What is the underground? This word has several meanings. The first involves a utility room located under the floor or basement. The second is social and political. This is the illegal activity of opposition organizations that work against existing regimes and governments. As a rule, it is prohibited by the legislation in force in the country and is pursued by law enforcement agencies.
The political underground: what is it and where can it be
Underground is of different types depending on the illegal activities carried out. It can be in any country. It is believed that the more democratic freedoms in a society, the less the need for underground activities, since the removal of an objectionable government, leader is possible in a legal way - through elections. As a rule, the underground appears where totalitarian regimes dominate, when absolutely all spheres of life, including personal,subordinate to the state.
But even in a democratic society, where everything that is not banned is allowed, there is not only legal opposition, but also hidden, that is, underground, but it cannot be mass. This happens because in any state there are areas that are in the sphere of its interests, both economic and political, whose activities are not regulated by democratic methods. Here they resort to either individual or collegial methods.
Structure
What is the underground? This is a secret, forced opposition to the regime, an organization that opposes its domestic and foreign policies. The underground by the type of its activity may have:
- Own organizations - parties, societies, unions that may aim to overthrow the ruling elite through armed struggle.
- Ideology - a scientifically based doctrine with which the organization wishes to achieve its goal.
- Propaganda - conveying your views, theories to the population with the help of typographical publications: leaflets, proclamations, newspapers, as well as radio, television, the Internet.
Types of category
What is the underground in terms of the ban on public participation in the consideration, discussion and resolution of political and economic issues in authoritarian states under occupation, colonial regimes? Here it is necessary to proceed from what types of activities are prohibited in the state. Among them:
- Political underground. Any covert action againstpower existing in the state. Usually they are in authoritarian regimes, where it is forbidden to have an opinion different from that imposed by the state.
- Revolutionary underground. This is a kind of political underground. It is created when state formations change. Secret political parties are formed here.
- Terrorist underground. This is a political underground that has its own goals, the achievement of which is carried out through violence - the use of weapons.
- Economic underground. This is a shadow economy, a criminal economy, the main purpose of which is to conceal income and avoid paying taxes. This type of underground can be in any state.
- Criminal underground. These are organizations (gangs). Their activities are aimed at the property of the state and citizens who also have weapons, but they have no political goals.
Underground during the war
During the war, part of the territories is captured by the enemy, an occupation regime is established. Patriotically minded citizens decide to go underground, carry out actions that cause damage to the occupiers (both economic and military). An example is the underground during the Great Patriotic War, when a large number of people went to partisans or, being in conspiracy, sabotaged economic activity, conducted covert military resistance, thereby risking their own lives. It was such an underground that diverted the military units of the enemy from the front line during the war, which helped the main troopsbring victory closer.
The Bolsheviks, having spent many years underground, had the practical skills of fighting in these conditions, their reliable rules of conspiracy. Therefore, during the retreat, trained people were left who were able to organize resistance in the occupied territories. A well-organized and secret underground operated in almost every city, performing sabotage and reconnaissance actions.
The Nazis had no less perfect mechanism for searching for underground organizations, which was developed in the thirties in the fight against the German underground. They used it in the occupied territories. This led to the destruction of organizations and the death of hundreds of people. But the resistance did not become smaller - it became massive.
Young Guard
An underground organization that operated in 1942-1943 in the city of Krasnodon, Voroshilovgrad region, occupied by the Nazis, consisted of young people, members of the Komsomol. It consisted of about 110 people. The "Young Guard" acted under the leadership of an underground party organization and committed a number of terrorist acts against the Nazis. As a result of the betrayal, the lists of the Young Guards fell into the hands of the Gestapo, which arrested almost all members of the structure.
After inhuman torture at the end of January 1943, crippled underground workers were thrown into the pit of a 57-meter mine. Above - carts for transporting coal and grenades. 71 people died in the mine. In early February, Oleg was shot in the gendarmerie of RovenkaKoshevoy is the head of the organization. Four more members of the headquarters of the "Young Guard" were shot in the forest near Rovenki.
After the liberation of Krasnodon, an investigation was conducted, which established all the details of the death of the underground. Five members of the headquarters were posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. They are Ivan Zemnukhov, Ulyana Gromova, Oleg Koshevoy, Sergey Tyulenin and Lyubov Shevtsova.
Anti-fascist and partisan movement
The partisan and anti-fascist movement in Russia has its own traditions and history. The partisans in the Patriotic War of 1812 had a great influence on the outcome of the war, when, escaping from the French, entire villages went into the forests. They made sorties, destroyed the convoys of the invaders, attacked small detachments, hid fodder and food. Seeing the benefit of the partisans, entire military units of the Russian army cooperated with them, for example, the cavalry detachment of hussars Denis Davydov, who became the commander of the partisan movement.
During the Civil War, partisan detachments in the Far East fought with entire military formations of the Japanese and White armies. The Japanese partisans did not take prisoners. Underground workers who carried out propaganda, collected information about the movement of enemy troops, committed acts of sabotage, had well-established communications with partisan detachments that made up entire divisions, armies.
In Europe, during the Second World War, an anti-fascist movement operated in the occupied territories, in which citizens of almost all countries took part. It took over FranceItaly, Poland, Yugoslavia, Slovakia, and even in Germany itself, there were organizations operating in the deep underground.
Partisans during the Great Patriotic War
The partisan movement on the territory of the USSR is part of the anti-fascist resistance. It was a "war within a war". It covered large areas of Oryol, Bryanshina, Smolensk, Kursk region, Ukraine and Belarus. This is an organized resistance, which was coordinated from the center. It included over a million people.
The tactics of the struggle included sabotage work, which included the destruction of communications, rail warfare, the destruction of communication lines, bridges, the collection of information about enemy forces, as well as open hostilities with enemy units. The Nazis had to withdraw selected units from the fronts to fight the partisans.
