Survival in the Russian Occupied Zone: Command and Organization in Resistance Underground Operations

With renewed U.S. national security focus on great-power conflict and competition, specifically with peer competitors China and Russia, a comprehensive understanding of unconventional warfare and related resistance operations becomes a significant objective for U.S. special operations forces (SOF) and the broader conventional land component. The U.S. Department of Defense explains a resistance movement as “an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to resist the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability.”¹

 A recent definition in the joint Swedish Defence University/U.S. Special Operations Command Europe Resistance Operating Concept offers a slightly different characterization for legitimate governments aiming to restore their sovereignty. The Resistance Operating Concept describes resistance as “a nation’s organized, whole-of-society effort, encompassing the full range of activities from nonviolent to violent, led by a legally established government (potentially exiled/displaced or shadow) to reestablish independence and autonomy within its sovereign territory that has been wholly or partially occupied by a foreign power.”² Using the Swedish variant for this article, resistance capabilities provide a sovereign nation an additional element of national defense that contributes to deterrence against an adversary, imposes real costs on an occupier, and sets conditions for the liberation of occupied national territory. A strategy of resistance coupled with conventional military forces can make a nation “indigestible” in the face of an occupation.³ A significant component for successful resistance operations is a survivable and sustainable stay-behind underground network.

While underground or stay-behind resistance networks are important considerations in all theaters, the European theater, with relevant European historical examples, demonstrates the need for a threatened state to articulate a clear national purpose for its stay-behind organization and establish a structured clandestine cellular network for the survivable core of its resistance effort. Russian forces or proxies currently occupy portions of sovereign Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova, and the threat of Russian aggression and the resulting partial occupation of territory is a real concern for any state bordering Russia. For such countries, prudent national security measures require that resistance operations be integrated into national defense planning.

A better understanding of resistance activities will assist U.S. SOF and the U.S. Army in effectively supporting threatened allies and partners against peer adversaries. Particularly for the U.S. Army, this knowledge will aid in planning for liaison and synchronization activities with allied resistance underground networks to achieve campaign and liberation objectives.