Were communist rebels in WWII freedom fighters?

[Huckleberry Finn]

Fighting to replace one form of tyranny with another isn't quite freedom fighting.

^^^^^

I'd be willing to say some of them thought they were freedom fighters, but in reality they fought to replace one awful government with another.

Just like Dazzleman said, but Tito's Yugoslavia was a better place than Yugoslavia under the Nazi regime. Also we have to admit that Russia under the post war Soviet system was a better place than Russia under the Nazi regime would have been.

[DanielX]

Nominally the Chetniks, although none sound especially desirable. Me, if I were anywhere near Yugoslavia in 1942, i'd make a break for Turkey - as fast as possible!

Turkey had a semi-fascist government that sympathized with the Axis. If you wanted to get away from the commies, your best bet would've probably been to go to Italy and join the guerilla resistance against Mussolini.

Uhm... Turkey didn't kill its Jews, you know. My paternal grandparents lived in Turkey.

And if it's not Turkey, then I'd move to Switzerland.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Nominally the Chetniks, although none sound especially desirable. Me, if I were anywhere near Yugoslavia in 1942, i'd make a break for Turkey - as fast as possible!

Turkey had a semi-fascist government that sympathized with the Axis. If you wanted to get away from the commies, your best bet would've probably been to go to Italy and join the guerilla resistance against Mussolini.

Uhm... Turkey didn't kill its Jews, you know. My paternal grandparents lived in Turkey.

No, but it did smuggle resources to Germany. Near the end of the war when it became obvious Germany would lose they declared war on Germany to secure a spot in the United Nations, but sent no troops and did no military action. It was a neutral country that did lean toward the Axis, like Spain.

[Bono]

Nominally the Chetniks, although none sound especially desirable. Me, if I were anywhere near Yugoslavia in 1942, i'd make a break for Turkey - as fast as possible!

Turkey had a semi-fascist government that sympathized with the Axis. If you wanted to get away from the commies, your best bet would've probably been to go to Italy and join the guerilla resistance against Mussolini.

Uhm... Turkey didn't kill its Jews, you know. My paternal grandparents lived in Turkey.

No, but it did smuggle resources to Germany. Near the end of the war when it became obvious Germany would lose they declared war on Germany to secure a spot in the United Nations, but sent no troops and did no military action. It was a neutral country that did lean toward the Axis, like Spain.

So did Portugal. We were letting the allies use the air base at the Azores, but were selling Tungsten to the Germans in secret anyways.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Nominally the Chetniks, although none sound especially desirable. Me, if I were anywhere near Yugoslavia in 1942, i'd make a break for Turkey - as fast as possible!

Turkey had a semi-fascist government that sympathized with the Axis. If you wanted to get away from the commies, your best bet would've probably been to go to Italy and join the guerilla resistance against Mussolini.

Uhm... Turkey didn't kill its Jews, you know. My paternal grandparents lived in Turkey.

No, but it did smuggle resources to Germany. Near the end of the war when it became obvious Germany would lose they declared war on Germany to secure a spot in the United Nations, but sent no troops and did no military action. It was a neutral country that did lean toward the Axis, like Spain.

So did Portugal. We were letting the allies use the air base at the Azores, but were selling Tungsten to the Germans in secret anyways.

yes, not a suprise since you also had a fascist government at the time. Portugal was too afraid to openly side with Germany though because that would put them at war with the UK who was a threat to their colonies, hence letting them use the Azores base.

[patrick1]

Well John who was the best choice in Yugoslavia during WWII?

There were 3 factions:

Ustase: Croation nationalists. Sided with the Nazis and ran a Nazi puppet state, and planned on killing or forcibly removing any non-Croat from that state.

Chetniks: Serb nationalists and supporters of the Serb dominated royalty. Initially opposed the Nazis because of the connections to Ustase, but later eventually made a cease-fire, basically didn't care which side won and just wanted to return to a monarchist Serb-dominated Yugoslavia.

People's Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia: The communists. Tito's forces. Staunchly opposed to the Nazis and all forms of Fascism. Led by the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia. You'd be hard pressed to find a more staunchly anti-fascist historical figure than Tito. Later broke with Stalin and rest of the Eastern Bloc.

Who's the best?

BRTD, there were no good guys in the Balkans during WWII.  Much as in Greece, each vying party/ethnicity  took advantage of the current political/military situation to settle scores and attempt to seize post-war power.  They all commited varying acts of slaughter.  The chetniks killed an awful lot of Moslems- I thought you would like that- j/k.  The Ustate were slime and even some degenerate Catholic priests joined in the mayhem.  The communists were the most stridently anti-Nazi but you cannot excuse or overlook their horrendous behavior- like the Bleiburg massacre.  That being said, were I an OSS or British agent I  would have supported both the communists and Chetniks- to a varying degree and established a Western allied occupation of the post-war Balkans to clear the whole mess up.  Partition of Yugoslavia would have been much better had it been doen in 1946.  My Great Uncle was actually an OSS agent who spent time in the Balkans during WWII- he hated it there.  He and my grandfather both served in the CIA a few years after the war.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

The chetniks killed an awful lot of Moslems- I thought you would like that- j/k.

I see the j/k, but no, I don't support any indiscriminate massacres regardless of religion, hence why I oppose the Lebanese Falange, Bosnian Serbs of the 90s, Baathists and much of the current Israeli government. Aside from that Slavic Muslims are the most tolerable and probably the only ones that can be considered "liberal", they do drink alcohol and are really just as Muslim as Western Europeans are Christian. Not suprising though that the Chetniks would do so as most Muslims sided with the Ustase against the Serbs.

The Ustate were slime and even some degenerate Catholic priests joined in the mayhem.

yeah, everyone agrees there, by far the worst.

The communists were the most stridently anti-Nazi but you cannot excuse or overlook their horrendous behavior- like the Bleiburg massacre.

Same could be said of the Allies too. Dresden? You could probably also compile a list of communist atrocities that happened in their occupied territory. You could also do the same for Allies. There definately was some raping, theft, and abuse of German civilians during the advance on Germany. Doesn't make the Allies the bad guys.

That being said, were I an OSS or British agent I  would have supported both the communists and Chetniks- to a varying degree and established a Western allied occupation of the post-war Balkans to clear the whole mess up.  Partition of Yugoslavia would have been much better had it been doen in 1946.  My Great Uncle was actually an OSS agent who spent time in the Balkans during WWII- he hated it there.  He and my grandfather both served in the CIA a few years after the war.

The first part of your statement is basically what the Allies did. First they recongized the Chetniks as the main opposition force, then communists. A Westerb occupation in Eastern Europe though is easier said than done. Partition of Yugoslavia in 1946 would've been much better, but probably not possible. It was either Tito or a puppet of Stalin. The best case really possible happened, the most anti-Nazi faction won out, and they later told Stalin to go **** himself (Tito actually once sent Stalin a telegram saying that if he didn't quit sending spies to him he would "send a man to Moscow, and there would be no need to send any more." It sure takes balls of steel to say that to Stalin!)

[patrick1]

It does take balls to order widespread murder and sanction the widespread rape of woman as happened at Bleiburg.  I will agree that Tito certainly had large gonads- relative to the average man.