Partisan movement on the territory of Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War

September 22, 2010
In Ukraine, according to the Presidential decree No. 1020 from October 30, 2001, the Day of the Partisan Glory is annually celebrated on September 22

The Great Patriotic War is justly recognized nationwide. The approval of the statement lies within the broad scope of partisan movement and heroism of the patriots who made the invaluable contribution to the victory over fascism.

In the first days of war, fascists managed to occupy vast territories of the Soviet Union. On the occupied lands, the enemy established systems of its troops’ comprehensive logistics support, tried to efficiently utilize Soviet infrastructure and forced the population to work obediently as slaves.

  At the same time, since the first days of occupation, the task to counteract the intentions of fascist command became really urgent. The best suitable repulse in disorganisation of the enemy’s rear should have been given by the large-scale guerrilla movement.

It should be mentioned that just before the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet command considered the possibility of partial occupation of the USSR, they undertook a set of measures on the preliminary training of partisans. In particular, arms, ammunition, food and logistics cache were equipped, and partisan units’ personnel were trained. But on the verge of war the command erroneously refused to continue the preliminary training. Due to that mistake, formation of the partisan units on the vast territories occupied during the blistering attack of German troops on the West had to be started from the very beginning.

The partisan movement was launched in the summer of 1941. After the retreat of Soviet troops from the occupied lands, under the directives of the Red Army and Communist Party command, a reserve (consisting, as a rule, of the Party’s or executive establishments’ officials) was left in the region in order to arrange the partisan movement.

However, the units’ formation met great difficulties in practice. At the beginning of the war prtisan detachments acted chaotically, were small,  unorganized and badly armed; they had no necessary communication and logistics facilities.

In view of serious problems with the mass resistance on the occupied territories, the Soviet leaders tried to stir the population to action against aggressors. On June 29, 1941, in the directives concerning the struggle against fascist invasion, it was already mentioned: “Form partisan detachments and raiding parties on the occupied lands in order to fight against enemy’s troops and stir up guerrilla war. Create intolerable conditions to the adversary, pursue it and destroy, thwart its plans.”On July 18, 1941, the Central Committee of All-Union Communist party (Bolsheviks) accepted the resolution “On arrangement of struggle in the German troops’ rear”.

At that time, one of the main tasks to be solved by the Soviet top brass was to establish a centralised command system of the partisan movement. To achieve this goal, on May 30, 1942, at the General headquarters of the USSR the Partisan Movement Central Headquarters was created. P. K. Ponomarenko, the first secretary of the CP Central Committee of Belarus was appointed the head of it. In addition to that, in order to provide cooperation between the regular army and partisans, special guerrilla offices were established within military councils of various fronts and armies. The essential role in the partisan movement formation was also assigned to the Soviet “underground”.
 

In June, 1942, Ukrainian headquarters of the Partisan Movement was established; T. A. Strokach headed the agency.

Other vital tasks included adjustment of communication with guerrillas, providing them with skilled specialists, weapons, and logistics facilities. To fulfil that, the Ukrainian headquarters were provided with radio centres, hospitals, weapons, air carriers etc.

Besides, a special training school was established. It prepared commanders, commissioners, radio operators, shooters, reconnaissancemen, medicsrkers and other specialists to act in partisan units. The training course lasted 3 months. During that period, future partisans learned how to work with transmitter-receiver radio equipment and operating key, studied cryptologistics, Soviet and German small arms, demolitions, and other issues that could be useful in the enemy’s rear. The classes lasted 12 to 14 hours a day. Later, according to the Partisan Movement Central Headquarters order, special courses for radio operators, shooters and detachment commanders also appeared in many towns of the country.


  Particular attention was paid to the adjustment of radio communication between partisan detachments and Ukrainian headquarters of the Partisan Movement (among the registered 714 units, only 21 detachments had communications assets). Other questions included arrangement of guerrilla reconnaissance and new detachments formation on the basis of the trained personnel.

In 1942 - 1945 569 radio operators and cryptologists studied in a special school. Without experienced and skilled radio operators it would be impossible to respond timely and efficiently, and receive valuable intelligence necessary to defeat the enemy.

Taking into account the diversity of the partisan movement deployment, on November 11, 1942, the State Committee of Defense issued a special decree “On partisan movement in Ukraine”. Special emphasis in it was made on the further development of prtisan war in the Right Bank regions where extremely important railway and highway roads were situated, and also on improvement of partisans’ communication and logistics facilities.

To meet the demands of the decree, O. Saburov’s detachment raided from the Briansk forests to the Right-Bank Ukraine in the autumn of 1942. The distance of several hundred kilometres the partisans overpassed within a month, having forced crossings of the Desna, the Dnieper and the Prypiat. During the raid, Saburov’s unit managed to rout fascist garrisons in 6 districts, destroy 29 railway and highway bridges, conduct explanatory work among the population, and moreover enhance the detachment in numbers by the end of the raid. Subsequently, detachments of Saburov and Kovpak, units of Zhytomyr and Rivne regions, along with Belarussian partisans arranged a “free-of-fascist” land in Pollisia. It covered 14 districts with the population of some 200 000 people.

Due to the taken measures and national struggle against fascist aggressors, partisans became a highly-organized, territorially branched, numerous, efficient and powerful grouping of national avengers in the middle of the Great Patriotic War.

During the war, more than 6200 partisan detachments and underground groups fought in the enemy’s rear. Those formations included over 1 million people, representatives from all the peoples of the USSR (more than 500,000 of them on the territory of Ukraine – 60 partisan formations, 1993 detachments and sabotage-reconnaissance groups).
  

 

S.Коvpak
 Partisans dealt major blows at enemy’s communication facilities, blocking the redeployment of troops and equipment. They also disabled important infrastructure objects, destroyed representatives of the occupying authorities command and provided strategic reconaissance.
 Partisan subversive activities on the important transport roads (the so-called “rail” and “road” war) paralized and weakened the German troops; it increased the tension and dismay in the fascist rear.

The other efficient form of partisan activity was arrangement of raids to the adversary’s rear – it distracted vast forces of fascists, and that helped our Soviet troops. The most successful raids were performed by the units of well-known partisan leaders such as S.Kovpak, O.Fedorov and O.Saburov.

It should be mentioned that during the war, forms and methods of prtisan struggle drastically changed and improved. In 1943, for instance, partisan detachments launched raids from the “prtisan bases”. The “Carpathian raid”, in particular, under the command of Kovpak was an example of such a method. Though the goal of the raid - to destroy the Ciscarpathian oilfields- has not been achived, but it has made a great impression on the Ukrainian population and proved the enhancement of Ukrainian partisans’ combat potential.

Partisans’ achievements were appreciated by the USSR top brass and in the CP Central Committee decree from July 15, 1943, it was emphasized that: “Raids of Kovpak’s, Saburov’s, Fedorov’s and Naumov’s partisan forces played an important role in the development of partisan movement in Ukraine, as they stirred up village population to action and spread the partisan activity to different regions of Ukraine”.

Fascists had to acknowledge the partisans’ strength. In the report of April 28, 1943, to the staff of the group of armies "South”, German general Neumar wrote: “... Partisan activity has intensified in all regions, they are well armed. On the distance of 5-7 km from the railway, partisans control the situation. In recent days, railroads have been blown up in full view of German soldiers, and despite the fact that territory has been patrolled every 18 minutes, guerrillas manage to plant mines under rails”.

When the Red Army took over the Dnieper Right-Bank and the frontline came closer to the prtisan zone of action, partisans practiced new ways of warfare – they seized important infrastructure objects or strongholds and held them till the approach of army units.
  

Conducting deep reconnaissance in the enemy’s rear and acquiring information on location of the adversary’s trains with ammunition, invaluable data about its fortifications etc, partisans became irreplaceable assistants of the reconnaissance troops.

In particular, reconnaissancemen group “To the Native land” (under the command of V.Hrapko) acted on the basis of Saburov's unit. At the beginning of November 1943, they revealed the fortifications in the area of Mozyr, Korosten and Zhytomyr, and reported about the defence line construction along the highway Zhytomyr-Kyiv and about the concentration of artillery units in the sector.

  In battles for the bridgehead near Kyiv, the command of the 1st Ukrainian front have regularly received the important intelligence from reconnaissance groups of the partisan detachments.

The quantity of intelligence received from partisans can be illustrated by such numbers - in 1942 the Ukrainian staff of guerrilla movement received 165 reports from the partisan units, and in 1943 the number of reports has already increased in more than seven times. That information scope hasn’t been diminished till the end of the war.

Close connection with population on the occupied territories also promoted the success of reconnaissance men. The underground and partisans have continuously watched the enemy. Reconnaissance has become an integral form of guerrilla warfare, and cooperation between partisans and the regular army.

Underground members (more than 200, 000 people according to different data), collected and handed over intelligence, took part in subversion activity, disabled equipment and important infrastructure objects of German invaders, informed the population of  Soviet troop actions, agitated local citizens and helped to form new and reinforce acting units of national avengers.

Close attention was paid to printing means of agitation among members of the underground. In view of this, underground workers were provided with radio receivers, portable typographies and typewriters. The distributed leaflets were mostly devoted to the most important and urgent issues of struggle against fascists. Joyful news about military success of the country was the first to be broadly extended among the population.

Partisans broadly involved local underground workers and population as guides during force crossing of rivers and conduct of battles. Locals also provided partisans with the data on location of the enemy’s troops and objects, on punitive raids and so force.

During the Great Patriotic War, Ukrainian partisans destroyed about 500, 000 German soldiers and officers, routed 467 enemy garrisons, commandant's offices and headquarters, derailed 5019 echelons with manpower and equipment, shot down and seized 1566 tanks and armour vehicles, 790 guns, 13535 motor vehicles, 211 planes.

About 200, 000 guerrillas were awarded by awards and medals: more than 127, 000 received the medal “Great Patriotic War Partisan” of the 1st and 2nd degree, 233 brave national avengers were awarded a rank of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Summing up, it is worth to mention that partisan movement showed unshakable will and aspiration of all people to defend their Native Land. On the scale, this national struggle in the enemy’s rear became the important military and political factor in the defeat of fascists. Strength and might of the underground and guerrilla movement lay in strong support by Ukrainian people.