Soviet partisans

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The Soviet partisans movement included people of all backgrounds and age groups. Pictured are the elderly village priest being awarded a combat medal...

...a teenage boy leaving his mother's home to join the partisans' movement,

...and young women, members of Kovpak's partisan formation.

The Soviet partisans were members of the anti-fascist resistance movement which fought guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Despite a significant degree of self-determination and a wide public support in some territories, the movement was mostly organized and controlled by the Soviet government.

[edit] Beginning of anti-German Soviet resistance

At the end of June 1941, immediately after German forces crossed the Soviet border, the Communist Party ordered Party members to organize an underground resistance in the occupied territories (pre-war plans and candidates for such operations existed). Although formal creation was ordered in 1941, it was only in 1942-43 that underground cells sprang up throughout Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russian regions such as Bryansk occupied by the invaders. Partisans waged guerrilla warfare against the occupiers, and enjoyed increasing support from the local population which was antagonized by German brutality.

Partisans consisted of people left behind the German lines, including escapees from German prisoner of war camps, and refugees from the German terror. No formal recruitment procedures existed, although some partisan commanders (especially those in charge of large units) experimented with mandatory enlistment of young peasants, i.e. informal conscript service, however, these experiments did not meet much success.

To survive, resistance fighters largely relied on the civilian population providing them with food and daily necessities. However, in the areas they controlled, they had limited possibilities to operate their own agriculture. Pictured, Anna Khobotneva from the partisan squadron named to Chapayev is milking a cow for the wounded.

While in some areas of Ukraine and Belarus some of the local population was initially supportive to the German occupation that they hoped would end the harsh Stalinist rule, they soon found that the Nazi regime was far more brutal. The occupants mass transferred the working age population to Reich to serve as slave laborers, looted (both under the central planning and spontaneously), and arbitrary applied severe and mass punishments for any infraction, up to the mass hostage taking and burning the entire villages with their population (e.g. see Khatyn). Naturally, under these circumstances, locals rallied to join the anti-Nazi resistance, and the majority became passive supporters to partisans.

Soon, the centralized Partisan Movement Headquarters and support infrastructure was created by the NKVD in the areas still controlled by Soviets. There were autonomous Headquarters for each Soviet republic, although all under strict control of the central NKVD leadership. The Headquarters began supporting partisan groups behind enemy lines with various supplies through airlifts and established radio connection with most of them.

Later NKVD, SMERSH and military intelligence began training special groups of future partisans (effectively, special forces units) in the rear and dropping them in the occupied territories. The candidates for these groups were chosen among volunteers from regular Red Army, NKVD's Internal Troops, and also among Soviet sportsmen. When dropped behind Axis lines, the groups were to organize and guide the local self-established partisan units. Radio operators and intelligence gathering officers were the essential members of each group since amateur fighters could not be trusted with these tasks. Some commanders of these special units (like Dmitry Medvedev) later became well-known partisan leaders.

[edit] Areas of operations

[edit] Belarus

Soviet partisans in the forests of Belarus.

Soviet partisans on the road in Belarus.

Main article: Belarusian resistance movement

Belarus was the republic hardest hit by the war that took from 25 to 40% of the republic's population. [1] According to the Himmler's plan, 3/4 of the Belarusian population was to be eradicated and the remainder was to be used as a slave labour force. By Summer 1942 all the illusions some Belarusians might have had about the Nazi rule, even compared to the brutal Stalinist regime, were lost and the anti-fascist resistance rose dramatically.

To the end of 1941 only in Minsk area there were at least 50 partisan groups having more than 2,000 fighters. Especially difficult for the partisans was the winter of 1941-1942, there was not enough experience, ammunition and supplies. The actions of partisans were often uncoordinated. A significant area in the West of Belarus were territories annexed from Poland where Soviet partisans were often unpopular. According to some historians (e.g. [2]) before the break of relation with the Polish government in exile in the spring of 1943, Soviet government did not support Soviet partisan movement there, expecting the Armia Krajowa (AK) to be more effective on former Polish territories^{[citation needed]}. At that time Soviet partisans and AK usually supported each other. Since the break of the relations between the two governments the cooperation was discouraged from the both sides.

The vast Belarusian forests provided a suitable environment for a guerrilla war. Soon Belarus had the largest number of Soviet partisans, numbering over 300,000 fighters[3] under the leadership of Panteleimon Ponomarenko, Petr Masherov, Kiril Mazurov and others. As early as the spring of 1942 they were able to effectively harass German troops and significantly hamper their operations in the region. According to the official data[4] in 1943 there were 375,000 partisan fighters and 70,000 members of urban underground. Among Soviet partisans in Belarus were people of 45 different ethnic backgrounds and 4,000 foreigners (including 3,000 Poles, 400 Czechs and Slovaks, 300 Yugoslavians, etc.). Around 65% of Belarusian partisans were local people.

The partisan movement was so strong that by 1943-44 there were entire regions in occupied Belarus, where Soviet authority was re-established deep inside the German held territories. There were even partisan kolkhozes that were raising crops and livestock to produce food for the partisans.[5]. During the battles for liberation of Belarus, partisans considered the fourth Belorussian front.

[edit] Ukraine

The war has come to Ukraine. A burning village in Sumy region. July, 1941.

Ukrainians from Cherkasy region being deported to Reich to be used as a Slave labor force.

As well as Belarus, Ukraine was the first and hardest hit by the Axis invasion in Summer-Autumn 1941. The consequences for the area and for the population that remained under the occupation were devastating. The Nazi regime took little effort to exploit the anti-Soviet sentiments among many Ukrainians that developed from the years of harsh Stalinist rule. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out genocidal policies against Jews, and deported others (mainly Ukrainians) to Germany in hundreds of thousands as a slave labour force. Under these circumstances most of the population resisted the Nazi onslaught from its start and a partisan movement immediately spread over the occupied territory.

The first Soviet partisan detachments in Ukraine appeared in Chernihiv and Sumy regions. They developed out of Mykola Popudrenko's and Sydir Kovpak's underground groups, and became a formidable force in 1943. At this stage they were controlled and significantly supported by the Ukrainian Partisan Movement Headquarters in Moscow, operating throughout occupied Ukraine (especially in the northeastern part) and numbered over 150,000 fighters. In 1944 partisans led by Kovpak and Vershigora were even able to raid the enemy forces in Romania, Slovakia and Poland.

[edit] Russia

In Bryansk region the Soviet partisans controlled vast areas behind the German rear. In the summer of 1942 they effectively held territory of more than 14 000 square kilometers with population of over 200,000 people. Soviet partisans in the region were led by Alexei Fyodorov, Alexander Saburov and others and numbered over 60,000 men. Belgorod, Oryol, Kursk, Novgorod, Leningrad, Pskov and Smolensk regions also had significant partisan activity during the occupation period. In Oryol and Smolensk regions partisans were led by Dmitry Medvedev.

In 1943, after Red Army started to liberate western Russia and north-east Ukraine, many partisans, including units led by Fyodorov, Medvedev and Saburov, were ordered to re-locate their operations into central and western Ukraine still occupied by Nazis.

[edit] Baltic States

Soviet Partisans also operated in the Baltic States. In Estonia, they were under the leadership of Nikolay Karotamm. In Latvia they were first under Russian and Belarussian command, and from January 1943, directly subordinated to the central Headquarters in Moscow, under the leadership of Arturs Sprongis. Another prominent commander was the historian Vilis Samsons. His 3,000 man unit is credited with the destruction of nearly 130 German trains.

In 1941, the Soviet partisan movement in Lithuania began with the actions of a small number of Red Army soldiers left behind enemy lines, much like the beginning of partisan movements in Ukraine and Belarus. The movement grew throughout 1942, and in the summer of that year the Lithuanian Soviet partisan movement began receiving material aid as well as specialists and instructors in guerrilla warfare from the territory still controlled by Soviet government. On the 26 November 1942 the Command of Lithuanian Partisan Movement (Lietuvos partizaninio judėjimo štabas) was created in Moscow, headed by First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party Antanas Sniečkus, who had fled to Moscow in the wake of the German invasion in 1941. Although the Soviet partisans in Lithuania were nominally under the control of Command of Lithuanian Partisan Movement, the guerrilla warfare specialists and instructors sent by it reported directly to Central Command of Partisan Movement. Modern Lithuanian historians estimate that about half of the Soviet partisans in Lithuania were escapees from POW and concentration camps, Soviet activists, Red Army soldiers left behind the quickly advancing front line, while the other half was made up of airdropped special operations experts. It is estimated that in total, about 5,000 people engaged in pro-Soviet underground activities in Lithuania during the war. In general, role of Soviet dissident groups in Lithuania in Second World War was minimal. ^[1]

[edit] Finland and Karelia

A Finnish soldier lifting a young victim of the Lokka partisan terrorist attack up onto a truck in 1944.

Soviet partisans operated in Finland and in Karelia during the Continuation War from 1941 to 1944. In the beginning of the Finnish occupation 24,000 of the local ethnic Russians (almost half of them) were placed in concentration, internment and labor camps and 4,000-7,000 of them died, mostly from hunger during the spring and summer of 1942 due to failed harvest of 1941.^[2][3] These actions made many local ethnic Russian people to support the partisan attacks.

Approximately 5,000 partisans altogether fought in the region, although the typical strength of the force was 1500-2300. Pecularities of this front were that partisan units were not created inside the occupied territory, their personnel came all around Soviet Union and that they mainly operated from the Soviet side of the frontline.

The only major operation ended with failure when 1. Partisan Brigade was destroyed in the beginning of August 1942 at Lake Seesjärvi. Most operations at the southern part of the front consisted only few men and women, but on the roadless northern part units of 40 to 100 partisans were not uncommon. Partisans distributed Finnish language propaganda newspapers of the Russian Pravda (Truth) and "Lenin's Standart" One of the leaders of the partisan movement in Finland and Karelia was Yuri Andropov.^[2]

A lot of partisan operations in Finland targeted civilians, killing 200 and injuring 50, including children and elderly.^[4][5][6] On several occasions the partisans executed civilians throughout, not wanting anyone to witness the atrocities. One such incident was the so-called Inari Laanila partisan attack that took place on July 4, 1943, in which the partisans attacked a bus carrying civilians and killed some of them, including bishop Yrjö Wallinmaa, before fleeing. [6][7][8]

[edit] Outside the Soviet Union

Interestingly, there were formations calling themselves Soviet partisans who operated a long way from the territories of Soviet Union. Usually they were organized by former Soviet citizens who escaped Nazi camps. One of such a formation was Rodina (Motherland) acting in France. [9][10]

[edit] Poland

1939-1945 border changes. Orange line depicts the extent of areas occupied by Soviet Union in 1939-1941

In the former eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic, despite their recent attachment to the Ukrainian and Belarusian Soviet Republics, the organization and the operations of the Soviet partisans were similar to the other Ukrainian and Belarusian territories. However, certain differences can be noticed when it comes to the interaction of partisans with the Polish national forces and the local population.

As much of the initial Soviet partisan movement was formed of soldiers detached from their units during the early stages of German invasion, the first Soviet partisan units were formed in the pre-war Polish territories occupied and annexed by the Soviets already in June of 1941. Among the first such units was a formation of Vasily Korzh created in Pinsk on June 26, 1941 ^[7]. Altogether, until 1944 there were 7 large groups and 26 smaller, independent partisan detachments formed in the area of occupied Poland^[8]

After initial period of wary collaboration with Polish resistance, the conflicts between these groups vastly intensified, especially as Poles were victims of Soviet terror between 1939 and 1941, and Soviets diplomatic relations with the Polish exiled government in London continued to worsen and were broken off completely in the aftermath of the discovery of the Katyn Massacre in 1943. In addition to their sabotage aimed at the German war machine, the Soviet partisans started extensive operations against both the Polish underground and the civilian population of the areas seized by the Soviets in 1939 and then lost to Germans in 1941. The campaign of terror provoked reports to London of horrifying looting, rape and murder^[9]. This^{[citation needed]} made many local AK commanders consider the Soviets as just another enemy^[10] and eventually on June 22, 1943 Soviets partisans were ordered by Moscow to take on the Polish units as well.[11] The study by the young Polish historian[12] Bogdan Musial suggests that the Soviet partisants, instead of engaging German military and police targets, targeted the poorly armed and trained Belarusian and Polish self-defense forces.^[11]

In January-February 1944, in the wake of growing hostilities between the Soviets and the AK forces, Aleksander Krzyżanowski, the chief AK commander of the area around Vilnius and Navahradak, engaged his units in a highly controversial cooperation with the Germans directed against the Soviet partisans. In a result of the settlement between the local AK leadership and the Nazi authorities, several Polish units fought alongside Germans against Soviet partisans^[12] and the Polish units in the area equipped with the arms, provisions and intelligence from Germans "cleansed"^[10] the territory in the Vilnius/Navahradak area from the Soviet units. However, elsewhere and with the increasing support from the advancing Eastern Front, the Soviets partisans were successful against the Polish units.

[edit] Major operations

Partisans take on the village to drive away the Nazi punitive expedition.

• Raid of Vasily Korzh, Autumn 1941 - March 23, 1942. 1000 kilometre raid of a partisan formation over Minsk and Pinsk Oblasts of Belarus.
• Battle of Bryansk forests, May 1942. Battle of partisans against the Nazi punitive expedition that included 5 infantry divisions, military police, 120 tanks and aviation.
• Raid of Sydir Kovpak, October 26 - November 29, 1942. Raid over Bryansk forests and Eastern Ukraine.
• Battle of Bryansk forests, May-June, 1943. Battle of partisans of the Bryansk forests with the German punitive expeditions.
• Operation "Rails War", August 3 - September 15, 1943. A major operation of partisan formations against the railroad communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of Kursk and later the Battle of Smolensk.[13], [14] It involved concentrated actions by more than 100,000 partisan fighters of Belarus, Leningrad Oblast, Kalinin Oblast, Smolensk Oblast, Oryol Oblast and Ukraine on the territory of 1000 km along the front and 750 km in depth. Reportedly, more than 230,000 rails were destroyed, along with many bridges, trains and other railroad infrastructure. The operation seriously incapacitated German logistics and was instrumental for the Soviet victory in Kursk battle.
• Operation "Concerto", September 19 - November 1, 1943. "Concerto"[15] [16] was a major operation of partisan formations against the railroad communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of the Dnieper and on the direction of the Soviet offensive in the Smolensk and Gomel directions. Partisans of Belarus, Karelia, Kalinin Oblast, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Crimea participated in the operations. The area of the operation was 900 km along the front (excluding Karelia and Crimea) and 400 km in depth. Despite the bad weather that allowed airlifting of less than a half of the planned supplies the operation lead to decreasing of the railroad capacity on the area by 35-40% that was critical for the success of the Soviet military operations in the autumn of 1943. In Belarus alone the partisans claimed destruction of more than 90,000 rails along with 1,061 trains, 72 railroad bridges and 58 Axis garrisons. According to the Soviet historiography, Axis losses totalled more than 53,000 soldiers.
• Battle of Polotsk-Leppel, April 1944. Major battle between partisans of Belarus and a German punitive expeditions.
• Battle of Borisovsk-Begoml, April 22 - May 15, 1944. Major battle between partisans of Belarus and a German punitive expeditions.
• Operation Bagration, June 22-August 19, 1944. Belarusian partisans took major part in the Operation Bagration. They were often considered the fifth front (along with the 1st Baltic Front, 1st Belorussian Front, 2nd Belorussian Front and 3rd Belorussian Front. Upward to 300,000 partisans took part in the operation.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] German reprisals

The Partisan's mother, the 1943 painting by Sergey Gerasimov

While the partisan movement in some regions greatly contributed into the outcome of the Great Patriotic War, some historians argue that the price for this was too high.

Partisans are often accused of provoking the brutal countermeasures of Nazi occupants. Trying to limit partisan activities, German command applied the tactic of taking mass hostages among residents of partisan-operated areas. In case of partisan attack (typically, on a railroad bridge), the definite number of locals would be executed. Such hostage operations could happen in the forms of preliminary arrests, post-attack retaliation actions, or compulsory "watch-groups" deployed on vulnerable sites and killed if they haven't averted the attack.

According to Soviet sources, the partisans invented ways to prevent hostage/retaliation murders, like targeting uninhabited areas, developing their own forest agriculture and evacuating the whole population of the villages at risk. However, some historians believe such attempts were of little effect.

The burden of the partisan actions on the locals was feeding a permanent political controversy among partisans, answered by the NKVD in a rapid and violent way.

[edit] Relations with civilians and Jews

Soviet partisans compulsorily commissioned food, livestock and clothes from local peasants. The results of this typical guerrilla activity were made more severe by the fact that Axis occupational forces have been already seizing food from people in enormous amounts to support their war economies.

Among the targets of Soviet partisans were not only Axis military and their volunteerly collaboration units, but also civilians groundlessly accused in being the Nazi collaborators or sometimes even those who were considered to not support the partisans strong enough. [17] As with other guerilla wars, some of these attacks might be classified as war crimes.

The relation between Soviet partisants and the Jews is also controversial. The young and armed Jews were usually welcomed by the Soviets, however women, children, and the elderly were ignored by the Soviet partisants at best and victimized at worst. Eventually, however, separate Jewish groups, both guerrilla units and mixed family groups of refugees (like the Bielski partisans), were subordinated to the communist partisan leadership and considered as Soviet assets.[18]

[edit] Fight against the independence movements

In addition to fighting the Nazis, Soviet partisans fought against the organisations and people which seeked to reestablish independent non-communist states of Poland,[19] Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. This included fighting against the nationalist groups in the places such as the Baltic States and Poland where most of the resistance seeked to reestablish the independent states.[20]

Due to these reasons, the Soviet partisans are a very controversial issue in the mentioned countries. In Latvia some former Soviet partisans are prosecuted to this day for the alleged war crimes against locals during the occupation.

[edit] Relations with Ukrainian nationalist resistance

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a separate resistance force formed in 1942 (as a military arm of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), was engaged in the armed conflicts with the Soviet partisans, Nazi occupants and the Polish resistance at different times. Although UPA initially attempted to find a common ground with the Nazi Germany in the face of the common enemy (the USSR), it soon was driven underground as it became apparent that Germans' view of Ukraine was as of a German colony with an enslaved population, not an independent country the UPA hoped for. As such, UPA was driven underground and fought both the Nazi occupants and the Soviet forces (including partisans) at the same time.

Later, UPA and Soviet partisans leaders have been occasionally trying to negotiate a temporarily alliance, but Moscow NKVD Headquarters began harshly persecuting such attempts of its local commanders. With two sides becoming established enemies, the Soviet partisans found less support from the population of Western Ukraine ^{[citation needed]} (which was predominantly supporting UPA).

[edit] Relations with the locals in Baltic States region

Soviet partisans had very little support from the Baltic Sea countries' populations. Their invovlement in controversial actions that affected the civilian population (for example, the murder of the Polish civilians in Kaniūkai, in an event that has come to be called the Koniuchy massacre, and razing to the ground the village of Bakaloriškės).^[13] The anti-Soviet resistance movements in the Baltic states, known as the Forest Brothers (which sprung just before Soviet re-occupation in 1944), and local self-defence units often came into conflict with the Soviet partisan groups, much like the situation between Ukrainian partisans and the UPA in Ukraine.

In Eastern and South-Eastern Lithuania Soviet partisans were constantly clashing with Polish Armia Krajowa (Home Army) partisans; AK did not recognise any territorial changes after 1939 and considered this region as legal part of Poland, while Soviets planned to return it to the Soviet Union after the war. Only in April of 1944 the Polish and Soviet partisans started coordinating their actions against the Germans.^[1]

[edit] Stalinist repressions against partisan veterans

After the end of the war, some Soviet partisans were repressed (mostly sent to labor camps) on various grounds. Although most of the allegations were cleared in 1955 when a Soviet pardon was announced to all POWs and Nazi collaborators.

[edit] Assessment

The partisans' activities included disrupting the railroad communications, intelligence gathering and, typically, small hit and run operations. With the German supply lines already over extended, the partisan operations in the rear of the front lines were able to severely disrupt the flow of supplies to the army that acted deep into the Soviet territory.

In the second half of the war, major partisan operations were coordinated with Soviet offensives. Upon liberation of parts of the Soviet territory the corresponding partisan detachments usually joined the regular Army.

The partisans were an important and numerous force of the war. According to Soviet sources, from 90,000 partisans (including underground) by the end of 1941 it grew to 220,000 in 1942, and to more than 550,000 in 1943. [21] Soviet partisans inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties on Axis forces and contributed significantly to the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War. In Belarus alone the partisans claimed to have "liquidated," injured and taken prisoner some 500,000 German soldiers,[22] the claim disputed by certain historians.^[14]

[edit] List of famous Soviet partisans

[edit] See also

• Come and See
• Jewish partisans
• Partisans (Yugoslavia)
• People's War
• Resistance during World War II
• Young Guard (Soviet resistance)

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

[edit] Pro-partisans

• Biography of Braiko
• Account of Partisan activity in Western Ukraine
• Famous partisan-miners
• (English) (Hebrew) :Jewish partisans directory (searchable)
• (Russian) People with clear conscience — Memoires of Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora
• (Russian) It happened by Rovno — Memoires of Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev

[edit] Anti-partisans

• (Ukrainian) How "People's Revengers" were revenging their own people

[edit] Analysis

• Fragment of the Review of Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland, by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, in Sarmatian Review, April 2006