A front without flanks: the partisans made an invaluable contribution to the victory
On June 29, 1941, a week after the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, the Council of People's Commissars issued a directive on the creation of partisan detachments in local authorities, trade unions and Komsomol cells to fight the invaders in the occupied territories. By that time, the guerrilla movement was already emerging spontaneously. From that day on, the disparate detachments had a unified command — certainly not as hierarchical as in regular units. But the partisans and underground fighters acted effectively, not giving the Germans a single day of rest. A real war began behind enemy lines — a front that had no flanks. Izvestia recalled how it was.
From Karelia to the Carpathians
There was no pre-developed concept of guerrilla warfare in the USSR. But both the political authorities and the special services have shown that they are able to act promptly. It was possible to organize illegal work in all the cities that the enemy occupied, moving rapidly eastward in the summer and autumn of 1941. But nothing would have been possible if hundreds of thousands of Soviet people had not shown courage and patriotism, which was more important to them than the instinct of self-preservation or the desire to settle in life. They did not want to accept the power of the invaders.
This came as a surprise to the Germans, and already in the first months of the war they were terrified and fought the underground with brutal terrorist methods. In the first year of the war, on September 16, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel issued an order according to which, just for the attempted murder of a German, it was ordered to take hostages and kill from 50 to 100 Soviet people. These barbaric measures did not help: with each passing month, the underground only grew.
In the first months of the war, the Germans managed to occupy a significant part of the industrial, densely populated and most developed regions of the Soviet Union. But the underground was operating everywhere, and the Nazis could not effectively use Soviet factories, agricultural enterprises, as it happened in Western Europe. The Nazis, as you know, conquered several large countries of the Old World. In some of them — and here, first of all, Yugoslavia and Poland should be mentioned — a strong resistance movement has developed. But neither in scale nor in results can this patriotic movement even be compared with the people's war that took place in the Soviet Union, from Karelia to the Carpathians.
"On behalf of the brave of the brave"
The framework of the partisan movement was made up of party and Komsomol cells that had gone underground, and, of course, the Chekists. The soldiers and commanders of the Red Army who escaped from captivity played an important role. Some underground formations were directly subordinate to the NKVD and military intelligence, many partisan detachments arose spontaneously.
Pyotr Masherov, a young mathematics teacher from the Vitebsk region, volunteered for the front in the early days of the war. He was surrounded and captured. But he managed to escape by jumping off the train. In August 1941, in his native village of Rossony, he created a group of underground fighters, and then the partisans elected him commander of the Shchors detachment, which did not allow the Germans to feel like masters in three districts of Vitebsk region. His students fought alongside Masherov. They gathered their comrades in the villages, staging their arrests so that the Nazis would not have an unnecessary reason for punitive operations against civilians. Blown up bridges, attacks on policemen and Gestapo Masher soldiers prepared hundreds of actions in Hitler's rear. In 1944, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Many years later, the former partisan became the head of the Byelorussian SSR, and the people remembered him well both as a partisan commander and as a politician.
Sidor Kovpak, a peasant from the Zaporozhian Cossacks, fought in the First World War. He earned two soldiers' Crosses of St. George. During the Civil War, he assembled a partisan detachment that acted against the Kaiser's occupiers, and at the same time fought with the whites. When the Great Patriotic War began, he was chairman of the city executive committee in Sumy region, in Putivl. When the Germans came to the city, "Grandfather Kovpak" and several dozen activists went into the forest. His squad grew rapidly, and in one of the first battles they captured a tank from the Nazis.
Kovpak's guerrilla army was dominated by iron discipline and caution. By the spring of 1942, Kovpak troops were already raiding enemy lines for hundreds of kilometers. Then Sidor Artemievich received his first Hero Star. The German garrisons panicked when they heard: He rarely asked the center for weapons: he preferred to recapture them from the Germans. That's what he said: "My supplier is Hitler." The guerrilla commander was promoted to the rank of Major General. Kovpak fighters fought in Belarus, the Carpathians, and Poland. In July 1944, Kovpak's partisan army joined up with regular units of the Red Army.
Sidor Kovpak
And such national avengers appeared everywhere, where our land was trampled by a German boot. 139 partisan detachments fought against the Nazis in the Bryansk region. More than 60,000 fighters were based in the forests. And thousands more worked underground in the occupied towns and villages. Of these, twelve became Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Not far from the stations of Dno and Dedovichi in the Pskov region, on the banks of the Sheloni River, a partisan region, the heroic "forest republic", was formed in the autumn of 1941. The inhabitants of this region lived under the occupation according to the laws of the Soviet state. Nikolai Kudret, a carpenter at the Novosokolniki locomotive depot, became the organizer of the partisan detachment "For the Motherland".
Konstantin Zaslonov, one of the first well-known underground fighters and guerrilla leaders, said: "Our country is on fire. Life demands that every citizen, in whom the heart of a patriot beats, who breathes and wants to breathe healthy Soviet air, would stand up for the defense of our Motherland. I assure you, on behalf of the brave of the brave, who ask me to tell you that we will honorably take the oath of the partisans."
The Partisan oath:
I, a citizen of the great Soviet Union, a faithful son of my heroic people, swear that I will not let go of my weapon until the last fascist bastard on our Belarusian land is destroyed. I undertake to unconditionally follow the orders of my commanders and superiors, and strictly observe military discipline. For the burned towns and villages, for the death of our children, for the torture, violence and mockery of my people, I swear to take revenge on the enemy cruelly, mercilessly and tirelessly. Blood for blood and death for death! I swear by all means to help the Red Army destroy the rabid Nazi dogs, sparing no blood and my life. I swear that I would rather die in a fierce battle with the enemy than give myself, my family and the entire Belarusian people into the slavery of insidious fascism. If, through my weakness, cowardice, or ill will, I break this oath of mine and betray the interests of the people, may I die a shameful death at the hands of my comrades.
Battle behind enemy lines
Since May 1942, the Central Headquarters of the partisan Movement operated at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. He gave the forest armies tasks and helped with supplies. The largest operation, which was developed by the headquarters and implemented by the partisans, was the "Rail War", which took place in August–September 1943. The Battle of Kursk was coming to an end, the Red Army was preparing an offensive, and it was necessary to intensify the war behind enemy lines in order to divert German forces to protect the railways. 100,000 partisans, to whom demolition instructors were thrown from the center, took part in this operation. On August 3, more than 40,000 rails were successfully blown up in several occupied regions. This went on for several weeks. The partisans managed to disrupt the supply plan for the retreating German divisions.
Participants of the partisan movement dismantling railway tracks during the rail war during the Great Patriotic War
The 101st Aviation Regiment, commanded by the legendary Valentina Grizodubova, helped the partisan movement. She flew more than 200 combat missions, mostly at night, to guerrilla camps. The pilot had a saying: "The weather is worse, it's better to fly" — there is less chance that enemy fighters will notice you. The regiment provided weapons, food, and reserves to the detachments of Sidor Kovpak, Alexei Fedorov, and Vasily Begma. The pilots took more than 4,000 children to the mainland, and many were injured. The forest heroes felt that they were supported by a large country, and they believed more strongly in victory.
The brutal Nazis destroyed 628 settlements in Belarus alone, along with all their inhabitants — sometimes the reason for such actions was only suspicion of ties with the partisans. And yet, in the rear of the Germans, there were entire partisan territories that the Nazis simply could not control. Punitive raids did not help. The partisan detachments suffered losses, but did not lay down their weapons.
Heroes of the underground
Already during the war years, the Komsomol underground organization in occupied Krasnodon, the Young Guard, became legendary. There were only a few of them — 47 boys and 24 girls. They issued anti-fascist leaflets, set fire to the German labor exchange with lists of those who were supposed to be hijacked to Germany, and set red banners on the roofs of houses on a holiday. In short, we showed both Germans and compatriots that our Motherland does not give up and will fight to victory. In January 1943, the Germans tracked down the Young Guards. Almost none of the young underground workers had any experience of sabotage work... Most of the heroes did not escape arrest. They were brutally tortured, and on January 13 they were executed by being thrown into a deep mine. A month later, the Red Army liberated Krasnodon. The feat of the Young Guards, which became a symbol of selfless resistance to the enemy, became known throughout the country. And it will never be forgotten.
The place of death of the Young Guards in Krasnodon
A special page of the war is the exploits of the saboteurs who operated behind enemy lines. Ilya Starinov, a colonel of the engineering troops, earned the title of the great bomber among his colleagues. It requires not only courage, but also analytical work. Starinov knew how to choose the optimal place for mining, determining in advance where high-ranking Nazis might be. Kharkiv is a classic example. Then Starinov managed to mine the most important facilities of the city and remotely undermine them, destroying the command of the German garrison, including General Georg von Braun.
Intelligence officer Ivan Kudrya remained in occupied Kiev. He led a group of underground fighters, which, as Pavel Sudoplatov, the head of the 4th "sabotage" department of the NKVD, recalled, "was supposed to infiltrate the Ukrainian nationalist underground, on which the German command was making a serious bet." Kudra succeeded. At the end of 1941, he carried out operations such as the bombing of the German commandant's office and the destruction of a cinema where the occupiers had gathered. According to the information he obtained, he managed to expose about a hundred German spies in our rear. It was necessary to act on the verge of death — and in the fall of 1942, Kudry fell into the hands of the Gestapo. The brave saboteur was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
In 1944, the actions of the partisans became the prologue to the victorious operation Bagration, which ended with the liberation of Belarus and the defeat of the German Army Group Center. On July 16, 1944, a partisan parade took place on the field of the Minsk hippodrome. The bearded fighters tried to keep in line, but they often lost their stride, and they were dressed differently - out of shape. Some wore a cap, some a cap, some a civilian cap, and some, despite the hot July weather, sported padded jackets, which they were accustomed to in forests and dugouts. It was an unforgettable parade. Minsk residents looked with admiration at those whom they saw as their defenders, genuine national heroes.
The Belarusian offensive Operation Bagration
Thousands of partisans and saboteurs remained in the ranks in the last months of the war — in the regular army, in the frontline territory controlled by the Nazis. They fought to victory, fulfilling their vow.
During the four years of the Great Patriotic War, more than a million partisans and underground fighters joined the fight against the invaders. They gave everything to win. On this day, we remember that during the Great Patriotic War, the entire nation rose up to defend the Fatherland. The exploits of the partisans and reconnaissance saboteurs who stood up for the defense of the Fatherland will always be an example of valor and courage for us. If you have a modest medal "To the Partisan of the Patriotic War" in your family archive, take care of it as a great shrine.
The author is the deputy editor—in-chief of the magazine "Historian"
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
