Did the Soviet Union have any major resistance movements during the reign of Stalin?

by pomalley827

During Stalin's reign the Soviet security apparatus brutally repressed the Soviet people. Was any significant threat to the Soviet Government present?

ErikLiinar

Yes, but mostly underground.

During the second world war there was a national liberation movement in the baltic states, that lasted well into the 1950's.

The so-called Forest Brothers were armed partisans who, as you can imagine hid in the forest. The term came into use in the 1905 Russian Revolution and refered to revolting peasants or schoolteachers who hid in the forest.

During WW2 the Forest Brothers consisted of people who wished the Baltic's independence from the USSR. Some were Red Army defectors, some local men, some ex-german army. Estonia and Latvia had their own Waffen-SS units during the war, which Hitler allowed to stay behind to fight the Soviets as the rest of the German army retreated. Those Latvians, Estonians and some Germans who evaded capture also became Forest Brothers and fought for years after the war.

The Forest Brothers are somewhat compareable to the French Resistance, ableit less organized. They did, however, recieve help from British, American and Swedish intelligence forces. MI6's Operation Jungle was higly compromised however, because the MI6 was infiltrated by the KGB/NKVD, most notably Kim Philby who forwarded information to the Soviets.

Their activities did involve sabotage and armed attacks. Most of their weaponry was either German or Soviet.

Of course, the Soviet fight against the Forest Brothers was brutal. The soviets had special Destruction battalions. Also involved were the NKVD and the Militia (police). Those who were captured either faced deportation to Siberia or summary execution. Anyone who had contact with the Forest Brothers; were hiding them; helping them or even family members could also face punishment. (Mass murders of anyone who were deemed harmful to Soviet power were a common sight during the entirety of Stalins reign.)

Overall, the entire partisan war, that ended in 1956, claimed a total of around 50 000 lives.

Source: History lessons at school and this article.

I hope this answers your question somewhat.

Smilin_Dave

In a similar vein to the Forest Brothers, there was also the Ukranian Insurgent Army (UPA). This was the military wing of the Organisation of Ukranian Nationalists (OUN). They actually formed during WWII but their operations continued after Nazi Germany were driven out of the Soviet Union. The UPA were ultimately defeated through a mix of 'direct' counter-insurgency (ie. hunting down the UPA and wrecking stuff generally), informant networks and apparently false flag-type operations. I've not read a lot about this so don't know just how accurate it is, but apparently the NKVD would sponsor groups to pretend to be the UPA, who then commit violence against the locals in order to reduce support for them.

This article on the on the informant networks is pretty detailed.

There was also an insurgency in Chechnya. This is dated to have begun in 1940 but I gather it got a bit more momentum in 1941 with German support. That being said the Soviets were able to infiltrate these groups too. Ended in 1944 with Operation Lentil - mass deportations of the Chechen population.

The same guy that did the UPA/infiltration article also did one on Chechen example: The Soviet War against ‘Fifth Columnists:’ The Case of Chechnya, 1942-1944 by Jeffrey Burds. But I can't find this online right now. Its on his unversity page but the link is dead :(