The most famous Soviet partisans. Partisans in WWII

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The main activities of the partisan movement

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

Partisan detachments

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

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

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

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

The results and significance of guerrilla warfare

Soviet partisans became one of the main forces resisting the Germans and in many ways helped decide the outcome of the war in the direction of the USSR. good management partisan movement made it highly effective and disciplined, thanks to which the partisans could fight on a par with the regular army.

Each generation has its own perception of the past war, the place and significance of which in the life of the peoples of our country turned out to be so significant that it entered their history as the Great Patriotic War. The dates of June 22, 1941 and May 9, 1945 will forever remain in the memory of the peoples of Russia. 60 years after the Great Patriotic War Russians can be proud that their contribution to the Victory was huge and irreplaceable. The most important part of the struggle Soviet people against Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War, a partisan movement appeared, which was the most active form of participation of the broad masses of the people in the temporarily occupied Soviet territory in the fight against the enemy.

In the occupied territory was installed " new order"- a regime of violence and bloody terror, designed to perpetuate German domination and turn the occupied lands into an agricultural and raw material appendage of German monopolies. All this met with fierce resistance from the majority of the population living in the occupied territory, which rose up to fight.

It was a truly nationwide movement, generated by the just nature of the war, the desire to protect the honor and independence of the Motherland. That is why the partisan movement in the areas occupied by the enemy was given such an important place in the program of combating the Nazi invaders. The party called on those who remained behind enemy lines Soviet people create partisan detachments and sabotage groups, kindle guerrilla warfare everywhere and everywhere, blow up bridges, disrupt the enemy’s telegraph and telephone communications, set fire to warehouses, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every step, disrupt all their activities.

Soviet people who found themselves in the territory occupied by the enemy, as well as soldiers, commanders and political workers of the Red Army and Navy, who were surrounded, entered the fight against the Nazi invaders. They tried with all their might and means to help the Soviet troops fighting at the front, resisted the Nazis. And already these first actions against Hitlerism were in the nature of a guerrilla war. In a special resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated July 18, 1941 “On organizing the struggle behind enemy lines”, the party called on republican, regional, regional and district party organizations to lead the organization of partisan formations and the underground, “to help in every possible way to create horse and foot partisan detachments, sabotage fighter groups, deploy a network of our Bolshevik underground organizations in the occupied territory to direct all actions against the fascist invaders in the war (June 1941-1945).

The struggle of the Soviet people against the Nazi invaders in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union became an integral part of the Great Patriotic War. It acquired a nationwide character, becoming a qualitatively new phenomenon in the history of the struggle against foreign invaders. The most important of its manifestations was the partisan movement behind enemy lines. Thanks to the actions of the partisans, a constant feeling of danger and threat spread among the Nazi invaders in their rear, which had a significant moral impact on the Nazis. And this was a real danger, since the fighting of the partisans inflicted enormous damage on the enemy's manpower and equipment.

Group portrait of the fighters of the partisan detachment "Zvezda"
It is characteristic that the idea of ​​organizing a partisan and underground movement in the territory occupied by the enemy appeared only after the start of the Great Patriotic War and the first defeats of the Red Army. This is explained by the fact that in the 1920s and early 1930s the Soviet military leadership quite reasonably believed that in the event of an enemy invasion it was really necessary to launch a guerrilla war behind enemy lines, and for this purpose they were already training the organizers of the guerrilla movement, certain funds were allocated for waging a guerrilla war. However, during the mass repressions of the second half of the 1930s, such precaution began to be seen as a manifestation of defeatism, and almost all those who were engaged in this work were repressed. If we follow the then concept of defense, which consisted in defeating the enemy "with little blood and on its territory", the systematic training of the organizers of the partisan movement, according to Stalin and his entourage, could morally disarm the Soviet people, sow defeatist moods. It is impossible in this situation to exclude Stalin's painful suspicion of the potentially well-organized structure of the underground resistance apparatus, which, as he believed, the "oppositionists" could use for their own purposes.

It is usually believed that by the end of 1941 the number of active partisans reached 90 thousand people, and more than 2 thousand partisan detachments. Thus, at first, the partisan detachments themselves were not very numerous - their number did not exceed several dozen fighters. The difficult winter period of 1941-1942, the lack of reliably equipped bases for partisan detachments, the lack of weapons and ammunition, poor weapons and food supplies, as well as the lack of professional doctors and medicines greatly complicated the effective actions of the partisans, reducing them to sabotage on highways, the destruction of small groups of invaders, the destruction of their locations, the destruction of policemen - local residents who agreed to cooperate with the invaders. Nevertheless, the partisan and underground movement behind enemy lines still took place. Many detachments operated in Smolensk, Moscow, Orel, Bryansk and in a number of other regions of the country that fell under the heel of the Nazi invaders.

Detachment S. Kovpak

Sidor Kovpak was born into the family of a Poltava poor peasant. His subsequent fate, with its intensity of struggle and its unexpected turns, is quite characteristic of that revolutionary era. Kovpak began to fight back in the First World War, in the war on the blood of the poor - as a scout-plastun, who earned two brass St. George crosses and numerous wounds, and already in 1918, after the German occupation of revolutionary Ukraine, he independently organized and led a red partisan detachment - one of the first in Ukraine. He fought against Denikin together with the detachments of Father Parkhomenko, participated in the battles on Eastern Front as part of the legendary 25th Chapaev division, then fought in the South against the troops of Wrangel, took part in the liquidation of Makhno's gangs. After the victory of the revolution, Sidor Kovpak, who became a member of the RCP (b) in 1919, was engaged in economic work, especially succeeding in road construction, which he proudly called his favorite thing. Since 1937, this administrator, famous for his decency and diligence, exceptional even for that era of labor for defense, acted as chairman of the Putivl city executive committee of the Sumy region. In this purely peaceful position, the war found him.

In August 1941, the Putivl party organization, almost in its entirety - excluding its previously mobilized members - turned into a partisan detachment. It was one of many partisan groups created in the wooded triangle of Sumy, Bryansk, Oryol and Kursk regions, convenient for partisan struggle, which became the base for the entire future partisan movement. However, the Putivl detachment quickly stood out among the many forest units with its especially bold and at the same time measured and prudent actions. Kovpak's partisans avoided long stay within a particular region. They made constant long maneuvers behind enemy lines, exposing distant German garrisons to unexpected blows. This is how the famous raid tactics of partisan struggle was born, in which the traditions and techniques of the revolutionary war of 1918-21 were easily guessed - techniques revived and developed by commander Kovpak. Already at the very beginning of the formation of the Soviet partisan movement, he became its most famous and prominent figure.

At the same time, Father Kovpak himself did not at all differ in any special brave military appearance. According to his comrades-in-arms, the outstanding partisan general was more like an elderly peasant in civilian clothes, carefully taking care of his large and complex economy. It was this impression that he made on his future intelligence chief Pyotr Vershigora, in the past a film director, and later a well-known partisan writer who told about the raids of the Kovpak detachments in his books. Kovpak was indeed an unusual commander - he skillfully combined his vast experience as a soldier and business worker with innovative courage in developing the tactics and strategy of guerrilla warfare. “He is quite modest, he did not teach others as much as he studied himself, he knew how to admit his mistakes, thereby not exacerbating them,” Alexander Dovzhenko wrote about Kovpak. Kovpak was simple, even deliberately simple in communication, humane in dealing with his fighters, and with the help of the continuous political and ideological training of his detachment, carried out under the guidance of his closest associate, the legendary commissar Rudnev, he knew how to get them high level communist consciousness and discipline.

Partisan detachment of the Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpaka walks along the street of a Ukrainian village during a military campaign
This feature - a clear organization of all spheres of partisan life in extremely difficult, unpredictable war conditions behind enemy lines - made it possible to carry out the most complex, unprecedented in their courage and scope of operations. Among the Kovpak commanders were teachers, workers, engineers, and peasants.

People peaceful professions, they acted in a coordinated and organized manner, based on the system for organizing the combat and civilian life of the detachment, established by Kovpak. “The master’s eye, the confident, calm rhythm of camp life and the hum of voices in the thicket of the forest, the unhurried, but not slow life of confident people working with self-respect - this is my first impression of Kovpak’s detachment,” Vershigora later wrote. Already in 1941-42, Sidor Kovpak, under whose leadership by that time there was a whole formation of partisan detachments, undertook his first raids - long military campaigns to the territory not yet covered by the partisan movement - his detachments passed through the territories of the Sumy, Kursk, Orel and Bryansk regions, as a result of which Kovpak's fighters, together with the Belarusian and Bryansk partisans, created the famous Partisan Territory, cleared of the Nazi troops and the police administration - the prototype of future liberated territories of Latin America. In 1942–43, the Kovpak people made a raid from the Bryansk forests on Right-Bank Ukraine in the Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions - the unexpected appearance in the enemy's rear made it possible to destroy a huge number of enemy military communications, while collecting and transferring the most important intelligence information to the Headquarters.

By this time, Kovpak's raid tactics had received universal recognition, and her experience was widely disseminated and implemented by the partisan command of various regions.

The famous meeting of the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement, who arrived across the front in Moscow in early September 1942, fully approved the raid tactics of Kovpak, who was present there - by that time already a Hero of the Soviet Union and a member of the illegal Central Committee of the CP (b) U. Its essence was to quickly, maneuver, covert movement in the rear of the enemy with the further creation of new centers of partisan movement. Such raids, in addition to significant damage inflicted on enemy troops and the collection of important intelligence information, had a huge propaganda effect. “The partisans were carrying the war ever closer to Germany,” Marshal Vasilevsky, Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, said on this occasion. Partisan raids raised huge masses of enslaved people to fight, armed and taught them the practice of struggle.

In the summer of 1943, on the eve of the Battle of Kursk, the Sumy partisan unit of Sidor Kovpak, on the orders of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement, begins its famous Carpathian raid, the path of which went through the deepest rear of the enemy. The peculiarity of this legendary raid was that here the Kovpak partisans had to regularly make marching throws across an open, treeless territory, at a great distance from their bases, without any hope of outside support and help.

Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the Sumy partisan unit Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak (sitting in the center, with the star of the Hero on his chest), surrounded by his comrades-in-arms. To the left of Kovpak is the secretary of the party organization of the Sumy partisan formation Ya.G. Panin, to the right of Kovpak - assistant commander for intelligence P.P. Vershigora
During the Carpathian raid, the Sumy partisan unit traveled over 10 thousand km in continuous battles, defeating the German garrisons and Bandera detachments in forty settlements Western Ukraine, including the territory of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. Destroying transport communications, the Kovpakovites managed for a long time to block important directions for the transport of Nazi troops and military equipment to the fronts of the Kursk Bulge. The Nazis, who sent elite SS units to destroy Kovpak’s formations and front-line aviation, and failed to destroy the partisan column - being surrounded, Kovpak makes an unexpected decision for the enemy to divide the formation into a number of small groups, and with a simultaneous "fan" strike in various directions, break back to the Polissya forests. This tactical move brilliantly justified itself - all the disparate groups survived, again uniting into one formidable force - the Kovpak connection. In January 1944, it was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division, named after its commander, Sidor Kovpak.

The tactics of Kovpak raids became widespread in anti-fascist movement Europe, and after the war, young partisans of Rhodesia, Angola and Mozambique, Vietnamese commanders and revolutionaries of Latin American countries studied it.

Leadership of the partisan movement

On September 6, 1942, the GKO established the post of commander-in-chief of the partisan movement. They became Marshal K.E. Voroshilov. Thus, the fragmentation and inconsistency of actions that prevailed at first in the partisan movement was overcome, bodies appeared that coordinated their sabotage activities. It was the disorganization of the rear of the enemy that became the main task of the Soviet partisans. The composition and organization of partisan formations, despite their diversity, still had much in common. The main tactical unit was a detachment, numbering at the beginning of the war, several dozen fighters, and later up to 200 or more people. During the course of the war, many detachments united into larger formations (partisan brigades) numbering from several hundred to several thousand people. Their armament was dominated by light small arms, but many detachments and partisan brigades already had heavy machine guns and mortars, and in some cases artillery. Everyone who joined the partisan detachments took the partisan oath, and strict military discipline was established in the detachments.

There were various forms organizations of partisan forces - small and large formations, regional (local) and non-regional. Regional detachments and formations were constantly based in one area and were responsible for protecting its population and fighting the invaders in this very territory. Non-regional partisan formations and detachments performed tasks in different areas, making long raids, being in fact mobile reserves, maneuvering which the leadership of the partisan movement could concentrate efforts on the main direction of the planned strikes to deliver the most powerful blows to the enemy.

Detachment of the 3rd Leningrad partisan brigade on a campaign, 1943
In the zone of vast forests, in mountainous and swampy areas, there were the main bases and places of deployment of partisan formations. Partisan regions arose here, where various methods of struggle could be used, including direct, open clashes with the enemy. In the steppe regions, large partisan detachments could successfully operate during raids. Small detachments and groups of partisans who were constantly here usually avoided open clashes with the enemy, inflicting damage, as a rule, on unexpected raids and sabotage. In August-September 1942, the central headquarters of the partisan movement held a meeting of the commanders of the Belarusian, Ukrainian, Bryansk and Smolensk partisan detachments. On September 5, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief signed an order "On the tasks of the partisan movement", which indicated the need to coordinate the actions of the partisans with the operations of the regular army. The center of gravity of the fighting of the partisans was to be transferred to enemy communications.

The intensification of partisan actions on the railways was immediately felt by the occupiers. In August 1942, they registered almost 150 train wrecks, in September - 152, in October - 210, in November - almost 240. Partisan attacks on German convoys became common. The highways that crossed the partisan territories and zones turned out to be practically closed to the invaders. On many roads, transportation was possible only under heavy guard.

The formation of large partisan formations and the coordination of their actions by the central headquarters made it possible to launch a systematic struggle against the strongholds of the Nazi occupiers. Destroying enemy garrisons in district centers and other villages, partisan detachments increasingly expanded the boundaries of the zones and territories controlled by them. Whole occupied regions were liberated from the invaders. Already in the summer and autumn of 1942, the partisans pinned down 22-24 enemy divisions, providing significant assistance to the troops of the fighting Soviet Army. By the beginning of 1943, the partisan territories covered a significant part of Vitebsk, Leningrad, Mogilev and a number of other regions temporarily occupied by the enemy. In the same year, even more Nazi troops were diverted from the front to fight the partisans.

It was in 1943 that the peak of the actions of the Soviet partisans fell, whose struggle resulted in a nationwide partisan movement. The number of its participants by the end of 1943 had grown to 250,000 armed fighters. At that time, for example, Belarusian partisans controlled almost 60% of the occupied territory of the republic (109 thousand square kilometers), and on an area of ​​38 thousand square kilometers. the invaders were completely expelled. In 1943, the struggle of Soviet partisans behind enemy lines spread to the Right-Bank and Western Ukraine and the western regions of Belarus.

rail war

The order to conduct Operation Rail War was issued on June 14, 1943. The local partisan headquarters and their representatives at the fronts determined areas and objects of action for each partisan formation. The partisans were supplied with " big land»explosives, fuses, reconnaissance was actively carried out on the enemy's railway communications. The operation began on the night of August 3 and continued until mid-September. The fighting behind enemy lines unfolded on the ground with a length of about 1000 km along the front and 750 km in depth, about 100 thousand partisans participated in them with the active support of the local population.

A powerful blow to the railways in the territory occupied by the enemy turned out to be a complete surprise for him. For a long time, the Nazis could not resist the partisans in an organized manner. During Operation Rail War, more than 215,000 railway rails were blown up, many echelons with personnel and military equipment of the Nazis were derailed, and railway bridges and station buildings were blown up. The capacity of the railways decreased by 35-40%, which frustrated the Nazis' plans for the accumulation of materiel and the concentration of troops, and seriously hampered the regrouping of enemy forces.

The same goals, but already during the upcoming offensive of the Soviet troops in the Smolensk, Gomel directions and the battle for the Dnieper, was subordinated to the partisan operation, code-named "Concert". It was carried out on September 19 - November 1, 1943 on the territory of Belarus occupied by the Nazis, Karelia, in the Leningrad and Kalinin regions, on the territory of Latvia, Estonia, Crimea, covering about 900 km along the front and over 400 km in depth.

Partisans mine the railroad tracks
It was a planned continuation of the operation "Rail War", it was closely connected with the upcoming offensive of the Soviet troops in the Smolensk and Gomel directions and during the battle for the Dnieper. 193 partisan detachments (groups) from Belarus, the Baltic States, Karelia, Crimea, Leningrad and Kalinin regions (over 120 thousand people) were involved in the operation, which were supposed to undermine more than 272 thousand rails.

On the territory of Belarus, more than 90 thousand partisans participated in the operation; they were to blow up 140,000 rails. The Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement planned to throw 120 tons of explosives and other cargoes to the Belarusian partisans, 20 tons to the Kaliningrad and Leningrad partisans.

Due to the sharp deterioration in weather conditions, by the beginning of the operation, the partisans managed to transfer only about half of the planned amount of cargo, so it was decided to start mass sabotage on September 25. However, part of the detachments that had already reached their starting lines could not take into account the changes in the timing of the operation and on September 19 began to carry it out. On the night of September 25, simultaneous actions were carried out according to the plan of operation "Concert" on a front of about 900 km (excluding Karelia and the Crimea) and in a depth of more than 400 km.

The local headquarters of the partisan movement and their representations at the fronts determined areas and objects of action for each partisan formation. The guerrillas were provided with explosives, fuses, mine-blasting classes were held at the “forest courses”, local “factories” mined tol from captured shells and bombs, and fasteners of tol blocks to the rails were made in workshops and forges. Exploration was actively carried out on the railways. The operation began on the night of August 3 and continued until mid-September. The actions unfolded on the ground with a length of about 1000 km along the front and 750 km in depth, about 100 thousand partisans, who were helped by the local population, took part in them. A powerful blow to the railway. lines was unexpected for the enemy, who for some time could not resist the partisans in an organized manner. During the operation, about 215 thousand rails were blown up, many echelons were derailed, railway bridges and station buildings were blown up. The massive disruption of enemy communications made it much more difficult to regroup the retreating enemy troops, complicate their supply, and thereby contributed to the successful offensive of the Red Army.

Demolition guerrillas of the Transcarpathian partisan detachment Grachev and Utenkov at the airfield
The task of the operation "Concert" was to disable large sections of railway lines in order to disrupt enemy transportation. The bulk of the partisan formations began hostilities on the night of September 25, 1943. During the operation "Concert" only Belarusian partisans blew up about 90 thousand rails, derailed 1041 enemy echelons, destroyed 72 railway bridges, defeated 58 garrisons of the invaders. Operation "Concert" caused serious difficulties in the transportation of Nazi troops. The capacity of railways has decreased by more than three times. This made it very difficult for the Hitlerite command to carry out the maneuver of its forces and provided enormous assistance to the advancing troops of the Red Army.

It is impossible to list here all the partisan heroes whose contribution to the victory over the enemy was so tangible in the general struggle of the Soviet people over the Nazi invaders. During the war, remarkable command partisan cadres grew up - S.A. Kovpak, A.F. Fedorov, A.N. Saburov, V.A. Begma, N.N. Popudrenko and many others. In terms of its scale, political and military results, the nationwide struggle of the Soviet people in the territories occupied by the Nazi troops has acquired the importance of an important military-political factor in the defeat of fascism. The selfless activity of partisans and underground workers received nationwide recognition and high praise from the state. More than 300 thousand partisans and underground workers were awarded orders and medals, including over 127 thousand - the medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" 1st and 2nd degrees, 248 were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

pinsk detachment

The Pinsk partisans operated at the junction of the Minsk, Polessky, Baranovichi, Brest, Rivne and Volyn regions. The German occupation administration divided the territory into commissariats, subordinate to different Gauleiters - in Rovno, Minsk. Sometimes the partisans turned out to be "no man's". While the Germans were sorting out which of them should send troops, the partisans continued to operate.

In the spring of 1942, the partisan movement received a new impetus and began to acquire new organizational forms. A centralized leadership appeared in Moscow. Radio communication with the Center has been established.

With the organization of new detachments and the growth of their strength, the Pinsk underground regional committee of the CP (b) B from the spring of 1943 began to unite them into brigades. In total, 7 brigades were created: named after S.M. Budyonny, named after V.I. Lenin, named after V.M. Molotov, named after S.M. Kirov, named after V. Kuibyshev, Pinskaya, "Soviet Belarus". The Pinsk formation included separate detachments - headquarters and named after I.I. Chuklaya. 8431 partisans acted in the ranks of the formation (listed composition). The Pinsk partisan unit was led by V.Z. Korzh, A.E. Kleshchev (May-September 1943), chief of staff - N.S. Fedotov. V.Z. Korzh and A.E. Kleshchev was assigned military ranks"Major General" and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As a result of the unification, the actions of disparate detachments began to obey a single plan, became purposeful, and obeyed the actions of the front or the army. And in 1944, interaction was possible even with divisions.

Portrait of 14-year-old reconnaissance partisan Mikhail Khavdey from the Chernihiv-Volyn formation, Major General A.F. Fedorova
In 1942, the Pinsk partisans became so strong that they were already smashing the garrisons in the regional centers of Lenino, Starobin, Krasnaya Sloboda, Lyubeshov. In 1943, the partisans of M. I. Gerasimov, after the defeat of the garrison, occupied the city of Lyubeshov for several months. On October 30, 1942, partisan detachments named after Kirov and named after N. Shish defeated the German garrison at the Sinkevichi station, destroyed the railway bridge, the station facilities and destroyed an ammunition echelon (48 wagons). The Germans lost 74 people killed, 14 wounded. Railway traffic on the Brest-Gomel-Bryansk line was interrupted for 21 days.

Sabotage on communications was the basis of the combat activities of the partisans. AT different periods they were carried out in various ways, ranging from improvised explosive devices to advanced mines by Colonel Starinov. From the explosion of water pumps and shooters - to a large-scale " rail war". All three years the partisans destroyed communication lines.

In 1943, the partisan brigades named after Molotov (M.I. Gerasimov) and Pinskaya (I.G. Shubitidze) completely disabled the Dnieper-Bug Canal - an important link water artery Dnieper - Pripyat - Bug - Vistula. On the left flank they were supported by Brest partisans. The Germans tried to restore this convenient waterway. Stubborn fighting continued for 42 days. First, the Hungarian division was thrown against the partisans, then parts of the German division and the Vlasov regiment. Artillery, armored vehicles and aircraft were thrown against the partisans. The partisans suffered losses, but held firm. On March 30, 1944, they retreated to the front line, where they were assigned a defense sector and they fought along with the front-line units. As a result of the heroic battles of the partisans, the waterway to the west was blocked. 185 river vessels remained in Pinsk.

The command of the 1st Belorussian Front gave special importance the capture of watercraft in the port of Pinsk, since in the conditions of heavily swampy terrain, in the absence of good highways, these watercraft could successfully solve the problem of transferring the rear of the front. The task was completed by the partisans six months before the liberation of the regional center of Pinsk.

In June-July 1944, the Pinsk partisans helped units of Belov's 61st Army to liberate the towns and villages of the region. From June 1941 to July 1944, the Pinsk partisans inflicted great damage on the Nazi invaders: they lost 26,616 people killed alone and 422 people were captured. They defeated more than 60 large enemy garrisons, 5 railway stations and 10 echelons with military equipment and ammunition located there.

468 echelons with manpower and equipment were derailed, 219 military echelons were fired upon and 23,616 railroad tracks were destroyed. 770 vehicles, 86 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed on highways and dirt roads. Shot down 3 planes by machine-gun fire. 62 railway bridges and about 900 on highways and dirt roads were blown up. This is an incomplete list of the combat affairs of the partisans.

Partisan-intelligence officer of the Chernigov formation "For the Motherland" Vasily Borovik
After the liberation of the Pinsk region from the Nazi invaders, most of the partisans joined the ranks of the front-line soldiers and continued to fight until complete victory.

The most important forms of partisan struggle during the years of the Patriotic War were such as the armed struggle of partisan formations, underground groups and organizations created in cities and large settlements, and the mass resistance of the population to the measures of the invaders. All these forms of struggle were closely interconnected, conditioned and supplemented one another. Armed partisan detachments widely used the methods of work and the forces of the underground for combat operations. In turn, underground combat groups and organizations, depending on the situation, often switched to open guerrilla forms of struggle. The partisans established contact with the fugitives from the concentration camps, provided support with weapons and food.

The joint efforts of partisans and underground fighters crowned a nationwide war in the rear of the invaders. They were the decisive force in the fight against the Nazi invaders. If the resistance movement had not been accompanied by an armed uprising by partisans and underground organizations, then the popular rebuff to the German fascist invaders would not have had the strength and mass character that it acquired during the years of the last war. The resistance of the occupied population was often accompanied by sabotage activities inherent in partisans and underground workers. The mass resistance of Soviet citizens to fascism, its occupation regime was aimed at helping the partisan movement, creating the most favorable conditions for the struggle of the armed part of the Soviet people.

Detachment D. Medvedev

From the very beginning of the war, he volunteered to fight against the fascist invaders ... In the summer camp of the Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade for Special Purposes of the NKVD, formed from volunteers by the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, Medvedev selected three dozen reliable guys into his detachment. On August 22, 1941, a group of 33 volunteer partisans led by Medvedev crossed the front line and ended up in the occupied territory. For about five months, Medvedev's detachment operated on Bryansk land and carried out over 50 combat operations.

The reconnaissance partisans planted explosives under the rails and tore up enemy echelons, fired from ambushes on convoys on the highway, went on the air day and night and reported to Moscow more and more information about the movement of German military units... Medvedev's detachment served as the core for the creation of a whole partisan region in the Bryansk region. Over time, new special tasks were assigned to it, and it was already included in the plans of the Supreme High Command as an important springboard behind enemy lines.

At the beginning of 1942, D.N. Medvedev was recalled to Moscow and here he worked on the formation and training of volunteer sabotage groups that were deployed behind enemy lines. Together with one of these groups in June 1942, he again found himself behind the front line.

In the summer of 1942, Medvedev's detachment became the center of resistance in a vast region of the occupied territory of Ukraine. The party underground in Rivne, Lutsk, Zdolbuniv, Vinnytsia, hundreds and hundreds of patriots are working together with partisan scouts. In the detachment of Medvedev, the legendary intelligence officer Nikolai Ivanovich Kuznetsov became famous, who for a long time acted in Rovno under the guise of a Nazi officer Paul Siebert ...

For 22 months, the detachment carried out dozens of the most important reconnaissance operations. Suffice it to mention the reports transmitted by Medvedev to Moscow about the preparation by the Nazis of an assassination attempt on the participants in the historic meeting in Tehran - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill, about the placement of Hitler's headquarters near Vinnitsa, about the preparation of the German offensive on the Kursk Bulge, the most important data on military garrisons received from the commander of these garrisons of General Ilgen.

Partisans with a machine gun "Maxim" in battle
The connection conducted 83 military operations, in which many hundreds of Nazi soldiers and officers, many top military and Nazi figures were destroyed. A lot of military equipment was destroyed by partisan mines. Dmitry Nikolaevich during his stay in the enemy rear was twice wounded and shell-shocked. He was awarded three orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, military medals. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 5, 1944, State Security Colonel Medvedev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1946 Medvedev resigned and until last days life was engaged in literary work.

D. N. Medvedev dedicated his books “It was near Rovno”, “Strong in spirit”, “On the banks of the Southern Bug” to the military affairs of Soviet patriots during the war years deep behind enemy lines. During the activity of the detachment, a lot of valuable information was transferred to the command about the work of railway roads, about the movement of enemy headquarters, about the transfer of troops and equipment, about the activities of the occupying authorities, about the situation in the temporarily occupied territory. In battles and skirmishes, up to 12 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed. The loss of the detachment amounted to 110 people killed and 230 wounded.

The final stage

During the winter of 1943 and during 1944, when the enemy was defeated and completely expelled from Soviet soil, the partisan movement rose to a new, even higher level. On this etan, on an even larger scale, partisans interacted with underground organizations and the advancing troops of the Red Army, as well as the connection of many partisan detachments and brigades with units of the Red Army. A characteristic feature of partisan activities at this stage is the partisans striking at the enemy's most important communications, primarily railways, in order to disrupt the movement of troops, weapons, ammunition and food of the enemy, to prevent the removal of looted property and Soviet people to Germany. The falsifiers of history declared the guerrilla war illegal, barbaric, and reduced it to the desire of the Soviet people to take revenge on the occupiers for their atrocities. But life refuted their statements and conjectures, showed its true character and goals. The partisan movement is brought to life by "powerful economic and political causes." The desire of the Soviet people to take revenge on the invaders for violence and cruelty was only an additional factor in the partisan struggle. The nationality of the partisan movement, its regularity, arising from the essence of the Patriotic War, its just, liberation character, were the most important factor victory of the Soviet people over fascism. The main source of strength of the partisan movement was the Soviet socialist system, the love of the Soviet people for the Motherland, the devotion of the Leninist party, which called on the people to defend the socialist Fatherland.

Partisans - father and son, 1943
The year 1944 went down in the history of the partisan movement as a year of widespread interaction between partisans and units of the Soviet Army. The Soviet command put forward tasks before the partisan leadership in advance, which allowed the headquarters of the partisan movement to plan the combined actions of the partisan forces. The actions of the raiding partisan formations have received a significant scope this year. So, for example, the Ukrainian partisan division under the command of P.P. Vershigory from January 5 to April 1, 1944 fought almost 2100 km through the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and Poland.

During the period of the mass expulsion of the Nazis from the USSR, partisan formations solved another important task - they saved the population of the occupied regions from deportation to Germany, and preserved the people's property from destruction and plunder by the invaders. They sheltered hundreds of thousands of local residents in the forests in the territories they controlled, and even before the arrival of the Soviet units, they captured many settlements.

Unified leadership of the combat activities of partisans with stable communication between the headquarters of the partisan movement and partisan formations, their interaction with Red Army units in tactical and even strategic operations, the conduct of large independent operations by partisan groups, wide application mine-demolition equipment, the supply of partisan detachments and formations from the rear of a belligerent country, the evacuation of the sick and wounded from the enemy rear to " mainland"- all these features of the partisan movement in the Great Patriotic War significantly enriched the theory and practice of partisan struggle as one of the forms armed struggle against the Nazi troops during the Second World War.

The actions of armed partisan formations were one of the most decisive and effective forms of the struggle of Soviet partisans against the invaders. The performances of the armed forces of partisans in Belarus, the Crimea, in the Oryol, Smolensk, Kalinin, Leningrad regions and the Krasnodar Territory, that is, where there were the most favorable natural conditions, became widespread. 193,798 partisans fought in the named areas of the partisan movement. The name of the Moscow Komsomol member Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union, became a symbol of the fearlessness and courage of the partisan scouts. The country learned about the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya during the difficult months of the battle near Moscow. On November 29, 1941, Zoya died with the words on her lips: “It is happiness to die for your people!”

Olga Fyodorovna Shcherbatsevich, an employee of the 3rd Soviet Hospital, who cared for captured wounded soldiers and officers of the Red Army. She was hanged by the Germans in the Alexander Square in Minsk on October 26, 1941. The inscription on the shield, in Russian and German- "We are partisans who fired at German soldiers."

From the memoirs of a witness to the execution - Vyacheslav Kovalevich, in 1941 he was 14 years old: “I went to the Surazh market. At the cinema, “Central” saw that a column of Germans was moving along Sovetskaya Street, and in the center were three civilians with their hands tied behind them. Among them is Aunt Olya, the mother of Volodya Shcherbatsevich. They were brought to the square opposite the House of Officers. There was a summer cafe there. Before the war, they began to repair it. They made a fence, put up poles, and nailed boards on them. Aunt Olya and two men were brought to this fence and they began to hang on it. First, the men were hanged. When Aunt Olya was being hanged, the rope broke. Two fascists ran up - picked it up, and the third fixed the rope. She remained hanging.”
In difficult days for the country, when the enemy rushed to Moscow, Zoya's feat was similar to the feat of the legendary Danko, who tore out his burning heart and led people along, illuminating their path in difficult times. The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya was repeated by many girls - partisans and underground fighters who stood up to defend their homeland. Going to the execution, they did not ask for mercy and did not bow their heads before the executioners. Soviet patriots firmly believed in the inevitable victory over the enemy, in the triumph of the cause for which they fought and gave their lives.

A significant contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany was made by partisan detachments operating behind enemy lines from Leningrad to Odessa. They were headed not only by military personnel, but also by people of peaceful professions. Real heroes.

Old Man Minai

By the beginning of the war, Minai Filipovich Shmyrev was the director of the Pudot cardboard factory (Belarus). The past of the 51-year-old director was a combat one: he was awarded three St. George's Crosses in World War I, in the Civil War he fought against banditry.

In July 1941, in the village of Pudot, Shmyrev formed a partisan detachment from factory workers. In two months, the partisans fought the enemy 27 times, destroyed 14 vehicles, 18 fuel tanks, blew up 8 bridges, and defeated the German district administration in Surazh.

In the spring of 1942, Shmyrev, on the orders of the Central Committee of Belarus, teamed up with three partisan detachments and headed the First Belarusian Partisan Brigade. The partisans drove the fascists out of 15 villages and created the Surazh partisan region. Here, before the arrival of the Red Army, Soviet power was restored. On the Usvyaty-Tarasenki section, the Surazh Gate existed for half a year - a 40-kilometer zone through which the partisans were supplied with weapons and food.
All relatives of Old Man Minai: four small children, sister and mother-in-law were shot by the Nazis.
In the fall of 1942, Shmyrev was transferred to the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement. In 1944 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the war, Shmyrev returned to economic work.

The son of the fist "Uncle Kostya"

Konstantin Sergeevich Zaslonov was born in the city of Ostashkov, Tver province. In the thirties, his family was dispossessed and exiled to the Kola Peninsula in Khibinogorsk.
After school, Zaslonov became a railroad worker, by 1941 he worked as the head of a locomotive depot in Orsha (Belarus) and was evacuated to Moscow, but voluntarily went back.

He served under the pseudonym "Uncle Kostya", created an underground, which, with the help of mines disguised as coal, derailed 93 Nazi echelons in three months.
In the spring of 1942, Zaslonov organized a partisan detachment. The detachment fought with the Germans, lured 5 garrisons of the Russian National People's Army to their side.
Zaslonov died in a battle with RNNA punishers, who came to the partisans under the guise of defectors. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

NKVD officer Dmitry Medvedev

A native of the Oryol province, Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev was an officer in the NKVD.
He was fired twice - either because of his brother - "the enemy of the people", then "for the unreasonable termination of criminal cases." In the summer of 1941 he was reinstated in the ranks.
He headed the Mitya reconnaissance and sabotage task force, which conducted more than 50 operations in the Smolensk, Mogilev and Bryansk regions.
In the summer of 1942, he headed the "Winners" special detachment and spent more than 120 successful operations. 11 generals, 2000 soldiers, 6000 Banderites were destroyed, 81 trains were blown up.
In 1944, Medvedev was transferred to staff work, but in 1945 he traveled to Lithuania to fight the Forest Brothers gang. He retired with the rank of colonel. The hero of the USSR.

Saboteur Molodtsov-Badaev

Vladimir Alexandrovich Molodtsov worked at the mine from the age of 16. He went from trolley racer to deputy director. In 1934 he was sent to the Central School of the NKVD.
In July 1941 he arrived in Odessa for reconnaissance and sabotage work. He worked under the pseudonym Pavel Badaev.

Badaev's detachments hid in the Odessa catacombs, fought with the Romanians, tore communication lines, staged sabotage in the port, and carried out reconnaissance. They blew up the commandant's office with 149 officers. At the Zastava station, the train with the administration for the occupied Odessa was destroyed.

The Nazis threw 16,000 people to liquidate the detachment. They let gas into the catacombs, poisoned the water, mined the passages. In February 1942, Molodtsov and his contacts were captured. Molodtsov was executed on July 12, 1942.
Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

Desperate partisan "Mikhailo"

Azerbaijani Mehdi Ganifa-ogly Huseynzade was drafted into the Red Army from his student days. Participant Battle of Stalingrad. He was seriously wounded, captured and taken to Italy. Fled in early 1944, joined the partisans and became a commissar of a company of Soviet partisans. He was engaged in reconnaissance, sabotage, blew up bridges and airfields, executed the Gestapo. For desperate courage he received the nickname "partisan Mikhailo".
A detachment under his command raided the prison, freeing 700 prisoners of war.
He was captured near the village of Vitovle. Mehdi fired back to the end, and then committed suicide.
His exploits were known after the war. In 1957 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

OGPU officer Naumov

A native of the Perm region, Mikhail Ivanovich Naumov, by the beginning of the war, was an employee of the OGPU. He was shell-shocked while crossing the Dniester, was surrounded, went out to the partisans and soon led the detachment. In the autumn of 1942 he became chief of staff of partisan detachments in the Sumy region, and in January 1943 he headed a cavalry unit.

In the spring of 1943, Naumov carried out the legendary Steppe raid 2,379 kilometers long through the rear of the Nazis. For this operation, the captain was awarded the rank of major general, which is a unique event, and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In total, Naumov conducted three large-scale raids behind enemy lines.
After the war, he continued to serve in the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Kovpak

Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak became a legend during his lifetime. Born in Poltava in a poor peasant family. In World War I, he received the St. George Cross from the hands of Nicholas II. In the Civil partisan against the Germans, fought with the whites.

Since 1937 he was the chairman of the Putivl city executive committee of the Sumy region.
In the autumn of 1941, he headed the Putivl partisan detachment, and then - the connection of detachments of the Sumy region. The partisans carried out military raids behind enemy lines. Their total length was more than 10,000 kilometers. 39 enemy garrisons were defeated.

On August 31, 1942, Kovpak participated in a meeting of partisan commanders in Moscow, was received by Stalin and Voroshilov, after which he made a raid across the Dnieper. At that moment, Kovpak's detachment had 2000 fighters, 130 machine guns, 9 guns.
In April 1943 he was promoted to the rank of major general.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

The medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" was established in the USSR on February 2, 1943. Over the following years, she was awarded about 150 thousand heroes. This material tells about five people's militias, who, by their own example, showed how to defend the Motherland.

Yefim Ilyich Osipenko

An experienced commander who fought back in time civil war, a real leader, Yefim Ilyich became the commander of a partisan detachment in the fall of 1941. Although the detachment is too big a word: together with the commander there were only six of them. There were practically no weapons and ammunition, winter was approaching, and endless groups of the German army were already approaching Moscow.

Realizing that as much time as possible was needed to prepare the defense of the capital, the partisans decided to blow up a strategically important section of the railway near the Myshbor station. There were few explosives, there were no detonators at all, but Osipenko decided to detonate the bomb with a grenade. Silently and imperceptibly, the group moved close to the railroad tracks and planted explosives. Having sent his friends back and left alone, the commander saw the train approaching, threw a grenade and fell into the snow. But the explosion, for some reason, did not happen, then Efim Ilyich himself hit the bomb with a pole from the railway sign. There was an explosion and a long train with food and tanks went downhill. The partisan himself miraculously survived, however, he completely lost his sight and was severely shell-shocked. On April 4, 1942, he was the first in the country to be awarded the medal “Partisan of the Great Patriotic War” No. 000001.

Konstantin Chekhovich

Konstantin Chekhovich - the organizer and performer of one of the largest partisan sabotage of the Great Patriotic War.

The future hero was born in 1919 in Odessa, almost immediately after graduating from the Industrial Institute he was drafted into the Red Army, and already in August 1941 he was sent behind enemy lines as part of a sabotage group. When crossing the front line, the group was ambushed, and out of five people only Chekhovich survived, and he had nowhere to take much optimism - the Germans, after checking the bodies, made sure that he only had a shell shock and Konstantin Alexandrovich was captured. He managed to escape from it two weeks later, and after another week he already got in touch with the partisans of the 7th Leningrad brigade, where he received the task to infiltrate the Germans in the city of Porkhov for sabotage work.

Having achieved some favor with the Nazis, Chekhovich received a position as an administrator at a local cinema, which he planned to blow up. He connected Evgenia Vasilyeva to the case - his wife's sister was employed in the cinema as a cleaner. Every day she carried several briquettes in buckets of dirty water and a rag. This cinema became a mass grave for 760 soldiers and officers of Germany - an inconspicuous "administrator" set bombs on the supporting columns and the roof, so that during the explosion the whole building folded like a house of cards.

Matvey Kuzmich Kuzmin

The oldest recipient of the award "Partisan of the Patriotic War" and "Hero of the Soviet Union". Both awards were awarded posthumously, and at the time of the feat he was 83 years old.

The future partisan was born back in 1858, 3 years before the abolition of serfdom, in the Pskov province. He spent his whole life apart (he was not a member of the collective farm), but by no means lonely - Matvey Kuzmich had 8 children from two different wives. He was engaged in hunting and fishing, and knew the area remarkably.

The Germans who came to the village occupied his house, later the battalion commander himself settled in it. In early February 1942, this German commander asked Kuzmin to be a guide and lead the German unit to the village of Pershino, occupied by the Red Army, in return he offered practically unlimited food. Kuzmin agreed. However, having seen the route of movement on the map, he sent his grandson Vasily to the destination in advance to warn the Soviet troops. Matvey Kuzmich himself led the frozen Germans through the forest for a long time and confusedly and only in the morning led them out, but not to the desired village, but to the ambush, where the Red Army soldiers had already taken up positions. The invaders came under fire from machine-gun crews and lost up to 80 people captured and killed, but the hero-guide himself also died.

Leonid Golikov

He was one of many teenage partisans of the Great Patriotic War, a Hero of the Soviet Union. A brigade reconnaissance officer of the Leningrad partisan brigade, sowing panic and chaos in the German units in the Novgorod and Pskov regions. Despite his young age - Leonid was born in 1926, at the time of the outbreak of the war he was 15 years old - he was distinguished by a sharp mind and military courage. In just a year and a half of partisan activity, he destroyed 78 Germans, 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, 2 food depots and 10 ammunition wagons. He guarded and escorted a convoy with food to besieged Leningrad.

Here is what Lenya Golikov himself wrote about his main feat in a report: “On the evening of August 12, 1942, we, 6 partisans, got out on the Pskov-Luga highway and lay down near the village of Varnitsa. There was no movement at night. August seemed small passenger car. It was going fast, but at the bridge where we were, the car went quieter. Partizan Vasiliev threw an anti-tank grenade, but missed. The second grenade was thrown by Alexander Petrov from the ditch, hit the traverse. The car did not immediately stop, but went another 20 meters and almost caught up with us (we were lying behind a pile of stones). Two officers jumped out of the car. I gave a burst from the machine gun. Missed. The officer at the wheel ran across the ditch towards the woods. I gave several bursts from my PCA. Hit the enemy in the neck and back. Petrov started shooting at the second officer, who kept looking around, shouting and firing back. Petrov killed this officer with a rifle. Then the two of them ran to the first wounded officer. They tore off their shoulder straps, took a briefcase, documents, it turned out to be a general from the infantry of the troops of special weapons, that is engineering troops, Richard Wirtz, returning from a meeting from Koenigsberg to his corps in Luga. There was also a heavy suitcase in the car. We barely dragged him into the bushes (150 meters from the highway). While still at the car, we heard an alarm, ringing, screaming in the neighboring village. Grabbing a briefcase, shoulder straps and three trophy pistols, we ran to our own…”.

As it turned out, the teenager got extremely important drawings and a description of new models of German mines, minefield maps, inspection reports to higher command. For this, Golikov was presented with the Golden Star and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

He received the title posthumously. Defending himself in a village house from a German punitive detachment, the hero died along with the partisan headquarters on January 24, 1943, before he was 17 years old.

Tikhon Pimenovich Bumazhkov

Coming from a poor peasant family, Hero of the Soviet Union, Tikhon Pimenovich was the director of the plant at the age of 26, but the onset of the war did not take him by surprise. Bumazhkov is considered by historians to be one of the first organizers of partisan detachments during the Great Patriotic War. In the summer of 1941, he became one of the leaders and organizers of the fighter detachment, which later became known as "Red October".

In cooperation with units of the Red Army, the partisans destroyed several dozen bridges and enemy headquarters. In just less than 6 months of waging a guerrilla war, Bumazhkov's detachment destroyed up to two hundred enemy vehicles and motorcycles, up to 20 warehouses with fodder and food were blown up or captured, while the number of captured officers and soldiers is estimated at several thousand. Bumazhkov died a heroic death while leaving the encirclement near the village of Orzhitsa, Poltava region.

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

Sumy partisan formation. Major General S.A. Kovpak

Chernihiv-Volyn partisan unit Major General A.F. Fedorov

Gomel partisan formation Major General I.P. Kozhar

partisan unit Major General V.Z. Korzh

partisan unit Major General M.I. Naumov

partisan unit Major General A.N. Saburov

partisan brigade Major General M.I.Duka

Ukrainian Partisan Division Major General P.P. Vershigora

Rivne partisan unit Colonel V.A. Begma

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

In this paper, we will confine ourselves to considering the effects of some of them.

5.1 Sumy partisan formation. Major General S.A. Kovpak

Movement leader Kovpak, Soviet statesman and public figure, one of the organizers of the partisan movement, twice Hero of the Soviet Union (18.5.1942 and 4.1.1944), Major General (1943). Member of the CPSU since 1919. Born into the family of a poor peasant. Member of the Civil War 1918-20: led a partisan detachment that fought in Ukraine against the German invaders together with the detachments of A. Ya. Parkhomenko, fought against Denikin; participated in the battles on the Eastern Front as part of the 25th Chapaev Division and on the Southern Front - against the troops of Wrangel. In 1921-26 he was a military commissar in a number of cities in the Yekaterinoslav province. In 1937-41 he was chairman of the Putivl city executive committee of the Sumy region. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, Kovpak was the commander of the Putivl partisan detachment, then the formation of partisan detachments of the Sumy region, a member of the illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine. In 1941-42, Kovpak's formation carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Orel and Bryansk regions, in 1942-43 - a raid from the Bryansk forests on the Right-Bank Ukraine in the Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhitomir and Kyiv regions; in 1943 - Carpathian raid. 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. Kovpak's raids played a big role in the deployment of the partisan movement against the Nazi occupiers. In January 1944, the Sumy formation was renamed the 1st Ukrainian partisan division named after Kovpak. He was awarded 4 Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Suvorov 1st degree, the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree, the Orders of Czechoslovakia and Poland, as well as medals.

In early July 1941, the formation of partisan detachments and underground groups began in Putivl. One partisan detachment under the command of S.A. Kovpak was supposed to operate in the Spadshchansky forest, another, commanded by S.V. Rudnev, in the Novoslobodsky forest, and the third, led by S.F. Kirilenko, in the Maritsa tract. In October of the same year, at a general detachment meeting, it was decided to unite into a single Putivl partisan detachment. S.A. Kovpak became the commander of the united detachment, S.V. Rudnev became the commissar, and G.Ya. Bazyma became the chief of staff. By the end of 1941, there were only 73 people in the detachment, and by the middle of 1942 - already more than a thousand. Small and large partisan units from other places came to Kovpak. Gradually, a union of people's avengers of the Sumy region was born.

On May 26, 1942, the Kovpak people liberated Putivl and held it for two days. And in October, having broken through the enemy blockade created around the Bryansk Forest, a formation of partisan detachments launched a raid on the right bank of the Dnieper. For a month, the Kovpakovites traveled 750 km. Along the rear of the enemy through the Sumy, Chernihiv, Gomel, Kyiv, Zhytomyr regions. 26 bridges were blown up, 2 echelons with manpower and equipment of the Nazis, 5 armored cars and 17 vehicles were destroyed.

During the period of its second raid - from July to October 1943 - the connection of partisan detachments fought four thousand kilometers. The partisans put out of action the main oil refineries, oil storage facilities, oil rigs and oil pipelines located in the region of Drogobych and Ivano-Frankivsk.

The Pravda Ukrainy newspaper wrote: “Telegrams flew from Germany: to catch Kovpak, to lock up his troops in the mountains. Twenty-five times the ring of punishers closed around the areas occupied by the partisan general, and the same number of times he left unharmed.

Being in a difficult situation and fighting fierce battles, the Kovpak people made their way out of their last encirclement shortly before the liberation of Ukraine.