Soviet partisans
 | The neutrality of this article is disputed. |
The Soviet partisans were members of the anti-fascist resistance movement which fought guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Despite a significant degree of self-determination and relatively wide public support in some territories, the movement was mostly organized and controlled by the Soviet government.
Beginning of anti-German guerrilla resistance
At the end of June 1941, immediately after German forces crossed the Soviet border, the Communist Party ordered Party members to organize an underground resistance in the occupied territories (pre-war plans and candidates for such operations existed). Although formal creation was ordered in 1941, it was only in 1942-43 that underground cells sprang up throughout Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russian regions such as Bryansk occupied by the invaders. Partisans waged guerrilla warfare against the occupiers, and enjoyed increasing support from the local population which was antagonized by German brutality.
Partisans consisted of people left behind the German lines, including escapees from German prisoner of war camps, and refugees from the German terror. No formal recruitment procedures existed, although some partisan commanders (especially those in charge of large units) experimented with mandatory enlistment of young peasants, i.e. informal conscript service, however, these experiments did not meet much success.
While in some areas of Ukraine and Belarus the local population was initially supportive to the German occupation as an alternative the harsh Stalinist rule, they soon found out that the Nazi rule was even more brutal. The occupants began regularly performing transfers of local population to Germany to serve as slave laborers, looting (both centrally-planned and spontaneous), and arbitrary severe punishment for minor infractions, amongst other violations of human rights. Naturally, under these circumstances, some locals rallied to join the anti-occupation resistance, while the majority became passive supporters to partisans.
Soon, the centralized Partisan Movement Headquarters and support infrastructure was created by the NKVD in the areas still controlled by Soviets. There were autonomous Headquarters for each Soviet republic, although all under strict control of the central NKVD leadership. The Headquarters began supporting partisan groups behind enemy lines with various supplies through airlifts and established radio connection with most of them.
Later NKVD, SMERSH and military intelligence began training special groups of future partisans (effectively, special forces units) in the rear and dropping them in the occupied territories. The candidates for these groups were chosen among volunteers from regular Red Army, NKVD's Internal Troops, and also among Soviet sportsmen. When dropped behind Axis lines, the groups were to organize and guide the local self-established partisan units. Radio operators and intelligence gathering officers were the essential members of each group since amateur fighters could not be trusted with these tasks. Some commanders of these special units (like Dmitry Medvedev) later became well-known partisan leaders.
Areas of operations
Belarus
Belarus was the republic hardest hit by the war that took from 25 to 40% of the republic's population.[1] According to the Himmler's plan, 3/4 of the Belarusian population was to be eradicated and the remainder was to be used as a slave labour force. By Summer 1942 all the illusions some Belarussians might have had about the Nazi rule, even compared to the brutal Stalinist regime, were lost and the anti-fascist resistance rose dramatically.
To the end of 1941 only in Minsk area there were at least 50 partisan groups having more than 2,000 fighters. Especially difficult for the partisans was the winter of 1941-1942, there was not enough experience, weapons, ammo, supplies. The actions of partisans were often uncoordinated. A significant part of Belarus were territories annexed from Poland where Soviet partisans were often unpopular (see Soviet partisans in the former territories of the Second Polish Republic). According to some historians (e.g. [2]) before the break of relation with the Polish government in exile in the spring of 1943, Soviet government did not support Soviet partisan movement there, expecting the Armia Krajowa (AK) to be more effective on former Polish territories. At that time Soviet partisans and AK usually supported each other. Since the break of the relations between the two governments the cooperation was discouraged from the both sides.
The vast Belorussian forests provided a suitable environment for a guerrilla war. Soon Belarus had the largest number of Soviet partisans, numbering over 300,000 fighters[3] under the leadership of Panteleymon Ponomarenko, Petr Masherov, Kiril Mazurov and others. As early as the spring of 1942 they were able to effectively harass German troops and significantly hamper their operations in the region. According to the official data [4] in 1943 there were 375,000 partisan fighters and 70 thousand members of urban underground. Among Soviet partisans in Belarus were people of 45 different ethnic backgrounds and 4 thousands foreigners (including 3,000 Poles, 400 Czechs and Slovaks, 300 Yugoslavians, etc.). Around 65% of Belorussian partisans were local people.
The partisan movement was so strong that by 1943-44 there were entire regions in occupied Belarus, where Soviet authority was re-established deep inside the German held territories. There were even partisan kolkhozes that were raising crops and livestock to produce food for the partisans.[5]. During the battles for liberation of Belarus, partisans were considered as the fourth Belorussian front.
Ukraine
Template:ImageStackRight As well as Belarus, Ukraine was the first and hardest hit by the Axis invasion in Summer-Autumn 1941. The consequences for the area and for the population that remained under the occupation was devastating. The Nazi regime took little effort to exploit the anti-Soviet sentiments among many Ukrainians that developed from the years of harsh Stalinist rule. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, systematically carried out genocidal policies against Jews, and deported others (mainly Ukrainians) to Germany as a slave labour force. Under these circumstances most of the population resisted the Nazi onslaught from its start and a partisan movement immediately spread over the occupied territory.
The first Soviet partisan detachments in Ukraine appeared in Chernihiv and Sumy regions. They developed out of Mykola Popudrenko's and Sydir Kovpak's underground groups, and became a formidable force in 1943. At this stage they were controlled and significantly supported by the Ukrainian Partisan Movement Headquarters in Moscow, operating throughout occupied Ukraine (especially in the northeastern part) and numbered over 150,000 fighters. In 1944 partisans led by Kovpak and Vershigora were even able to raid the enemy forces in Romania, Slovakia and Poland.
UPA
The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a separate resistance force formed in 1942 (as a military arm of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), was engaged in the armed conflicts with the Soviet partisans, Nazi occupants and the Polish resistance at different times. Although UPA initially attempted to find a common ground with the Nazi Germany in the face of the common enemy (the USSR), it soon was driven underground as it became apparent that Germans' view of Ukraine was as of a German colony with an enslaved population, not an independent country the UPA hoped for. As such, UPA was driven underground and fought both the Nazi occupants and the Soviet forces (including partisans) at the same time.
Later, UPA and Soviet partisans leaders have been occasionally trying to negotiate a temporarily alliance, but Moscow NKVD Headquarters began harshly persecuting such attempts of its local commanders. With two sides becoming established enemies, the Soviet partisans found less support from the population of Western Ukraine [citation needed] (which was predominantly supporting UPA).
Western Russia
In Bryansk region the Soviet partisans controlled vast areas behind the German rear. In the summer of 1942 they effectively held territory of more than 14 000 square kilometers with population of over 200,000 people. Soviet partisans in the region were led by Alexei Fyodorov, Alexander Saburov and others and numbered over 60,000 men. Belgorod, Oryol, Kursk, Novgorod, Leningrad, Pskov and Smolensk regions also had significant partisan activity during the occupation period. In Oryol and Smolensk regions partisans were led by Dmitry Medvedev.
In 1943, after Red Army started to liberate western Russia and north-east Ukraine, many partisans, including units led by Fyodorov, Medvedev and Saburov, were ordered to re-locate their operations into central and western Ukraine still occupied by Nazis.
Baltic States
Soviet Partisans also operated in the Baltic States. In Estonia, they were under the leadership of Nikolay Karotamm. In Latvia they were first under Russian and Belarussian command, and from January 1943, directly subordinated to the central Headquarters in Moscow, under the leadership of Arturs Sprongis. Another prominent commander was the historian Vilis Samsons, head of a unit of 3,000 men. He is responsible for destroying about 130 German military trains.
In the Vilnius Ghetto, a Jewish resistance organisation called the United Partisan Organization (FPO) was established. Its members came from all the parties and youth movements from the entire political spectrum in the ghetto. Its first leaders were Yitzhak Wittenberg, a member of the Communist Party, and the poet Abba Kovner. Kovner was a member of the headquarters, and after its chief commander, Wittenberg, was caught in July 1943, he became the head of the organization. [1]
In 1941, the Soviet partisan movement in Lithuania began with the actions of a small number of Red Army soldiers left behind enemy lines, much like the beginning of partisan movements in Ukraine and Belarus. The movement grew throughout 1942, and in the summer of that year the Lithuanian Soviet partisan movement began receiving material aid as well as specialists and instructors in guerrilla warfare from the territory still controlled by Soviet government. On the 26th of November, 1942, the Command of Lithuanian Partisan Movement (Lietuvos partizaninio judėjimo štabas) was created in Moscow, headed by First Secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party Antanas Sniečkus, who had fled to Moscow in the wake of the German invasion in 1941. Although the Soviet partisans in Lithuania were nominally under the control of Command of Lithuanian Partisan Movement, the guerrilla warfare specialists and instructors sent by it reported directly to Central Command of Partisan Movement. Modern Lithuanian historians estimate that about half of the Soviet partisans in Lithuania were escapees from POW and Nazi concentration camps, Soviet activists, Red Army soldiers left behind the quickly advancing front line, while the other half was made up of airdropped special operations experts. Soviet partisans participated in crimes against the civilian population of Lithuania (for example, murdered Polish civilians in Kaniūkai, in an event that has come to be called the Koniuchy massacre, and raised to the ground entire Bakaloriškės village [2]). Soviet partisans had no support from the local population. It is estimated that in total, about five thousand people engaged in pro-Soviet underground activities in Lithuania during the war. In general, role of Soviet diversant groups in Lithuania in Second World War was minimal. [3]
The anti-Soviet resistance movements in the Baltic states, known as the Forest Brothers, which sprung just before Soviet re-occupation in 1944, and local self-defence units often came into conflict with the Soviet partisan groups, much like the situation between Ukrainian partisans and the UPA in Ukraine.
In Eastern and South-Eastern Lithuania Soviet partisans were constantly clashing with Polish Home Army partisans. Home Army did not recognise any territorial changes after 1939 and considered this region as legal part of Poland, while Soviets planned to incorporate it into Soviet Union. Only in April of 1944 Home Army and Soviet partisans started coordinating their actions against Germans. [3]
Outside the Soviet Union
Poland
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Soviet partisans also operated on the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic. One of the first partisan formations was organized by Vasily Korzh in Pinsk June 26 1941 ([6]). On the pre-war Polish territory annexed by Soviets (Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Lithuania and Białystok area, known to Poles as Kresy) the first Soviet partisan groups were formed in soon after German's invasion of Russia.
Fight against Polish partisans
After initial period of wary collaboration with Polish resistance, the conflicts between those groups vastly intensified, especially as Poles were victims of Soviet terror between 1939 and 1941, and Soviets diplomatic relations with the Polish government in exile continued to worsen and were broken off completly in the aftermath of the discovery of the Katyn Massacre. Eventually on June 22 1943 Soviets partisans were ordered by Moscow to attack Polish partisans. [7] With the increasing support from the advancing Eastern Front, the Soviets partisans scored many victories against their local Polish enemies, however their effectiveness against the Germans was much smaller, as the Soviet partisants seldom attacked German military and police targets, preferring to engage the poorly armed and trained Belarusan and Polish self-defense forces.[8]
France
Interestingly, there were formations calling themselves Soviet partisans who operated long way from the territories of Soviet Union. Usually they were organized by former Soviet citizens who escaped Nazi camps. One of such a formation was Rodina (Motherland) acting in France. [9][10]
Finland and Karelia
Soviet partisans operated in Finland and in Karelia during the Continuation War from 1941 to 1944. During the Finnish occupation 20,000 of the local people there put in concentration camps and thousands died, mostly from hunger during the time of bad harvest in 1942. [11] These actions made many local people to support the attacks. Approximately 5,000 partisans fought in the region often operating from the Soviet side of the frontline. Partisans distributed Finnish language propaganda newspapers Pravda (Truth) and "Lenin's Standart" One of the leaders of the partisan movement in Finland and Karelia was Yuri Andropov. [12]
Some partisan operations in Finland targeted civilians, killing 200 and injuring 50, including children and elderly.[4][5][6] The partisans often executed civilians throughout, not wanting anyone to witness the atrocities. One such incident was the so-called Inari Laanila partisan attack that took place on July 4 1943, in which the partisans attacked an inn and a truck carrying civilians and killed them, including bishop Yrjö Wallinmaa. [13][14][15]
Major operations
1000 kilometre raid of a partisan formation over Minsk and Pinsk Oblasts of Belarus.
- Battle of Bryansk forests; May 1942
Battle of partisans against the Nazi punitive expedition that included 5 infantry divisions, military police, 120 tanks and aviation.
- Raid of Sydir Kovpak, October 26 - November 29 1942
Raid over Bryansk forests and Eastern Ukraine
- Battle of Bryansk forests, May-June, 1943
Battle of partisans of the Bryansk forests with the German punitive expeditions
- Operation "Rails War", August 3 - September 15 1943
Operation Rails War (Russian: Рельсовая война) [16], [17] was a major operation of partisan formations against the railroad communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of Kursk and later the Battle of Smolensk. It involved concentrated actions by more than 100,000 partisan fighters of Belarus, Leningrad Oblast, Kalinin Oblast, Smolensk Oblast, Oryol Oblast and Ukraine on the territory of 1000km along the front and 750 km in depth. Reportedly, more than 230,000 rails were destroyed, along with many bridges, trains and other railroad infrastructure. The operation seriously incapacitated German logistics and was instrumental for the Soviet victory in Kursk battle.
- Operation "Concerto", September 19 - November 1 1943
Operation Concerto (Russian: Концерт) [18], [19] was a major operation of partisan formations against the railroad communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of the Dniepr and on the direction of the Soviet offensive in the Smolensk and Gomel directions. Partisans of Belarus, Karelia, Kalinin Oblast, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Crimea participated in the operations. The area of the operation was 900 km along the front (excluding Karelia and Crimea) and 400 km in depth. Despite the bad weather that allowed airlifting of less than a half of the planned supplies the operation lead to decreasing of the railroad capacity on the area by 35-40% that was critical for the success of the Soviet military operations in the autumn of 1943. In Belarus alone claimed destruction of more than 90,000 rails along with 1,061 trains, 72 railroad bridges and 58 Axis garrisons. According to the Soviet hystoriography, Axis losses totalled more than 53,000 soldiers.
- Battle of Polotsk-Leppel, April 1944
Major battle between partisans of Belarus and a German punitive expeditions.
Major battle between partisans of Belarus and a German punitive expeditions.
Belarusian partisans took major part in the Operation Bagration. They were often considered the fifth front (along with the 1st Baltic Front, 1st Belorussian Front, 2nd Belorussian Front and 3rd Belorussian Front. Upward to 300,000 partisans took part in the operation.
Controversies
While the partisan movement in some regions greatly contributed into the outcome of the Great Patriotic War, some historians alleged[citation needed] that the price for this was too high.
German reprisals
Partisans are often accused of provoking the brutal countermeasures of Nazi occupants. Trying to limit partisan activities, German command applied the tactic of taking mass hostages among residents of partisan-operated areas. In case of partisan attack (typically, on a railroad bridge), the definite number of locals would be executed. Such hostage operations could happen in the forms of preliminary arrests, post-attack retaliation actions, or compulsory "watch-groups" deployed on vulnerable sites and killed if they haven't averted the attack.
According to Soviet sources, the partisans invented ways to prevent hostage/retaliation murders, like targeting uninhabited areas, developing their own forest agriculture and evacuating the whole population of the villages at risk. However, some historians believe such attempts were of little effect.
The burden of the partisan actions on the locals was feeding a permanent political controversy among partisans, answered by the NKVD in a rapid and violent way. The most discussed episode of such controversy is the case of Semyon Rudniev, popular Commissar of the Kovpak formation in Ukraine who developed a conflict with Moscow and was allegedly assassinated for that by the NKVD order.[citation needed]
Relations with civilians
Also, Soviet partisans compulsorily commissioned food, livestock and clothes from local peasants. The results of this typical guerrilla activity were made more severe by the fact that Axis occupational forces have been already seizing food from people in enormous amounts to support their war economies.
Among the targets of Soviet partisans were not only Axis military and their volunteerly collaboration units, but also civilians groundlessly accused to be Nazi collaborators or sometimes even those were considered to not support the partisans strong enough[20]. As with other guerilla wars, some of these attacks might be classified as war crimes, such as the Koniuchy massacre.
The relation between Soviet partisants and the Jews is also controversial. The young and armed Jews were usually welcomed by the Soviets, however women, children, and the elderly were ignored by the Soviet partisants at best and victimized at worst. There were even instances when Jews were killed by the Soviet partisans. The Soviet leadership vowed to curb anti-Semitic words and deeds, but at the same time it punished expressions of Jewish solidarity. The extermination of the Jews was depicted as “martyrdom of Soviet citizens” and stripped of its uniqueness. Eventually, however, separate Jewish groups, both guerrilla units and mixed family groups of refugees (like the Bielski partisans), were subordinated to the communist partisan leadership and considered as Soviet assets.[21]
Fight against the independence movements
In addition to fighting the Nazis, Soviet partisans fought against the organisations and people which seeked to reestablish independent non-communist states of Poland[22], Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine. This included fighting against national resistance groups in the places such as the Baltic States and Poland where most of the resistance seeked to reestablish the independent states[23]. Due to these reasons, the Soviet partisans are a very controversial issue in the mentioned countries. In Latvia some former Soviet partisans are prosecuted to this day for the alleged war crimes against locals during the occupation.
Stalinist repressions against veterans
After the end of the war, some Soviet partisans were repressed (mostly sent to labor camps) on various grounds. Although most of the allegations were cleared in 1955 when a Soviet pardon was announced to all POWs and Nazi collaborators.
Assessment
The partisans' activities included disrupting the railroad communications, intelligence gathering and, typically, small hit and run operations. With the German supply lines already over extended, the partisan operations in the rear of the front lines were able to severely disrupt the flow of supplies to the army that acted deep into the Soviet territory.
In the second half of the war, major partisan operations were coordinated with Soviet offensives. Upon liberation of parts of the Soviet territory the corresponding partisan detachments usually joined the regular Army.
The partisans were an important and numerous force of the war. According to Soviet sources, from 90,000 partisans (including underground) by the end of 1941 it grew to 220,000 in 1942, and to more than 550,000 in 1943[24]. Soviet partisans inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties on Axis forces and contributed significantly to the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War. In Belarus alone the partisans claimed "liquidated," injured and took prisoner some 500,000 German soldiers.[25]
List of famous Soviet partisans
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See also
- Partisans (Yugoslavia)
- Young Guard (Soviet resistance)
- Resistance during World War II
- People's War
- Jewish partisans
Notes and references
- ^ Abba Kovner (1918-1987). Jewish Virtual Library. Last accessed on 3 August, 2006.
- ^ Template:Lt icon Rimantas Zizas. Bakaloriškių sunaikinimas (Destruction of Bakaloriškės). Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras (Centre for investigation of genocide and resistance of population of Lithuania), 2004. Last accessed on 3 August, 2006.
- ^ a b Template:Lt icon Audronė Janavičienė. Soviet saboteurs in Lithuania (1941-1944). Lietuvos gyventojų genocido ir rezistencijos tyrimo centras (Centre for investigation of genocide and resistance of population of Lithuania), Last accessed on 3 August, 2006.
- ^ Veikko Erkkilä, (1999). Vaiettu sota, Arator Oy. ISBN 9529619189.
- ^ Lauri Hannikainen, (1992). Implementing Humanitarian Law Applicable in Armed Conflicts: The Case of Finland, Martinuss Nijoff Publishers, Dordrecht. ISBN 0792316118.
- ^ Tyyne Martikainen, (2002). Partisaanisodan siviiliuhrit, PS-Paino Värisuora Oy. ISBN 9529143273.
- Dear I.C.B. The Oxford Companion to World War II. Oxford University Press, 1995.
- Template:Ru icon Partisan Movement during the Great Patriotic War - V.N. Andrianov Soviet Encyclopaedia entry.
- Template:En icon Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II - Virtual Guide to Belarus.
- Governmental
- Template:Ru icon Partisan Movement in Belarus - Republic of Belarus Defense Ministry.
- Template:Ru icon Partisan Movement in Bryansk region 1941-1943 - Bryansk regional government.
External links
Pro-partisans
- Biography of Braiko
- Account of Partisan activity in Western Ukraine
- Famous partisan-miners
- Template:En icon Template:He icon :Jewish partisans directory (searchable)
- Template:Ru icon People with clear conscience — Memoires of Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora
- Template:Ru icon It happened by Rovno — Memoires of Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev