Moscow, Nauka Publishing House. 1970. 351 pp. The print run is 11,500. Price 1 rub 59 kopecks.

More than a quarter of a century has passed since the end of World War II, but interest in its history is growing. This, in particular, applies to such an insufficiently studied topic as the struggle of Soviet citizens against the Nazi invaders in the ranks of the resistance movement of foreign countries. The peoples of Europe bow before the exploits of the Soviet people, who covered themselves with glory in the fire of partisan war. This is evidenced by numerous monuments to the heroes who died in the name of victory over the enemy, foreign orders and other awards that mark the military deeds of Soviet participants in the anti-fascist Resistance.

In recent years, a number of works have been published on this topic, as well as memoirs of the participants in the events themselves; but so far there has been no generalizing work that would give any complete idea of the role of Soviet people in the struggle against the fascist "new order" in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, France and other countries. And this is quite understandable: it is not easy to write such a book. The material for it must be collected literally bit by bit, looking for it in a variety of collections, monographs, documentary publications, magazines and newspapers. A particular difficulty lies in the multilingual nature of the material: after all, the anti-fascist struggle was waged over a vast area from the Carpathians to the Atlantic coast, and in order to recreate a complete picture of Resistance in this territory, it is necessary to study the literature published in many countries.

Those who are interested in the history of war are well aware of the works of Colonel M. I. Semiryaga, Doctor of Historical Sciences, an employee of the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense .1 Continuing his research in this area, he turned to one of the deepest manifestations of international solidarity of the Soviet people - their participation in the Resistance movement of the peoples of the European countries occupied by the Nazis. At the same time, he did not limit himself to the published data and introduced into scientific circulation a significant amount of new information gathered in the Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, the Central Party Archive of the IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Soviet Committee of War Veterans and some other repositories in Moscow, Kiev, Minsk and Tbilisi. in foreign countries. The result is a monograph, which, in its significance, undoubtedly goes beyond the modest limits set by the author himself: "Summarize a small part of the available published material, introduce the reader to a number of new facts and names

1 M. I. Semiryaga. World War II and Proletarian internationalism. M 1962; his own. Antifascist Popular Uprisings, Moscow, 1965, et al.

page 176

and attract the attention of the scientific community and the broad masses of readers to this important and relevant topic" (p. 11).

The book is divided into three chapters (they can rather be considered as parts), which correspond to three closely related, but still independent subjects: the participation of Soviet people in the partisan movement in the occupied countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, the role of Soviet patriots in the anti-fascist Resistance in Western Europe, and the struggle of Soviet people in fascist camps. Each of these aspects of the topic has its own specifics, and one of the advantages of the monograph is to take into account this specificity. And the seven-tiers of events are already known.

But the author significantly expands the range of events and names related to the research topic, or, relying on unpublished sources, enriches our knowledge with new data. This is reflected in the huge index of names (on 17 pages), which for the first time contains the names of many Soviet patriots, whose dedication and heroism in single combat with the enemy the author resurrected from oblivion 2 . As a result, the perception of the scale of our people's participation in this struggle is changing. The reader feels a legitimate pride in their compatriots, who, having found themselves in extremely difficult conditions, not only passed the test with honor, but also demonstrated the strength of the Soviet spirit, made a significant contribution to the victory over Nazism, and significantly helped anti-fascist fighters-Poles, Czechs and Slovaks, French, Italians and other participants in the Resistance movement in their struggle for liberation from the Nazi yoke.

The author pays special attention, and this is quite natural, to the activities of Soviet antifascists in Poland and Czechoslovakia, France and Italy, that is, in those countries where the largest number of Soviet citizens operated during the war years, and the Resistance movement itself acquired a large scale and effectiveness. M. And Semiryaga shows how during the armed struggle the fighting was cemented. community of Soviet patriots with anti-fascists of a particular country. He gives numerous examples of the deep admiration of the participants of the Resistance movement in Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, France, and Yugoslavia for the selflessness of Soviet citizens, their readiness for heroic deeds, selflessness, and desire to help their friends in the struggle.

The ways that led Soviet people to participate in the Resistance on the territory of foreign countries were, as can be seen from the book, very diverse. Most of them were escapees from Nazi camps; indeed, nothing was impossible for hundreds and thousands of Soviet prisoners of war and other prisoners of Hitler's dungeons, who did not want to accept the Fascist captivity and at all costs sought to join those who continued to fight the enemy with weapons in their hands. On the territory of Poland and Czechoslovakia, at various stages of the war, large partisan formations operated, which arrived from the USSR and provided great help to local patriots. In France and Yugoslavia, people from the families of some Russian emigrants also took part in the Resistance. M. I. Semiryaga traces in detail the path of many people to the armed struggle against fascism, and this helps to feel the greatness of their feats. A significant part of them died brave deaths in a foreign land, and the author recalls how great these victims were.

Studying the vicissitudes of the struggle of Soviet patriots abroad, M. I. Semiryaga shows how its intensity changed during the war depending on the situation on the fronts, primarily on the situation on the Soviet-German front. The Red Army's victories, which had a decisive impact on the course of the war, inspired all Resistance fighters. But it is quite natural that they caused the greatest uplift of spirit among the Soviet people, who continued to fight against the hated enemy far from their homeland. The partisan war unfolded with particular force in 1944, when our troops, smashing the German-fascist invaders, completed the cleansing of the territory of the USSR from them and began to carry out the great liberation mission towards the peoples of European countries.

In the section devoted to the struggle in the camps, many examples of inflexible endurance and dedication of anti-fascists are given. In the difficult conditions of the fascist dungeons with a special power of saying-

2 For more information, see: "New and Recent History", 1971, N 1, p. 179.

page 177

M. I. Semiryaga emphasizes that a large number of Soviet people, who were subjected to the greatest persecution and were in the worst conditions, were able to survive in the camps and later return to active struggle against the enslavers only thanks to fraternal cooperation with prisoners of other nationalities. Maps that show (for each country separately) the areas of operations of detachments and groups whose IL commanders and commissars were Soviet citizens make the presentation more convincing. Such maps have not yet appeared in the literature. They clearly show the geographical extent of the participation of Soviet people in the Resistance movement on the territory of foreign countries.

The book by M. I. Semiryagi, which is the first consolidated study of the subject, is naturally not free from some shortcomings. The contribution of the Soviet people to the partisan struggle in Yugoslavia could be given much broader coverage. The same applies to the chapter on the struggle in Hitler's camps .3
Mikhail Semiryaga has written an interesting and useful book that will attract the attention of a wide range of Soviet and foreign readers.

L. I. Ginsberg

3 Shortly before the publication of the book under review, the same publishing house published a monograph by E. A. Brodsky, a significant part of which is devoted to the struggle in the Nazi camps. In the name of victory over fascism. Anti-fascist struggle of Soviet people in Hitler's Germany (1941-1945). Moscow, 1970.

page 178

Permanent link to this publication: