The Domestic Resistance was closely connected with the personalities of teacher Jozef Podhorany, who gained experience with illegal activities already in Liptov, and with the evangelical pastor Ondrej Pecka. Both refused to use the commanded fascist salute “On Guard” also in official communication. Jozef Podhorany was publishing an illegal magazine Utok (Attack) in Hradna from April of 1942 to April of 1944. It was published irregularly in the number of 300-800 copies. He also printed various anti-fascist leaflets on the reproduction machine of the cycle style, which he hid in the school and later in Stefan Kocian's cellar in Hradna. Other local residents also joined the resistance. They acted as mediators between the command of the Second Partisan Brigade of Milan Rastislav Stefanik in Kunerad. Moreover, they made smaller raids, hid explosives in the Partizanska Cave in Sulov, women baked bread at night, provided clothing or other material assistance. Certainly, they did so with awareness and fear what punishment awaited the partisan helpers. The first raid of the village by the Germans took place on the 29th of September in 1944, when they captured hiding Jews in Hradna and Sulov, as well as Ondrej Pecka and Jozef Podhorany. Ukrainian Vlasov army, who fought under German command, were stationed in the Upper Courtyard. On the other hand, the partisans killed one local resident in Sulov, and they also killed one person from Hlinik because of reporting. The commander of the local partisan unit was Major Pavol Zazula from Kiev. He stayed at the school in Vrchtepla, and Ivan Slivin after his death. Konstantin Karpociv Popov was a commander of the Second Czechoslovak Partisan Brigade. The Germans looted Sulov and Hradna on the 17th of April, and again on the 27th of April. On the 28th of April, they planned to build a defensive line in the village but a heavy downpour prevented the supply of cannons and cars the next day, so they moved on. The last Germans left Sulov in the direction of Bytca, where they managed to destroy the bridge over the Vah on the 30th of April in 1945. The first patrols of the Czechoslovak Liberation Army arrived from Rajec around 11 o’clock in the morning. Several men from Sulov and Hradna experienced concentration camps. However, they did not like to talk about what they went through in there, or rather they could not even talk about it. Also, several residents of the village took part in the fighting on the front battlefields. A regional resistance classroom was established in the Upper Courtyard in Sulov. It was frequently visited. The construction of the Partizan Monument was planned on the Oprsalovec hill behind the Manor in Hradna in 1972. At last, a monument of Slovak National Uprising has been built on the Horka hill in Vrchtepla in 1978, where fallen partisans were buried. In 1972, a memorial plaque was ceremoniously unveiled at Ondrej Durajka’s house at the Evangelical school as a memorial to the stay of the partisan staff of Major K. K. Popov in Sulov. K. K. Popov visited Slovakia and also Sulov on the 30th anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising in 1974. A board is placed on the building of the restaurant in Cierny Potok in Sulov with the announcement that Grigorij Ivanisin, the commander of the 5th section of the Partisan Brigade of Jan Zizka, died in the Strazov Highlands in January in 1945. There is a grave of an unknown soldier at the cemetery in Sulov. In memory of the local resistance, the current football club proudly bears the name Sportclub Partisan Sulov.

zdroj: Vlastný výskum autorky textu M. Kerešovej s použitím aj podkladov Dany Strečanskej.