Primordial Violence: German War On The Soviet Partisans

Primordial Violence: German War On The Soviet Partisans PDF

Author: Major Gus Kostas USMCR

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 53

ISBN-13: 1782898034

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In terms of Clausewitz’ paradoxical trinity, the German counter insurgency in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union 1941-1944, did not achieve a sense of balance. The second two legs of the trinity, the play of chance and probability and the element of subordination, were subverted by primordial violence and enmity. Clausewitz offers his paradoxical trinity as a viable framework for analyzing the inherent complexities of warfare. The three interdependent, dynamic aspects of the trinity must be balanced against each other if a successful plan for war is to prevail. Additionally, Clausewitz addresses the dynamics of insurgencies and counter insurgencies. With these two analytical frameworks, an examination of a specific campaign becomes plausible. The German efforts to thwart the partisan uprising in the occupied territories of the Eastern Front from 1941-1944 reflected the interplay of the Clausewitz triad. Primordial violence was imbued in the German people as a result of National Socialist indoctrination. The play of chance and probability reflected the largely successful active and passive measures employed by the German armed forces behind German lines in the east. The element of subordination was manifested in the pernicious Nazi policies and directives that inevitably dictated the conduct of the armed forces. As a result of Hitler’s imbalanced, irrational eastern strategy and sequent war on the partisans, primordial violence, enmity, and hatred superseded the other two legs of the trinity. Hitler’s unlimited political and military objectives ultimately were incompatible with the German Army’s ability to pragmatically prosecute the eastern war and pacify the population that supported the partisan resistance.

Primordial Violence

Primordial Violence PDF

Author: Usmc Command and Staff College

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2014-06-10

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9781500149680

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Clausewitz offers his paradoxical trinity as a viable framework for analyzing the inherent complexities of warfare. The three interdependent, dynamic aspects of the trinity must be balanced against each other if a successful plan for war is to prevail. Additionally, Clausewitz addresses the dynamics of insurgencies and counter insurgencies. With these two analytical frameworks, an examination of a specific campaign becomes plausible. The German war on the Soviet partisans in the occupied territories of the Eastern Front from 1941-1944 reflected the interplay of the trinity. Primordial violence was imbued in the German people as a result of National Socialist indoctrination. The play of chance and probability reflected the largely successful active and passive measures employed by the German armed forces behind the German front. The element of subordination was manifested in the pernicious Nazi occupation policies that inevitably dictated the conduct of the armed forces. As a result of Hitler's imbalanced, irrational eastern strategy and subsequent war on the partisans, primordial violence, enmity, and hatred superseded the other two legs of the trinity. Hitler's unlimited political and military objectives ultimately were incompatible with the German Army's ability to pragmatically prosecute the eastern war and pacify the population that supported the partisan resistance.

The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944

The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944 PDF

Author: Edgar M. Howell

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1782896171

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The purpose of this text is to provide the Army with a factual account of the organization and operations of the Soviet resistance movement behind the German forces on the Eastern Front during World War II. This movement offers a particularly valuable case study, for it can be viewed both in relation to the German occupation in the Soviet Union and to the offensive and defensive operations of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army. The scope of the study includes an over-all picture of a quasi-military organization in relation to a larger conflict between two regular armies. It is not a study in partisan tactics, nor is it intended to be. German measures taken to combat the partisan movement are sketched in, but the story in large part remains that of an organization and how it operated. The German planning for the invasion of Russia is treated at some length because many of the circumstances which favored the rise and development of the movement had their bases in errors the Germans made in their initial planning. The operations of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army are likewise described in considerable detail as the backdrop against which the operations of the partisan units are projected. Because of the lack of reliable Soviet sources, the story has been told much as the Germans recorded it. German documents written during the course of World War II constitute the principal sources, but many survivors who had experience in Russia have made important contributions based upon their personal experience.

War in the Wild East

War in the Wild East PDF

Author: Ben Shepherd

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-30

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 0674043553

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In Nazi eyes, the Soviet Union was the "wild east," a savage region ripe for exploitation, its subhuman inhabitants destined for extermination or helotry. An especially brutal dimension of the German army's eastern war was its anti-partisan campaign. This conflict brought death and destruction to thousands of Soviet civilians, and has been held as a prime example of ordinary German soldiers participating in the Nazi regime's annihilation policies. Ben Shepherd enters the heated debate over the wartime behavior of the Wehrmacht in a detailed study of the motivation and conduct of its anti-partisan campaign in the Soviet Union. He investigates how anti-partisan warfare was conducted, not by the generals, but by the far more numerous, average Germans serving as officers in the field. What shaped their behavior was more complex than Nazi ideology alone. The influence of German society, as well as of party and army, together with officers' grueling yet diverse experience of their environment and enemy, made them perceive the anti-partisan war in varied ways. Reactions ranged from extreme brutality to relative restraint; some sought less to terrorize the native population than to try to win it over. The emerging picture does not dilute the suffering the Wehrmacht's eastern war inflicted. It shows, however, that properly judging ordinary Germans' role in that war is more complicated than is indicated by either wholesale condemnation or wholesale exoneration. This valuable study offers a nuanced discussion of the diversity of behaviors within the German army, as well as providing a compelling exploration of the war and counterinsurgency operations on the eastern front.

The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944

The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944 PDF

Author: Leonid D. Grenkevich

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-01-11

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1136318585

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Partisans and terrorists have dominated military history during the second half of the 20th century. Leonid Grenkevich offers an account of the shadowy partisan struggle that accompanied the Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).

The Nazi War Against Soviet Partisans, 1941-1944

The Nazi War Against Soviet Partisans, 1941-1944 PDF

Author: Matthew Cooper

Publisher: Scarborough House

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 280

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Set largely in Eastern Europe, this is the history of one of the pivotal struggles of World War II. A story of action, retaliation and reprisals that involved some two million people, told from both side of the rifle sights.

After The Blitzkrieg: The German Army’s Transition To Defeat In The East

After The Blitzkrieg: The German Army’s Transition To Defeat In The East PDF

Author: Major Bob E. Willis Jr.

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13: 1782895760

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 sparked a guerilla resistance unparalleled in modern history in scale and ferocity. In the wake of the initial invasion, the German Army began its struggle to secure a territory encompassing one million square miles and sixty-five million people and to pacify a growing partisan resistance. The German endeavor to secure the occupied areas and suppress the partisan movement in the wake of Operation Barbarossa illustrates the nature of the problem of bridging the gap between rapid, decisive combat operations and “shaping” the post-major conflict environment-securing populations and infrastructure and persuading people to accept the transition from a defeated government to a new one. In this regard, the German experience on the Eastern Front following Operation Barbarossa seems to offer a number of similarities to the U.S. experience in Iraq in the aftermath of OIF. This study highlights what may be some of the enduring qualities about the nature of the transition between decisive battle and political end state-particularly when that end state is regime change. It elaborates on the notion of decisive battle, how the formulation of resistance movements can be explained as complex adaptive systems, the potential of indigenous security forces and the influence of doctrine, cultural appreciation and interagency cooperation on operational-level transition planning.

Heroes and Villains

Heroes and Villains PDF

Author: David R. Marples

Publisher: Central European University Press

Published: 2007-01-01

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9789637326981

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Certain to engender debate in the media, especially in Ukraine itself, as well as the academic community. Using a wide selection of newspapers, journals, monographs, and school textbooks from different regions of the country, the book examines the sensitive issue of the changing perspectives ? often shifting 180 degrees ? on several events discussed in the new narratives of the Stalin years published in the Ukraine since the late Gorbachev period until 2005. These events were pivotal to Ukrainian history in the 20th century, including the Famine of 1932?33 and Ukrainian insurgency during the war years. This latter period is particularly disputed, and analyzed with regard to the roles of the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) and the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) during and after the war. Were these organizations "freedom fighters" or "collaborators"? To what extent are they the architects of the modern independent state? "This excellent book fills a longstanding void in literature on the politics of memory in Eastern Europe. Professor Marples has produced an innovative and courageous study of how postcommunist Ukraine is rewriting its Stalinist and wartime past by gradually but inconsistently substituting Soviet models with nationalist interpretations. Grounded in an attentive reading of Ukrainian scholarship and journalism from the last two decades, this book offers a balanced take on such sensitive issues as the Great Famine of 1932-33 and the role of the Ukrainian nationalist insurgents during World War II. Instead of taking sides in the passionate debates on these subjects, Marples analyzes the debates themselves as discursive sites where a new national history is being forged. Clearly written and well argued, this study will make a major impact both within and beyond academia." - Serhy Yekelchyk, University of Victoria

The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 2, Politics and Ideology

The Cambridge History of the Second World War: Volume 2, Politics and Ideology PDF

Author: Richard Bosworth

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-11-23

Total Pages: 718

ISBN-13: 9781108406406

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

War is often described as an extension of politics by violent means. With contributions from twenty-eight eminent historians, Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of the Second World War examines the relationship between ideology and politics in the war's origins, dynamics and consequences. Part I examines the ideologies of the combatants and shows how the war can be understood as a struggle of words, ideas and values with the rival powers expressing divergent claims to justice and controlling news from the front in order to sustain moral and influence international opinion. Part II looks at politics from the perspective of pre-war and wartime diplomacy as well as examining the way in which neutrals were treated and behaved. The volume concludes by assessing the impact of states, politics and ideology on the fate of individuals as occupied and liberated peoples, collaborators and resistors, and as British and French colonial subjects.