Partisan and Underground Fighters Day

On June 29, Russia observes Partisan and Underground Fighters Day. On that day in 1941, the USSR Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) issued a directive for the Communist Party and Soviet organisations in the frontline regions urging them to mobilise all forces and means to defeat Nazi invaders, which read, in part:

To create partisan units and subversive groups in the areas occupied by the enemy in order to fight against enemy army units, to wage partisan warfare wherever possible, to blow up bridges and roads; to damage telephone and telegraph communications; to set fire to warehouses; to make life unbearable for the enemy and its accomplices; to pursue and destroy them every step of the way; and to disrupt their activities in the areas seized by the enemy.

As a result, in the first months of the war the partisan movement was led by the central committees (CC) of the Communist Party in the Soviet republics and the Communist Party (CP) regional committees; the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army; the Fourth Department of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD), the military councils of the fronts and armies, and intelligence units of the fronts and the army.

On May 30, 1942, the State Defence Committee issued a resolution to establish the Partisan Movement Central Headquarters at the General Headquarters led by prominent statesman and political figure Panteleimon Ponomarenko, who served as the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belorussia.

With the establishment of the office of a commander-in-chief of the partisan movement on September 6, 1942, Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov was appointed to this position.

A properly functioning partisan forces' management system made it possible to set up training for partisan forces, to establish reliable communication with units and detachments, to provide them with combat logistics, and to organise the partisan formations’ tactical, operative and strategic interaction with the Red Army.

Over the war years, partisan schools, as well as training centres operating in western Russia alone trained and sent over 22,000 different specialists behind the enemy lines, of whom about 75% were demolition specialists, 9% organisers of partisan warfare and underground activities, 8% radio operators and 7% reconnaissance operatives.

The efforts to deploy partisan warfare focused on ensuring logistics supplies for the partisans. This issue was addressed by maximising the use of local and seized resources combined with the deliveries of missing supplies by aircraft beyond the frontline.

Partisan warfare had its specifics. The partisans fulfilled their goals both as part of direct combat operations against the enemy (ambushes, incursions, defensive and offensive operations) and without direct confrontation with the enemy (sabotage). Raids behind the enemy lines were practiced as well.

Acts of sabotage were central to partisan tactics. Numerous acts of sabotage not only made a dent in transport capacity, but inflicted heavy losses on the enemy in terms of personnel and equipment. They also forced the Nazi commanders to divert large forces and means to protect and defend communications and facilities behind the lines. Improvised explosive devices, thermite sticks and bottles with a combustible mixture, as well as more complex subversive equipment, such as magnetic mines and delayed-action mines, were widely used in the acts of sabotage.

Partisans and underground fighters have played a great role in victory over Nazism. Over one million partisans operated behind the enemy lines. They derailed enemy trains, broke up the occupiers’ logistics and ruthlessly liquidated the enemies of our Motherland and their henchmen. Their vigorous efforts forced the Nazi command to diverge sizable police forces and security guard forces to combat them and to protect their property, as well as to re-orient a significant number of regular units and formations that were originally designated for the front.

Sydor Kovpak was among the heroes of the partisan movement. He demonstrated his talent and courage during World War I while fighting in the 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment, taking part in reconnaissance missions, capturing prisoners, and fighting in the Battle of Krasnik and the Brusilov offensive.

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, he formed and headed a group of partisans to carry out effective operations in the enemy’s rear. The partisans were fond of their commander, calling him Gramps. In October 1941, Kovpak led his fighters in a battle against an enemy tank unit, managing to capture three trophy tanks from the invaders.

Sydor Kovpak would often joke that Hitler was his main arms and food supplier, since his group would frequently get its weapons, munitions and food by raiding the enemy’s rear positions.

Kovpak’s 100-day Carpathian Raid in the summer of 1943 against the enemy’s rear positions became one of the most famous operations carried out by the partisan movement fighters. His regiment marched over 2,000 kilometres, engaging the enemy along the way, leaving three to five thousand enemy soldiers and officers dead or wounded, derailing 19 trains and inflicting major damage on the enemy’s refineries.

Kovpak also knocked Ternopol’s rail hub out of action, making it much harder for Germans to send their forces to Kursk, which had a major bearing on the outcome of the Battle of Kursk.

Valentin Kotik, 11, joined the fight against the invaders when the Nazis occupied Shepetovka, his home village. He collected weapons and ammunition, drew and posted images mocking the Nazis, and relayed information from the partisans.

At 14, Valya was already fighting shoulder to shoulder with adult partisans and he took part in blowing up train convoys and enemy warehouses.

On February 16, 1944, Valya sustained a serious wound during the fierce battle for Izyaslav. He died the following day.

Valya Kotik was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title posthumously for his heroism in fighting the invaders. He also received the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class, and the medal Partisan of the Great Patriotic War, 2nd class.

There are monuments to Valya Kotik and streets bearing his name in many cities across the former Soviet republics.

Born in Rechitsa in 1922, Varvara Vyrvich wanted to become an engineer, but her dream fell apart when the war started in June 1941. She volunteered for the front and soon became a combat medic, taking part in battle action and saving many wounded soldiers. When the Nazis occupied the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Varvara enrolled in an intelligence academy, where she learned to use firearms, mining technics and guerrilla warfare.

In the spring of 1943, Varvara, under the callsign Katya, headed to the Nazi rear positions in her native Belarus, where she joined a partisan group. The way this frail girl adapted to combat action with its dangers could not fail to amaze seasoned partisan fighters. It was quite natural for her to lead a group of young partisans shortly after her arrival.

Under her leadership, her group grew to 150 members and started inflicting serious damage on the invaders. The partisans used horses they took from the Nazis to move around the region and stage surprise attacks on the enemy’s police stations. These partisan avengers showed no mercy in killing the invaders and their polizei, burning the German staff quarters and derailing trains.

The destruction of a munitions warehouse in Novobelitsa was her group’s biggest success. The facility stored 4,000 artillery shells, 3,000 anti-tank mines, and 25,000 hand grenades. These munitions perished all at once. In total, Katya’s group derailed 27 trains and organised 85 explosions on the railway. While carrying out all these acts of sabotage, the regiment lost only four fighters in face-to-face confrontation with the enemy.

The Germans put a big price on Katya the Bandit’s head, but the effort to catch Ms Vyrvich never succeeded.

Speaking of underground resistance, one absolutely has to mention the Young Guard, a group that operated in Krasnodon. The organisation included 71 people and was only active for four months. However, even in such a short period of time, those young people achieved a lot. By the beginning of December 1942, the Young Guard managed to collect an arsenal of 15 machine guns, 80 rifles, 10 pistols and about 15,000 cartridges, 300 grenades and 65 kilogrammes of explosives. They intended to put it all to use as the Red Army approached. They also conducted several successful high-risk operations, one of which was to destroy the “black exchange,” an occupation office that stored documents listing over 2,000 citizens of Krasnodon who were intended for deportation to Germany to do forced labour.

The Young Guards freed prisoners of war, printed and distributed leaflets with information about the situation on the fronts and reports from the Soviet Information Bureau, which raised people’s morale in areas under occupation. The members hung out eight red flags on the tallest buildings in Krasnodon on November 7, 1942, in the most striking demonstration of the captured city’s resistance. The act showed they were not broken.

The arrests of the Young Guard members began on January 1, 1943, and within ten days, almost all the young underground activists were seized by the Germans. Their captors used sophisticated torture on all of them but failed to find out the information that the Nazis and their collaborators needed about the underground or other local partisan units the members kept in touch with. After that, the prisoners were removed from the city in batches and thrown into the pit of Coal Mine No. 5. Some of them were shot on the edge of the mine, others were still alive. Four members of the group, including Lyubov Shevtsova and Oleg Koshevoy, were executed in the woods near Rovenky. Only 10 members of the group survived the Great Patriotic War.

There were a great many such examples of courage and unbending will. Thanks to the selflessness of Soviet citizens, the enemy was first expelled from our land, and then finally exterminated in its lair.

🕯 Eternal glory and eternal memory to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War!