In July 1941, in Belarus, a partisan detachment under the command of the deputy head of the 1st department of the secret political department was actively operating behind enemy lines. NKGB Belarus N. Morozkina who had complete information about everything that was happening in the occupied territories.
The detachment was in the area of Bobruisk for a long time. Mostly they were operatives of the NKGB, employees of the NKVD and the police. On July 22, 1941, it was reported that there were 74 people in the detachment, including many employees of the Bobruisk city department of the NKVD, under the command of a senior lieutenant of state security Zalogina, who carried out the first sabotage operations: he blew up bridges near Gomel and on the Slutsk highway.
By July 8, 15 partisan detachments were formed in the Pinsk region. They were headed by Soviet leaders and Chekists. One of them - Korzh V.Z.- became a Hero of the Soviet Union. 12 detachments were commanded by NKVD workers - heads of district departments and their deputies, head of the passport police department, operational workers. These people were well aware of the local situation, the cadres of the agents, they had a good idea of the anti-Soviet element that had embarked on the path of cooperation with the enemy.
When selecting for the position of commanders of partisan detachments, first of all, their past activities were taken into account. First of all, commanders who had combat experience were appointed. N. Prokopyuk, S. Vaupshasov, K. Orlovsky- all of them not only participated in the guerrilla war against the White Poles in the 20s, but also fought in Spain. There was a large group in the reserve that fought in the Far East. In practice, the repressions of the late 30s did not affect specialists in sabotage equipment and instruments. All were actively involved.
In October 1941, the troops under the NKVD Special Group were reorganized into the Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade for Special Purposes (OMSBON) of the NKVD of the USSR, consisting of two motorized rifle regiments: four battalions and three battalions with special units (sapper-demolition company, auto company, communications company, special forces, junior school officers and specialists).
The brigade was tasked with: rendering assistance to the Red Army by means of reconnaissance, sabotage, military engineering and combat operations; promoting the development of a mass partisan movement; disorganization of the fascist rear, incapacitation of enemy communications, communication lines and other objects; implementation of strategic, tactical and undercover intelligence; conducting counterintelligence operations.
Already in the summer of 1941, the command OMSBON began to form and throw behind enemy lines first detachments and groups. They, along with reconnaissance and sabotage, were tasked with collecting detailed and qualified information about the specific situation that had developed in the occupied territory; about the policy of the occupying authorities; on the system of guarding the rear of the Nazi troops; about the development of the partisan movement and the struggle of the underground, about the nature of the assistance they needed.
The first detachments of the OMSBON were called upon to establish contacts with the partisans, establish their connection with Moscow, promote the formation of new detachments and intensify the fighting of the partisans. They also had to create bases on the ground for the deployment of the activities of the OMSBON detachments; to test in practice the effectiveness of the tactics and methods of combat proposed by the command in the conditions of the enemy rear, to identify new opportunities for their development; to accumulate certain experience that would be taken into service by those detachments and groups that, following them, will be sent behind enemy lines. The first detachments left in the summer of 1941 D. Medvedev, A. Flegontova, V. Zuenko, Ya. Kumachenko.
In November 1941, an event took place that played an important role in all subsequent combat activities of the Bryansk and Kaluga partisans: in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Lyudinovo, he appeared under the command of the legendary captain of state security, later the famous writer Dmitry Nikolayevich Medvedev.
Only a few initiates knew then that this was not an ordinary detachment, of which hundreds and thousands were already operating in the occupied territory, but a reconnaissance and sabotage residency (RDR) No. 4/70 A special group under the People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR, abandoned in the German rear with special assignments.
The Mitya detachment crossed the front line in September in the amount of only thirty-three people, but very quickly grew to several hundred fighters and commanders due to the encirclement who joined him, who fled from captivity of the Red Army and local residents. At the same time, Medvedev D.N. "spun off" from the "Mitya" several subsidiary detachments, appointing commanders and chiefs of staff who had shown themselves well in battles.
Unlike many local detachments, "Mitya" conducted active combat, sabotage and reconnaissance activities. Its fighters almost daily attacked enemy garrisons and convoys, burned and blew up bridges, warehouses, communication centers, destroyed manpower, in particular, they even killed two German generals. What is very important, wherever Medvedev appeared, he certainly met with the commanders of local detachments, helped them practical advice, sometimes with ammunition and weapons, when required, he strengthened the command staff, and, finally (which was a novelty at this stage of the guerrilla war), coordinated their activities in conducting joint operations, which significantly increased the effectiveness of military operations. Per short term- just a few weeks - Medvedev D.N. intensified the activity of about twenty local detachments.
Groups thrown behind enemy lines usually numbered 30-50 people. But after the very first operations, they quickly grew at the expense of the local population and military personnel who left the encirclement, and turned into powerful partisan detachments and formations. Yes, squad "Elusive", headed Prudnikov from an operational group of 28 people by the summer of 1944 grew into a powerful unit, numbering more than 3000 partisans.
Seconded to the Smolensk region to organize partisan work Flegontov A.K. already on August 16, 1941, he reported to Sudoplatov P.A. by radiotelegram that in the Smolensk region, under his leadership, there are 4 partisan detachments numbering 174 people.
January 8, 1942 to carry out large-scale reconnaissance and sabotage work behind the front against Germany and its allies both on Soviet territory and in the occupied countries of Europe, in the Far and Middle East, as well as to assist Soviet and party bodies in organizing and combat activities of partisan detachments and sabotage groups behind enemy lines, the 2nd department of the NKVD of the USSR was transformed into the 4th department of the NKVD of the USSR.
Now a little about the activities in the field of guerrilla warfare of army intelligence. In August 1941, a special-purpose military unit with the code number 99032 . It was headed by Artur Karlovich Sprogis, who had rich Chekist experience. At that time, there were cases when Chekists were sent to serve in the Intelligence Directorate (since 1942, the Main Intelligence Directorate - GRU) of the General Staff of the Red Army.
The military unit 9903 was formed from career scouts, from officers and sergeants of the active army who especially distinguished themselves in battles, as well as from volunteers trained in special courses. Usually, Sprogis he himself selected, instructed and often personally accompanied individual scouts behind enemy lines in order to orient them on the spot and direct them to the necessary objects.
The selection of volunteers for partisan intelligence was strictly individual, uncompromising. They took care not only of their equipment, weapons and equipment, but also of the moral and physical preparation of fighters, the selection of experienced commanders and mentors. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Vera Voloshina, Elena Kolesova and others were fighters of unit 9903.
Korzh Vasily Zakharovich, 01/01/1899 - 05/05/1967, major general (1943), Hero of the Soviet Union (08/15/1944), Belarusian, was born in the village of Khorostov (now the Soligorsk district of the Minsk region) into a peasant family. Graduated from the village school. In 1921-1925. - in the partisan detachment of Orlovsky K.P., operating in Western Belarus. Since 1925 - chairman of collective farms in the districts of the Minsk district. In 1931-1936. - in the bodies of the GPU-NKVD of the BSSR.
In 1936 - Commander of the international partisan detachment in Spain. In 1939-1940. - Director of the grain farm Krasnodar Territory. Since 1940, the head of the sector of the Pinsk regional committee of the CP (b) B. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he formed and led one of the first partisan detachments in Belarus. In the autumn of 1941, together with other partisan detachments, he made a raid on the Minsk and Polesye regions. Korzh V.Z. - Commander of the Pinsk partisan unit. Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff (1946). Reserved since 1946. In 1949-1953. - Deputy Minister of Forestry of the BSSR. In 1953-1963. - Chairman of the collective farm "Partizansky Krai" Soligorsk district.
Prokopiuk Mykola Arkhipovich, 06/07/1902-06/11/1975, colonel (1948), Hero of the Soviet Union (11/5/1944), Ukrainian, was born in Volyn in the village. Males of the Kamenetz-Podolsk province in a large family of a carpenter. After graduating from the parochial school, he worked as a laborer for the landowner. In 1916, he passed the exams for 6 classes of the male gymnasium as an external student. After the revolution, he worked at the factory in the locksmith and turning shops. In 1918, he voluntarily joined the armed squad of the plant.
In 1919, he participated in the uprising against the White Poles, then fought in the Red Army in the 8th division of the Red Cossacks. In 1921 he was sent to work in the state security agencies. In 1924-1931. served in the Slavuta, then in the Mogilev border detachments. In 1935 Prokopyuk N.A. was enrolled in the apparatus of the INO GUGB NKVD of the USSR. In 1937 he was sent as an assistant to the resident in Barcelona. Member of the war in Spain. At the end of the summer of 1941, he was sent through the Special Group of the NKVD of the USSR to a partisan detachment.
In August 1942, Prokopyuk was thrown behind enemy lines at the head of the operational group of the 4th Directorate "Hunter", on the basis of which he created a partisan unit that operated on the territory of Ukraine, Poland, Czechoslovakia and carried out 23 major military operations. The fighters of the formation destroyed 21 echelons with enemy manpower and equipment, disabled 38 German tanks, and captured a lot of weapons and ammunition. Thanks to the intelligence of the detachment, the long-range aviation of the Red Army carried out a number of successful air raids on enemy military installations.
Vaupshasov Stanislav Alekseevich, 15(27) 07/1899-11/19/1976, colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union (11/5/1944), Lithuanian. The real name is Vaupshas, he was born in the village. Gruzdzhiai, Siauliai district, Kovno province, in a working-class family. He began his career as a laborer in his native village. From 1914 he lived in Moscow, worked as a digger, fitter at the "Provodnik" plant. Since 1918 in the Red Guard, then in the Red Army.
He fought first on the Southern Front, then against the troops of General Dutov and the White Czechs, then on the Western Front. From 1920 to 1925 he was in underground work along the lines of the so-called. "active intelligence" of the Intelligence Department of the Red Army in the western regions of Belarus occupied by Poland. Organizer and commander of partisan detachments. For work in Belarus Vaupshasov S.A. He was awarded an honorary weapon and the Order of the Red Banner.
After the collapse of "active intelligence" was recalled to the USSR. Since 1925, he was in administrative and economic work in Moscow. In 1927 he graduated from the Courses of the command staff of the Red Army. In the 1930s he worked at the GPU of Belorussia, as the site manager for the construction of the Moscow-Volga Canal. In 1937-1939. Vaupshasov S.A. was on a business trip in Spain as a senior adviser at the headquarters of the 14th Partisan Corps of the Republican Army for reconnaissance and sabotage operations (under the pseudonyms Sharov and "Comrade Alfred").
After the defeat of the republic, risking his life, he took out the republican archives. Since 1939 - in the central apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR. During the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940. participated in the formation of reconnaissance and sabotage groups. Awarded with named weapons. In 1940 he joined the CPSU(b). In 1940-1941. on a reconnaissance mission abroad in Finland and Sweden.
After returning to the USSR, he was sent to the disposal of the Special Group - the 2nd department of the NKVD of the USSR. From September 1941 - commander of the OMSBON battalion of the NKVD of the USSR, took part in the battle of Moscow. From March 1942 to July 1944, under the pseudonym Gradov, he was the commander of the partisan detachment of the NKGB of the USSR "Lost", operating in the Minsk region. During the stay behind enemy lines, the partisan unit under the command of Vaupshasov S.A. more than 14 thousand were destroyed German soldiers and officers, 57 major acts of sabotage were committed. Among them was the explosion of the SD canteen, as a result of which several dozen high-ranking German officers were killed.
In 1945 he worked in the central office of the NKGB in Moscow. In August 1945, he took part in military operations against Japan, then - the head of the NKGB task force for clearing the rear in Manchuria. Since December 1946, he was the head of the intelligence department of the MGB of the Lithuanian SSR. Participated in the elimination of anti-Soviet armed formations in Lithuania. In 1954 he was transferred to the reserve.
Orlovsky Kirill Prokofievich, 18 (30) 01.1895-1968, colonel, Hero of the Soviet Union (09/20/1943), Hero of Socialist Labor (1965), Belarusian, was born in the village. Myshkovichi in a peasant family. In 1906 he entered the Popovshchina parochial school, from which he graduated in 1910. In 1915 he was drafted into the army. He first served in the 251st Reserve Infantry Regiment as a private, and from 1917 - non-commissioned officer, commander of a sapper platoon of the 65th Infantry Regiment on the Western Front. In January 1918 Orlovsky K.P. demobilized from the army and returned to his native village Myshkovichi.
In December 1918 - May 1919 he worked in the Bobruisk Cheka. From May 1919 to May 1920 he studied at the 1st Moscow infantry courses for commanders, at the same time, being a cadet, he participated in battles against Yudenich's troops, in the Soviet-Polish war. From May 1920 to May 1925, he led partisan detachments in Western Belarus through the line of "active intelligence" of the Red Army Intelligence Department. Under the leadership of Orlovsky K.P. Several dozen military operations were carried out, as a result of which over 100 Polish gendarmes and landlords were destroyed.
After returning to the USSR Orlovsky K.P. studied at the Communist University of National Minorities of the West. Markhlevsky, who graduated in 1930. Then for five years he was at work on the selection and training of partisan personnel through the Special Department of the NKVD of the BSSR. In 1937-1938. performed special assignments in the line of Soviet foreign intelligence during the war with the Nazis in Spain. From January 1938 to February 1939 - a student of special courses of the NKVD in Moscow. Since 1939 Orlovsky K.P. - Assistant Director of the Agricultural Institute in Chkalov (now Orenburg).
Since 1940 - again in the state security agencies. From March 1941 to May 1942 he was on a business trip abroad through the NKVD in China. After returning to the USSR Orlovsky K.P. - in the 4th department of the NKVD of the USSR. On October 27, 1942, he was sent with a group of paratroopers behind enemy lines to the area of Belovezhskaya Pushcha, participated in the organization of partisan detachments and himself led the Sokols special-purpose detachment. In February 1943, during an operation to destroy the deputy Gauleiter of Belarus, F. Fens, Orlovsky was seriously wounded, his right arm was torn off.
From August 1943 to December 1944 - in the NKGB of Belarus, then retired for health reasons. Hero of the Soviet Union (09/20/1943). Hero of Socialist Labor (1965). He was awarded five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the BSSR (1932), and many medals.
Prudnikov Mikhail Sidorovich, 04/15/1913 - 04/27/1995, Hero of the Soviet Union (1944), Major General (1970), Russian, was born in the village. Novopokrovka of the Tomsk province (now the Izhmorsky district of the Kemerovo region) in a peasant family. In 1931 he was drafted into the army, served as a Red Army soldier of the 15th Alma-Ata regiment of the OGPU troops. In 1933 he was sent to study at the 2nd Kharkov Border School, after graduation he was appointed commandant of the school. In 1940-1941. - cadet of the VPSh of the NKVD of the USSR in Moscow.
Since July 1941 Prudnikov M.S. - commander of a machine-gun company, then commander of a battalion of OMSBON. Participated in the battles for Moscow. From February 1942 to May 1943 - the commander of the task force, and then the partisan brigade "Elusive" in the rear of the German troops.
Eitingon Naum Isaakovich, December 6, 1899-1981, Major General (1945), Jew, was born in the city of Shklov, Mogilev province, into the family of a paper mill clerk. He graduated from the 7th grade of the Mogilev commercial school. In the spring of 1920, by decision of the Gomel Provincial Committee of the RCP (b), he was sent to work in the bodies of the Cheka. In October 1925, after completing his studies, he was enrolled in the INO OGPU and in the same year he was sent as a resident of foreign intelligence in Shanghai.
In 1936, after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Eitingon, under the name of Leonid Aleksandrovich Kotov, was sent to Madrid as a deputy resident of the NKVD and chief security adviser to the republican government.
From 08/20/42 - Deputy Head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD / NKGB of the USSR. Along with Sudoplatov P.A. Eitingon was one of the organizers of the partisan movement and reconnaissance and sabotage work in the occupied territory of the USSR, and later in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, played a leading role in conducting legendary operational radio games against German intelligence "Monastyr" and "Berezin".
For the performance of special tasks during the Great Patriotic War, Eitingon N.I. was awarded the military orders of Suvorov 2nd degree and Alexander Nevsky. After the end of the war, he took an active part in the development and implementation of undercover combinations to eliminate Polish and Lithuanian nationalist gangs. On July 21, 1953, he was arrested on the “case”.
In 1957 he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. From March 1957 he served time in the Vladimir prison. In 1964 he was released. Since 1965 - senior editor of the publishing house "International Relations". In 1981, he died in the Moscow Central Clinical Hospital from a stomach ulcer, and only in April 1992 did his posthumous rehabilitation follow. Awarded with orders: Lenin (1941), Suvorov 2nd degree (1944), Alexander Nevsky, two orders of the Red Banner (1927 - for work in China; 1936 - in Spain), medals.
Based on the materials of the book by A. Popov "Special Forces of the NKVD behind enemy lines", M., "Yauza", "Eksmo", 2013
Each generation has its own perception of the past war, the place and significance of which in the life of the peoples of our country turned out to be so significant that it entered their history as the Great Patriotic War. The dates of June 22, 1941 and May 9, 1945 will forever remain in the memory of the peoples of Russia. 60 years after the Great Patriotic War, Russians can be proud that their contribution to the Victory was huge and irreplaceable. the most important integral part struggle of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany during the years of the Great Patriotic War, the partisan movement appeared, which was the most active form of participation of the broad masses of the people in the temporarily occupied Soviet territory in the fight against the enemy.
In the occupied territory was installed " new order"- a regime of violence and bloody terror, designed to perpetuate German domination and turn the occupied lands into an agricultural and raw material appendage of German monopolies. All this met with fierce resistance from the majority of the population living in the occupied territory, which rose up to fight.
It was a truly nationwide movement, generated by the just nature of the war, the desire to protect the honor and independence of the Motherland. That is why the partisan movement in the areas occupied by the enemy was given such an important place in the program of combating the Nazi invaders. The Party called on the Soviet people who remained behind enemy lines to create partisan detachments and sabotage groups, to kindle a partisan war everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, to spoil the enemy’s telegraph and telephone communications, to set fire to warehouses, to create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, to pursue and destroy them on every step, disrupt all their activities.
Soviet people who found themselves in the territory occupied by the enemy, as well as soldiers, commanders and political workers of the Red Army and Navy, who were surrounded, entered the fight against the Nazi invaders. They tried with all their might and means to help the Soviet troops fighting at the front, resisted the Nazis. And already these first actions against Hitlerism were in the nature of a guerrilla war. In a special resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks of July 18, 1941 “On organizing the struggle behind enemy lines”, the party called on republican, regional, regional and district party organizations to lead the organization of partisan formations and the underground, “to help in every possible way to create horse and foot partisan detachments, sabotage fighter groups, deploy a network of our Bolshevik underground organizations in the occupied territory to direct all actions against the fascist invaders in the war (June 1941-1945).
The struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union became an integral part of the Great Patriotic War. It acquired a nationwide character, becoming a qualitatively new phenomenon in the history of the struggle against foreign invaders. The most important of its manifestations was the partisan movement behind enemy lines. Thanks to the actions of the partisans, a constant sense of danger and threat spread among the Nazi invaders in their rear, which had a significant moral impact on the Nazis. And this was a real danger, since the fighting of the partisans inflicted enormous damage on the enemy's manpower and equipment.
Group portrait of the fighters of the partisan detachment "Zvezda"
It is characteristic that the idea of organizing a partisan and underground movement in the territory occupied by the enemy appeared only after the start of the Great Patriotic War and the first defeats of the Red Army. This is explained by the fact that in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviet military leadership quite reasonably believed that in the event of an enemy invasion it was really necessary to launch a guerrilla war behind enemy lines, and for this purpose they were already training the organizers of the guerrilla movement, certain means for guerrilla warfare. However, during the mass repressions of the second half of the 1930s, such precaution began to be seen as a manifestation of defeatism, and almost all those who were engaged in this work were repressed. If we follow the then concept of defense, which consisted in defeating the enemy "with little blood and on its territory", the systematic training of the organizers of the partisan movement, according to Stalin and his entourage, could morally disarm the Soviet people, sow defeatist moods. It is impossible in this situation to exclude Stalin's painful suspicion of the potentially well-organized structure of the underground resistance apparatus, which, as he believed, the "oppositionists" could use for their own purposes.
It is usually believed that by the end of 1941 the number of active partisans reached 90 thousand people, and more than 2 thousand partisan detachments. Thus, at first, the partisan detachments themselves were not very numerous - their number did not exceed several dozen fighters. Difficult winter period 1941-1942, the lack of reliably equipped bases for partisan detachments, the lack of weapons and ammunition, poor weapons and food supplies, as well as the lack of professional doctors and medicines greatly complicated the effective actions of the partisans, reducing them to sabotage on highways, the destruction of small groups occupiers, the destruction of their locations, the destruction of policemen - local residents who agreed to cooperate with the occupiers. Nevertheless, the partisan and underground movement behind enemy lines still took place. Many detachments operated in Smolensk, Moscow, Orel, Bryansk and in a number of other regions of the country that fell under the heel of the Nazi invaders.
Sidor Kovpak was born into the family of a Poltava poor peasant. His subsequent fate, with its intensity of struggle and its unexpected turns, is quite characteristic of that revolutionary era. Kovpak began to fight back in the First World War, in the war on the blood of the poor - as a scout-plastun, who earned two brass St. George crosses and numerous wounds, and already in 1918, after the German occupation of revolutionary Ukraine, he independently organized and led a red partisan detachment - one of the first in Ukraine. He fought against Denikin together with the detachments of Father Parkhomenko, participated in the battles on the Eastern Front as part of the legendary 25th Chapaev Division, then fought in the South against the troops of Wrangel, took part in the liquidation of Makhno's gangs. After the victory of the revolution, Sidor Kovpak, who became a member of the RCP (b) in 1919, was engaged in economic work, especially succeeding in road construction, which he proudly called his favorite thing. Since 1937, this administrator, famous for his decency and diligence, exceptional even for that era of labor for defense, acted as chairman of the Putivl city executive committee of the Sumy region. In this purely peaceful position, the war found him.
In August 1941, the Putivl party organization, almost in its entirety - excluding its previously mobilized members - turned into a partisan detachment. It was one of many partisan groups created in the wooded triangle of Sumy, Bryansk, Orel and Kursk regions, convenient for partisan struggle, which became the base of the entire future partisan movement. However, the Putivl detachment quickly stood out among the many forest units with its especially bold and at the same time measured and prudent actions. Kovpak's partisans avoided a long stay within any particular area. They made constant long maneuvers behind enemy lines, exposing distant German garrisons to unexpected blows. This is how the famous raid tactics of partisan struggle was born, in which the traditions and techniques of the revolutionary war of 1918-21 were easily guessed - techniques revived and developed by commander Kovpak. Already at the very beginning of the formation of the Soviet partisan movement, he became its most famous and prominent figure.
At the same time, Father Kovpak himself did not at all differ in any special brave military appearance. According to his comrades-in-arms, the outstanding partisan general was more like an elderly peasant in civilian clothes, carefully taking care of his large and complex economy. It was this impression that he made on his future intelligence chief Pyotr Vershigora, in the past a film director, and later a well-known partisan writer who told about the raids of the Kovpak detachments in his books. Kovpak was indeed an unusual commander - he skillfully combined his vast experience as a soldier and business worker with innovative courage in developing the tactics and strategy of guerrilla warfare. “He is quite modest, he did not teach others as much as he studied himself, he knew how to admit his mistakes, thereby not exacerbating them,” Alexander Dovzhenko wrote about Kovpak. Kovpak was simple, even deliberately simple in communication, humane in dealing with his fighters, and with the help of continuous political and ideological training of his detachment, carried out under the guidance of his closest associate, the legendary commissar Rudnev, he was able to achieve from them a high level of communist consciousness and discipline.
Partisan detachment of the Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpaka walks along the street of a Ukrainian village during a military campaign
This feature - a clear organization of all spheres of partisan life in extremely difficult, unpredictable conditions of war behind enemy lines - made it possible to carry out the most complex, unprecedented in their courage and scope operations. Among the Kovpak commanders were teachers, workers, engineers, and peasants.
People of peaceful professions, they acted in a coordinated and organized manner, based on the system for organizing the combat and civilian life of the detachment, established by Kovpak. “The master’s eye, the confident, calm rhythm of camp life and the rumble of voices in the thicket of the forest, the unhurried, but not slow life of confident people working with self-respect - this is my first impression of Kovpak’s detachment,” Vershigora later wrote. Already in 1941–42, Sidor Kovpak, under whose leadership by that time there was a whole formation of partisan detachments, undertook his first raids - long military campaigns into the territory not yet covered by the partisan movement - his detachments passed through the territories of Sumy, Kursk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, as a result of which Kovpak’s fighters, together with Belarusian and Bryansk partisans, created the famous Partisan Territory, cleared of Nazi troops and the police administration - a prototype of future liberated territories Latin America. In 1942-43, the Kovpakovites made a raid from the Bryansk forests to the Right-Bank Ukraine in the Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kiev regions - an unexpected appearance in the enemy's rear made it possible to destroy a huge number of enemy military communications, while collecting and transferring the most important intelligence information to the Headquarters .
By this time, Kovpak's raid tactics had received universal recognition, and her experience was widely disseminated and implemented by the partisan command of various regions.
The famous meeting of the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement, who arrived across the front in Moscow in early September 1942, fully approved the raid tactics of Kovpak, who was also present there - by that time already a Hero of the Soviet Union and a member of the illegal Central Committee of the CP (b) U. Its essence was to quickly, maneuver, covert movement in the rear of the enemy with the further creation of new centers of partisan movement. Such raids, in addition to significant damage inflicted on enemy troops and the collection of important intelligence information, had a huge propaganda effect. “The partisans were carrying the war ever closer to Germany,” Marshal Vasilevsky, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, said on this occasion. Partisan raids raised huge masses of enslaved people to fight, armed and taught them the practice of struggle.
In the summer of 1943, on the eve Battle of Kursk, Sumy partisan formation of Sidor Kovpak, on the orders of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement, begins its famous Carpathian raid, the path of which went through the deepest rear of the enemy. The peculiarity of this legendary raid was that here the Kovpak partisans had to regularly make marching throws across an open, treeless territory, at a great distance from their bases, without any hope of outside support and help.
Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the Sumy partisan unit Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak (sitting in the center, with the star of the Hero on his chest), surrounded by his comrades-in-arms. To the left of Kovpak is the secretary of the party organization of the Sumy partisan formation Ya.G. Panin, to the right of Kovpak - assistant commander for intelligence P.P. Vershigora
During the Carpathian raid, the Sumy partisan unit traveled over 10 thousand km in continuous battles, defeating the German garrisons and Bandera detachments in forty settlements in Western Ukraine, including the territory of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. By destroying transport communications, the Kovpakists managed for a long time to block important directions for the transport of Nazi troops and military equipment to the fronts of the Kursk salient. The Nazis, who sent elite SS units and front-line aviation to destroy Kovpak’s formations, failed to destroy the partisan column - being surrounded, Kovpak makes an unexpected decision for the enemy to divide the formation into a number of small groups, and break through with a simultaneous “fan” strike in various directions back to the woodlands. This tactical move brilliantly justified itself - all the disparate groups survived, again uniting into one formidable force - the Kovpak connection. In January 1944, it was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division, named after its commander, Sidor Kovpak.
The tactics of Kovpak raids became widespread in the anti-fascist movement in Europe, and after the war, young partisans of Rhodesia, Angola and Mozambique, Vietnamese commanders and revolutionaries of Latin American countries were trained in it.
On September 6, 1942, the GKO established the post of commander-in-chief of the partisan movement. They became Marshal K.E. Voroshilov. Thus, the fragmentation and inconsistency of actions that prevailed at first in the partisan movement was overcome, bodies appeared that coordinated their sabotage activities. It was the disorganization of the rear of the enemy that became the main task of the Soviet partisans. The composition and organization of partisan formations, despite their diversity, still had much in common. The main tactical unit was a detachment, numbering at the beginning of the war, several dozen fighters, and later up to 200 or more people. During the course of the war, many detachments united into larger formations (partisan brigades) numbering from several hundred to several thousand people. Their armament was dominated by light small arms, but many detachments and partisan brigades already had heavy machine guns and mortars, and in some cases artillery. Everyone who joined the partisan detachments took the partisan oath, and strict military discipline was established in the detachments.
There were various forms of organization of partisan forces - small and large formations, regional (local) and non-regional. Regional detachments and formations were constantly based in one area and were responsible for protecting its population and fighting the invaders in this very territory. Non-regional partisan formations and detachments carried out tasks in different areas, making long raids, being in fact mobile reserves, maneuvering which the leadership of the partisan movement could concentrate efforts on the main direction of the planned strikes to deliver the most powerful blows to the enemy.
Detachment of the 3rd Leningrad partisan brigade on a campaign, 1943
In the zone of vast forests, in mountainous and swampy areas, there were the main bases and places of deployment of partisan formations. Partisan regions arose here, where various methods of struggle could be used, including direct, open clashes with the enemy. In the steppe regions, large partisan detachments could successfully operate during raids. Small detachments and groups of partisans who were constantly here usually avoided open clashes with the enemy, inflicting damage, as a rule, on unexpected raids and sabotage. In August-September 1942, the central headquarters of the partisan movement held a meeting of the commanders of the Belarusian, Ukrainian, Bryansk and Smolensk partisan detachments. On September 5, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief signed an order "On the tasks of the partisan movement", which indicated the need to coordinate the actions of the partisans with the operations of the regular army. The center of gravity of the fighting of the partisans was to be transferred to enemy communications.
The intensification of partisan actions on the railways was immediately felt by the occupiers. In August 1942, they registered almost 150 train wrecks, in September - 152, in October - 210, in November - almost 240. Partisan attacks on German convoys became common. The highways that crossed the partisan territories and zones turned out to be practically closed to the invaders. On many roads, transportation was possible only under heavy guard.
Education of large partisan formations and the coordination of their actions by the central headquarters made it possible to launch a systematic struggle against the strongholds of the Nazi occupiers. Destroying enemy garrisons in regional centers and other villages, partisan detachments increasingly expanded the boundaries of the zones and territories they controlled. Whole occupied regions were liberated from the invaders. Already in the summer and autumn of 1942, the partisans pinned down 22-24 enemy divisions, providing significant assistance to the troops of the fighting Soviet Army. By the beginning of 1943, the partisan territories covered a significant part of Vitebsk, Leningrad, Mogilev and a number of other regions temporarily occupied by the enemy. Also in the same year more number Nazi troops were diverted from the front to fight the partisans.
It was in 1943 that the peak of the actions of the Soviet partisans fell, whose struggle resulted in a nationwide partisan movement. The number of its participants by the end of 1943 had grown to 250,000 armed fighters. At that time, for example, Belarusian partisans controlled almost 60% of the occupied territory of the republic (109 thousand square kilometers), and on an area of 38 thousand square kilometers. the invaders were completely expelled. In 1943, the struggle of Soviet partisans behind enemy lines spread to the Right-Bank and Western Ukraine and the western regions of Belarus.
The order to conduct Operation Rail War was issued on June 14, 1943. The local partisan headquarters and their representatives at the fronts determined areas and objects of action for each partisan formation. The partisans were supplied with explosives and fuses from the mainland, reconnaissance was actively carried out on the enemy's railway communications. The operation began on the night of August 3 and continued until mid-September. The fighting behind enemy lines unfolded on the ground with a length of about 1000 km along the front and 750 km in depth, about 100 thousand partisans participated in them with the active support of the local population.
Powerful blow to railways on the territory occupied by the enemy, turned out to be a complete surprise for him. For a long time, the Nazis could not resist the partisans in an organized manner. During Operation Rail War, more than 215,000 railway rails were blown up, many echelons with personnel and military equipment of the Nazis were derailed, and railway bridges and station buildings were blown up. The capacity of the railways decreased by 35-40%, which frustrated the Nazis' plans for the accumulation of materiel and the concentration of troops, and seriously hampered the regrouping of enemy forces.
The same goals, but already during the upcoming offensive Soviet troops in the Smolensk, Gomel directions and the battle for the Dnieper, the partisan operation was subordinated, code-named "Concert". It was carried out on September 19 - November 1, 1943 on the territory of Belarus occupied by the Nazis, Karelia, in the Leningrad and Kalinin regions, on the territory of Latvia, Estonia, Crimea, covering about 900 km along the front and over 400 km in depth.
Partisans mine the railroad tracks
It was a planned continuation of the "Rail War" operation, it was closely connected with the upcoming offensive of the Soviet troops in the Smolensk and Gomel directions and during the battle for the Dnieper. 193 partisan detachments (groups) from Belarus, the Baltic States, Karelia, Crimea, Leningrad and Kalinin regions (over 120 thousand people) were involved in the operation, which were supposed to undermine more than 272 thousand rails.
On the territory of Belarus, more than 90 thousand partisans participated in the operation; they were to blow up 140,000 rails. The Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement planned to throw 120 tons of explosives and other cargoes to the Belarusian partisans, 20 tons to the Kaliningrad and Leningrad partisans.
Due to the sharp deterioration in weather conditions, by the beginning of the operation, the partisans managed to transfer only about half of the planned amount of cargo, so it was decided to start mass sabotage on September 25th. However, part of the detachments that had already reached their starting lines could not take into account the changes in the timing of the operation and on September 19 began to carry it out. On the night of September 25, simultaneous actions were carried out according to the plan of operation "Concert" on a front of about 900 km (excluding Karelia and the Crimea) and in a depth of more than 400 km.
The local headquarters of the partisan movement and their representations at the fronts determined areas and objects of action for each partisan formation. The guerrillas were provided with explosives, fuses, mine-blasting classes were held at the “forest courses”, local “factories” mined tol from captured shells and bombs, fasteners of tol pieces to the rails were made in workshops and forges. Exploration was actively carried out on the railways. The operation began on the night of August 3 and continued until mid-September. The actions unfolded on the ground with a length of about 1000 km along the front and 750 km in depth, about 100 thousand partisans, who were helped by the local population, took part in them. A powerful blow to the railway. lines was unexpected for the enemy, who for some time could not resist the partisans in an organized manner. During the operation, about 215 thousand rails were blown up, many echelons were derailed, railway bridges and station buildings were blown up. The massive disruption of enemy communications made it much more difficult to regroup the retreating enemy troops, complicate their supply, and thereby contributed to the successful offensive of the Red Army.
Demolition guerrillas of the Transcarpathian partisan detachment Grachev and Utenkov at the airfield
The objective of Operation Concert was to disable large plots railroads in order to disrupt enemy traffic. The bulk of the partisan formations began hostilities on the night of September 25, 1943. During the operation "Concert" only Belarusian partisans blew up about 90 thousand rails, derailed 1041 enemy echelons, destroyed 72 railway bridges, defeated 58 invaders' garrisons. Operation "Concert" caused serious difficulties in the transportation of Nazi troops. The capacity of railways has decreased by more than three times. This made it very difficult for the Hitlerite command to carry out the maneuver of its forces and provided enormous assistance to the advancing troops of the Red Army.
It is impossible to list here all the partisan heroes whose contribution to the victory over the enemy was so tangible in the general struggle of the Soviet people over the Nazi invaders. During the war, remarkable command partisan cadres grew up - S.A. Kovpak, A.F. Fedorov, A.N. Saburov, V.A. Begma, N.N. Popudrenko and many others. In terms of its scale, political and military results, the nationwide struggle of the Soviet people in the territories occupied by the Nazi troops has acquired the importance of an important military-political factor in the defeat of fascism. The selfless activity of partisans and underground workers received nationwide recognition and high praise from the state. More than 300 thousand partisans and underground fighters were awarded orders and medals, including over 127 thousand - the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" 1st and 2nd degrees, 248 were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In Belarus, one of the most famous partisan detachments was the Pinsk partisan detachment under the command of Korzh V.Z. Korzh Vasily Zakharovich (1899–1967), Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Born on January 1, 1899 in the village of Khvorostovo, Solitorsky District. Since 1925 - the chairman of the commune, then the collective farm in the Starobinsky district of the Minsk region. Since 1931 he worked in the Slutsk district department of the NKVD. From 1936 to 1938 he fought in Spain. Upon returning to his homeland, he was arrested, but released a few months later. He worked as a director of a state farm in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Since 1940 - the financial sector of the Pinsk regional party committee. In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, he created the Pinsk partisan detachment. The detachment "Komarov" (partisan pseudonym V.Z. Korzha) fought in the regions of Pinsk, Brest and Volyn regions. In 1944 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Since 1943 - Major General. In 1946-1948 he graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff. From 1949 to 1953 - Deputy Minister of Forestry of the BSSR. In 1953-1963 he was the chairman of the collective farm "Partizansky Krai" in the Pinsk and then Minsk regions. Streets in Pinsk, Minsk and Soligorsk, the collective farm "Partizansky Krai" are named after him, secondary school in Pinsk. The Pinsk partisans operated at the junction of the Minsk, Polessky, Baranovichi, Brest, Rivne and Volyn regions. The German occupation administration divided the territory into commissariats, subordinate to different Gauleiters - in Rovno, Minsk. Sometimes the partisans turned out to be "no man's". While the Germans were sorting out which of them should send troops, the partisans continued to operate.
In the spring of 1942, the partisan movement received a new impetus and began to acquire new organizational forms. A centralized leadership appeared in Moscow. Radio communication with the Center has been established.
With the organization of new detachments and the growth of their strength, the Pinsk underground regional committee of the CP (b) B from the spring of 1943 began to unite them into brigades. In total, 7 brigades were created: named after S.M. Budyonny, named after V.I. Lenin, named after V.M. Molotov, named after S.M. Kirov, named after V. Kuibyshev, Pinskaya, "Soviet Belarus". The Pinsk formation included separate detachments - headquarters and named after I.I. Chuklaya. 8431 partisans acted in the ranks of the formation (listed composition). The Pinsk partisan unit was led by V.Z. Korzh, A.E. Kleshchev (May-September 1943), chief of staff - N.S. Fedotov. V.Z. Korzh and A.E. Kleshchev was assigned military ranks"Major General" and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As a result of the unification, the actions of disparate detachments began to obey a single plan, became purposeful, and obeyed the actions of the front or the army. And in 1944, interaction was possible even with divisions.
Portrait of 14-year-old reconnaissance partisan Mikhail Khavdey from the Chernihiv-Volyn formation, Major General A.F. Fedorova
In 1942, the Pinsk partisans became so strong that they were already smashing the garrisons in the regional centers of Lenino, Starobin, Krasnaya Sloboda, Lyubeshov. In 1943, the partisans of M. I. Gerasimov, after the defeat of the garrison, occupied the city of Lyubeshov for several months. On October 30, 1942, partisan detachments named after Kirov and named after N. Shish defeated the German garrison at the Sinkevichi station, destroyed the railway bridge, the station facilities and destroyed an ammunition echelon (48 wagons). The Germans lost 74 people killed, 14 wounded. Railway traffic on the Brest-Gomel-Bryansk line was interrupted for 21 days.
Sabotage on communications was the basis of the combat activities of the partisans. In different periods, they were carried out in different ways, from improvised explosive devices to advanced mines by Colonel Starinov. From the explosion of water pumps and arrows - to a large-scale "rail war". All three years the partisans destroyed communication lines.
In 1943, the partisan brigades named after Molotov (M.I. Gerasimov) and Pinskaya (I.G. Shubitidze) completely disabled the Dnieper-Bug Canal, an important link in the Dnieper-Pripyat-Bug-Vistula water artery. On the left flank they were supported by Brest partisans. The Germans tried to restore this convenient waterway. Stubborn fighting continued for 42 days. First, the Hungarian division was thrown against the partisans, then parts of the German division and the Vlasov regiment. Artillery, armored vehicles and aircraft were thrown against the partisans. The partisans suffered losses, but held firm. On March 30, 1944, they retreated to the front line, where they were assigned a defense sector and they fought along with the front-line units. As a result of the heroic battles of the partisans, the waterway to the west was blocked. 185 river vessels remained in Pinsk.
The command of the 1st Belorussian Front gave special importance the capture of watercraft in the port of Pinsk, since in the conditions of heavily swampy terrain, in the absence of good highways, these watercraft could successfully solve the problem of transferring the rear of the front. The task was completed by the partisans six months before the liberation of the regional center of Pinsk.
In June-July 1944, the Pinsk partisans helped units of Belov's 61st Army to liberate the towns and villages of the region. From June 1941 to July 1944, the Pinsk partisans inflicted great damage on the Nazi invaders: they lost 26,616 people killed alone and 422 people were captured. They defeated more than 60 large enemy garrisons, 5 railway stations and 10 echelons with military equipment and ammunition located there.
468 echelons with manpower and equipment were derailed, 219 military echelons were fired upon and 23,616 railroad tracks were destroyed. 770 vehicles, 86 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed on highways and dirt roads. Shot down 3 planes by machine-gun fire. 62 railway bridges and about 900 on highways and dirt roads were blown up. This is an incomplete list of the combat affairs of the partisans.
Partisan-intelligence officer of the Chernigov formation "For the Motherland" Vasily Borovik
After the liberation of the Pinsk region from the Nazi invaders, most of the partisans joined the ranks of the front-line soldiers and continued to fight until complete victory.
The most important forms of partisan struggle during the years of the Patriotic War were such as the armed struggle of partisan formations, underground groups and organizations created in cities and large settlements, and the mass resistance of the population to the measures of the invaders. All these forms of struggle were closely interconnected, conditioned and supplemented one another. Armed partisan detachments widely used the methods of work and the forces of the underground for combat operations. In turn, underground combat groups and organizations, depending on the situation, often switched to open guerrilla forms of struggle. The partisans established contact with the fugitives from concentration camps provided support with weapons and food.
The joint efforts of partisans and underground fighters crowned a nationwide war in the rear of the invaders. They were the decisive force in the fight against the Nazi invaders. If the resistance movement had not been accompanied by an armed uprising by partisans and underground organizations, then the popular rebuff to the Nazi invaders would not have had the strength and mass character that it acquired during the years of the last war. The resistance of the occupied population was often accompanied by sabotage activities inherent in partisans and underground workers. The mass resistance of Soviet citizens to fascism, its occupation regime was aimed at helping the partisan movement, creating the most favorable conditions for the struggle of the armed part of the Soviet people.
Medvedev's detachment, which fought in Ukraine, enjoyed great fame and elusiveness. D. N. Medvedev was born in August 1898 in the town of Bezhitsa, Bryansk district, Oryol province. Dmitry's father was a skilled steelworker. In December 1917, after graduating from the gymnasium, Dmitry Nikolayevich worked as a secretary of one of the departments of the Bryansk District Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. In 1918-1920. he fought on various fronts in the civil war. In 1920, D. N. Medvedev joined the party, and the party sent him to work in the Cheka. Dmitry Nikolaevich worked in the bodies of the Cheka - OGPU - NKVD until October 1939 and retired for health reasons. From the very beginning of the war, he volunteered to fight against the fascist invaders ... In the summer camp of the Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade for Special Purposes of the NKVD, formed from volunteers by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, Medvedev selected three dozen reliable guys into his detachment. On August 22, 1941, a group of 33 volunteer partisans led by Medvedev crossed the front line and ended up in the occupied territory. For about five months, Medvedev's detachment operated on Bryansk land and carried out over 50 combat operations.
The reconnaissance partisans planted explosives under the rails and tore up enemy echelons, fired on convoys on the highway from ambush, went on the air day and night and reported to Moscow more and more information about the movement of German military units ... Medvedev's detachment served as the core for creating a whole partisan in the Bryansk region the edges. Over time, new special tasks were assigned to it, and it was already included in the plans of the Supreme High Command as an important springboard behind enemy lines.
At the beginning of 1942, D.N. Medvedev was recalled to Moscow and here he worked on the formation and training of volunteer sabotage groups that were deployed behind enemy lines. Together with one of these groups in June 1942, he again found himself behind the front line.
In the summer of 1942, Medvedev's detachment became the center of resistance in a vast region of the occupied territory of Ukraine. The party underground in Rivne, Lutsk, Zdolbuniv, Vinnytsia, hundreds and hundreds of patriots are working together with partisan scouts. In the detachment of Medvedev became famous legendary scout Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov, who for a long time acted in Rovno under the guise of Hitler's officer Paul Siebert ...
For 22 months, the detachment carried out dozens of the most important reconnaissance operations. Suffice it to mention the reports transmitted by Medvedev to Moscow about the preparation by the Nazis of an assassination attempt on the participants in the historic meeting in Tehran - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, about the placement of Hitler's headquarters near Vinnitsa, about the preparation German offensive on the Kursk Bulge, the most important data on military garrisons received from the commander of these garrisons, General Ilgen.
Partisans with a machine gun "Maxim" in battle
The connection conducted 83 military operations, in which many hundreds of Nazi soldiers and officers, many top military and Nazi figures were destroyed. A lot of military equipment was destroyed by partisan mines. Dmitry Nikolaevich during his stay in the enemy rear was twice wounded and shell-shocked. He was awarded three orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, military medals. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 5, 1944, State Security Colonel Medvedev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1946 Medvedev resigned and until last days life was engaged in literary work.
D. N. Medvedev dedicated his books “It was near Rovno”, “Strong in spirit”, “On the banks of the Southern Bug” to the military affairs of Soviet patriots during the war years deep behind enemy lines. During the activity of the detachment, a lot of valuable information was transferred to the command about the work of railway roads, about the movement of enemy headquarters, about the transfer of troops and equipment, about the activities of the occupying authorities, about the situation in the temporarily occupied territory. In battles and skirmishes, up to 12 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed. The loss of the detachment amounted to 110 people killed and 230 wounded.
During the winter of 1943 and during 1944, when the enemy was defeated and completely expelled from Soviet soil, the partisan movement rose to a new, even higher level. On this etan, on an even larger scale, partisans interacted with underground organizations and the advancing troops of the Red Army, as well as the connection of many partisan detachments and brigades with units of the Red Army. A characteristic feature of partisan activities at this stage is the partisans striking at the enemy’s most important communications, primarily railways, in order to disrupt the movement of troops, weapons, ammunition and food of the enemy, to prevent the removal of looted property and Soviet people to Germany. The falsifiers of history declared the guerrilla war illegal, barbaric, and reduced it to the desire of the Soviet people to take revenge on the occupiers for their atrocities. But life refuted their statements and conjectures, showed its true character and goals. The partisan movement is brought to life by "powerful economic and political causes." The desire of the Soviet people to take revenge on the invaders for violence and cruelty was only an additional factor in the partisan struggle. The national nature of the partisan movement, its regularity, which follows from the essence of the Patriotic War, its just, liberation character, was the most important factor in the victory of the Soviet people over fascism. The main source of strength of the partisan movement was the Soviet socialist system, the love of the Soviet people for the Motherland, the loyalty of the Leninist party, which called on the people to defend the socialist Fatherland.
Partisans - father and son, 1943
The year 1944 went down in the history of the partisan movement as a year of widespread interaction between partisans and units of the Soviet Army. The Soviet command put forward tasks before the partisan leadership in advance, which allowed the headquarters of the partisan movement to plan the combined actions of the partisan forces. The actions of the raiding partisan formations have received a significant scope this year. So, for example, the Ukrainian partisan division under the command of P.P. Vershigory from January 5 to April 1, 1944 fought almost 2100 km through the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and Poland.
During the period of mass expulsion of fascists from the USSR, partisan formations solved another problem. important task- saved the population of the occupied regions from deportation to Germany, preserved the people's property from destruction and plunder by the invaders. They sheltered hundreds of thousands of local residents in the forests in the territories they controlled, and even before the arrival of the Soviet units, they captured many settlements.
Unified management of the combat activities of partisans with stable communication between the headquarters of the partisan movement and partisan formations, their interaction with Red Army units in tactical and even strategic operations, the conduct of large independent operations by partisan groups, wide application mine and explosive equipment, the supply of partisan detachments and formations from the rear of a belligerent country, the evacuation of the sick and wounded from the enemy rear to the "Mainland" - all these features of the partisan movement in the Great Patriotic War greatly enriched the theory and practice of partisan struggle as one of the forms of armed struggle against the Nazi troops during the Second World War.
The actions of armed partisan formations were one of the most decisive and effective forms of the struggle of Soviet partisans against the invaders. The performances of the armed forces of partisans in Belarus, the Crimea, in the Oryol, Smolensk, Kalinin, Leningrad regions and the Krasnodar Territory, that is, where there were the most favorable natural conditions. 193,798 partisans fought in the named areas of the partisan movement. The name of the Moscow Komsomol member Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union, became a symbol of the fearlessness and courage of the partisan scouts. The country learned about the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya during the difficult months of the battle near Moscow. On November 29, 1941, Zoya died with the words on her lips: “It is happiness to die for your people!”
Olga Fyodorovna Shcherbatsevich, an employee of the 3rd Soviet Hospital, who cared for captured wounded soldiers and officers of the Red Army. She was hanged by the Germans in the Alexander Square in Minsk on October 26, 1941. The inscription on the shield, in Russian and German, is "We are partisans who fired on German soldiers."
From the memoirs of a witness to the execution - Vyacheslav Kovalevich, in 1941 he was 14 years old: “I went to the Surazh market. At the cinema, “Central” saw that a column of Germans was moving along Sovetskaya Street, and in the center were three civilians with their hands tied behind them. Among them is Aunt Olya, the mother of Volodya Shcherbatsevich. They were brought to the square opposite the House of Officers. There was a summer cafe there. Before the war, they began to repair it. They made a fence, put up poles, and nailed boards on them. Aunt Olya and two men were brought to this fence and they began to hang on it. First, the men were hanged. When Aunt Olya was being hanged, the rope broke. Two fascists ran up - picked it up, and the third fixed the rope. She remained hanging.”
In difficult days for the country, when the enemy rushed to Moscow, Zoya's feat was similar to the feat of the legendary Danko, who tore out his burning heart and led people along, illuminating their path in difficult times. The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was repeated by many girls - partisans and underground fighters who stood up to defend their homeland. Going to the execution, they did not ask for mercy and did not bow their heads before the executioners. Soviet patriots firmly believed in the inevitable victory over the enemy, in the triumph of the cause for which they fought and gave their lives.
What price did its defenders pay for the liberation of the Motherland, who fought behind enemy lines
This is rarely remembered, but during the war years there was such a joke that sounded with a touch of pride: “Why should we wait until the Allies open a second front? We have been open for a long time! It's called the Partisan Front. If there is an exaggeration in this, it is a slight one. The partisans of the Great Patriotic War really were a real second front for the Nazis.
To imagine the scale of guerrilla warfare, it is enough to cite a few figures. By 1944, about 1.1 million people fought in partisan detachments and formations. Losses German side from the actions of the partisans amounted to several hundred thousand people - this number includes soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht (at least 40,000 people, even according to the scanty data of the German side), and all kinds of collaborators such as Vlasov, police, colonists and so on. Among those killed by the people's avengers are 67 German generals, five more were taken alive and transported to the mainland. Finally, the effectiveness of the partisan movement can be judged by the following fact: the Germans had to divert every tenth soldier of the ground forces to fight the enemy in their own rear!
It is clear that the partisans themselves have come at a high price for such successes. In the parade reports of that time, everything looks beautiful: they destroyed 150 enemy soldiers - they lost two partisans killed. In reality, partisan losses were much higher, and even today their final figure is unknown. But the losses were certainly not less than those of the enemy. Hundreds of thousands of partisans and underground fighters gave their lives for the liberation of the motherland.
How many partisan heroes do we have
Only one figure speaks very clearly about the severity of losses among the partisans and members of the underground: out of 250 Heroes of the Soviet Union who fought in the German rear, 124 people - every second! - received this high title posthumously. And this despite the fact that during the years of the Great Patriotic War, the country's highest award was awarded to 11,657 people, of which 3,051 posthumously. That is, every fourth ...
Among the 250 partisans and underground fighters - Heroes of the Soviet Union, two were awarded the high title twice. These are the commanders of partisan formations Sidor Kovpak and Aleksey Fedorov. What is remarkable: both partisan commanders each time were awarded at the same time, by the same decree. For the first time - on May 18, 1942, together with partisan Ivan Kopenkin, who received the title posthumously. The second time - on January 4, 1944, together with 13 more partisans: it was one of the most massive simultaneous awards of partisans with the highest ranks.
Sidor Kovpak. Reproduction: TASS
Two more partisans - Hero of the Soviet Union wore on their chests not only the sign of this highest rank, but also the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor: the commissar of the partisan brigade named after K.K. Rokossovsky Pyotr Masherov and the commander of the partisan detachment "Falcons" Kirill Orlovsky. Pyotr Masherov received his first title in August 1944, the second - in 1978 for success in the party field. Kirill Orlovsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in September 1943, and Hero of Socialist Labor in 1958: the Rassvet collective farm headed by him became the first millionaire collective farm in the USSR.
The first Heroes of the Soviet Union from among the partisans were the leaders of the Red October partisan detachment operating on the territory of Belarus: the commissar of the detachment Tikhon Bumazhkov and commander Fyodor Pavlovsky. And this happened in the most difficult period at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - August 6, 1941! Alas, only one of them survived to the Victory: the commissar of the Red October detachment, Tikhon Bumazhkov, who managed to receive his award in Moscow, died in December of the same year, leaving the German encirclement.
Belarusian partisans on Lenin Square in Minsk, after the liberation of the city from the Nazi invaders. Photo: Vladimir Lupeiko / RIA
In total, in the first year and a half of the war, 21 partisans and underground workers received the highest award, 12 of them received the title posthumously. In total, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR by the end of 1942 issued nine decrees on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on partisans, five of them were group, four were individual. Among them was a decree on awarding the legendary partisan Lisa Chaikina dated March 6, 1942. And on September 1 of the same year, the highest award was immediately awarded to nine participants in the partisan movement, two of whom received it posthumously.
The year 1943 turned out to be just as stingy with the highest awards for the partisans: only 24 were awarded. But in the following year, 1944, when the entire territory of the USSR was liberated from the fascist yoke and the partisans found themselves on their side of the front line, 111 people received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union at once, including two - Sidor Kovpak and Alexei Fedorov - in the second once. And in the victorious 1945, 29 more people were added to the number of partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union.
But there were many among the partisans and those whose exploits the country fully appreciated only many years after the Victory. A total of 65 Heroes of the Soviet Union from among those who fought behind enemy lines were awarded this high title after 1945. Most of the awards found their heroes in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory - by decree of May 8, 1965, the country's highest award was awarded to 46 partisans. And for the last time, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on May 5, 1990 to Fore Mosulishvili, who was a partisan in Italy, and the head of the Young Guard, Ivan Turkenich. Both received the award posthumously.
What else can be added, speaking of partisan heroes? Every ninth who fought in a partisan detachment or underground and earned the title of Hero of the Soviet Union is a woman! But here the sad statistics is even more inexorable: only five out of 28 partisans received this title during their lifetime, the rest posthumously. Among them were the first woman - Hero of the Soviet Union Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, and members of the underground organization "Young Guard" Uliana Gromova and Lyuba Shevtsova. In addition, among the partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union were two Germans: the intelligence officer Fritz Schmenkel, who was awarded posthumously in 1964, and the reconnaissance company commander Robert Klein, who was awarded in 1944. And also the Slovak Jan Nalepka, the commander of a partisan detachment, awarded posthumously in 1945.
It remains only to add that after the collapse of the USSR, the title of Hero Russian Federation was awarded to 9 more partisans, including three posthumously (one of the awarded was scout Vera Voloshina). The medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" was awarded to a total of 127,875 men and women (1st degree - 56,883 people, 2nd degree - 70,992 people): organizers and leaders of the partisan movement, commanders of partisan detachments and particularly distinguished partisans. The very first of the medals "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree in June 1943 was received by the commander of the demolition group Yefim Osipenko. He was awarded the award for his feat in the fall of 1941, when he had to undermine a mine that did not work literally by hand. As a result, the echelon with tanks and food collapsed from the canvas, and the detachment managed to pull out the shell-shocked and blinded commander and transport him to the mainland.
Partisans at the call of the heart and duty
The fact that the Soviet government would rely on guerrilla warfare in the event of a major war on the western borders was clear back in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was then that the employees of the OGPU and the partisans attracted by them - veterans of the Civil War developed plans for organizing the structure of future partisan detachments, laid hidden bases and caches with ammunition and equipment. But, alas, shortly before the start of the war, as veterans recall, these bases began to be opened and liquidated, and the built-in warning system and organization of partisan detachments were broken. Nevertheless, when the first bombs fell on Soviet soil on June 22, many party workers in the field remembered these pre-war plans and began to form the backbone of future detachments.
But this is not the case for all groups. There were a lot of those who appeared spontaneously - from soldiers and officers who could not break through the front line, who were surrounded by units, who did not have time to evacuate specialists, who did not reach their units, conscripts and the like contingent. Moreover, this process was uncontrolled, and the number of such units was small. According to some reports, in the winter of 1941-1942, more than 2 thousand partisan detachments operated in the rear of the Germans, their total number was 90 thousand fighters. It turns out that on average there were up to fifty fighters in each detachment, more often one or two dozen. By the way, as eyewitnesses recall, local residents began to actively join partisan detachments not immediately, but only by the spring of 1942, when the “new order” manifested itself in the whole nightmare, and the opportunity to survive in the forest became real.
In turn, the detachments that arose under the command of people who were engaged in the preparation of partisan actions even before the war were more numerous. Such were, for example, the detachments of Sidor Kovpak and Alexei Fedorov. The basis of such formations was the employees of the party and Soviet bodies, headed by their future partisan generals. This is how the legendary partisan detachment “Red October” arose: the basis for it was the fighter battalion formed by Tikhon Bumazhkov (a volunteer armed formation in the first months of the war, involved in anti-sabotage struggle in the front line), which was then “overgrown” with local residents and encircled. In the same way, the famous Pinsk partisan detachment, which later grew into a formation, arose on the basis of a fighter battalion created by Vasily Korzh, a career employee of the NKVD, who 20 years earlier was engaged in the preparation of partisan struggle. By the way, his first battle, which the detachment gave on June 28, 1941, is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War.
In addition, there were partisan units that were formed in the Soviet rear, after which they were transferred across the front line to the German rear - for example, Dmitry Medvedev's legendary unit "Winners". The basis of such detachments were fighters and commanders of the NKVD units and professional intelligence officers and saboteurs. In the preparation of such units (as, indeed, in the retraining of ordinary partisans), in particular, the Soviet "number one saboteur" Ilya Starinov was involved. And the activities of such detachments were supervised by the Special Group under the NKVD under the leadership of Pavel Sudoplatov, which later became the 4th Directorate of the People's Commissariat.
The commander of the partisan detachment "Winners" writer Dmitry Medvedev during the Great Patriotic War. Photo: Leonid Korobov / RIA Novosti
Before the commanders of such special units more serious and difficult tasks were set than for ordinary partisans. Often they had to conduct large-scale rear reconnaissance, develop and conduct infiltration operations and liquidation actions. One can again cite as an example the same detachment of Dmitry Medvedev's "Winners": it was he who provided support and supplies for the famous Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov, who accounted for the elimination of several major officials of the occupation administration and several major successes in undercover intelligence.
Insomnia and rail war
But still, the main task of the partisan movement, which from May 1942 was led from Moscow by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement (and from September to November also by the Commander-in-Chief of the partisan movement, whose post was held by the “first red marshal” Kliment Voroshilov for three months), was different. Do not allow the invaders to gain a foothold on the occupied land, inflict constant harassing blows on them, disrupt rear communications and transport links - this is what the mainland expected and demanded from the partisans.
True, the fact that they have some kind of global goal, the partisans, one might say, learned only after the appearance of the Central Headquarters. And the point here is not at all that earlier there was no one to give orders - there was no way to convey them to the performers. From the autumn of 1941 until the spring of 1942, while the front was rolling eastward with great speed and the country was making titanic efforts to stop this movement, the partisan detachments basically acted at their own peril and risk. Left to their own devices, with little to no support from behind the front lines, they were forced to focus more on survival than on inflicting significant damage on the enemy. Few could boast of a connection with the mainland, and even then mainly those who were organized in an organized manner thrown into the German rear, equipped with both a walkie-talkie and radio operators.
But after the appearance of the headquarters of the partisans, they began to centrally provide communications (in particular, regular graduates from schools of partisan radio operators began), to establish coordination between units and formations, and to use the gradually emerging partisan regions as a base for air supply. By that time, the main tactics of guerrilla warfare had also been formed. The actions of the detachments, as a rule, were reduced to one of two methods: harassing strikes at the place of deployment or lengthy raids on the rear of the enemy. Partisan commanders Kovpak and Vershigora were supporters and active performers of the raid tactics, while the “Winners” detachment rather demonstrated a disturbing one.
But what almost all partisan detachments, without exception, did was to disrupt German communications. And it does not matter whether this was done as part of a raid or harassing tactics: strikes were made on railway (primarily) and highways. Those who could not boast of a large number of units and special skills focused on undermining rails and bridges. Larger detachments, which had divisions of demolition, reconnaissance and saboteurs and special means, could count on larger targets: large bridges, junction stations, railway infrastructure.
Guerrillas mine railways under Moscow. Photo: RIA Novosti
Today's view of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War is seriously different from what existed in society 30 years ago. Many details became known that eyewitnesses accidentally or deliberately kept silent about, there were testimonies of those who had never romanticized the activities of the partisans, and even those who had a death account with the partisans of the Great Patriotic War. And in many now independent former Soviet republics, plus and minus were completely reversed, writing the partisans as enemies, and the policemen as saviors of the motherland.
But all these events cannot belittle the main thing - the incredible, unique feat of people who, deep behind enemy lines, did everything to protect their homeland. Let by touch, without any idea of tactics and strategy, with only rifles and grenades, but these people fought for their freedom. And the best monument to them can and will be the memory of the feat of the partisans - the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, which cannot be canceled or underestimated by any efforts.
Let us first give a list of the largest partisan formations and their leaders. Here is the list:
Chernihiv-Volyn partisan unit Major General A.F. Fedorov
Gomel partisan formation Major General I.P. Kozhar
partisan unit Major General V.Z. Korzh
partisan unit Major General M.I. Naumov
partisan unit Major General A.N. Saburov
partisan brigade Major General M.I.Duka
Ukrainian Partisan Division Major General P.P. Vershigora
Rivne partisan unit Colonel V.A. Begma
Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement, Major General V.A.Andreev
In this paper, we will confine ourselves to considering the effects of some of them.
Movement leader Kovpak, Soviet statesman and public figure, one of the organizers of the partisan movement, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (18/5/1942 and 4/1/1944), major general (1943). Member of the CPSU since 1919. Born into the family of a poor peasant. Member of the Civil War 1918-20: led a partisan detachment that fought in Ukraine against German occupiers together with the detachments of A. Ya. Parkhomenko, fought against Denikin; participated in the battles on the Eastern Front as part of the 25th Chapaev Division and on the Southern Front against Wrangel's troops. In 1921-26 he was a military commissar in a number of cities in the Yekaterinoslav province. In 1937-41 chairman of the Putivl city executive committee of the Sumy region. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, Kovpak was the commander of the Putivl partisan detachment, then the formation of partisan detachments of the Sumy region, a member of the illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine. In 1941-42, Kovpak's formation carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Orel and Bryansk regions, in 1942-43 - a raid from the Bryansk forests on the Right-Bank Ukraine in the Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhitomir and Kiev regions ; in 1943 - Carpathian raid. The Sumy partisan formation under the command of Kovpak passed with battles in the rear of the Nazi troops for more than 10 thousand km , defeated the enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. Kovpak's raids played a big role in the deployment of the partisan movement against the Nazi occupiers. In January 1944, the Sumy formation was renamed the 1st Ukrainian partisan division named after Kovpak. He was awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 1st degree, the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree, the Orders of Czechoslovakia and Poland, as well as medals.
In early July 1941, the formation of partisan detachments and underground groups began in Putivl. One partisan detachment under the command of S.A. Kovpak was supposed to operate in the Spadshchansky forest, another, commanded by S.V. Rudnev, in the Novoslobodsky forest, and the third, led by S.F. Kirilenko, in the Maritsa tract. In October of the same year, at a general detachment meeting, it was decided to unite into a single Putivl partisan detachment. S.A. Kovpak became the commander of the united detachment, S.V. Rudnev became the commissar, G.Ya. Bazyma became the chief of staff. By the end of 1941, there were only 73 people in the detachment, and by the middle of 1942 - already more than a thousand. Small and large partisan units from other places came to Kovpak. Gradually, a union of people's avengers of the Sumy region was born. On May 26, 1942, the Kovpak people liberated Putivl and held it for two days. And in October, having broken through the enemy blockade created around the Bryansk Forest, a formation of partisan detachments launched a raid on the right bank of the Dnieper. For a month, the Kovpakovites traveled 750 km. Along the rear of the enemy through the Sumy, Chernihiv, Gomel, Kiev, Zhytomyr regions. 26 bridges were blown up, 2 echelons with manpower and equipment of the Nazis, 5 armored cars and 17 vehicles were destroyed. During the period of its second raid - from July to October 1943 - the formation of partisan detachments fought four thousand kilometers. The partisans put out of action the main oil refineries, oil storage facilities, oil rigs and oil pipelines located in the region of Drogobych and Ivano-Frankivsk. The Pravda Ukrainy newspaper wrote: “Telegrams flew from Germany: to catch Kovpak, to lock up his troops in the mountains. Twenty-five times the ring of punishers closed around the areas occupied by the partisan general, and the same number of times he left unharmed.
Being in a difficult situation and fighting fierce battles, the Kovpak people made their way out of their last encirclement shortly before the liberation of Ukraine.
4 .2 Chernihiv-Volyn partisan unit Major General A.F. Fedorov
This year, Ukraine at the state level celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary partisan commander, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Alexei Fedorovich Fedorov.
Aleksey Fedorov, a native of the Yekaterinoslav region (now the Dnipropetrovsk region), served in the Red Cavalry during the Civil War, participated in battles with the Tyutunnyk gang. Then he was educated and worked in trade union and party bodies in Ukraine.
The Great Patriotic War caught A.F. Fedorov at the post of the first secretary of the Chernigov Regional Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine. After the occupation of Chernihiv region by the Germans, the regional committee continued its work underground, and the first secretary headed the headquarters of the partisan movement. At the initiative of Alexei Fedorov, five partisan detachments based in the north of Chernihiv region were united into a single regional detachment.
Over time, the famous Chernihiv-Volyn formation grew out of it, the bold actions of which became one of the brightest pages of the partisan movement. In the early spring of 1943, on the orders of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement, Major General Fedorov led his unit on a raid on Volyn. Thus began the operation "Kovel Knot", which military historians call "the pinnacle of the partisan art of General Fedorov."
Soviet intelligence established that the Germans were preparing a powerful offensive operation "Citadel" on the Kursk Bulge for the summer campaign of 1943. In order to disrupt the supply lines of the Nazi troops, the Soviet command decided to launch a large-scale "rail war" behind enemy lines.
The partisan unit of A.F. Fedorov was assigned to operate in the area of the Kovel railway junction, through which a significant part of the cargo for the German Army Group Center passed.
In July 1943, five sabotage battalions began to fight enemy echelons on the tracks leaving Kovel.
On some days, the bombers of the formation destroyed two or three enemy echelons. The strategic node was paralyzed.
For ten months of the Kovel operation, the partisans under the command of A.F. Fedorov derailed 549 echelons with ammunition, fuel, military equipment and manpower of the enemy, while destroying about ten thousand invaders. For the operation "Kovel Knot" Alexei Fedorov received the second Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the war, A.F. Fedorov headed the Izmail, Kherson and Zhytomyr regional party committees, worked as the Minister of Social Security of the Ukrainian SSR, was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, in the territories of the Soviet Union occupied by fascist troops, a people's war was waged, which is a partisan movement. About its features and most prominent representatives we will tell in our article.
Partisans (partisan detachments) are unofficial persons (armed groups) who are hiding, avoiding direct confrontation, while fighting the enemy in the occupied lands. An important aspect of partisan activity is the voluntary support of the civilian population. If this does not happen, then the battle groups are saboteurs or simply bandits.
The Soviet partisan movement began to form immediately in 1941 (very active in Belarus). The partisans were required to take an oath. The detachments operated mainly in the frontline zone. During the war years, about 6,200 groups (a million people) were created. Where the terrain did not allow the creation of partisan zones, underground organizations or sabotage groups operated.
The main goals of the partisans:
The partisan movement was not uncontrolled. Already in June 1941 the Council people's commissars adopted a directive listing the main necessary actions partisans. In addition, part of the partisan detachments was created in free territories, and then transported to the enemy rear. In May 1942, the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement was formed.
Rice. 1. Soviet partisans.
Many underground workers and partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are acknowledged heroes.
We list the most famous:
Rice. 2. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the partisan pioneers:
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In Krasnodon (1942, Lugansk region, Donbass), an underground youth organization called the Young Guard was formed, immortalized in the film and novel of the same name (author Alexander Fadeev). Ivan Turkenich (1920-1944) was appointed its commander. The organization included about 110 people, 6 of whom became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Participants staged sabotage, distributed leaflets. Major action: set fire to lists of people selected for export to Germany; a raid on cars carrying German New Year's gifts. In January 1943, the Germans arrested and killed about 80 underground workers.
