ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses the significance of the role played by what has become generally known as the “anti-communist armed resistance” in the post-1989 memory politics but also as part of a broader historical and cultural narrative of a heroic national resistance to communism and Soviet oppression. Two opposing interpretations of the armed resistance are here presented. The first, promoted by a heterogeneous anti-communist alliance, described it as patriotic, nationalist, and heroic. The second, adopted by actors with direct roots in the old regime (former members of the communist nomenklatura and the secret police) either trivialized it or portrayed it as criminal, unpatriotic, and treasonous. An examination of this history as local lived experience based on a critical interpretation of the testimonies and oral histories of former partisans, their descendants, and the communities they lived in shows that both interpretations are biased. In fact, these groups and their supporters who were primarily located in rural mountainous regions were above all attempting to cope with the sudden and repressive processes of collectivization and communization.
