24. Combat activity of partisans and underground fighters.

A mass struggle against the invaders unfolded on the territory of Belarus. The leadership of the partisan and underground movement was entrusted to the underground committees of the CPB, and not to special military operational bodies. To create a network of such committees under the conditions of a brutal occupation regime, firstly, it took time, secondly, the Nazis had previously developed actions directed precisely against the party underground, and thirdly, the hastily created underground had no experience and suffered huge losses.

Among the first, independently emerged, was the Pinsk partisan detachment under the command of V.Z. Korzh. On the territory of the Oktyabrsky district of the Polesye region, a detachment led by T.P. Bumazhkov and F.I. Pavlovsky actively operated, who in August 1941 became the first partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union. In total, in the second half of 1941, about 60 detachments and groups arose independently. The main part of the partisan formations was created in a centralized manner. A network of underground centers, organizations and groups was created. The Minsk underground was active, carrying out the murder of the Gauleiter of Belarus V. Kube; an underground organization at the large railway junction Orsha, headed by K. Zaslonov. By the end of 1941, 247 partisan detachments and underground groups were organized and operated in Belarus.

However, in the first months of the war, the partisans did not have the necessary training, material support, interaction between themselves and with the command of the Red Army.

The victory of the Soviet troops near Moscow had a huge impact on the rise of the partisan and underground movement. To guide all the partisan forces on May 30, 1942, the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement was created at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, which was headed by the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) P.K. Ponomarenko. Somewhat later, the Belarusian, Ukrainian and other headquarters of the partisan movement were created.

The main forms of partisan struggle were as follows.

1. Creation of partisan zones - territories controlled by partisans, where Soviet power was restored, Soviet laws were in effect, enterprises and schools were operating. The first such zone arose at the beginning of 1942 on the territory of the Oktyabrsky district of the Polesye region. At the end of 1943, the partisans already controlled about 58% of the territory of the republic. There were more than 20 partisan zones: Lyubanskaya, Borisovsko-Begomlskaya, Klichevskaya, Polotsko-Lepelskaya, Surazhskaya, etc. In order to eliminate partisan zones, the Nazis carried out punitive actions. So, in order to destroy the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone, the invaders carried out 5 such actions. The largest of them was carried out in April-May 1944. 60 thousand soldiers and officers, 235 guns, 150 tanks, 75 aircraft were sent against 17 thousand partisans. The fighting lasted 25 days, and only after the order of the command did the partisans leave their positions, breaking through to the Minsk and Vilna regions. At the site of the breakthrough of the partisans, the memorial complex "Breakthrough" was erected.

2. Subversive activities of partisans. One of the main activities of the Belarusian partisans was operations on railways, highways and dirt roads, waterways, the destruction of bases and communication lines.

One of the largest partisan operations for the simultaneous massive destruction of the enemy's railway communications was called the "rail war". The first stage of the "rail war" - in August-September 1943 during the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Kursk. The second stage of the "rail war" codenamed "Concert" was held from mid-September to early November 1943, when the Red Army had already entered the territory of Belarus. During the first and second stages, 211 thousand railway rails were blown up, 295 railway bridges were destroyed. The third stage of the "rail war" began on the night of June 20, 1944, on the eve of Operation Bagration, and continued until the complete liberation of Belarus.

3. Partisan raids. In order to expand the partisan movement, disrupt the activities of the occupying authorities, collect intelligence information and conduct propaganda and agitation among the population, raids of partisan formations were carried out behind enemy lines. One of the first was a ring sledge raid (along a closed route with a return to the former place of deployment) in March 1942 through the regions of Minsk, Pinsk and Polesye regions. The most significant was the raid in the autumn of 1943 to the west of Belarus, in which 12 partisan brigades and 14 detachments with a total number of 7 thousand people took part.

4. Propaganda and agitation among the population. It was from her that the scope of resistance to the invaders largely depended. Various forms of agitation and propaganda activities were used among the population: conversations, meetings, rallies, production and distribution of underground newspapers, leaflets, appeals. In the partisan formations there were groups of distributors of illegal literature, agitators and propagandists.

In total, 1255 partisan detachments (370 thousand people) operated on the territory of Belarus, 70 thousand people in the underground. Together with them, the struggle was waged by the majority of the population, which by all means resisted the military, economic and political measures of the occupiers, supporting the partisans and underground fighters.

Simultaneously with the partisan struggle, an underground anti-fascist movement was unfolding in cities and other settlements. Like partisan formations, underground fighters carried out sabotage, military operations (destruction of enemy manpower and military equipment), committed sabotage, conducted reconnaissance, and carried out propaganda work among the population.

The Minsk underground, despite the heavy losses it suffered in the fall of 1941, in March-May and September-October 1942, continued to operate. More than 9 thousand people fought in its composition, among them more than 1 thousand communists and 2 thousand Komsomol members, as well as anti-fascists from foreign countries. Over 1,500 acts of sabotage were carried out in Minsk during the occupation, including the murder of the General Commissar of Belarus V. Kube. For courage and heroism in the fight against the Nazi invaders in 1974 Minsk was awarded the honorary title of "Hero City".

On the night of July 30, 1943, the underground workers of the city of Osipovichi committed one of the largest acts of sabotage of the Second World War at the railway junction. Komsomolets F. Krylovich blew up a train with fuel with two magnetic mines. The fire lasted 10 hours, as a result, 4 enemy echelons (including one with Tiger tanks), 31 fuel tanks and 63 wagons with shells, bombs, and mines were completely destroyed.

In Vitebsk in 1941-1942. there were 66 underground groups. One of them was headed by V. 3. Khoruzhaya, sent here in September 1942 by the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement. On November 13, 1942, the Nazis seized and, after long interrogations, tortured her and other underground workers. V. 3. Khoruzhey was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In Gomel, underground groups at the railway junction, the locomotive car repair plant, the lumber mill, the city power plant, and other enterprises of the city waged an active fight against the enemy. Over 550 patriots acted as part of 56 organizations.

In the occupied Mogilev in the spring of 1942, about 40 groups (more than 400 people) united in the underground organization "Committee for Assistance to the Red Army", which was headed by a local teacher K. Yu. Matte. The Committee coordinated the activities of a group of railway workers, teachers, workers of a bakery, an auto repair plant, an artificial silk factory, employees of the regional hospital, former military personnel, etc. Thanks to vigilance, secrecy and a successful organization structure, the Mogilev underground managed to avoid mass failures and arrests for a long time.

Anti-fascist organizations also operated in the western regions of Belarus. They were created on the initiative of the communists, former activists of the KPZB, Komsomol members, and other patriots. In May 1942, the District Belarusian Anti-Fascist Committee of the Baranovichi Region was created. In the autumn of 1942, under the leadership of this committee, more than 260 underground members fought against the invaders.

The combat exploits of the Obol underground fighters became widely known. The underground Komsomol organization "Young Avengers" at the Obol railway station in the Vitebsk region was created in the spring of 1942. It consisted of about 40 people. This organization was headed by a former worker of the Vitebsk factory "The Banner of Industrialization", a Komsomol member E. Zenkova. Young underground workers committed 21 acts of sabotage: they burned a flax mill, a sawmill, a power plant, several bridges, obtained and handed over weapons, medicines, valuable intelligence to the partisans, distributed leaflets, reports from the Sovinformburo, etc. After the war, 3. Portnova (posthumously) and E. Zenkova were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

More than 70,000 underground workers fought in the occupied territory of Belarus. The youth prevailed among Belarusian patriots. Boys and girls up to 26 years of age accounted for over 54% of the Belarusian partisans. More than 7 thousand teachers and 34 thousand students participated in the partisan movement, of which about 5 thousand were pioneers. In the fight against the enemy, about 45 thousand partisans and many underground fighters died. For example, out of 1,500 underground workers in Vitebsk, every third died. Together with the partisans and underground fighters, the majority of the civilian population fought against the enemy. The struggle in the occupied territory of Belarus against the Nazi invaders was nationwide.

Simultaneously with the armed partisan struggle, underground anti-fascist activities were unfolding in cities and other settlements. The patriots who remained there, despite the terror, did not let the enemy down. They sabotaged the economic, political and military activities of the invaders, committed numerous acts of sabotage.

This is what the directive of the Central Committee of the CP(b)B of June 30, 1941 "On the transition to underground work of party organizations in areas occupied by the enemy" was oriented towards. Attention was drawn to the fact that the partisan struggle should be in the field of view and be conducted under the direct supervision of secret underground structures.

More than 1,200 communists were left behind enemy lines alone for organizational and administrative activities, including 8 secretaries of regional committees; 120 secretaries of city and district party committees. In total, more than 8,500 communists remained for illegal work in Belarus.

Like the partisan formations, the emerging underground immediately independently began sabotage, military and political activities. In Minsk, already in the second half of 1941, underground workers blew up warehouses with weapons and military equipment, workshops and workshops for the repair of military equipment, food, destroyed enemy officials, soldiers and officers. In December 1941, during intense fighting near Moscow, they carried out a successful sabotage at the railway junction: the result of it was that instead of 90-100 echelons per day, only 5-6 were sent to the front.

The occupation administration in Minsk received information about the active sabotage and combat activities of the underground of Brest, Grodno, Mozyr, Vitebsk, Gomel. In November 1941, the Gomel underground

T.S. Borodin, R.I. Timofeenko, Ya.B. Shilov planted explosives and a time bomb in the restaurant. When German officers gathered there to celebrate the successes of the Wehrmacht troops near Moscow, a powerful explosion was heard. Dozens of officers and a general were destroyed.

At the railway junction in the city of Orsha, the group of K.S. Zaslonov effectively operated. In December 1941, she disabled several dozen steam locomotives with briquette-coal mines: some of them were blown up and frozen at the station, others exploded on the way to the front. Describing the situation in the front line, the Orsha SD security group reported to its leadership: “sabotage on the Minsk-Orsha railway line has become so frequent that you can’t describe each of them. Not a single day passes without one or several sabotage being committed.”

After the battle near Moscow, the underground struggle in the cities and towns of Belarus intensified. An undoubted role in this was played by the strengthening of the ties between the underground and the population, partisan detachments and groups, and the establishment of links between the leading underground centers and the mainland. Underground fighters passed valuable intelligence behind the front line, and help with weapons and mine-explosive equipment was sent back through the airfields of partisan formations.

Minsk underground workers in 1942 focused on mass propaganda work among the inhabitants of the city, sabotage, and intelligence gathering. Along with others, a group of underground BPI students was active in Minsk, which later became part of an underground organization headed by a former party worker S.A. Romanovsky. In September 1942, members of this group, BPI students Vyacheslav Chernov and Eduard Umetsky, blew up the officer's casino of the German aviation headquarters. As a result of sabotage, more than 30 Nazi pilot officers were killed and wounded.

In March-April 1942, the Nazis dealt a heavy blow to the Minsk underground. More than 400 people were arrested, including members of the underground city committee of the party S.G. Zayats (Zaitsev), I.P. Kozinets, R.M. Semenov. On May 7, they, along with 27 other patriots, were hanged. On the same day, another 251 people were shot.

Nevertheless, the Minsk underground continued to operate. The remaining at large members of the city party committee and activists carried out a structural reorganization, 5 underground district party committees were created, a number of underground groups at enterprises and institutions. However, in September-October 1942, the Minsk underground suffered another blow. Hundreds of patriots were arrested, most were put to death. Among the dead were the secretary of the underground city committee of the party G.K. Kovalev, members of the city committee D.A. Korotkevich, B.K. Nikiforov, K.I. , I.I. Matusevich, M.A. Shiraev, leaders of underground groups L.E. Odintsov, M.A. Bogdanov, E.M. Baranov and others.

Nevertheless, the underground continued to operate. More than 9,000 people fought the enemy in the ranks of the Minsk underground, including about 1,000 communists and 1,500 Komsomol members. Over 1500 acts of sabotage were committed in Minsk during the occupation, during one of them Gauleiter V. Kube was destroyed.

In Vitebsk in 1941-1942. there were 56 underground groups. One of them in 1942 was led by V.Z. Khoruzhaya, who was sent here by the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement. On November 13, 1942, the Nazis seized and, after lengthy interrogations, tortured her, as well as S.S. Pankova,

E.S. Suranov, the Vorobyov family. Posthumously, VZ Khoruzhey was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The underground movement in Osipovichi, Borisov, Bobruisk, Zhlobin, Mozyr, Kalinkovichi and other cities and towns of Belarus has gained wide scope. In fact, there was not a single sufficiently large railway station in the republic where patriots would not operate.

The underground workers at the Osipovichi railway station acted boldly and decisively. On the night of July 30, 1943, they committed one of the largest acts of sabotage of the Second World War. The head of one of the underground groups, Komsomol member Fyodor Krylovich, while working at the railway station on the night shift, planted two magnetic mines under the echelon with fuel, which was supposed to move towards Gomel. However, the unexpected happened. The partisans committed sabotage on the railway and as a result there was an accumulation of trains at the station. The train with fuel was transferred to the so-called Mogilev Park, where there were three more trains with ammunition and a train with Tiger tanks. After the explosion of mines, a fire raged at the station for about 10 hours, which was accompanied by explosions of shells and air bombs. As a result of the operation, 4 echelons were completely destroyed, including one with tanks, 31 fuel tanks, 63 wagons with ammunition.

The underground Komsomol organization "Young Avengers" was created at the railway station "Obol" in the Vitebsk region in the spring of 1942. It was headed by a former worker of the Vitebsk factory "The Banner of Industrialization", Komsomol member Efrosinya Zenkova. The underground group included 40 people. Young underground workers committed 21 acts of sabotage, handing over weapons, medicines, intelligence to the partisans, and distributing leaflets. After the arrest, N.A. Azolina, M.P. Alekseeva, N.M. Davydova, Efrosinya Zenkova’s mother Marfa Alexandrovna, F.F. Slyshankova and others were tortured to death. After the war, Efrosinya Zenkova and Zinaida Portnova (posthumously) were awarded the title of Heroes of the Soviet Union.

In western Belarus, there were also mass anti-fascist organizations created on the initiative and under the leadership of the communists, former members of the KPZB, and other patriots. In May 1942, on the basis of the underground groups of the Vasilishsky, Shchuchinsky, Radunsky and Skidelsky districts, the “District Belarusian Anti-Fascist Committee of the Baranovichi Region” was created. It was headed by G.M. Kartukhin, A.I. Ivanov, A.F. Mankovich and B.I. Gordeychik. By the autumn of 1942, under the leadership of the district committee, more than 260 underground workers were fighting the invaders.

An important role in the development of the anti-fascist movement in the Brest region belonged to the "Committee to Combat the German Occupants", created in May 1942 on the initiative of Communist Party members P.P. Urbanovich, M.E. Krishtopovich, I.I. Zhizhka. The Committee did not limit its activities only to the Brest region, but extended its influence to a number of districts of the Baranovichi and Belostok regions.

In Gomel, groups at the railway junction, the locomotive repair plant, the lumber mill and other enterprises of the city - more than 400 people in total - were actively fighting the enemy. Their activities were managed by the operational center consisting of T.S. Borodin, I.B. Shilov, G.I. Timofeenko.

The anti-fascist struggle in occupied Mogilev did not stop for a single day. In the spring of 1942, about 40 groups, more than 400 people, united in the underground organization "Red Army Relief Committee".

An analysis of such a historical phenomenon during the Great Patriotic War as the activity of the anti-fascist underground on the territory of Belarus temporarily occupied by the Germans indicates that the underground from the beginning to the end of its existence (and 70 thousand people passed through it) was closely connected with the masses, relied on their continued support. Most of the Belarusian patriots who took part in the partisan and underground movement were young people under the age of 26. A significant part of the population, representatives of different social strata and nationalities, participated in the fight against the invaders. In organizing this struggle, the communists played a significant role, who were behind enemy lines and enjoyed the trust of the local population. Evidence of this is the fact that during the three years of enemy occupation, more than 12.5 thousand patriots joined the party directly on the occupied territory of Belarus.

For heroism and courage, 140 thousand Belarusian partisans and underground workers were awarded orders and medals, 88 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Tens of thousands of patriots gave their lives for the freedom of the motherland.

Chapter 6

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

Restoration of Soviet power in the occupied territories. The partisans tried to raise an uprising among Soviet citizens who were under the yoke of the Germans.

Life of partisans

The worst of all for the Soviet partisans, who were forced to hide in the forests and mountains, had to be in winter. Before that, not a single partisan movement in the world had faced the problem of cold - in addition to the difficulties of survival, the problem of camouflage was added. The partisans left footprints in the snow, and the vegetation no longer hid their hiding places. Winter dwellings often harmed the mobility of partisans: in the Crimea, they built mostly ground dwellings like wigwams. In other areas, dugouts predominated. Many partisan headquarters had a radio station, through which he contacted Moscow and transmitted news to the local population in the occupied territories. With the help of radio, the command ordered the partisans, and they, in turn, coordinated air strikes and provided intelligence information. There were also women among the partisans - if for the Germans, who thought of a woman only in the kitchen, this was unacceptable, then the Soviets in every possible way agitated the weaker sex to participate in the partisan war. Female scouts did not fall under the suspicion of enemies, female doctors and radio operators helped with sabotage, and some brave women even took part in hostilities. It is also known about officer privileges - if there was a woman in the detachment, she often became the “camping wife” of the commanders. Sometimes everything happened the other way around and wives instead of husbands commanded and intervened in military matters - such a mess the higher authorities tried to stop.

rail war

The "Second Front", as the German invaders called the partisans, played a huge role in the destruction of the enemy. In Belarus in 1943 there was a decree “On the destruction of the enemy’s railway communications by the method of rail warfare” - the partisans had to wage the so-called rail war, undermining trains, bridges and spoiling enemy tracks in every possible way. During the operations "Rail War" and "Concert" in Belarus, the movement of trains was stopped for 15-30 days, and the army and equipment of the enemy were also destroyed. Undermining enemy formations even in the face of a shortage of explosives, the partisans destroyed more than 70 bridges and killed 30,000 German fighters. On the first night of Operation Rail War alone, 42,000 rails were destroyed. It is believed that over the entire period of the war, the partisans destroyed about 18 thousand enemy units, which is a truly colossal figure. In many ways, these achievements became a reality thanks to the invention of the partisan craftsman T.E. Shavgulidze - in field conditions, he built a special wedge that derailed trains: the train ran into a wedge, which was attached to the tracks in a few minutes, then the wheel was moved from the inside to the outside of the rail, and the train was completely destroyed, which did not happen even after mine explosions .

Guerrilla gunsmiths

Partisan gunsmiths The partisan brigades were mainly armed with light machine guns, machine guns and carbines. However, there were detachments with mortars or artillery. The partisans armed themselves with Soviets and often captured weapons, but this was not enough in the conditions of war behind enemy lines. The partisans launched a large-scale production of handicraft weapons and even tanks. Local workers created special secret workshops - with primitive equipment and a small set of tools, however, amateur engineers and technicians managed to create excellent examples of parts for weapons from scrap metal and improvised parts.

In addition to repair, the partisans were also engaged in design work: “A large number of improvised mines, machine guns and partisan grenades have an original solution for both the entire structure as a whole and its individual components. Not limited to inventions of a “local” nature, the partisans sent a large number of inventions and rationalization proposals to the mainland. The most popular handicraft weapons were homemade PPSh submachine guns - the first of them was made in the Razgrom partisan brigade near Minsk in 1942.

The partisans also made "surprises" with explosives and unexpected varieties of mines with a special detonator, the secret of which was known only to their own. "People's Avengers" easily repaired even undermined German tanks and even organized artillery battalions from repaired mortars. Partisan engineers even made grenade launchers.

Partisan detachments

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

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

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

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

According to various sources, up to several tens of thousands of minors took part in the hostilities during the Great Patriotic War. "Sons of the regiment", pioneer heroes - they fought and died on a par with adults. For military merits, they were awarded orders and medals. The images of some of them were used in Soviet propaganda as symbols of courage and loyalty to the motherland.

Five underage fighters of the Great Patriotic War were awarded the highest award - the title of Hero of the USSR. All - posthumously, remaining in textbooks and books as children and adolescents. All Soviet schoolchildren knew these heroes by name.

Member of the partisan detachment named after the 25th anniversary of October, intelligence officer of the headquarters of the 200th partisan brigade named after Rokossovsky in the occupied territory of the Byelorussian SSR.

Marat was born in 1929 in the village of Stankovo, Minsk Region, Belarus, and managed to finish the 4th grade of a rural school. Before the war, his parents were arrested on charges of sabotage and "Trotskyism", numerous children were "scattered" among their grandparents. But the Kazeev family did not become angry with the Soviet authorities: In 1941, when Belarus became an occupied territory, Anna Kazei, the wife of the "enemy of the people" and the mother of little Marat and Ariadne, hid the wounded partisans, for which she was executed by the Germans. And the brother and sister went to the partisans. Ariadne was subsequently evacuated, but Marat remained in the detachment.

Along with his senior comrades, he went to reconnaissance - both alone and with a group. Participated in raids. Undermined the echelons. For the battle in January 1943, when, wounded, he raised his comrades to attack and made his way through the enemy ring, Marat received the medal "For Courage".

And in May 1944, while performing another assignment near the village of Khoromitsky, Minsk Region, a 14-year-old soldier died. Returning from a mission together with the intelligence commander, they stumbled upon the Germans. The commander was killed immediately, and Marat, firing back, lay down in a hollow. There was nowhere to leave in an open field, and there was no opportunity - the teenager was seriously wounded in the arm. While there were cartridges, he kept the defense, and when the store was empty, he took the last weapon - two grenades from his belt. He threw one at the Germans immediately, and waited with the second: when the enemies came very close, he blew himself up along with them.

In 1965, Marat Kazei was awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.

Partisan scout in the Karmelyuk detachment, the youngest Hero of the USSR.

Valya was born in 1930 in the village of Khmelevka, Shepetovsky district, Kamenetz-Podolsk region of Ukraine. Before the war he completed five classes. In a village occupied by German troops, the boy secretly collected weapons and ammunition and handed them over to the partisans. And he waged his own little war, as he understood it: he drew and pasted caricatures of the Nazis in prominent places.

Since 1942, he contacted the Shepetovskaya underground party organization and carried out its intelligence assignments. And in the fall of the same year, Valya and his fellow boys received their first real combat mission: to eliminate the head of the field gendarmerie.

"The roar of the engines grew louder - the cars were approaching. The faces of the soldiers were already clearly visible. Sweat was dripping from their foreheads, half-covered with green helmets. Some soldiers carelessly took off their helmets. The front car caught up with the bushes behind which the boys hid. Valya got up, counting the seconds to himself The car drove past, an armored car was already against him. Then he rose to his full height and, shouting "Fire!", threw two grenades one after the other ... Simultaneously, explosions sounded from the left and right. Both cars stopped, the front one caught fire. The soldiers quickly jumped to the ground , rushed into the ditch and from there opened indiscriminate fire from machine guns, "- this is how the Soviet textbook describes this first battle. Valya then fulfilled the task of the partisans: the head of the gendarmerie, Lieutenant Franz Koenig and seven German soldiers died. About 30 people were injured.

In October 1943, the young fighter reconnoitered the location of the underground telephone cable of the Nazi headquarters, which was soon blown up. Valya also participated in the destruction of six railway echelons and a warehouse.

On October 29, 1943, while on duty, Valya noticed that the punishers had raided the detachment. Having killed a fascist officer with a pistol, the teenager raised the alarm, and the partisans had time to prepare for battle. On February 16, 1944, 5 days after his 14th birthday, in the battle for the city of Izyaslav, Kamenetz-Podolsky, now Khmelnitsky region, the scout was mortally wounded and died the next day.

In 1958, Valentin Kotik was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Lenya Golikov, 16 years old

Scout of the 67th detachment of the 4th Leningrad partisan brigade.

Born in 1926 in the village of Lukino, Parfinsky District, Novgorod Region. When the war began, he got a rifle and joined the partisans. Thin, small in stature, he looked even younger than all 14 years old. Under the guise of a beggar, Lenya walked around the villages, collecting the necessary data on the location of the fascist troops and the number of their military equipment, and then passed this information on to the partisans.

In 1942 he joined the detachment. “Participated in 27 combat operations, exterminated 78 German soldiers and officers, blew up 2 railway and 12 highway bridges, blew up 9 vehicles with ammunition ... troops Richard Wirtz, heading from Pskov to Luga, "- such data is contained in his award leaflet.

In the regional military archive, Golikov's original report with a story about the circumstances of this battle has been preserved:

"In the evening of 08/12/42, we, 6 partisans, got out on the Pskov-Luga highway and lay down not far from the village of Varnitsa. There was no movement at night. we were, the car was quieter. Partizan Vasiliev threw an anti-tank grenade, but missed. The second grenade was thrown by Alexander Petrov from a ditch, hit a beam. The car did not immediately stop, but went another 20 meters and almost caught up with us. Two officers jumped out of the car. I fired a burst from a machine gun. Did not hit. The officer sitting at the wheel ran across the ditch towards the forest. I fired several bursts from my PPSh. Hit the enemy in the neck and back. Petrov began to shoot at the second officer, who kept looking back, shouting and fired back. Petrov killed this officer with a rifle. Then the two of them ran to the first wounded officer. They tore off their shoulder straps, took a briefcase, documents. There was still a heavy suitcase in the car. We barely dragged it into the bushes (150 meters from the highway). not at the car, we heard an alarm, ringing, screaming in a neighboring village. Grabbing a briefcase, shoulder straps and three trophy pistols, we ran to our own ... ".

For this feat, Lenya was presented with the highest government award - the Gold Star medal and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. But I didn't manage to get them. From December 1942 to January 1943, the partisan detachment, in which Golikov was located, left the encirclement with fierce battles. Only a few managed to survive, but Leni was not among them: he died in battle with a Nazi punitive detachment on January 24, 1943 near the village of Ostraya Luka, Pskov Region, before he was 17 years old.

Sasha Chekalin, 16 years old

Member of the partisan detachment "Forward" of the Tula region.

Born in 1925 in the village of Peskovatskoye, now the Suvorov district of the Tula region. Before the start of the war, he graduated from 8 classes. After the occupation of his native village by Nazi troops in October 1941, he joined the fighter partisan detachment "Forward", where he managed to serve for just over a month.

By November 1941, the partisan detachment had inflicted significant damage on the Nazis: warehouses burned, cars exploded on mines, enemy trains went downhill, sentries and patrols disappeared without a trace. Once a group of partisans, including Sasha Chekalin, ambushed the road to the town of Likhvin (Tula region). A car appeared in the distance. A minute passed - and the explosion blew the car apart. Behind her passed and exploded several more cars. One of them, crowded with soldiers, tried to slip through. But the grenade thrown by Sasha Chekalin destroyed her too.

In early November 1941, Sasha caught a cold and fell ill. The commissioner allowed him to lie down with a trusted person in the nearest village. But there was a traitor who betrayed him. At night, the Nazis broke into the house where the sick partisan lay. Chekalin managed to grab the prepared grenade and throw it, but it did not explode ... After several days of torture, the Nazis hanged the teenager on the central Likhvin square and for more than 20 days did not allow him to remove his corpse from the gallows. And only when the city was liberated from the invaders, the combat associates of the partisan Chekalin buried him with military honors.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Chekalin was awarded in 1942.

Zina Portnova, 17 years old

Member of the underground Komsomol youth organization "Young Avengers", scout of the Voroshilov partisan detachment on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR.

Born in 1926 in Leningrad, she graduated from 7 classes there and went on vacation to her relatives in the village of Zuya, Vitebsk region, Belarus for the summer holidays. There she found the war.

In 1942, she joined the Obol underground Komsomol youth organization "Young Avengers" and actively participated in the distribution of leaflets among the population and sabotage against the invaders.

Since August 1943, Zina has been a scout of the Voroshilov partisan detachment. In December 1943, she was given the task of identifying the reasons for the failure of the Young Avengers organization and establishing contact with the underground. But upon returning to the detachment, Zina was arrested.

During the interrogation, the girl grabbed the pistol of the Nazi investigator from the table, shot him and two other Nazis, tried to escape, but was captured.

From the book "Zina Portnova" by the Soviet writer Vasily Smirnov: "The most sophisticated executioners in cruel torture interrogated her ... They promised to save her life if only the young partisan confessed everything, named the names of all the underground and partisans known to her. And again the Gestapo met with the astonishing their unshakable firmness of this stubborn girl, who in their protocols was called a “Soviet bandit.” Zina, exhausted by torture, refused to answer questions, hoping that she would be killed faster in this way. was taken to another interrogation-torture, threw herself under the wheels of a passing truck, but the car was stopped, the girl was pulled out from under the wheels and again taken for interrogation…”.

On January 10, 1944, in the village of Goryany, now the Shumilinsky district of the Vitebsk region of Belarus, 17-year-old Zina was shot.

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Portnova Zinaida in 1958.

The largest partisan operations

By the end of 1942, the heroic struggle of the Soviet people behind enemy lines acquired a mass character and became truly nationwide. Hundreds of thousands of patriots fought against the invaders as part of partisan formations, underground organizations and groups, actively participated in disrupting the economic, political and military measures of the occupiers. Communications, especially railways, became the main object of the partisans' combat activity, which, in its scope, acquired strategic importance.

For the first time in the history of wars, the partisans carried out, according to a single plan, a number of large-scale operations to disable enemy railway communications over a large area, which were closely connected in time and objects with the actions of the Red Army and reduced the capacity of railways by 35 - 40%.

In the winter of 1942-1943, when the Red Army smashed the Nazi troops on the Volga, the Caucasus, the Middle and Upper Don, they launched their attacks on the railways, along which the enemy threw up reserves to the front. In February 1943, in the sections Bryansk - Karachev, Bryansk - Gomel, they undermined several railway bridges, including the bridge over the Desna, along which from 25 to 40 echelons passed daily to the front and the same number of trains back - with broken military units, equipment and stolen property.

Strong blows were dealt to enemy communications during the summer-autumn campaign. This made it difficult for the enemy to regroup, transport reserves and military equipment, which was a huge help to the Red Army.

Grandiose in scale, in terms of the number of forces involved and the results achieved, was a partisan operation that went down in history under the name "Rail War". It was planned by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement, prepared for a long time and comprehensively, and was called upon to assist the offensive of the Red Army on the Kursk salient. The main goal of the operation was to paralyze the transportation of the Nazis by railroads by simultaneous massive undermining of the rails. The partisans of the Leningrad, Kalinin, Smolensk, Oryol regions, Belarus and partly Ukraine were involved in this operation.

Operation "Rail War" began on the night of August 3, 1943. 2 air transport divisions, 12 separate air regiments, and several long-range aviation regiments operated to transfer explosives and other means behind enemy lines. Exploration was active.

On the very first night, 42,000 rails were blown up. Mass explosions continued throughout August and the first half of September. As a result of the operation, about 215 thousand rails and many enemy military trains were blown up (see Appendix 2, Photos 6 and 7), in some areas the movement of enemy trains was paralyzed for 3-15 days. .

On September 19, a new operation began, which received the code name "Concert". This operation was closely connected with the offensive of Soviet troops in Ukraine. The partisans of Karelia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Crimea joined the operation. Even stronger blows followed. So, if 170 partisan brigades, detachments and groups, numbering about 100 thousand people, took part in Operation Rail War, then 193 brigades and detachments numbering more than 120 thousand people took part in Operation Concert.

Strikes on the railways were combined with attacks on individual garrisons and enemy units, with ambushes on highways and dirt roads, as well as with disruption of the Nazis' river transport. During 1943, about 11,000 enemy trains were blown up, 6,000 steam locomotives, about 40,000 wagons and platforms were disabled and damaged, more than 22,000 vehicles were destroyed, and more than 900 railway bridges were destroyed.

Powerful partisan blows along the entire line of the Soviet-German front shocked the enemy. Soviet patriots not only inflicted great damage on the enemy, disorganized and paralyzed railway traffic, but also demoralized the occupation apparatus.

The main significance of the fighting of the partisans along the lines of communication was that the Nazis were forced to divert large forces to guard communications. In the areas of active partisan operations, the Nazis were forced to provide each 100-kilometer section of the railway with up to two regiments. If we take into account that in the spring of 1943 the enemy operated 3,000 km of railways on the occupied Soviet territory, it becomes quite obvious what enormous difficulties the partisans created for him.

During September - November 1943, a special operation "Desert" was carried out to destroy the water supply system on railway communications. As a result, 43 pump stations were put out of action. But due to the lack of mine-explosive means, it was not possible to completely paralyze the work of the enemy's railway communications.

A vivid example of the interaction between the army and partisans is the Belarusian operation of 1944 (see Appendix 2, Map 2). The purpose of the operation was to defeat Army Group Center and liberate Belarus. The operation involved 49 detachments with a total number of over 143 thousand people. Most of the reserves of the fascist army group "Center" were shackled by the fight against them.

On the night of June 20, the partisans carried out a mass attack on all the most important communications. As a result, traffic on some sections of the railway track was completely stopped. Many of them the enemy could not recover. During the offensive, the partisans continued to strike at communications, and only on June 26-28 blew up 147 echelons.

Soviet partisans abroad

When units of the Red Army liberated the territory of the Soviet Union, the foreign campaign of Soviet troops began. Along with the troops, partisan detachments also move abroad. Now they helped local anti-fascist organizations in the deployment and intensification of the partisan struggle. Detachments were active in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. Soviet partisans took an active part in the Slovak National Uprising and fought together with the Czechs and Slovaks against a common enemy until the end of the war. The deployment of operational groups to the enemy rear continued until the end of the war.

Partisan formations successfully carried out sabotage abroad. In Czechoslovakia, for example, a detachment under the command of A.I. Svyatogorova (operational group "Foreign") on the night of November 23, 1944, blew up a section of the power line that fed the chemical plant in Novaki, as a result of which the plant did not work for more than a day. The next night, a mine block and an air compressor at a coal mine were blown up, and a number of other acts of sabotage were committed. It should be noted that the Soviet partisans successfully operated abroad even after the disbandment of the TsSHPD. For example, they became the detonators of the Slovak national liberation uprising, and in September 1944 they tore the enemy's Eastern Front into two parts. Separate partisan formations reached the Rhine itself ...

The partisan detachments were joined by local patriots and defectors from the enemy troops, who were actively involved in the armed struggle against the Nazis. For example, a group of 19 people under the command of N.V. Volkova, after 3 weeks, grew into a partisan brigade "Death to fascism" numbering about 600 people.

One of the organizers of the Resistance Movement in France was the Soviet lieutenant Porik V.V. (Hero of the USSR and National Hero of France). And Private Poletaev F.A. organized a partisan division in Italy (Hero of the Soviet Union and twice Hero of the Resistance in Italy).

Interestingly, foreigners also took an active part in the partisan movement on the territory of the USSR. About 7 thousand Poles participated in the partisan movement, hundreds of Czechs and Slovaks were in the Ukrainian detachments. Great assistance to the Soviet partisans was provided by the Slovak partisans in the Crimea and Odessa. Separate Romanian soldiers and small groups also managed to get to the Crimean partisans.

More than 700 Hungarians became partisans of many formations and brigades in Ukraine and Belarus, more than a hundred of them fought in the formations of S.A. Kovpak and A.N. Saburov (Paul Erden, Jozsef Mayer and others).

Yugoslavs, French, Belgians, Serbs, Croats fought in various formations. In the Rivne region in the detachment of D.N. Medvedev fought the Bulgarians.

VI. The struggle of the Germans with the "partisan gangs"

Since 1942, the partisans began to pose a serious problem for the Wehrmacht and the occupation administration in the East. If at the beginning of the war, as stated in the report of the chief of the German Secret Field Police, "the villagers saw the German soldiers as liberators from the Bolshevik yoke and expected them to liquidate the collective farm and a fair division of the land", then later "a certain change in mood began to be noticed more and more" .

The partisans skillfully used the discontent of the population to attract new fighters. If at first the majority of the population behaved passively towards partisan recruiters, then oral propaganda, the situation at the front and, last but not least, numerous Bolshevik leaflets, with which certain areas were simply bombarded and which, in case of refusal to fight the Germans, threatened with death, gave soon a strong impetus to the development of the partisan movement

The secret field police were concerned not only by the sharp change in mood among the inhabitants of the occupied territories, but also by their peculiar "methods" of warfare. Many of the detainees were carrying poisons, which they took during interrogations. Poisons were used to poison well water and mixed with food in German canteens and bakeries.

The Germans began an active struggle against the partisan movement. They made provocative speeches in the villages, used brutal measures against all those who had a positive attitude towards the partisans, created large police forces and military formations to fight the partisans.

Here are the instructions given to their soldiers by the high command of the German army: "... In order to fundamentally suppress discontent, it is necessary to immediately take the most cruel measures on the first occasion. ... It should be borne in mind that human life in occupied countries is absolutely worthless and that a frightening effect is possible only through the use of unusual cruelty ... "

On September 16, 1941, the order of the Commander-in-Chief of the German Army came into force, which stated:

"1. Whoever shelters a Red Army soldier or partisan, or provides him with food, or helps in any way (by giving him, for example, some information), he is punished by death by hanging ...

2. In the event that an attack, explosion or other damage to any structures of the German troops is carried out, such as: railroad tracks, wires, etc., then those responsible for the edification of others will be hanged at the crime scene. If the perpetrators are not found immediately, then hostages will be taken from the population. These hostages will be hanged if within 24 hours it is not possible to capture the perpetrators suspected of committing an atrocity."

These documents were not just a declaration. They were instructions for the destruction of the Soviet people. On the territory of the occupied regions of the RSFSR, the Nazis destroyed 1.7 million civilians and prisoners of war, that is, more than the partisans themselves!

Since the autumn of 1941, fighter teams, detachments and battalions to fight partisans were created under many German divisions. Where the partisan movement assumed a wide scope already in the first months of the war, the Germans used whole formations against them. Usually the Germans sought to surround the partisan detachment and attacked it in the last hours of the night or at dawn. If for some reason the detachment was located in a populated area, the Germans opened a sudden fire with incendiary firearms or signal cartridges on thatched roofs, trying to start a fire. Then mortar fire usually opened. And then followed the attack of the German shock troops from all sides.

However, large-scale military operations against partisans were not always successful. An example is the military operations of the Nazis "Michael" and "Drake", carried out in the autumn of 1942 in Belarus and Ukraine. The tanks in the forest showed their unsuitability, got stuck in the swamps, and the noise of their engines warned the partisans of the danger, as it was heard for several kilometers. Well, the personnel of the German battalions did not feel much desire to attack partisans without the support of tanks.

One of the most important forms of fighting partisans was the creation of specially trained detachments of German "jägers" (see Appendix 3, Photo 1). Patient huntsmen, trained to survive in the forest, carefully disguised in shaggy camouflage for the time being, kept covert surveillance of everything that happened in their area of ​​responsibility. It became known who, when, from which settlement went to the forest, it was established by the traces of what he was doing there. Knowledge of the situation allowed the rangers to significantly harm the resistance.

The Germans made extensive use of aviation to detect partisan detachments. Their planes flew slowly and low over the area, carefully scanning it, watching the traffic on the roads, the fires and the smoke. In addition, since August 1943, continuous bombing of the partisan zone by aircraft began. Indeed, the last year and a half of the war, the Luftwaffe used the Eastern Front as a kind of training ground for graduates of flight schools. Partisan zones, on the other hand, were an ideal target for training. The partisans, of course, did not have either fighters or anti-aircraft guns, and it was possible to shoot down an aircraft from a rifle or machine gun only at a very low altitude.

On December 16, 1942, the German command issued a special directive "On the fight against gangs" (as the Nazis called the detachments of Soviet partisans). It contained a call for the most brutal reprisal against the Soviet people. The population living in the partisan zones was declared to be gangsters or sympathizers of bandits, outlawed and subject to execution or total deportation into slavery (see Appendix 3, Photos 2 and 3).

All the punitive organs of Germany were mobilized to fight the partisans, but the Gestapo was most widely used for this purpose. The functions of the Gestapo included the fight against sabotage, sabotage, the partisan movement, the search for intelligence officers of the Red Army, the identification of communists, Komsomol members, NKVD officers, as well as the conduct of punitive expeditions.

But all these measures did not give the desired effect, the partisan movement grew. With the accumulation of experience in the fight against partisans, the German command changes its tactics. The Germans realized the senselessness of the brutal wholesale extermination of the inhabitants of the occupied territories and decided to act more sophisticated and cunning.

Far from idealizing the German army and their comrades from the SS and SD, the Gestapo warned: “A necessary prerequisite for the fight against partisans is the suppression of all acts of arbitrariness and senseless cruelty towards the Russian population. The confidence of the Russian population in the German army can only be strengthened as a result of fair treatment, energetic implementation of economic measures, purposeful propaganda of the fight against banditry ... "

Thus, the first task was to win the trust of the population, in particular through propaganda. The Nazis sought to discredit and slander the partisan movement, to intimidate the population and force them to stop helping the partisans. In addition to the fact that the Germans distributed leaflets and posters on this topic, the commanders of military units were instructed to personally speak to the population with speeches.

In difficult battles, victory was won over the enemy at the front. The unequal struggle and the forest life of the partisans were hard and difficult. But in perhaps the most difficult conditions, those Soviet people who waged a secret struggle against the fascist invaders, our underground workers, had to act.
They could not think of an open struggle, they lived among the occupiers, knowing that the sinister Gestapo was always watching them, that their every careless step was lurked by obvious and secret accomplices of the enemy. I had to hide my hatred in every possible way, constantly pretend, sometimes hide even from relatives and friends, and sometimes play the role of a fascist servant, receiving the contempt of the people for this. And at the same time, the underground always knew that if he fails, gets caught, hunted down or extradited by a traitor, then a terrible end awaits him - beatings and torture, all the sophisticated torments with which the Nazi executioners tried to "untie the tongue" of their victims.
And yet people consciously and boldly went for it. Literally throughout the occupied territory of Belarus, Ukraine, in the Baltic Republics, in enemy-occupied regions of the Russian Federation, anti-fascist underground organizations acted fearlessly, making their important contribution to the nationwide struggle, to our future victory.
The heroic Soviet people devoted to their Motherland, but for the most part inexperienced conspirators, underground workers often suffered defeat in a deadly competition with an experienced, powerful apparatus of the Gestapo and police, issued by provocateurs and traitors, they died like martyrs, under torture, fearlessly went to execution, nothing without staining your conscience.
The core and backbone of a wide underground network were communists and Komsomol members. As a rule, such a core was formed in advance by party organizations in regions, cities, districts even before the arrival of the occupiers. But it often happened that due to the inexperience of the organizers, due to unforeseen circumstances or because of direct betrayal, this primary network of the underground turned out to be unraveled by the enemy, disrupted and paralyzed. And then there were always other responsible or ordinary communists and Komsomol members or non-party people who created a new network of anti-fascist organizations, restored the militant party underground, raised the people to a secret struggle.
Let us recall some heroic pages in the history of the underground movement.
The struggle of the population of Belarus against the German invaders began from the first days of the war. It was carried out in various forms - from failure to comply with the measures of the occupation authorities to armed resistance. The underground struggle against the invaders was carried out in close connection with the partisan movement and with the support of the population.
The underground distributed proclamations, leaflets, Soviet newspapers, exposed fascist propaganda, reported on the state of affairs at the front, and also sabotaged the actions of the invaders, destroyed the invaders and their accomplices, systematically carried out acts of sabotage at various objects, collected intelligence information for the partisans and the Red Army, released prisoners of war and sent them and the civilian population to the partisans. Underground organizations operated in almost all fairly large settlements of occupied Belarus.
The Komsomol of Belarus took an active part in the underground struggle. About 3,000 Komsomol and 335 youth organizations and groups operated underground behind enemy lines. The struggle against the invaders was led by the underground city committee of the CP(b)B, created in November 1941 at a meeting of representatives of underground organizations and groups. 9,000 people fought in the Minsk underground. In total, more than 1,500 acts of sabotage were carried out, at least 2,200 prisoners of war and several thousand civilians were transferred to the partisans.
In July 1943, in order to improve the work of underground organizations, to increase attention to them from the side of the Komsomol bodies, the secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League sent a special directive letter to the localities. It stated that the first secretaries of the underground city committees and district committees of the Komsomol were directly responsible for the activities of the territorial organizations. They were given personal responsibility for establishing and maintaining contact with the underground, providing contacts for each organization, and ensuring the strictest secrecy. Only the first secretary had the right to know the names, appearances and other information about all the underground workers operating in the city or district.
In 1943, the territorial Komsomol underground of Belarus expanded and became organizationally stronger in all cities and many other settlements controlled by the Nazi invaders. For example, the Komsomol youth organization "Young Avengers", created in 1942 in the village. Obol of the Sirotinsky district of the Vitebsk region, by the summer of 1943 had grown to 40 people, covering the neighboring villages of Zui, Mostishche, Ushaly, Ferma. It was headed by a Komsomol committee of 9 people, whose secretary was S. Zenkova. New organizations also grew rapidly. In the settlements of the Lepel region at the beginning of 1943 there were 14 underground Komsomol organizations and groups, uniting 40 people. Despite the fact that, due to the threat of failure, many underground workers, and in some cases entire organizations, went into partisan detachments, by the end of the year, 44 territorial organizations operated in the settlements of the region under the leadership of the Komsomol district committee (Secretary A.V. Pashkevich). , in which there were 184 patriots. The same situation was observed in other districts of the region. The Komsomol youth underground continued to develop actively in Vitebsk, Orsha, and Polotsk.
The territorial Komsomol and youth underground in the Gomel region has significantly expanded. Only in the settlements of Dobrush, Zhlobin, Zhuravichy, Kormyansky, Svetilovichsky, Chechersky and Rogachevsky regions during the period from February to July 1943, 78 underground organizations arose, in which there were 242 people.
Many new underground groups and organizations arose in 1943 in other settlements of the Gomel, Mogilev and Polesye regions.
The territorial Komsomol and youth underground has grown significantly in the western regions of Belarus. In the Baranovichi region, by the end of 1943, it consisted of 92 Komsomol and 66 youth anti-fascist organizations. In 1943, the territorial Komsomol underground in Belarus, according to incomplete data, numbered about 2 thousand Komsomol and youth anti-fascist organizations, which consisted of over 8,800 people.
The underground was also active in Ukraine. Thus, in Western Ukraine, the anti-fascist movement developed largely spontaneously, through the formation of small, scattered groups of "ordinary" Soviet citizens. At the same time, the organization of the underground was extremely hampered by the activities of Ukrainian and Polish nationalist groups, as well as the Uniate Church, which openly supported the Nazis. It is clear that the conditions for underground work in Western Ukraine were much more difficult than in the East of the republic.
But there was at the same time a factor that contributed to such work. The core of the underground organizations were former members of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine and the Communist Party of Poland, who had extensive experience working in the underground, under the conditions of terror, which was carried out until 1939 in Poland.
By the end of 1941, Soviet underground workers were conducting propaganda work, receiving and distributing reports from the Sovinformburo among the population, and committing acts of sabotage and sabotage. Over time, disparate resistance groups began to establish connections and contacts among themselves. As a result, autumn
In 1942, separate groups of underground workers operating in the Lviv region united into a single organization - the "People's Guard". Many detachments of the "People's Guard" bore the name of Ivan Franko, and later this name was assigned to the entire organization as a whole. The number of "People's Guard" named after Ivan Franko reached 600 people. Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Belarusians, Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, representatives of other nationalities fought shoulder to shoulder in its ranks. The governing body of the "Guard" was the Military Council. Combat groups of the "People's Guard" operated not only in Lviv, but also in Vinniki (an eastern suburb of Lviv), Zolochev, Krasna, Rava-Russkaya, in Gorodok, Nesterovsky, Brodovsky, Kamyanka-Bugsky, Bussky and other districts and settlements of the region. "People's Guard" gradually extended its activities to the Stanislav, Ternopil and Drohobych regions. The organizers and leaders of the "People's Guard" were N.D. Berezin, V.A. Grushin, I.P. Vovk and others.
The organization managed to organize the production of leaflets and even periodicals. The circulation of individual issues of underground newspapers reached 1,000 copies. Newspapers were printed on a typewriter and multiplied using a rotator.
For example, here is the text of one of the leaflets of the "People's Guard" (translated into Russian): "Citizens! The hour of reckoning has come, go to battle with the invaders for the will of the people, for your native land! The accursed German chained our people in heavy chains. Our best lands were taken by a German pan, but our peasant is forced to work them under the yoke of the heaviest panshchina. Thousands of young men and girls - the color and hope of the people - were driven by the occupier to hard labor in Germany, to factories, factories and mines. There they ruin their young life from overwork and hunger. At the hour when the enemy begins to choke in conquered Europe, stand up for the sacred struggle against the eternal enemy of the Slavic peoples ... ”(not earlier than 1942).
The soldiers of the detachments and combat groups of the "People's Guard" killed and wounded about 1,500 servicemen of the Nazi army and accomplices of the fascist nationalists, derailed 30 echelons of the enemy with manpower, equipment and fuel, disabled about 20 railway and road bridges, destroyed more than 10 industrial enterprises that worked for the occupiers, 6 warehouses of military equipment, 6 aircraft, 20 tanks were disabled or damaged, several dozen cars ...
Members of the "People's Guard" were involved in reconnaissance in the interests of the advancing in 1944.
to Lviv of the 1st Ukrainian Front. And after the liberation of the city, the “Lvivtsy” detachment was formed from the “People's Guards”, led by P.F. Yakubovich. The detachment was airlifted to Czechoslovakia, where he fought the Nazis until the very end of the war.
In the autumn of 1942, in the occupied Krasnodon (Lugansk region of the Ukrainian SSR), groups of young patriots spontaneously arose who decided to fight the German invaders. Then these groups united into a single organization, which was called the "Young Guard". The subversive, partisan activities of the "Young Guard" were successful: attacks on German cars, distribution of leaflets, arson of the labor exchange, assistance to the families of Red Army soldiers, release of prisoners of war, hanging red flags, disruption of the launch of the only mine restored by the Germans, preparation of an armed seizure of power in the city before the entry of our troops. By the end of December 1942, the "Young Guard" included about a hundred people, the organization's arsenal was "15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 10 pistols, 300 grenades, about 15 thousand rounds of ammunition, 65 kilograms of explosives", but most importantly - the Young Guard were everywhere. But on January 1, 1943, through stupidity, several members of the organization got into the police. The ensuing betrayal led to the fact that by January 10, 1943, almost the entire "Young Guard" was in prison. After inhuman torture and abuse, the Young Guards were executed: shot or thrown alive into the pit of mine No. 5 in Krasnodon. Eleven members of the Young Guard managed to escape arrest, but today none of them are alive.
In the autumn of 1943, the Young Guards were awarded. Five were awarded the title of "Hero of the Soviet Union". In Krasnodon, the Young Guard Museum was created. In 1946
the feat of young people was highlighted by Alexander Fadeev in the novel "The Young Guard". In 1948, director Sergei Gerasimov made a film of the same name based on the novel (pictured). Krasnodon became the center of patriotic education of youth. Thousands of pilgrims from all over the world came here.