This article examines the activities of the anti-Soviet underground and the partisan movement of Belarusian nationalists in their struggle against both Soviet and German occupiers during the Second World War and the immediate postwar years. The study highlights that the initiatives of the Belarusian National Community (BNC) and the Belarusian Independence Party (BIP) gave rise to nationalist partisan formations – the Belarusian People’s Partisan Movement (BPPM) and the Belarusian Liberation Army (BLA) – which played a notable role within the broader Belarusian resistance. Alongside Soviet partisan detachments, a variety of non-communist armed groups operated in Belarus during this period. These included the Polish nationalist movement, represented above all by the Home Army (Armia Krajowa, AK), an underground force subordinated to the Polish government-in-exile in London; the Ukrainian nationalist movement, initially embodied by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army «Polissia Sich» (UPA-PS) and the Ukrainian People’s Revolutionary Army (UNRA) under Ataman Taras Bulba-Borovets, whose ranks comprised supporters of restoring the Ukrainian People’s Republic of 1918–1921, and, from mid-1943, by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) led by S. Bandera. The Belarusian nationalist partisan movement, represented by diverse anti-communist groups committed to national independence, was collectively known during the war as the Belarusian People’s Partisan Movement (the so-called «partyzanka») and, after the end of the occupation, as the Belarusian Liberation Army. The authors conclude that the historical truth about the genuine protagonists of the Belarusian partisan struggle is gradually re-emerging in the collective memory of the citizens of the Republic of Belarus. This process unfolds despite the persistence of the Lukashenka regime in adhering to the falsified ideological narratives of the Kremlin. Recognition of the legitimacy of this struggle, they argue, is only a matter of time and will ultimately depend on the victory of democracy over totalitarianism, in the name of securing a better future for forthcoming generations of the Belarusian people.
Kaliberda et al. (Wed,) studied this question.