I don’t know how things are now, but in the early 90s in Belarus no one could apply for a more or less serious position without themselves (and there were already few of them) or through their fathers having a relationship with the partisan movement in the Patriotic War. The Republic, small by the standards of the Union, almost entirely went into the forests, turning into a madhouse for the invaders.
And on July 16, 1944, the famous partisan parade took place in liberated Minsk. Parade of those who survived and liberated their region.
This parade rightfully stands out from all the solemn military processions and reviews in the history of mankind. After all, it was not soldiers of the regular army who took part in it, but soldiers who fought in the occupied territory in partisan detachments of Belarus.
The Belarusian land was liberated from the German occupiers in the summer of 1944 during the rapid offensive of our army during Operation Bagration. The Belarusian partisans provided enormous assistance to the advancing troops.
By the time of the liberation of Belarus and its capital Minsk, 1,255 partisan detachments, numbering about 370 thousand fighters, were fighting on the territory of the republic. During the occupation, the partisans of Belarus derailed 11,128 enemy trains and 34 armored trains, defeated 29 railway stations and 948 enemy garrisons, blew up 819 railway and 4,710 other bridges, and destroyed 939 German military warehouses.
The Soviet army liberated Minsk on July 3, 1944, and almost immediately numerous partisan detachments began to gather in the war-ravaged capital of Belarus. After the expulsion of the invaders from their native land, the former fighters of the “partisan front” had to either join the regular army or begin work to restore peaceful life in the liberated territory. But before disbanding the partisan detachments forever, the leaders of Belarus and the Central Headquarters partisan movement decided to hold a real partisan parade in Minsk.
By the evening of July 15, 1944, 20 partisan brigades from the Minsk region, 9 brigades from the Baranovichi (now Brest) region and one from the Vileika (now Molodechensk) region - a total of more than 30 thousand people - had gathered in the capital of Belarus. On the eve of the parade, many of its participants were awarded medals to “Partisan Patriotic War“For most of those who fought behind the front line, this was the first state award in their lives.
The partisans gathered in the capital of Belarus for a reason; along the way they cleared the surrounding forests of defeated German troops. This is how Ivan Pavlovich Bokhan, a native of the village of Skobino in the Minsk region, then a 17-year-old partisan fighter whose parents were shot by the occupiers, recalled this:
“Two days before the arrival of the Red Army, we liberated Kopyl, defeated the garrison and captured the city... Our brigade was transferred from the Kopyl region to Minsk. There, a large German group was surrounded, some were taken prisoner, and some fled. The task of our brigade is to catch these groups on the road to Minsk. That's how we went. We get up in the morning, we go, and you look at the smoke in the forest. You approach - 4-5 Germans are sitting by the fire. They immediately: “Halt!” If he just grabs a weapon, we kill him right away... We came to Minsk. On July 16, 1944, a partisan parade took place in which I participated. It was an indescribable sight - how many partisans there were!”
By 9 am on July 16, 1944, 30 thousand partisans lined up on a field in the bend of the Svisloch River for the parade and 50 thousand residents of Minsk who survived the occupation gathered. At the parade there was a large delegation of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, led by the commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Army General Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky - it was his troops who liberated the capital of Belarus from the Germans.
This is how one of its participants, a fighter of the Kommunar partisan detachment Vasily Morokhovich, recalled the partisan parade:
“Overgrown and emaciated partisans marched between the destroyed and burned houses of Minsk. In their hands they had the most amazing collection of weapons from the then fighting armies, dotted with weapons that blacksmiths had made in the forests. They were greeted with delight, they walked proudly with awards on their chests! They were winners!”
Partisan equipment, mainly German trophies, also took part in the parade. But there were also samples with an amazing fate - for example, the ZIS-21 truck with a gas generator engine capable of running on wood. First, it was captured by the advancing Germans, and then hijacked by Belarusian partisans - the German truck driver Hans Kulyas went over to the side of the partisans and remained in our country after the war.
Another very unusual participant in the unprecedented parade walked among the partisans - a goat named Malysh. In 1943, after the defeat of the German garrison at Kurenets station, the Borba partisan detachment from the People's Avengers brigade, among other trophies, took with them a goat. The animal was supposed to go to the partisans for lunch, but the fighters liked it and soon the goat, nicknamed Baby, became the favorite and mascot of the partisan detachment “Struggle”.
Vasily Petrovich Davzhonak, a 19-year-old fighter in the “Struggle” detachment in 1944, recalled this unusual companion to the partisans:
“The baby endured all the hardships of field life with us, we practically ate, slept with him... even fought! Once there was a major skirmish with the Germans near the village of Okolovo, not far from Pleschenitsy. I remember this battle very well; at that time I was number two in the machine gun crew - supplying cartridges. Throughout the battle, the Kid did not leave us. Moreover, he acted very competently: as soon as the Germans opened heavy fire, he calmly retreated under cover, behind a pine tree, waited, and then came out again and carefully watched the progress of the battle.”
However, the goat was not only a talisman - during walks through the forests, he carried a loaded bag with medicines. Together with partisan detachment On July 16, 1944, the Kid was among the participants in an unusual parade.
“We decided that Baby deserved to be with us at this solemn moment. — Vasily Davzhonak recalled. “The partisans from our detachment cleaned him thoroughly and dressed him up in a ribbon decorated with German orders. We got Hitler's medals as a trophy when we captured a German staff vehicle - we decided that the right place for them was on the Kid's neck. The parade began, and our dressed up goat immediately took his usual place - in front of the column. I remember that I noticed how Chernyakhovsky looked in surprise at our “pet” and, animatedly gesticulating, was talking about something to his assistants. In general, in my opinion, the management liked our initiative...”
It was assumed that the Kid would pass unnoticed inside the column, but during the ceremonial march, the fighting goat, having escaped from the hands of those accompanying him, settled down next to the command of the detachment, causing wild delight among the spectators. Decorated with captured Nazi crosses, the Kid was captured by the cameraman filming the parade and remained in history forever.
Almost immediately a legend arose that the goat in German orders was specially invented by Soviet propaganda. In reality, this was the initiative of ordinary victorious partisans, thus expressing their contempt for the defeated occupiers.
The partisan parade on July 16, 1944 in Minsk rightfully went down in history as the brightest symbol of the victory of the fraternal peoples of Russia and Belarus over an external enemy.
This article is not about renovating an apartment, but rather about dismantling the human brain. For example, choosing for a child what to be when he grows up - a boy or a girl; change your gender on a whim, change your sexual “orientation,” or even be a bisexual or asexual being. In “developed” capitalist countries, such education and behavior has long become the norm and is cultivated from above. As for our vast homeland, it also strives to keep up with the West.
Many readers will say, well, here we are again talking about minorities. If they wrote less about this, there would be fewer precedents. There is a solid grain of truth in such words, but if we compare the impact of simple articles by home-grown hacks and the propaganda of minorities in show business, “culture,” “art,” and major media, then this is a drop in the bucket. In fact, the article is not about minorities, but precisely about the ideologically controlled majority. We are not talking about people who have congenital deviations from the generally accepted norm (the number of such, according to statistics, tends to zero), which prevent them from fully developing.
On July 16, 1944, a solemn parade took place in the liberated city of Minskpartisans.
Background
In 1944, as a result of the largest offensive operation Bagration, Soviet troops liberated the territory of Belarus, Eastern Poland, and part of the Baltic states. On July 3, troops of the 3rd and 1st Belorussian Fronts passed through the capital of Belarus to the west, and already on July 4, administrative life began to be restored in the city. Partisan detachments of the region began to converge on Minsk. They were faced with the task of guarding military warehouses and other facilities, and protecting the city from penetration by defeated enemy units. The party leadership of Belarus decided to hold not only a rally, but also a parade on the occasion of the liberation of the city. It was supposed to take place at the city hippodrome. For this purpose, it was demined and cleared of debris. The day before, many partisans were awarded medals.
Liberation of Minsk
Parade
The parade on July 16, 1944 lasted several hours, and 30 partisan brigades took part in it. Each had its own banners and carried its own posters. The parade was opened by partisans of the People's Avengers brigade named after V. Voronyansky. They were followed by their brigades. Shchorsa, Chapaeva, “Belarus”, “Burevestnik”. The partisans came with a wide variety of weapons from different armies. Some of the weapons were homemade, made by craftsmen in the forests. Among the members of the detachments, a goat named Malysh proudly walked; the partisans decorated him with a ribbon with German orders. For the fighters, the Kid was a kind of talisman. The parade participants were enthusiastically greeted by city residents, and in total about 50 thousand people gathered for the celebrations. The whole city was filled local residents and partisans. We met comrades in arms, relatives and friends. Music and songs sounded in all parts of the city. And on July 17, another event took place in Moscow: 57 thousand walked along the capital’s streets German soldiers. These were German prisoners captured during Operation Bagration. In history, this procession was called the “March of Captured Germans across Moscow.”
Partisans of the Great Patriotic War
During the war, the following joke was born: “we don’t have to wait for the allies to open a second front, this front has been open for a long time, and the partisans opened it.” By 1944, over 1.1 million people were fighting behind enemy lines. The occupiers lost several hundred thousand people, among whom were Wehrmacht soldiers and collaborators (Vlasovites, Banderaites, etc.). During the war, partisans killed 67 German generals, and five were captured and transported to Mainland. The Germans had to allocate a large number of troops to fight the partisans, while they were extremely needed at the front. The homeland highly appreciated the feat of the partisans. Over 184 thousand of them were awarded orders and medals of the USSR, 249 were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
On July 17, 1944, a parade of German troops took place in the center of Moscow. True, not as winners, but as losers. More than 57 thousand German soldiers and officers captured during Operation Bagration were marched through the Soviet capital in front of Muscovites.
This parade of the vanquished became one of the most significant events of military Moscow and was remembered for a long time by contemporaries. Organizing this procession required serious efforts, despite the fact that the war was still far from over. Life found out how the parade was prepared and why it was needed.
Operation "Bagration"
In mid-June 1944, Operation Bagration was launched - one of the largest offensive operations in the history of the Second World War. Soviet military leaders managed to surprise their German opponents, who were expecting a strike in the direction of Ukraine, but not Belarus. The largest-scale operation was prepared in such secrecy that the Germans did not suspect anything.
The operation was a great success. Already at the first stage Soviet troops managed to move forward, and the Germans suffered serious losses. And the result of the operation was the defeat of Army Group Center, the most powerful German group in the USSR.
Operation Bagration became the most successful operation carried out by the Soviet army at that time. In addition to the liberation of Belarus from German troops, they suffered very significant losses. The strongest German Army Group Center was defeated. Soviet soldiers alone captured more than 150 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers and officers.
This was the greatest success since the beginning of the war. For comparison: 91.5 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured in Stalingrad. In addition, 21 generals were captured during the Belarusian campaign - almost the same number as during the previous three years of the war.
Of course, it was a success, and thanks to the fact that the danger of a turning point in the war had finally passed, the Soviet leadership wanted to demonstrate its achievements. And not only Soviet citizens, but also to foreign journalists living in Moscow. Parade with the participation of such large quantity the prisoners could have convinced even the most notorious skeptics of the success of the Soviet offensive.
In Stalingrad, many Germans also surrendered, but they were in such a state after a long encirclement that a quarter of them died from exhaustion and wounds in the first weeks of captivity. And the situation on the fronts was still alarming then.
But, among other things, there was also an important symbolic moment in the Moscow parade. It was planned to lead soldiers of Army Group Center through the streets of the Soviet capital. The same one that was supposed to take Moscow according to the German Barbarossa plan. It was these armies that stood near Moscow in the fall and winter of 1941.
Great Waltz
The organization of the parade of captured Germans in Moscow was carried out by the NKVD. The operation was called "The Great Waltz" - in honor of the popular American pre-war film. This film was very popular in the pre-war USSR and was one of the most beloved American films of Stalin himself, who regularly watched it.
The operation was very labor-intensive. It was necessary to deliver to the Soviet capital more than fifty thousand German prisoners of war who, for health reasons, were able to take part in the procession. The task was partially made easier by the fact that the trains with German prisoners of war were on their way. As a rule, their route to prisoner-of-war camps in most cases passed through Moscow.
The prisoners were examined by doctors in order to weed out the sick and wounded who could not take part in the parade, which was required in order to prevent possible epidemics, both among the prisoners of war themselves and among Moscow spectators.
Trains with German prisoners of war began arriving at the Begovaya and Belorusskaya-Tovarnaya railway stations on July 14. There they were examined again by doctors. Next, the convoy detachments transferred the German columns to the Moscow Hippodrome and the Dynamo stadium.
Even among military and party officials, not everyone was aware of the upcoming parade. The operation was carried out in secrecy.
On the evening of July 16, 19 captured German generals were brought to the capital. They are an important component of the procession, since they are the ones who will lead the column of prisoners.
Parade of the Vanquished
In the early morning of July 17, a short message from the chief of the Moscow police was read on the radio, announcing that at 11 a.m. 57,600 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers taken prisoner would be escorted through the center of the capital. In this regard, some streets in the city center will be blocked. The message was transmitted twice: at 7 and 8 am.
In the morning, Muscovites began to flock to the place where the columns were moving. The routes of German prisoners of war were cordoned off by armed soldiers who kept order, as Stalin ordered that no incidents should occur. The Germans themselves were accompanied by both foot guards and a convoy on horseback. In total, over 12 thousand NKVD officers took part in supporting Operation Big Waltz.
In the morning, the Germans were once again examined at the hippodrome, where they began to be lined up in columns according to their rank. The column was headed by captured generals, followed by colonels, lieutenant colonels and more junior ranks. Last came the privates - the most mass group prisoners of war. Generals and high-ranking officers walked “in full regalia” - with awards and in normal uniform. The rank and file walked in whatever clothes they had, they were not given captured uniforms, and they walked in the clothes in which they were captured.
At 11 am the procession of the column began. Their route ran from the hippodrome along the Leningradskoye Shosse towards Mayakovsky Square (now Triumfalnaya Square). In the square the column split up. The largest group of 42 thousand prisoners of war and all the generals continued to march along the Garden Ring clockwise towards the Kursk station. The second group, which numbered about 15 thousand people, walked along the Garden Ring counterclockwise in the direction of the Kanatchikovo railway station.
Most of The Germans greeted the audience with silence. Only isolated shouts were heard from time to time. Several people tried to break through the cordon or throw stones at the Germans, but these actions were stopped by the guards.
Throughout the column, they were followed by watering machines that washed the asphalt. In general, the appearance of sprinklers on city streets was quite a rare occurrence during wartime. There are still different versions of why they were needed. A very popular version is that this was required for disinfection in order to prevent the possible spread of diseases.
However, this version is doubtful. Soviet doctors examined prisoners of war several times in preparation for the procession, precisely to prevent sick people from attending.
Therefore, most likely, this was a symbolic action of clearing the Moscow streets of the Germans who had desecrated them with their presence, who in wartime propaganda were very often called “Hitler’s evil spirits.”
The use of watering machines turned out to be a strong move; this element became one of the most memorable in this event.
The fate of the generals
By 7 p.m., the Germans were loaded into trains and sent east to prisoner-of-war camps. However, the generals were separated from general group and left in Butyrka prison to try to convince them to join the pro-Soviet Free Germany Committee and the Union of German Officers.
The fates of the generals who took part in the procession turned out differently. General Müller began collaborating with anti-fascist organizations in captivity, later returning to the GDR and serving as chief of staff of the army and deputy minister of defense.
General Bamler also began collaborating with Soviet organizations and, after returning to the GDR, worked for the Stasi.
General Ochsner was sentenced to 25 years in the camps for war crimes, but was pardoned and sent to the GDR in 1955. A similar fate awaited generals Traut, von Lützow and Gere.
General Hamann was executed shortly after the war. General Felkers died in captivity in early 1946.
Most of the generals returned to Germany in 1955.
This parade of the vanquished became one of the most significant events of military Moscow and was remembered for a long time by contemporaries. Organizing this procession required serious efforts, despite the fact that the war was still far from over. Life found out how the parade was prepared and why it was needed.
Operation "Bagration"
In mid-June 1944, Operation Bagration was launched - one of the largest offensive operations in the history of World War II. Soviet military leaders managed to surprise their German opponents, who were expecting a strike in the direction of Ukraine, but not Belarus. The largest-scale operation was prepared in such secrecy that the Germans did not suspect anything.
The operation was a great success. Already at the first stage, the Soviet troops managed to advance forward, and the Germans suffered serious losses. And the result of the operation was the defeat of Army Group Center, the most powerful German group in the USSR.
Operation Bagration became the most successful operation carried out by the Soviet army at that time. In addition to the liberation of Belarus from German troops, they suffered very significant losses. The strongest German Army Group Center was defeated. Soviet soldiers alone captured more than 150 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers and officers.
This was the greatest success since the beginning of the war. For comparison: 91.5 thousand German soldiers and officers were captured in Stalingrad. In addition, 21 generals were captured during the Belarusian campaign - almost the same number as during the previous three years of the war.
Of course, it was a success, and thanks to the fact that the danger of a turning point in the war had finally passed, the Soviet leadership wanted to demonstrate its achievements. And not only to Soviet citizens, but also to foreign journalists living in Moscow. A parade with such a large number of prisoners could convince even the most notorious skeptics of the success of the Soviet offensive.
In Stalingrad, many Germans also surrendered, but they were in such a state after a long encirclement that a quarter of them died from exhaustion and wounds in the first weeks of captivity. And the situation on the fronts was still alarming then.
But, among other things, there was also an important symbolic moment in the Moscow parade. It was planned to lead soldiers of Army Group Center through the streets of the Soviet capital. The same one that was supposed to take Moscow according to the German Barbarossa plan. It was these armies that stood near Moscow in the fall and winter of 1941.
Great Waltz
The organization of the parade of captured Germans in Moscow was carried out by the NKVD. The operation was called "The Great Waltz" - in honor of the popular American pre-war film. This film was very popular in the pre-war USSR and was one of the most beloved American films of Stalin himself, who regularly watched it.
The operation was very labor-intensive. It was necessary to deliver to the Soviet capital more than fifty thousand German prisoners of war who, for health reasons, were able to take part in the procession. The task was partially made easier by the fact that the trains with German prisoners of war were on their way. As a rule, their route to prisoner-of-war camps in most cases passed through Moscow.
The prisoners were examined by doctors in order to weed out the sick and wounded who could not take part in the parade, which was required in order to prevent possible epidemics, both among the prisoners of war themselves and among Moscow spectators.
Trains with German prisoners of war began arriving at the Begovaya and Belorusskaya-Tovarnaya railway stations on July 14. There they were examined again by doctors. Next, the convoy detachments transferred the German columns to the Moscow Hippodrome and the Dynamo stadium.
Even among military and party officials, not everyone was aware of the upcoming parade. The operation was carried out in secrecy.
On the evening of July 16, 19 captured German generals were brought to the capital. They are an important component of the procession, since they are the ones who will lead the column of prisoners.
Parade of the Vanquished
In the early morning of July 17, a short message from the chief of the Moscow police was read on the radio, announcing that at 11 a.m. 57,600 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers taken prisoner would be escorted through the center of the capital. In this regard, some streets in the city center will be blocked. The message was transmitted twice: at 7 and 8 am.
In the morning, Muscovites began to flock to the place where the columns were moving. The routes of German prisoners of war were cordoned off by armed soldiers who kept order, as Stalin ordered that no incidents should occur. The Germans themselves were accompanied by both foot guards and a convoy on horseback. In total, over 12 thousand NKVD officers took part in supporting Operation Big Waltz.
In the morning, the Germans were once again examined at the hippodrome, where they began to be lined up in columns according to their rank. The column was headed by captured generals, followed by colonels, lieutenant colonels and more junior ranks. Last came the privates - the largest group of prisoners of war. Generals and high-ranking officers walked “in full regalia” - with awards and in normal uniform. The rank and file walked in whatever clothes they had, they were not given captured uniforms, and they walked in the clothes in which they were captured.
At 11 am the procession of the column began. Their route ran from the hippodrome along the Leningradskoye Shosse towards Mayakovsky Square (now Triumfalnaya Square). In the square the column split up. The largest group of 42 thousand prisoners of war and all the generals continued to march along the Garden Ring clockwise towards the Kursk station. The second group, which numbered about 15 thousand people, walked along the Garden Ring counterclockwise in the direction of the Kanatchikovo railway station.
Most of the spectators greeted the Germans with silence. Only isolated shouts were heard from time to time. Several people tried to break through the cordon or throw stones at the Germans, but these actions were stopped by the guards.
Throughout the column, they were followed by watering machines that washed the asphalt. In general, the appearance of sprinklers on city streets was quite a rare occurrence during wartime. There are still different versions of why they were needed. A very popular version is that this was required for disinfection in order to prevent the possible spread of diseases.
However, this version is doubtful. Soviet doctors examined prisoners of war several times in preparation for the procession, precisely to prevent sick people from attending.
Therefore, most likely, this was a symbolic action of clearing the Moscow streets of the Germans who had desecrated them with their presence, who in wartime propaganda were very often called “Hitler’s evil spirits.”
The use of watering machines turned out to be a strong move; this element became one of the most memorable in this event.
The fate of the generals
By 7 p.m., the Germans were loaded into trains and sent east to prisoner-of-war camps. However, the generals were separated from the general group and left in Butyrka prison to try to convince them to join the pro-Soviet Free Germany Committee and the Union of German Officers.
The fates of the generals who took part in the procession turned out differently. General Müller began collaborating with anti-fascist organizations in captivity, later returning to the GDR and serving as chief of staff of the army and deputy minister of defense.
General Bamler also began collaborating with Soviet organizations and, after returning to the GDR, worked for the Stasi.
General Ochsner was sentenced to 25 years in the camps for war crimes, but was pardoned and sent to the GDR in 1955. A similar fate awaited generals Traut, von Lützow and Gere.
General Hamann was executed shortly after the war. General Felkers died in captivity in early 1946.
Most of the generals returned to Germany in 1955.
This parade rightfully stands out from all the solemn military processions and reviews in the history of mankind. After all, it was not soldiers of the regular army who took part in it, but soldiers who fought in the occupied territory in partisan detachments of Belarus.
The Belarusian land was liberated from the German occupiers in the summer of 1944 during the rapid offensive of our army during Operation Bagration. The Belarusian partisans provided great assistance to the advancing troops.
By the time of the liberation of Belarus and its capital Minsk, 1,255 partisan detachments, numbering about 370 thousand fighters, were fighting on the territory of the republic. During the occupation, the partisans of Belarus derailed 11,128 enemy trains and 34 armored trains, destroyed 29 railway stations and 948 enemy garrisons, blew up 819 railway and 4,710 other bridges, and destroyed 939 German military warehouses.
The Soviet army liberated Minsk on July 3, 1944, and almost immediately numerous partisan detachments began to gather in the war-ravaged capital of Belarus. After the expulsion of the invaders from their native land, the former fighters of the “partisan front” had to either join the regular army or begin work to restore peaceful life in the liberated territory. But before disbanding the partisan detachments forever, the leaders of Belarus and the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement decided to hold a real partisan parade in Minsk.
By the evening of July 15, 1944, 20 partisan brigades from the Minsk region, 9 brigades from the Baranovichi (now Brest) region and one from the Vileika (now Molodechensk) region - a total of more than 30 thousand people - had gathered in the capital of Belarus. On the eve of the parade, many of its participants were awarded medals “Partisans of the Patriotic War” - for most of those who fought behind the front line, this was the first state award in their lives.
The partisans gathered in the capital of Belarus for a reason; along the way they cleared the surrounding forests of defeated German troops. This is how Ivan Pavlovich Bokhan, a native of the village of Skobino in the Minsk region, then a 17-year-old partisan fighter whose parents were shot by the occupiers, recalled this:
“Two days before the arrival of the Red Army, we liberated Kopyl, defeated the garrison and captured the city... Our brigade was transferred from the Kopyl region to Minsk. There, a large German group was surrounded, some were taken prisoner, and some fled. The task of our brigade is to catch these groups on the road to Minsk. That's how we went. We get up in the morning, we go, and you look at the smoke in the forest. You approach - 4-5 Germans are sitting by the fire. They immediately: “Halt!” If he just grabs a weapon, we kill him right away... We came to Minsk. On July 16, 1944, a partisan parade took place in which I participated. It was an indescribable sight - how many partisans there were!”
By 9 am on July 16, 1944, 30 thousand partisans lined up on a field in the bend of the Svisloch River for the parade and 50 thousand residents of Minsk who survived the occupation gathered. At the parade there was a large delegation of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, led by the commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, Army General Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky - it was his troops who liberated the capital of Belarus from the Germans.
This is how one of its participants, a fighter of the Kommunar partisan detachment Vasily Morokhovich, recalled the partisan parade:
“Overgrown and emaciated partisans marched between the destroyed and burned houses of Minsk. In their hands they had the most amazing collection of weapons from the then fighting armies, dotted with weapons that blacksmiths had made in the forests. They were greeted with delight, they walked proudly with awards on their chests! They were winners!”
Partisan equipment, mainly German trophies, also took part in the parade. But there were also samples with an amazing fate - for example, the ZIS-21 truck with a gas generator engine capable of running on wood. First, it was captured by the advancing Germans, and then hijacked by Belarusian partisans - the German truck driver Hans Kulyas went over to the side of the partisans and remained in our country after the war.
Another very unusual participant in the unprecedented parade walked among the partisans - a goat named Malysh. In 1943, after the defeat of the German garrison at Kurenets station, the Borba partisan detachment from the People's Avengers brigade, among other trophies, took with them a goat. The animal was supposed to go to the partisans for lunch, but the fighters liked it and soon the goat, nicknamed Baby, became the favorite and mascot of the partisan detachment “Struggle”.
Vasily Petrovich Davzhonak, a 19-year-old fighter in the “Struggle” detachment in 1944, recalled this unusual companion to the partisans:
“The baby endured all the hardships of field life with us, we practically ate, slept with him... even fought! Once there was a major skirmish with the Germans near the village of Okolovo, not far from Pleschenitsy. I remember this battle very well; at that time I was number two in the machine gun crew - supplying cartridges. Throughout the battle, the Kid did not leave us. Moreover, he acted very competently: as soon as the Germans opened heavy fire, he calmly retreated under cover, behind a pine tree, waited, and then came out again and carefully watched the progress of the battle.”
However, the goat was not only a talisman - during walks through the forests, he carried a loaded bag with medicines. Together with a partisan detachment, on July 16, 1944, Malysh was among the participants in an unusual parade.
“We decided that Baby deserved to be with us at this solemn moment. - Vasily Davzhonak recalled. “The partisans from our detachment cleaned him thoroughly and dressed him in a ribbon decorated with German orders. Hitler's awards went to us as a trophy when we captured a German staff vehicle - we decided that the right place for them was on the Kid's neck. The parade began, and our dressed up goat immediately took his usual place - in front of the column. I remember that I noticed how Chernyakhovsky looked in surprise at our “pet” and, animatedly gesticulating, was talking about something to his assistants. In general, in my opinion, the management liked our initiative...”
It was assumed that the Kid would pass unnoticed inside the column, but during the ceremonial march, the fighting goat, having escaped from the hands of those accompanying him, settled down next to the command of the detachment, causing wild delight among the spectators. Decorated with captured Nazi crosses, the Kid was captured by the cameraman filming the parade and remained in history forever.
Almost immediately a legend arose that the goat in German orders was specially invented by Soviet propaganda. In reality, this was the initiative of ordinary victorious partisans, thus expressing their contempt for the defeated occupiers.
The partisan parade on July 16, 1944 in Minsk rightfully went down in history as the brightest symbol of the victory of the fraternal peoples of Russia and Belarus over an external enemy.