World War II: Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
The Slovak National Uprising (Slovak: Slovenské národné povstanie, abbreviated SNP) was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. This resistance movement was represented mainly by the members of the Democratic Party, but also by social democrats and Communists, albeit on a smaller scale. It was launched on 29 August 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to resist German troops that had occupied Slovak territory and to overthrow the collaborationist government of Jozef Tiso. Although the resistance was largely defeated by German forces, guerrilla operations continued until the Red Army, Czechoslovak Army and Romanian Army liberated Fascist Slovakia in 1945.
In the post-war period, many political entities, mainly the Communists, attempted to "hijack" the uprising to their credit. The Communist regime in Czechoslovakia presented the Uprising as an event initiated and governed by Communist forces. Some Slovak nationalists, on the other hand, claim that the uprising was a plot against the Slovak nation, as one of its main objectives was to oust the regime of the puppet Slovak state and reestablish Czechoslovakia. In fact, many factions fought in the uprising, the largest of which were units of the Slovak Army, Democratic resistance, Communist partisans, and international forces. Given this fractionalization, the Uprising did not have unambiguous popular support. Yet the participants and supporters of the Uprising represented every religion, class, age, and anti-Nazi political fraction of the Slovak nation.