municipalitiesfabriken. Meetings with activists at enterprises were regularly held on methods of anti-fascist activity. They managed to unite the scattered members of the KKE into a single party organization. Its leadership worked according to the directives of the Central Committee and was its representative in Berlin. It also insisted on the unification of the Resistance organizations in other parts of Germany, as well as on the intensification of the anti-fascist struggle of the Social Democrats. This organization of the Resistance acted as the leadership of the Communist Party on an all-German scale and existed until the defeat of the Gestapo in 1942.
Urich and his associates were closely associated with the resistance group in Munich, led by retired captain Josef Römer. From the spring of 1940 to the beginning of 1942, they published a joint illegal newspaper "Information Service", which helped the activists of the Resistance movement with information about the situation in the anti-fascist struggle and the setting of specific tasks. This "Information Service" was received, among many others, by the Resistance organizations in the North Bohemian region, in which German and Czech anti-fascists under the leadership of Wenzel Scholz and Josef Hruba fought together. In October 1939, Hruby established contact with the Central Committee of the KKE through the Resistance organizations in Prague. At the end of 1940, the communists of various organizations of the Resistance in Krausova Buda met at a meeting where the question of further ways of struggle was discussed.
The existence of direct links between the organization of the Resistance of Robert Urich and other organizations that existed at that time in Berlin and other centers of the Resistance in Germany has also been proven. These include the organizations led by Ion Sieg, Anton Zefkov, Wilhelm Gooddorf and Otto Grabowski. In Leipzig, the anti-fascist struggle was continued by the Resistance organizations, grouped around Georg Schumann, Otto Engert and Kurt Kresse, in Thuringia around Theodor Neubauer, in Hamburg around Robert Abshagen, Bernard Bestlein and Franz Jacob.
The Stuttgart anti-fascists have prepared a leaflet "The Voice of the People". In Ulm, Wiesbaden and other places, posters and slogans against the fascist war were displayed. The resumption of the publication of the newspaper Rote Fane was of great importance for the anti-fascist struggle. In a special assignment to the authorized representative of the Central Committee of the KKE Arthur Emmerlich The Central Committee it was proposed to re-publish this party organ in Berlin with the help of party organizations and organizations of the Resistance. Arthur Emmerlich led party organizations in the Berlin districts of Moabit and Reinickendorf, as well as in other parts of the city. He had a strong connection with the Teacher Resistance group led by Kurt Steffelbauer. With the help of all these organizations, he was able to resume the production of Rote Fane. In January 1941, its first issue was published. In March - double number 2-3 and in May - number 4-5. The newspaper was printed on a typewriter and contained political articles and information compiled from the materials of the Moscow radio.
She directed practical work illegal resistance fighters. For example, leading article number 2-3 said: “The fight against the imperialist war means: at the factories to train workers in various forms of resistance against exploitation. The struggle against the imperialist war means: to act, if the opportunity presents itself, against all the anti-popular measures of the regime. The struggle against the imperialist war means: deny the regime the means to wage war. " The arrest on May 24, 1941 of Arthur Emmerlich in Hamburg, from where he wanted to go to the overseas leadership in Sweden, and Kurt Steffelbauer, as well as a number of other communists on May 28 thwarted their active publishing activities and the union of members of the Resistance movement.
From the operational reports of the fascist police apparatus, it was established that the anti-fascist struggle intensified in the first period of the war. In a message dated December 1, 1939, from the Berlin plant "Siemens and Halske" it is said: "The toughness of the listeners of enemy radio broadcasts seems to continue to increase ... Here and there, organized forms become noticeable in this direction." The Gestapo in Berlin alone in the first 13 months of the war took away about 1,100 proclamations. The Post tracked down about 1,800 proclamations and 1,500 illegal leaflets, which were only a small fraction of the published and distributed materials. In the spring and October 1940, the Gestapo reported from West and South Germany about "raids on members of fascist youth organizations." This led to the arrest of many young people between the ages of 16 and 24. In one of the operational reports of January 1, 1941, the leaders of the German Hitlerite youth asserted the existence of a youth group, which leads to the "political decay of youth." “The groups are partly modeled after former Marxist youth groups. They are either their continuation, or act in the same spirit. These groups pose a significant threat to the education of Hitler Youth workers and, together, can stubbornly fight the police. Therefore, it is necessary to take decisive measures and demand the creation of youth labor camps for the incorrigible. "
In Stuttgart, an illegal anti-fascist organization regularly listened to the Moscow radio broadcasts and then distributed them among the workers. In Dresden, the Resistance organization, whose active leaders were Fritz Schulze and Karl Steip, organized and carried out anti-fascist work until the arrest of most of its members in the spring of 1942. The organization established strongholds at Dresden enterprises and maintained contacts with the Resistance organizations in Leipzig, Berlin and the authorized Central Committee Arthur Emmerlich.
In the fall of 1939, the pre-war resistance groups by Arvid Harnack and Harro Schulze-Boysen united. This ramified anti-fascist organization had strong points in Berlin and many other cities in Germany, as well as connections abroad. Members of this organization, playwright Wilhelm Schirmann-Horster, a member of the KKE since 1923, and 23-year-old communist Hans Komm worked in Berlin among artists. A fascist court case on this organization says: "Shirman was a typical qualified communist leader, he had spiritual domination over his listeners, delved into communist theory and prepared them for the practical activities of conspirators."
The resistance organization in Berlin, whose leadership included Hans Gunther, published the anti-fascist proclamations "Das Freye Worth" with a circulation of 300 copies. They were glued up in various parts of the city. The proclamations emphasized: “Hitler's victory is an eternal war! Every fascist victory carries a new war! " Anti-war slogans were displayed at the Neptun-Werft in Rostock in October-November 1940, one of which read: "Down with Hitler and his rabble of murderers!" The Gestapo, in its reports, noted the increasing resistance of the workers in the coastal areas. Each of the reports stated that shipbuilding workers were reluctant to do overtime and that unreliable elements tended to associate with truants. At the Heinkel factories in Rostock in October-November 1940, workers forced the payment of a bonus, which the management of the concern at that time wanted to invest in armaments, and the workers promised to build a "hostel" for this amount after the war.
At the zinc metallurgical works in Magdeburg, workers sabotaged the production of weapons. They threw out the slogan "Down with the war!" At the factory. At the Khazag plant in Leipzig, an illegal plant group of the Communist Party published leaflets with the slogan "Solidarity with our Polish brothers in class." According to the research results to date, in Mecklenburg alone, from September 1939 to the end of 1940, there were 76 political trials. After arrests in late 1940 and early 1941 in Teplice, where Czech, Slovak and German anti-fascists fought together, 300 opponents of Nazism were put on trial. Nazi justice passed 36 death sentences. Many bold actions of the anti-fascists show that the most devoted and class-conscious forces of the German people continued their struggle against fascism in the first two years of the Second World War. She acquired at the same time various forms: listening to Moscow radio, printing and distributing leaflets, writing anti-fascist slogans, providing material support to prisoners of war, as well as arrested resistance fighters and captive workers, carrying out acts of sabotage at factories and explaining to the masses the main political issues... At the same time during this period there was a strengthening of the organizations of the Resistance, which came out in the subsequent years of the war, and the strengthening, under the leadership of the Central Committee of the KKE, of the permanent operational leadership of the illegal struggle of the party in Germany.
In exile, German anti-fascists made efforts to support the struggle against the fascist "new order", against the further expansion of the war and for the defeat of Nazi Germany. V different countries they worked closely with the national resistance movement and took part in some of the struggles. In the unoccupied part of France, in Toulouse, in August 1940, an illegal governing body of the KKE in France was formed, which, together with French resistance fighters, carried out anti-fascist explanatory work among the Wehrmacht soldiers. In the spring of 1941, an illegal governing body of the KKE in the occupied part of France was created in Paris.
The various actions of the communist, social democratic and other opponents of German fascism and their selfless, bold actions, however, were not able to persuade the masses to engage in large-scale anti-fascist activities and overthrow the fascist regime from within. The most important prerequisite for this - the unity of action of the working class - was absent due to the anti-communist attitudes of the right-wing Social Democratic leaders.
A characteristic of the concept of the leading social democrats was the desire to unite the opponents of Hitler, but without the communists, and even against them. This desire was masked by the wording: it is desirable to conclude an alliance of all "opponents of the totalitarian force." At the same time, these Social Democrats were in direct agreement with the anti-communist bourgeois forces. Thus, Theo Gespers wrote in the Cameradschaft magazine, published by youth Catholic leaders in London, condemning the Communists, that he did not think that “the German people want to exchange one dictatorship for another”.
The lack of unity of action by all opponents of fascism and, as a consequence, a small number of mass actions against the war made it easier for German fascism to further expand the state-monopoly system to oppress the people, an arms race and the preparation of new crimes against other peoples, and above all against the Soviet Union.