Start the evacuation!
The year was 1944. On the evening of 29 August, shortly after 8:00 p.m., Lieutenant Colonel of the General Staff, Ján Golian, sent the slogan “Start the evacuation” to the military garrisons. This was the signal for the start of the uprising that today we rightly call Slovak and national. One of the key events in Slovak history, due to which Slovakia was placed on the side of the winning coalition.
The Slovak National Uprising was a reaction of domestic resistance to the entry of Nazi occupation troops into our territory. It was also aimed against the authoritarian government of Jozef Tiso and the ruling Hlinka Slovak People’s Party. Banská Bystrica, where the command of the 1st Czechoslovak Army was located, became the centre of the SNP. Its intention was to defend the rebel territory, where some 1.7 million inhabitants lived over an area of 20,000 km2, until the arrival of the Red Army. This ambitious plan was to be carried out by the armed forces represented by the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia and partisan fighters. During the second month of fighting, the rebel armed forces had a total of some 77,500 people. Despite the military defeat in October 1944, no complete destruction or capitulation or end of organised armed resistance occurred. It continued with partisan fighting until the final liberation of Slovakia. The almost two-month defence of the insurgent territory against the onslaught of the German occupation forces, which was provided by the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia and partisan formations, however, would not have been possible – likewise the partisan war after the retreat to the mountains – without the help of the Allies and the civilian population.
The Slovak National Uprising had its ups and downs, its successes and mistakes. But if we put its results – with all its advantages and disadvantages – on the imaginary scale of history, its moral, political and military benefits clearly prevail. The Slovak National Uprising is recorded in our history, as in the European history of anti-fascist resistance, as an inescapable historical fact. It became an integral part of the European anti-fascist and national liberation wave, which rose unstoppably from the fundamental breakthrough on the fronts in 1943.
This year, on 29 August, 80 years will have passed since the issuance of the order “Start the evacuation!” We can truly be proud that the community of democratic states highly values and appreciates the Slovak National Uprising as a proper contribution to the European anti-fascist resistance movement and the defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies.
Text: VHÚ/SNP Museum
