Green Guard | |
---|---|
Зелена Гвардія | |
Active | 1942–1943 |
Disbanded | 1945 |
Country | ![]() |
Type | Partisan detachment |
Garrison/HQ | Kyiv |
Nickname(s) | Green Army |
Engagements | Eastern Front of World War II |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Osip Tsebriy |
The Green Guard ( Ukrainian: Зелена Гвардія) was an anarchist guerrilla unit in occupied Ukraine during World War II.
The Green Guard was formed in 1942 in the Kyiv Oblast, then part of the Reichskommissariat Ukraine, by the former Makhnovist Osip Tsebriy , [1] [2] who had returned from exile in France, on the other end of Nazi-occupied Europe. [3] Tsebriy tried to revive the tradition of the Makhnovschina among the Ukrainian peasants. [2] The partisans fought against the troops of Nazi Germany, as well as those of the Soviet Union, and Ukrainian nationalists. [2] In the winter of 1943, the Green Guard was crushed by anti-partisan German troops. [2] [3] Tsebriy went into hiding with the local peasants for several months, but in the end was captured. Unrecognized, he was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany, from where he was freed by the western Allies in 1945. [2] [3]
We have knowledge about at least one attempt at organizing armed struggle undertaken by anarchists in Ukraine. A former participant in the Makhnovist movement, Osip Tsebry, returned to the country illegally in 1942 and organized a partisan detachment in the Kiev region. In the tradition of its predecessors, it acted against both Germany and the USSR, until it was defeated by German forces in 1943.