The Germans called the Soviet partisan detachments the "second front". Heroes-partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 played an important role in bringing the Great Victory closer. The stories are known for years. Partisan detachments, in general, were spontaneous, but in many of them strict discipline was established, and the fighters took the partisan oath.

The main tasks of the partisan detachments were the destruction of the enemy's infrastructure in order to prevent them from gaining a foothold on our territory and the so-called "rail war" (the partisans of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 derailed about eighteen thousand trains).

The total number of underground partisans during the war was about one million people. Belarus is a prime example guerrilla war. Belarus was the first to fall into the occupation, and the forests and swamps were conducive to partisan methods of struggle.

In Belarus, the memory of that war is honored, where partisan detachments played a significant role, the Minsk football club is called Partizan. The forum goes, where we also talk about preserving the memory of the war.

The partisan movement was supported and partially coordinated by the authorities, and Marshal Kliment Voroshilov was appointed head of the partisan movement for two months.

Heroes of the partisans of the Great Patriotic War

Konstantin Chekhovich was born in Odessa, graduated from the Industrial Institute.

In the first months of the war, Konstantin was sent behind enemy lines as part of a sabotage group. The group was ambushed, Chekhovich survived, but was captured by the Germans, from where he fled two weeks later. Immediately after the escape, he contacted the partisans. Having received the task of carrying out sabotage work, Konstantin got a job as an administrator at a local cinema. The building of the local cinema as a result of the explosion 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. It 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 civil war fought with bandits, and for 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 vehicles, 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, Minai Shmyrev was appointed to command it. By the actions of the brigade, fifteen Belarusian villages were liberated, a forty-kilometer zone was established and maintained for supplying and maintaining communications with numerous partisan detachments on the territory of Belarus.

Minai Shmyrev in 1944 received the title of Hero Soviet Union. 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 worker to deputy director of the mine. In 1934 he graduated from the Central School of the NKVD. At the beginning of the war, in July 1941, he was sent to Odessa to carry out reconnaissance and sabotage operations. He worked under a pseudonym - Badaev. The partisan detachment of Molodtsov-Badaev was stationed in the catacombs near. The destruction of enemy communication lines, echelons, reconnaissance, sabotage in the port, battles with the Romanians - this is what Badaev's partisan detachment became famous for. The Nazis threw huge forces into the liquidation of the detachment, 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 of the same year, 1942, he was shot by the Nazis. Posthumously, Vladimir Molodtsov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On February 2, 1943, the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" was established, subsequently one and a half hundred heroes taught it a lesson. Hero of the Soviet Union Matvey Kuzmin is the oldest recipient of the medal awarded to him posthumously. The future partisan of the war was born in 1858 in the Pskov province (serfdom was abolished three years after his birth). Before the war, Matvey Kuzmin led an isolated life, was not a member of the collective farm, was engaged in fishing and hunting. The Germans came to the village where the peasant lived and occupied his house. Well, then - a feat, the beginning of which was given by Ivan Susanin. The Germans, in exchange for unlimited food, asked Kuzmin to be a guide and take German part to the village where the units of the Red Army 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 an ambush of the Red Army. Eighty Germans were killed, wounded and captured. Conductor 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 Orel 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 which time there were quite five dozen real military operations: blowing up 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 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, the detachment of Medvedev, the backbone of which consisted of partisans trained by him for sabotage work, became the center of resistance on the territory of occupied Ukraine (Rivne, Lutsk, Vinnitsa). For a year and ten months, Medvedev's detachment carried out the most important tasks. Among the achievements of partisan scouts are the transmitted messages about Hitler's headquarters in the Vinnitsa region, about the impending German offensive on Kursk Bulge, on the preparation of an assassination attempt on the participants in the meeting 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 retired 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 patriots behind enemy lines.

What price did its defenders pay for the liberation of the Motherland, who fought behind enemy lines

This is rarely remembered, but during the war years there was such a joke that sounded with a touch of pride: “Why should we wait until the Allies open a second front? We have been open for a long time! It's called the Partisan Front. If there is an exaggeration in this, it is a slight one. The partisans of the Great Patriotic War really were a real second front for the Nazis.

To imagine the scale of guerrilla warfare, it is enough to cite a few figures. By 1944, about 1.1 million people fought in partisan detachments and formations. The losses of the German side from the actions of the partisans amounted to several hundred thousand people - this number includes soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht (at least 40,000 people, even according to the scanty data of the German side), and all kinds of collaborators such as Vlasov, police, colonists and so on. Among those killed by the people's avengers are 67 German generals, five more were taken alive and transported to the mainland. Finally, the effectiveness of the partisan movement can be judged by the following fact: the Germans had to divert every tenth soldier of the ground forces to fight the enemy in their own rear!

It is clear that the partisans themselves have come at a high price for such successes. In the parade reports of that time, everything looks beautiful: they destroyed 150 enemy soldiers - they lost two partisans killed. In reality, partisan losses were much higher, and even today their final figure is unknown. But the losses were certainly not less than those of the enemy. Hundreds of thousands of partisans and underground fighters gave their lives for the liberation of the Motherland.

How many partisan heroes do we have

Only one figure speaks very clearly about the severity of losses among the partisans and members of the underground: out of 250 Heroes of the Soviet Union who fought in the German rear, 124 people - every second! - received this high title posthumously. And this despite the fact that during the years of the Great Patriotic War, the country's highest award was awarded to 11,657 people, of which 3,051 posthumously. That is, every fourth ...

Among the 250 partisans and underground fighters - Heroes of the Soviet Union, two were awarded the high title twice. These are the commanders of partisan formations Sidor Kovpak and Aleksey Fedorov. What is remarkable: both partisan commanders each time were awarded at the same time, by the same decree. For the first time - on May 18, 1942, together with partisan Ivan Kopenkin, who received the title posthumously. The second time - on January 4, 1944, together with 13 more partisans: it was one of the most massive simultaneous awards of partisans with the highest ranks.

Sidor Kovpak. Reproduction: TASS

Two more partisans - Hero of the Soviet Union wore on their chests not only the sign of this highest rank, but also the Gold Star of the Hero of Socialist Labor: the commissar of the partisan brigade named after K.K. Rokossovsky Pyotr Masherov and the commander of the partisan detachment "Falcons" Kirill Orlovsky. Pyotr Masherov received his first title in August 1944, the second - in 1978 for success in the party field. Kirill Orlovsky was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union in September 1943, and Hero Socialist Labor- in 1958: the Rassvet collective farm headed by him became the first millionaire collective farm in the USSR.

The first Heroes of the Soviet Union from among the partisans were the leaders of the Red October partisan detachment operating on the territory of Belarus: the commissar of the detachment Tikhon Bumazhkov and commander Fyodor Pavlovsky. And this happened in the most difficult period at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - August 6, 1941! Alas, only one of them survived to the Victory: the commissar of the Red October detachment, Tikhon Bumazhkov, who managed to receive his award in Moscow, died in December of the same year, leaving the German encirclement.

Belarusian partisans on Lenin Square in Minsk, after the liberation of the city from the Nazi invaders. Photo: Vladimir Lupeiko / RIA

Chronicle of partisan heroism

In total, in the first year and a half of the war, 21 partisans and underground workers received the highest award, 12 of them received the title posthumously. In total, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR by the end of 1942 issued nine decrees on conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union on partisans, five of them were group, four were individual. Among them was a decree on awarding the legendary partisan Lisa Chaikina dated March 6, 1942. On September 1st of the same year highest award was awarded immediately to nine members of the partisan movement, two of whom received it posthumously.

The year 1943 turned out to be just as stingy with the highest awards for the partisans: only 24 were awarded. But in the following year, 1944, when the entire territory of the USSR was liberated from the fascist yoke and the partisans found themselves on their side of the front line, 111 people received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union at once, including two - Sidor Kovpak and Alexei Fedorov - in the second once. And in the victorious 1945, 29 more people were added to the number of partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union.

But there were many among the partisans and those whose exploits the country fully appreciated only many years after the Victory. A total of 65 Heroes of the Soviet Union from among those who fought behind enemy lines were awarded this high title after 1945. Most of the awards found their heroes in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Victory - by decree of May 8, 1965, the country's highest award was awarded to 46 partisans. And in last time On May 5, 1990, the title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Fore Mosulishvili, who had been a partisan in Italy, and Ivan Turkenich, leader of the Young Guard. Both received the award posthumously.

What else can be added, speaking of partisan heroes? Every ninth who fought in a partisan detachment or underground and earned the title of Hero of the Soviet Union is a woman! But here the sad statistics is even more inexorable: only five out of 28 partisans received this title during their lifetime, the rest posthumously. Among them were the first woman - Hero of the Soviet Union Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, and members of the underground organization "Young Guard" Uliana Gromova and Lyuba Shevtsova. In addition, among the partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union were two Germans: the intelligence officer Fritz Schmenkel, who was awarded posthumously in 1964, and the reconnaissance company commander Robert Klein, who was awarded in 1944. And also the Slovak Jan Nalepka, the commander of a partisan detachment, awarded posthumously in 1945.

It remains only to add that after the collapse of the USSR, the title of Hero Russian Federation was awarded to 9 more partisans, including three posthumously (one of the awarded was scout Vera Voloshina). The medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" was awarded to a total of 127,875 men and women (1st degree - 56,883 people, 2nd degree - 70,992 people): organizers and leaders of the partisan movement, commanders of partisan detachments and particularly distinguished partisans. The very first of the medals "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st degree in June 1943 was received by the commander of the demolition group Yefim Osipenko. He was awarded the award for his feat in the fall of 1941, when he had to undermine a mine that did not work literally by hand. As a result, the echelon with tanks and food collapsed from the canvas, and the detachment managed to pull out the shell-shocked and blinded commander and transport him to the mainland.

Partisans at the call of the heart and duty

The fact that the Soviet government would rely on guerrilla warfare in the event of a major war on the western borders was clear back in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was then that the employees of the OGPU and the partisans attracted by them - veterans of the Civil War developed plans for organizing the structure of future partisan detachments, laid hidden bases and caches with ammunition and equipment. But, alas, shortly before the start of the war, as veterans recall, these bases began to be opened and liquidated, and the built-in warning system and organization of partisan detachments were broken. Nevertheless, when the first bombs fell on Soviet soil on June 22, many party workers in the field remembered these pre-war plans and began to form the backbone of future detachments.

But this is not the case for all groups. There were a lot of those who appeared spontaneously - from soldiers and officers who could not break through the front line, who were surrounded by units, who did not have time to evacuate specialists, who did not reach their units, conscripts and the like contingent. Moreover, this process was uncontrolled, and the number of such units was small. According to some reports, in the winter of 1941-1942, more than 2 thousand partisan detachments operated in the rear of the Germans, their total number was 90 thousand fighters. It turns out that on average there were up to fifty fighters in each detachment, more often one or two dozen. By the way, as eyewitnesses recall, local residents began to actively join partisan detachments not immediately, but only by the spring of 1942, when the “new order” manifested itself in the whole nightmare, and the opportunity to survive in the forest became real.

In turn, the detachments that arose under the command of people who were engaged in the preparation of partisan actions even before the war were more numerous. Such were, for example, the detachments of Sidor Kovpak and Alexei Fedorov. The basis of such formations was the employees of the party and Soviet bodies, headed by their future partisan generals. This is how the legendary partisan detachment “Red October” arose: the basis for it was the fighter battalion formed by Tikhon Bumazhkov (a volunteer armed formation in the first months of the war, involved in anti-sabotage struggle in the front line), which was then “overgrown” with local residents and encircled. In the same way, the famous Pinsk partisan detachment, which later grew into a formation, arose on the basis of a fighter battalion created by Vasily Korzh, a career employee of the NKVD, who 20 years earlier was engaged in the preparation of partisan struggle. By the way, his first battle, which the detachment gave on June 28, 1941, is considered by many historians to be the first battle of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War.

In addition, there were partisan units that were formed in the Soviet rear, after which they were transferred across the front line to the German rear - for example, Dmitry Medvedev's legendary unit "Winners". The basis of such detachments were fighters and commanders of the NKVD units and professional intelligence officers and saboteurs. In the preparation of such units (as, indeed, in the retraining of ordinary partisans), in particular, the Soviet "saboteur number one" Ilya Starinov was involved. And the activities of such detachments were supervised by the Special Group under the NKVD under the leadership of Pavel Sudoplatov, which later became the 4th Directorate of the People's Commissariat.

The commander of the partisan detachment "Winners" writer Dmitry Medvedev during the Great Patriotic War. Photo: Leonid Korobov / RIA Novosti

The commanders of such special detachments were given more serious and difficult tasks than ordinary partisans. Often they had to conduct large-scale rear reconnaissance, develop and conduct infiltration operations and liquidation actions. One can again cite as an example the same detachment of Dmitry Medvedev "Winners": it was he who provided support and supplies for the famous Soviet spy Nikolai Kuznetsov, who accounted for the elimination of several major officials of the occupation administration and several major successes in undercover intelligence.

Insomnia and rail war

But still, the main task of the partisan movement, which from May 1942 was led from Moscow by the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement (and from September to November also by the Commander-in-Chief of the partisan movement, whose post was held by the “first red marshal” Kliment Voroshilov for three months), was different. Not to allow the invaders to gain a foothold on the occupied land, to inflict constant harassing blows on them, to disrupt rear communications and transport links - that's what Big land waited and demanded from the partisans.

True, the fact that they have some kind of global goal, the partisans, one might say, learned only after the appearance of the Central Headquarters. And the point here is not at all that earlier there was no one to give orders - there was no way to convey them to the performers. From the autumn of 1941 until the spring of 1942, while the front was rolling eastward with great speed and the country was making titanic efforts to stop this movement, the partisan detachments basically acted at their own peril and risk. Left to their own devices, with little to no support from behind the front lines, they were forced to focus more on survival than on inflicting significant damage on the enemy. Few could boast of a connection with the mainland, and even then mainly those who were organized in an organized manner thrown into the German rear, equipped with both a walkie-talkie and radio operators.

But after the appearance of the headquarters of the partisans, they began to centrally provide communications (in particular, regular graduates from schools of partisan radio operators began), to establish coordination between units and formations, and to use the gradually emerging partisan regions as a base for air supply. By that time, the main tactics of guerrilla warfare had also been formed. The actions of the detachments, as a rule, were reduced to one of two methods: harassing strikes at the place of deployment or lengthy raids on the rear of the enemy. Partisan commanders Kovpak and Vershigora were supporters and active performers of the raid tactics, while the “Winners” detachment rather demonstrated a disturbing one.

But what almost all partisan detachments, without exception, did was to disrupt German communications. And it doesn’t matter whether this was done as part of a raid or harassing tactics: strikes were made on railway (in the first place) and highways. Those who couldn't brag large numbers detachments and special skills, focused on undermining rails and bridges. Larger detachments, which had divisions of demolition, reconnaissance and saboteurs and special means, could count on larger targets: large bridges, junction stations, railway infrastructure.

Partisans mine the railway tracks near Moscow. Photo: RIA Novosti

The most large-scale coordinated actions were two sabotage operations - "Rail War" and "Concert". Both were carried out by partisans on the orders of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement and the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command and were coordinated with the offensives of the Red Army in the late summer and autumn of 1943. The result of the "Rail War" was a reduction in the operational transport of Germans by 40%, and the result of the "Concert" - by 35%. This had a tangible impact on the provision of reinforcements and equipment to the active parts of the Wehrmacht, although some experts in the field of sabotage warfare believed that partisan capabilities could have been disposed of differently. For example, it was necessary to strive to disable not so much railway tracks as equipment, which is much more difficult to restore. It is for this that the Higher Operational School special purpose a device such as an overhead rail was invented, which literally dropped the compositions from the canvas. But still, for the majority of partisan detachments, the most accessible method of rail warfare remained precisely the undermining of the canvas, and even such assistance to the front turned out to be senseless.

A move that cannot be undone

Today's view of the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War is seriously different from what existed in society 30 years ago. Many details became known that eyewitnesses accidentally or deliberately kept silent about, there were testimonies of those who had never romanticized the activities of the partisans, and even those who had a death account with the partisans of the Great Patriotic War. And in many now independent former Soviet republics and completely swapped plus and minus, writing down the partisans as enemies, and the policemen as saviors of the motherland.

But all these events cannot belittle the main thing - the incredible, unique feat of people who, deep behind enemy lines, did everything to protect their homeland. Let by touch, without any idea of ​​tactics and strategy, with only rifles and grenades, but these people fought for their freedom. And the best monument to them can and will be the memory of the feat of the partisans - the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, which cannot be canceled or underestimated by any efforts.

Topic: Partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War

Introduction

1. Organization of the partisan movement

2. Activities of partisan detachments

3. Methods of conducting guerrilla warfare

4. Intelligence activities of partisans

4.1. The combat activities of the underground

5. War "not for life, but to death"

5.1. Berdchane - who participated in the partisan movement

Conclusion

Literature

INTRODUCTION

Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany went down in history as a heroic deed of the entire Soviet people.

From the very first days of the war, partisan detachments and subversive groups of Soviet patriots arose on the territory of the USSR temporarily occupied by the enemy. These were commanders, political workers and soldiers Soviet army, who were surrounded, did not break through the front line to their troops, or Soviet soldiers who escaped from captivity. Thousands of workers, collective farmers and employees left for partisan detachments. The people's war against the Nazi barbarians was expanding.

History has not yet known such a scale of the nationwide movement. Hundreds of thousands Soviet people participated in this movement in Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, Oryol, Smolensk, Kaliningrad, Leningrad and other regions. By the end of 1943, over a million Soviet people were engaged in a partisan struggle against the fascist invaders.

The people's war against the fascists developed in a variety of forms. The partisans disrupted the measures taken by the occupiers to procure agricultural products, prevented the invaders from restoring and starting up factories and plants, and did not allow the Nazis to drive Soviet people into slavery. The people's avengers attacked the enemy garrisons, exterminated the invaders, traitors to the people, accomplices and henchmen of the enemy. They blew up bridges, trains and bridges, damaged communications, destroyed military bases and warehouses with weapons and ammunition, demoralized the rear of the enemy and fettered large forces of the invaders.

One of the characteristic features of the partisan movement in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. is its universal character.

1. Organization of the partisan movement

The partisan struggle began from the very first days of the attack of Nazi Germany on our country. June 29, 1941 The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent a directive to the party and Soviet organizations of the front-line regions, which, along with the general tasks of the Soviet government in the Great Patriotic War, contained a specific program for the development of partisan struggle. “In areas occupied by the enemy,” the directive said, “create partisan detachments and sabotage groups to fight parts of the enemy army, to incite guerrilla warfare, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to warehouses, etc.” This document gave instructions on the preparation of the party underground, the organization, recruitment and arming of partisan detachments, and determined the main tasks of the partisan movement. “The task is,” it said, “to create unbearable conditions for the German interventionists ... to disrupt all their activities.” The Central Committee of the Party demanded that "this entire struggle should receive the scope of direct, broad and heroic support for the Red Army fighting German fascism at the front."

During 1941. on the territory occupied by the enemy, 18 underground regional committees, more than 260 district committees, city committees, district committees and other underground party bodies, a large number of primary party organizations and groups began to work. Under their leadership, the process of creating and strengthening partisan forces took place.

The main form of the struggle of the Russian people against the fascist invaders in the temporarily occupied territory of the USSR was the armed actions of partisans and underground fighters. The partisan movement unfolded throughout the occupied territory and had a scope and effectiveness unprecedented in history. During the war, more than 1 million partisans and an army of thousands of underground workers operated behind enemy lines. They were actively supported by tens of millions of Soviet patriots. Workers, peasants and intelligentsia, people of different ages, men and women, representatives of various nationalities of the USSR and some other countries took part in the partisan movement. Soviet partisans and underground fighters destroyed, wounded and captured about 1 million fascists and their accomplices, disabled over 4 thousand tanks and armored vehicles, destroyed and damaged 1600 railway bridges, carried out over 20 thousand train wrecks.

The general strategic leadership of the armed struggle of the partisan forces was carried out by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, which determined the main tasks of the partisans at each stage of the war and in individual strategic operations and organized the interaction of the partisans with the Soviet Army. The direct strategic management of the combat activities of the partisans was carried out by the Center, the headquarters of the partisan movement, created on May 30, 1942. and existed until the beginning of 1944.

The central headquarters were operationally subordinate to the republican and regional headquarters, which were headed by secretaries or members of the communist parties of the republics, regional committees and regional committees: in Ukraine - T. A. Strokach, in Belarus - P. 3. Kalinin, in Lithuania - A. Yu. Snechkus, in Latvia - A. K. Sprogis, in Estonia - N. G. Karotamm, in Karelia - S. Ya. Vershinin, in the Leningrad region - M. N. Nikitin, in the Orel region - A. P. Matveev, in D. M. Popov in the Smolensk Region, M. A. Suslov in the Stavropol Territory, and V. S. Bulatov and others in the Crimean ASSR. In cases where several fronts operated on the territory of a republic or region, representative offices or operational groups of republican and regional headquarters were created under their Military Councils, which, while directing the combat activities of partisans in the zone of a given front, were subordinate to the corresponding headquarters of the partisan movement and the Military Council of the front. The strengthening of the leadership of the partisan movement went along the lines of improving the connection of the partisans with the "mainland", improving the forms of operational and strategic leadership, and improving the planning of combat activities. If in the summer of 1942. only about 30% of the partisan detachments that were registered with the headquarters of the partisan movement had radio contact with the "mainland", then in November 1943. almost 94% of the detachments maintained radio contact with the authorities. The creation of the headquarters of the partisan movement with clear functions and the improvement of communications with the “mainland” gave the partisan movement an increasingly organized character, ensured greater coordination of the actions of the partisan forces and contributed to the improvement of their interaction with the troops.

Much attention was paid to the systematic supply of partisans with weapons, ammunition, mine-explosive equipment, medicines, etc., and the evacuation of the seriously wounded and sick to the mainland by aviation. In 1943 only long-range aviation and the Civil Air Fleet carried out more than 12 thousand sorties behind enemy lines (half of them landed on partisan airfields and sites).

The high saturation of the fascist German armies with military equipment and their great maneuverability made it difficult for the party to conduct open battles. This caused the development of means that made it possible to disable enemy objects without colliding with him. A variety of methods and forms of guerrilla warfare arose, including sabotage operations.

Physical and geographical conditions influenced the forms of organization of partisan forces and the methods of their actions. Vast forests, swamps, mountains were the main bases for partisan forces. Partisan territories and zones arose here, where various methods of struggle could be widely used, including open battles with the enemy.

In a number of regions of the Baltic states, Moldova, the southern part of Western Ukraine, which only in 1939-40. became part of the USSR, the Nazis managed through the bourgeois nationalists to extend their influence to certain segments of the population. Therefore, large partisan formations could not be based in one area for a long time and operated mainly in raids. The small partisan detachments and underground organizations that existed here were mainly engaged in sabotage and reconnaissance activities and political work.

Partisan detachments and groups, depending on the situation, were organized both before the enemy occupied a certain area, and during the occupation. Destruction battalions, which were created in the front-line areas to destroy spies and saboteurs thrown by the enemy, often switched to the position of partisan detachments. Often, partisan formations were grouped from military personnel and security officers with a wide influx of the local population into their ranks. In the course of the war, organizing groups were widely practiced behind enemy lines, on the basis of which partisan detachments and even large formations were created. Such groups played a particularly large role in the western regions of the country, where, owing to the surprise of the enemy's attack and his rapid advance deep into our territory, the local party organs did not have time to complete the necessary work to develop the partisan movement.

2. Activities of partisan detachments

When determining the main object of combat activity of partisans, the Supreme High Command took into account great importance means of transport and communications in war. The enormous length of communication lines and the difficulty of protecting them made it possible for partisans to disrupt the operation of the enemy's rail, water, and road transport. Communications, especially railroads, 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 turnover with the actions of the Soviet Armed Forces and reduced the capacity of the railway by 35-40%. This frustrated the enemy's plans for the accumulation of materiel and the concentration of troops, seriously hampered the regrouping.

The enemy was forced to divert large forces to guard the railway, the length of which in the occupied territory was 37 thousand km. As the experience of the war showed, to organize even a weak protection of the railway for every 100 km, 1 battalion is needed, for a strong protection - 1 regiment, and sometimes (for example, in the summer of 1943 in the Leningrad region), the Nazis were forced, due to the active actions of the partisans, to allocate for the protection of each 100 km to 2 regiments.

During the war, partisan attacks were constantly intensified not only on communications, but also on garrisons, commandant's offices, police institutions, rear units and enemy subunits. So, if in 1942. Leningrad partisans made 8 attacks on garrisons and 50 on enemy warehouses, then in 1943. they defeated 94 garrisons and 111 warehouses. The partisans of Ukraine in 1943 defeated 292 enemy garrisons (8 times more than in 1942) and 506 warehouses (4.5 times more).

In Belarus, in the Bryansk forests, in the Leningrad and other regions, "partisan territories" were created, which were the bases of the formations of the people's avengers.

In the midst of the offensive of the Soviet troops in the summer of 1943, the partisans launched the so-called "rail" war, disabling the railway lines behind enemy lines.

The forces of the partisans have grown so much that they have already begun to raid large enemy garrisons. So, at the end of August 1942. Belarusian partisans captured and held the city of Mozyr in their hands for more than two days; in September, they liberated the regional center of the Vitebsk region of Rossony. In 1943 Crimean partisans defeated a large enemy garrison in the city Old Crimea with up to 1300 people. In 1943 partisans often carried out simultaneous attacks on several settlements with large forces consisting of several detachments and formations. Such operations dispersed the enemy forces, increased the effectiveness of the raids and had a great impact on the morale of the Nazis.

One of the forms of armed struggle of the Soviet people against the enemy was the partisan movement. The program for its deployment was contained in the directive of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of June 29, 1941. Soon, on July 18, the Central Committee adopted a special resolution "On organizing the struggle in the rear of the German troops." These documents gave instructions on the preparation of the party underground, on the organization, recruitment and arming of partisan detachments, and also formulated the tasks of the movement.

The scope of the partisan struggle was largely predetermined by the scale of the occupied territory of the USSR. Despite the measures taken to evacuate the population to the eastern regions of the country, over 60 million people, or about 33% of the pre-war population, were forced to remain in the territory occupied by the enemy.

Initially, the Soviet leadership (L.P. Beria) relied on regular partisan units formed with the participation and under the leadership of the NKVD. The most famous was the "Winners" detachment, commander D.N. Medvedev. He acted in the Smolensk, Oryol and Mogilev regions, and then in Western Ukraine. The detachment included athletes, NKVD workers (including scouts), and proven local personnel. Member of the scout squad N.I. Kuznetsov, who is fluent in German, with documents in the name of Lieutenant Paul Sieber, conducted intelligence activities in Rivne: he obtained valuable intelligence information, destroyed the chief judge of Ukraine Funk, the imperial adviser to the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine Gell and his secretary, vice-governor of Galicia Bauer.

At the head of the partisan movement in the field were, as a rule, the chairmen of the regional, city and district executive committees of the party, as well as the secretaries of the regional committees, city committees and district committees of the Komsomol. The general strategic leadership of the partisan movement was carried out by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. The direct interaction with the detachments on the ground is the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (TSSHPD). It was created by the decision of the State Defense Committee of May 30, 1942, and operated until January 1944. The head of the TsShPD was P.K. Ponomarenko, who since 1938 was the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Belarus. TsSHPD was supposed to establish contact with partisan formations, direct and coordinate their actions, supply weapons, ammunition, medicines, train personnel and carry out interaction between partisans and units of the regular army.

Of particular importance among the headquarters of the partisan movement belonged to the Ukrainian headquarters, which since 1943 was directly subordinate to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. In Ukraine, even before the occupation of its territory by the Nazis, 883 detachments and over 1,700 sabotage and reconnaissance groups were prepared for the deployment of the partisan movement. The center of concentration of partisan forces in Ukraine was the Spadshchansky forest, where the Putivl detachment was based under the command of S. A. Kovpak. During the war years, he went through raids over 10 thousand km, defeating the enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. At the same time, the Kovpak detachment absorbed a number of other partisan groups, for example, the 2nd Putivl detachment under the command of S.V. Rudnev. In 1941, more than 28 thousand fighters fought in partisan detachments in Ukraine. As of May 1, 1942, the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine had information about 766 partisan formations and 613 sabotage and reconnaissance groups. Created in 1942, the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement was headed by T.A. Strokam, who since March 1941 held the position of Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, and then led the formation of fighter battalions. By the end of 1943 the total number of partisans in the republic was about 300 thousand people, and by the end of the war, according to official figures, it reached 500 thousand people. Among the leaders of the partisan movement in Ukraine, in addition to S.A. Kovpak and S.V. Rudnev, were distinguished by A.F. Fedorov (since 1938 he was the first secretary of the Chernihiv regional committee of the CP (b) of Ukraine) and P.P. Vershigora. The struggle against the Nazis also gained wide scope on the territory of Belarus, where it was led by V.Z. Korzh, T.P. Bumazhkov, F.I. Pavlovsky and other well-known party workers.

In total, during the war years, there were more than 6 thousand partisan detachments behind enemy lines, in which more than 1 million people fought. During the operations, the partisans destroyed, captured and wounded 1 million fascists, disabled 4 thousand tanks and armored vehicles, 65 thousand vehicles, 1100 aircraft, destroyed and damaged 1600 railway bridges, derailed 20 thousand echelons.

The conference played an important role in the development of the partisan movement. executives People's Commissariat of Defense, TsSHPD with representatives of underground party bodies, commanders and commissars of large partisan formations. The meeting was held on behalf of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in late August-early September 1942. Based on its results, an order was formulated by Stalin's People's Commissar of Defense dated September 5, 1942 "On the tasks of the partisan movement."

Communications, especially railways, became the main object of the partisans' combat activity. For the first time in the history of warfare, a number of major operations were carried out centrally to disable enemy communications over a large area, which were closely connected with the actions of regular army units. From August 3 to September 15, 1943 in the occupied territory of the RSFSR, Belarus and part of Ukraine to assist units of the Soviet Army in completing the defeat of German troops in Battle of Kursk Operation "Rail War" was carried out. On the ground, areas and objects of action were determined for each of the 167 partisan formations planned for this. The partisans were provided with explosives, mine-blasting equipment, and demolition specialists were sent to them. The partisans of Belarus derailed 761 enemy echelons, Ukraine - 349, Smolensk region - 102. As a result of the operation, the Mogilev-Krichev, Polotsk-Dvinsk, Mogilev-Zhlobin highways did not operate throughout August. On others railways ah, traffic was often delayed for 3-15 days. The actions of the partisans significantly hampered the regrouping and supply of the retreating enemy troops.

The experience of the "Rail War" was used in another operation, code-named "Concert", carried out from September 19 to the end of October 1943. 193 partisan formations from Belarus, the Baltic States, the Leningrad and Kalinin regions participated in it. The length of the operation along the front was about 900 km, and 400 km in depth. Its implementation was closely connected with the upcoming offensive Soviet troops in the Smolensk and Gomel directions and the battle for the Dnieper.

As a result of partisan operations in 1943. throughput railways decreased by 35-40%, which led to the disruption of the enemy's plans for the accumulation of materiel and the concentration of troops. In addition, the Germans were forced to use large forces to protect the railways, and their length in the occupied territory of the USSR was 37 thousand km. In the summer campaign of 1942 alone, the actions of the partisans diverted 24 enemy divisions, 15 of which were constantly engaged in the protection of communications.

During the war years, partisan territories and zones were created in the occupied territory of the USSR - territories in the rear of the German troops, where organs were restored Soviet power, collective farms, local industries, cultural, medical and other institutions were being reconstructed. Such regions and zones existed in the Kalinin, Smolensk and other regions of the RSFSR, in Belarus, in the north-west of Ukraine. In the spring of 1942 there were 11 of them, and later this number was constantly increasing. In the partisan region in the Bryansk region, there were up to 21 thousand partisans.

The partisans actively disrupted the sending of large groups of the population to Germany for forced labor. Only in Leningrad region attempts to hijack 400 thousand Soviet citizens were prevented. It is no coincidence that the Nazi authorities in the occupied territory, as well as the military command, waged an active struggle against the partisans. So, in one of the districts of the Leningrad region, for the capture of the "leader of the partisans" Mikhail Romanov, the fascist authorities appointed a reward of "6 cows or 6 hectares of arable land, or half of both." In addition to this, the local commandant promised "30 packs of shag and 10 liters of vodka." For the dead partisan, "half of the said reward" was promised.

Villagers who knew about the whereabouts of the partisans and did not report it were threatened with the charge of "banditry" and execution. In a number of cases, the Nazis tried to create "self-defense detachments" from the peasants, which, armed with axes, knives and clubs, were supposed to "destroy the attacking gangs", that is, partisans.

Extremely importance had the interaction of partisans with parts of the regular army. In 1941, during the defensive battles of the Red Army, this was expressed mainly in the conduct of intelligence. However, in the spring of 1943, a systematic development of plans began with the use of partisan forces. Most a prime example effective interaction between partisans and units of the Soviet Army became Belarusian operation 1944 under the code name "Bagration". In it, a powerful grouping of Belarusian partisans was, in essence, one of the fronts, coordinating its actions with four other advancing fronts of the regular army.

The activities of partisans during the Great Patriotic War received appreciated. More than 127 thousand of them were awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War" of the 1st and 2nd degree; over 184 thousand were awarded other medals and orders, and 249 people became Heroes of the Soviet Union, and S.A. Kovpak and A.F. Fedorov - twice.

Every year we celebrate Victory Day. Fireworks are thundering, people with gray hair on their temples and only orders on their chests are walking through the streets of cities - mute witnesses of what they had to endure. Every year there are fewer of them - veterans of the Great Patriotic War. And yet they are alive, and with them the memories of that most terrible bloodshed in the history of the world are alive. Each such anniversary is a new immersion in history, in memory.

The most important component of the struggle of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany was the partisan movement, which unfolded in the occupied territories and became truly universal.

By its nature, scope and losses inflicted on the invaders, the struggle of the Soviet people behind enemy lines was unparalleled in history. By the spring of 1942, it covered a vast territory - from the forests of Karelia to the Crimea and Moldova. By the end of 1943, there were over a million armed partisans and underground fighters. The composition of the partisan detachments clearly reflected the nationwide nature of the partisan movement: more than 30% were workers, about 41% were collective farmers, and over 29% were employees. Representatives of all nationalities of the Soviet Union fought in partisan formations. Firmly believing in victory over the enemy, millions of people who found themselves in the occupied territory showed selflessness and will in the struggle to expel the invaders. The scope of the popular movement, the feats and self-sacrifices for the sake of a great victory performed by ordinary people, the willingness to sacrifice themselves for the sake of the freedom of other people delighted and amazed me. This was the reason for choosing the topic of my essay.

In my work, I set myself the goal of studying the history and nature of the partisan movement and investigating the problem of the effectiveness of the people's struggle.

The question of the efficiency of movement interested me because it is usually not covered in reference books and textbooks. Could the partisan movement have been more effective? Why was there so little attention paid to the struggle of the people in the rear in the early stages of the war? Why weren't all reserves used? I will try to answer these questions in Chapter IV of the abstract.

The significant contribution of the partisans to Great Victory over a cruel enemy has long been recognized. studying this question, I came across different points of view, sometimes polar to many facts of partisan struggle. So in the historical, memoir documentation of the 70s and 80s, one can trace an undeniable point of view that interprets the unambiguously positive role of partisans during the war years. The role of the party in the organization of partisan detachments and their activities is emphasized. More historically reliable, in my opinion, are the sources of information of the 90s, where the history of the front behind enemy lines is revealed in many ways, where a person with his sometimes dramatic fate is not lost behind festivity and heroism. For myself, for the first time, I learned about the shadowy, sometimes unpleasant aspects of the life of partisans, about some facts of the preparation of the partisan movement before the war, which are usually not mentioned in textbooks.

The main source for writing my essay was the book by M.A. Drobov "Small war (partisanship and sabotage)", from which I learned about the nature of the activities of partisans, the composition of partisan detachments, the first decrees on the organization of war behind enemy lines. Among the literature that has become the subject of my study, I would especially like to mention the Dictionary-Reference Book of the Great Patriotic War, edited by V.V. Karpov, who served me as a source of information about partisan regions and the names of prominent and famous partisans .. The book of Balashov A.I., Rudakov G.P. served as a valuable source. "History of the Great Patriotic War", which told me about the first partisan detachments, their base areas and major operations. Interesting information about the measures of the struggle of the Germans with the partisans was provided to me by the book of Mertsalov A.N. "WWII in the historiography of Germany". The material for the 4th chapter of the abstract was taken by me from articles whose authors are candidates historical sciences A.S. Knyazkov, V. Boyarsky and K. Kolontaev, published in the newspapers "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" and "Duel", In them the authors note some miscalculations and failures in the organization of the struggle, analyze the mistakes and give their assessment of the effectiveness of the guerrilla war.