1.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
2.
Waffen-SS
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The Waffen-SS was the armed wing of the Nazi Partys SS organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with volunteers, the Waffen-SS grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, and served alongside the Heer, Ordnungspolizei and other security units. Prior to the war, it was under the control of the SS Führungshauptamt beneath Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, initially, in keeping with the racial policy of Nazi Germany, membership was only open to people of Germanic origin. The rules were relaxed in 1940, and later the formation of units composed largely or solely of foreign volunteers. These SS units were made up of men mainly from among the nationals of Nazi-occupied Europe, despite relaxation of the rules, the Waffen-SS was still based on the racist ideology of Nazism, and ethnic Poles were barred specifically from the formations. At the post-war Nuremberg trials the Waffen-SS was judged to be a criminal organisation due to its connection to the Nazi Party, former Waffen-SS members were denied many of the rights afforded to the military veterans. An exception was made for Waffen-SS conscripts, who were exempted because they were not volunteers, about a third of the total membership were conscripts. The origins of the Waffen-SS can be traced back to the selection of a group of 120 SS men in March 1933 by Sepp Dietrich to form the Sonderkommando Berlin. By November 1933 the formation had 800 men, and at a ceremony in Munich for the tenth anniversary of the failed Munich Putsch the regiment swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler. The oaths pledged were Pledging loyalty to him alone and Obedience unto death, the formation was given the title Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler. On 13 April 1934, by order of Himmler, the regiment became known as the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, led by one of Hitlers oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm, the SA was seen as a threat by Hitler to his newly gained political power. Hitler also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr and conservatives of the country, when Hitler decided to act against the SA, the SS was put in charge of eliminating Röhm and the other high-ranking SA officers. The Night of the Long Knives occurred between 30 June and 2 July 1934 and saw the killing of up to 200 people and this included almost the entire SA leadership, effectively ending its power. This action was carried out by SS personnel, and the Gestapo. In September 1934, Hitler authorized the formation of the wing of the Nazi Party and approved the formation of the SS-Verfügungstruppe. The SS was given the lowest priority for recruits, at the same time Himmler established the SS-Junkerschule Bad Tölz and SS-Junkerschule Braunschweig for military training of SS officers. Both schools used regular army training methods and mainly used former army officers as instructors, Himmler initially in 1934 set stringent requirements for recruits. They were to be German nationals who could prove their Aryan ancestry back to 1800, unmarried, a four-year commitment was required for the SS-VT and LSSAH
3.
Infantry
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Infantry is the general branch of an army that engages in military combat on foot. As the troops who engage with the enemy in close-ranged combat, infantry units bear the largest brunt of warfare, Infantry can enter and maneuver in terrain that is inaccessible to military vehicles and employ crew-served infantry weapons that provide greater and more sustained firepower. In English, the 16th-century term Infantry describes soldiers who walk to the battlefield, and there engage, fight, the term arose in Sixteenth-Century Spain, which boasted one of the first professional standing armies seen in Europe since the days of Rome. It was common to appoint royal princes to military commands, and the men under them became known as Infanteria. in the Canadian Army, the role of the infantry is to close with, and destroy the enemy. In the U. S. Army, the closes with the enemy, by means of fire and maneuver, in order to destroy or capture him, or to repel his assault by fire, close combat. In the U. S. Marine Corps, the role of the infantry is to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy fire and maneuver. Beginning with the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, artillery has become a dominant force on the battlefield. Since World War I, combat aircraft and armoured vehicles have become dominant. In 20th and 21st century warfare, infantry functions most effectively as part of a combined arms team including artillery, armour, Infantry relies on organized formations to be employed in battle. These have evolved over time, but remain a key element to effective infantry development and deployment, until the end of the 19th century, infantry units were for the most part employed in close formations up until contact with the enemy. This allowed commanders to control of the unit, especially while maneuvering. The development of guns and other weapons with increased firepower forced infantry units to disperse in order to make them less vulnerable to such weapons. This decentralization of command was made possible by improved communications equipment, among the various subtypes of infantry is Medium infantry. This refers to infantry which are heavily armed and armored than heavy infantry. In the early period, medium infantry were largely eliminated due to discontinued use of body armour up until the 20th century. In the United States Army, Stryker Infantry is considered Medium Infantry, since they are heavier than light infantry, Infantry doctrine is the concise expression of how infantry forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles, and engagements. It is a guide to action, not a set of hard, doctrine provides a very common frame of reference across the military forces, allowing the infantry to function cooperatively in what are now called combined arms operations. Doctrine helps standardise operations, facilitating readiness by establishing common ways of accomplishing infantry tasks, doctrine links theory, history, experimentation, and practice
4.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
5.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
6.
Slovak National Uprising
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The Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on 29 August 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to resist German troops that had occupied Slovak territory, although the resistance was largely defeated by German forces, guerrilla operations continued until the Soviet Army, Czechoslovak Army and Romanian Army liberated Slovakia in 1945. In the post-war period, many entities, mainly the Communists. The Stalinist regime in Czechoslovakia presented the Uprising as an event initiated and governed by Communist forces, in fact, many factions fought in the uprising, the largest of which were units of the Slovak Army, Democratic resistance and Communist partisans, and international forces. Given this factionalization, the Uprising did not have popular support. Yet the participants and supporters of the Uprising represented every religion, class, age, edvard Beneš, leader of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, initiated preparations for a possible revolt in 1943 when he contacted dissident elements of the Slovak Army. The council was responsible for creating the preparatory phase of the uprising, in March 1944, Slovak army Lieutenant Colonel Ján Golian took charge of the preparations. Conspirators stockpiled money, ammunition and other supplies in military bases in central, the rebelling forces called themselves Czechoslovak Forces of the Interior and the First Czechoslovak Army. Approximately 3,200 Slovak soldiers deserted and joined partisan groups or the Soviet Army, in April 1944, Slovak Jews Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escaped from Auschwitz and eventually spoke about the horrors of German death camps. In summer 1944, the partisans intensified their war against German occupation forces, in July, Soviet troops in Poland began to advance towards Slovakia. By August 1944, Soviet troops were at Krosno, Poland, the two options were, Capture Dukla Pass when the Soviet arrived. As ordered by Golian, capture Dukla pass immediately and hold the pass against any German forces until the Soviet Army could arrive, Colonel Viliam Talský was the chief of staff of the two divisions. On 23 August 1944, neighboring Romania changed sides in favor of the Allies, on 27 August 1944 in Martin, a group of Communist partisans under Soviet direction killed 30 members of a German military mission leaving Romania. The next day, German troops began to occupy Slovakia to put down the rebellion, German arrangements for the occupation were completed a few weeks earlier. At 19,00 hours on 29 August 1944, Slovak Defence Minister General Ferdinand Čatloš announced on radio that Germany had occupied Slovakia. At 20,00, Golian sent the message to all units to begin the uprising. The two divisions, left in chaos and without leadership, were disarmed on the afternoon of 30 August without a single shot. Consequently, the uprising commenced prematurely and lost a crucial component of their plan, accounts of the exact numbers of combatants vary
7.
Vienna Offensive
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The Vienna Offensive was launched by the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front in order to capture Vienna in Austria. The offensive lasted from 2 to 13 April 1945, the city of Vienna was surrounded and under siege for most of the offensive until its capture. After the failure of Operation Spring Awakening, Sepp Dietrichs 6th SS Panzer Army retreated in stages to the Vienna area, the Germans desperately prepared defensive positions in an attempt to guard the city against the rapidly arriving Soviets. In spring 1945, the advance of Soviet General Fyodor Tolbukhins 3rd Ukrainian Front through western Hungary gathered momentum on both sides of the Danube. On 30 March, the advancing Soviets crossed the Hron and Nitra Rivers, Tolbukhin was now ready to advance into Austria and take Vienna. On 2 April, Vienna Radio denied that the Austrian capital had been declared an open city, on the same day, Soviet troops approached Vienna from the south after they overran Wiener Neustadt, Eisenstadt, Neunkirchen and Gloggnitz. Baden and Bratislava were overrun on 4 April, after arriving in the Vienna area, the armies of the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front surrounded, besieged, and attacked the city. Involved in this action were the Soviet 4th Guards Army, the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army, the Soviet 9th Guards Army, and the Soviet 46th Army. The O-5 Resistance Group, Austrians led by Carl Szokoll, wanting to spare Vienna destruction, actively attempted to sabotage the German defenses and to aid the entry of the Red Army. The only major German force facing the Soviet attackers was the German II SS Panzer Corps of the 6th SS Panzer Army, along with ad hoc forces made up of garrison and anti-aircraft units. Declared a defensive region, Viennas defense was commanded by General Rudolf von Bünau, the battle for the Austrian capital was characterized in some cases by fierce urban combat, but there were also parts of the city the Soviets advanced into with little opposition. Defending in the Prater Park was the 6th Panzer Division, along the side of the city were the 2nd and 3rd SS Panzer Divisions. The Soviets assaulted Viennas eastern and southern suburbs with the 4th Guards Army, the German defenders kept the Soviets out of the city’s southern suburbs until 7 April. The western suburbs were especially important to the Soviets because they included Viennas main railway station, the Soviet success in the western suburbs was followed quickly by infiltration of the eastern and northern suburbs later the same day. North of the Danube River, the 46th Army pushed westward through Viennas northern suburbs, central Vienna was now cut off from the rest of Austria. By the 9th of April, the Soviet troops began to infiltrate the center of the city, on the night of 11 April, the 4th Guards Army stormed the Danube canals, with the 20th Guards Rifle Corps and 1st Mechanized Corps moving on the Reichsbrücke Bridge. However, other important bridges were destroyed, Vienna finally fell when the last defenders in the city surrendered on the same day. Bittrichs II SS Panzer Corps, however, pulled out to the west on the evening of 13 April to avoid encirclement, the same day, the 46th Army took Essling and the Danube Flotilla landed naval infantry up the river by Klosterneuburg
8.
Walter Schimana
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Walter Schimana was an Austrian Nazi Party and high-ranking SS official during World War II, and was Higher SS and Police Leader in occupied Greece from October 1943. Responsible for numerous war crimes and atrocities in the territories, he was arrested by the Allies after the war. Schimana became a member of the Nazi Party, on 7 December 1926. After the Nazis came to power, in 1934 he entered the uniformed Protection Police with the rank of captain. In 1936 he was transferred to the Gendarmerie as a major, after the Anschluss, he was transferred to the Police Headquarters at Vienna as Commander of the motorized Gendarmerie for Austria. On 15 August 1939 he entered the SS with the rank of Standartenführer, at the outbreak of the war in Europe, he took over command of a field gendarmerie battalion in Poland, France then Generalgouvernement of Poland up to 1940. He held command of various schools of the motorized gendarmerie then staff duties into Main Office for Uniformed Police Hauptamt Ordnungspolizei from 1940 to 1941, from 21 July 1942 to 15 July 1943 he was SSPF of Belarus, with headquarters at Minsk. Reporting to Friedrich Jeckeln, he was responsible for the formation of the Schutzmannschaft battalions, subsequently, he underwent training as a divisional commander and was appointed commander of the newly formed SS Division Galicia until October 1943. On 18 October, Schimana was appointed HSSPF for Greece, in replacement to Jürgen Stroop and he became actively engaged in carrying out the persecution of Greek Jews and the campaign against the Greek Resistance movement. In this capacity he was instrumental in the formation of the infamous Security Battalions, after the German withdrawal, he was appointed HSSPF of the Danube Sector, which had its headquarters in Vienna. He remained in position until the German capitulation. He was captured by the Allies and imprisoned, but committed suicide before he could be brought to trial
9.
Fritz Freitag
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Fritz Freitag was a high-ranking member of the Waffen-SS and war criminal during World War II. He was the commander of the SS Division Galicia and was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross and he committed suicide at the end of the war in May 1945. Fritz Freitag was born on 28 April 1894, the son of a rail road official, after passing his high school examinations he joined the 1st Grenadier Regiment of the Prussian Army. During World War I, Freitag served on both the Eastern Front and the Western Front, in 1919, Freitag joined the Freikorps and in 1920, the Schutzpolizei. By the time of World War II, Freitag had been promoted to Oberstleutnant in the Polizei, during the invasion of Poland he was the Chief of Operations of the 3rd Police Regiment and the Chief of Staff to the senior police commander in the 14th Army. In September 1940, Freitag joined the Waffen-SS and was posted onto the staff of Heinrich Himmler and he was then posted to the 1 SS Infantry Brigade as chief of staff. He served on the Eastern Front organising anti-partisan operations in Belarus, Freitag was appointed commander of 2nd SS Polizei Infantry Regiment still serving on the Eastern Front. He was promoted to Standartenführer for his performance in command of a kampfgruppe during the fighting in the Volkhov pocket, in January 1943, he was given temporary command of the SS Cavalry Division Florian Geyer being replaced when becoming ill. From April to August 1943 he commanded the 2 SS Infantry Brigade and he was then given command of the SS Division Galicia. He was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross in September 1944, Freitag committed suicide in an American POW camp on 10 May 1945. Clasp to the Iron Cross 2nd Class & 1st Class German Cross in Gold Knights Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1944 as SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen-SS, and commander of the 14
10.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
11.
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
12.
Ukrainians
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Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is by total population the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term Ukrainians to all its citizens, also among historical names of the people of Ukraine Rusyns, Cossacks, etc. can be found. According to some definitions, a descriptive name for the inhabitants of Ukraine is Ukrainian or Ukrainian people. Belarusians and Russians are considered among the bloodline of Ukrainians, while Rusyns are another closely related group, the ethnonym Ukrainians became widely accepted only in the 20th century after their territory obtained distinctive statehood in 1917. People of these territories were usually called Rus or Rusyns, the Ukrainian language appeared in the 14th – 16th centuries, but at that time, it was mostly known as Ruthenian, like its brothers. In the 16th – 17th centuries, with the establishment of the Zaporizhian Sich, however, the ethnonym Ukrainians and the linguonym Ukrainian were used only occasionally, and the people of Ukraine usually continued to call themselves and their language Ruthenian. This official name did not spread widely among the peasantry constituted the majority of the population. Ukrainian peasants still referred to their country as Ukraine and to themselves, in areas outside the control of the Russian/Soviet state until the mid-20th century, Ukrainians were known by their pre-existing names for much longer. The modern name derives from Ukrayina, a name first documented in 1187. Several scientific theories attempt to explain the etymology of the term, according to some new alternative Ukrainian historians such as Hryhoriy Pivtorak, Vitaly Sklyarenko and other scholars, translate the term u-kraine as in-land, home-land or our-country. The name in this context derives from the word u-kraina in the sense of domestic region, in the last few centuries the population of Ukraine experienced periods of Polonization and Russification, but preserved a common culture and a sense of common identity. Most ethnic Ukrainians live in Ukraine, where make up over three-quarters of the population. The inhabitants of the Kuban, for example, have vacillated among three identities, Ukrainian, Russian, and Cossack, approximately 800,000 people of Ukrainian ancestry live in the Russian Far East in an area known historically as Green Ukraine. According to some assumptions, an estimated number of almost 2.1 million people of Ukrainian origin live in North America. Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Poland, Argentina, Belarus, Portugal, there are also Ukrainian diasporas in the UK, Australia, Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Sweden and the former Yugoslavia. Today, large ethnic Ukrainian minorities reside in Russia, Canada, Ukrainians have one of the largest diasporas in the world. The East Slavs emerged from the undifferentiated early Slavs with the Slavic migrations in the 6th and 7th centuries CE, the East Slavs were united in the Kievan Rus during the 9th to 13th centuries. East Slavic tribes cited as proto-Ukrainian include the Volhynians, Derevlianians, Polianians, and Siverianians and the less significant Ulychians, Tivertsians, the Gothic historian Jordanes and 6th-century Byzantine authors named two groups that lived in the south-east of Europe, Sclavins and Antes
13.
Galicia (Eastern Europe)
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Galicia is a historical and geographic region in Central-Eastern Europe, once a small Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria that straddled the modern-day border between Poland and Ukraine. The area, which is named after the city of Halych, was first mentioned in Hungarian historical chronicles in the year 1206 as Galiciæ. The nucleus of historic Galicia lies within the regions of western Ukraine, Lviv, Ternopil. In the 18th century, territories that became part of the modern Polish regions of Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. There is considerable overlap between Galicia and south-west Ruthenia, especially a cross-border region that is inhabited by various nationalities, Halych-Volhynia cut a swathe as a mighty principality under the reign of Roman the Great in 1170–1205. After the expulsion of the Hungarians in 1221, Ruthenians took back rule of the area, Romans son Daniel of Galicia was crowned king of Halych-Volhynia. He founded Lviv, named in honour of his son Leo I, the Ukrainian name Halych comes from the Khwalis or Kaliz who occupied the area from the time of the Magyars. They were also called Khalisioi in Greek, and Khvalis in Ukrainian, the Lypytsia culture supposedly replaced the existing Thracian Hallstatt and Vysotske cultures. Others assert that the name has Slavic origins – from halytsa, meaning a naked hill, the jackdaw was used as a charge in the citys coat of arms and later also in the coat of arms of Galicia. The name, however, predates the coat of arms, which may represent canting or simply folk etymology, although the Hungarians were driven out from Halych-Volhynia by 1221, Hungarian kings continued to add Galicia et Lodomeria to their official titles. In 1527, the Habsburgs inherited those titles, together with the Hungarian crown, in 1772, Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary, decided to use those historical claims to justify her participation in the first partition of Poland. In fact, the territories acquired by Austria did not correspond exactly to those of former Halych-Volhynia, Volhynia, including the city of Volodymyr-Volynskyi – after which Lodomeria was named – was taken by Russia, not Austria. On the other hand, much of Lesser Poland – Nowy Sącz and Przemyśl, Zamość, Lublin, the full official name of the new Austrian province was Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria with the Duchies of Auschwitz and Zator. After the incorporation of the Free City of Kraków in 1846, it was extended to Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, each of those entities was formally separate, they were listed as such in the Austrian emperors titles, each had its distinct coat-of-arms and flag. For administrative purposes, however, they formed a single province, the duchies of Auschwitz and Zator were small historical principalities west of Kraków, on the border with Prussian Silesia. Lodomeria, under the name Volhynia, was not ruled by Austria, dale Dwellers, Krakowiacy, Mazury, Grębowiacy, Głuchoniemcy, Bełżanie, Bużanie, Opolanie, Wołyniacy, Pobereżcy or Nistrowianie. During the Great Migration period of Europe, a variety of nomadic groups invaded the area, overall, Slavs came to dominate the Celtic-German population. In the 12th century, a Rurikid Principality of Halych formed there, Galicia and Volhynia had originally been two separate Rurikid principalities, assigned on a rotating basis to younger members of the Kievan dynasty
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Slovaks
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The Slovaks or Slovak people are a nation and West Slavic ethnic group native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and are native speakers of the Slovak language. Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia, there are Slovak minorities in Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, Serbia and sizeable populations of immigrants and their descendants in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The name Slovak is derived from *Slověninъ, plural *Slověně, the old name of the Slavs, in the Slovak language, only the masculine noun Slověninъ, Slověn changed to Slovän, Slovan and finally to Slovák around 1400. The older form Sloven is preserved in all words in the Slovak language – the adjective Slovak is still slovenský, the feminine noun Slovak is still Slovenka. In 1029 St. Emeric, ruler of the Nitrian principality is called Henricus dux Sclavonie, in 1113 Nestor calls the territory of Slovakia - Slověnskaja zemlja. The first written mention about usage of the new form Slovak in the territory of present-day Slovakia is from Bardejov – Nicoulaus Cossibor hauptman, Nicolaus Czech et Slowak, the mentions in Czech sources are older –1375 and 1385. The change is not related to ethnogenesis of Slovaks, but exclusively to linguistic changes in the West Slavic languages, the word Slovak was also used later as a common name for all Slavs in Czech, Polish and also Slovak language in parallel with other forms. The Slovaks and Slovenes are the only current Slavic nations that have preserved the original name, for Slovenes, the adjective is still slovenski and the feminine noun Slovene is still also Slovenka, but the masculine noun has since changed to Slovenec. The Slovak name for their language is slovenčina and the Slovene name for theirs is slovenščina, the Slovak term for the Slovene language is slovinčina, and the Slovenes call Slovak slovaščina. The name is derived from proto-Slavic form slovo word, talk, thus Slovaks as well as Slovenians would mean people who speak, i. e. people who understand each other. In Hungarian Slovak is Tót, an exonym and it was originally used to refer to all Slavs including Slovenes and Croats, but eventually came to refer primarily to Slovaks. Many place names in Hungary such as Tótszentgyörgy, Tótszentmárton, tóth is a common Hungarian surname. The Slovaks have also historically been referred to as Slovyenyn, Slowyenyny, Sclavus, Sclavi, Slavus, Slavi, Winde, Wende. The final three terms are variations of the Germanic term Wends, which was used to refer to any Slavs living close to Germanic settlements. The early Slavs came to the territory of Slovakia in several waves from the 5th and 6th centuries and were organized on a tribal level, original tribal names are not known due to the lack of written sources before their integration into higher political units. In the 7th century, Slavs founded larger tribal union, Samos empire, regardless of Samos empire, the integration process continued in other territories with various intensities. The final fall of the Avar Khaganate allowed new political entities to arise, the first such political unit documented by written sources is the Principality of Nitra, one of the foundations of later common ethnic consciousness. At this stage in history it is not yet possible to assume a common identity of all Slovak ancestors in the territory of eastern Slovakia, the Principality of Nitra become a part of Great Moravia, a common state of Moravians and Slovaks
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Czechs
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Ethnic Czechs were called Bohemians in English until the early 20th century, referring to the late Iron Age tribe of Celtic Boii and the land Bohemia. The Czech diaspora is found in numbers in the United States, Canada, Israel, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Switzerland, Italy. The Czech ethnic group is part of the West Slavic subgroup of the larger Slavic ethno-linguistical group, the West Slavs have origin in early Slavic tribes which settled in Central Europe after East Germanic tribes had left this area during the migration period. The West Slavic tribe of Bohemians settled in the area of Bohemia during the migration period and they formed an independent principality in the 9th century, the Duchy of Bohemia, under the Přemyslid dynasty. According to mythology, the father of the Czech people were Forefather Čech. The Czech are closely related to the neighbouring Slovaks, the Czech–Slovak languages form a dialect continuum rather than being two clearly distinct languages. Czech cultural influence in Slovak culture is noted as having much higher than the other way around. Czech people have a history of coexistence with Germanic people. The Czech National Revival took place in the 18th and 19th centuries aiming to revive Czech language, culture, the Czech were the initiators of Pan-Slavism. The Czech ethnonym was the name of a Slavic tribe in central Bohemia that subdued the tribes in the late 9th century. The origin of the name of the tribe itself is unknown, according to legend, it comes from their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia. Research regards Čech as a derivative of the root čel-, the Czech ethnonym was adopted by the Moravians in the 19th century. The name Bohemia is Germanic, English used that name until after the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the population of the Czech lands has been influenced by different human migrations that wide-crossed Europe over time. In their Y-DNA haplogroups, which are inherited along the male line,34. 2% of Czech males belong to R1a, which is particularly common in a large region extending from South Asia and Southern Siberia to Central Europe and Scandinavia. The population of the Czech Republic descends from diverse peoples of Slavic, Celtic and Germanic origin, presence of West Slavs in the 6th century during the Migration Period has been documented on the Czech territory. Slavs settled in Bohemia, Moravia and Austria sometime during the 6th or 7th centuries, according to a popular myth, the Slavs came with Forefather Čech who settled at the Říp Mountain. The Duchy of Bohemia emerged in the late 9th century, in 880, Prague Castle was constructed by Prince Bořivoj, founder of the Přemyslid dynasty and the city of Prague was established. Vratislav II was the first Czech king in 1085 and the duchy was raised to a kingdom under Ottokar I in 1198
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Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
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Yugoslavia
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Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast Europe during most of the 20th century. The Serbian royal House of Karađorđević became the Yugoslav royal dynasty, Yugoslavia gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The country was named after the South Slavic peoples and constituted their first union, following centuries in which the territories had been part of the Ottoman Empire, renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929, it was invaded by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941. In 1943, a Democratic Federal Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance, in 1944, the king recognised it as the legitimate government, but in November 1945 the monarchy was abolished. Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia in 1946 and it acquired the territories of Istria, Rijeka, and Zadar from Italy. Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled the country as president until his death in 1980, in 1963, the country was renamed again as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The constituent six socialist republics that made up the country were the SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SR Croatia, SR Macedonia, SR Montenegro, SR Serbia, and SR Slovenia. Serbia contained two Socialist Autonomous Provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, which after 1974 were largely equal to the members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis in the 1980s and the rise of nationalism, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics borders, at first into five countries, eventually, Serbia and Montenegro accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession. Serbia and Montenegro themselves broke up in 2006 and became independent states, the concept of Yugoslavia, as a single state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug, Yugoslavia was the result of the Corfu Declaration, as a project of the Serbian Parliament in exile and the Serbian royal Karađorđević dynasty, who became the Yugoslav royal dynasty. The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and it was commonly referred to at the time as the Versailles state. Later, the government renamed the country leading to the first official use of Yugoslavia in 1929, on 6 January 1929 King Alexander I suspended the constitution, banned national political parties, assumed executive power and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions and he imposed a new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I, Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavias historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas, the banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance, the effect of Alexanders dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs from the idea of unity. During his reign the flags of Yugoslav nations were banned, Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul
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Ukrainian National Army
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The army, formed on April 15,1945, and commanded by General Pavlo Shandruk, consisted of the following units,1. UNA Division formed from the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galizien,2, reserve Brigade led by Colonel Hudyma,2. Reserve Brigade led by Colonel Malets, plans were made regarding the inclusion of the Ukrainian Freedom Army, Kuban Cossacks and Georgian military divisions. The primary purpose of creation of the Ukrainian National Army was to all the Ukrainian units fighting the Soviets under a single command. The intended size of the army, encompassing all the Ukrainian units subordinate to Oberkommando des Heeres was 220,000, however within the two months left till the end of the war, Shandruk was able to gather about 50 thousand soldiers. In reality, Shandruk was able to only the 1. UNA Division and elements of the 2, on May 7, under his influence, the division located in western Austria by this time after slowly moving from Slovenia, withdrew further from Red Army forces. The UNA soldiers were interned in northern Italy, in the controlled by Polish II Corps forces. After the capitulation, Shandruk asked for a meeting with Polish general Władysław Anders in London, despite the Soviet pressure, Anders managed to protect Ukrainian soldiers as the former citizens of the Second Republic of Poland. Shandruk and the bulk of his forces managed to remain in the west, other groups, splintered, either surrendered to the Soviet or the Western Allies, facing repatriation, with several hundred interned in Switzerland. The UNA had a bad relationship with general Andrei Vlasovs Russian Liberation Army and was never subordinated to it, new York, Robert Speller & Sons Publishers
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Austria-Hungary
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The union was a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and came into existence on 30 March 1867. Austria-Hungary consisted of two monarchies, and one region, the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia under the Hungarian crown. It was ruled by the House of Habsburg, and constituted the last phase in the evolution of the Habsburg Monarchy. Following the 1867 reforms, the Austrian and the Hungarian states were co-equal, Foreign affairs and the military came under joint oversight, but all other governmental faculties were divided between respective states. Austria-Hungary was a state and one of the worlds great powers at the time. Austria-Hungary was geographically the second-largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire, at 621,538 km2, the Empire built up the fourth-largest machine building industry of the world, after the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. After 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina was under Austro-Hungarian military and civilian rule until it was annexed in 1908. The annexation of Bosnia also led to Islam being recognized as a state religion due to Bosnias Muslim population. Austria-Hungary was one of the Central Powers in World War I and it was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918. The realms full, official name was The Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council, each enjoyed considerable sovereignty with only a few joint affairs. Certain regions, such as Polish Galicia within Cisleithania and Croatia within Transleithania, enjoyed autonomous status, the division between Austria and Hungary was so marked that there was no common citizenship, one was either an Austrian citizen or a Hungarian citizen, never both. This also meant that there were always separate Austrian and Hungarian passports, however, neither Austrian nor Hungarian passports were used in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia. Instead, the Kingdom issued its own passports which were written in Croatian and French and it is not known what kind of passports were used in Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was under the control of both Austria and Hungary. The Kingdom of Hungary had always maintained a separate parliament, the Diet of Hungary, the administration and government of the Kingdom of Hungary remained largely untouched by the government structure of the overarching Austrian Empire. Hungarys central government structures remained well separated from the Austrian imperial government, the country was governed by the Council of Lieutenancy of Hungary – located in Pressburg and later in Pest – and by the Hungarian Royal Court Chancellery in Vienna. The Hungarian government and Hungarian parliament were suspended after the Hungarian revolution of 1848, despite Austria and Hungary sharing a common currency, they were fiscally sovereign and independent entities. Since the beginnings of the union, the government of the Kingdom of Hungary could preserve its separated. After the revolution of 1848–1849, the Hungarian budget was amalgamated with the Austrian, from 1527 to 1851, the Kingdom of Hungary maintained its own customs controls, which separated her from the other parts of the Habsburg-ruled territories
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Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
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The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was a Ukrainian political organization created in 1929 in Vienna and acting in Western Ukraine. The OUN sought to infiltrate political parties, universities and other political structures. As revolutionary ultra-nationalists the OUN have been characterized by historians as fascist. The OUNs strategy to achieve Ukrainian independence included violence and terrorism against perceived foreign and domestic enemies, particularly Poland, in 1940, the OUN split into two parts. The older, more members, supported Andriy Melnyk while the younger. In response, the Nazi authorities suppressed OUN leadership, in October 1942 OUN-B established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. To preempt future Polish efforts at re-establishing Polands pre-war borders, in 1943-44 UPA military units carried out ethnic cleansing against Polish people. Historians estimate that 60, 000-100,000 Polish civilians were massacred in Volhynia, after the war, the UPA fought against Soviet and Polish government forces. During Operation Vistula in 1947, the Polish government deported 140,000 Ukrainian civilians in Poland to remove the support base for the UPA, in the struggle Soviet forces killed, arrested, or deported over 500,000 Ukrainian civilians. Many of those targeted by the Soviets included UPA members, their families, during the Cold War, the OUN was covertly supported by western intelligence agencies, including the CIA. On the other hand, some argue that far-right or extreme-right aspects of modern OUN descendants are emphasized by political opponents for electoral purposes. In 1919 with the end of the Polish–Ukrainian War, the Second Polish Republic took over most of the territory claimed by the West Ukrainian National Republic, the UVO was strictly a military organization with a military command-structure. Yevhen Konovalets, the commander of the elite Sich Riflemen unit of the Ukrainian military. West Ukrainian political parties secretly funded the organization, when in 1923 the Allies recognized Polish rule over western Ukraine, many members left the organization. The legal Ukrainian parties turned against the UVOs militant actions, preferring to work within the Polish political system, as a result, the UVO turned to Germany and Lithuania for political and financial support. Although the members consisted mostly of Galician youths, Yevhen Konovalets served as its first leader and its leadership council and this party promoted constitutional democracy and sought to achieve independence through peaceful means. UNDO was supported by the Ukrainian clergy, intelligentsia, and the establishment and published the main western Ukrainian newspaper. In contrast, the OUN accepted violence as a tool against foreign
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Abwehr
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The Abwehr was a German military intelligence organisation which existed from 1920 to 1945. The initial purpose of the Abwehr was defence against foreign espionage—an organisational role which later evolved considerably, to this end, the Abwehr gathered domestic and foreign information, most of it in the form of human intelligence. Each Abwehr station throughout Germany was based on districts and more offices were opened in amenable neutral countries. Its headquarters was located at 76/78 Tirpitzufer, Berlin, adjacent to the offices of the OKW, the Abwehr was created in 1920 as part of the German Ministry of Defence when the German government was allowed to form the Reichswehr, the military organization of the Weimar Republic. The first head of the Abwehr was Major Friedrich Gempp, a deputy to Colonel Walter Nicolai, the head of German intelligence during World War I. At that time it was composed of three officers and seven former officers, plus a clerical staff. When Gempp became a general, he was promoted out of the job as chief, to be followed by Major Günther Schwantes, by the 1920s, the slowly growing Abwehr was organised into three sections, The Reichsmarine intelligence staff merged with the Abwehr in 1928. His successes did not stop the other branches of the services from developing their own intelligence staffs. Army leaders also feared that the flights would endanger the secret plans for an attack on Poland, adolf Hitler ordered the termination of the overflights in 1934 after he signed a nonaggression treaty with Poland since these reconnaissance missions might be discovered and jeopardize the treaty. Patzig was fired in January 1935 as a result, and sent to command the new pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee and his replacement was another Reichsmarine captain, Wilhelm Canaris. Before he took over the Abwehr on 1 January 1935, the soon-to-be Admiral Canaris was warned by Patzig of attempts by Himmler, Canaris, a master of backroom dealings, thought he knew how to deal with Heydrich and Himmler. Even though he tried to maintain a relationship with them. For instance, Canariss Abwehr controlled the Armed Forces Deciphering operation, while the navy maintained its own listening service, further complicating COMINT matters, the Foreign Office also had its own communications security branch, the Pers Z. Matters came to a head in 1937 when Hitler decided to help Joseph Stalin in the purge of the Soviet military. Hitler ordered that the German Army staff should be kept in the dark about Stalins intentions, to conceal the thefts, fires were started at the break-ins, which included Abwehr headquarters. Instead of convincing Franco to assist the Nazi regime, Canaris advised him to out of the fight since he was certain the war was going to end in disaster for Germany. Thus, instead of helping the Nazis elicit allies to their side, experiencing an explosion in personnel of sorts, the Abwehr went from less than 150 employees to nearly one-thousand between 1935 and 1937. Throughout Canariss tenure it was headed by Generalmajor Hans Oster and this liaison with the OKW meant that the Foreign Branch was the appropriate channel to request Abwehr support for a particular mission
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Stepan Bandera
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Stepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian political activist and a leader of the nationalist and independence movement of Ukraine. In 1944, with Germany rapidly losing its supremacy in the war before the advancing Allies, Bandera was released, after the war, in 1959, in Munich, Germany, Bandera was assassinated by the KGB. On 22 January 2010, the outgoing President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, in January 2011, the award was officially annulled. Bandera remains a controversial figure both in Ukraine and internationally. Bandera was born in Uhryniv Staryi, Galiсia, Austria-Hungary and he attended the Fourth Form Grammar School in Stryi. In 1928, Bandera enrolled in the program at the Lviv Polytechnic. —one of the few programs open to Ukrainians at the time. This was due to restrictions placed on minority enrollment—aimed primarily at Jews, the most active of these organizations was the OUN, and the leader of the OUN was Andriy Melnyk. For Bandera, a policy of nation building was important and therefore. In the early 1930s, Bandera was very active in finding and developing groups of Ukrainian nationalists in both Western and Eastern Ukraine, Stepan Bandera became head of the OUN national executive in Galicia in June 1933. He expanded the OUNs network in the Kresy, directing it against both Poland and the Soviet Union, to stop expropriations, Bandera turned OUN against the Polish officials who were directly responsible for anti-Ukrainian policies. Activities included mass campaigns against Polish tobacco and alcohol monopolies and against the denationalization of Ukrainian youth and he was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to death. The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment and he was held in Wronki Prison, in 1938 some of his followers tried unsuccessfully to break him out of the jail. Soon thereafter Eastern Poland fell under Soviet occupation, upon release from prison, Bandera moved to Kraków, the capital of Germanys occupational General Government. There, he came in contact with the leader of the OUN, Bandera, which supported a revolutionary approach. OUN leaders Andriy Melnyk and Bandera were recruited before World War II into the Nazi Germany military intelligence Abwehr for espionage, counter-espionage and sabotage and their goal was to run diversion activities after Germanys attack on the Soviet Union. Melnyk was given code name Consul I and this information is part of the testimony that Abwehr Colonel Erwin Stolze gave on 25 December 1945 and submitted to the Nuremberg trials, with a request to be admitted as evidence. In spring of year the OUN received 2.5 million marks for subversive activities inside the USSR. Gestapo and Abwehr officials protected Bandera followers, as both organizations intended to use them for their own purposes, on 30 June 1941, with the arrival of Nazi troops in Ukraine, Bandera and the OUN-B declared an independent Ukrainian State
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Operation Barbarossa
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world. The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human
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Untermensch
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Untermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazis used it to describe non-Aryan inferior people often referred to as the masses from the East, that is Jews, Roma, and Slavs. The term was applied to most Blacks, and persons of color. Jewish people were to be exterminated in the Holocaust, Roma, and the physically and mentally disabled were also to be exterminated. According to the Generalplan Ost, the Slavic population of East-Central Europe was to be reduced in part through mass murder, a few populations deemed partially Aryan in origin, such as Czechs, Slovenians, or Estonians were to be Germanized. These concepts were an important part of the Nazi racial policy, while the Nazis were inconsistent in the implementation of their policy, the democidal death toll was in tens of millions of victims. It was later adopted by the Nazis from that books German version Der Kulturumsturz, the German word Untermensch had been used earlier, but not in a racial sense, for example in the 1899 novel Der Stechlin by Theodor Fontane. Since most writers who employed the term did not address the question of when and how the word entered the German language, Untermensch is usually translated into English as sub-human. The leading Nazi attributing the concept of the East-European under man to Stoddard is Alfred Rosenberg who, referring to Russian communists, jahrhunderts that this is the kind of human being that Lothrop Stoddard has called the under man. Quoting Stoddard, The Under-Man – the man who measures under the standards of capacity and adaptability imposed by the order in which he lives. It is possible that Stoddard constructed his under man as an opposite to Friedrich Nietzsches Übermensch concept, Stoddard doesnt say so explicitly, but he refers critically to the superman idea at the end of his book. For instance, German author Theodor Fontane contrasts the Übermensch/Untermensch word pair in chapter 33 of his novel Der Stechlin, earlier examples of Untermensch include Romanticist Jean Paul using the term in his novel Hesperus in reference to an Orangutan. In his speech Weltgefahr des Bolschewismus in 1936, Joseph Goebbels said that subhumans exist in people as a leavening agent. SS-Obersturmführer Ludwig Pröscholdt, Jupp Daehler and SS-Hauptamt-Schulungsamt Koenig are associated with its production,3,860,995 copies were printed in the German language. It was translated into Greek, French, Dutch, Danish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Czech, the pamphlet says the following, Nazis classified those they called the sub-humans into different types, they placed priority on extermination of the Jews, and exploitation of others as slaves. The Untermensch concept included Jews, Roma and Sinti, and Slavic peoples such as Poles, the Slavs were regarded as Untermenschen, barely fit for exploitation as slaves. Hitler and Goebbels compared them to the family or to stolid animals that were idle and disorganized. Biology classes in Nazi Germany schools taught about differences between the race of Nordic German Übermenschen and ignoble Jewish and Slavic subhumans, the view that Slavs were subhuman was widespread among the German masses, and chiefly applied to the Poles. It continued to support after the war
25.
District of Galicia
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The District of Galicia was a World War II administrative unit of the General Government created by Nazi Germany on 1 August 1941 after the opening of Operation Barbarossa. Founded by Adolf Hitler with the capital in Lemberg, the Galizien province existed from 1941 until 1944 and it ceased to exist after the Soviet counter-offensive. District of Galicia comprised mainly the pre-war Lwów Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic, the territory was taken over by Nazi Germany in 1941 after the attack on USSR and incorporated into the General Government, governed by Gauleiter Hans Frank since the invasion of 1939. The region was again by the Soviet Union in 1944. The district area was managed by Franks brother-in-law Karl Lasch from 1 August 1941 to 6 January 1942, Wächter utilised the district capital Lemberg as a recruitment base for the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Galicia. In the course of the Holocaust in occupied Poland starting from the year of the invasion, administrative division of Polish territories during World War II Soviet annexation of Western Ukraine, 1939–1940
26.
Eastern Front (World War II)
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The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, many of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of the European portion of World War II and it resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower. The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in action in the Eastern Front, the United Kingdom. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front, in addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Despite their ideological antipathy, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shared a dislike for the outcome of World War I. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. I need the Ukraine so that they cant starve us out, the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939. The annexations were never recognized by most Western states, the annexed Romanian territory was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum, acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast. The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a war of annihilation which was both an ideological and racial war. In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central, after Germanys initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he announced, We have only to kick in the door, thus, Germany expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialization and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Stalins central tenet, Socialism in one country, manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans from 1929 onwards. It served as a testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War
27.
Heinrich Himmler
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Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Nazi Germany. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler briefly appointed him a commander and later Commander of the Replacement Army. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, as a member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not see active service. He studied agronomy in college, and joined the Nazi Party in 1923, in 1929, he was appointed Reichsführer-SS by Hitler. Over the next 16 years, he developed the SS from a mere 290-man battalion into a paramilitary group. He was known to have good skills and for selecting highly competent subordinates. From 1943 onwards, he was both Chief of German Police and Minister of the Interior, overseeing all internal and external police and security forces, on Hitlers behalf, Himmler formed the Einsatzgruppen and built extermination camps. Most of them were Polish and Soviet citizens, realising that the war was lost, he attempted to open peace talks with the western Allies without Hitlers knowledge shortly before the war ended. Hearing of this, Hitler dismissed him all his posts in April 1945. Himmler attempted to go into hiding, but was detained and then arrested by British forces once his identity became known, while in British custody, he committed suicide on 23 May 1945. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was born in Munich on 7 October 1900 into a conservative middle-class Roman Catholic family and his father was Gebhard Himmler, a teacher, and his mother was Anna Maria Himmler, a devout Roman Catholic. Heinrich had two brothers, Gebhard Ludwig and Ernst Hermann, Himmlers first name, Heinrich, was that of his godfather, Prince Heinrich of Bavaria, a member of the royal family of Bavaria, who had been tutored by Gebhard Himmler. He attended a school in Landshut, where his father was deputy principal. While he did well in his schoolwork, he struggled in athletics and he had poor health, suffering from lifelong stomach complaints and other ailments. In his youth he trained daily with weights and exercised to become stronger, other boys at the school later remembered him as studious and awkward in social situations. Himmlers diary, which he kept intermittently from the age of ten, shows that he took a keen interest in current events, dueling, in 1915, he began training with the Landshut Cadet Corps. His father used his connections with the family to get Himmler accepted as an officer candidate. His brother, Gebhard, served on the front and saw combat, receiving the Iron Cross
28.
Volodymyr Kubiyovych
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Volodymyr Mykhailovych Kubiyovych, also spelled Kubiiovych or Kubijovyč was a Ukrainian geographer with a specialty in demography, a cartographer, an encyclopedist, politician, and statesman. During World War II he headed the Cracow-based Ukrainian Central Committee which organized social, Kubiyovych became a main proponent of the cooperation between certain Ukrainian Nationalist organizations and Nazi Germany with the ultimate goal of achieving an independent Ukrainian national state. After the war, he retired from work but became one of the leading scholars of the Ukrainian diaspora in the West. Kubiyovich was born in 1900 in Nowy Sącz, his father was an ethnic Ukrainian while his mother was an ethnic Pole, from 1918, Kubiyovych was educated at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. At the end of the Ukrainian-Polish war, he returned to his studies in geography at the Jagiellonian University. During the years 1928 to 1939, Kubiyovych taught at this institution as a lecturer, in 1940, he was appointed professor of the Ukrainian Free University in Prague which managed to preserve a precarious existence in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. At this time, he questioned official Polish statistics concerning the ethnic make-up of the inter-war Polish Republic and he was an editor and co-author of the pioneering Ukrainian-language Atlas of Ukraine and Adjacent Lands and the equally pioneering Ukrainian-language Geography of Ukraine and Neighbouring Lands. During World War II he headed the Ukrainian Central Committee in Cracow which was the officially recognized Ukrainian community and it was responsible for social services, veteran affairs, education, youth and economic activities. For example, after a flood and famine in Transcarpathia, the Committee was able to save, by late 1943 it operated 1,366 kitchens and was able to feed 100,000 people. When the Germans began to kill Ukrainian peasants in the Zamosc region for alleged resistance, Kubiyovychs protest to Hans Frank was able to halt that slaughter. The Committee was also able to build student residence housing for 7,000 students, provided scholarships worth 1.35 million zlotys, and organized over 100 youth groups, camps and sports clubs. These foreign units were formed mainly with volunteers recruited from nations that suffered enormously under the Soviet rule, Estonians, Latvians, Ukrainians, but also ethnic Russians. The proponent and formal organizer of the division was SS Brigadeführer Otto Wächter, the proposal was made to Himmler on March 1,1943 and the division was publicly inaugurated on 28 April. However, the Germans would not allow the use of the name Ukrainian in the divisions name, during the war, on more than one occasion Kubiyovych protested to the German authorities against the rough treatment of the local Ukrainian population. Some of this material was brought up as evidence at the famous Nuremberg Trials of Nazi war criminals. These sources also credit him with saving some three hundred people, basically Jews, from persecution by the Nazi authorities, in 1944, Kubiyovych, moved to Germany where he at first settled in the American occupation zone in West Germany, and then later moved to France. In Germany, he reorganized the Shevchenko Scientific Society as an émigré institution and he was its Secretary General from 1947 to 1963, and, from 1952, President of its European branch. In exile, Kubiyovych became the editor of the Ukrainian-language Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Studies
29.
History of Christianity in Ukraine
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The History of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the apostolic church. Although separated into various denominations, most Ukrainian Christians share a common faith and this tradition is represented in Ukraine by both Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, which have been at various historic times closely aligned with Ukrainian national self-identity. Additionally, a significant body of Christians belong to the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Christianity was most likely first introduced into the lands of present-day Ukraine by the Goths, who established the Chernyakhov culture in the 2nd century. However, the Gothic control over the area proved to be short-lived, as the Hunnic Empire swept into the area in the 4th century, Metropolitan Ilarion and other scholars have suggested that earlier Trypillian and Scythian religious practices, and hierarchical pantheism, influenced Christianitys later development in Ukraine. Saint Andrew the apostle is believed to have traveled up the shores of the Black Sea, to the area of present-day southern Ukraine. Belief in the visit of St. Andrew became widespread by the Middle Ages, and by 1621. Saint Titus, a disciple of St. Andrews, is venerated in Ukrainian churches. Although the Primary Chronicle refers to the apostle continuing his journey as far north as Novgorod, according to a 9th-century tradition, Pope Clement I was exiled to Chersonesos on the Crimean peninsula in 102, as was Pope Martin I in 655. Ostrogoths, who remained on present-day Ukrainian lands after the invasion of the Huns, a bishops seat had also existed since 868 across the Strait of Kerch, in the ancient city of Tmutarakan. The Polans and the Antes cultures, located so close to the Crimea, the relics of Pope St. Martin were allegedly retrieved by the Equal-to-apostles brothers Saints Cyril and Methodius, who passed through present-day Ukraine on their way to preach to the Khazars. In response to local disputes with clerics of the Latin Church, Cyril and Methodius appealed in person to the Bishop of Rome in 867 and their labors and request were met with approval, and their continued efforts planted the Christian faith into Ukrainian Rus. By 906, they had founded a diocese in Peremyshl, now Przemyśl in present-day Poland and their efforts, and those of their apostles, led to the translation of Christian Scriptures and service from Greek to Slavonic, and the eventual development of the modern Cyrillic alphabet. By the 9th century, it is known that the Slavic population of western Ukraine had accepted Christianity while under the rule of Great Moravia. Following the 860 assault on Constantinople by Rus forces under the command of Askold and Dir, returning to Kiev, the two actively championed Christianity for a period of 20 years, until they were murdered by the pagan Prince Oleg in the inter-princely rivalry for the Kiev throne. Patriarch Photios purportedly provided a bishop and priests from Constantinople to help in the Christianization of the Slavs, by 900, a church was already established in Kiev, St. Elijahs, modeled on a church of the same name in Constantinople. Christianity acceptance among the Rus nobility gained a vital proponent when Princess Olga and her baptism in 955 in either Kiev or Constantinople was a turning point in religious life of Rus but it was left to her grandson, Vladimir the Great, to make Kievan Rus a Christian state. Both Vladimir and Olga are venerated as the Equal-to-apostles saints by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Princess Olga of Kiev shortly after her baptism appealed to the Holy Roman emperor Otto the Great to send missionaries into Kievan Rus. Saint Adalbert, a Latin missionary bishop from Germany, was sent, but his missions, most of the group of Latin missionaries were slain by pagan forces sent by Olgas son, Prince Svyatoslav, who had taken the crown from his mother
30.
Walloon Legion
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The Walloon Legion was a collaborationist volunteer unit recruited from Belgiums French-speaking population in Wallonia and Brussels during the German occupation of World War II. The Walloon Legion served in the Wehrmacht, later in the Waffen-SS, the unit had its origins in Corps Franc Wallonie, consisting of men from the Formations de Combat, the paramilitary arm of the Rexist Party. The German occupation authorities ordered the formation of Wallonische Legion for service in the east, command of the Legion, which had absorbed the Corps Franc Wallonie, went to Captain-Commandant Georges Jacobs, a retired Belgian colonial officer. On 8 August 1941, the Legion, now 860 strong, was sent to Meseritz in East Prussia for basic training, in early October, the Legion was incorporated into the German Army as the 373rd Infantry Battalion. On 15 October it was ordered to the front, to operate as a part of Army Group South currently advancing through Ukraine, upon its arrival in Ukraine, the Battalion was assigned to the rear area to participate in anti-partisan duties. The Battalion was then attached to the 17th Army, in May 1942, the Battalion was attached to the 97th Jäger Division. During Fall Blau offensive into the Caucasus, the Walloons were positioned to guard the supply lines of the assault, in early August, the Walloons were called upon to clear a small village. During this battle, Degrelle was awarded the Iron Cross second class, in late August, the Battalion was posted to flank security. In June 1943 the Battalion was transferred to SS command, along with 1,600 new recruits, the unit was named the SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Wallonien, commanded by now SS-Sturmbannführer Lucien Lippert, with SS-Hauptsturmführer Leon Degrelle as second-in-command. In October, the Wallonien was redesignated 5th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Wallonien, by November 1943, the Wallonien was sent to Ukraine to fight alongside the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking. On 24 December 1943 the Soviet forces launched the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive, the Soviet forces soon encircled the forces of XLII and XI Army Corps near Korsun. During the battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket, the Wallonien was given the task of defending against Soviet attacks on the side of the pocket. After Lippert was killed, Degrelle took command of the Brigade, of the brigades 2,000 men, only 632 survived. For his actions, Degrelle was awarded the Knights Cross of the Iron Cross, the remains of the Wallonien was sent back to Wildflecken to be reformed. In June 1944, a 440-man battalion of the Wallonien was sent to Estonia to assist in the defence of the Tannenberg Line, after Operation Bagration began, Army Group North began to fall back into the Kurland Pocket. The battalion left through the port of Tallinn on the Baltic Sea, the shattered remnants of the Battalion were sent back to join the rest of the Brigade, which was located at Breslau. Together with the Langemarck, the Wallonien Sturmbrigade was upgraded to become the 28th SS Volunteer Grenadier Division Wallonien in October 1944 and its strength remained that of a reinforced brigade, around 8,000 men. Many lacked military training, about half were ready for action, personnel from the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism and the Blue Division were added to the division
31.
Nederlandsche SS
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The Nederlandsche SS was formed on September 11,1940. On November 1,1942 the name was changed to Germaansche SS in Nederland, the Nederlandsche SS in total counted about 7,000 members and was primarily a political formation. In addition it served as a reservoir for the Waffen-SS and they dressed in black uniforms that were based on those of the German SS. In a meeting on June 9,1940 between A. A, Mussert and Gottlob Berger of the German SS-Amt, Mussert was ordered by Hitler to recruit Dutch men for the Wiking division of the Waffen-SS. The Dutch volunteers would get their own regiment, the Standarte Westland, there were four reasons why the formation of extension of Himmlers SS in the Netherlands was important. First, the SS wished, as a result of Himmlers desire for expansion, second, the SS thought it to be of great importance for the recruitment of volunteers for the Waffen-SS. The Nederlandsche SS could not only serve as a pool of reserves, third, the Nederlandsche SS served to push Mussert in the desired direction of a Greater Germanic Reich. Finally, the formation of a Nederlandsche SS was of great propaganda value, at first Mussert refused to cooperate, but he had to make concessions to the German authorities to retain his own position. Despite his failure to cooperate and even advising NSB members not to serve in the SS, on September 11,1940 the Dutch SS was formed by Mussert, formally as Afdeling XI of the Nationaal-Socialistische Beweging making Mussert the theoretical leader of the department. Henk Feldmeijer, a protégé of Meinoud Rost van Tonningen was appointed Voorman, in practice, Feldmeijer reported to Rauter and Heinrich Himmler, completely bypassing Mussert and his NSB. Feldmeijer sought more and more integration with the German Allgemeine SS, a training school was opened for the Dutch SS at the Avegoor estate in Ellecom in the Spring of 1941. On 1 November 1942 the name was changed to Germaansche SS in Nederland and this change emphasized that it was the Greater German aspect rather than the Dutch - that was of greater importance. By the end of 1944 the Germaansche SS in Nederland only existed on paper, thanks to the tide against the Germans. As the Nederlandsche SS was supposed to be an elite corps, there were selections based on race, attitude to life, personality and physical condition. To become a member, the candidate had to satisfy the following conditions, the candidate had to give his word of honour that he knew nothing of any non-Aryan ancestors. At least 1.72 m in height, physically healthy, confirmed by medical examination. Exceptions were made for those who were true national socialists before May 9,1940, pledge of unconditional loyalty to all superiors. A thorough series of physical and genealogical examinations and investigations were made on each applicant, only after these were successfully concluded did the candidate officially become an SS-Man
32.
30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS
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The division was transferred to southeastern France by mid-August 1944 to combat the French Forces of the Interior. The divisions performance in combat was poor, and two mutinied, murdered their German leaders, and defected to the FFI. Other troops of the crossed the Swiss border and were interned. Afterwards, some of the personnel were transferred to the Russian Liberation Army while others were retained to form the SS White Ruthenian infantry brigade from January 1945. On 31 July 1944 orders were issued to form a division from the personnel of the Schutzmannschaft-Brigade Siegling, the initial organization of the division also included an artillery battalion, a cavalry battalion, and a training battalion. At this time, the full name was 30. The term Waffen-Grenadier was used to denote SS infantry divisions manned by personnel of other-than-German ethnicity, at the end of August 1944, division strength was estimated as 11,600 with the bulk originating from Belarus. The leadership cadre of the division was primarily German, in mid-August 1944, the division was moved by rail to southeastern France in the region of Belfort and Mulhouse. By October, the organization of the division had been altered to three regiments of three battalions each, a motorcycle battalion, an artillery battalion, and a field replacement battalion. The artillery battalion consisted of two batteries of captured 122-mm Soviet artillery pieces, elements of the division arrived in Vesoul on 20 August 1944 and were charged with the security of the Belfort Gap, particularly against operations conducted by the French Forces of the Interior. The same day, other elements of the division occupied the area around Camp Valdahon, subsequent events proved the division had serious issues of disaffection and even outright disloyalty to the Nazi cause. A similar defection occurred the day near Camp Valdahon and brought over hundreds of men, one antitank gun, eight heavy machine guns, four mortars. On 29 August 1944, the first and third battalions of the divisions 4th Regiment deserted and crossed the border into Switzerland. On 2 September, two squadrons of the cavalry battalion were surrounded and destroyed in a surprise attack at Melin by the Ukrainians who had defected in the Confracourt Woods. The subsequent investigation of events by German authorities resulted in some 2,300 men in the division being deemed unreliable. As punishment, these personnel were transferred to two field entrenchment construction regiments subordinated to the Karlsruhe Transport Commandant, leaving some 5,500 men still in the division. The extraordinary events in the division led to it being placed in Army Group G reserve. On 24 October 1944, the division had reorganized into three regiments, numbered 75 to 77, each of two infantry battalions and this organization accorded with the orders for formation of the division that had been issued in August 1944 by the SS Führungshauptamt
33.
Second Polish Republic
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The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland and it had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia, the Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west, the Second Republics land area was 388,634 km2, making it, in October 1938, the sixth largest country in Europe. After the annexation of Zaolzie, this grew to 389,720 km2, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, almost a third of population came from minority groups,13. 9% Ukrainians, 10% Jews,3. 1% Belarusians,2. 3% Germans and 3. 4% Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders, Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. By 1939, the Republic had become one of Europes major powers, the victorious Allies of World War I confirmed the rebirth of Poland in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. It was one of the stories of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Poland solidified its independence in a series of wars fought by the newly formed Polish Army from 1918 to 1921. The extent of the half of the interwar territory of Poland was settled diplomatically in 1922. In the course of World War I, Germany gradually gained overall dominance on the Eastern Front as the Imperial Russian Army fell back, German and Austro-Hungarian armies seized the Russian-ruled part of what became Poland. In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State, the Council administered the country under German auspices, pending the election of a king. A month before Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918 and the war ended, the Regency Council had dissolved the Council of State, with the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, most Polish political parties supported this move. On 23 October the Regency Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński, in 1918–1919, over 100 workers councils sprang up on Polish territories, on 5 November 1918, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in Austrian Galicia, the same day the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński, set up a Provisional Peoples Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On Sunday,10 November at 7 a. m, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison in Magdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaws railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski, next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces
34.
Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance
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The Ukrainian National Democratic Alliance, was the largest Ukrainian political party in the Second Polish Republic, active in territory that is currently Western Ukraine. It dominated the political life of the Ukrainian minority in Poland. UNDO was founded in 1925 and dissolved during the Soviet annexation of western Ukraine in 1939, throughout the interwar years, UNDO enjoyed both German and Soviet financial support in their struggle against Poland. UNDO like other western Ukrainian political parties considered Polish rule over current western Ukraine to be illegitimate, UNDO was essentially democratic in nature, guided by varying amounts of Catholic, liberal, and socialist ideology. UNDO supported constitutional democracy and the development of Ukrainian society that would prepare it for independence once the opportunity arose. In so doing, UNDO hoped to achieve through peaceful means that which was not attained through war, UNDO supported agrarian reform and the development and expansion of the Ukrainian cooperative movement, particularly agricultural and financial cooperatives. UNDO also maintained relations with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Ukrainian womens organizations actively participated in UNDO, which sent a representative to the Ukrainian parliament where she attained the position of party spokesperson. UNDO pursued a policy with respect to Polands next largest minority. UNDO protested acts of antisemitism and cooperated with Jewish representatives in the Polish parliament and it supported Jewish civil rights and fought against Polish attempts to limit Jewish cultural practices. For example, UNDOs representatives in the Polish parliament joined their Jewish colleagues in voting against an attempt to limit kosher slaughtering, UNDOs support for the Jews was largely driven by the belief that actions against Jews would set a precedent for future discrimination against Ukrainians. Following a Polish pogrom against Jews in 1936, an UNDO leader published an article called After the Jews Will Come Our Turn, while rejecting Polish offers of cooperation against Jews, UNDO spokesmen also blamed Jews for spreading Communism in Ukrainian villages. Seeing Poland as the enemy, in the 1920s while Soviet Ukraine was experiencing a cultural revival. Dmytro Levytsky, party leader, wrote in 1925, We are firmly convinced that, much like abstract communism, but as we register facts, we cannot make note of certain facts while ignoring others. Therefore, we state the well-known and unquestionable fact that the idea is growing, strengthening. With this in mind, UNDOs programme evolved into seeking a new understanding with Poland and this alienated some of its supporters and brought it into conflict with the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. UNDO was founded at a party congress in 1925 through the merger of three western Ukrainian political parties, under the leadership of Dmytro Levytsky, the vast majority of western Ukraines intelligentsia and clergy were members of UNDO. UNDOs members controlled many of the regions Ukrainian financial, cooperative, during the elections, it obtained approximately 600,000 votes and a large majority of the Ukrainian seats in the Polish parliament
35.
Ukrainian People's Republic
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Between April and December 1918 the Ukrainian Peoples Republic did not function, having been overthrown by the Ukrainian State of Pavlo Skoropadsky. From autumn 1919 the UNR operated as an ally of the Second Polish Republic, the 18 March 1921 Treaty of Riga between the Second Polish Republic, Soviet Russia and Soviet Ukraine sealed the fate of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic. These two sides fought constantly with each other, which resulted in casualties among Ukrainians fighting in a civil war as part of the wider Ukrainian-Soviet War of 1917-1921. The Soviet Union would extend control over what would become the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. On 10 June 1917 the Ukrainian Central Council declared its autonomy as part of the Russian Republic by its First Universal at the All-Ukrainian Military Congress, the highest governing body of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic became the General Secretariat headed by Volodymyr Vynnychenko. After the October Revolution the Kievan faction of the Bolshevik Party instigated the uprising in Kiev on November 8,1917 in order to establish Soviet power in the city. Kiev Military District forces attempted to stop it, but after the Tsentralna Rada threw its support behind the Bolsheviks, after expelling the government forces, the Rada announced a wider autonomy for the Ukrainian Republic, still maintaining ties to Russia, on November 22,1917. It also stated that the people of the governorates, Voronezh, Kholm, the Central Rada called all revolutionary activities such as the October Revolution a civil war and expressed its hopes for the resolution of the chaos. After a brief truce, the Bolsheviks realized that the Rada had no intention of supporting the Bolshevik Revolution and they re-organized into an All-Ukrainian Council of Soviets in December 1917 in an attempt to seize power. When that failed due to the Bolsheviks relative lack of popularity in Kiev, the Bolshevik Red Army entered Ukraine from the Russian SFSR in support of the local Soviet government. The Donetsk-Kryvoi Rog Republic was created by a decree of Lenin as part of the Russian SFSR with its capital in Kharkiv. That decree was implemented by Fyodor Sergeyev who became the chairman of the local government as well as joining the Soviet government of Ukraine. The congress accepted the declaration of a plan of Ukrainization of the Russian Army. The congress showed its support to the Ukrainian Central Council, Petty Council created of the Regional Committee in Protection of Revolution in Ukraine. The committee announced the extension of its powers over the nine Ukrainian governorates November 8 – the Ukrainian Central Council adopted a resolution which condemned the revolution, each deputy represents 100,000 of population, a right of vote have citizens of 20 years and older. International diplomatic missions transferred their offices from Mohyliv-Podilsky to Kiev, the Petty Council adopted the law about the new monetary system. The monetary unit became hryvnia that had 8.712 units of pure gold, less than a month later, on February 9,1918, the Red Army seized Kiev. Germany helped the Ukrainian Army force the Bolsheviks out of Ukraine, on February 20,1918 the council of the Kuban Peoples Republic accepted the resolution for a federal union of Kuban with Ukraine as Bolshevik forces pushed towards Yekaterinodar
36.
Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko
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Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army and of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic. Later, he served as Defence Minister for the Government-in-exile of the Ukrainian National Republic, mykhaylo Omelianovych-Pavlenko was born in Tiflis. His father, Volodymyr, was an officer in the Russian Imperial Army and his mother was of a Georgian aristocratic family. Omelianovych-Pavlenko attended the academy in Petersburg, graduating in 1900. He had a younger brother Ivan who later was fighting along with him, Pavlenko participated in the Russo-Japanese war as a company commander. Later, in 1910, he graduated from the General Staff School, during World War I, Pavlenko served as commander of many units - including a Ukrainian brigade in Yekaterinoslav. In the spring of 1917, Omelianovych-Pavlenko became a supporter of Ukrainian independence. He also initiated Ukrainian military academies in Zhytomyr and Kamyanets-Podilsky, on December 10,1918, Pavlenko assumed command of the Ukrainian Halitska Army, which he led until June 1919. After the union of the UHA and the army of the Ukrainian National Republic and he served as special attache to Symon Petlura. Omelianovych-Pavlenko commanded the army of the UNR during the First Winter Campaign, Pavlenko moved to Prague, where he headed the Alliance of Ukrainian Veterans Organizations. During the Second World War, after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Pavlenko headed a Ukrainian nationalist militia, the Ukrainian Liberation Army, that allied itself with the Axis Powers. At its peak it had 80,000 members, but was accused of committing war crimes, antisemitic and otherwise, in collaboration with the Wehrmacht. After World War II, Pavlenko moved to France, and became the Defence minister of the Government in exile of the Ukrainian National Republic from 1945 to 1948, Pavlenko was promoted to rank of Lieutenant General. Pavlenko authored four books, The Ukrainian-Polish War of 1918–19, The Winter Campaign, and two books of memoirs
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Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
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The Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church is one of the three major Orthodox Churches in Ukraine. It was reestablished for the time in 1990, right before the fall of the Soviet Union. The UAPC in its form, has its origins in the Sobor of 1921 in Kiev. Close to ten percent of the Christian population claim to be members of the UAPC, the other Orthodox Churches in Ukraine now are, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kiev Patriarchate, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Only the last of these three enjoys recognition by the Orthodox Christian community world-wide, with the creation of a new state, many Ukrainians felt the need for an indigenous autocephalous Orthodox Church free of Russian influence. The Kievan Metropolia was a product of the baptism of the Kievan Rus in the time of Grand Prince Vladimir the Great, missionaries were sent from Constantinople to instruct the people in the Byzantine-Orthodox faith. Monastic life flourished, including in the famous Kiev Monastery of the Caves, through the efforts of St. Anthony of Kiev, the sacking of Kiev itself in December 1240 during the Mongol Invasion led to the ultimate collapse of the Rus state. For many of its residents, the brutality of Mongol attacks sealed the fate of many choosing to find haven in the North East. In 1299, the Kievan Metropolitan Chair was moved to Vladimir by Metropolitan Maximus, as Vladimir-Suzdal, and later the Grand Duchy of Moscow continued to grow unhindered, the Orthodox religious link between them and Kiev remained strong. The fall of Constantinople in 1453, allowed the once daughter church of North East, to become autocephalous, from that moment on, the Churches of Ukraine and Russia went their own separate ways. Ukrainian clergy, for their Greek training, held key roles in the Russian Orthodox Church until the end of the 18th century, in the wake of the breakup of the Russian Empire some national groups sought autonomy or autocephaly from Moscow. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church was proclaimed under the Ukrainian National Republic in 1917, in 1921 an All-Ukrainian Sobor was called in Kiev, the capital of the newly independent Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church was declared independent from the Moscow Patriarchate. The Sobor delegates chose Metropolitan Vasyl Lypkivsky as head of the church, the 1921 Sobor has become known as the first resurrection of the UAOC. Metropolitans Vasyl Lypkivsky and Mykola Boretsky were eminent UAOC preachers, from the 1930s sermons in Soviet Ukraine were delivered mostly in Russian. Until 1944 the Orthodox theological seminaries in Western Ukraine taught homiletics, sermons were published in periodicals, a few years later in 1924, Gregory VII, Archbishop of Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch, issued a tomos establishing the Kievan Metropolia as an autocephalous entity. The responsibility of establishing a new Synod of Bishops was given to the Metropolitan-Archbishop of Warsaw, Ukrainian independence was short-lived in this period, and eventually the USSR came into being. During World War II, when Ukraine was a battleground between the German and Soviet Armies, Orthodox Ukrainians enjoyed somewhat increased freedom under German occupation. In May 1942, with the blessing of Metropolitan Dionisiy, more than a dozen bishops were consecrated in St. Andrew Cathedral, Kiev, finally, it seemed that ecclesiastical order could be established for the UAOC
Nazi Germany
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