When the Great Patriotic War broke out, the press of the Land of Soviets gave birth to a completely new expression - “people's avengers.” They were called Soviet partisans. This movement was very large-scale and brilliantly organized. In addition, it was officially legalized. The goal of the avengers was to destroy the infrastructure of the enemy army, disrupt food and weapons supplies and destabilize the work of the entire fascist machine. The German military leader Guderian admitted that the actions of the partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 (the names of some will be presented to your attention in the article) became a real curse for Hitler's troops and greatly influenced the morale of the “liberators.”
Legalization of the partisan movement
The process of forming partisan detachments in the territories occupied by the Nazis began immediately after Germany attacked Soviet cities. Thus, the USSR government published two relevant directives. The documents stated that it was necessary to create resistance among the people in order to help the Red Army. In short, the Soviet Union approved the formation of partisan groups.
One year later, this process was already in full swing. It was then that Stalin issued a special order. It reported the methods and main directions of the underground's activities.
And at the end of the spring of 1942, they decided to legalize partisan detachments altogether. In any case, the government formed the so-called. The central headquarters of this movement. And that's all regional organizations began to obey only him.
In addition, the post of Commander-in-Chief of the movement appeared. This position was taken by Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. True, he led it for only two months, because the post was abolished. From now on, the “people's avengers” reported directly to the military Commander-in-Chief.
Geography and scale of movement
During the first six months of the war, eighteen underground regional committees operated. There were also more than 260 city committees, district committees, district committees and other party groups and organizations.
Exactly one year later, a third of the partisan formations of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the list of whose names is very long, could already go on the air via radio communication with the Center. And in 1943, almost 95 percent of the units could communicate with the mainland via walkie-talkies.
In total, during the war there were almost six thousand partisan formations numbering over one million people.
Partisan units
These units existed in almost all occupied territories. True, it happened that the partisans did not support anyone - neither the Nazis nor the Bolsheviks. They simply defended the independence of their own separate region.
Usually there were several dozen fighters in one partisan formation. But over time, detachments appeared that numbered several hundred people. To be honest, there were very few such groups.
The units united in the so-called. brigades. The purpose of such a merger was one - to provide effective resistance to the Nazis.
The partisans mainly used light weapons. This refers to machine guns, rifles, light machine guns, carbines and grenades. A number of formations were armed with mortars, heavy machine guns and even artillery. When people joined the detachments, they must take the partisan oath. Of course, strict military discipline was also observed.
Note that such groups were formed not only behind enemy lines. More than once, future “Avengers” were officially trained in special partisan schools. After which they were transferred to the occupied territories and formed not only partisan detachments, but also formations. Often these groups were staffed by military personnel.
Sign operations
The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 successfully managed to carry out several major operations in conjunction with the Red Army. The largest campaign in terms of results and number of participants was Operation Rail War. The central headquarters had to prepare it quite long and carefully. The developers planned to blow up the rails in some of the occupied territories in order to paralyze traffic on the railways. Partisans from the Oryol, Smolensk, Kalinin, and Leningrad regions, as well as Ukraine and Belarus, took part in the operation. In general, about 170 partisan formations were involved in the “rail war”.
On an August night in 1943, the operation began. In the very first hours, the “people's avengers” managed to blow up almost 42 thousand rails. Such sabotage continued until September inclusive. In one month, the number of explosions increased 30 times!
Another famous partisan operation was called "Concert". In essence, this was a continuation of the “rail battles”, since the explosions on railway Crimea, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Karelia joined. Almost 200 partisan formations took part in the “Concert,” which was unexpected for the Nazis!
Legendary Kovpak and “Mikhailo” from Azerbaijan
Over time, the names of some of the partisans of the Great Patriotic War and the exploits of these people became known to everyone. Thus, Mehdi Ganifa-oglu Huseyn-zade from Azerbaijan became a partisan in Italy. In the detachment his name was simply “Mikhailo”.
He was mobilized into the Red Army from his student days. He had to take part in the legendary Battle of Stalingrad, where he was wounded. He was captured and sent to a camp in Italy. After some time, in 1944, he managed to escape. There he came across partisans. In the Mikhailo detachment he was the commissar of a company of Soviet soldiers.
He found out intelligence information, engaged in sabotage, blowing up enemy airfields and bridges. And one day his company raided the prison. As a result, 700 captured soldiers were released.
“Mikhailo” died during one of the raids. He defended himself to the end, after which he shot himself. Unfortunately, they learned about his daring exploits only in the post-war period.
But the famous Sidor Kovpak became a legend during his lifetime. He was born and raised in Poltava in a poor peasant family. During the First World War he was awarded the Cross of St. George. Moreover, the Russian autocrat himself awarded him.
During the Civil War, he fought against the Germans and whites.
Since 1937, he was appointed head of the city executive committee of Putivl, in the Sumy region. When the war began, he led a partisan group in the city, and subsequently a unit of detachments in the Sumy region.
Members of its formation literally continuously carried out military raids across the occupied territories. The total length of the raids is more than 10 thousand km. In addition, nearly forty enemy garrisons were destroyed.
In the second half of 1942, Kovpak’s troops carried out a raid beyond the Dnieper. By this time the organization had two thousand fighters.
Partisan medal
In the middle of winter 1943, a corresponding medal was established. It was called “Partisan of the Patriotic War.” Over the following years, almost 150 thousand partisans of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) were awarded it. The exploits of these people will forever go down in our history.
One of the award winners was Matvey Kuzmin. By the way, he was the oldest partisan. When the war began, he was already in his ninth decade.
Kuzmin was born in 1858 in the Pskov region. He lived separately, was never a member of the collective farm, and was engaged in fishing and hunting. In addition, he knew his area very well.
During the war he found himself under occupation. The Nazis even occupied his house. A German officer who headed one of the battalions began to live there.
In the middle of winter 1942, Kuzmin had to become a guide. He must lead the battalion to the occupied Soviet troops village. But before this, the old man managed to send his grandson to warn the Red Army.
As a result, Kuzmin led the frozen Nazis through the forest for a long time and only the next morning brought them out, but not to the desired point, but to an ambush set up by Soviet soldiers. The occupiers came under fire. Unfortunately, the hero guide also died in this shootout. He was 83.
Children partisans of the Great Patriotic War (1941 - 1945)
When the war was going on, a real army of children fought alongside the soldiers. They were participants in this general resistance from the very beginning of the occupation. According to some reports, several tens of thousands of minors took part in it. It was an amazing “movement”!
For military merits, teenagers were awarded military orders and medals. Thus, several minor partisans received the highest award - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, mostly they were all awarded it posthumously.
Their names have been familiar for a long time - Valya Kotik, Lenya Golikov, Marat Kazei... But there were other little heroes, whose exploits were not so widely covered in the press...
"Baby"
Alyosha Vyalov was called “Baby”. He enjoyed special sympathy among the local avengers. He was eleven when the war broke out.
He began to become a partisan with his older sisters. This family group managed to set fire to the Vitebsk railway station three times. They also set off an explosion in the police premises. On occasion, they acted as liaison officers and helped distribute relevant leaflets.
The partisans learned about the existence of Vyalov in an unexpected way. The soldiers were in dire need of gun oil. “Kid” was already aware of this and, on his own initiative, brought a couple of liters of the necessary liquid.
Lesha died after the war from tuberculosis.
Young "Susanin"
Tikhon Baran from the Brest region began to fight when he was nine. So, in the summer of 1941, underground workers set up a secret printing house in their parents’ house. Members of the organization printed leaflets with front-line reports, and the boy distributed them.
For two years he continued to do this, but the fascists were on the trail of the underground. Tikhon’s mother and sisters managed to hide with their relatives, and the young avenger went into the forest and joined the partisan formation.
One day he was visiting relatives. At the same time, the Nazis arrived in the village and shot all the inhabitants. And Tikhon was offered to save his life if he showed the way to the detachment.
As a result, the boy led his enemies into a swampy swamp. The punishers killed him, but not everyone themselves got out of this quagmire...
Instead of an epilogue
The Soviet partisan heroes of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) became one of the main forces that offered real resistance to the enemies. By and large, in many ways it was the Avengers who helped decide the outcome of this terrible war. They fought on par with regular combat units. It was not for nothing that the Germans called the “second front” not only the allied units in Europe, but also the partisan detachments in the Nazi-occupied territories of the USSR. And this is probably an important circumstance... List The partisans of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 are enormous, and each of them deserves attention and memory... We present to your attention just a small list of people who left their mark on history:
- Biseniek Anastasia Alexandrovna.
- Vasiliev Nikolay Grigorievich.
- Vinokurov Alexander Arkhipovich.
- German Alexander Viktorovich.
- Golikov Leonid Alexandrovich.
- Grigoriev Alexander Grigorievich.
- Grigoriev Grigory Petrovich.
- Egorov Vladimir Vasilievich.
- Zinoviev Vasily Ivanovich.
- Karitsky Konstantin Dionisevich.
- Kuzmin Matvey Kuzmich.
- Nazarova Klavdiya Ivanovna.
- Nikitin Ivan Nikitich.
- Petrova Antonina Vasilievna.
- Bad Vasily Pavlovich.
- Sergunin Ivan Ivanovich.
- Sokolov Dmitry Ivanovich.
- Tarakanov Alexey Fedorovich.
- Kharchenko Mikhail Semenovich.
Of course, there are many more of these heroes, and each of them contributed to the cause of the great Victory...
What price did its defenders, who fought behind enemy lines, pay for the liberation of the Motherland?
This is rarely remembered, but during the war years there was a joke that sounded with a tinge of pride: “Why should we wait until the Allies open a second front? It's been open for a long time! It’s called the Partisan Front.” If there is an exaggeration in this, it is a small 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 provide 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 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers (at least 40,000 people even according to the meager data of the German side), and all sorts of collaborators such as Vlasovites, police officers, colonists, and so on. Among those destroyed by the people's avengers - 67 German generals, five more were taken alive and transported to the mainland. Finally, the effectiveness of the partisan movement can be judged by this 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 such successes came at a high price for the partisans themselves. In the ceremonial reports of that time, everything looks beautiful: they destroyed 150 enemy soldiers and lost two partisans killed. In reality, partisan losses were much higher, and even today their final figure is unknown. But the losses were probably no less than those of the enemy. Hundreds of thousands of partisans and underground fighters gave their lives for the liberation of their homeland.
How many partisan heroes do we have?
Just one figure speaks very clearly about the severity of losses among partisans and underground participants: out of 250 Heroes 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 Great Patriotic War, a total of 11,657 people were awarded the country’s highest award, 3,051 of them 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 the partisan units Sidor Kovpak and Alexey Fedorov. What is noteworthy: both partisan commanders were awarded at the same time each 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: this was one of the most massive simultaneous awards to 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 Golden star Hero of Socialist Labor: 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 his success in the party field. Kirill Orlovsky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in September 1943, and Hero of Socialist Labor in 1958: the Rassvet collective farm he headed 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 detachment's commissar Tikhon Bumazhkov and commander Fyodor Pavlovsky. And this happened during the most difficult period at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - August 6, 1941! Alas, only one of them lived to see 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 fighters received the highest award, 12 of them received the title posthumously. In total, by the end of 1942, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued nine decrees 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. And on September 1 of the same year highest award was awarded to nine participants of the partisan movement at once, two of whom received it posthumously.
The year 1943 turned out to be just as stingy in terms of top awards for partisans: only 24 awarded. But in the next 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 Alexey Fedorov - in the second once. And in the victorious year of 1945, another 29 people were added to the number of partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union.
But many were 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 The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded on May 5, 1990 to Fora Mosulishvili, a partisan in Italy, and to the leader of the Young Guard, Ivan Turkenich. Both received the award posthumously.
What else can you add when talking about partisan heroes? Every ninth person 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 are 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” Ulyana Gromova and Lyuba Shevtsova. In addition, among the partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union there were two Germans: intelligence officer Fritz Schmenkel, awarded posthumously in 1964, and reconnaissance company commander Robert Klein, awarded in 1944. And also Slovakian Jan Nalepka, commander of a partisan detachment, awarded posthumously in 1945.
It only remains to add that after the collapse of the USSR, the title of Hero Russian Federation 9 more partisans were awarded, including three posthumously (one of the awarded was intelligence officer 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”, 1st degree, was received in June 1943 by the commander of a demolition group, Efim Osipenko. He was awarded the award for his feat in the fall of 1941, when he had to detonate a failed mine literally by hand. As a result, the train with food supplies fell off the road, and the detachment managed to pull out the shell-shocked and blinded commander and transport him to the mainland.
Partisans by call of heart and duty of service
The fact that the Soviet government would rely on partisan 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 OGPU employees and the partisans they recruited were veterans 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 warning system and organization of partisan detachments began to be broken. Nevertheless, when the first bombs fell on Soviet soil on June 22, many local party workers remembered these pre-war plans and began to form the backbone of future detachments.
But not all groups arose this way. There were also many who appeared spontaneously - from soldiers and officers who were unable to break through the front line, who were surrounded by units, specialists who did not have time to evacuate, conscripts who did not reach their units, and the like. Moreover, this process was uncontrollable, and the number of such detachments was small. According to some reports, in the winter of 1941-1942, over 2 thousand partisan detachments operated in the German rear, 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 did not begin to actively join partisan detachments immediately, but only in the spring of 1942, when “ new order" showed himself 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 preparing guerrilla actions even before the war, they were more numerous. Such were, for example, the detachments of Sidor Kovpak and Alexei Fedorov. The basis of such formations were employees of party and Soviet bodies, headed by 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 the anti-sabotage fight in the front line), which was then “overgrown” with local residents and encirclement. In exactly the same way, the famous Pinsk partisan detachment arose, which later grew into a formation - on the basis of a destroyer battalion created by Vasily Korzh, a career NKVD employee, who 20 years earlier was involved in preparing partisan warfare. By the way, his first battle, which the detachment fought 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 detachments 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 “Winners” detachment. The basis of such detachments were soldiers and commanders of NKVD units and professional intelligence officers and saboteurs. In particular, the Soviet “saboteur number one” Ilya Starinov was involved in the training of such units (as well as in the retraining of ordinary partisans). And the activities of such detachments were supervised by a 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
Before commanders like special units they were given more serious and difficult tasks than ordinary partisans. Often they had to conduct large-scale rear reconnaissance, develop and carry out penetration operations and liquidation actions. One can once again cite as an example the same detachment of Dmitry Medvedev “Winners”: it was he who provided support and supplies for the famous Soviet intelligence officer Nikolai Kuznetsov, who is responsible for the liquidation of several major officials of the occupation administration and several major successes in human intelligence.
Insomnia and the rail war
But still, the main task of the partisan movement, which since 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 occupied by the “first red marshal” Kliment Voroshilov for three months), was different. Not allowing the invaders to gain a foothold on the occupied land, inflicting constant harassing blows on them, disrupting rear communications and transport links - that’s what Mainland waited and demanded from the partisans.
True, the partisans, one might say, learned that they had some kind of global goal only after the appearance of the Central Headquarters. And the point here is not at all that previously 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 moving east at tremendous speed and the country was making titanic efforts to stop this movement, the partisan detachments mostly acted at their own peril and risk. Left to their own devices, with virtually no support from behind the front line, they were forced to focus more on survival than on inflicting significant damage on the enemy. Few could boast of communication with the mainland, and even then mainly those who were organizedly thrown into the German rear, equipped with both a walkie-talkie and radio operators.
But after the appearance of the headquarters, the partisans began to be centrally provided with communications (in particular, regular graduations of partisan radio operators from schools 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 basic tactics of guerrilla warfare had also been formed. The actions of the detachments, as a rule, came down to one of two methods: harassing strikes at the place of deployment or long raids on the enemy’s rear. Supporters and active implementers of raid tactics were the partisan commanders Kovpak and Vershigora, while the “Winners” detachment rather demonstrated harassment.
But what almost all partisan detachments, without exception, did was disrupt German communications. And it doesn’t matter whether this was done as part of a raid or harassing tactics: attacks were carried out on railways (in the first place) and highways. Those who could not boast of a large number of troops and special skills focused on blowing up rails and bridges. Larger detachments that had units of demolitions, reconnaissance and saboteurs and special means could count on more big goals: large bridges, junction stations, railway infrastructure.
Partisans mine railway tracks near Moscow. Photo: RIA Novosti
The largest 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 transportation of the Germans by 40%, and the result of the “Concert” - by 35%. This had a tangible impact on providing the active Wehrmacht units with reinforcements and equipment, although some experts in the field of sabotage warfare believed that the partisan capabilities could have been managed 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 was for this purpose that a device like an overhead rail was invented at the Higher Operational School for Special Purposes, which literally threw trains off the track. But still, for the majority of partisan detachments, the most accessible method of rail warfare was precisely the demolition of the track, and even such assistance to the front turned out to be pointless.
A feat 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 had accidentally or deliberately kept silent about, testimonies appeared from those who never romanticized the activities of the partisans, and even from those who had a death view against the partisans of the Great Patriotic War. And in many now independent former Soviet republics, they completely swapped the plus and minus positions, writing the partisans as enemies, and the policemen as the saviors of the homeland.
But all these events cannot detract from the main thing - the incredible, unique feat of the people who, deep behind enemy lines, did everything to defend their Motherland. Albeit 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 downplayed by any effort.
Significant contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union over Hitler's Germany brought in partisan detachments operating behind enemy lines from Leningrad to Odessa. They were led not only by career military personnel, but also by people of peaceful professions. Real heroes.
Old Man Minai
At the beginning of the war, Minai Filipovich Shmyrev was the director of the Pudot Cardboard Factory (Belarus). The 51-year-old director had a military background: he was awarded three Crosses of St. George in World War I, and fought against banditry during the Civil War. In July 1941, in the village of Pudot, Shmyrev formed a partisan detachment from factory workers. In two months, the partisans engaged the enemy 27 times, destroyed 14 vehicles, 18 fuel tanks, blew up 8 bridges, and defeated the German district government in Surazh. In the spring of 1942, Shmyrev, by order of the Central Committee of Belarus, united with three partisan detachments and headed the First Belarusian Partisan Brigade. The partisans drove the fascists out of 15 villages and created the Surazh partisan region. Here, before the arrival of the Red Army, it was restored Soviet authority. On the Usvyaty-Tarasenki section, the “Surazh Gate” existed for six months - a 40-kilometer zone through which the partisans were supplied with weapons and food. All of Father Minai’s relatives: four small children, a sister and mother-in-law were shot by the Nazis. In the fall of 1942, Shmyrev was transferred to the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement. In 1944 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. After the war, Shmyrev returned to farm work.
Son of the kulak "Uncle Kostya"
Konstantin Sergeevich Zaslonov was born in the city of Ostashkov, Tver province. In the thirties, his family was dispossessed and exiled to the Kola Peninsula in Khibinogorsk. After school, Zaslonov became a railway worker, by 1941 he worked as the head of a locomotive depot in Orsha (Belarus) and was evacuated to Moscow, but voluntarily went back. He served under the pseudonym “Uncle Kostya” and created an underground that, with the help of mines disguised as coal, derailed 93 fascist trains in three months. In the spring of 1942, Zaslonov organized a partisan detachment. The detachment fought with the Germans and lured 5 garrisons of the Russian National People's Army to its side. Zaslonov died in a battle with the RNNA punitive forces, who came to the partisans under the guise of defectors. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
NKVD officer Dmitry Medvedev
A native of the Oryol province, Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev was an NKVD officer. He was fired twice - either because of his brother - “an enemy of the people”, or “for the unreasonable termination of criminal cases.” In the summer of 1941 he was reinstated into the ranks. He headed the reconnaissance and sabotage task force "Mitya", which conducted more than 50 operations in the Smolensk, Mogilev and Bryansk regions. In the summer of 1942, he led the “Winners” special detachment and conducted more than 120 successful operations. 11 generals, 2,000 soldiers, 6,000 Bandera supporters were killed, and 81 echelons were blown up. In 1944, Medvedev was transferred to staff work, but in 1945 he traveled to Lithuania to fight the gang " Forest brothers" He retired with the rank of colonel. Hero of the Soviet Union.
Saboteur Molodtsov-Badaev
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Molodtsov worked in a mine from the age of 16. He worked his way up from a trolley racer to a deputy director. In 1934 he was sent to the Central School of the NKVD. In July 1941 he arrived in Odessa for reconnaissance and sabotage work. He worked under the pseudonym Pavel Badaev. Badaev's troops hid in the Odessa catacombs, fought with the Romanians, broke communication lines, carried out sabotage in the port, and carried out reconnaissance. The commandant's office with 149 officers was blown up. At the Zastava station, a train with the administration for occupied Odessa was destroyed. The Nazis sent 16,000 people to liquidate the detachment. They released gas into the catacombs, poisoned the water, mined the passages. In February 1942, Molodtsov and his contacts were captured. Molodtsov was executed on July 12, 1942. Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.
OGPU employee Naumov
A native of the Perm region, Mikhail Ivanovich Naumov, was an employee of the OGPU at the beginning of the war. Shell-shocked while crossing the Dniester, was surrounded, went out to the partisans and soon led a detachment. In the fall of 1942 he became the chief of staff of partisan detachments in the Sumy region, and in January 1943 he headed a cavalry unit. In the spring of 1943, Naumov conducted the legendary Steppe Raid, 2,379 kilometers long, behind Nazi lines. For this operation, the captain was awarded the rank of major general, which is a unique event, and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In total, Naumov conducted three large-scale raids behind enemy lines. After the war he continued to serve in the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich
Kovpak became a legend during his lifetime. Born in Poltava into a poor peasant family. During World War I he received the St. George Cross from the hands of Nicholas II. During the Civil War he was a partisan against the Germans and fought with the whites. Since 1937, he was chairman of the Putivl City Executive Committee of the Sumy Region. In the fall of 1941, he led the Putivl partisan detachment, and then a formation of detachments in the Sumy region. The partisans carried out military raids behind enemy lines. Their total length was more than 10,000 kilometers. 39 enemy garrisons were defeated. On August 31, 1942, Kovpak participated in a meeting partisan commanders in Moscow, was received by Stalin and Voroshilov, after which he carried out a raid beyond the Dnieper. At this moment, Kovpak’s detachment had 2000 soldiers, 130 machine guns, 9 guns. In April 1943, he was awarded the rank of major general. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
A significant contribution to the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany was made by partisan detachments operating behind enemy lines from Leningrad to Odessa. They were led not only by career military personnel, but also by people of peaceful professions. Real heroes.
Old Man Minai
At the beginning of the war, Minai Filipovich Shmyrev was the director of the Pudot Cardboard Factory (Belarus). The 51-year-old director had a military background: he was awarded three Crosses of St. George in World War I, and fought against banditry during the Civil War.
In July 1941, in the village of Pudot, Shmyrev formed a partisan detachment from factory workers. In two months, the partisans engaged the enemy 27 times, destroyed 14 vehicles, 18 fuel tanks, blew up 8 bridges, and defeated the German district government in Surazh.
In the spring of 1942, Shmyrev, by order of the Central Committee of Belarus, united with three partisan detachments and headed the First Belarusian Partisan Brigade. The partisans drove the fascists out of 15 villages and created the Surazh partisan region. Here, before the arrival of the Red Army, Soviet power was restored. On the Usvyaty-Tarasenki section, the “Surazh Gate” existed for six months - a 40-kilometer zone through which the partisans were supplied with weapons and food.
All of Father Minai’s relatives: four small children, a sister and mother-in-law were shot by the Nazis.
In the fall of 1942, Shmyrev was transferred to the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement. In 1944 he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
After the war, Shmyrev returned to farm work.
Son of the kulak "Uncle Kostya"
Konstantin Sergeevich Zaslonov was born in the city of Ostashkov, Tver province. In the thirties, his family was dispossessed and exiled to the Kola Peninsula in Khibinogorsk.
After school, Zaslonov became a railway worker, by 1941 he worked as the head of a locomotive depot in Orsha (Belarus) and was evacuated to Moscow, but voluntarily went back.
He served under the pseudonym “Uncle Kostya” and created an underground that, with the help of mines disguised as coal, derailed 93 fascist trains in three months.
In the spring of 1942, Zaslonov organized a partisan detachment. The detachment fought with the Germans and lured 5 garrisons of the Russian National People's Army to its side.
Zaslonov died in a battle with the RNNA punitive forces, who came to the partisans under the guise of defectors. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
NKVD officer Dmitry Medvedev
A native of the Oryol province, Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev was an NKVD officer.
He was fired twice - either because of his brother - “an enemy of the people”, or “for the unreasonable termination of criminal cases.” In the summer of 1941 he was reinstated into the ranks.
He headed the reconnaissance and sabotage task force "Mitya", which conducted more than 50 operations in the Smolensk, Mogilev and Bryansk regions.
In the summer of 1942, he led the “Winners” special detachment and conducted more than 120 successful operations. 11 generals, 2,000 soldiers, 6,000 Bandera supporters were killed, and 81 echelons were blown up.
In 1944, Medvedev was transferred to staff work, but in 1945 he traveled to Lithuania to fight the Forest Brothers gang. He retired with the rank of colonel. Hero of the Soviet Union.
Saboteur Molodtsov-Badaev
Vladimir Aleksandrovich Molodtsov worked in a mine from the age of 16. He worked his way up from a trolley racer to a deputy director. In 1934 he was sent to the Central School of the NKVD.
In July 1941 he arrived in Odessa for reconnaissance and sabotage work. He worked under the pseudonym Pavel Badaev.
Badaev's troops hid in the Odessa catacombs, fought with the Romanians, broke communication lines, carried out sabotage in the port, and carried out reconnaissance. The commandant's office with 149 officers was blown up. At the Zastava station, a train with the administration for occupied Odessa was destroyed.
The Nazis sent 16,000 people to liquidate the detachment. They released gas into the catacombs, poisoned the water, mined the passages. In February 1942, Molodtsov and his contacts were captured. Molodtsov was executed on July 12, 1942.
Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.
Desperate partisan "Mikhailo"
Azerbaijani Mehdi Ganifa-ogly Huseyn-zade was drafted into the Red Army from his student days. Participant Battle of Stalingrad. He was seriously wounded, captured and taken to Italy. He escaped at the beginning of 1944, joined the partisans and became a commissar of a company of Soviet partisans. He was engaged in reconnaissance and sabotage, blew up bridges and airfields, and executed Gestapo men. For his desperate courage he received the nickname “partisan Mikhailo.”
A detachment under his command raided the prison, freeing 700 prisoners of war.
He was captured near the village of Vitovlje. Mehdi shot back to the end and then committed suicide.
They learned about his exploits after the war. In 1957 he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
OGPU employee Naumov
A native of the Perm region, Mikhail Ivanovich Naumov, was an employee of the OGPU at the beginning of the war. Shell-shocked while crossing the Dniester, was surrounded, went out to the partisans and soon led a detachment. In the fall of 1942 he became the chief of staff of partisan detachments in the Sumy region, and in January 1943 he headed a cavalry unit.
In the spring of 1943, Naumov conducted the legendary Steppe Raid, 2,379 kilometers long, behind Nazi lines. For this operation, the captain was awarded the rank of major general, which is a unique event, and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In total, Naumov conducted three large-scale raids behind enemy lines.
After the war he continued to serve in the ranks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Kovpak
Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak became a legend during his lifetime. Born in Poltava into a poor peasant family. During World War I he received the St. George Cross from the hands of Nicholas II. During the Civil War he was a partisan against the Germans and fought with the whites.
Since 1937, he was chairman of the Putivl City Executive Committee of the Sumy Region.
In the fall of 1941, he led the Putivl partisan detachment, and then a formation of detachments in the Sumy region. The partisans carried out military raids behind enemy lines. Their total length was more than 10,000 kilometers. 39 enemy garrisons were defeated.
On August 31, 1942, Kovpak participated in a meeting of partisan commanders in Moscow, was received by Stalin and Voroshilov, after which he carried out a raid beyond the Dnieper. At this moment, Kovpak’s detachment had 2000 soldiers, 130 machine guns, 9 guns.
In April 1943, he was awarded the rank of major general.
Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
One of the most terrible myths of the Second World War is associated with the existence of barrier detachments in the Red Army. Often in modern TV series about the war you can see scenes with gloomy characters in blue caps of NKVD troops shooting wounded soldiers leaving the battle with machine guns. By showing this, the authors take a great sin upon their souls. None of the researchers were able to find a single fact in the archives to confirm this.
What happened?
Barrier detachments appeared in the Red Army from the first days of the war. Such formations were created by military counterintelligence, first represented by the 3rd Directorate of the USSR NPO, and from July 17, 1941 - the Directorate special departments NKVD of the USSR and subordinate bodies in the troops.
The main tasks of the special departments during the war were determined by the resolution of the State Defense Committee to be “a decisive fight against espionage and betrayal in units of the Red Army and the elimination of desertion in the immediate front line.” They received the right to arrest deserters, and, if necessary, shoot them on the spot.
To ensure operational activities in special departments in accordance with the order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria by July 25, 1941 were formed: in divisions and corps - separate rifle platoons, in armies - separate rifle companies, in the fronts - separate rifle battalions. Using them, special departments organized a barrage service, setting up ambushes, posts and patrols on roads, refugee routes and other communications. Every detained commander, Red Army soldier, and Red Navy man was checked. If he was recognized as having fled from the battlefield, then he was subject to immediate arrest, and a prompt (no more than 12-hour) investigation began on him to be tried by a military tribunal as a deserter. Special departments were entrusted with the responsibility of enforcing sentences of military tribunals, including before the formation. In “particularly exceptional cases, when the situation requires taking decisive measures to immediately restore order at the front,” the head of the special department had the right to shoot deserters on the spot, which he had to immediately report to the special department of the army and front (navy). Military personnel who fell behind the unit for an objective reason were sent in an organized manner, accompanied by a representative of a special department, to the headquarters of the nearest division.
The flow of military personnel who lagged behind their units in the kaleidoscope of battles, when leaving numerous encirclements, or even deliberately deserted, was enormous. Only from the beginning of the war until October 10, 1941, the operational barriers of special departments and barrage detachments NKVD troops detained more than 650 thousand soldiers and commanders. German agents also easily dissolved in the general mass. Thus, a group of spies neutralized in the winter and spring of 1942 had the task of physically eliminating the command of the Western and Kalinin Fronts, including commanders Generals G.K. Zhukov and I.S. Koneva.
Special departments had difficulty coping with such a volume of cases. The situation required the creation of special units that would be directly involved in preventing the unauthorized withdrawal of troops from their positions, returning stragglers to their units and detaining deserters.
The military command was the first to take this kind of initiative. After an appeal from the commander of the Bryansk Front, Lieutenant General A.I. Eremenko to Stalin on September 5, 1941, he was allowed to create barrage detachments in “unstable” divisions, where there were repeated cases of leaving combat positions without orders. A week later, this practice was extended to rifle divisions throughout the Red Army.
These barrage detachments (up to a battalion in number) had nothing to do with the NKVD troops; they operated as part of the rifle divisions of the Red Army, were staffed by their personnel and were subordinate to their commanders. At the same time, along with them, there were barrier detachments formed either by special military departments or by territorial bodies of the NKVD. A typical example is the barrage detachments formed in October 1941 by the NKVD of the USSR, which, by decree of the State Defense Committee, took under special protection the zone adjacent to Moscow, from the west and south along the line Kalinin - Rzhev - Mozhaisk - Tula - Kolomna - Kashira. Already the first results showed how necessary these measures were. In just two weeks from October 15 to October 28, 1941, more than 75 thousand military personnel were detained in the Moscow zone.
From the very beginning, the barrage formations, regardless of their departmental subordination, were not guided by their leadership towards indiscriminate executions and arrests. Meanwhile, today we have to face similar accusations in the press; The barrier detachments are sometimes called punitive forces. But here are the numbers. Of the more than 650 thousand military personnel detained by October 10, 1941, after verification, about 26 thousand people were arrested, among whom the special departments included: spies - 1505, saboteurs - 308, traitors - 2621, cowards and alarmists - 2643, deserters - 8772, spreaders of provocative rumors - 3987, self-shooters - 1671, others - 4371 people. 10,201 people were shot, including 3,321 people in front of the line. The overwhelming number is more than 632 thousand people, i.e. more than 96% were returned to the front.
As the front line stabilized, the activities of the defensive formations were gradually curtailed. Order No. 227 gave it new impetus.
The barrier detachments created in accordance with it, numbering up to 200 people, consisted of soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, who did not differ in uniform or weapons from the rest of the Red Army military personnel. Each of them had the status of a separate military unit and was subordinate not to the command of the division behind whose battle formations it was located, but to the command of the army through the NKVD OO. The detachment was led by a state security officer.
In total, by October 15, 1942, 193 barrage detachments were functioning in units of the active army. First of all, Stalin's order was carried out, of course, on the southern flank of the Soviet-German front. Almost every fifth detachment - 41 units - was formed in the Stalingrad direction.
Initially, in accordance with the requirements of the People's Commissar of Defense, barrage detachments were entrusted with the responsibility of preventing the unauthorized withdrawal of linear units. However, in practice, the range of military affairs in which they were engaged turned out to be wider.
“The barrage detachments,” recalled Army General P. N. Lashchenko, who was the deputy chief of staff of the 60th Army in the days of the publication of order No. 227, “were located at a distance from the front line, covered the troops from the rear from saboteurs and enemy landings, detained deserters who , unfortunately, there were; they restored order at the crossings and sent soldiers who had strayed from their units to assembly points.”
As many participants in the war testify, barrier detachments did not exist everywhere. According to Marshal of the Soviet Union D.T. Yazov, they were completely absent on a number of fronts operating in the northern and northwestern directions.
The version that the barrier detachments were “guarding” the penal units also does not stand up to criticism. The company commander of the 8th separate penal battalion of the 1st Belorussian Front, retired Colonel A.V. Pyltsyn, who fought from 1943 until the Victory, states: “Under no circumstances were there any barrier detachments behind our battalion, nor were others used deterrent measures. There was just never such a need for it.”
Famous writer Hero of the Soviet Union V.V. Karpov, who fought in the 45th separate penal company on the Kalinin Front, also denies the presence of barrier detachments behind the battle formations of their unit.
In reality, the outposts of the army barrier detachment were located at a distance of 1.5-2 km from the front line, intercepting communications in the immediate rear. They did not specialize in penalties, but checked and detained everyone whose presence outside the military unit aroused suspicion.
Did the barrage detachments use weapons to prevent the unauthorized withdrawal of line units from their positions? This aspect of their military activity is sometimes covered in an extremely speculative manner.
The documents show how the combat practice of the barrage detachments developed during one of the most intense periods of the war, in the summer and autumn of 1942. From August 1 (the moment of formation) to October 15, they detained 140,755 military personnel who “escaped from the front line.” Of these: 3980 were arrested, 1189 were shot, 2776 were sent to penal companies, 185 were sent to penal battalions, the overwhelming number of detainees was returned to their units and transit points - 131,094 people. The statistics presented show that the absolute majority of military personnel were able to continue fighting without any loss of rights, previously various reasons those who left the front line - more than 91%.
As for the criminals, the most severe measures were applied to them. This applied to deserters, defectors, imaginary patients, and self-inflicted shooters. It happened - and they shot me in front of the line. But the decision to carry out this extreme measure was made not by the commander of the barrier detachment, but by the military tribunal of the division (no lower) or, in individual, pre-agreed cases, by the head of the special department of the army.
In exceptional situations, fighters of the barrage detachments could open fire over the heads of the retreating troops. We admit that individual cases of shooting at people in the heat of battle could have occurred: the fighters and commanders of the barrier detachments in a difficult situation could change their endurance. But there is no basis to assert that this was everyday practice. Cowards and alarmists were shot individually in front of the line. Punishments, as a rule, are only the initiators of panic and flight.
Let us give several typical examples from the history of the Battle of the Volga. On September 14, 1942, the enemy launched an offensive against units of the 399th rifle division 62nd Army. When the soldiers and commanders of the 396th and 472nd rifle regiments began to retreat in panic, the head of the barrier detachment Ensign State Security Yelman ordered his squad to open fire over the heads of the retreating people. This forced the personnel to stop, and two hours later the regiments occupied their previous defensive lines.
On October 15, in the area of the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the enemy managed to reach the Volga and cut off the remnants of the 112th Infantry Division, as well as three (115, 124 and 149th) separate rifle brigades, from the main forces of the 62nd Army. Succumbing to panic, a number of military personnel, including commanders of various levels, tried to abandon their units and, under various pretexts, cross to the eastern bank of the Volga. To prevent this, a task force under the leadership of senior intelligence officer Lieutenant of State Security Ignatenko, created by a special department of the 62nd Army, set up a barrier. In 15 days, up to 800 privates and soldiers were detained and returned to the battlefield. command staff, 15 alarmists, cowards and deserters were shot in front of the line. The barrier detachments acted similarly later.
The blocking detachments, as documents show, had to support the faltering, retreating units and units themselves, and intervene in the course of the battle in order to bring a turning point in it, more than once, as documents show. Reinforcements arriving at the front were, naturally, not fired upon, and in this situation, the barrage detachments, formed from persistent, fired upon, with strong front-line hardened commanders and fighters, provided a reliable shoulder for the linear units.
Thus, during the defense of Stalingrad on August 29, 1942, the headquarters of the 29th Infantry Division of the 64th Army was surrounded by enemy tanks that had broken through. The barrier detachment not only stopped the soldiers retreating in disarray and returned them to previously occupied defense lines, but also entered the battle itself. The enemy was driven back.
On September 13, when the 112th Rifle Division, under enemy pressure, retreated from the occupied line, the defense detachment of the 62nd Army under the command of State Security Lieutenant Khlystov took over the defense. For several days, the soldiers and commanders of the detachment repelled the attacks of enemy machine gunners until the approaching units took up defensive positions. This was the case in other sectors of the Soviet-German front.
With the turning point in the situation that came after the victory at Stalingrad, the participation of barrage formations in battles increasingly turned out to be not only spontaneous, dictated by the dynamically changing situation, but also the result in advance decision taken command. The army commanders tried to use the units that were left without “work” with maximum benefit in matters not related to the protective service.
Facts of this kind were reported to Moscow by State Security Major V.M. in mid-October 1942. Kazakevich. For example, on the Voronezh Front, by order of the military council of the 6th Army, two defensive detachments were assigned to the 174th Infantry Division and brought into battle. As a result, they lost up to 70% of their personnel, the remaining soldiers were transferred to replenish the named division, and the units had to be disbanded. The barrier detachment of the 29th Army used a linear unit Western Front commander of the 246th Infantry Division, under whose operational subordination the detachment was located. Taking part in one of the attacks, a detachment of 118 personnel lost 109 people killed and wounded, and therefore had to be re-formed.
The reasons for objections from special departments are clear. But, it seems, it was no coincidence that from the very beginning the barrage detachments were subordinated to the army command, and not to military counterintelligence agencies. The People's Commissar of Defense, of course, meant that barrage formations would and should be used not only as a barrier for retreating units, but also as the most important reserve for direct combat operations.
As the situation on the fronts changed, with the transfer of strategic initiative to the Red Army and the beginning of the mass expulsion of the invaders from the territory of the USSR, the need for barrier detachments began to sharply decrease. The order “Not a step back!” completely lost its former meaning. On October 29, 1944, Stalin issued an order acknowledging that “due to the change in the general situation at the fronts, the need for further maintenance of barrage detachments has ceased.” By November 15, 1944, they were disbanded, and the personnel of the detachments were sent to replenish the rifle divisions.
Thus, the barrage detachments not only acted as a barrier that prevented deserters, alarmists, and German agents from penetrating into the rear; they not only returned military personnel who had lagged behind their units to the front line, but also led direct fighting with the enemy, making a contribution to achieving victory over Nazi Germany.
