Commander of one of the largest partisan formations. Partisan movement during the great patriotic war

What price was paid for the liberation of the Motherland by its defenders who fought behind enemy lines

This is rarely remembered, but during the war years there was a joke that sounded with a tinge of pride: “Why should we wait until the Allies open a second front? We have it open for a long time! The Partisan Front is called. " If there is an exaggeration in this, it is small. The partisans of the Great Patriotic War were indeed a real second front for the Nazis.

To imagine the scale of the guerrilla war, it is enough to cite a few numbers. By 1944, about 1.1 million people fought in partisan detachments and formations. The losses of the German side from the actions of the partisans amounted to several hundred thousand people - this number includes the soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht (at least 40,000 people, even according to the scant data of the German side), and all kinds of collaborators such as Vlasov, police, colonists, and so on. Among those destroyed by the people's avengers - 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 paid dearly for such successes. In the ceremonial reports of that time, everything looks beautiful: they destroyed 150 enemy soldiers - lost two partisans killed. In reality, the partisan losses were much higher, and even today their final figure is unknown. But the losses were certainly no less than that 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?

The severity of losses among partisans and members of the underground is very clearly indicated by only one figure: 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 in total during the Great Patriotic War, the country's highest awards were awarded to 11,657 people, of which 3,051 were posthumous. That is, every fourth ...

Among the 250 partisans and underground fighters - Heroes of the Soviet Union, two were awarded the high rank twice. These are the commanders of the partisan formations Sidor Kovpak and Alexei Fedorov. What is noteworthy: each time both partisan commanders were awarded the same decree at the same time. For the first time - on May 18, 1942, together with partisan Ivan Kopenkin, who received the title posthumously. The second time was on January 4, 1944, together with 13 more partisans: this 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 badge 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 Peter Masherov and the commander of the partisan detachment "Falcons" Kirill Orlovsky. The first title Peter Masherov received 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 collective farm "Rassvet" headed by him became the first collective farm-millionaire 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 the 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 until 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 Nazi invaders. Photo: Vladimir Lupeiko / RIA

Chronicle of partisan heroism

In total, in the first year and a half of the war, 21 partisans and underground fighters were awarded the highest awards, 12 of them received the title posthumously. In total, by the end of 1942, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued nine decrees conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to the partisans, five of them were group, four were individual. Among them was the decree on awarding the legendary partisan Liza Chaikina of 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 awarded. But in the next, 1944, when the entire territory of the USSR was liberated from the fascist yoke and the partisans were on their side of the front line, 111 people immediately received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, including two - Sidor Kovpak and Alexey Fedorov - in the second once. And in the victorious 1945, another 29 people were added to the number of partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union.

But many were 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 the partisan in Italy Fore Mosulishvili and the leader of the "Young Guard" Ivan Turkenich. Both received the award posthumously.

What else can you add when talking about hero guerrillas? Every ninth person 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 are even more relentless: 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" Ulyana Gromova and Lyuba Shevtsova. In addition, among the partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union, there were two Germans: scout Fritz Schmenkel, awarded posthumously in 1964, and reconnaissance commander Robert Klein, awarded in 1944. And also the Slovak Jan Nalepka, the commander of the partisan detachment, awarded posthumously in 1945.

It only remains to add that after the collapse of the USSR, the title of Hero of the Russian Federation was awarded to 9 more partisans, including three posthumously (one of the recipients was intelligence officer Vera Voloshina). A total of 127,875 men and women (1st degree - 56,883 people, 2nd degree - 70,992 people) were awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War": 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 awarded to the commander of a group of demolition men, Efim Osipenko. He was awarded the award for his feat in the fall of 1941, when he had to detonate a mine that did not work, literally by hand. As a result, the echelon with tanks and food fell from the canvas, and the detachment managed to pull out the shell-shocked and blinded commander and transport it to the mainland.

Guerrillas for the call of the heart and duty

The fact that the Soviet government would bet 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 they attracted - 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, not long before the start of the war, as veterans recall, these bases began to be opened and liquidated, and the built-up system of warning and organization of partisan detachments was broken. Nevertheless, when the first bombs fell on Soviet soil on June 22, many party workers in the field recalled these pre-war plans and began to form the backbone of future detachments.

But not all detachments were created in this way. There were many 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 get to their units of conscripts and the like. Moreover, this process was uncontrollable, 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. 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 did not start actively joining the partisan detachments immediately, but only by the spring of 1942, when the “new order” manifested itself in the whole nightmare, and the possibility of surviving 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 employees of 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 of the first months of the war, involved in the anti-sabotage struggle in the frontline zone), which then "overgrown" with local residents and encircled people. In the same way, the famous Pinsk partisan detachment, which later grew into a formation, arose on the basis of an extermination battalion created by Vasily Korzh, a personnel officer of the NKVD, who 20 years earlier had been preparing partisan warfare. 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 detachments that were formed in the Soviet rear, after which they were thrown across the front line to the German rear - for example, the legendary unit of Dmitry Medvedev "Winners". The basis of such detachments was made up of fighters and commanders of NKVD units and professional scouts and saboteurs. In the preparation of such units (as, indeed, in the retraining of ordinary partisans), in particular, the Soviet "saboteur number one" Ilya Starinov was involved. And the activities of such detachments were supervised by a 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 Victors Partisan Detachment, writer Dmitry Medvedev, during the Great Patriotic War. Photo: Leonid Korobov / RIA Novosti

The commanders of such special detachments were given more serious and difficult tasks than ordinary partisans. They often had to conduct large-scale logistical reconnaissance, design and conduct infiltration operations and liquidation actions. We can again cite the example of the same detachment of Dmitry Medvedev "Winners": it was he who provided support and supplies to the famous Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov, who was responsible for the elimination of several high officials of the occupation administration and several major successes in secret intelligence.

Insomnia and rail war

But nevertheless, 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 the Commander-in-Chief of the partisan movement, whose post was held for three months by the "first red marshal" Kliment Voroshilov), was different. To prevent the occupiers from gaining a foothold on the occupied land, to inflict constant harassing strikes on them, to disrupt rear communications and transport links - this is what the Great Land expected and demanded from the partisans.

True, the partisans, one might say, only learned about the fact that they have some kind of global goal after the appearance of the Central Headquarters. And the point here is not at all that there was no one to give orders before - there was no way to convey them to the executors. From the autumn of 1941 to the spring of 1942, while the front was rolling eastward at great speed and the country made titanic efforts to stop this movement, the guerrilla units mainly acted at their own peril and risk. Left to themselves, with little or no support from the front line, they were forced to deal more with survival than inflicting significant damage to 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 a walkie-talkie and radio operators.

But after the appearance of the headquarters of the partisans, they began to provide centralized communications (in particular, regular graduations from the schools of partisan radio operators began), to establish coordination between units and formations, to use the gradually emerging partisan lands as a base for air supply. By that time, the main tactics of partisan 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 prolonged raids on the rear of the enemy. The partisan commanders Kovpak and Vershigora were the supporters and active performers of the raid tactics, while the "Victors" detachment rather showed concern.

But what practically all partisan detachments were doing, without exception, was disrupting the communications of the Germans. And it doesn't matter if this was done within the framework of raid or harassing tactics: strikes were made on railways (primarily) and highways. Those who could not boast of a large number of troops and special skills focused on blowing up rails and bridges. Larger detachments, which had units of demolitions, scouts and saboteurs and special means, could count on larger targets: large bridges, junction stations, railway infrastructure.

Partisans mine railroad tracks near Moscow. Photo: RIA Novosti

The most large-scale coordinated actions were two sabotage operations - "Rail War" and "Concert". Both were carried out by partisans on the orders of the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and were coordinated with the offensives of the Red Army in the late summer and autumn of 1943. The result of the "Rail War" was a reduction in the operational traffic of Germans by 40%, and the result of the "Concert" - by 35%. This had a tangible impact on the provision of reinforcements and equipment to the active units of the Wehrmacht, although some experts in the field of sabotage warfare believed that the partisan capabilities could be disposed of differently. For example, it was necessary to strive to disable not so much railway tracks as equipment, which is much more difficult to restore. For this, a device such as an overhead rail was invented at the Higher Operational School for Special Purpose, which literally threw trains from the canvas. But nevertheless, for the majority of partisan detachments, the most accessible way of rail warfare was precisely the undermining of the canvas, and even such assistance to the front was not meaningless.

A feat that cannot be undone

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, about which eyewitnesses were accidentally or deliberately silent, testimonies of those who never romanticized the activities of partisans, and even those who had a death toll for the partisans of the Great Patriotic War, appeared. And in many of the now independent former Soviet republics, the plus and minus were completely reversed, recording the partisans as enemies, and the policemen as the saviors of the homeland.

But all these events cannot diminish 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 be and will be the memory of the feat of the partisans - heroes of the Great Patriotic War, which cannot be canceled or underestimated by any efforts.

Soviet partisans are an integral part of the anti-fascist movement of the Soviet people who fought using the methods of guerrilla warfare against Germany and its allies in the temporarily occupied territories of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.

From the very first days of the war, the Communist Party gave the guerrilla movement a purposeful and organized character. The directive of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of June 29, 1941 required: “In the areas occupied by the enemy, create partisan detachments and sabotage groups to fight parts of the enemy army, to incite a partisan war everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, burning of warehouses, etc. “. The main goal of the partisan war was to undermine the front in the German rear - disruption of communications and communications, the work of its road and rail communications, set out in

Decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated July 18, 1941 "On the organization of the struggle in the rear of the German troops."

Considering the deployment of the partisan movement one of the most important conditions for the defeat of the fascist invaders, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) obliged the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the republics, regional, regional and district party committees to lead the organization of the partisan struggle. For the leadership of the partisan masses in the occupied areas, it was proposed to allocate experienced, fighting, completely loyal to the party and proven comrades. The struggle of Soviet patriots was led by 565 secretaries of regional committees, city committees and party districts, 204 chairmen of regional, city and district executive committees of workers' deputies, 104 secretaries of the regional committee, city committee and district committee of the Komsomol, as well as hundreds of other leaders. Already in 1941, the struggle of the Soviet people behind enemy lines was led by 18 underground regional committees, more than 260 district committees, city committees, district committees and other underground organizations and groups, in which there were 65,500 communists.

An important role in the development of the partisan movement was played by the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR, created in 1941, under the leadership of P. Sudoplatov. A separate motorized rifle brigade of special purpose of the NKVD of the USSR was subordinate to him, from which reconnaissance and sabotage detachments were formed, thrown into the rear of the enemy. As a rule, they then turned into large partisan detachments. By the end of 1941, more than 2,000 partisan detachments and sabotage groups were operating in the territories occupied by the enemy, with a total number of over 90,000 partisans. In order to coordinate the combat activities of the partisans and organize their interaction with the troops of the Red Army, special bodies were created.

P.A. Sudoplatov

A striking example of the actions of special forces was the destruction of the headquarters of the 59th division of the Wehrmacht, together with the head of the garrison in Kharkov, Lieutenant General Georg von Braun. Mansion at st. Dzerzhinsky no. 17 was mined by a radio-controlled land mine by a group under the command of I.G. Starinov and detonated by radio signal in October 1941. Later, Lieutenant General Beinecker was also destroyed by a mine. . I.G. Starinov

Mines and unrecoverable land mines designed by I.G. Starinov were widely used for sabotage operations during the Second World War.

radio-controlled mine I.G. Starinova

For the leadership of the partisan war, republican, regional and regional headquarters of the partisan movement were created. They were headed by secretaries or members of the Central Committee of the Communist Parties of the Union republics, regional and regional committees: the Ukrainian headquarters - T.A. Strokach, Belorussky - P.Z. Kalinin, Lithuanian - A.Yu. Snechkus, Latvian - A.K. Sprogis, Estonian - N.T. Karotamm, Karelian - S.Ya. Vershinin, Leningradsky - M.N. Nikitin. The Oryol regional committee of the CPSU (b) was headed by A.P. Matveev, Smolensky - D.M. Popov, Krasnodar - P.I. Seleznev, Stavropolsky - M.A. Suslov, Krymsky - V.S. Bulatov. The Komsomol made a great contribution to the organization of the partisan war. Among its governing bodies in the occupied territory were M.V. Zimyanin, K.T. Mazurov, P.M. Masherov and others.

By a GKO decree of May 30, 1942, the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement was organized at the Supreme Command Headquarters (TsSHPD, Chief of Staff - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Belarus P.K. Ponomarenko).

The measures carried out by the party made it possible to significantly improve the leadership of the partisan detachments, supply them with the necessary material resources, and ensure clearer interaction of the partisans with the Red Army.

at the partisan airfield.

Z and during its existence, the TSSHPD sent 59960 rifles and carbines, 34320 assault rifles, 4210 light machine guns, 2556 anti-tank rifles, 2184 50-mm and 82-mm mortars, 539570 hand-held anti-personnel and anti-tank grenades, a large number of ammunition, explosives, medicines, food and other necessary property. The central and republican schools of the partisan movement trained and sent more than 22,000 different specialists to the enemy's rear, of which 75% were demolitionists, 9% were organizers of the underground and partisan movement, 8% were radio operators, and 7% were scouts.

The main organizational and combat unit of the partisan forces was a detachment, which usually consisted of squads, platoons and companies, numbering several dozen people, and later - up to 200 or more fighters. During the war, many detachments united in partisan brigades and partisan divisions of up to several thousand soldiers. The armament was dominated by light weapons (both Soviet and captured), but many detachments and formations had mortars, and some even artillery. All persons who joined the partisan formations took the partisan oath; as a rule, strict military discipline was established in the units. Party and Komsomol organizations were created in the detachments. The actions of the partisans were combined with other forms of popular struggle behind enemy lines - the actions of the underground in cities and towns, sabotage in enterprises and transport, disruption of political and military measures carried out by the enemy.

at the headquarters of the partisan brigade

a group of partisans

partisan with a machine gun

The forms of organization of the partisan forces and the methods of their actions were influenced by the physical and geographical conditions. Vast forests, swamps, mountains were the main basing areas for partisan forces. Here, partisan lands and zones arose, where various methods of struggle could be widely used, including open battles with the enemy. In the steppe regions, however, large formations operated successfully only during raids. The small detachments and groups that were constantly located here usually avoided open confrontations with the enemy and inflicted damage on him mainly by sabotage.

The following elements can be distinguished in the tactics of guerrilla actions:

Sabotage activities, destruction of the enemy's infrastructure in any form (rail war, destruction of communication lines, high-voltage lines, destruction of bridges, water pipelines, etc.);

Intelligence activities, including undercover activities;

Political activity and Bolshevik propaganda;

Destruction of manpower and equipment of the fascists;

Elimination of collaborators and heads of the Nazi administration;

Restoration and preservation of elements of Soviet power in the occupied territory;

Mobilization of the combat-ready population remaining in the occupied territories, and the unification of the encircled military units.

V.Z. Cake

On June 28, 1941, near the village of Posenichi, the first battle of a partisan detachment under the command of V.Z. Cake. To protect the city of Pinsk from the northern side, a group of partisans was deployed on the Pinsk-Logoshin road. An ambush by a partisan detachment commanded by Korzh was run over by 2 German tanks with motorcyclists. It was the reconnaissance of the 293rd Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. The partisans opened fire and destroyed one tank. During the battle, the partisans captured two Nazis. This was the first partisan battle of the first partisan detachment in the history of the Great Patriotic War!

On July 4, 1941, Korzh's detachment met a German cavalry squadron 4 km from Pinsk. The partisans let the Germans close and opened accurate fire. Dozens of fascist cavalrymen perished on the battlefield. In total, by June 1944, the Pinsk partisan formation under the command of V.Z Korzh defeated 60 German garrisons in battles, derailed 478 railway trains, and blew up 62 railway lines. bridge, destroyed 86 tanks, 29 guns, disabled 519 km of communication lines. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 08/15/1944, for the exemplary performance of command assignments in the fight against the Nazi invaders behind enemy lines and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Vasily Zakharovich Korzh was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star "for No. 4448.

In August 1941, 231 partisan detachments were already operating on the territory of Belarus. Leaders of the Belarusian partisan detachment

“Red October” - commander Fyodor Pavlovsky and commissar Tikhon Bumazhkov - on August 6, 1941, the first partisans were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In the Bryansk region, Soviet partisans controlled vast territories in the German rear. In the summer of 1942, they actually controlled an area of ​​14,000 square kilometers. The Bryansk partisan republic was formed.

guerrilla ambush

In the second period of the Second World War (autumn 1942 - late 1943), the partisan movement expanded deep behind enemy lines. Moving the basing from the Bryansk forests to the west, the partisan formations forced the Desna, Sozh, Dnieper, Pripyat rivers and began to strike at the enemy's most important communications in his rear. The partisan strikes provided tremendous assistance to the Red Army, diverting large forces of the fascists to themselves. In the midst of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943, the actions of partisan detachments and formations largely disrupted the supply of enemy reserves and military equipment to the front. The actions of the partisans turned out to be so effective that the fascist German command threw against them in the summer and autumn of 1942, 144 police battalions, 27 police regiments, 8 infantry regiments, 10 security police and punitive SS divisions, 2 security corps, 72 special units, up to 15 infantry German and 5 infantry divisions of their satellites, thus weakening their forces at the front. Despite this, the partisans managed to organize more than 3,000 crashes of enemy echelons during this period, blew up 3,500 railway and highway bridges, destroyed 15,000 vehicles, about 900 bases and depots with ammunition and weapons, up to 1,200 tanks, 467 aircraft, 378 guns.

punishers and policemen

partisan land

partisans on the march

By the end of the summer of 1942, the partisan movement had become a significant force, and organizational work was completed. The total number of partisans was up to 200,000 people. In August 1942, the most famous of the partisan commanders were summoned to Moscow to participate in a general meeting.

The commanders of the partisan formations: M.I. Duka, M.P. Voloshin, D.V. Emlyutin, S.A. Kovpak, A.N. Saburov

(from left to right)

Thanks to the efforts of the Soviet leadership, the partisan movement turned into a carefully organized, well-managed and united by a single command, a military and political force. Chief of the Central Staff of the Partisan Movement at Headquarters, Lieutenant General P.K. Ponomarenko became a member of the General Staff Red Army.

PC. Ponomarenko

TsSHPD - on the left P.K. Ponomarenko

The partisan detachments operating in the frontal zone came under the direct subordination of the command of the corresponding army, which occupied this sector of the front. The detachments operating in the deep rear of the German troops were subordinate to the headquarters in Moscow. The officers and rank and file of the regular army were sent to partisan units as instructors in the training of specialists.

guerrilla control structure

In August - September 1943, according to the plan of the TSSHPD, 541 detachments of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian partisans simultaneously took part in the first operation to destroy the enemy's railway communications in"Rail war".

The purpose of the operation was to disorganize the work of the railway by massive and simultaneous destruction of rails. transport, than disrupt the supply of German troops, evacuation and regrouping and thus assist the Red Army in completing the defeat of the enemy in the Battle of Kursk in 1943 and deploying a general offensive on the Soviet-German front. The management of the "rail war" was carried out by the TSSHPD at the Supreme Command Headquarters. The plan called for the destruction of 200,000 rails in the rear areas of Army Groups Center and North. To carry out the operation, 167 partisan detachments of Belarus, Leningrad, Kalinin, Smolensk, Oryol regions of up to 100,000 people were involved.

The operation was preceded by thorough preparation. The sections of the railroad designated for destruction were distributed between partisan formations and detachments. From June 15 to July 1, 1943, aircraft dropped 150 tons of special-profile thick bombs, 156,000 m of a fuse cord, 28,000 and a hemp fuse, 595,000 detonator caps, 35,000 fuses, a lot of weapons, ammunition and medicines. Miner instructors were sent to the partisan detachments.

reconciliation of the railway canvases

The "rail war" began on the night of August 3, just at the time when the enemy was forced to intensively maneuver his reserves in connection with the unfolding Soviet counter-offensive and its development into a general offensive along the entire front. In one night, over 42,000 rails were blown up on a vast territory of 1000 km along the front and from the front line to the western borders of the USSR. Simultaneously with the "Rail War", active actions on the enemy's communications were launched by the partisans of Ukraine, who, according to the plan for the spring-summer period of 1943, were tasked with paralyzing the work of the 26 largest railways. nodes in the rear of Army Group South, including Shepetovsky, Kovelsky, Zdolbunovsky, Korostensky, Sarnensky.

train station attack

In the following days, the actions of the partisans in the operation became even more active. By September 15, 215,000 rails were destroyed, which amounted to 1,342 km of single-track railway. paths. On some railways On the roads, traffic was delayed for 3-15 days, and the highways Mogilev-Krichev, Polotsk-Dvinsk, Mogilev-Zhlobin did not work during August 1943. During the operation, only Belarusian partisans blew up 836 military echelons, including 3 armored trains, disabled 690 steam locomotives, 6343 carriages and platforms, 18 water pumps, destroyed 184 railways. bridges and 556 bridges on dirt and highways, destroyed 119 tanks and 1429 vehicles, defeated 44 German garrisons. The experience of the "Rail War" was used by the headquarters of the partisan movement in the autumn-winter period of 1943/1944 in the "Concert" operations and in the summer of 1944 during the offensive of the Red Army in Belarus.

blown up railway composition

Operation "Concert" was carried out by Soviet partisans from September 19 to the end of October 1943. The purpose of the operation is to make it difficult to transport the German fascist troops by massive disabling of large sections of railways; was a continuation of Operation "Rail War"; was carried out according to the plan of the TSSHPD at the Headquarters of the Supreme Command and was closely connected with the upcoming offensive of Soviet troops in the Smolensk and Gomel directions and the battle for the Dnieper. The operation involved 293 partisan formations and detachments of Belarus, the Baltic states, Karelia, Crimea, Leningrad and Kalinin regions, over 120,000 partisans in total; it was envisaged to blow up more than 272,000 rails. In Belarus, 90,000 partisans were involved in the operation; they had to blow up 140,000 rails. TsSHPD intended to throw 120 tons of explosives and other cargoes to the partisans of Belarus, and 20 tons to the Kalinin and Leningrad partisans.In view of the sharply deteriorating weather conditions, by the beginning of the operation, the partisans were transferred only 50% of what was planned, and therefore it was decided to start mass sabotage on September 25. However, part of the partisan detachments that went out to the starting lines according to the previous order could no longer take into account the changes in the timing of the operation and on September 19 they began to carry it out. On the night of September 25, widespread actions were taken according to the plan"Concert", covering 900 km along the front and 400 km deep. The partisans of Belarus blew up 19,003 rails on the night of September 19 and 15809 more rails on the night of September 25. As a result, 148,557 rails were blown up. Operation Concert intensified the struggle of the Soviet people against the German fascist invaders in the occupied territories. In the course of it, the influx of the local population into the partisan detachments increased.

operation guerrilla "Concert"

An important form of partisan action was the raids of partisan formations on the rear of the fascist invaders. The main purpose of these raids was to increase the scope and activity of popular resistance to the invaders in new areas, as well as to strike at major railways. knots and important military-industrial facilities of the enemy, intelligence, fraternal assistance to the peoples of neighboring countries in their liberation struggle against fascism. More than 40 raids were carried out on the instructions of the headquarters of the partisan movement alone, in which over 100 large partisan formations took part. In 1944, 7 formations and 26 separate large detachments of Soviet partisans operated in the occupied territory of Poland, and 20 formations and detachments in Czechoslovakia. The raids of partisan formations under the command of V.A. Andreeva, I.N. Banova, P.P. Vershigory, A.V. German, S.V. Grishina, F.F. Cabbage, V.A. Karaseva, S.A. Kovpak, V.I. Kozlova, V.Z. Korzha, M.I. Naumova, N.A. Prokopyuk, V.V. Razumova, A.N. Saburov, V.P. Samson, A.F. Fedorova, A.K. Flegontova, V.P. Chepigi, M.I. Shukaeva and others.

The Putivl partisan detachment (commander S.A.Kovpvk, commissar S.V. Rudnev, chief of staff G.Ya.Bazyma), operating in the occupied territory of several regions of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus in 1941-1944, was created on October 18, 1941 in the Spadshchansky forest of the Sumy region. In the first weeks of the occupation, the detachments of Kovpak and Rudnev, two to three dozen men each, acted independently and had no connection with each other. By the beginning of autumn, Rudnev, on the first sabotage of Kovpak, went on his trail, met with him and offered to merge both detachments. Already on October 19-20, 1941, the detachment repelled the offensive of the punitive battalion with 5 tanks, on November 18-19 - the second offensive of the punishers, and on December 1, broke through the blockade ring around the Spadshchansky forest and made the first raid into the Khinel forests. By this time, the united detachment had already grown to 500 people.

Sidor Artemievich Kovpak

Semyon Vasilievich Rudnev

In February 1942, the detachment of S.A. Kovpaka, transformed into the Sumy partisan unit (Union of partisan detachments of the Sumy region), returned to the Spadshchansky forest and from here undertook a number of raids, as a result of which a vast partisan region was created in the northern regions of the Sumy region and on the adjacent territory of the RSFSR and the BSSR. By the summer of 1942, 24 detachments and 127 groups (about 18,000 partisans) were operating on its territory.

dugout at a partisan base

Internal view of the dugout

The Sumy partisan formation consisted of four detachments: Putivl, Glukhovsky, Shalyginsky and Krolevetsky (according to the names of the districts of the Sumy region where they were organized). For conspiracy, the compound was called military unit 00117, and the detachments were called battalions. Historically, the squads have had unequal numbers. As of January 1943, while based in Polesie, the 1st battalion(The Putivl detachment) numbered up to 800 partisans, the other three - 250-300 partisans each. The first battalion consisted of ten companies, the rest - 3-4 companies. Companies did not appear immediately, but were formed gradually, like partisan groups, and often arose along a territorial basis. Gradually, with the departure from their native places, the groups grew into companies and acquired a new character. During the raid, the companies were no longer distributed according to territorial criteria, but according to military expediency. So in the first battalion there were several rifle companies, two companies of submachine gunners, two companies of heavy weapons (with 45-mm anti-tank guns, heavy machine guns, battalion mortars), a reconnaissance company, a company of miners, a platoon of sappers, a communications center and the main household.

guerrilla car

In 1941-1942, Kovpak's unit carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, in 1942-1943 - a raid from the Bryansk forests to the Right Bank Ukraine in Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhitomir and Kiev regions. The Sumy partisan unit under the command of Kovpak fought over 10,000 km in the rear of the Nazi troops, defeated enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. Raids by S.A. Kovpaka played a large role in the deployment of the partisan movement against the German occupiers.

guerrilla raid

"Partisan Bears"

On June 12, 1943, the partisan unit S.A. Kovpaka went on a military campaign in the Carpathian region. By the time they entered the Carpathian raid, the unit numbered 2,000 partisans. It was armed with 130 machine guns, 380 machine guns, 9 guns, 30 mortars, 30 anti-tank rifles. During the raid, the partisans fought 2,000 km, destroyed 3,800 Nazis, blew up 19 military echelons, 52 bridges, 51 depots with property and weapons, put out of action power plants and oil fields near Bitkovo and Yablonov. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR fromOn January 4, 1944, Major General Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak was awarded the second Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union for the successful implementation of the Carpathian raid.

The partisans took part in the liberation of the cities of Vileika, Yelsk, Znamenka, Luninets, Pavlograd, Rechitsa, Rostov-on-Don, Simferopol, Stavropol, Cherkassy, ​​Yalta and many others.

The activities of conspiratorial combat groups in cities and towns inflicted great damage on the enemy. Underground groups and organizations in Minsk, Kiev, Mogilev, Odessa, Vitebsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Smolensk, Kaunas, Krasnodar, Krasnodon, Pskov, Gomel, Orsha, as well as other cities and towns showed examples of selfless struggle against the fascist invaders. Sabotage, a hidden struggle to disrupt the political, economic and military measures of the enemy, were the most common forms of mass resistance to the invaders of millions of Soviet people.

Soviet intelligence officers and underground workers committed hundreds of sabotage, the target of which was representatives of the German occupation bodies. Only with the direct participation of special detachments of the NKVD, 87 actions of retaliation were carried out against the Nazi executioners responsible for the extermination policy in the east. On February 17, 1943, the Chekists killed the regional Gebiitskommissar Friedrich Fenz. In July of the same year, the intelligence officers liquidated the Gebitskommissar Ludwig Ehrenleitner. The most famous and significant of them is considered to be the liquidation of the General Commissioner of Belarus Wilhelm Kube. In July 1941, Cuba was appointed Commissioner General of Belarus. Gauleiter Kube was particularly cruel. On the direct orders of the Gauleiter, a Jewish ghetto was created in Minsk and a concentration camp in the village of Trostenets, where 206,500 people were exterminated. For the first time, the soldiers of the sabotage and reconnaissance group of the NKGB Kirill Orlovsky tried to destroy it. Having received information that Cuba was going to hunt on February 17, 1943 in the Mashukovsky forests, Orlovsky organized an ambush. In a hot and fleeting battle, the scouts destroyed the Gebitskommissar Fenz, 10 officers and 30 SS soldiers. But Cuba was not among the killed (at the last moment he did not go hunting). And yet, on September 22, 1943, at 4:00 am, with a bomb explosion, the underground workers managed to destroy the General Commissioner of Belarus Wilhelm Cuba (the bomb was installed under the bed of Cuba by the Soviet underground worker Elena Grigorievna Mazanik).

E.G. Mazanik

The legendary cadre intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov (pseudonym - Grachev) with the beginning of the Second World War, at his personal request, was enrolled in the Special Group of the NKVD. In August 1942 N.I. Kuznetsov was sent to the rear of the enemy in the partisan detachment "Winners" (commander DM Medvedev), which operated on the territory of Ukraine. Appearing in the occupied city of Rivne under the guise of a German officer - Chief Lieutenant Paul Siebert, Kuznetsov was able to quickly make the necessary acquaintances.

N.I. Kuznetsov N.I. Kuznetsov - Paul Siebert

Using the confidence of the fascist officers, he recognized the locations of the enemy units, the directions of their movement. He managed to get information about the German missiles "FAU-1" and "FAU-2", to uncover the location of the headquarters of A. Hitler "Werewolf" ("Werewolf") near the city of Vinnitsa, to warn the Soviet command about the impending offensive of Hitler's troops in the Kursk region (operation "Citadel"), about the impending assassination attempt on the heads of government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain (IV Stalin, D. Roosevelt, W. Churchill) in Tehran. In the fight against the German fascist invaders N.I. Kuznetsov showed extraordinary courage and ingenuity. He acted as the people's avenger. He committed acts of retaliation against many fascist generals and senior officers, endowed with great powers of the Third Reich. They were destroyed - the chief judge of Ukraine Funk, the imperial adviser to the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine Gall and his secretary Winter, the vice-governor of Galicia Bauer, generals Knut and Dargel, kidnapped and taken to the partisan detachment the commander of the punitive forces in Ukraine, General Ilgen. March 9, 1944 N.I. Kuznetsov died when he was surrounded by Ukrainian nationalists-Bendera in the village of Boryatyn, Brodovsi district, Lviv region. The types that he could not break through, he blew himself up with the last grenade and the Bendera people who surrounded him. By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 5, 1944, Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for exceptional courage and bravery in performing the assignments of the command.

monument to N.I. Kuznetsov

grave of N.I. Kuznetsova

The underground Komsomol organization "Young Guard", which operated during the Second World War in the city of Krasnodon temporarily occupied by the Nazi troops in the Voroshilovgrad region of Ukraine, will forever remain in the memory of the Soviet people. have nothing to do with the fallen heroes). "Young Guard" was created under the leadership of the party underground, headed by F.P. Lyutikov. After the occupation of Krasnodon (July 20, 1942), several anti-fascist groups arose in the city and its environs, led by the Komsomol I.V. Turkevich (commander), I.A. Zemnukhov, O.V. Koshevoy (Commissioner), V.I. Levashov, S.G. Tyulenev, A.Z. Eliseenko, V.A. Zhdanov, N.S. Sumskaya, U.M. Gromova, L.G. Shevtsova, A.V. Popov, M.K. Petlivanov.

young guards

In total, more than 100 members of the underground have united in the underground organization, of which 20 are communists. Despite the harsh terror, “Molodaya Gvardiya” has created an extensive network of militant groups and cells throughout the Krasnodon region. The Young Guards issued 5,000 anti-fascist leaflets of 30 titles; freed about 100 prisoners of war who were in the concentration camp; burned the labor exchange, where lists of people planned to be exported to Germany were kept, as a result of which 2,000 Krasnodon residents were saved from being hijacked into fascist slavery, destroyed cars with soldiers, ammunition, fuel and food, prepared an uprising in order to defeat the German garrison and meet the advancing units of the Red Army. But the betrayal of the provocateur G. Pochentsov interrupted this preparation. In early January 1943, the arrests of members of the Young Guard began. They bravely endured all the torture in the fascist dungeons. During January 15, 16, 31, the Nazis threw 71 people alive and dead into the pit of coal mine No. 5, 53 m deep. On February 9, 1943, O.V. Koshevoy, L.G. Shevtsova, S.M. Ostapenko, D.U. Ogurtsov, V.F. Subbotin, after brutal torture, were shot in the Thunderous Forest near the town of Rovenka. Only 11 underground workers managed to escape from the persecution of the gendarmerie. By the decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of September 13, 1943, W.M. Gromova, M.A. Zemnukhov, O.V. Koshevoy, S, G. Tyulenev and L.G. Shevtsova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

monument to the Young Guards

The list of heroes of the partisan struggle and the partisan underground is endless, so on the night of June 30, 1943, the underground Komsomol member F. Krylovich blew up the railway at the Osipovichi station. echelon with fuel. As a result of the explosion and the resulting fire, four military echelons were destroyed, including a train with Tiger tanks. The invaders lost that night at the station. Osipovichi 30 "Tigers".

monument to underground workers in Melitopol

The selfless and selfless activity of the partisans and underground fighters received nationwide recognition, high appraisal of the CPSU and the Soviet government. Over 127,000 partisans were awarded medals"Partisan of the Patriotic War" 1st and 2nd degree. Over 184,000 partisans and underground fighters were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union, and 248 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War"

When the Great Patriotic War broke out, the press of the Land of Soviets gave birth to a completely new expression - "people's avengers". They were named Soviet partisans. This movement was very large-scale and brilliantly organized. Moreover, it was officially legalized. The aim of the avengers was to destroy the infrastructure of the enemy army, disrupt food and weapons supplies and destabilize the operation of the entire fascist machine. The German military leader Guderian admitted that the actions of the partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 (the names of some will be presented to your attention in the article) became a real curse for the Nazi troops and greatly influenced the morale of the "liberators".

Legalization of the movement of partisans

The process of forming partisan detachments in the territories occupied by the Nazis began immediately after Germany attacked Soviet cities. Thus, the government of the USSR has published two relevant directives. The documents said that it was necessary to create resistance among the people in order to help the Red Army. In one word, the Soviet Union approved the formation of partisan groups.

One year later, this process was already in full swing. It was then that Stalin issued a special order. It communicated the methods and main directions of the underground activity.

And at the end of the spring of 1942, the partisan detachments decided to legalize them altogether. In any case, the government has formed the so-called. The central headquarters of this movement. And all regional organizations began to obey only him.

In addition, the post of the Commander-in-Chief of the movement appeared. This position was taken by Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. True, he led it for only two months, for the post was abolished. From now on, the "people's avengers" were directly subordinate to the military commander-in-chief.

Geography and scale of movement

In the first six months of the war, eighteen underground regional committees worked. There were also more than 260 city committees, district committees, district committees and other party groups and organizations.

Exactly one year later, a third of the formations of the partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, whose list of names is very long, could already go on the air via radio communication with the Center. And in 1943, almost 95 percent of the detachments could support with the mainland by means of radios.

In general, during the war, there were almost six thousand partisan formations numbering over one million people.

Guerrilla units

These units existed in almost all the occupied territories. True, it happened that the partisans did not support anyone - neither the Nazis nor the Bolsheviks. They simply defended the independence of their own separate region.

Usually in one partisan formation there were several dozen fighters. But over time, detachments appeared, in which there were several hundred people. To be honest, there were very few such groups.

The detachments were united in the so-called. brigades. The purpose of such a merger was one - to provide effective resistance to the Nazis.

The partisans mostly used light weapons. This refers to machine guns, rifles, light machine guns, carbines and grenades. A number of formations were armed with mortars, heavy machine guns and even artillery. When people joined the detachments, they must take the oath of the partisans. Of course, strict military discipline was also observed.

Note that such groups were formed not only behind enemy lines. Repeatedly the future "avengers" were officially trained in special partisan schools. After that, they were transferred to the occupied territories and formed not only partisan detachments, but also formations. Often these groups were recruited by military personnel.

Signed operations

The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 successfully managed to carry out several major operations in conjunction with the Red Army. The most ambitious campaign in terms of results and number of participants was Operation Rail War. The central headquarters had to prepare it for quite a long time and thoroughly. The developers planned to undermine the rails in some of the occupied territories in order to paralyze traffic on the railways. The operation was attended by partisans from the Oryol, Smolensk, Kalinin, Leningrad regions, as well as from Ukraine and Belarus. In general, about 170 partisan formations were involved in the "rail war".

On the night of August 1943, the operation began. In the very first hours, the "people's avengers" managed to blow up almost 42 thousand rails. Such sabotage continued until September inclusive. In one month, the number of explosions has increased 30 times!

Another famous partisan operation was called "Concert". In fact, it was a continuation of the "rail battles", since Crimea, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Karelia were involved in the explosions on the railway. Almost 200 partisan formations took part in the "Concert", which was unexpected for the Nazis!

Legendary Kovpak and "Mikhailo" from Azerbaijan

Over time, the names of some partisans of the Great Patriotic War and the exploits of these people became known to everyone. So, Mehdi Ganifa-oglu Huseyn-zadeh from Azerbaijan was partisans in Italy. In the detachment his name was simply "Mikhailo".

He was mobilized into the Red Army as a student. He had to take part in the legendary Battle of Stalingrad, where he was wounded. He was captured and sent to a camp in Italy. After some time, in 1944, he managed to escape. There he came across a partisan. In the Mikhailo detachment he was the commissar of a company of Soviet soldiers.

He learned intelligence, engaged in sabotage, blowing up enemy airfields and bridges. And one day his company raided a prison. As a result, 700 captured soldiers were released.

"Mikhailo" was killed in one of the raids. He defended himself to the end, after which he shot himself. Unfortunately, they learned about his daring exploits only in the post-war period.

But the famous Sidor Kovpak became a legend during his lifetime. He was born and raised in Poltava in a poor peasant family. During the First World War, he was awarded the St. George Cross. Moreover, the Russian autocrat himself awarded him.

During the Civil War, he fought against the Germans and whites.

Since 1937, he was appointed head of the city executive committee of Putivl in the Sumy region. When the war began, he led a partisan group in the city, and later - the formation of detachments of the Sumy region.

Members of its formation literally continuously carried out military raids across the occupied territories. The total length of the raids is more than 10 thousand km. In addition, nearly forty enemy garrisons were destroyed.

In the second half of 1942, Kovpak's detachments made a raid across the Dnieper. By this time, the organization had two thousand fighters.

Guerrilla medal

In the middle of the winter of 1943, a corresponding medal was instituted. It was called "Partisan of the Patriotic War." Over the following years, she was awarded almost 150 thousand partisans of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). The exploits of these people have forever entered our history.

One of the winners of the award was Matvey Kuzmin. By the way, he was the oldest partisan. When the war began, he was already in his ninth decade.

Kuzmin was born in 1858 in the Pskov region. He lived apart, never was a member of the collective farm, was engaged in fishing and hunting. In addition, he knew his area very well.

During the war, he found himself in the occupation. The Nazis even occupied his house. A German officer began to live there, who led one of the battalions.

In the middle of the winter of 1942, Kuzmin had to become a guide. He must lead the battalion to the village occupied by Soviet troops. But before that, the old man managed to send his grandson in order to warn the Red Army soldiers.

As a result, Kuzmin took the frozen Nazis through the forest for a long time and only in the morning led them out, not to the desired point, but to an ambush set up by Soviet soldiers. The invaders came under fire. Unfortunately, the hero-guide was also killed in this shootout. He was 83.

Partisan children of the Great Patriotic War (1941 - 1945)

When the war was going on, a real army of children fought along with the soldiers. They were participants in this general resistance from the very beginning of the occupation. According to some reports, several tens of thousands of minors took part in it. It was an amazing "move"!

For military merits, teenagers were awarded military orders and medals. So, several underage partisans received the highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, basically, all of them were honored with them posthumously.

Their names have been familiar for a long time - Valya Kotik, Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei…. But there were other little heroes, whose exploits were not so widely covered in the press ...

"Baby"

Alyosha Vyalova was called "Baby". Among the local avengers, he enjoyed special sympathy. He turned eleven when the war broke out.

He began to partisan along with his older sisters. This family group managed to set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times. They also set off an explosion at the police premises. On occasion, they were liaison and helped to distribute the relevant leaflets.

The partisans learned about Vyalov's existence in an unexpected way. The soldiers were in dire need of gun oil. The "kid" was already aware of this and, on his own initiative, brought a couple of liters of the necessary liquid.

Lesha died of tuberculosis after the war.

Young "Susanin"

Tikhon Baran from the Brest region began to fight when he was nine. So, in the summer of 1941, the underground workers equipped a secret printing house in the parental house. Members of the organization printed leaflets with front-line reports, and the boy distributed them.

For two years he continued to do this, but the Nazis got on the trail of the underground. Tikhon's mother and her sisters managed to hide with their relatives, and the young avenger went into the forest and joined the partisan formation.

Once he visited relatives. At the same time, the Nazis arrived in the village, who shot all the inhabitants. And Tikhon was offered to save his life if he showed the way to the detachment.

As a result, the boy led his enemies into a swampy swamp. The punishers killed him, but not everyone themselves got out of this quagmire ...

Instead of an epilogue

Soviet heroes-partisans of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) became one of the main forces that offered real resistance to enemies. By and large, in many ways it was the Avengers who helped decide the outcome of this terrible war. They fought alongside regular combat units. It is not for nothing that the Germans called the "second front" not only the units of the allies in Europe, but also the partisan detachments in the territories of the USSR occupied by the Nazis. And this is probably an important circumstance ... List The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are huge, and each of them deserves attention and memory ... We present to your attention just a small list of people who left their mark on history:

• Biseniek Anastasia Alexandrovna.
• Vasiliev Nikolay Grigorievich.
• Vinokurov Alexander Arkhipovich.
• German Alexander Viktorovich.
• Golikov Leonid Alexandrovich.
• Grigoriev Alexander Grigorievich.
• Grigoriev Grigory Petrovich.
• Egorov Vladimir Vasilievich.
• Zinoviev Vasily Ivanovich.
• Karitsky Konstantin Dionisievich.
• Kuzmin Matvey Kuzmich.
• Nazarova Claudia Ivanovna.
• Nikitin Ivan Nikitich.
• Petrova Antonina Vasilievna.
• Bad Vasily Pavlovich.
• Sergunin Ivan Ivanovich.
• Dmitry Sokolov.
• Alexey Fyodorovich Tarakanov.
• Kharchenko Mikhail Semenovich.

Of course, there are many more of these heroes, and each of them contributed to the cause of the great Victory ...

Let us first give a list of the largest partisan formations and their leaders. Here's the list:

Chernigov-Volyn partisan formation Major General A.F. Fedorov

Gomel partisan formation Major General I.P. Kozhar

partisan unit Major General V.Z. Korzh

partisan formation 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. Vershigor

Rivne partisan unit Colonel V.A. Begma

Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement, Major General V.A. Andreev

In this work, we will restrict ourselves to considering the action of some of them.

Sumy partisan unit. Major General S.A. Kovpak

The leader of the movement Kovpak, Soviet statesman and public figure, one of the organizers of the partisan movement, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (05/18/1942 and 4.1.1944), Major General (1943). Member of the CPSU since 1919. Born into the family of a poor peasant. Participant in the Civil War of 1918--20: he headed a partisan detachment that fought against the German invaders in Ukraine together with the detachments of A. Ya. Parkhomenko, fought against the Denikinites; took part in battles on the Eastern Front as part of the 25th Chapayev Division and on the Southern Front against Wrangel's troops. From 1921 to 1926 he was a military commissar in a number of cities in the Yekaterinoslav province. From 1937 to 1941, 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 (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine. In 1941-42, the Kovpak unit carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, in 1942-43 - a raid from the Bryansk forests to the Right Bank Ukraine in the Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhitomir and Kiev regions ; in 1943 - Carpathian raid. The Sumy partisan unit under the command of Kovpak fought over 10 thousand km in the rear of the Nazi troops , defeated enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. Kovpak's raids played a large role in the deployment of the partisan movement against the German fascist occupiers. In January 1944, the Sumy unit was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Kovpak Partisan Division. He was awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, Orders of Suvorov 1st degree, Bohdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree, 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 to operate in the Spadshchansky forest, another, commanded by S.V. Rudnev, in the Novoslobodsky forest, the third, led by S.F. Kirilenko, in the Maritsa tract. In October of the same year, at a general meeting of the detachment, it was decided to unite into a single Putivl partisan detachment. S.A. Kovpak became the commander of the combined detachment, S.V. Rudnev became the commissar, and 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 there were already more than a thousand. Small and large partisan detachments from other places came to Kovpak. Gradually, a union of the people's avengers of the Sumy region was born. On May 26, 1942, the Kovpakites liberated Putivl and held him for two days. And in October, having broken through the enemy blockade created around the Bryansk forest, the formation of partisan detachments made a raid on the right bank of the Dnieper. During the month, the Kovpak team covered 750 km. On the rear of the enemy through Sumy, Chernigov, Gomel, Kiev, Zhytomyr regions. 26 bridges, 2 echelons with manpower and equipment of the fascists were blown up, 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 disabled the main oil refineries, oil storage facilities, oil rigs and oil pipelines located in the region of Drohobych and Ivano-Frankivsk. The newspaper Pravda Ukrainy wrote: “Telegrams flew from Germany: to catch Kovpak, to lock up his troops in the mountains. Twenty-five times the punitive ring closed around the areas occupied by the partisan general, and the same number of times he left unharmed.

Being in a difficult situation, and waging fierce battles, the Kovpak members also fought their way out of their last encirclement shortly before the liberation of Ukraine.

4 .2 Chernihiv-Volyn partisan formation 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.

Alexey Fedorov, a native of the Yekaterinoslav region (now the Dnepropetrovsk region), served in the red cavalry in the Civil War, participated in battles with the Tyutyunnyk gang. Then he was educated and worked in trade union and party bodies in Ukraine.

The Great Patriotic War found A.F. Fedorov as the first secretary of the Chernigov regional committee of the CP (b) U. After the occupation of Chernigov region by the Germans, the regional committee continued its work underground, and the first secretary headed the headquarters of the partisan movement. On the initiative of Aleksey Fedorov, five partisan detachments based in the north of Chernigov region were united into a single regional detachment.

Over time, the famous Chernigov-Volyn unit grew out of it, whose bold actions became one of the brightest pages of the partisan movement. In the early spring of 1943, by order of the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement, Major General Fedorov led his unit on a raid on Volyn. This is how the operation "Kovelsky knot" began, which military historians call "the pinnacle of the partisan art of General Fyodorov."

Soviet intelligence has established that for the summer campaign of 1943 the Germans are preparing a powerful offensive operation Citadel on the Kursk Bulge. In order to disorganize the supply routes of the German fascist troops, the Soviet command decided to deploy a large-scale "rail war" behind enemy lines.

AF Fedorov's partisan unit 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 was going.

In July 1943, five sabotage battalions began to fight against enemy echelons on the routes leaving Kovel.

On some days, the demolitions of the compound destroyed two or three enemy echelons. The strategic node was paralyzed.

For ten months of the Kovel operation, partisans under the command of A.F. Fedorov derailed 549 trains with ammunition, fuel, military equipment and manpower of the enemy, while destroying about ten thousand invaders. For the operation "Kovelsky knot" Alexey Fedorov received the second Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

After the war, A.F. Fedorov headed the Izmail, Kherson and Zhitomir 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.

The partisan movement (the partisan war of 1941-1945) is one of the sides of the USSR's resistance to the fascist troops of Germany and the allies during the Great Patriotic War.

The partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War was very large-scale and, most importantly, well-organized. It differed from other popular actions in that it had a clear command system, was legalized and subordinated to the Soviet regime. The partisans were controlled by special bodies, their activities were spelled out in several legislative acts and had goals described personally by Stalin. The number of partisans during the Great Patriotic War numbered about a million people, more than six thousand various underground detachments were formed, which included all categories of citizens.

The goal of the partisan war 1941-1945 - the destruction of the infrastructure of the German army, the disruption of the supply of food and weapons, the destabilization of the work of the entire fascist machine.

The beginning of the partisan war and the formation of partisan detachments

Guerrilla warfare is an integral part of any protracted military conflict, and quite often the order to start a guerrilla movement comes directly from the country's leadership. This was the case with the USSR as well. Immediately after the start of the war, two directives were issued "Party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions" and "On organizing the struggle in the rear of the German troops", which spoke of the need to create popular resistance to help the regular army. In fact, the state gave the go-ahead for the formation of partisan detachments. Already a year later, when the partisan movement was in full swing, Stalin issued an order "On the tasks of the partisan movement", which described the main directions of the work of the underground.

An important factor for the emergence of partisan resistance was the formation of the 4th NKVD Directorate, in the ranks of which special groups were created that were engaged in subversive work and intelligence.

On May 30, 1942, the partisan movement was legalized - the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement was created, to which local headquarters in the regions were subordinate, headed, for the most part, by the heads of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The creation of a single administrative body gave impetus to the development of a large-scale guerrilla war, which was perfectly organized, had a clear structure and system of subordination. All this significantly increased the efficiency of the partisan detachments.

Main activities of the partisan movement

• Sabotage activities. The partisans tried with all their might to destroy the supply of food, weapons and manpower to the headquarters of the German army, very often pogroms were committed in the camps in order to deprive the Germans of fresh water sources and drive them out.
• Intelligence service. Intelligence was an equally important part of the underground activity, both on the territory of the USSR and in Germany. The partisans tried to steal or find out secret plans for the attack of the Germans and transfer them to the headquarters so that the Soviet army was prepared for the attack.
• Bolshevik propaganda. An effective fight against the enemy is impossible if the people do not believe in the state and do not follow common goals, therefore the partisans actively worked with the population, especially in the occupied territories.
• Combat action. Armed clashes were rare enough, but partisan detachments nevertheless entered into open confrontation with the German army.
• Control of the entire partisan movement.
• Restoration of Soviet power in the occupied territories. The partisans tried to raise an uprising among Soviet citizens who were under the yoke of the Germans.

Guerrilla units

By the middle of the war, large and small partisan detachments existed practically throughout the entire territory of the USSR, including the occupied lands of Ukraine and the Baltic states. However, it should be noted that in some territories the partisans did not support the Bolsheviks, they tried to defend the independence of their region, both from the Germans and from the Soviet Union.

An ordinary partisan detachment numbered several dozen people, however, with the growth of the partisan movement, the detachments began to consist of several hundred, although this did not happen often.On average, one detachment consisted of about 100-150 people. In some cases, the detachments united in brigades in order to offer serious resistance to the Germans. The partisans were usually armed with light rifles, grenades and carbines, but sometimes large brigades had mortars and artillery weapons. The equipment depended on the region and the purpose of the detachment. All members of the partisan detachment took the oath.

In 1942, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the partisan movement was created, which was occupied by Marshal Voroshilov, but the post was soon abolished and the partisans were subordinate to the military Commander-in-Chief.

There were also special Jewish partisan detachments, which consisted of Jews who remained in the USSR. The main purpose of such detachments was to protect the Jewish population, which was subjected to special persecution by the Germans. Unfortunately, very often Jewish partisans faced serious problems, since anti-Semitic sentiments reigned in many Soviet units and they rarely came to the aid of Jewish units. Towards the end of the war, the Jewish troops mingled with the Soviet ones.

Results and significance of guerrilla warfare

Soviet partisans became one of the main forces resisting the Germans and in many ways helped to decide the outcome of the war in the direction of the USSR. The good governance of the guerrilla movement made it highly efficient and disciplined, so that the guerrillas could fight on a par with the regular army.