Spitz teams are volunteer paramilitary organizations that, together with the army and the police, participated in the suppression of the September uprising in Bulgaria . The name comes from the "Spitz" shoes worn by members of the Spitz teams.
The creation of the spitz teams was caused by the decision of the inter-allied military commission in Bulgaria, which allowed the formation of volunteer groups, numbering no more than 1000 people, to maintain public order in front of the threat of communist unrest [1] . Initially, Spitz teams were forbidden to use weapons, but in 1923 the inter-allied military commission issued permission to mobilize additional “volunteers”, the main images of reserve officers and reservists [2] .
Members of the Spitz teams distinguished themselves in the defense of Berkovits . Despite the fact that they were forced to retreat, the defenders - mostly poorly armed volunteers - were able to capture two red flags [3] .
Documented cases of ill-treatment of members of spitz teams with captive rebels and civilians [4] .
Notes
- ↑ Decision on the liquidation body at the Inter-Allied Military Commission in Bulgaria from Sept. 19, 1920, published in the Septemvrian Antifascist Rise, 1923 Documents and Materials. Volume 2, ed. 1983
- ↑ Yanchev, Veselin. Officers without Pagoni. Subject to reserve officers in Bulgaria 1907-1945, Sofia 2000, p. 55
- ↑ Archpriest Yordan Popov. Notes on non-Bulgarian uprisings, Sofia 1992, p. 27-28, 36-37
- ↑ Milan Milanov, "From Petrohan to Lom," Montana, ed. 1973