Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of a domestic irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity.
The most common use in present parlance in several languages refers to occupation resistance fighters during World War II, especially under the Yugoslav partisan leader Josip Broz Tito.
of partisan warfare involved the use of troops raised from the local population in a war zone (or in some cases regular forces) who would operate behind enemy lines to disrupt communications, seize posts or villages as forward-operating bases, ambush convoys, impose war taxes or contributions, raid logistical stockpiles, and compel enemy forces to disperse and protect their base of operations.
)[2] Johann von Ewald described techniques of partisan warfare in detail in his Abhandlung über den kleinen Krieg ("Treatise on little war", Cramer: Cassel, 1785).
In that war, Confederate States Army Partisan leaders, such as John S. Mosby, Jesse James, William Quantrill, or Bloody Bill Anderson, operated along the lines described by von Ewald (and later by both Jomini (1779–1869) and Clausewitz (1780–1831)).
Their fierce resistance and persistent inroads helped compel the French emperor to retreat from Russia after invading in 1812 (e.g., the activities of Denis Davydov).
He thenceforth established a dictatorship centered around his fascist doctrine, and in 1936 Mussolini formed the Axis powers with Nazi Germany.
On 8 September 1943, when the armistice of Cassibile was announced, Germans invaded Italy and liberated Mussolini, putting him in charge of the Italian Social Republic, a collaborationist regime and puppet state of the Third Reich.
[5] On 10 September 1943, during Operation Achse, a small German flotilla, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Karl-Wolf Albrand, tried to enter the harbor of Piombino but was denied access by the port authorities.
Home Army was the largest Polish partisan organization; moreover, organizations such as peasant Bataliony Chłopskie, created primarily for self—defense against the Nazi German abuse, or the armed wing of the Polish Socialist Party and most of the nationalist National Armed Forces did subordinate themselves, before the end of the World War II, to the very Home Army.
In spite of the ideological enmity, the Home Army did launch a massive sabotage campaign after the Germans began Operation Barbarossa.
In Lithuania and Belarus, after a period of initial cooperation, the Poles defended themselves against the Soviet partisans as well as fought against the Lithuanian Nazi collaborators.
The Poles failed to defeat the Soviet Partisans, but did achieve a decisive victory against the Lithuanian Nazi collaborators, Battle of Murowana Oszmianka.
The Sovereignty movement took over multiple newspapers including the Népszava, the Magyar Nemzet, and the Szabad Szó, to propagate anti-fascist and anti-german sentiment.
The most famous of which operated in Angyalföld, under Gidófalvy Lajos, who died a heroic death while trying to prevent the blowing up of the Elizabeth Bridge.
Violence was accepted as a political tool against foreign as well as domestic enemies of their cause, which was to be achieved by a national revolution led by a dictatorship that would drive out the occupying powers and set up a government representing all regions and social groups.
[13][14][15][16][17] Soviet partisans during World War II, especially those active in Belarus, effectively harassed German troops and significantly hampered their operations in the region.
According to historian Veikko Erkkilä the Russian attitude towards civilian atrocities has been marred by the Great Patriotic War propaganda.
By the middle of 1943 partisan resistance to the Germans and their allies had grown from the dimensions of a mere nuisance to those of a major factor in the general situation.
[26]By late 1944, the total forces of the Partisans numbered 650,000 men and women organized in four field armies and 52 divisions, which engaged in conventional warfare.
[28] When not in direct battles with the Red Army or special NKVD units, they significantly delayed the consolidation of Soviet rule through ambush, sabotage, assassination of local Communist activists and officials, freeing imprisoned guerrillas, and printing underground newspapers.
[29] On 1 July 1944, Lithuanian Liberty Army (LLA) declared a state of war against the Soviet Union and ordered all its able members to mobilize into platoons, stationed in forests and not leave Lithuania.
In 1949 all members of presidium of Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters - captain Jonas Žemaitis-Tylius, Petras Bartkus-Žadgaila, Bronius Liesys-Naktis ir Juozas Šibaila-Merainis came from LLA.
[31] Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (Lithuanian: Vyriausiasis Lietuvos išlaisvinimo komitetas, VLIK), was created on 25 November 1943.
The partisans usually replenished their arsenal by killing istrebiteli, members of Soviet secret police forces or by purchasing ammunition from Red Army soldiers.
One grenade was usually saved to blow themselves and their faces to avoid being taken as prisoners, since the physical tortures of Soviet MGB/NKVD were very brutal and cruel, and be recognized, to prevent their relatives from suffering.
stribai, from the Russian: izstrebiteli – destroyers, i.e., the destruction battalions), used shock tactics such as displaying executed partisans' corpses in village courtyards to discourage further resistance.
[28][33] The report of a commission formed at a KGB prison a few days after the 15 October 1956, arrest of Adolfas Ramanauskas ("Vanagas"), chief commander of the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters, noted the following: The right eye is covered with haematoma, on the eyelid there are six stab wounds made, judging by their diameter, by a thin wire or nail going deep into the eyeball.
