The Green Guard (Ukrainian: Зелена Гвардія) was an anarchist guerrilla unit in occupied Ukraine during World War II.
Green Guard | |
---|---|
Зелена Гвардія | |
Active | 1942–1943 |
Disbanded | 1945 |
Country | Ukraine |
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 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.