Partisan detachments in the wwii. Heroes of the great patriotic war

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

Konstantin Chekhovich

Konstantin Chekhovich - organizer and sole 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, as part of a sabotage group, he was sent to the rear of the enemy. 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, having checked the bodies, were convinced that he had only a concussion and Konstantin Aleksandrovich was captured. He managed to escape from it two weeks later, and after another week he got in touch with the partisans of the 7th Leningrad Brigade, where he was ordered to infiltrate the city of Porkhov to the Germans for sabotage work.

Having achieved some favor with the Nazis, Chekhovich received the position of administrator at a local cinema. This cinema became a mass grave for 760 soldiers and officers of Germany - an inconspicuous "administrator" planted bombs on the supporting columns and the roof, so that during the explosion the whole structure was formed like a house of cards.

Matvey Kuzmich Kuzmin

The oldest winner of the "Partisan of the Patriotic War" and "Hero of the Soviet Union" awards. He was awarded both awards posthumously, and at the time of the feat he was 83 years old.

The future partisan was born in the distant 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 alone - Matvey Kuzmich had 8 children from two different wives. He was engaged in hunting and fishing, and knew the area perfectly.

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 almost unlimited food. Kuzmin agreed. However, having seen the route of movement on the map, he sent his grandson Vasily to his destination in advance, so that he warned the Soviet troops. Matvey Kuzmich himself for a long time and confusedly led the frozen Germans through the forest and only in the morning led them out, not to the desired village, but to an ambush, where the soldiers of the Red Army 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 was also killed.

Efim Ilyich Osipenko

An experienced commander who fought during the Civil War, a real leader, Yefim Ilyich became the commander of a partisan detachment in the fall of 1941. Although the detachment is too loud a word: along with the commander there were only six of them. There were practically no weapons and ammunition, winter was approaching, and endless groupings of the German army were already approaching Moscow.

Realizing that it takes as much time as possible to prepare the defense of the capital, the partisans decided to blow up a strategically important section of the railway near Myshbor station. There were few explosives, there were no detonators at all, but Osipenko decided to detonate the bomb with a grenade. Silently and unnoticed, the group moved close to the railway tracks and set up 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 Yefim Ilyich himself hit the bomb with a pole from the railway sign. An explosion broke out and a long train with food and tanks went downhill. The partisan himself miraculously survived, however, completely lost his sight and was severely shell-shocked.

Leonid Golikov

He was one of the many teenage partisans of the Great Patriotic War, a Hero of the Soviet Union. Brigadier reconnaissance officer of the Leningrad partisan brigade, sowing panic and chaos in 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 vans with ammunition. He guarded and accompanied the convoy with food to besieged Leningrad.

Here is what Lenya Golikov himself wrote about his main feat in his report: “In the evening of August 12, 1942, we, 6 partisans, got out onto the Pskov-Luga highway and lay down near the village of Varnitsa. There was no movement at night. August a small car appeared. It was going fast, but at the bridge where we were, the car went quieter. Partizan Vasiliev threw an anti-tank grenade, missed. The second grenade was thrown by Petrov Alexander from the ditch, hit the traverse. The car did not stop immediately, but passed still 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 a machine gun. I missed. The officer who was driving ran across the ditch towards the forest. I gave several bursts from my PPSh Hit the enemy in the neck and back. Petrov began to shoot at the second officer, who all the time looked around, shouted and shot back. Petrov killed this officer with a rifle. Then the two of us ran to the first wounded officer. Ortfel, documents, it turned out to be the infantry general of the special weapons troops, that is, the engineering troops, Richard Wirtz, who was returning from a conference from Konigsberg to his corps in Luga. There was still 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, a ringing, a shout in the neighboring village. Grabbing a briefcase, shoulder straps and three captured pistols, we ran to our ... ”.

As it turned out, the teenager took out extremely important drawings and descriptions of new samples of German mines, maps of minefields, inspection reports to higher command. For this Golikov was presented to 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 punitive detachment of the Germans, 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 already 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 extermination 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 guerrilla warfare, Bumazhkov's detachment destroyed up to two hundred enemy vehicles and motorcycles, up to 20 warehouses with fodder and food were blown up or seized, while the number of captured officers and soldiers is estimated at several thousand. Bumazhkov died a heroic death when leaving the encirclement near the village of Orzhitsa, Poltava region.

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

Today is the holiday of the Great Victory and I could not stand aside while preparing for such a significant day. I wrote a short article for you about people who fought against Nazism, about well-known and not so great feats, about the stories of the military that surprised me, about patriotism, about the unity of the people, about a strong desire to win.

It is impossible to convey in words all that gratitude to the surviving and perished wars of our fatherland for our peaceful sky!

Eternal memory to you!

And thank you for our life!

Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Lieutenant Dmitry Komarov was the first and perhaps the only one to ram an entire armored train with his tank. This happened on June 25, 1944 near Cherny Brody in western Ukraine. At that time, the tank was hit and burned, but Dmitry Komarov, by all means, decided to stop the German train. To do this, he had to ram the train at full speed in a burning T-34 tank. By some miracle, Lieutenant Komarov managed to survive when all the crew members died.

- Nikolai Sirotinin accomplished an incredible feat alone against a whole column of German tanks. On July 17, 1941, Nikolai and his battalion commander were supposed to cover the retreat of their regiment. On a hillock near the bridge over the Dobrost River in Belarus, a gun was disguised right in the rye. When a convoy of armored vehicles appeared on the road, Nikolai skillfully knocked out the first tank in the convoy with the first shot, and the last one with the second shot, thereby creating a tank plug. The battalion commander was wounded, and since the task was completed, he retreated. But Nikolai refused to retreat, because there were still many unused shells left.

The battle lasted two and a half hours during which Nikolai Sirotinin destroyed 11 tanks, 6 armored personnel carriers and 57 soldiers and officers of the enemy army. For a long time the Germans could not determine the location of the gun and thought that a whole battery was fighting with them. By the time Nikolai's position was discovered, he had three shells left. The Germans offered Sirotinin to surrender, but he only responded with fire from his carbine and fired back from it to the last.

When it was all over, the Nazis themselves buried the twenty-year-old Red Army man with military honors and rifle volleys, paying tribute to his heroism.

Unfortunately, Nikolai never received the Hero due to the fact that a photograph was needed to complete the documents, and after his death not a single photograph remained.

For you, I am inserting a drawing of his colleague made from memory.

Partisans - heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Konstantin Chekhovich - organizer and sole performer of one of the largest partisan sabotage during the Great Patriotic War. Constantine was drafted into the army in the first months of the war and in August 1941, as part of a sabotage group, was sent to the rear of the enemy. But unfortunately, on the front line, the group was ambushed and out of five people only Chekhovich survived - he was captured. Two weeks later, Konstantin Chekhovich managed to escape and a week later got in touch with the partisans of the 7th Leningrad Brigade, where he was ordered to infiltrate the city of Porkhov, Pskov Region, to the Germans to carry out sabotage work.

In this city, having achieved some favor with the Germans, Chekhovich received the position of administrator at a local cinema.

It was this cinema that was blown up by Chekhovich's forces on November 13, 1943, right during a movie show, 760 German soldiers and officers were buried under the ruins. None of the Nazis could have thought that the modest administrator had been planting bombs on the supporting columns and the roof all this time, so that during the explosion, the whole structure took shape like a house of cards.

- Matvey Kuzmich Kuzmin is the oldest winner of the “Partisan of the Patriotic War” and “Hero of the Soviet Union” awards. He received the awards posthumously, but accomplished the feat at the age of 83. The Germans captured a village in the Pskov region where Matvey Kuzmich lived, and later occupied his house, where the commander of the German battalion settled. At the beginning of February 1942, this battalion commander ordered Matvey Kuzmich to be a guide and bring the German unit to the village of Pershino occupied by the Red Army, and in exchange for this he offered food. Kuzmin agreed, but after looking at the route of movement on the map, he sent his grandson Vasily to his destination, so that he would warn the Soviet troops. Matvey Kuzmich himself took the frozen Germans through the forest for a long time and confusedly and only in the morning led them out, not to the desired village, but to an ambush, where the warned soldiers of the Red Army had already taken up positions.

The invaders came under fire from machine-gun crews and lost about 80 people captured and killed, along with them died the hero-guide Matvey Kuzmich Kuzmin.

Children are heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Kazei Marat Ivanovich. The Nazis broke into the village where Marat lived with his mother and sister. And very soon the boy's mother was seized by the Germans and hanged for communication with the partisans. Together with his sister, Marat went to the partisans in the Stankovsky forest, Belarus. Marat became a scout, penetrated the enemy garrisons and obtained valuable information, thanks to which the partisans managed to develop an operation and defeat the fascist garrison in the city of Dzerzhinsk. Marat fearlessly participated in the battles, together with the demolitions he mined the railway. In his last battle, he participated on an equal basis with adults and fought to the last bullet, when he had only one grenade left, he let the enemies closer to him and blew them up with him. For courage and bravery, fifteen-year-old Marat was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and a monument to the young hero was erected in the city of Minsk.

- Zina Portnova came for summer holidays to the village of Zuya, Belarus, when the war began. An underground Komsomol-youth organization "Young Avengers" appeared here, where Zina joined at the beginning of the war. She helped distribute leaflets, conducted intelligence activities on the instructions of the partisan detachment. But in 1943, returning from a mission, in the village of Mostishche she was caught by the Germans on a tip from a traitor. The Nazis under torture tried to get at least some information from Zina, but in response they received only silence. During one of the interrogations, Zina, catching the moment, grabbed a pistol from the table and shot point-blank at the Gestapo. After killing two more Germans, Zina tried to escape, but could not - she was caught. After that, the Germans tortured the girl for more than a month, but she never gave up a single friend of hers. Having made an oath to the Motherland, Zina kept it.

On the morning of January 10, 1944, a gray-haired and blind girl was taken out to be shot. Zina was shot in the prison of the city of Polotsk, at that time she was 17 years old. Zina was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Women Heroes of the Great Patriotic War

- Ekaterina Zelenko. The only woman in the world who committed an aerial ram.

On September 12, 1941, on a Su-2 bomber, she entered into battle with the German Messers, and when her vehicle ran out of ammunition, Catherine destroyed the enemy fighter by performing an air ram. The pilot herself did not manage to survive in this battle. And only in 1990, Ekaterina Zelenko was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

- Manshuk Zhiengalievna Mametova voluntarily went to the front in August 1942 and died a little more than a year later for the honor and freedom of her native country. She was 20 years old.

On October 16, 1943, the battalion in which Manshuk served was ordered to repulse the enemy's counterattack. As soon as the Nazis tried to repulse the attack, they felt the fire from the machine gun of senior sergeant Mametova. The Germans retreated, leaving behind the centurion of their dead soldiers. Several more times the Germans tried to break through, but they were always met by fierce machine gun fire. At that moment, the girl noticed that two neighboring machine guns were silent - both machine gunners were killed. Then Manshuk, quickly crawling from one firing point to another, began to fire at the advancing enemies from three machine guns. Then the enemy transferred machine gun fire to the girl's position. Before her death, Manshuk managed to shower the fascists with a lead shower of bullets and this ensured the successful advance of our units. But the girl from the distant Kazakh Urda remained lying on the hillside, still squeezing the “maxim” trigger.

In 1944, Manshuk Mametova was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

author

Barbara

Creativity, work on the modern idea of ​​world outlook and constant search for answers

The Germans called the Soviet partisan detachments "the second front". The heroes-partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 played an important role in the approach of the Great Victory. 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 a foothold in 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 is a vivid example of partisan warfare. Belarus was the first to fall into the occupation, and the forests and swamps disposed to partisan methods of struggle.

In Belarus, the memory of the war, where partisan detachments played a significant role, is honored, the Minsk football club is called Partizan. The forum is where we are also talking 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, Constantine was sent to the rear of the enemy as part of a sabotage group. The group was ambushed, Chekhovich survived, but was captured by the Germans, from where he fled, two weeks later. Immediately after his escape, he contacted the partisans. Having received the assignment to carry out sabotage work, Konstantin got a job as an administrator at a local cinema. As a result of the explosion, the building of the local cinema buried more than seven hundred 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. This was a unique case of 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 military past - during the Civil War he fought with bandits, and for his participation in the First World War he was awarded three St. George's Crosses.

At the very beginning of the war, Minai Shmyrev created a partisan detachment, which included factory workers. The partisans destroyed German cars, fuel tanks, 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, and Minai Shmyrev was appointed to command it. The actions of the brigade liberated fifteen Belarusian villages, established and maintained a forty-kilometer zone for supplying and maintaining communication with numerous partisan detachments on the territory of Belarus.

Minaj Shmyrev received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1944. At the same time, all the relatives of the partisan commander, including four small children, were shot by the Nazis.

Before the war, Vladimir Molodtsov worked at a coal mine, having worked his way up from a worker to a 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 actions. He worked under a pseudonym - Badayev. The partisan detachment of Molodtsov-Badaev was stationed in the catacombs at. Destruction of enemy lines of communication, echelons, reconnaissance, sabotage in the port, battles with Romanians - this is what Badayev's partisan detachment became famous for. The Nazis threw huge forces to eliminate the detachment, they let 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 1942, he was shot by the Nazis. Vladimir Molodtsov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On February 2, 1943, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" was instituted, later it was taught a lesson by one and a half hundred heroes. Hero of the Soviet Union Matvey Kuzmin is the oldest recipient of a medal awarded to him posthumously. The future partisan of the war was born in 1858 in the Pskov province (serfdom was abolished three years after his birth). Before the war, Matvey Kuzmin led an isolated life, was not a member of a collective farm, was engaged in fishing, 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 the Red Army units were stationed. Matvey first sent his grandson along the route to warn the Soviet troops. The peasant himself led the Germans through the forest for a long time, and in the morning he led them to the ambush of the Red Army. Eighty Germans were killed, wounded and taken prisoner. The guide Matvey Kuzmin died in this battle.

The partisan detachment of Dmitry Medvedev was very famous. Dmitry Medvedev was born at the very end of the 19th century in the Oryol Province. During the Civil War he served on various fronts. Since 1920 he has been working 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 partisans - volunteers. Already in August 1941, Medvedev's group crossed the front line and ended up in the occupied territory. The detachment operated in the Bryansk region for about six months, during this time there were absolutely five dozen real military operations: the detonation of enemy trains, ambushes and shelling of convoys on the highway. At the same time, every day the detachment went on the 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 the Bryansk land and as an important unit behind enemy lines. In 1942, Medvedev's detachment, the backbone of which was partisans trained by him for sabotage work, became the center of resistance on the territory of occupied Ukraine (Rovno, Lutsk, Vinnitsa). For a year and ten months, Medvedev's detachment carried out the most important tasks. Among the achievements of the scouts - partisans - the transmitted messages about Hitler's headquarters in the Vinnitsa region, about the impending German offensive on the Kursk Bulge, about the preparation of an attempt on the life of the conference participants in Tehran (Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill). Medvedev's partisan unit conducted more than eighty military operations in Ukraine, destroyed and captured hundreds of German soldiers and officers, among whom were the highest Nazi ranks.

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 military operations of the patriots behind enemy lines.

The Soviet army suffered huge losses during the Great Patriotic War. And it's scary to imagine how many more people would have died without the help of the partisans, many of whom risked not only themselves, but also the lives of their loved ones for the sake of victory in a bloody war.

According to some estimates, from 1941 to 1944 there were about 6.2 thousand partisan detachments operating behind enemy lines, the number of which exceeded 1 million people. During the war years, they inflicted serious damage on the enemy: 20 thousand train wrecks, 2.5 thousand destroyed steam locomotives, 42 thousand blown up cars, 12 thousand bridges, 6 thousand tanks and armored vehicles that were destroyed and built, 1.1 thousand. blown up planes and about 600 thousand killed soldiers and officers.

On the Day of partisans and underground fighters, we decided to recall the names of the people who influenced the outcome of the Great Patriotic War.

"Red October"

Tikhon Pimenovich Bumazhkov is considered the organizer of one of the first partisan detachments. In June 1941, a meeting was convened in the Oktyabrsky District Committee of the Byelorussian SSR, at which Bumazhkov announced the German attack and called on citizens to join forces to repel the enemy. At the same time, a "fighter squad" was formed, which received the name "Red October".

Bumazhkov's memoirs indicate that initially the group consisted of 80 fighters. Having broken into platoons, they began military training: they learned disguise and the use of weapons, acquired "the necessary engineering knowledge", stocked up with bottles of fuel to destroy tanks, mined bridges and dug trenches.

Interacting with the Red Army, they struck at the rear of the opponent. One of the most memorable operations was the battle of Bobruisk. The aim of the "Red October" was the enemy headquarters, located in the village of Ozemlya. The plan was as follows: open fire from an armored train and simultaneously block all roads from the village so that the enemy could not escape. Operation was successfully completed. The partisans captured prisoners, two radio stations, important documents, and about a hundred pieces of equipment. Unfortunately, Bumazhkov died a few months after this operation. He died in November 1941, breaking out of the encirclement near the village of Orzhitsa.

Kovpak

There is hardly a commander of a partisan detachment whom the Germans feared as much as Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak. The courage of the military was noted during the First World War. For his participation in the Brusilov breakthrough, Emperor Nicholas II awarded him with two St. George's crosses. Nevertheless, in 1917, Kovpak chose the other side and joined the Red Army.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Kovpak led the Putivl partisan detachment, which instilled fear in the ranks of the enemy. One of the first clashes with the Germans took place in the Spadshchansky forest. After the loss of three tanks, which were captured by the Kovpak group, almost 3 thousand German soldiers, supported by artillery, went on the offensive. The battle lasted a day, but the Soviet partisans, despite the superior forces of the enemy, repulsed all attacks. The Germans retreated, leaving Kovpak as trophies with weapons and machine guns.

The most famous campaign of the Kovpakovites took place in June 1943. The Carpathian raid took place in difficult conditions: the detachment, finding itself in the rear of the enemy, was forced to move in open areas without cover and support. During the raid, the partisans covered about 2 thousand km. Almost 4 thousand Germans were wounded or killed, and 19 trains, over 50 bridges and warehouses were blown up. The campaign of the Kovpakites greatly helped the troops fighting on the Kursk Bulge. Thanks to the partisan operation, the Germans lost their supplies of equipment and troops, which provided our troops with an advantage in the battle.

During the Carpathian raid, Kovpak was wounded in the leg. The Soviet authorities decided not to risk the commander's health, and he never took part in hostilities anymore. For his service, he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and became one of two partisans who were twice awarded this award.

"Kovelsky knot"

The second commander of the partisan detachment, twice awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, was Alexei Fedorov. By March 1942, his group had 16 battles, during which about a thousand Germans were destroyed, several dozen bridges, five echelons, five warehouses were blown up and two factories were captured. Thanks to these merits, in May of the same year, Fedorov was awarded the first title of Hero of the USSR, and at the beginning of 1943 under his leadership there were already 12 partisan detachments, the number of which amounted to more than 5 thousand people.

One of the most important partisan operations during the war was the Kovel Knot mission. For eight months, Fedorov's detachment managed to destroy 549 enemy echelons with ammunition, fuel, equipment on the lines of the Kovel railway junction, and thus deprive the enemy of reinforcements.

In 1994, Fedorov was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR for the second time. In total, he participated in 158 battles, destroyed over 650 echelons, eight armored trains, 60 depots with fuel and ammunition.

Juvenile partisan

At the start of the war, Leonid Golikov was only 15 years old. A thin boy, whom many did not even let 14 years old, walked around the villages, collecting information about the location of the Germans and passing it on to the partisans. A year later, he himself joined the detachment. In total, Golikov participated in 27 military operations, destroyed 78 Germans, 12 highway bridges and blew up nine vehicles with ammunition.

The most famous feat of Golikov was committed on August 13, 1942. Together with other partisans, he blew up the car in which the German Major General Richard Wirtz was sitting. The documents found in the car were transferred to the Soviet headquarters: they contained minefield schemes, Wirtz's reports and other important papers.

However, Golikov did not live to see the end of the war. In January 1943, the detachment, which included a young man, was hiding from the German troops. They found shelter in the village of Ostraya Luka, located not far from the German garrison. Not wanting to attract attention, the partisans did not send sentries. But among the inhabitants there was a traitor who revealed to the enemy the location of the detachment. Some of the fighters managed to break out of the encirclement, but Golikov was not among them.

Cinema sabotage

Konstantin Chekhovich became the author of one of the largest acts of sabotage carried out during the war. In August 1941, together with four comrades, he went to the rear of the enemy. However, the operation failed: four were killed, and Chekhovich was captured. Nevertheless, he managed to escape and contact the Soviet command, which instructed him to infiltrate the Germans in the occupied city of Porkhov.

There he met his future wife, who bore him a son. At first, Chekhovich was engaged in repairing watches, then he got a job as an electrician at a local power plant, and later received the position of administrator at a local cinema. The famous sabotage took place in November 1943 during a screening of the film "Circus Artists". On that day, 700 Germans visited the cinema, including two generals. None of them suspected that the supporting columns and the roof of the building were mined. Few were saved as a result of the explosion. For the performance of this operation, Chekhovich was nominated for the title of Hero of the USSR.

The tragedy of Old Man Minai

In July 1941, Minai Filippovich Shmyrev, who by that time headed the Pudot cardboard factory, formed a partisan detachment from the workers. In a few months, they fought the enemy 27 times and inflicted significant damage on the enemy's troops. But the main feats followed a year later, when Shmyrev, known by the nickname Old Man Minai, together with the partisans, knocked the Germans out of 15 villages. Around the same time, under his command, the so-called Surazh Gate was created, which was a 40-kilometer zone through which weapons and food passed.

In February 1942, Shmyrev experienced a personal tragedy. The Germans captured his sister, mother-in-law (his wife died before the war) and the commander's four young children, promising to keep them alive if he surrendered. Shmyrev was in despair: the settlement in which his relatives were kept was fortified, so he could not go to the assault. And even if he decided to take such a step, there was a great risk that his family would still be executed.

The captives did not hope that the invaders would keep their word, so they prepared for the worst. Shmyrev's eldest daughter wrote a note and, with the help of a security guard, handed it over to her father. “Dad, worry about us, don't listen to anyone, don't go to the Germans. If they kill you, then we are powerless and we will not avenge you. And if they kill us, dad, then you will avenge us, ”wrote the 14-year-old girl.

Shmyrev did not manage to save those close to him - the Germans fulfilled their threat.

The partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War was massive. Inhabitants of the occupied territories in thousands went into partisans in order to fight the invader. Their bravery and well-coordinated actions against the enemy made it possible to significantly weaken him, which influenced the course of the war and brought the Soviet Union a great victory.

The partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War was a mass phenomenon in the occupied Nazi Germany territory of the USSR, which was characterized by the struggle of the people living in the occupied lands against the forces of the Wehrmacht.

Partisans are the main part of the anti-fascist movement, the Resistance of the Soviet people. Their actions, contrary to many judgments, 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 railroad communications, as well as to undermine the work of communication lines.

Interesting! As of 1944, over one million partisans operated on the territory of the occupied lands.

During the Soviet offensive, partisans joined the regular troops of the Red Army.

The 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 dated June 29, the first year of the war. On September 5, a wide list was developed, which formulated the main tasks for the fight in the rear of the 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 (as a rule, several dozen people) were deliberately thrown behind enemy lines in order to replenish the ranks of partisan groups.

The formation of partisan detachments was caused by the brutal Nazi orders, as well as the export of civilians from the territory occupied by the enemy to Germany for heavy 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 significantly intensified and began to wear a more organized order. At the same time, the interaction of the partisans with the regular troops of the Soviet Union (USSR) improved - they took part in battles together.

Often, ordinary peasants who did not have military training became the leaders of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War. Later, the Headquarters sent its own officers to command the detachments.

In the first months of the war, the partisans huddled together in small detachments of up to several dozen people. Less than six months later, there were hundreds of fighters in the detachments. When the Red Army went on the offensive, the detachments turned into whole brigades with thousands of defenders of the Soviet Union.

The largest detachments arose in the regions of Ukraine and Belarus, where the oppression of the Germans 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.

The small partisan detachments lacked heavy weapons — light weapons predominated: rifles;

• rifles;
• pistols;
• automatic machines;
• grenades;
• light machine guns.

Large brigades had mortars and other heavy weapons at their disposal, 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 on the lands of the Ukraine and the Byelorussian SSR.

A detachment of partisans in destroyed Minsk, photo 1944

Partisan brigades were mainly engaged in undermining railways, bridges and echelons, making the rapid transfer of troops, ammunition and provisions over long distances unproductive.

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 hostilities was to prevent the Germans from preparing their defenses, undermining their morale and inflicting such damage on their rear, from which it is difficult to recover. Undermining communications - mainly railways, bridges, killing officers, disabling communications, and much more seriously helped in the fight against the enemy. The confused enemy could not resist, and the Red Army won.

Initially, small (about 30 people) units of partisan detachments took part in large-scale offensive operations of the Soviet troops. Then, whole brigades poured into the ranks of the spacecraft, replenishing the reserves of the troops weakened by the battles.

As a conclusion, we can briefly highlight the main ways of fighting the Resistance brigades:

1. Sabotage work (pogroms were carried out in the rear of the German army) in any form - especially in relation to enemy trains.
2. Intelligence and counterintelligence.
3. Propaganda for the benefit of the communist party.
4. Combat assistance by the forces of the Red Army.
5. Elimination of traitors to the motherland - called collaborators.
6. Destruction of enemy combatants and officers.
7. Mobilization of the civilian population.
8. Maintaining Soviet power in the occupied regions.

Legalization of the movement of partisans

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; 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 directly controlled by the top leadership. The ranks of such brigades also consisted of 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 the aid of the Red Army. During any offensive spacecraft operation, the enemy had to expect a strike from the rear.

Signed operations

The Resistance forces have carried out hundreds or even thousands of operations in order to undermine the enemy's combat capability. The most notable of these was the "Concert" military operation.

More than a hundred thousand soldiers took part in this operation and it took place over a vast territory: in Belarus, Crimea, the Baltic states, in the Leningrad region, and so on.

The main goal is to destroy the enemy's railway communication so that he could not replenish reserves and supplies during the battle for the Dnieper.

As a result, the efficiency of the railways dropped by a catastrophic 40% for the enemy. The operation was terminated due to the lack of explosives - with more ammunition, the partisans could cause much significant damage.

After defeating the enemy on the Dnieper River, partisans began to massively participate in major operations, starting in 1944.

Geography and scale of movement

The Resistance troops gathered in areas where there were dense forests, gullies and swamps. In the steppe regions, the Germans easily searched for partisans and destroyed them. In difficult-to-pass areas, they were protected from the numerical advantage of the German.

One of the major centers of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War was located in Belarus.

Belarusian partisans in the forests terrified the enemy, attacking suddenly when the Germans could not repulse the attack, and then they also disappeared unnoticed.

Initially, the position of the partisans on the territory of Belarus was extremely deplorable. However, the victory near Moscow, and after 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 movement of the Resistance on the territory of Ukraine, especially in the Crimea.

The cruel attitude of the Germans towards the Ukrainian people forced people to leave en masse in the ranks of the Resistance. However, here the partisan resistance had its own characteristic features.

Very often the movement was directed not only against the Nazis, but also against the Soviet regime. This was especially evident on the territory of Western Ukraine, the local population saw the invasion of the Germans as a liberation from the Bolshevik regime, and en masse went over to the side of Germany.

Members of the partisan movement became national heroes, for example, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who died at the age of 18 in German captivity, becoming the Soviet Zhanna D'Ark.

The struggle of the population against fascist Germany was going on 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 sent to the rear of the enemy, which blew up tens of thousands of rails on the first night. 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 attacks of the partisans took on a massive character (warring groups were present on all fronts), the enemy could not react objectively and quickly - the German troops were in a panic.

In turn, this caused the executions of the population who provided assistance to the partisans - the Nazis destroyed entire villages. Such actions prompted even more people to join the ranks of 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 character - millions of civilians began to stand up for their homeland and brought it victory.

The resistance fighters not only undermined railways, warehouses and bridges - they took the Germans prisoner and turned them over to Soviet intelligence so that it would know the enemy's plans.

The hands of the Resistance seriously undermined the defensive ability of the Wehrmacht forces on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus, which simplified the offensive and reduced losses in the ranks of the spacecraft.

Partisan children

The phenomenon of children-partisans deserves special attention. School-age boys wanted to fight the invader. Among these heroes should be highlighted:

• 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 - they did everything to drive out the Nazis. Partisan children of the Great Patriotic War have done 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 that fought on the territory of Ukraine.

Sidor Kovpak was the person who inspired the people to confront the enemy. He was the commander of the largest partisan unit in Ukraine and under his command thousands of Germans were killed. In 1943, for his effective actions against the enemy, Kovpak was given the rank of major general.

Next to him is to put Alexei Fedorov, who also commanded a large unit. Fedorov operated on the territory of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. He was one of the most wanted guerrillas. Fedorov made a huge contribution to the development of the tactics of 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 to the end she showed courage and did not give the enemy the plans of the Soviet command. The girl went to the saboteurs despite the words of the commander that 95% of the entire composition would die during the operations. She was assigned the task of burning ten settlements in which German soldiers were based. The heroine did not succeed in completely fulfilling the order, since during the next arson she was noticed by a villager who handed the girl over to the Germans.

Zoya became symbols 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 instituted - the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War".

The first degree awards were often presented 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 deep rear without any support from the spacecraft forces.

As heroes of the war, partisans appeared in many Soviet films dedicated to military topics. Among the key films are the following:

Ascent (1976).
"Konstantin Zaslonov" (1949).
Trilogy "Duma about Kovpak", published from 1973 to 1976.
"Partisans in the steppes of Ukraine" (1943).
"In the woods near Kovel" (1984) and many others.
The aforementioned sources say that films about partisans began to be filmed during the hostilities - it was necessary for people to support this movement and join the ranks of the Resistance fighters.

In addition to films, partisans became heroes and many songs, ballads that illuminated their exploits and carried the news about them among the people.

Now streets, parks are named after famous partisans, thousands of monuments have been erected in all CIS countries and beyond. A striking example is Burma, where the feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya is honored.