During the war, the partisan movement went through three stages of development, which basically coincide chronologically with the three periods of the Great Patriotic War. This interrelation and conditionality was due to the fact that the activity of partisan formations from the very beginning was subordinated to the interests of the Red Army as the main factor in defeating the aggressor, and therefore changes on the Soviet-German front most directly influenced the organization, scope and direction of partisan strikes.
In the first period of the war (June 1941 - November 18, 1942), the partisan movement experienced all the difficulties and hardships associated with unpreparedness Soviet people to this way of resisting the enemy. There was no theory of partisan struggle developed in advance, there were no well-thought-out organizational forms, and therefore no appropriate personnel. There were also no secret bases with weapons and food. All this doomed the first partisan formations to a long and painful search for everything that was necessary for effective combat operations. The fight against an experienced and well-armed enemy had to start almost from scratch.
It should be noted that until the mid-1930s. carried out in the country serious preparation to the use of partisan formations in a future war. The top military and political leadership did not rule out the possibility of an enemy invasion of Soviet soil, and therefore, in many border areas, bases were being prepared for the development partisan movement, the experience of partisan operations in the wars of the past was studied and generalized, people capable of acting in groups and alone behind enemy lines were trained, caches with food, weapons, ammunition were laid, and special mine-explosive equipment was developed. Moreover, issues of interaction between regular troops and partisans were worked out at maneuvers and military exercises. Such military leaders as Ya. Berzin, V. Blyukher, V. Primakov, I. Uborevich, B. Shaposhnikov, I. Yakir and others paid attention to the conduct of guerrilla warfare. However, with the onset of repressions, this work was curtailed: special schools were closed, means of struggle partisan caches were confiscated, and most of the trained personnel ended up in the dungeons of the NKVD. Unfortunately, at that time the attitude prevailed in the USSR that in the event of war the aggressor would be defeated on its own territory and victory would be won. little blood", and the theory of the use of partisan forces was declared untenable.
In exclusively difficult conditions During the first days of the war, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and local party bodies carried out tremendous organizational work in order to mobilize all forces and means to defend the country from the fascist invasion. In party and government documents, Stalin's speech on the radio, and publications in the press, the main tasks of the struggle were set, and the ways of their solution were determined. The Central Committee of the CP(b)B obliged regional committees, city committees and district committees to create partisan detachments to conduct a fierce struggle against the enemy.
June 29, i.e. on the seventh day from the beginning of the aggression, when the enemy advanced deep into the country, the now widely known, but then secret "Directive of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks) to the party and Soviet organizations of the front-line regions" was adopted. In it, along with other questions, it is true, in the very general view, contained instructions on the deployment of the underground and the partisan movement, determined the goals and objectives of the struggle in the rear of the enemy troops and its organizational forms.
This directive worked big role in mobilizing power for war with the enemy. I. Stalin personally participated in writing the text, editing each sentence. He inserted into the document the phrase about "the immediate trial of the Military Tribunal of all those who, with their alarmism and cowardice, interfere with the cause of defense, regardless of their faces." In fact, the Soviet leadership announced the tactics of tough demands.
In accordance with the Moscow directive, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus adopted Directive No. 2 of July 1, 1941 “On the deployment of a partisan war behind enemy lines”, in which regional committees, city committees and district committees were ordered to create partisan detachments to conduct a fierce struggle against the enemy. At the same time, it was indicated that the guerrilla struggle should be of a combat, offensive nature: "Do not wait for the enemy, look for him and destroy him, not giving rest day or night."
It would not be entirely correct to define the resistance to the occupiers only as a "communist insurrectionary movement". It was attended by people of different political views and beliefs. Some, and they were the majority, fought for Soviet power, others - with Nazism, which has already fully demonstrated its bestial grin in the conquered countries of Europe. But all together and each individually was inspired to fight by a sense of patriotism, the desire to protect the large and small Motherland, their relatives and friends, over whose lives hung death threat. The war, as it were, straightened the people, awakened in them the strength to fight the invaders. Such a psychological restructuring in the minds of people took place primarily under the influence of the initially tragic events at the front, and it took not months, but literally a few days. The danger hanging over the Motherland stirred up the widest sections of the population, prompted many to rise above class grievances, determined the measure of responsibility of each for the fate of the Fatherland, which allowed the Communist Party to direct the will of millions towards a single goal - the defeat of the aggressor.
The further the enemy advanced in depth Soviet territory, the less favorable the situation for him, since the population had already managed to recover somewhat from the shock caused by the sudden attack of Germany on the USSR. The activities of the first partisan detachments commanded by V. Korzh (a participant in the partisan war in Spain), G. Bumazhkov, F. Pavlovsky, M. Shmyrev and others are widely known.
Already at the end of 1941, more than 2 thousand partisan detachments with a total number of 90 thousand people fought behind enemy lines, including in Belarus - about 230 detachments and groups of over 12 thousand people.
On July 3, from Stalin's speech on the radio, Soviet citizens became aware of the calls of the party and government for the deployment of a partisan movement. Among the first partisans there were many servicemen who were unable to break through from the encirclement to the front line or who escaped from captivity. In their decision to join the ranks of the partisans, a leaflet-appeal of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army dated July 15, 1941 "To the military personnel fighting behind enemy lines" played an important role. In it, the activities of Soviet soldiers behind the front line were seen as a continuation of their combat mission. The commanders and privates were asked to switch to the methods of guerrilla warfare and destroy the enemy by all available means.
On July 18, a special secret decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the organization of the struggle in the rear of the German troops” was issued. It was addressed to those who were to lead the resistance of the people behind enemy lines.
On the basis of military statistics and materials from the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement, it was possible to establish that about 500,000 servicemen participated in the partisan movement during the war years. In Belarus, throughout the war, there were more than 11% of military personnel in partisan detachments. In Vitebsk and Mogilev regions there were up to 30%. They introduced discipline, order, organization into the ranks of the partisans, taught them how to handle weapons and military equipment. Separate detachments consisted entirely of military personnel. But more often these were mixed formations, uniting representatives of the party and Soviet activists, military personnel and local residents. Such a composition successfully synthesized the experience of the party leadership, knowledge of military affairs and local conditions.
Partisan detachments were fighting from the very first days of the German invasion. The Pinsk partisan detachment (commander V. Korzh) fought the first battle on June 28, 1941, attacking the enemy column. The partisans set up ambushes on the roads, impeding the advance of enemy troops. The partisan detachment "Red October" under the command of T. Bumazhkov and F. Pavlovsky in mid-July defeated the headquarters of the enemy division, destroyed 55 vehicles and armored cars, 18 motorcycles, captured a large number of weapons. On August 6, 1941, the commanders of this detachment were the first of the partisans to be awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. In August and the first half of September, Belarusian partisans carried out a massive destruction of telegraph and telephone communications on the lines connecting the Army Groups "Center" and "South". They continuously ambushed the recovery teams, signal battalions and exterminated them. From the first days of the enemy invasion, sabotage by partisans and underground workers began on railway communications. Especially the activities of the partisans intensified during the battle of Moscow.
When deploying partisan detachments and underground organizations, the party-state leadership relied extensively on the bodies of the NKVD - the NKGB. They contributed to the armament and logistics of partisan detachments, trained partisans in intelligence and counterintelligence activities, conspiracy and communications, and protected spies from penetrating into their midst. These bodies also carried out the preparation of partisan groups and detachments and their transfer to the front line. Often, the destruction battalions under the jurisdiction of the NKVD passed to the position of partisan detachments.
Of course, only a part of the partisan detachments trained in the Soviet rear were able to begin combat missions. Many of them failed to cross the front line, some of the military command, due to a lack of reserves, had to be sent to the battle formations of troops, individual detachments went to replenish the Red Army. It happened that, faced with the great difficulties of partisan life, the detachments disbanded themselves.
Soviet partisans [Myths and reality] Pinchuk Mikhail Nikolaevich
Three stages of the guerrilla movement
The partisan movement in Belarus can be conditionally divided into three stages.
First stage
Party and Soviet governing bodies in June - July 1941 tried to form the so-called "destroyer battalions". Directive No. 4 of the Central Committee of the CPB and the Council of People's Commissars of the BSSR was issued on the formation of such "at every plant, every transport enterprise, in every state farm and collective farm" under the leadership of headquarters created under the executive committees of the councils of the regional, district and rural levels. But nothing came of the venture with "partisan fighters" led by the local nomenklatura.
In 1941 and 1942, only a very few inhabitants of villages and towns joined the partisans. The German occupation administration gave the peasants the opportunity to return to individual farms. And the villagers well remembered the “policy of the party in the countryside”: dispossession, forced collectivization, work on collective farms for “sticks”, the law “on three spikelets”, sending to camps for the slightest manifestation of discontent, for fictional “wrecking” ...
The German policy "in the countryside" in this regard was in striking contrast to the Bolshevik one: you passed a firmly fixed tax in kind, all the rest of the products are yours.
And everything would be fine (for the peasants), if not for the saboteurs and partisans. After all, they could only exist by robbing the rural population. And those KGB saboteurs who were sent by the command to the occupied territory in the summer of 1941, and groups of Red Army soldiers from broken units wandering in the forests, they all robbed the villagers. After all, they simply had no other source of food and material supply. But, fortunately for the partisans, there were still few Chekist groups, and the Red Army men sought to "attach" themselves to the women who were left without men (they went to the "primacies").
As already shown in the previous presentation, in addition to the Red Army, representatives of the party-Soviet nomenclature of the regional scale took refuge in the forests. The latter "organized" the former into partisan detachments. For the first six months of the war, there were very few of them. Ivan Titkov, the former commander of the Zheleznyak partisan brigade, testified in his memoirs that in December 1941 total number partisans in the forests of the Begoml region were only 122 people. Approximately the same picture was observed in other regions of Belarus: in some places more, but, as a rule, less: according to official data, by January 1942, there were 12 thousand partisans on the territory of the BSSR, an average of 62 “avengers” per region. The hopes of Moscow and "comrade Stalin personally" for nationwide resistance to the invaders clearly did not come true.
In 1942, the number of partisans (according to official data) increased almost fivefold: from 12 to 56 thousand (reaching an average of 289 people per district). The main source of growth was military units, which were thrown in by air or withdrawn on foot across the front line - specifically for the deployment of guerrilla warfare in the occupied territory. That is how, for example, the Zheleznyak partisan brigade appeared on the territory of the Begoml district.
In April 1942, on the territory Vladimir region The RSFSR created special courses where saboteurs and organizers of partisan actions were trained. 3,000 people have gone through these courses. Of these, 14 partisan detachments and 92 organizing groups were created. All of them were transferred to the territory of occupied Belarus.
Even earlier, in the summer of 1941, in the suburbs of Moscow, on the orders of the "People's Commissar" L.P. Beria formed the Special Purpose Motorized Rifle Brigade (OMSBON) of the NKVD of the USSR. It consisted of several battalions, which included specialists in sabotage and terrorist actions. But at that time the Germans were conducting a large-scale attack on Moscow, the Bolshevik leadership threw all available forces into the defense of the capital (recall the use of cadets of military schools as ordinary shooters). Therefore, there was no time to send OMSBON fighters deep behind enemy lines.
But after they managed to stop the German offensive, the brigade command began to form groups of 30-40 people and transport them "to the other side." The groups were well armed. Each of them had two or three people trained for the role of commander of a partisan detachment.
Captured Red Army soldiers (August 1941. Zhlobin district, Gomel region).
The groups were deployed in predetermined areas and solved the following tasks:
Firstly, they organized the partisan movement by involving the “encirclement” in it (by that time they had managed to settle in the villages) and local population.
Secondly, they conducted reconnaissance and carried out sabotage on enemy communications.
Thirdly, they were entrusted with a "special task" - reprisal against those who went to work for the Germans in order to feed their families. And these were petty employees, teachers, engineering and technical specialists, railway workers, doctors and other categories of citizens, up to cultural workers.
One of these groups with unlimited powers (it was called "Locals") was headed by a hardened terrorist Stanislav Vaupshasov. He and his subordinates crossed the front line in March 1942. Having settled in the Minsk region, the Chekists searched the villages for hidden communists and Komsomol members, as well as yesterday's Red Army soldiers, and took them with them into the forest. In cases of disobedience, they were shot on the spot. In addition, Vaupshasov's Chekists terrified the villagers, mercilessly destroying the "traitors". At the same time they took food, shoes, warm clothes from people. Such methods allowed him to expand his group into a detachment.
Vaupshasov himself (he hid his real name under the pseudonym Gradov) committed dozens of murders and sabotage in Western Belarus in the first half of the 1920s. So he chose people like himself. The main requirement for recruits was the willingness to kill, rob, burn.
Second phase
January - December 1943. During this time, the number of partisans on the territory of Belarus increased, according to official data, from 56 to 153 thousand people (already 789 on average per region). The growth was due to two reasons. Firstly, the transfer across the front line to the occupied territory continued. small groups and entire military units. Secondly, in the spring and summer of 1943, the Germans carried out a series of punitive operations against the partisans, from which the rural population also suffered. Some of the villagers fled to the partisans.
Soviet historians, ideologists, and propagandists liked to talk and write about the fact that by the end of 1943, the partisans controlled 108,000 square kilometers of the territory of the BSSR (the notorious “partisan zones”), which accounted for 58.4% of the republic’s area. If this is true, then a legitimate question arises: why did villages continue to burn and people die in these zones? Furthermore, mass destruction villages by the occupiers began precisely in 1943.
Third stage
January - July 1944. The number of partisans reached 374 thousand people (an average of 1928 per region). An increase of 2.44 times in just six months! Why such rapid growth? It was already impossible to do this at the expense of the population. The villages were dominated by women, children with teenagers and the elderly. So who is responsible for this increase?
The answer is simple. The Red Army has finally crawled from Moscow, Stalingrad and North Caucasus to the borders of Belarus. Operation "Bagration" was being prepared.
Regular military units were massively transported across the front line to the German rear. Calling them partisans is a big mistake.
In the center - M. Prudnikov (1942).
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GUERRILLA MOVEMENT - armed struggle of volunteers as part of organized armed formations, conducted on territory occupied or controlled by the enemy.
In the partisan movement, it is not-rare-to teach-st-vu-yut and part of the re-gu-lyar-ny armed forces of the state-su-dar-st-va, eye-manager in you- lu enemy-ga or right-len-nye-yes-yes-yes-yes-y-ko-man-do-va-niya. In uniform, partisan movements often go through civil and national wars. Features of the partisan movements are due to the historical ob-st-nov-koy and the national sp-tsi-fi-koy country, but in the big-tire -st-ve case-cha-ev par-ti-zan-sky wrestling-ba includes combat, dis-engagement, di-version-si-on-ny and pro-pa- Gan-di-st-skuyu activity, and the most-bo-lea-ra-pro-countries-nyon-us-mi-so-with-armed struggle would be-la-yut-sya for sa-dy, na-le-you, par-ti-zan-sky rei-dy and di-versions.
Par-ti-zan-sky action from the West with deep antiquity. To them came-be-ha-li on-ro-dy of Central Asia, fighting against the troops of Alek-san-dr-Ma-ke-don-sko-go in the 4th century BC, Wednesday -di-earth-but-sea-na-ro-dy, from-ra-zhaya on-the-tight for-voe-va-te-lei Ri-ma Ancient-not-go. The guerrilla movement in Russia as a form of the struggle for the ro-da against the capture-chi-kov from the West from the XIII-XV centuries. During the time of Re-chi Po-whether that in-ter-ven-tion on-cha-la of the 17th century and the Swedish in-ter-ven-tion on-cha-la of the 17th century shi-ro- some kind of partisan movement was once in the Russian state, by the end of 1608 it was oh-va-ti-lo the whole ter-ri-to-riyu, for-hva-chen-nuyu in-ter-ven -ta-mi. From the so-called shi-shey, there was a fight against the Polish and Swedish troops in the areas of the cities of La-do-ha, Tikh-vin, Pskov, on the way from-stu-p-le-niya of the Polish troops from Mo-sk-you. During the Northern War of 1700-1721, the guerrilla movement was once-in-a-well-on-the-se-le-ni-it of Russia on the paths of co-general of the Army of Karl XII. The scope of the partisan movement, under-der-zhan-no-go tsar Peter I, co-de-st-in-the shaft of the iso-la-tion of the Swedish army, deprivation of its pro- do-vol-st-viy and raz-gro-mu in the Pol-tava battle of 1709. The partisan movement in the course of the Ote-che-st-ven-noy war of 1812 began almost immediately after the second Great Army on the territory ri-to-riyu of Russia. With the entry-p-le-ni-em pro-tiv-ni-ka to Smo-len-skaya, Mo-s-kov-skaya and Ka-luzh-gu-ber-nii pri-nya-lo shi-ro th time-max. Poetry-but there are many-numerous pair-ti-zan-sky detachments, some of them are counted-you-va-whether several thousand people . Greater awareness of the pri-ob-re-whether from the ranks of G.M. Ku-ri-na, S. Emel-ya-no-va, N.M. Nakhimov and others. They are on-pa-yes-whether on groups of enemy soldiers, convoys, on-ru-sha-whether to someone-mu-no-ka-tion of the French army. In na-cha-le September 1812, the partisan movement signified-chi-tel-but race-shi-ri-elk. The Russian command-do-va-nie, and first of all, the chief-commander of the Russian army, Field Marshal M.I. Ku-tu-call, did he give him an or-ga-ni-called ha-rak-ter, under-chi-niv with his strategic ideas-lamas. Were there special detachments from re-gular troops, dey-st-vo-vav-shie par-ti-zan-sky me-to-da-mi. One of the first such detachments of sfor-mi-ro-van at the end of av-gu-hundred along ini-tsia-ti-ve sub-pol-kov-no-ka D.V. Yes-you-do-va. At the end of September-Tyab-rya in the co-hundred-ve ar-mei-pairs-ti-zan-sky from-rows in you-lu vra-ga dey-st-vo-va-li 36 ka -zach-them, 7 cavalry and 5 infantry regiments, 3 batal-o-na and 5 es-kad-ro-nov. Especially-bo from-whether-chi-were from-a-row-dy, headed-by-head-lyay-my Yes-you-to-vym, I.S. Do-ro-ho-vym, A.N. Se-sla-vi-nym, A.S. Fig-not-rum and others. Kre-st-yan-skie par-ti-zan-sky from-row-dy tes-but vzai-mo-dey-st-vo-va-li with ar-mei-ski-mi. On the whole, the partisan movement of the eye-for-lo the su-sche-st-ven-ny help of the Russian army in the destruction of the Great Army and its expulsion from Ros -this, destroy something-alive a few ten-thousands of soldiers-dates and officers-ditch against-it-no-ka.
The bloody regime did not break the will of the Belarusian people. They rose up in a nationwide war against fascist invaders. It was in the early days of the war. A tough time for our entire country. The Nazis had already captured Minsk, were rushing to Smolensk in order to open a direct route to Moscow. After the swift attacks of the enemy troops, the fragmented part of the Red Army remained behind enemy lines. They became the first partisans. Some of them began to break through to the front, causing confusion in the enemy troops, and the other part went into the forests. After that, they were joined by those who escaped from the enemy camp. With the direct participation of K.E. Voroshilov, partisan detachments and sabotage groups were formed and instructed to be sent behind enemy lines. In July, groups of party and Komsomol workers were sent to the occupied territory to organize the communist underground and partisan detachments.
The nationwide character is the main, defining feature of the Soviet partisan movement, which distinguishes it from the resistance movement in Europe and Asia during the Second World War, from all partisan actions of the past, both in Russia and in other countries subjected to foreign invasion. The Soviet partisan movement has no equal in terms of its scope, effectiveness, and the scale of the losses inflicted on the enemy. It enriched the people's war with new forms. In no other war, except for the Great Patriotic War, partisan actions did not provide such a huge help. regular army, did not make such a big contribution to the defeat of the enemy.
The nationwide character of the Soviet partisan movement and the ensuing variety of forms and methods of struggle, high efficiency and effectiveness - all this determined the importance of the partisan movement as a military-political factor in the Great Patriotic War. The head of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement P. K. Ponomarenko wrote in this regard : “The deeply popular character of the partisan movement is most clearly manifested in the huge, inexhaustible variety of forms and methods of fighting the Nazis. Here it should be noted the failure to comply with the orders of the occupying authorities, and the disruption of the economic measures of the invaders, and the organization of sabotage, and the infliction of damage to the enemy everywhere by all possible means, and, finally, the main, strongest form of the partisan movement - the armed struggle of partisan detachments. Armed partisan formations were the most centralized and controlled part of the Soviet partisan movement. They regrouped, their actions were planned, especially in the preparation and conduct offensive operations of the Red Army, were sent to strike at the most vulnerable parts of the Nazi military machine.
As you know, after the failure of the "blitzkrieg", designed to capture Moscow on the move, the battered Nazi units were forced to switch to temporary defense in early September 1941. The Hitlerite command began to prepare a major offensive operation "Typhoon", which provides for the encirclement and destruction of the Red Army formations on westbound and the capture of Moscow. Belarusian partisans and underground fighters contributed to this historic battle near Moscow. Thus, in the reports of the command of the German security forces, it was noted that during Operation Typhoon, due to sabotage by partisan groups, it was not possible on October 6-9, 1941 to send 430 trains with troops and military equipment from Belarus for Army Group Center, which On November 22-27, only 42.5% of the planned echelons broke through under Moscow.
At the beginning of 1942, the struggle of the Belarusian people against the German occupiers intensified. Thousands of patriots joined underground organizations and partisan detachments. By the autumn of 1942, 57,000 fighters were operating in partisan formations in Belarus alone.
The question of training personnel for partisan and underground work arose sharply. Leading cadres were selected from among proven communists and Komsomol members who knew the conditions in Belarus. In January 1942, by decision State Committee Defense were formed 3 special schools, where cadets received theoretical knowledge and skills of guerrilla warfare. Since April 1942, personnel training was carried out by the "Special Belarusian Collection" - special courses that operated near the city of Murom, Vladimir Region. By September 1942, the courses were trained, formed and sent behind enemy lines through the “Vitebsk (Surazh) gates” (40-kilometer gap in the front line at the junction of the German army groups “Center” and “North” between Velizh and Usvyattsi, operated from February to September 1942) 15 partisan detachments and 100 organizing groups with a total of 2378 people. In December, on the basis of the courses (“Special Belarusian Collection”), the Belarusian School for the Training of Partisan Workers (BShPR) was formed. By September 1943, she had trained more than 940 partisan specialists. In order to organize the development of the partisan movement, to coordinate the fighting of the partisans, on May 30, 1942, the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (TSSHPD) was created. The first secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b)B, P.K. Ponomarenko, became the chief of staff. In September 1942, the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement (BShPD) began to function (chief of staff - 2nd secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B P.Z. Kalinin). The BSHPD immediately launched an active combat activity, created partisan detachments, planned and carried out combat operations of partisans, and improved the structure of partisan formations. In the middle of 1942, by decision of the Central Committee of the Party, the Central Headquarters was created at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Forces, and on the ground republican and regional headquarters of the partisan movement and representations (operational groups) at the military councils of the fronts and armies. This indicated that Central Committee considered the partisan movement as a strategic factor in the war.
Such a system of leadership of the partisan movement made it possible to direct it, and first of all, the armed partisan forces, as a rule, reduced to partisan formations, in accordance with the specific tasks solved by the Red Army, to subordinate the actions of the partisans to its operations.
In this regard, A. M. Vasilevsky, Chief of the General Staff during the Great Patriotic War, wrote that the partisan movement “played important role in the general strategic plans and calculations of the Soviet Supreme High Command and was taken into account in the development of major offensive operations carried out on Soviet territory. Never before has there been such a close connection between the actions of partisans and the operations of regular troops, as it was in the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet partisan movement was a true second front. The actions of the partisans behind enemy lines merged with the blows of the Red Army at the front into one common blow of the Soviet people against the Hitlerite military machine. “Together with the Soviet Armed Forces,” says the Theses of the Central Committee of the CPSU, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of October, “partisans dealt crushing blows to the enemy.”
Since the spring of 1942, many partisan detachments began to unite into brigades. In April, the 1st Belorussian brigade was created in Surazh and adjacent regions of the Vitebsk region. It was headed by M.F. Shmyrev. In May, there were already 6 partisan brigades, in December - 53. In late 1943 - early 1944, 144 - 148 partisan brigades operated in Belarus, uniting up to 700 partisan detachments. In 1943, 9 partisan brigades, 10 separate detachments and 15 organizing groups were sent to Western Belarus to develop the partisan struggle. Partisan detachments struck boldly, decisively, diverting large enemy forces. With the creation of a centralized leadership, simultaneous combat operations of partisans began to be planned and carried out on the scale of districts, regions and even the republic. So, in October 1942, the detachments of the Minsk partisan formation successfully carried out the operation "Echo in Polissya" to blow up a large 137-meter railway bridge on the Ptich River. As a result, the movement of trains to the southwestern grouping of the Nazi army was stopped for 18 days.
In October 1942, addressing the population of the occupied regions, the Central Committee of the Party urged: "Fan the flame of the nationwide partisan movement!" In the May Day appeals of 1943, the Central Committee of the party pointed out: “Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldavians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Karelians, who temporarily fell under the yoke of the Nazi bastards! Fan the flame of the nationwide partisan movement! In connection with this, the order of People's Commissar of Defense I.V. Stalin said: “It is necessary first of all to ensure that the partisan movement unfolds even wider and deeper, it is necessary that the partisan struggle embraces the broadest masses of the Soviet people in the occupied territory. The guerrilla movement must become nationwide.”
By the end of 1942, Belarusian partisans derailed 1180 enemy trains from armored trains, 311 steam locomotives, 7800 wagons and platforms with manpower and military equipment, 168 railway bridges, destroyed tens of thousands of German soldiers and officers.
In the summer of 1943, the TsSHPD developed an operation under code name"Rail War" It began on August 3, lasted until September 15 and was timed to coincide with the offensive of Soviet troops in the Belgorod-Kharkov direction. The operation was carried out simultaneously by partisan units of Belarus, partly Ukraine, Leningrad, Smolensk, Kalinin, Oryol regions. The results of the operation were impressive. Only in Belarus, railway traffic was paralyzed for 15-30 days. Echelons with troops and military equipment of the enemy, urgently heading towards Orel, Belgorod and Kharkov, got stuck on the way, and often were destroyed by partisans. Enemy traffic was reduced by almost 35-40%. The occupiers suffered huge material losses in locomotives, wagons, rails, sleepers, equipment, manpower.
Partisan formations carried out raids - long military marches in the occupied territory, destroyed Nazi garrisons, derailed railway trains, created new partisan formations, carried out mass political work among the population. They passed along a closed (ring) route with a return to their original place of deployment. One of the first raids was undertaken in March 1942 by partisans from the Minsk, Pinsk and Polessye regions. Partisan raids in 1943-1944 were especially widespread. Partisan formations of Ukraine (S.A. Kovpak, A.N. Saburov, P.P. Vernigora, Ya.I. Melnik), Moldavia, Lithuania, Latvia, Smolensk, Kalinin and Oryol regions carried out raids on the territory of Belarus.
By the beginning of 1943, Belarusian partisans controlled about 50 thousand square kilometers of territory, by the end of the year - more than 108 thousand, or about 60 percent of the occupied territory of the republic, liberated about 38 thousand square kilometers of Belarusian land. There were more than 20 partisan zones where life went according to the laws Soviet power. 18 airfields were equipped here, through which cargo was delivered from the mainland, wounded partisans and children were evacuated. At the junction of the union republics, thanks to the joint efforts of Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian partisans, partisan zones were united into partisan regions.
The expansion of the scale of guerrilla warfare required the centralization of leadership and coordination of the combat operations of guerrilla formations. In this regard, there was a need to create a single body of military-operational leadership of the guerrilla war.
On May 24, 1942, the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, Colonel-General of Artillery N. Voronov, turned to I. Stalin with a proposal to create a single center for directing partisan and sabotage operations, justifying this by the fact that almost a year's experience of the war showed low level leadership of the partisan struggle behind enemy lines: “The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the NKVD, a little General base and a number of leading workers of Belarus and Ukraine.
According to GKO resolution No. 1837 of May 30, 1942, at the headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Red Army, Central headquarters of the partisan movement(TSSHPD) headed by the secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B P. Ponomarenko. V. Sergienko became his deputy from the NKVD, and T. Korneev from the General Staff of the Red Army.
Simultaneously with the TsSHPD, front-line headquarters of the partisan movement were created under the Military Councils of the corresponding fronts: Ukrainian (under the Military Council of the South-Western Front), Bryansk, Western, Kalinin and Leningrad.
The central and front headquarters of the partisan movement were faced with the task of disorganizing the rear of the enemy by deploying mass resistance to the invaders in cities and towns, destroying its communications and communication lines, destroying warehouses and bases with ammunition, weapons and fuel, attacking military headquarters, police stations and commandant's offices , administrative and economic institutions, strengthening intelligence activities, etc. According to the tasks set, the structure of headquarters was also determined. As part of the Central Headquarters, 6 departments were formed: operational, intelligence, communications, personnel, logistics and general. Subsequently, they were replenished with political, encryption, secret and financial departments. The front headquarters had an almost similar organization, only in a reduced composition. The sphere of activity of the front headquarters was determined by the strip of that front, under the military council of which it was created.
Until the establishment of the Belarusian Headquarters of the partisan movement on the territory of Belarus, the organization and leadership of the partisan detachments, together with the leadership of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B, was carried out by the TsSHPD, the operations department of which maintained close contact with 65 partisan detachments with a total number of 17 thousand people, of which up to 10 thousand acted in the Vitebsk region
The main task of operational activities in the Belarusian direction was to restore communication with active partisan detachments and groups throughout the republic, to carry out activities jointly with the Central Committee of the CP (b) B further development and the intensification of combat operations of partisan forces, the development of sabotage operations of partisan forces, the development of sabotage operations on enemy communications, the organization of assistance to partisans with weapons, ammunition, mine-disruptive means, the improvement of communications, etc. Operational activities in connection with the assigned tasks until October 1942 were carried out through the Kalinin, Western and Bryansk headquarters of the partisan movement.
Subsequently, by a decree of the State Defense Committee of September 9, 1942, the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement(BShPD) headed by Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b)B P. Kalinin, Deputy Secretary of the Central Committee of the CP(b)B R. Eidinov. Initially, it was located in the villages of Sheino and Timokhino, Toropetsky district, Kalinin region, from November 1942 - in Moscow, then at the station. Gangway near Moscow, and since February 1944 in the village of Chonki, Gomel district.
The structure of the BSHPD was constantly changing and improving as the functions of leading the partisan movement became more complex. In 1944, the headquarters consisted of a command, 10 departments (operational, intelligence, information, communications, personnel, encryption, logistics, financial, secret, engineering), sanitary service, administrative unit, commandant platoon. Directly subordinated to him were stationary and mobile communication centers, a training reserve point, an expeditionary transport base, the 119th special air squadron with an airfield team.
In his activities, he was guided by the directive documents of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the State Defense Committee of the USSR and others. supreme bodies state and military administration. In addition to the main headquarters, auxiliary command and control bodies were also created - representations and operational groups of the BSHPD under the Military Councils of the fronts, whose tasks included providing control of partisan formations and detachments based in the offensive zone of these fronts, coordinating the combat missions of partisans with the actions of regular units and formations Red Army. AT different time The BSHPD had its representative offices on the 1st Baltic, Western, Bryansk, Belorussian fronts, and operational groups on the Kalinin, 1st, 2nd, 3rd Belorussian fronts and in the 61st Army.
At the time of the creation of the BSHPD, 324 partisan detachments operated in the rear of the regular Wehrmacht units on the territory of Belarus, of which 168 were part of 32 brigades.
Thus, analyzing the partisan movement in the occupied territory of the Soviet Union, including Belarus, we can distinguish four periods in the organization and development of the partisan movement:
The first period - June 1941 - May 30, 1942 - the period of formation of the partisan struggle, the political leadership of which was carried out mainly by the Communist Party, there was no operational planning of combat activities. The main role in the organization of partisan detachments belonged to the organs of the NKGB and the NKVD. Essential feature given period was that an important reserve for the development of the partisan movement were tens of thousands of commanders and soldiers of the Red Army, who found themselves behind enemy lines due to forced circumstances.
The second period - from May 30, 1942 to March 1943 - is characterized by the switching of party bodies from political to direct leadership of the partisan struggle. The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the intelligence agencies of the Red Army handed over partisan formations to the republican and regional headquarters of the partisan movement.
The third period (from April 1943 to January 1944 - until the liquidation of the TsSHPD). The partisan movement becomes controllable. Measures are being taken to coordinate the actions of partisan formations with the troops of the Red Army. The military command is planning a partisan struggle in the front lines.
The last, fourth, - January 1944 to May 1945 - is characterized by the premature liquidation of the leadership of the partisan movement, the curtailment of the military-technical and material support of the partisan forces. At the same time, partisan formations switched to direct interaction with the Soviet troops.
During 1941 - 1944. various partisan formations. They were built mainly on the military principle. Structurally, they consisted of formations, brigades, regiments, detachments and groups.
Partisan connection- one of the organizational forms of association of partisan brigades, regiments, detachments that operated on the territory occupied by the Nazi invaders. The combat and strength of this form of organization depended on the partisan forces in the area of their deployment, locations, material support, and the nature of combat missions. Combat activities of a partisan formation combined the obligatory fulfillment of the orders of the joint command by all formations of the formation in solving common combat missions and maximum independence in the choice of methods and forms of struggle. At different times, about 40 territorial formations operated in the occupied territory of Belarus, which had the names of partisan formations, military task forces (VOG) and operational centers: Baranovichi, Brest, Vileika, Gomel, Mogilev, Minsk, Polessky, Pinsk regional formations; connections of the Borisov-Begoml, Ivenets, Lida, South zones of the Baranovichi region, the South Pripyat zone of the Polesye region, Slutsk, Stolbtsovsk, Shchuchin zones; Klichev operational center; Osipovichi, Bykhovskaya, Belynichskaya, Berezinskaya, Kirovskaya, Klichevskaya, Kruglyanskaya, Mogilevskaya, Rogachevskaya, Shklovskaya military operational groups; partisan unit "Thirteen", etc. It should be noted that most of the partisan units were formed in 1943. In addition to the detachments, regiments, brigades that were part of the unit, often formed special units submachine gunners, artillerymen, mortarmen, who reported directly to the unit commander. Heading formations, usually secretaries of underground regional committees, inter-district committees of the party or officers of the Red Army; management was carried out through the Headquarters of the formations.
Partisan brigade was the main organizational form of partisan formations and usually consisted of 3 - 7 or more detachments (battalions), depending on their number. Many of them included cavalry units and heavy weapons units - artillery, mortar and machine gun platoons, companies, batteries (divisions). The number of partisan brigades was not constant and fluctuated on average from several hundred to 3-4 or more thousand people. The brigade administration usually consisted of the commander, commissar, chief of staff, deputy commanders for intelligence, sabotage, assistant commander for support, head of the medical service, deputy commissar for the Komsomol. Most brigades had headquarters companies or platoons of communications, security, a radio station, an underground printing house, many had their own hospitals, workshops for the repair of weapons and property, ammunition platoons, landing sites for aircraft. .
On the territory of Belarus, the first brigade-like formation was the garrison of F. Pavlovsky, created in January 1942 in the Oktyabrsky district. In the Vitebsk region, these were the 1st Belorusskaya and "Aleksey" brigades operating in Surazh and adjacent areas. In total, there were about 199 brigades.
The partisan regiment, as one of the formations of the partisans, did not have such a distribution as the formations and brigades listed above. The main distribution was received on the territory of the Mogilev and Smolensk regions. In its structure, it repeats the structure of the partisan brigade.
The partisan detachment during the war years became one of the main organizational structures and the most common combat unit of partisan formations. By purpose, the detachments were divided into ordinary (unitary), special (reconnaissance and sabotage), cavalry, artillery, staff, reserve, local self-defense, marching. Initially, the detachments had 25 - 70 partisans, were divided into 2 - 3 battle groups.
The first partisan detachments were named after the place of deployment, by the surname or nickname of the commander (for example, the detachment "Father Minai", organized in June 1941 from factory workers in the village of Pudot between Surazh and Usvyaty). Later, the names of famous commanders, political, military figures were given. Soviet Republic, heroes of the civil war (for example, the partisan detachment of the 3rd named after Zhukov, the 2nd named after Chkalov, named after Kirov, acted on the territory of the Sharkovshchina district); partisans who died, or names that reflected patriotic and strong-willed motives or a political orientation in the struggle (partisan detachment 3rd "Fearless", operating on the territory of the Polotsk and Rossony districts). Many units had number designations.
In total, about 1,255 partisan detachments operated on the territory of Belarus.
The smallest unit of partisan formations is Group. It was created by party and Soviet bodies mainly on the territory occupied by the Nazis from among the military personnel who were surrounded, as well as the local population. The size and armament of the groups were varied, depending on the nature of the tasks and the conditions in which each of them was created and operated.
It follows from the above that the structure of partisan formations, on the one hand, had similar features with regular military formations, at the same time, it did not have a single structure for all.
Of great importance for raising morale and patriotism was the “Oath of the Belarusian partisan”, approved in May 1942: “I, a citizen of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, faithful son heroic Belarusian people, I swear that I will spare neither strength nor life itself for the cause of the liberation of my people from the Nazi invaders and monsters, and I will not lay down my arms until such time as my dear Belarusian land will not be cleared of the Nazi filth. ... I swear, for the burned cities and villages, for the blood and death of our wives and children, fathers and mothers, for violence and mockery of my people, to take cruel revenge on the enemy and flawlessly, without stopping at anything, always and everywhere boldly, decisively, boldly and ruthlessly destroy the German occupiers ....".
In general, in the partisan movement in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War, according to official data, 373,492 people took part. Among them were representatives of almost 70 nationalities of the USSR and many European nations: hundreds of Poles, Czechs and Slovaks, Yugoslavs, dozens of Hungarians, French, Belgians, Austrians, Dutch.
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