p By 1944 Slovakia had become the centre of Czechoslovak resistance. Towards the end of August partisan operations began to grow into a massive guerrilla war, a national armed uprising. Sensing danger, the German Command began massing troops. There was no time to be lost, and on August 25 the partisans mounted an active offensive. In the early morning hours of August 30 they poured into the town of Banska-Bystrica, took possession of it and made it the centre of a rising that involved the population of 18 districts in central and part of eastern Slovakia.

p The aim of the rising was to help liberate the country by striking against the nazi troops from the rear and thereby 175 helping the Red Army cross the difficult Carpathian spurs.

p The Germans flung against the Slovaks eight picked divisions, whose attacks the partisans repelled for two long months, inflicting heavy casualties. The partisan units consisting of workers and farmers proved the most dependable.

p The Soviet Union rendered the Slovak resistance fighters extensive aid. Soviet partisan detachments that had penetrated into Slovakia fought shoulder to shoulder with them. Soviet aircraft landed arms, ammunition and medical supplies near Banska-Bystrica and elsewhere, and on return flights evacuated the wounded and sick, women and children. A paratroop brigade of Czechs and Slovaks, activated in Soviet territory, was also flown in.

p To support the Slovak rising, the Soviet Government organised the East-Carpathian Operation, committing to it troops of the ist, and and 4th Ukrainian Fronts and the ist Czechoslovak Army Corps. The Dukla operation opened on September 8 in extremely difficult mountain terrain which the Germans had strongly fortified. The enemy continuously sent fresh forces into the battle.

p On October 6, Czechoslovak and Soviet units reached the Czechoslovak frontier, taking possession of the Dukla Pass. In the heavy fighting the new army of the future free Czechoslovakia came into being, and October 6 became Czechoslovak People’s Army Day. The Dukla operation effectively aided the Slovak rising.

p In view of the balance of strength, the leaders of the rising, hard-pressed by the enemy, decided to withdraw from the liberated territory and revert to guerrilla warfare, which they conducted until the final liberation of Slovakia.

p The Slovak rising was a logical result of the national liberation struggle that erupted the day after Munich. It was a culmination point in the revolutionary anti-fascist struggle in that part of Europe, a stirring chapter in the glorious history of the Czechs and Slovaks, a chapter that played a prominent part in their national destiny and the popular fight for the new, people’s democratic system in Czechoslovakia.

p The decisive part in the uprising was played by the Czechoslovak Communist Party, the Slovak Communists. They stood at its head and their example, their lofty patriotism, had a tremendous impact. In those days, the Communists 176 won immense prestige as men who best understood the national interest.

p The Slovak uprising was internationalist. People of nearly 30 nationalities took part in it. Fighting by the side of the Slovaks, who comprised the bulk of the insurrectionists, were 3,000 Soviet partisans, 2,000 Czechs, 800 Hungarians, 400 Frenchmen, 80 German anti-fascists, 70-100 Poles, more than a hundred Yugoslavs, 50 Americans and Britons, as well as Greeks, Italians, Bulgarians, Belgians, Dutchmen, Austrians, etc.  [176•1  This was evidence of the general expansion of the anti-fascist struggle in Europe.

p The uprising was a serious setback to the nazis, disrupting an important rear zone near the battle-lines. The hitlerites lost nearly 56,000 men in fighting the partisans during and after the insurrection.  [176•2 

The Slovak rising and the Dukla operation had a benign effect on the Soviet-Czechoslovak combat alliance, sealed with the blood of Soviet, Czech and Slovak soldiers in common struggle. Klement Gottwald said: "At Dukla was born the slogan that is firmly embedded in the hearts and the consciousness of our people: With the Soviet Union for all time! With the Soviet Union forever!"  [176•3