Harish, Ivan

The early years

Born November 17, 1903 in the village of Slapno near Ozal in a poor peasant family. He had ten brothers and sisters. He graduated from elementary school in Mali Yeryavac, where he studied at a joiner. He worked in Karlovac, where he joined the revolutionary labor movement. For participation in the strike in 1922 he was sent to prison, after his release he moved to Zagreb, where he continued his activities. After serving a year in the army, he left the country on the advice of his brother.

Traveling America

The first country Harish visited was Canada . There he met with revolutionary figures, but because of problems with the authorities he was forced to leave for Mexico , settling in Veracruz . There he joined the Socialist Party of Yugoslavia . In 1931, he moved to Panama and got a job at a furniture factory, joining a syndicate. He was again expelled for participating in the strike, and Harish had to move to Colombia , where he continued to fight for the rights of workers. On May 1, 1932, in Porto Cartechen, he took part in demonstrations under the slogans “We want work! We want bread! ”, For which he was again arrested and deported from the country.

The next stopping point was Ecuador , where in the city of Quito Ivan established relations with the socialist party led by Domingo Romero Teran. Under the slogan “Enslaved peoples of South America, unite!” This party raised a revolt in the country, which lasted 13 days (Ivan served in the rebel army as an artilleryman). After the suppression of the uprising, he fled to Oriente and worked for a while on a gold mine on the Napo River. In 1934, Ivan came to Argentina through Peru and Chile , where he worked as a bridge builder in the San Carlos de Bariloche National Park. There he met with members of the Communist Party , where he was accepted. Actively engaged in assistance to various international workers' organizations, was a member of the Red Aid organization.

Spanish Civil War and

In 1936, Ivan volunteered to fight in Spain on the side of the Republicans. In early January 1937 he joined the detachment of Domingo Ungria. He served as a saboteur, at the end of military courses he became an instructor in sabotage squads. His mentor was Ilya Grigorievich Starinov , Colonel of the USSR Engineering Troops. In 1938, Harish took the position of adviser to the headquarters of the 133rd sabotage brigade of the 14th sabotage corps ( Extremadura ). Until the end of the war, he worked as a translator at the Embassy of the USSR in Valencia.

After the war, Ivan was sent to the concentration camp Ardeles (France), then to Gears and again to Ardeles. In March 1941, Ivan fled from the camp and, at the request of the party and with the help of Vladimir Chetkovich, went to Yugoslavia. At first Harish managed to get to Lyon , where, with the help of the Swedish consul, he got a job as an AKEN aluminum smelter on the Elbe. As a laborer, he requested a 21-day vacation, after which he fled from Germany to Austria at the earliest opportunity. At the end of June, Ivan arrived in Zagreb , on Tratinsky Street, in the house of Stefica Strock-Crnoevich, where he met his friends from Spain. From Zagreb, with the help of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Communist Party, he got to Karlovac with Josip Crash and Ivan Marinkovic .

During the years of the People's Liberation War

In July 1941, the Karlovac District Communist Party Committee met for a meeting in the Zadobar Forest near Karlovac. Ivan Harish, as an experienced saboteur, asked Ivan Marinkovich, the secretary of the committee, to send him to those lands where sabotage could be carried out on the largest possible scale. In mid-August, Ivan arrived in Dreznitsa, then came to the Croatian coast and Gorski Kotar, where he began to carry out the first sabotage. On September 9, 1941, an Italian train took off near Lika: 17 detonation chests (25 kg each) were detonated. After 10 days, a second train exploded in the Sungersky tunnel, and 750 Italian soldiers died in the explosion.

Harish was engaged in the purchase of explosives, recruited new partisans and trained them in sabotage. Constantly he and his group arranged sabotage, causing damage to the enemy in manpower and equipment, as well as destroying strategically important objects. On February 26, 1942, Ivan on the May river on the Karlovac-Tsaprag road blew up a railway bridge, which was disabled until the end of the war. He conducted similar operations on the roads of Banja Luka - Suna and Bihach - Suna, the bombings there became one of the largest in the whole war. Harish was also involved in the destruction of the Volensky viaduct. Similar events took place throughout Croatia: in Posavin, Lika, Slavonia, Bosnian Krajina and other lands.

During the war, Ivan created separate sabotage groups, companies and battalions that dealt with the destruction of roads, bridges, railway stations, the collapse of tunnels, warehouses, the destruction of cars and trucks, and even aircraft. So, on July 19, 1944, a powerful explosion occurred at the Kurilovets airfield: 800 tons of air bombs detonated, as a result of which the airfield was completely destroyed, three aircraft were burned, and another 300 German soldiers became victims of the explosion. This diversion was also organized by Harish. On August 15, 1942 , even earlier, Ivan organized a no less powerful sabotage: on the Novoselats-Krizh road, on a bridge to Chesme, he set up a mine that was driven by the Orient Simplon train from Dijon. As a result of the explosion, the train went off the rails, 21 wagons were destroyed, 376 German officers were sent on their way to the Eastern Front. Among the victims was also a representative of the Bulgarian military mission, who was negotiating with Ante Pavelich .

The people of Ivan were nicknamed “Ilya the Thunderer” ( Serbochor. Ilija Gromovnik ), as his sabotage became a thunderbolt for the invaders. His wards at the Borongai training airfield on December 28, 1944, organized a powerful explosion, which resulted in five planes exploded: four Dornier Do 17 and one Junkers Ju 52 (Pavelich’s personal plane). During the war, 1470 enemy trains were blown up by saboteurs, 350 bridges were destroyed, 27 thousand soldiers and officers of the German army were destroyed (including three generals). Ivan Harish himself personally participated in the destruction of 150 trains and 27 bridges. His sabotage helped not only to clear the territory of the enemy’s forces, but also to withdraw American pilots, whose planes were shot down by enemy aircraft and air defense, to the location of units of the Yugoslav troops.

After the war, he graduated from the Party School and the Higher Military Academy of the UNA. He held positions in the General Staff of the Engineering Troops, was the chief of the staff of the command of the engineering forces of the JNA. He retired with the rank of major general, wrote two books. Died July 16, 1989 in Zagreb . He was awarded a number of orders and medals, including the Order of the National Hero ( September 25, 1944 ).

• “Folk Heroes of Yugoslavia”. Beograd: Mladost. 1975.
• "Dnevnik diverzantskih akcija u Hrvatskoj". Zagreb: Spektar. 1977.
• "Diverzant". Zagreb. 2007.