Guerrilla movement during the Great Patriotic War was widespread. Thousands of residents of the occupied territories joined the partisans in order to fight the invader. Their courage and coordinated actions against the enemy made it possible to significantly weaken him, which influenced the course of the war and brought a great victory to the Soviet Union.
The partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War was a mass phenomenon in the territory of the USSR occupied by Nazi Germany, which was characterized by the struggle of people living in the occupied lands against the forces of the Wehrmacht.
Partisans are the main part of the anti-fascist movement, the Resistance Soviet people. Their actions, contrary to many opinions, were not chaotic - large partisan detachments were subordinate to the governing bodies of the Red Army.
The main tasks of the partisans were to disrupt the enemy's road, air and railway communications, as well as to undermine the operation of communication lines.
Interesting! As of 1944, over one million partisans were operating in the occupied lands.
During the Soviet offensive, partisans joined the regular troops of the Red Army.
Beginning of the guerrilla war
It is now well known what role the partisans played in the Great Patriotic War. Partisan brigades began to be organized in the first weeks of hostilities, when the Red Army was retreating with huge losses.
The main goals of the Resistance movement were set out in documents dating from June 29 of the first year of the war. On September 5, they developed a wide list that formulated the main tasks for the fight in the rear of German troops.
In 1941, a special motorized rifle brigade was created, which played a vital role in the development of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War. Separate sabotage groups (usually several dozen people) were specially sent behind enemy lines in order to replenish the ranks of partisan groups.
The formation of partisan detachments was caused by the brutal Nazi regime, as well as the removal of civilians from enemy-occupied territory to Germany for hard work.
In the first months of the war there were very few partisan detachments, since most of the people took a wait-and-see attitude. Initially, no one supplied the partisan detachments with weapons and ammunition, and therefore their role at the beginning of the war was extremely small.
In the early autumn of 1941, communication with the partisans in the deep rear improved significantly - the movement of partisan detachments intensified significantly and began to be more organized. At the same time, the interaction of partisans with regular troops also improved. Soviet Union(USSR) - they took part in battles together.
Often, the leaders of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War were ordinary peasants who had no military training. Later Rate sent its own officers to command the detachments.
In the first months of the war, the partisans gathered in small detachments of up to several dozen people. After less than six months, the fighters in the detachments began to number hundreds of fighters. When the Red Army went on the offensive, the detachments turned into entire brigades with thousands of defenders of the Soviet Union.
The largest detachments arose in the regions of Ukraine and Belarus, where German oppression was especially severe.
Main activities of the partisan movement
An important role in organizing the work of resistance units was the creation of the Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (TsSHPD). Stalin appointed Marshal Voroshilov to the post of commander of the Resistance, who believed that their support was the key strategic goal of the spacecraft.
In the small partisan detachments there were no heavy weapons - light weapons predominated: rifles;
- rifles;
- pistols;
- machine guns;
- grenades;
- light machine guns.
Large brigades had mortars and other heavy weapons, which allowed them to fight against enemy tanks.
The partisan and underground movement during the Great Patriotic War seriously undermined the work of the German rear, reducing the combat effectiveness of the Wehrmacht in the lands of Ukraine and the Belarusian SSR.
Partisan detachment in destroyed Minsk, photo 1944
Partisan brigades were mainly engaged in blowing up railways, bridges and trains, making the rapid transfer of troops, ammunition and provisions over long distances unproductive.
The groups that were engaged in subversive work were armed with powerful explosives; such operations were led by officers from specialized units of the Red Army.
The main task of the partisans during the fighting was to prevent the Germans from preparing a defense, undermine morale and inflict such damage on their rear from which it is difficult to recover. Undermining communications - mainly railways, bridges, killing officers, depriving communications and much more - seriously helped in the fight against the enemy. The confused enemy could not resist, and the Red Army was victorious.
Initially, small (about 30 people) units of partisan detachments took part in large-scale offensive operations of the Soviet troops. Then entire brigades joined the ranks of the spacecraft, replenishing the reserves of the troops weakened by the battles.
As a conclusion, we can briefly highlight the main methods of struggle of the Resistance brigades:
- Sabotage work (pogroms were carried out in the rear of the German army) in any form - especially in relation to enemy trains.
- Intelligence and counterintelligence.
- Propaganda for the benefit of the Communist Party.
- Combat assistance by the Red Army.
- Elimination of traitors to the motherland - called collaborators.
- Destruction of enemy combat personnel and officers.
- Mobilization of civilians.
- Maintaining Soviet power in the occupied areas.
Legalization of the partisan movement
The formation of partisan detachments was controlled by the command of the Red Army - the Headquarters understood that sabotage work behind enemy lines and other actions would seriously ruin the life of the German army. The headquarters contributed to the armed struggle of the partisans against the Nazi invaders, and assistance increased significantly after the victory at Stalingrad.
If before 1942 the mortality rate in partisan detachments reached 100%, then by 1944 it had dropped to 10%.
Individual partisan brigades were controlled directly by senior leadership. The ranks of such brigades also included specially trained specialists in sabotage activities, whose task was to train and organize less trained fighters.
The support of the party significantly strengthened the power of the detachments, and therefore the actions of the partisans were directed to help the Red Army. During any offensive operation The enemy should have expected an attack from the rear.
Sign operations
The Resistance forces carried out hundreds, if not thousands, of operations in order to undermine the enemy's combat capability. The most notable of them was the military operation “Concert”.
More than one hundred thousand soldiers took part in this operation and it took place over a vast territory: in Belarus, Crimea, the Baltic states, the Leningrad region, and so on.
The main goal is to destroy the enemy's railway communication so that he will not be able to replenish reserves and supplies during the battle for the Dnieper.
As a result, the efficiency of railways decreased by a catastrophic 40% for the enemy. The operation stopped due to a lack of explosives - with more ammunition, the partisans could have caused much more significant damage.
After the victory over the enemy on the Dnieper River, the partisans began to participate en masse in major operations, starting in 1944.
Geography and scale of movement
Resistance units gathered in areas where there were dense forests, gullies and swamps. In the steppe regions, the Germans easily found the partisans and destroyed them. In difficult areas they were protected from the German numerical advantage.
One of the large centers of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War was in Belarus.
Belarusian partisans in the forests terrified the enemy, attacking suddenly when the Germans could not repulse the attack, and then also disappearing unnoticed.
Initially, the situation of the partisans on the territory of Belarus was extremely deplorable. However, the victory near Moscow, and then the winter offensive of the spacecraft, significantly raised their morale. After the liberation of the capital of Belarus, a partisan parade took place.
No less large-scale is the Resistance movement on the territory of Ukraine, especially in Crimea.
The cruel attitude of the Germans towards the Ukrainian people forced people en masse to join the ranks of the Resistance. However, here partisan resistance had its own characteristic features.
Very often the movement was aimed not only at fighting against the fascists, but also against the Soviet regime. This was especially evident in the territory of Western Ukraine; the local population saw the German invasion as liberation from the Bolshevik regime, and en masse went over to the side of Germany.
Participants in the partisan movement became national heroes, for example, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who died at the age of 18 in German captivity, becoming the Soviet Joan of Arc.
The struggle of the population against Nazi Germany took place in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Karelia and other regions.
The most ambitious operation carried out by the Resistance fighters was the so-called “Rail War”. In August 1943, large sabotage formations were transported behind enemy lines, and on the first night they blew up tens of thousands of rails. In total, more than two hundred thousand rails were blown up during the operation - Hitler seriously underestimated the resistance of the Soviet people.
As mentioned above, Operation Concert, which followed the Rail War and was associated with the offensive of the spacecraft forces, played an important role.
The partisan attacks became massive (warring groups were present on all fronts); the enemy could not react objectively and quickly - the German troops were in panic.
In turn, this caused executions of the population who assisted the partisans - the Nazis destroyed entire villages. Such actions encouraged even more people to join the Resistance.
Results and significance of guerrilla warfare
It is very difficult to fully assess the contribution of the partisans to the victory over the enemy, but all historians agree that it was extremely significant. Never before in history has the Resistance movement gained such a massive scale - millions of civilians began to stand up for their Motherland and brought it victory.
Resistance fighters not only blew up railways, warehouses and bridges - they captured Germans and handed them over to Soviet intelligence so that they would learn the enemy's plans.
At the hands of the Resistance, the defensive capacity of the Wehrmacht forces on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus was seriously undermined, which simplified the offensive and reduced losses in the ranks of the spacecraft.
Children-partisans
The phenomenon of child partisans deserves special attention. boys school age wanted to fight the invader. Among these heroes it is worth highlighting:
- Valentin Kotik;
- Marat Kazei;
- Vanya Kazachenko;
- Vitya Sitnitsa;
- Olya Demesh;
- Alyosha Vyalov;
- Zina Portnova;
- Pavlik Titov and others.
Boys and girls were engaged in reconnaissance, supplied brigades with supplies and water, fought in battle against the enemy, blew up tanks - did everything to drive away the Nazis. Children partisans of the Great Patriotic War did no less than adults. Many of them died and received the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union.”
Heroes of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War
Hundreds of members of the Resistance movement became “Heroes of the Soviet Union” – some twice. Among such figures, I would like to highlight Sidor Kovpak, the commander of a partisan detachment who fought on the territory of Ukraine.
Sidor Kovpak was the man who inspired the people to resist the enemy. He was the military leader of the largest partisan formation in Ukraine and thousands of Germans were killed under his command. In 1943, for his effective actions against the enemy, Kovpak was given the rank of major general.
Next to him it is worth placing Alexey Fedorov, who also commanded a large formation. Fedorov operated on the territory of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. He was one of the most wanted partisans. Fedorov made a huge contribution to the development of tactics guerrilla warfare, which was used in subsequent years.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, one of the most famous female partisans, also became the first woman to receive the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union.” During one of the operations, she was captured and hanged, but she showed courage to the end and did not betray the plans of the Soviet command to the enemy. The girl became a saboteur despite the commander’s words that 95% of the entire staff would die during operations. She was given the task of burning ten settlements, where German soldiers were based. The heroine was unable to fully carry out the order, since during the next arson she was noticed by a village resident who handed the girl over to the Germans.
Zoya became a symbol of resistance to fascism - her image was used not only in Soviet propaganda. The news of the Soviet partisan even reached Burma, where she also became a national hero.
Awards for members of partisan detachments
Since the Resistance played an important role in the victory over the Germans, a special award was established - the medal “Partisan of the Patriotic War”.
First class awards were often given to fighters posthumously. This applies, first of all, to those partisans who were not afraid to act in the first year of the war, being in the rear without any support from the spacecraft forces.
As war heroes, partisans appeared in many Soviet films devoted to military themes. Among the key films are the following:
"Rising" (1976).
"Konstantin Zaslonov" (1949).
The trilogy “The Thought of Kovpak”, published from 1973 to 1976.
“Partisans in the steppes of Ukraine” (1943).
“In the woods near Kovel” (1984) and many others.
The above-mentioned sources say that films about partisans began to be made during military operations - this was necessary so that people would support this movement and join the ranks of the Resistance fighters.
In addition to films, the partisans became heroes of many songs and ballads that highlighted their exploits and carried the news about them among the people.
Now streets and parks are named after famous partisans, thousands of monuments have been erected throughout the CIS countries and beyond. A striking example is Burma, where the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is honored.
Significant contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union over Hitler's Germany brought in partisan detachments operating behind enemy lines from Leningrad to Odessa. They were led not only by career military personnel, but also by people of peaceful professions. Real heroes.
Old Man Minai
At the beginning of the war, Minai Filipovich Shmyrev was the director of the Pudot Cardboard Factory (Belarus). The 51-year-old director had a military background: he was awarded three Crosses of St. George in World War I, and fought against banditry during the Civil War. In July 1941, in the village of Pudot, Shmyrev formed a partisan detachment from factory workers. In two months, the partisans engaged the enemy 27 times, destroyed 14 vehicles, 18 fuel tanks, blew up 8 bridges, and defeated the German district government in Surazh. In the spring of 1942, Shmyrev, by order of the Central Committee of Belarus, united 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 six months - a 40-kilometer zone through which the partisans were supplied with weapons and food. All of Father Minai’s relatives: four small children, a 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 farm work.
Son of the kulak "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 railway 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” and created an underground that, with the help of mines disguised as coal, derailed 93 fascist trains 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. Zaslonov died in a battle with the RNNA punitive forces, 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 NKVD officer. He was fired twice - either because of his brother - “an enemy of the people”, or “for the unreasonable termination of criminal cases.” In the summer of 1941 he was reinstated into the ranks. He headed the reconnaissance and sabotage task force "Mitya", which conducted more than 50 operations in the Smolensk, Mogilev and Bryansk regions. In the summer of 1942, he led the “Winners” special detachment and conducted more than 120 successful operations. 11 generals, 2,000 soldiers, 6,000 Bandera supporters were killed, and 81 echelons 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. Hero of the Soviet Union.
Saboteur Molodtsov-Badaev
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Molodtsov worked in a mine from the age of 16. He worked his way up from a trolley racer to a 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 troops hid in the Odessa catacombs, fought with the Romanians, broke communication lines, carried out sabotage in the port, and carried out reconnaissance. The commandant's office with 149 officers was blown up. At the Zastava station, a train with the administration for occupied Odessa was destroyed. The Nazis sent 16,000 people to liquidate the detachment. They released 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.
OGPU employee Naumov
A native of the Perm region, Mikhail Ivanovich Naumov, was an employee of the OGPU at the beginning of the war. Shell-shocked while crossing the Dniester, was surrounded, went out to the partisans and soon led a detachment. In the fall of 1942 he became the 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 conducted the legendary Steppe Raid, 2,379 kilometers long, behind Nazi lines. 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 into a poor peasant family. During World War I he received the St. George Cross from the hands of Nicholas II. During the Civil War he was a partisan against the Germans and fought with the whites. Since 1937, he was chairman of the Putivl City Executive Committee of the Sumy Region. In the fall of 1941, he led the Putivl partisan detachment, and then a formation of detachments in the Sumy region. The partisans carried out military raids behind enemy lines. Their total length amounted to 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 carried out a raid beyond the Dnieper. At this moment, Kovpak’s detachment had 2000 soldiers, 130 machine guns, 9 guns. In April 1943, he was awarded the rank of major general. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
The first days of the Great Patriotic War were catastrophic for the Soviet Union: the surprise attack on June 22, 1941 allowed Hitler's army to gain significant advantages. Many border outposts and formations that took the brunt of the enemy’s first strike were killed. Wehrmacht troops advanced at high speed deep into Soviet territory. Behind a short time 3.8 million soldiers and commanders of the Red Army were captured. But, despite the most difficult conditions of military operations, the defenders of the Fatherland from the very first days of the war showed courage and heroism. A striking example of heroism was the creation, in the first days of the war, in the occupied territory of the first partisan detachment under the command of Korzh Vasily Zakharovich.
Korzh Vasily Zakharovich- commander of the Pinsk partisan unit, member of the Pinsk underground regional party committee, major general. Born on January 1 (13), 1899 in the village of Khorostov, now Soligorsk district, Minsk region, in a peasant family. Belarusian. Member of the CPSU since 1929. He graduated from a rural school. In 1921–1925, V.Z. Korzh fought in the partisan detachment K.P. Orlovsky, who operated in Western Belarus. In 1925 he moved across the border to Soviet Belarus. Since 1925, he was the chairman of collective farms in the regions of the Minsk District. In 1931–1936 he worked in the bodies of the GPU NKVD of the BSSR. In 1936–1937, through the NKVD, Korzh participated as an adviser in the revolutionary war of the Spanish people and was the commander of an international partisan detachment. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he formed and led a fighter battalion, which grew into the first partisan detachment in Belarus. The detachment included 60 people. The detachment was divided into 3 rifle squads of 20 soldiers each. We armed ourselves with rifles and received 90 rounds of ammunition and one grenade. On June 28, 1941, in the area of the village of Posenichi, the first battle of a partisan detachment under the command of V.Z. Korzha. To guard the city from the northern side, a group of partisans was placed on the Pinsk Logishin road.
The partisan detachment commanded by Korzh was ambushed by 2 German tanks. This was reconnaissance from the 293rd Wehrmacht Infantry Division. The partisans opened fire and knocked out one tank. As a result of this operation, they managed to capture 2 Nazis. This was the first partisan battle of the first partisan detachment in the history of the Great Patriotic War. On July 4, 1941, the detachment met enemy cavalry squadrons 4 kilometers from the city. Korzh quickly “deployed” the firepower of his detachment, and dozens of fascist cavalrymen died on the battlefield. The front moved to the east, and the partisans had more to do every day. They set up ambushes on the roads and destroyed enemy vehicles with infantry, equipment, ammunition, food, and intercepted motorcyclists. With the first mine Korzh personally made from explosives, used before the war to move tree stumps, the partisans blew up the first armored train. The squad's combat score grew.
But there was no connection with the mainland. Then Korzh sent a man behind the front line. The liaison officer was the famous Belarusian underground worker Vera Khoruzhaya. And she managed to get to Moscow. In the winter of 1941/42, it was possible to establish contact with the Minsk underground regional party committee, which deployed its headquarters in the Lyuban region. We jointly organized a sleigh ride in the Minsk and Polesie regions. Along the way, they “smoked out” uninvited foreign guests and gave them a “try” of partisan bullets. During the raid, the detachment was replenished thoroughly. Guerrilla warfare flared up. By November 1942, 7 impressively powerful detachments merged together and formed a partisan unit. Korzh took command over him. In addition, 11 underground district party committees, the Pinsk city committee, and about 40 primary organizations began to operate in the region. They even managed to “recruit” to their side an entire Cossack regiment formed by the Nazis from prisoners of war! By the winter of 1942/43, the Korzh connection was restored Soviet power in a significant part of Luninets, Zhitkovichi, Starobinsky, Ivanovo, Drogichinsky, Leninsky, Telekhansky, Gantsevichi districts. Communication with the mainland has been established. Planes landed at the partisan airfield and brought ammunition, medicine, and walkie-talkies.
The partisans reliably controlled a huge area railway Brest - Gomel, the Baranovichi - Luninets section, and the enemy echelons went downhill according to a strict partisan schedule. The Dnieper-Bug Canal was almost completely paralyzed. In February 1943, the Nazi command attempted to put an end to the Korzh partisans. Regular units with artillery, aviation, and tanks were advancing. On February 15, the encirclement closed. The partisan zone turned into a continuous battlefield. Korzh himself led the column to break through. He personally led the shock troops to break through the ring, then the defense of the neck of the breakthrough, while convoys with civilians, wounded and property crossed the gap, and, finally, the rearguard group covering the pursuit. And so that the Nazis did not think that they had won, Korzh attacked a large garrison in the village of Svyatoy Volya. The battle lasted 7 hours, in which the partisans were victorious. Until the summer of 1943, the Nazis threw part after part against the Korzh formation.
And each time the partisans broke through the encirclement. Finally, they finally escaped from the cauldron to the area of Lake Vygonovskoye. . By Resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated September 16, 1943 No. 1000 - one of the ten commanders of the partisan formations of the Belarusian SSR - V.Z. Korzh assigned military rank"Major General" The whole summer and autumn of 1943 thundered in Belarus " rail war", proclaimed by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement. The Korzh compound made a significant contribution to this grandiose “event.” In 1944, several operations that were brilliant in concept and organization upset all the Nazis’ plans for a systematic, well-thought-out withdrawal of their units to the west.
The partisans destroyed railway arteries (on July 20, 21 and 22, 1944 alone, demolitionists blew up 5 thousand rails!), tightly closed the Dnieper-Bug Canal, and thwarted the enemy’s attempts to establish crossings across the Sluch River. Hundreds of Aryan warriors, together with the commander of the group, General Miller, surrendered to the Korzh partisans. And a few days later the war left the Pinsk region... In total, by July 1944, the Pinsk partisan unit under the command of Korzh in battles defeated 60 German garrisons, derailed 478 enemy trains, blew up 62 railway bridges, destroyed 86 tanks and armored vehicles, 29 guns, 519 kilometers of communication lines are out of order. By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated August 15, 1944, for the exemplary performance of command assignments in the fight against the Nazi invaders behind enemy lines and the courage and heroism shown, Vasily Zakharovich Korzh was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. "(No. 4448). Graduated in 1946 Military Academy General Staff. Since 1946, Major General Korzh V.Z. in reserve. In 1949–1953 he worked as Deputy Minister of Forestry of the Belarusian SSR. In 1953–1963 he was chairman of the collective farm “Partizansky Krai” in the Soligorsk district of the Minsk region. IN last years lived in Minsk. Died May 5, 1967. He was buried at the Eastern (Moscow) cemetery in Minsk. Awarded 2 Orders of Lenin, 2 Orders of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War 1st degree, Red Star, medals. A monument to the Hero was erected in the village of Khorostov, memorial plaques in the cities of Minsk and Soligorsk. The collective farm “Partizansky Krai”, streets in the cities of Minsk, Pinsk, Soligorsk, as well as a school in the city of Pinsk are named after him.
Sources and literature.
1. Ioffe E.G. The Higher Partisan Command of Belarus 1941-1944 // Directory. – Minsk, 2009. – P. 23.
2. Kolpakidi A., Sever A. GRU Special Forces. – M.: “YAUZA”, ESKMO, 2012. – P. 45.
D.V. Gnedash
One of the most terrible myths of the Second World War is associated with the existence of barrier detachments in the Red Army. Often in modern TV series about the war you can see scenes with gloomy characters in blue caps of NKVD troops shooting wounded soldiers leaving the battle with machine guns. By showing this, the authors take a great sin upon their souls. None of the researchers were able to find a single fact in the archives to confirm this.
What happened?
Barrier detachments appeared in the Red Army from the first days of the war. Such formations were created by military counterintelligence, first represented by the 3rd Directorate of the USSR NKO, and from July 17, 1941, by the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD of the USSR and subordinate bodies in the troops.
The main tasks of the special departments during the war were defined by a resolution of the State Defense Committee as “a decisive fight against espionage and betrayal in units of the Red Army and the elimination of desertion in the immediate front line" They received the right to arrest deserters, and, if necessary, shoot them on the spot.
To ensure operational activities in special departments in accordance with the order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria by July 25, 1941 were formed: in divisions and corps - separate rifle platoons, in armies - separate rifle companies, in the fronts - separate rifle battalions. Using them, special departments organized a barrage service, setting up ambushes, posts and patrols on roads, refugee routes and other communications. Every detained commander, Red Army soldier, and Red Navy man was checked. If he was recognized as having fled from the battlefield, then he was subject to immediate arrest, and a prompt (no more than 12-hour) investigation began on him to be tried by a military tribunal as a deserter. Special departments were entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing sentences of military tribunals, including before the formation. In “particularly exceptional cases, when the situation requires taking decisive measures to immediately restore order at the front,” the head of the special department had the right to shoot deserters on the spot, which he had to immediately report to the special department of the army and front (navy). Military personnel who fell behind the unit for an objective reason were sent in an organized manner, accompanied by a representative of a special department, to the headquarters of the nearest division.
The flow of military personnel who lagged behind their units in the kaleidoscope of battles, when leaving numerous encirclements, or even deliberately deserted, was enormous. From the beginning of the war until October 10, 1941 alone, the operational barriers of special departments and barrage detachments of the NKVD troops detained more than 650 thousand soldiers and commanders. German agents also easily dissolved in the general mass. Thus, a group of spies neutralized in the winter and spring of 1942 had the task of physically eliminating the command of the Western and Kalinin Fronts, including commanders Generals G.K. Zhukov and I.S. Koneva.
Special departments had difficulty coping with such a volume of cases. The situation required the creation of special units that would be directly involved in preventing the unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions, returning stragglers to their units and detaining deserters.
The military command was the first to take this kind of initiative. After an appeal from the commander of the Bryansk Front, Lieutenant General A.I. Eremenko to Stalin on September 5, 1941, he was allowed to create barrage detachments in “unstable” divisions, where there were repeated cases of leaving combat positions without orders. A week later, this practice was extended to rifle divisions throughout the Red Army.
These barrage detachments (up to a battalion in number) had nothing to do with the NKVD troops; they operated as part of the rifle divisions of the Red Army, were staffed by their personnel and were subordinate to their commanders. At the same time, along with them, there were barrier detachments formed either by special military departments or by territorial bodies of the NKVD. A typical example is the barrage detachments formed in October 1941 by the NKVD of the USSR, which, by decree of the State Defense Committee, took under special protection the zone adjacent to Moscow, from the west and south along the line Kalinin - Rzhev - Mozhaisk - Tula - Kolomna - Kashira. Already the first results showed how necessary these measures were. In just two weeks from October 15 to October 28, 1941, more than 75 thousand military personnel were detained in the Moscow zone.
From the very beginning, the barrage formations, regardless of their departmental subordination, were not guided by their leadership towards indiscriminate executions and arrests. Meanwhile, today we have to face similar accusations in the press; The barrier detachments are sometimes called punitive forces. But here are the numbers. Of the more than 650 thousand military personnel detained by October 10, 1941, after verification, about 26 thousand people were arrested, among whom the special departments included: spies - 1505, saboteurs - 308, traitors - 2621, cowards and alarmists - 2643, deserters - 8772, spreaders of provocative rumors - 3987, self-shooters - 1671, others - 4371 people. 10,201 people were shot, including 3,321 people in front of the line. The overwhelming number is more than 632 thousand people, i.e. more than 96% were returned to the front.
As the front line stabilized, the activities of the defensive formations were gradually curtailed. Order No. 227 gave it new impetus.
The barrier detachments created in accordance with it, numbering up to 200 people, consisted of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, who did not differ in uniform or weapons from the rest of the Red Army military personnel. Each of them had the status of a separate military unit and was subordinate not to the command of the division behind whose battle formations it was located, but to the command of the army through the NKVD OO. The detachment was led by a state security officer.
In total, by October 15, 1942, 193 barrage detachments were functioning in units of the active army. First of all, Stalin's order was carried out, of course, on the southern flank of the Soviet-German front. Almost every fifth detachment - 41 units - was formed in the Stalingrad direction.
Initially, in accordance with the requirements of the People's Commissar of Defense, barrage detachments were entrusted with the responsibility of preventing the unauthorized withdrawal of linear units. However, in practice, the range of military affairs in which they were engaged turned out to be wider.
“The barrage detachments,” recalled Army General P. N. Lashchenko, who was the deputy chief of staff of the 60th Army in the days of the publication of order No. 227, “were located at a distance from the front line, covered the troops from the rear from saboteurs and enemy landings, detained deserters who , unfortunately, there were; they restored order at the crossings and sent soldiers who had strayed from their units to assembly points.”
As many participants in the war testify, barrier detachments did not exist everywhere. According to Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T. Yazov, they were completely absent on a number of fronts operating in the northern and northwestern directions.
The version that the barrier detachments were “guarding” the penal units also does not stand up to criticism. The company commander of the 8th separate penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front, retired colonel A.V. Pyltsyn, who fought from 1943 until the Victory, states: “Under no circumstances were there any barrier detachments behind our battalion, nor were others used deterrent measures. There was just never such a need for it.”
Famous writer Hero of the Soviet Union V.V. Karpov, who fought in the 45th separate penal company on the Kalinin Front, also denies the presence of barrier detachments behind the battle formations of their unit.
In reality, the outposts of the army barrier detachment were located at a distance of 1.5-2 km from the front line, intercepting communications in the immediate rear. They did not specialize in penalties, but checked and detained everyone whose presence outside the military unit aroused suspicion.
Did the barrage detachments use weapons to prevent the unauthorized withdrawal of line units from their positions? This aspect of their military activity is sometimes covered in an extremely speculative manner.
The documents show how the combat practice of the barrage detachments developed during one of the most intense periods of the war, in the summer and autumn of 1942. From August 1 (the moment of formation) to October 15, they detained 140,755 military personnel who “escaped from the front line.” Of these: 3980 were arrested, 1189 were shot, 2776 were sent to penal companies, 185 were sent to penal battalions, the overwhelming number of detainees was returned to their units and transit points - 131,094 people. The statistics presented show that the absolute majority of military personnel were able to continue fighting without any loss of rights, previously various reasons those who left the front line - more than 91%.
As for the criminals, the most severe measures were applied to them. This applied to deserters, defectors, imaginary patients, and self-inflicted shooters. It happened - and they shot me in front of the line. But the decision to carry out this extreme measure was made not by the commander of the barrier detachment, but by the military tribunal of the division (no lower) or, in individual, pre-agreed cases, by the head of the special department of the army.
In exceptional situations, fighters of the barrage detachments could open fire over the heads of the retreating troops. Let us assume that individual cases shooting at people in the heat of battle could take place: fighters and commanders of barrier detachments in a difficult situation could change their endurance. But there is no basis to assert that this was everyday practice. Cowards and alarmists were shot individually in front of the line. Punishments, as a rule, are only the initiators of panic and flight.
Here are a few typical examples from the history of the Battle of the Volga. On September 14, 1942, the enemy launched an offensive against units of the 399th Infantry Division of the 62nd Army. When the soldiers and commanders of the 396th and 472nd rifle regiments began to retreat in panic, the head of the barrier detachment, junior lieutenant of state security Yelman, ordered his squad to open fire over the heads of the retreating people. This forced the personnel to stop, and two hours later the regiments occupied their previous defensive lines.
On October 15, in the area of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the enemy managed to reach the Volga and cut off the remnants of the 112th Infantry Division, as well as three (115, 124 and 149th) separate rifle brigades, from the main forces of the 62nd Army. Succumbing to panic, a number of military personnel, including commanders of various levels, tried to abandon their units and, under various pretexts, cross to the eastern bank of the Volga. To prevent this, a task force under the leadership of senior intelligence officer Lieutenant of State Security Ignatenko, created by a special department of the 62nd Army, set up a barrier. In 15 days, up to 800 rank and file and command personnel were detained and returned to the battlefield, 15 alarmists, cowards and deserters were shot in front of the line. The barrier detachments acted similarly later.
The blocking detachments, as documents show, had to support the faltering, retreating units and units themselves, and intervene in the course of the battle in order to bring a turning point in it, more than once, as documents show. Reinforcements arriving at the front were, naturally, not fired upon, and in this situation, the barrage detachments, formed from persistent, fired upon, with strong front-line hardened commanders and fighters, provided a reliable shoulder for the linear units.
Thus, during the defense of Stalingrad on August 29, 1942, the headquarters of the 29th Infantry Division of the 64th Army was surrounded by enemy tanks that had broken through. The barrier detachment not only stopped the soldiers retreating in disarray and returned them to previously occupied defense lines, but also entered the battle itself. The enemy was driven back.
On September 13, when the 112th Rifle Division, under enemy pressure, retreated from the occupied line, the defense detachment of the 62nd Army under the command of State Security Lieutenant Khlystov took over the defense. For several days, the soldiers and commanders of the detachment repelled the attacks of enemy machine gunners until the approaching units took up defensive positions. This was the case in other sectors of the Soviet-German front.
With the turning point in the situation that came after the victory at Stalingrad, the participation of barrage formations in battles increasingly turned out to be not only spontaneous, dictated by the dynamically changing situation, but also the result in advance decision taken command. The army commanders tried to use the units left without “work” with maximum benefit in matters not related to the barrage service.
Facts of this kind were reported to Moscow by State Security Major V.M. in mid-October 1942. Kazakevich. For example, on the Voronezh Front, by order of the military council of the 6th Army, two defensive detachments were assigned to the 174th Infantry Division and brought into battle. As a result, they lost up to 70% of their personnel, the remaining soldiers were transferred to replenish the named division, and the units had to be disbanded. The barrier detachment of the 29th Army used a linear unit Western Front commander of the 246th Infantry Division, under whose operational subordination the detachment was located. Taking part in one of the attacks, a detachment of 118 personnel lost 109 people killed and wounded, and therefore had to be re-formed.
The reasons for objections from special departments are clear. But, it seems, it was no coincidence that from the very beginning the barrage detachments were subordinated to the army command, and not to military counterintelligence agencies. The People's Commissar of Defense, of course, meant that barrage formations would and should be used not only as a barrier for retreating units, but also as the most important reserve for direct combat operations.
As the situation on the fronts changed, with the transfer of strategic initiative to the Red Army and the beginning of the mass expulsion of the invaders from the territory of the USSR, the need for barrier detachments began to sharply decrease. The order “Not a step back!” completely lost its former meaning. On October 29, 1944, Stalin issued an order acknowledging that “due to the change in the general situation at the fronts, the need for further maintenance of barrage detachments has ceased.” By November 15, 1944, they were disbanded, and the personnel of the detachments were sent to replenish the rifle divisions.
Thus, the barrage detachments not only acted as a barrier that prevented deserters, alarmists, and German agents from penetrating into the rear, they not only returned military personnel who had lagged behind their units to the front line, but they themselves carried out direct combat operations with the enemy, making a contribution to achieving victory over fascist Germany.
The Germans called the Soviet partisan detachments the “second front.” Heroes-partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 played an important role in bringing Great Victory. The stories have been known for years. The partisan detachments, in general, were spontaneous, but in many of them strict discipline was established, and the fighters took the partisan oath.The main tasks of the partisan detachments were the destruction of the enemy’s infrastructure in order to prevent them from gaining a foothold on our territory and the so-called “rail war” (the partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 derailed about eighteen thousand trains).
The total number of underground partisans during the war was about one million people. Belarus - shining example guerrilla warfare. Belarus was the first to fall under occupation, and the forests and swamps were conducive to partisan methods of struggle.
In Belarus, the memory of that war, where partisan detachments played a significant role, is honored; the Minsk football club is called “Partizan”. There is a forum where we also talk about preserving the memory of the war.
The partisan movement was supported and partially coordinated by the authorities, and Marshal Kliment Voroshilov was appointed head of the partisan movement for two months.
Heroes partisans of the Great Patriotic War
Konstantin Chekhovich was born in Odessa, graduated from the Industrial Institute.In the first months of the war, Konstantin was sent behind enemy lines as part of a sabotage group. The group was ambushed, Chekhovich survived, but was captured by the Germans, from where he escaped two weeks later. Immediately after the escape, he contacted the partisans. Having received the task of carrying out sabotage work, Konstantin got a job as an administrator at a local cinema. The local cinema building ended up killing more than seven hundred people as a result of the explosion. German soldiers and officers. The “administrator” - Konstantin Chekhovich - set the explosives in such a way that the entire structure with columns collapsed like a house of cards. It was unique case mass destruction of the enemy by partisan forces.
Before the war, Minai Shmyrev was the director of a cardboard factory in the village of Pudot in Belarus.
At the same time, Shmyrev had a significant combat past - during Civil War fought with bandits, and for his participation in the First World War he was awarded three Crosses of St. George.
At the very beginning of the war, Minai Shmyrev created a partisan detachment, which included factory workers. The partisans destroyed German vehicles, fuel tanks, and blew up bridges and buildings that were strategically occupied by the Nazis. And in 1942, after the unification of three large partisan detachments in Belarus, the First Partisan Brigade was created, Minai Shmyrev was appointed to command it. Through the actions of the brigade, fifteen Belarusian villages were liberated, a forty-kilometer zone was established and maintained for supplying and maintaining communications with numerous partisan detachments on the territory of Belarus.
Minai Shmyrev received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1944. At the same time, all relatives partisan commander, including four small children, were shot by the Nazis.
Before the war, Vladimir Molodtsov worked in a coal mine, rising from worker to deputy director of the mine. In 1934 he graduated from the Central School of the NKVD. At the beginning of the war, in July 1941, he was sent to Odessa to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage operations. He worked under the pseudonym Badaev. The Molodtsov-Badaev partisan detachment was stationed in the catacombs near. Destruction of enemy communication lines, trains, reconnaissance, sabotage in the port, battles with the Romanians - this is what Badaev’s partisan detachment became famous for. The Nazis threw enormous forces into liquidating the detachment; they released gas into the catacombs, mined the entrances and exits, and poisoned the water.
In February 1942, Molodtsov was captured by the Germans, and in July of the same year, 1942, he was shot by the Nazis. Posthumously, Vladimir Molodtsov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
On February 2, 1943, the “Partisan of the Patriotic War” medal was established, and subsequently one and a half hundred heroes received it. Hero of the Soviet Union Matvey Kuzmin is the oldest recipient of the medal, awarded to him posthumously. The future partisan of the war was born in 1858 in the Pskov province ( serfdom was canceled three years after his birth). Before the war, Matvey Kuzmin led an isolated life, was not a member of the collective farm, and was engaged in fishing and hunting. The Germans came to the village where the peasant lived and occupied his house. Well, then - a feat, the beginning of which was given by Ivan Susanin. The Germans, in exchange for unlimited food, asked Kuzmin to be a guide and lead the German unit to the village where Red Army units were stationed. Matvey first sent his grandson along the route to warn Soviet troops. The peasant himself led the Germans through the forest for a long time, and in the morning he led them to an ambush of the Red Army. Eighty Germans were killed, wounded and captured. The guide Matvey Kuzmin died in this battle.
The partisan detachment of Dmitry Medvedev was very famous. Dmitry Medvedev was born in late XIX century in the Oryol Province. During the Civil War he served on various fronts. Since 1920 he has worked in the Cheka (hereinafter referred to as the NKVD). He volunteered for the front at the very beginning of the war, created and led a group of volunteer partisans. Already in August 1941, Medvedev’s group crossed the front line and ended up in occupied territory. The detachment operated in the Bryansk region for about six months, during which time there were absolutely five dozen real combat operations: explosions of enemy trains, ambushes and shelling of convoys on the highway. At the same time, every day the detachment went on air with reports to Moscow about the movement of German troops. The High Command regarded Medvedev’s partisan detachment as the core of the partisans on Bryansk land and as important connection behind enemy lines. In 1942, Medvedev’s detachment, the backbone of which consisted of partisans trained by him for sabotage work, became the center of resistance in the territory of occupied Ukraine (Rivne, Lutsk, Vinnitsa). For a year and ten months, Medvedev’s detachment carried out the most important tasks. Among the achievements of the partisan intelligence officers were transmitted messages about Hitler's headquarters in the Vinnitsa region, about the impending German offensive on the Kursk Bulge, about the preparation of an assassination attempt on the participants of the meeting in Tehran (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill). Medvedev’s partisan unit carried out more than eighty military operations in Ukraine, destroyed and captured hundreds of German soldiers and officers, among whom were senior Nazi officials.
Dmitry Medvedev received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union at the end of the war, and resigned in 1946. He became the author of the books “On the Banks of the Southern Bug”, “It Was Near Rovno” about the fighting of patriots behind enemy lines.