What partisan detachments were in the Second World War. Detachments in the Red Army
What price did its defenders pay for the liberation of the Motherland, who fought behind enemy lines
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Sergey Antonov
The command of the partisan detachment is discussing a plan of action. The headquarters of the partisan detachment named after A.V. Suvorov in the Smolensk region. Photo: RIA Novosti
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. The losses of the 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 scant 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, about efficiency partisan movement can be judged by this 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 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
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
Belarusian partisans on Lenin Square in Minsk, after the liberation of the city from the Nazi invaders. Photo: Vladimir Lupeiko / RIA Novosti
Chronicle of partisan heroism
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 next, 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 immediately received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 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 in last time On May 5, 1990, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Fore Mosulishvili, who had been a partisan in Italy, and Ivan Turkenich, leader of the Young Guard. 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 civil war developed plans for organizing the structure of future partisan detachments, laid hidden bases and caches with weapons, 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 leave for partisan detachments not immediately, but only by the spring of 1942, when " new order” proved to be 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 then "overgrown" local residents and surroundings. 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 had been preparing 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 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 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
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 a large-scale rear intelligence, develop and conduct implementation operations and liquidation actions. One can again cite as an example the same detachment of Dmitry Medvedev "Winners": it was he who provided support and supplies for the famous Soviet spy 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 anyway the main task 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 strikes on them, disrupt rear communications and transport connection- that's what Big land waited 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 units of demolition, intelligence and saboteurs and special means, could count on larger targets: large bridges, junction stations, railway infrastructure.
Partisans mine railway tracks near Moscow
Partisans mine the railway 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 transport 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 parts of the Wehrmacht, although some experts in the field of sabotage warfare believed that partisan capabilities could have been 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. It was for this purpose that a device such as an overhead rail was invented at the Higher Operational School for Special Purposes, which literally threw trains off the canvas. But still, for the majority of partisan detachments, the most accessible method of rail warfare remained precisely the undermining of the canvas, and even such assistance to the front turned out to be senseless.
A move 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 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.
Since the time of the Khrushchev “thaw”, a myth was born about the NKVD barrage detachments, which shot the retreating units of the Red Army from machine guns. After the collapse of the USSR, these nonsense flourished.
In addition, supporters of this lie also claim that most of the population of the USSR did not want to fight, they were forced to defend the Stalinist regime "under pain of death." By this they insult the memory of our valiant ancestors.
During the battle for Tallinn, the detachment not only stopped and returned the fugitives, but also held the defense itself. It was especially difficult on August 27, some units of the 8th Army fled, the detachment stopped them, a counterattack was organized, the enemy was thrown back - this played a decisive role in the successful evacuation of Tallinn. During the battles for Tallinn, more than 60% of the personnel of the detachment and almost all the commanders were killed! And these are cowardly bastards who shoot their own?
In Kronstadt, the detachment was restored, and from September 7 it continued to serve. Special departments of the Northern Front also fought the bandits.
By the beginning of September 1941, the military situation again deteriorated sharply, so the Stavka, at the request of the commander of the Bryansk Front, General A. I. Eremenko, allowed the creation of detachments in those divisions that had proven themselves to be unstable. A week later, this practice was extended to all fronts. The number of detachments was one battalion per division, one company per regiment. They were subordinate to the division commander and had vehicles for movement, several armored cars and. Their task was to assist the commanders, maintain discipline and order in the units. They had the right to apply to stop the flight and eliminate the initiators of the panic.
That is, their difference from the detachments under the special departments of the NKVD, which were created to deal with deserters and suspicious elements, is that army detachments were created in order to prevent unauthorized flight of units. They were larger (a battalion per division, not a platoon), they were recruited not from NKVD fighters, but from Red Army soldiers. They had the right to shoot the initiators of panic and flight, and not to shoot those who were fleeing.
As of October 10, 1941, special departments and detachments detained 657,364 people, 25,878 of them were arrested, 10,201 of them were shot. The rest are sent back to the front.
In the defense of Moscow, barrage detachments also played a role. In parallel with the defensive divisional battalions, there were detachments of special departments. Similar units were created by the territorial bodies of the NKVD, for example, in the Kalinin region.
Battle of Stalingrad
In connection with the breakthrough of the front and the exit of the Wehrmacht to the Volga and the Caucasus, on July 28, 1942, the famous order No. 227 of the NPO was issued. According to it, it was prescribed to create 3-5 detachments in the armies (200 fighters each), put them in the immediate rear of unstable units. They also received the right to shoot alarmists and cowards in order to restore order and discipline. They were subordinate to the War Councils of the armies, through their special departments. The most experienced commanders of special departments were placed at the head of the detachments, and the detachments were provided with transport. In addition, the barrage battalions were restored in each division.
By order of the People's Commissariat of Defense No. 227, 193 army detachments were created on October 15, 1942. From August 1 to October 15, 1942, these detachments detained 140,755 Red Army soldiers. 3980 people were arrested, 1189 of them were shot, the rest were sent to the penal unit. Most arrests and detentions were on the Don and Stalingrad fronts.
The defensive detachments played important role in restoring order, a significant number of military personnel were returned to the front. For example: on August 29, 1942, the headquarters of the 29th Infantry Division was surrounded (due to the breakthrough of German tanks), the units, having lost control, retreated in a panic. The barrage detachment of Lieutenant GB Filatov stopped the fugitives and returned them to defensive positions. On another sector of the division's front, Filatov's detachment stopped the enemy's breakthrough.
On September 20, the Wehrmacht occupied part of Melikhovskaya, the consolidated brigade began an unauthorized retreat. The barrage detachment of the 47th Army of the Black Sea Group of Forces brought order to the brigade. The brigade returned to its position and, together with the detachment, drove the enemy back.
That is, detachments in critical situations did not panic, but put things in order and fought the enemy themselves. 13 September 112th rifle division lost ground under enemy attack. The detachment of the 62nd Army under the command of lieutenant of state security Khlystov repelled enemy attacks for four days and held the line until reinforcements arrived. On September 15-16, the detachment of the 62nd Army fought for two days in the area of the Stalingrad railway station. The detachment, despite its small number, repulsed the enemy attacks and itself counterattacked and surrendered the line intact to units of the approaching 10th Infantry Division.
But there was also the use of detachments for other purposes, there were commanders who used them as linear units, because of this, some detachments lost most their compositions and they had to be re-formed.
During Battle of Stalingrad there were three types of detachments: army, created by order No. 227, restored divisional barrage battalions and small detachments of special departments. As before, the vast majority of the detained fighters returned to their units.
Kursk Bulge
By decree of the Council of People's Commissars of April 19, 1943, the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD was again transferred to the NPO and the NKVMF and reorganized into the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" ("Death to Spies") of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR and the Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" of the People's Commissariat of the Navy.
On July 5, 1943, the Wehrmacht began its offensive, some of our units faltered. The detachments fulfilled their mission here as well. From July 5 to July 10, detachments of the Voronezh Front detained 1870 people, 74 people were arrested, the rest were returned to their units.
In total, the report of the head of the counterintelligence department of the Central Front, Major General A. Vadis, dated August 13, 1943, indicates that 4,501 people were detained, of which 3,303 people were sent back to units.
On October 29, 1944, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin, the detachments were disbanded due to a change in the situation at the front. The personnel replenished the rifle divisions. In the last period of their existence, they no longer acted according to their profile - there was no need. They were used in the protection of headquarters, communication lines, roads, for combing the forest, the personnel were often used for rear needs - cooks, storekeepers, clerks, and so on, although the personnel of these detachments were selected from the best soldiers and sergeants awarded medals and orders, with extensive combat experience.
Summarize: detachments performed the most important function, they detained deserters, suspicious persons (among whom there were spies, saboteurs, agents of the Nazis). In critical situations, they themselves engaged in battle with the enemy. After the situation at the front changed (after the Battle of Kursk), the barrage detachments actually began to perform the functions of commandant companies. To stop the fugitives, they had the right to shoot over the heads of the retreating, to shoot the initiators and wind up in front of the formation. But these cases were not mass, only individual. There is not a single fact that the fighters of the barrage detachments fired at their own to kill. There are no such examples in the memoirs of veterans. In addition, they could prepare an additional defensive line in the rear to stop the retreating and so that they could gain a foothold on it.
The guard detachments contributed to the overall Victory by honestly fulfilling their duty.
Sources:
Lubyanka in the days of the battle for Moscow: materials of the state security agencies of the USSR from the Central archive of the FSB of Russia. Comp. A. T. Zhadobin. M., 2002.
"Arc of Fire": Battle of Kursk through the eyes of the Lubyanka. Comp. A. T. Zhadobin et al. M., 2003.
State Security Organs of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War. M., 2000.
Toptygin A.V. Unknown Beria. M., St. Petersburg, 2002.
Soviet partisans - component the anti-fascist movement of the Soviet people who fought with 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 partisan 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 areas occupied by the enemy, create partisan detachments and sabotage groups to fight against parts of the enemy army, to incite partisan war everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, arson of warehouses, etc. “. The main goal of the guerrilla war was to undermine the front in the German rear - the 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 of 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 of 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, combative comrades who were completely loyal to the Party and proven in practice. The struggle of Soviet patriots was led by 565 secretaries of regional, city and district committees of the party, 204 chairmen of regional, city and district executive committees of working people's 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 Soviet people behind enemy lines, 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, were in charge.
The 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR, created in 1941 under the leadership of P. Sudoplatov, played an important role in the deployment of the partisan movement. He was subordinate to the Separate motorized rifle brigade special purpose of the NKVD of the USSR, from which reconnaissance and sabotage detachments were formed, thrown behind enemy lines. 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 prime example group action special purpose 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 d. No. 17 was mined by a radio-controlled land mine by a group under the command of I.G. Starinov and blown up by radio signal in October 1941. Later, Lieutenant General Beineker was also destroyed by a mine. . I.G. Starinov
Mines and non-recoverable land mines designed by I.G. Starinov were widely used for sabotage operations during the years of WWII.
radio-controlled mine I.G. Starinov
To lead 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 committees and regional committees: Ukrainian Headquarters - T.A. Strokach, Belarusian - P.Z. Kalinin, Lithuanian - A.Yu. Snechkus, Latvian - A.K. Sprogis, Estonian - N.T. Karotamm, Karelsky - S.Ya. Vershinin, Leningradsky - M.N. Nikitin. The Oryol Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was headed by A.P. Matveev, Smolensky - D.M. Popov, Krasnodar - P.I. Seleznev, Stavropolsky - M.A. Suslov, Krymsky - V.S. Bulatov. The VLKSM made a great contribution to the organization of the guerrilla war. As part of it governing bodies in the occupied territory were M.V. Zimyanin, K.T. Mazurov, P.M. Masherov and others.
By a GKO resolution of May 30, 1942, the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (TSSHPD, chief of staff - Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Belarus P.K. Ponomarenko) was organized at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command.
The activities carried out by the party made it possible to significantly improve the leadership of partisan detachments, supply them with the necessary material resources, and ensure clearer interaction between the partisans and the Red Army.
at the partisan airfield.
W and during its existence, the TsSHPD sent 59,960 rifles and carbines, 34,320 machine guns, 4,210 light machine guns, 2,556 anti-tank rifles, 2,184 50-mm and 82-mm mortars, 539,570 hand-held anti-personnel and anti-tank grenades, a large amount of ammunition, explosives, medicines, food and other essentials. The central and republican schools of the partisan movement trained and sent behind enemy lines more than 22,000 various specialists, of which 75% were demolition workers, 9% were organizers of the underground and the 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 course of the war, many detachments united into partisan brigades and partisan divisions of up to several thousand fighters. 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 detachments. Party and Komsomol organizations were created in the detachments. The actions of the partisans were combined with other forms of nationwide struggle behind enemy lines - the actions of the underground in cities and towns, sabotage at enterprises and transport, disruption of political and military measures carried out by the enemy.
at the headquarters of the partisan brigade
group of partisans
partisan with a gun
Physical and geographical conditions influenced the forms of organization of partisan forces and the methods of their actions. Vast forests, swamps, mountains were the main bases for partisan forces. Partisan regions and zones arose here, 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 here usually avoided open clashes with the enemy and inflicted damage on him mainly by sabotage.
In the tactics of guerrilla operations, the following elements can be distinguished:
Subversive activities, destruction of enemy infrastructure in any form (rail war, destruction of communication lines, high-voltage lines, destruction of bridges, water pipelines, etc.);
Intelligence activities, including undercover;
Political activity and Bolshevik propaganda;
Destruction of manpower and equipment of the Nazis;
Elimination of collaborators and heads of the Nazi administration;
Restoration and preservation of elements of Soviet power in the occupied territory;
The mobilization of the combat-ready population remaining in the occupied territories, and the unification of the encircled military units.
V.Z. Korzh
On June 28, 1941, in the area of the village of Posenichi, the first battle was fought by a partisan detachment under the command of V.Z. Korzha. To protect the city of Pinsk from the north side, a group of partisans was put up on the road Pinsk - Logoshin. 2 German tanks with motorcyclists. It was reconnaissance of the 293rd Wehrmacht Infantry Division. The partisans opened fire and destroyed one tank. During the battle, the partisans captured two Nazis. It 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 with a German cavalry squadron 4 km from Pinsk. The partisans let the Germans close and opened accurate fire. Dozens of Nazi cavalry died on the battlefield. In total, by June 1944, the Pinsk partisan unit under the command of V.Z Korzh defeated 60 German garrisons in battles, derailed 478 railway echelons, and blew up 62 railways. 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 August 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 medal “ Golden 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 of the 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 the territory of 14,000 square kilometers. The Bryansk partisan republic was formed.
guerrilla ambush
In the second period of the Second World War (autumn 1942 - the end of 1943), the partisan movement expanded deep behind enemy lines. Transferring their base from the Bryansk forests to the west, the partisan formations crossed the Desna, Sozh, Dnieper, and Pripyat rivers and began to strike at the enemy's most important communications in his rear. The blows of the partisans rendered great assistance to the Red Army, diverting the large forces of the fascists. In the midst of the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943, the actions of partisan detachments and formations to a large extent 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 sent against them in the summer and autumn of 1942 144 police battalions, 27 police regiments, 8 infantry regiments, 10 security police and punitive divisions of the SS, 2 security corps, 72 special units, up to 15 infantry German and 5 infantry divisions of their satellites, thereby weakening their forces at the front. Despite this, the partisans managed to organize during this period more than 3,000 crashes of enemy echelons, 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 region
partisans on the march
By the end of the summer of 1942, the partisan movement had become a significant force, 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.
Commanders of 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 of the military and political power. Chief of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement at Headquarters, Lieutenant General P.K. Ponomarenko became a member General Staff Red Army.
PC. Ponomarenko
TsShPD - on the left P.K. Ponomarenko
The partisan detachments operating in the front line came under the direct subordination of the command of the corresponding army that 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 for the training of specialists.
partisan movement management 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 the 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 Battle of Kursk 1943 and the deployment of a general offensive on the Soviet-German front. The leadership of the ‘rail war’ was carried out by the TsSHPD at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. 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 numbering up to 100,000 people.
The operation was preceded by careful preparation. Areas marked for demolition railway were distributed among partisan formations and detachments. From June 15 to July 1, 1943 alone, 150 tons of special-profile heavy projectiles, 156,000 m of Fickford cord, 28,000 m and a hemp wick, 595,000 detonator caps, 35,000 fuses, a lot of weapons, ammunition and medicines were thrown at partisan bases. Instructors-miners were sent to the partisan detachments.
peacekeeping 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 counteroffensive Soviet troops and developing it into a general offensive along the entire front. In one night, more than 42,000 rails were blown up in depth over a vast territory of 1,000 km along the front and from the front line to the western borders of the USSR. Simultaneously with the “Rail War”, active operations on the communications of the enemy were launched by partisans of Ukraine, who, according to the plan for the spring-summer period of 1943, were tasked with paralyzing the work of 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 intensified even more. By September 15, 215,000 rails were destroyed, which amounted to 1342 km of a single-track railway. way. 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. Only Belarusian partisans during the operation blew up 836 military echelons, including 3 armored trains, disabled 690 steam locomotives, 6343 wagons and platforms, 18 water pumps, destroyed 184 railroads. bridges and 556 bridges on dirt and highway roads, 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 operations “Concert” and in the summer of 1944 during the offensive of the Red Army in Belarus.
blown up railway compound
Operation "Concert" was carried out by Soviet partisans from September 19 to the end of October 1943. The purpose of the operation is to impede the operational transportation of Nazi troops by the mass 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 High Command and was closely connected with the upcoming offensive of the Soviet troops in the Smolensk and Gomel directions and the battle for the Dnieper. 293 partisan formations and detachments from Belarus, the Baltic States, Karelia, the Crimea, Leningrad and Kalinin regions were involved in the operation, in total over 120,000 partisans; it was planned to undermine more than 272,000 rails. In Belarus, 90,000 partisans were involved in the operation; they were to blow up 140,000 rails. TsSHPD planned to throw 120 tons of explosives and other cargoes to the partisans of Belarus, 20 tons each to the Kalinin and Leningrad partisans. Due to the sharply deteriorating weather conditions, only 50% of the planned plan was transferred to the partisans by the beginning of the operation, and therefore it was decided to start mass sabotage on September 25. However, part of the partisan detachments, which, according to the previous order, went to their starting lines, could no longer take into account the changes in the timing of the operation and on September 19 they began to implement it. On the night of September 25, widespread actions were carried out according to the plan“Concert”, covering the front of 900 km and a depth of 400 km. The partisans of Belarus on the night of September 19 blew up 19903 rails and on the night of September 25 another 15809 rails. As a result, 148557 rails were blown up. Operation "Concert" intensified the struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders in the occupied territories. In the course of it, the influx of the local population into partisan detachments increased.
partisan operation “Concert”
An important form of partisan actions were raids by partisan formations in the rear of the fascist invaders. main goal these raids was to increase the scope and activity of popular resistance to the invaders in new areas, as well as strikes on large railways. nodes and important military-industrial facilities of the enemy, intelligence, rendering fraternal assistance to the peoples of neighboring countries in their liberation struggle against fascism. Only on the instructions of the headquarters of the partisan movement, more than 40 raids were carried out, in which more than 100 large partisan formations participated. In 1944, 7 formations and 26 separate large detachments operated in the occupied territory of Poland. Soviet partisans, in Czechoslovakia - 20 formations and detachments. The raids of partisan formations under the command of V.A. Andreeva, I.N. Banova, P.P. Vershigory, A.V. Germana, 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. Saburova, 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), which operated 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. The first weeks of the occupation, the detachments of Kovpak and Rudnev, numbering two or three dozen people, acted independently and had no communication with each other. By the beginning of autumn, Rudnev followed Kovpak's first sabotage, 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 S.A. Kovpak, transformed into the Sumy partisan formation (Connection of partisan detachments of the Sumy region), returned to the Spadshchansky forest and from here undertook a series of raids, as a result of which an extensive partisan region was created in the northern regions of the Sumy region and in 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
Interior view of the dugout
The Sumy partisan formation included four detachments: Putivl, Glukhovsky, Shalyginsky and Krolevetsky (according to the names of the districts of the Sumy region where they were organized). For the sake of conspiracy, the connection was called military unit 00117, and units - battalions. Historically, the units had unequal numbers. As of January 1943, while based in Polesie, the first battalion(Putivl detachment) consisted of up to 800 partisans, the other three - 250-300 partisans each. The first battalion consisted of ten companies, the rest - 3-4 companies each. Companies did not arise immediately, but were formed gradually, like partisan groups, and often arose on 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 on a territorial basis, but on 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 communication center and the main economic unit.
partisan cart
In 1941-1942, Kovpak's formation carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, in 1942-1943 - a raid from the Bryansk forests on Right-Bank Ukraine in Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions. The Sumy partisan formation under the command of Kovpak fought over 10,000 km in the rear of the Nazi troops, defeated the enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. Reid S.A. Kovpak played a big role in the deployment of the partisan movement against the German invaders.
guerrilla raid
"Partisan Bears"
On June 12, 1943, the partisan formation of S.A. Kovpak went on a military campaign in the Carpathian region. By the time they entered the Carpathian raid, the unit numbered 2,000 partisans. They were 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 trains, 52 bridges, 51 warehouses with property and weapons, disabled power plants and oil fields near Bitkov and Yablonov. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No.On January 4, 1944, for the successful implementation of the Carpathian raid, Major General Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich was awarded the second Gold Star medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
The partisans participated in the liberation of the cities of Vileyka, Yelsk, Znamenka, Luninets, Pavlograd, Rechitsa, Rostov-on-Don, Simferopol, Stavropol, Cherkassy, Yalta and many others.
The activities of clandestine combat groups in cities and towns caused great damage to the enemy. Underground groups and organizations in Minsk, Kyiv, Mogilev, Odessa, Vitebsk, Dnepropetrovsk, Smolensk, Kaunas, Krasnodar, Krasnodon, Pskov, Gomel, Orsha, as well as other cities and settlements showed examples of selfless struggle against the fascist invaders. Sabotage, the covert struggle to disrupt the political, economic, and military measures of the enemy, were the most widespread forms of mass resistance against the occupiers by millions of Soviet people.
Soviet intelligence officers and underground workers committed hundreds of acts of sabotage, the purpose of which were representatives of the German occupation authorities. Only with the direct participation of special detachments of the NKVD, 87 actions of retribution were carried out against the Nazi executioners responsible for carrying out the extermination policy in the east. On February 17, 1943, the Chekists killed the regional gebitskommissar Friedrich Fentz. In July of the same year, the scouts liquidated 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 General Commissar of Belarus. Gauleiter Kube was especially cruel. By direct order 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, soldiers of the NKGB sabotage and reconnaissance group of Kirill Orlovsky tried to destroy him. 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 short-lived battle, the scouts destroyed the Gebitskommissar Fentz, 10 officers and 30 soldiers of the SS troops. But Cuba was not among those killed (at the last moment he did not go hunting). And yet, on September 22, 1943 at 4.00 in the morning, the underground workers managed to destroy the General Commissar of Belarus Wilhelm Kube with a bomb explosion (the bomb was planted under the bed of Cuba by the Soviet underground worker Elena Grigoryevna Mazanik).
E.G. Mazanik
The legendary career intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov (pseudonym - Grachev) with the beginning of the Second World War, at his personal request, was enlisted in the Special Group of the NKVD. In August 1942, N.I. Kuznetsov was sent behind enemy lines to the partisan detachment “Winners” (commander D.M. Medvedev), which operated on the territory of Ukraine. Appearing in the occupied city of Rovno under the guise of a German officer - Lieutenant Paul Siebert, Kuznetsov was able to quickly make the necessary acquaintances.
N.I. Kuznetsov N.I. Kuznetsov - Paul Siebert
Using the trust of fascist officers, he learned the places of deployment of enemy units, the direction of their movement. He managed to get information about the German missiles "FAU-1" and "FAU-2", reveal the location of A. Hitler's headquarters "Werwolf" ("Werewolf") near the city of Vinnitsa, warn the Soviet command about the upcoming offensive of the Nazi troops in the Kursk region (operation “Citadel”), about the impending assassination attempt on the heads of government of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (I.V. Stalin, D. Roosevelt, W. Churchill) in Tehran. In the fight against the Nazi invaders, N.I. Kuznetsov showed extraordinary courage and ingenuity. He acted as a 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 brought 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, Brody district, Lviv region. Species that he could not break through, he blew himself up and the Bendera people surrounding him with the last grenade. By a 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 courage in carrying out command assignments.
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, Voroshilovgrad region of Ukraine, temporarily occupied by Nazi troops, will forever remain in the memory of the Soviet people (do not identify it with the modern “well done” from “M.G.” have nothing to do with 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 Komsomol members 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. Sumy, U.M. Gromova, L.G. Shevtsova, A.V. Popov, M.K. Petlivanov.
young guards
In total, more than 100 underground workers united in the underground organization, of which 20 were communists. Despite the harsh terror, the “Young Guard” created an extensive network of combat groups and cells throughout the Krasnodon region. The Young Guards issued 5,000 anti-fascist leaflets of 30 titles; released about 100 prisoners of war who were in a concentration camp; burned the labor exchange, where lists of people scheduled for export to Germany were stored, as a result of which 2000 Krasnodon residents were saved from being stolen into Nazi slavery, destroyed vehicles with soldiers, ammunition, fuel and food, prepared an uprising in order to defeat the German garrison and meet the advancing parts of the Red Army. But the betrayal of the provocateur G. Pochentsov interrupted this preparation. At the beginning of January 1943, the arrests of members of the “Young Guard” began. They courageously withstood all the tortures 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 with a depth of 53 m. 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 Rattlesnake forest near the town of Rovenka. Only 11 underground workers managed to escape from the persecution of the gendarmerie. By decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of September 13, 1943, U.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 Guard
The list of heroes of the partisan struggle and the partisan underground is endless, so on the night of June 30, 1943, the Komsomol underground member F. Krylovich blew up the railway at the Osipovichi station. fuel train. As a result of the explosion and the resulting fire, four military trains were destroyed, including the train with the Tiger tanks. The invaders lost that night at st. Osipovichi 30 "Tigers".
monument to underground workers in Melitopol
The selfless and selfless activity of partisans and underground workers has received nationwide recognition, appreciated CPSU and the Soviet government. Over 127,000 partisans were awarded the medal"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"
The first days of the Great Patriotic War were catastrophic for the Soviet Union: the surprise attack on June 22, 1941 allowed the Nazi army to gain significant advantages. Many frontier posts and formations that took on the force of the first blow of the enemy perished. Wehrmacht troops moved deep into Soviet territory with great speed. Per a short time 3.8 million fighters and commanders of the Red Army were captured. But, despite the most difficult conditions of hostilities, the defenders of the Fatherland from the very first days of the war showed courage and heroism. A vivid example of heroism was the creation, in the first days of the war, in the occupied territory of the first partisan detachment under the command of Korzh Vasily Zakharovich.
Korzh Vasily Zakharovich- commander of the Pinsk partisan unit, member of the Pinsk underground regional party committee, major general. He was born on January 1 (13), 1899 in the village of Khorostov, now the Soligorsk district of the Minsk region, in a peasant family. Belarusian. Member of the CPSU since 1929. He graduated from a rural school. In 1921–1925, V.Z. Korzh fought in the partisan detachment of K.P. Orlovsky, operating in Western Belarus. In 1925 he moved across the border to Soviet Belarus. Since 1925 he was the chairman of collective farms in the districts of the Minsk District. In 1931-1936 he worked in the bodies of the GPU of the NKVD of the BSSR. In 1936–1937, Korzh participated as an adviser in the revolutionary war of the Spanish people through the NKVD, and was the commander of an international partisan detachment. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he formed and led a fighter battalion, which grew into the first partisan detachment in Belarus. The squad consisted of 60 people. The detachment was divided into 3 rifle squads of 20 fighters each. Armed with rifles, they received 90 rounds of ammunition and one grenade. On June 28, 1941, in the area of the village of Posenichi, the first battle was fought by a partisan detachment under the command of V.Z. Korzha. To protect the city from the north side, a group of partisans was placed on the Pinsk Logishin road.
A partisan detachment commanded by Korzh was ambushed by 2 German tanks. It was reconnaissance of the 293rd Wehrmacht Infantry Division. The partisans opened fire and knocked out one tank. As a result of this operation, they managed to capture 2 Nazis. It was the first partisan battle of the first partisan detachment in the history of the Great Patriotic War. On July 4, 1941, the detachment met 4 kilometers from the city with enemy cavalry squadrons. Korzh quickly "deployed" the firepower of his detachment, and dozens of fascist cavalrymen fell on the battlefield. The front was receding to the east, and the partisans' cases increased every day. They set up ambushes on the roads and destroyed enemy vehicles with infantry, equipment, ammunition, food, and intercepted motorcyclists. The partisans blew up the first armored train on the first mine made by Korzhem himself from explosives used before the war for roaming stumps. The combat score of the detachment grew.
But there was no connection with the mainland. Then Korzh sent a man behind the front line. The messenger was the well-known Belarusian underground worker Vera Khoruzhaya. And she managed to get to Moscow. In the winter of 1941/42, it was possible to establish contact with the Minsk underground regional party committee, which deployed its headquarters in the Luban region. We jointly organized a sledge raid in the Minsk and Polessye regions. On the way, uninvited foreign guests were “smoked out”, they were given a “taste” of partisan bullets. During the raid, the detachment replenished thoroughly. The guerrilla war broke out. By November 1942, 7 detachments of impressive strength merged together and formed a partisan formation. Korzh took command over him. In addition, 11 underground district party committees, the Pinsk city committee, and about 40 primary organizations began to operate in the region. It was possible to "recruit" to their side even a whole Cossack regiment, formed by the Nazis from prisoners of war! By the winter of 1942/43, the Korzh connection restored Soviet power in a significant part of the Luninets, Zhitkovichi, Starobinsky, Ivanovsky, Drogichinsky, Leninsky, Telekhansky, Gantsevichsky districts. Connected with the mainland. Planes landed at the partisan airfield, brought ammunition, medicines, and radios.
The partisans reliably controlled a huge section of the Brest-Gomel railway, the Baranovichi-Luninets stage, and the enemy echelons went downhill according to a solid partisan schedule. The Dnieper-Bug Canal was almost completely paralyzed. In February 1943, the Nazi command made an attempt to put an end to the Korzh partisans. Regular units with artillery, aircraft, and tanks advanced. On February 15, the encirclement closed. The partisan zone has turned into a continuous battlefield. Korzh himself led the column to break through. He personally led the strike detachments to break through the ring, then the defense of the neck of the breakthrough, while the convoys with civilians, the wounded and property overcame the gap, and, finally, the rearguard group that covered the pursuit. And so that the Nazis did not think that they had won, Korzh attacked a large garrison in the village of Svyataya Volya. The battle lasted 7 hours, in which the partisans were victorious. Until the summer of 1943, the Nazis threw against the formation of Korzh part by part.
And every time the partisans broke through the encirclement. Finally, they finally escaped from the cauldron to the area of Lake Vygonovsky. . By the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated September 16, 1943 No. 1000 - one of the ten commanders of the partisan formations of the Byelorussian SSR - V.Z. Korzh was assigned military rank"major general". All summer and autumn of 1943, the "rail war" raged in Belarus, proclaimed by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement. The connection of Korzh made a significant contribution to this grandiose "event". In 1944, several operations brilliant in design and organization overturned all the calculations of the Nazis for a systematic, well-thought-out withdrawal of their units to the west.
The partisans broke the railway arteries (only on July 20, 21 and 22, 1944, the demolitionists blew up 5 thousand rails!), tightly closed the Dnieper-Bug Canal, and frustrated the enemy’s attempts to establish crossings across the Sluch River. Hundreds of Aryan warriors, together with the commander of the group, General Miller, surrendered to the partisans of Korzh. A few days later, the war left the Pinsk Territory ... In total, by July 1944, the Pinsk partisan formation under the command of Korzh defeated 60 German garrisons in battle, derailed 478 enemy echelons, blew up 62 railway bridges, destroyed 86 tanks and armored vehicles, 29 guns, took out out of order 519 kilometers of communication lines. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of August 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 Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. "(No. 4448). In 1946 he graduated military academy General Staff. Since 1946, Major General Korzh V.Z. in reserve. In 1949-1953 he worked as Deputy Minister of Forestry of the Byelorussian SSR. In 1953-1963 he was the chairman of the collective farm "Partizansky Krai" in the Soligorsk district of the Minsk region. AT last years lived in Minsk. Died May 5, 1967. He was buried at the Eastern (Moscow) cemetery in Minsk. He was awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, Orders of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, the Red Star, and medals. The monument to the Hero was erected in the village of Khorostov, memorial plaques in the cities of Minsk and Soligorsk. The collective farm "Partisan Territory", streets in the cities of Minsk, Pinsk, Soligorsk, as well as a school in the city of Pinsk are named after him.
Sources and literature.
1. Ioffe E.G. Higher partisan command of Belarus 1941-1944 // Handbook. - Minsk, 2009. - P. 23.
2. Kolpakidi A., Sever A. Spetsnaz GRU. - M .: "YAUZA", ESKMO, 2012. - P. 45.
D.V. Gnedash