The People's Militia (Russian: Народное ополчение, romanized: Narodnoe opolcheniye, lit. 'popular regimentation', IPA:[nɐˈrodnəjəɐpɐlˈtɕenʲɪjə]) was the irregular troops formed from the population in the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. They fought behind front lines and alongside the regular army during several wars throughout its history.
The People's Militia is of the type known as "national troops" such as German Landwehr, and although often translated as the "people's militia",[1] "home guard",[2] "people-in-arms",[3] or "national popular army",[4] its members never belonged to an organised military force, but were in all cases selectively accepted from a body of volunteers during a national emergency.
The People's Militia features prominently in early Russian history, for example in The Tale of Igor's Campaign when it refers to the entire force led on a campaign. It was used for political purposes when the Grand Duchy of Moscow assumed the leading role in the 16th-century Russia. It sought to emphasise the tsar as the "father" of all of Russians, which included other principalities which sought to remain independent. Before the unification of Russians under the leadership of Moscow, each city and town had its own Opolcheniye not named Narodnoe, but named after the city or town, so Novgorodskoye Opolcheniye, Suzdalskoye Opolcheniye, Vladimirskoye Opolcheniye, etc. These were not militia as such, but armed crowds that, when attacked, would arm themselves and gather into a polk, which is translated in its modern meaning as a regiment. Dal'[4] gives other usages such as rat', voisko, opolcheniye, tolpa and vataga.
Although formed into regiments, divisions and even armies during their existence, the Opolcheniye never had their own permanent units, and it was only during their last creation in 1941 that they were transferred to the regular units and formations en masse.
During the War of the Fourth Coalition (1806–1807), the Narodnoe Opolcheniye was raise numbering some 612,000, but not used in combat.
In 1812 Narodnoe Opolcheniye of 420,000 was formed during the French invasion of Russia and was used extensively during the war[5] and into the 1813 campaigns. At this time the Cossackopolcheniye was also created that even included use of captured 18th- or even 17th -century Turkish cannon kept as trophies.[6]
During the Crimean War (1853–1856), a new Narodnoe Opolcheniye numbering about 360,000 was called out,[7] but not used in combat, although the 7,132 members of the Morskoye Opolcheniye formed from former naval and merchant officers and seamen did serve on active duty. [2]
During the reign of Alexander II of Russia from 1874 a Gosudarstvennoye Opolcheniye was created which existed until 1917. The primary organisational intent of the government was to offer administrative framework for the previously spontaneous creation of opolcheniye formations due to the ending of serfdom a decade earlier, and the increasing Socialist revolutionary activities. It was used in Siberia during the Russo-Japanese War.
The Narodnoe Opolcheniye was formed again in 1941 during the Great Patriotic War in significant numbers.[8] Sixteen divisions were formed in Moscow. Eighteen were formed in Leningrad, of which five became regular rifle divisions.[9]
^p.87, Summerfield; from "The Don Cossack Opolchenie in 1812" by L. M. Frantseva, found in the ISTORICHESKIE ZAPISKI, 1954, Book 47, pp. 291–307. English translation by Mark Conrad
Stephen Summerfield, Brazen Cross of Courage: Russian Opolchenie, Partizans and Freikorps During the Napoleonic Wars, Partizan Press, 2007 ISBN1-85818-555-6
Roger Chickering, Stig Förster, Bernd Greiner, A World at Total War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction, 1937-1945, German Historical Institute, Cambridge University Press, 2005 ISBN0-511-08213-4
Kirschenbaum, Lisa, The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941-1995: Myth, Memories, and Monuments, Cambridge University Press, 2006 ISBN0-521-86326-0
Russian Peasant Volunteers at the Beginning of the Crimean War, David Moon, Slavic Review, Vol. 51, No. 4, Winter, 1992
Glantz, David, Colossus Reborn: The Red Army at War, 1941-1943, University Press of Kansas, 2005 ISBN0-7006-1353-6
