Belarusian resistance movement - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Belarusian resistance during World War II was focused towards Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

from 1941 until 1944. Belarus was one of the Soviet republics occupied during Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

. However, segments of the Belarusian population cooperated with the Nazi occupation government and continued until the end of the war.

Resistance

Upon Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

victories against the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

, Belarus was one of the Soviet republics that became under control of Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

. The official government of the occupation forces was established on August 23, 1941 under the direction of Wilhelm Kube

Wilhelm Kube

Wilhelm Kube was a German politician and Nazi official. He was an important figure in the German Christian movement during the early years of Nazi rule. During the war he became a senior official in the occupying government of the Soviet Union, achieving the rank of Generalkommissar for...

. While the resistance movement first consisted of cut-off Soviet soldiers, the population joined them around the summer of 1942.http://www.belarusguide.com/history1/WWII_partisan_resistance_in_Belarus.htm From that time until the end of the year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) of Byelorussia formed courses and offices helping those wishing to fight the Nazi Government.
In 1943, Kube was assassinated by a bomb; the bomb was placed by a Belarusian woman who was Kube's maid at his Minsk home. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_cm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005187&MediaId=1592 Actually, the first partisan detachments, comprising mostly the Red Army personnel, but also the local people, and commanded by the Red Army officers or local Soviet or Communist activists, began to be created since the first days of war: the detachment

Soviet partisan detachment 1941-1944

Soviet partisan detachment , was the principal organisational form of the Soviet partisan units.Numerical and structural complement of the partisan detachment varied, with usual number of about 100 to several hundred personnel, organised in the 3—4 companies, 3 platoons each, 3 sections each...

Starasyel'ski of major Dorodnykh in Zhabinka

Zhabinka

Zhabinka is a city in the southwestern Belarusian voblast of Brest. It is the administrative center of the Zhabinka Raion. Its population is 12,800.-History:The name was first mentioned in Russian official papers in 1817....

district (June 23, 1941), the detachment of Vasily Korzh

Vasily Korzh

Vasily Zakharovich Korzh , also known under the Soviet partisan nom de guerre "Komarov", was a Belarusian communist activist and Soviet World War II hero....

in Pinsk

Pinsk

Pinsk , a town in Belarus, in the Polesia region, traversed by the river Pripyat, at the confluence of the Strumen and Pina rivers. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk. It is a fertile agricultural center. It lies south-west of Minsk. The population is about 130,000...

on June 26, 1941 and others. First awards of the partisans with order of Hero of the Soviet Union

Hero of the Soviet Union

The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...

occurred on August 6, 1941 (detachment commanders Pavlovskiy and Bumazhkov). During the 1941, the core of the social base of the partisan movement in that period were the straggling remains of the Red Army

Red Army

units destroyed in the Operation Barbarossa, the personnel of the destruction battalions, and the local Communist, Komsomol

Komsomol

The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...

and Soviet activists. The commonest unit of the period was the detachment

Soviet partisan detachment 1941-1944

. The "seed" partisan detachments, diversion

Diversion

Diversion may refer to:*diversion, a detour, especially of an airplane flight due to severe weather or mechanical failure, or of an ambulance from a fully occupied emergency room to one another nearby hospital*diversion, a distraction...

ist and organizational groups were actively formed and inserted into German-occupied territories since the summer of 1941. The urban underground groups were formed as a force complementing the activities of partisan units, operating in the rural terrains.

Organization

As a controlling body, the network of underground Communist structures was being actively developed on German-occupied territories, and it received the influx of the specially picked Communist activists. By the end of the 1941, more than two thousand partisan detachments (with more than 90 thousand personnel) operated on the German-occupied territories. However, the activities of the partisan forces weren't centrally coordinated and logistic

Logistics

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...

ally provided for until spring of 1942. In order to coordinate the partisan operations the Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, headed by Ponomarenko, was organised on May 30, 1942. The Staff had its liaison

Liaison officer

A liaison officer or LNO is a person that liaises between two organizations to communicate and coordinate their activities. Generally, they are used to achieve the best utilization of resources or employment of services of one organization by another. In the military, liaison officers may...

s in the Military Councils of the fronts and armies. The territorial Staffs were subsequently created, dealing with the partisan movement in the respective Soviet Republics and in the occupied provinces of the Soviet Russia. While in Ukraine and Belarus some of the local population was initially supportive to the German occupation that they hoped would end the harsh Stalinist rule, they soon found that the Nazi regime was far more brutal. The occupier's mass transfers of the working age population to the Reich to serve as slave laborers, looting, and arbitrarily applied punishments for any infraction, no matter how trivial, including burning entire villages with their population (e.g. see Khatyn). Naturally, under these circumstances, many locals joined the anti-Nazi resistance, and the majority became passive supporters to partisans. Later NKVD

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

, SMERSH

SMERSH

SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...

and GRU

GRU

GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...

began training special groups of future partisans (effectively, special forces

Special forces

Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...

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

Internal Troops

The Internal Troops, full name Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs ; alternatively translated as "Interior " is a paramilitary gendarmerie-like force in the now-defunct Soviet Union and its successor countries, particularly, in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan...

, and also among Soviet sportsmen. When dropped behind Axis

Axis Powers

The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...

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

Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev

Dmitry Nikolaevich Medvedev was one of the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement in western Russia and Ukraine....

) later became well-known partisan leaders.

Logistics difficulties

The Soviet authorities considered Belarus to be of the utmost importance to the development of the Soviet partisan war from the very beginning. The main factors were its geography, with lots of dense forests and swamps, and its strategical position on the communications going from West to Moscow. In fact, Belorussian Communist bodies in the Eastern provinces of Belarus began to organize and facilitate organization of the partisan units on the day after the first directive issuing (directives No.1 of 1941-07-30 and No.2 of 1941-07-01). By the Soviet estimates, in August 1941 about 231 detachments

Soviet partisan detachment 1941-1944

were operating already. The «seed» units, formed and inserted into Belarus, totaled 437 by the end of the 1941, comprising more than 7.2 thousand personnel. However, as the frontline moved further away, the logistical conditions steadily worsened for the partisan units, as the resources ran out, and there was no wide-scale support from over the frontline until March 1942.

One outstanding difficulty was the lack of radio communication, which wasn't addressed until April 1942. The support of the local people was also insufficient. So, for several months, partisan units in Belarus were virtually left to themselves. Especially difficult for the partisans was the winter of 1941-1942, with severe shortages in ammunition, medicine and supplies. The actions of partisans were generally uncoordinated. In the circumstances, the German pacification operations in Summer and Fall 1941 were able to curb the partisan activity significantly. Many units went underground, and generally, in the late Fall 1941—early 1942, the partisan units weren't undertaking the significant military operations, limiting themselves to sorting out the organizational problems, building up the logistics support and gaining influence with the local people. By the incomplete data, in the end of the 1941, 99 partisan detachments and about 100 partisan groups operated in Belarus. In Winter 1941—1942, 50 partisan detachments and about 50 underground organization and groups operated in Belarus. In the period (1941-12-01), the German guard forces in the Army Group «Center» rear comprised 4 security divisions, 2 SS brigades, 260 companies of different branches of service.

The Moscow Battle turned the tide in the morale of the partisans and of the local people in general. However, the real turning point in the development of the partisan movement in Belarus, and, in fact, on the German-occupied territories in general, came in the course of the Soviet Winter 1942 offensive.

1942, Vitebsk Gate

The turning point in the development of the Soviet partisan movement came with the opening of the Vitsyebsk gate

Vitsyebsk gate

"Vitsyebsk gate" or "Surazh gate" was the conventional name in the Soviet, later also in Belarusian, historiography, given to the corridor connecting the Soviet and German-occupied territories, which was a 40 km breach in the place of contact of the German army groups "North" and "Center"...

in February 1942. The partisan units were included in the overall Soviet strategical developments shortly after that, and the centralized organizational and logistical support had been organized, with Gate's existence being the very important facilitating factor.

See also: Central Headquarters of Partisan Movement, Special Belarusian courses.

The Germans treated the local population abysmally (with the notable exception of the fraction of the civil administration headed by Wilhelm Kube

Wilhelm Kube

), maintained kolkhozes in East and restored land possessions in West, collecting heavy food taxes, rounded up and sent young people to work in the Germany. Overwhelmingly, Jews and even small-scale Soviet activists would feel more secure in the partisan ranks. The direct boost to the partisan numbers were the Red Army POWs of the local origin, who were let out "to the homes" in Fall 1941, but ordered by Germans to "return to the concentration camps" in March 1942.

In the Spring 1942, the aggregation of the smaller

Soviet partisan detachment 1941-1944

partisan units into brigades

Soviet partisan brigade 1941-1944

Soviet partisan brigade , was the organisational form of the Soviet partisan units, the principal organisational form of the units operating on the territory of BSSR....

began, prompted by the experience of the first year of war. The coordination, numerical buildup, structural rework and now established logistical feed all translated to the greatly increased partisan units military capability, which showed, e.g., in the increased number of diversions on the railroads, reaching hundreds of engines and thousands of cars destroyed by the end of the year.

In 1942, the terror campaign against the territorial administration, which was manned by the local people ("collaborators and traitors") was additionally emphasized. This resulted, however, in the definite split of the local people's sympathies, resulting in the beginning of the organization of the Anti-Partisan units with native personnel in 1942.

By the November 1942, Soviet partisan units in Belarus numbered about 47.3 thousand personnel.

1942, West Belarus

In January 1943, of 56,7 thousand Partisan personnel, 11,1 thousand were operating in the West Belarus, which was 3,5 less per 10 thousand local people than in the East, and even more so (up to 5—6 factor) if accounting for the much more efficient evacuation measures in the East in 1941.

This discrepancy wouldn't be sufficiently explained by the German treatment of local people, nor by the quick German advance in 1941, nor by the social circumstances then existing in these regions. There is strong evidence, that this was a decision of the central Soviet authorities, who abstained from the greater buildup of the Partisan forces in West Belarus, and left Polish underground military structures to grow unopposed in these lands in 1941—1942, in the context of relations with the Polish government in exile

Polish government in Exile

The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...

of Sikorsky. Certain level of military cooperation, imposed by the respective commands, was noted between Soviet partisans and Armia Krajowa (AK)

Armia Krajowa

The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

, the people of Polish nationality were, to a degree, exempted from the terror campaign in 1942.

After the break of diplomatic relations between USSR and Polish government in exile

Polish government in Exile

in April 1943, the situation changed radically. From this moment on, AK was treated as a hostile military force.

1943

The buildup of the Soviet partisan force in the Western Belarus was ordered and implemented during 1943, with 9 brigades, 10 detachments and 15 operational groups transferred from the Eastern to Western lands, effectively tripling the Partisan force there (to 36,8 thousand in December 1943). It is estimated that ~10-12 thousand personnel were transferred, and about same number came from the local volunteers. The buildup of the military force was complemented by the ensuing buildup of the underground Communist Party structures and propaganda activity.

The Stalingrad victory, certain curbing of the terror campaign (actually since December 1942, formally in February 1943) and amnesty promised to repenting collaborants were a significant factors in the 1943 growth of the Soviet partisan forces. Desertions from the ranks of the German-controlled Hilfspolizei

Hilfspolizei

The Hilfspolizei was a short-lived auxiliary police in Nazi Germany in 1933.The Hilfspolizei was created on February 22, 1933 by Hermann Göring, newly appointed Interior Minister of Prussia, to assist regular police in maintaining order and persecuting communist in the wake of the Reichstag fire...

and military formations strengthened, with sometimes whole units coming over to Soviet partisan side — Volga Tartars battalion (900 personnel, February 1943), Gil-Rodionov 1st Russian People's brigade of the SS (2500 personnel, August 1943). Summarily, about 7 thousand people of miscellaneous anti-Soviet formations joined the Soviet partisan force. About 1,9 thousand specialists and commanders were inserted in the Belarusian lands in 1943. However, the local people comprised the core of the personnel influx in the Soviet partisan force.

In the Fall 1943, the partisan force in BSSR totaled about 153,700, and by the end 1943 about 122,000, with about 30,800 put behind the frontline in the course of liberation of eastern parts of BSSR (end 1943). After the liberation of BSSR, about 180,000 partisans joined the Soviet Army

Soviet Army

The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...

in 1944.

During the 1941—1944 period, the turnaround in the Soviet partisan force in Belarus was about 374,000, about 70,000 in urban underground, and about 400,000 in the reserve of the partisan force.

Among Soviet partisans in Belarus were people of 45 different ethnic backgrounds and 4,000 foreigners (including 3,000 Poles, 400 Czechs

Czech people

Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

and Slovaks

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

, 300 Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

ns, etc.). Around 65% of Belarusian 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 kolkhoz

Kolkhoz

A kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...

es that were raising crops and livestock to produce food for the partisans.http://www.belarusguide.com/history1/WWII_partisan_resistance_in_Belarus.htm. During the battles for liberation of Belarus, partisans were considered the fourth Belarusian front. As early as the spring of 1942 the Soviet partisans were able to effectively harass German troops and significantly hamper their operations in the region.

The resistance movement in Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

was depicted accurately in the movie Come and See

Come and See

Come and See directed by Elem Klimov, is a 1985 Soviet war movie and psychological horror drama about and occurring during the Nazi German occupation of the Byelorussian SSR. Aleksei Kravchenko and Olga Mironova star as the protagonists Florya and Glasha. The screenplay is by Ales Adamovich and...

Jewish forces

During the same period, Jewish residents of Belarus also took part in partisan activities. The units, based on family camps, was devised by Anatoly Bielsky

Bielski partisans

The Bielski partisans were an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek and Lida in German-occupied Poland...

with his brothers in Western Belarus. Based from the forests near the Neman River

Neman River

Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...

, the family units was home to mostly women, children and elderly. The men who were able to carry weapons either guarded the camps or took part in partisan activities. While the main purpose of the camps was to shelter Belarusian Jews and create villages to survive, there were some camps that were set up to militarily combat the occupation government. One group, from 1941 until 1944, attacked or destroyed bridges, factories, railroad tracks and killed police and Nazi officials. The family camps also prevented the deportation of residents to either labor or concentration camps. http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/belarus/bel119.html

Relations with Poles

The Polish underground operated over the whole pre-war territory of Poland, including the Polish territories annexed by the Soviet Union. As non-communist Poles considered the Soviets as occupiers, no different from the Germans, even after the German invasion of the Soviet Union there was some conflict between Polish partisans and the Soviet and Jewish ones.

June 22, 1943 Central Committee of the Belarusian Communist Party received orders in Moscow to destroy Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa

in Belarus. Since then, the number of conflicts between Soviet Belorussian and non-communist Polish partisans intensified. One Polish unit was arrested December 1, 1943, some Polish officers were executed, the commander major Wacław Pełka transported to Moscow http://www.iwieniec.plewako.pl/AK/Iwieniecka%20AK.pdf.

Partisan operations

Vasiliy Korzh raid, Autumn 1941 - March 23, 1942. 1000 km raid of a partisan formation in the Mińsk and Pińsk Woblast
Pinsk Voblast
Pinsk Voblast was a territorial unit in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic created after the annexation of West Belarus into the BSSR in November 1939...

of Belarus.
Battle of Briańsk forests, May 1942. Partisan battle against the Nazi punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...

that included 5 infantry divisions, military police, 120 tanks and aviation.
The destruction of the German garrison in Lenin
The destruction of the German garrison in Lenin
The Lenin Garrison was destroyed on September 12, 1942 during a partisan uprising against the Nazis.After the liquidation of the Lenin ghetto in the Pinsk region and the murder of its inhabitants on August 14, 1942, about 30 Jews remained alive in Lenin, as they continued to work directly for the...

, September 12, 1942.
Raid of Sydor Kowpak
Sydir Kovpak
Sydir Artemovych Kovpak , June 7, 1887December 11, 1967) was a prominent Soviet partisan leader in Ukraine.-Biography:Kovpak was born to a poor peasant family in Ukrainian village near Poltava . For his military service in the World War I he was awarded two Crosses of St...

, October 26 - November 29, 1942. Raid in Briańsk forests and Eastern Ukraine.
Battle of Briańsk forests, May-June, 1943. Partisan battle in the Briańsk forests with German punitive expeditions.
Operation Rails War, August 3 - September 15, 1943. A major operation of partisan formations against the railroad transportation and communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...

and later the Battle of Smolensk
Battle of Smolensk (1943)
The second Battle of Smolensk was a Soviet strategic offensive operation conducted by the Red Army as part of the Summer-Autumn Campaign of 1943...

. It involved concentrated actions by more than 100,000 partisan fighters from Belarus, the Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast
Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position...

, the Kalinin Oblast
Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...

, the Smolensk Oblast
Smolensk Oblast
Smolensk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its area is . Population: -Geography:The administrative center of Smolensk Oblast is the city of Smolensk. Other ancient towns include Vyazma and Dorogobuzh....

, the Oryol Oblast
Oryol Oblast
Oryol Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Oryol. Population: -Geography:It is located in the southwestern part of the Central Federal District, in the Mid-Russian Highlands. Kaluga and Tula Oblasts border it in the north, Bryansk Oblast is located to...

and Ukraine within an area 1000 km along the front and 750 km wide. 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 in the Soviet victory in Kursk battle.
Operation Concerto, September 19 - November 1, 1943. "Concerto" was a major operation of partisan formations against the railroad communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of the Dnieper
Battle of the Dnieper
The Lower Dnieper Offensive took place in 1943 during the Second World War. It was one of the largest Second World War operations, involving almost 4,000,000 troops on both sides and stretching on a 1400 kilometer long front...

and on the direction of the Soviet offensive in the Smolensk and Homel directions. Partisans from Belarus, Karelia, the Kalinin Oblast
Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...

, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...

participated in the operations. The area of the operation was 900 km along the front (excluding Karelia and Crimea) and 400 km wide. Despite bad weather that only permitted the airlift of less than a half of the planned supplies, the operation lead to a 35-40% decrease in the railroad capacity in the area of operations. This was critical for the success of Soviet military operations in the autumn of 1943. In Belarus alone the partisans claimed the destruction of more than 90,000 rails along with 1,061 trains, 72 railroad bridges and 58 Axis garrisons. According to the Soviet historiography
Soviet historiography
Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union . In the USSR, the study of history was marked by alternating periods of freedom allowed and restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , and also by the struggle of historians to...

, Axis losses totaled more than 53,000 soldiers.
Battle of Połock-Lepel, April 1944. Major battle between Belarusian partisans and German punitive expeditions.
Battle of Borysów-Begoml, April 22 - May 15, 1944. Major battle between Belarusian partisans and German punitive expeditions.
Operation Bagration, June 22-August 19, 1944. Belarusian partisans took major part in the Operation Bagration. They were often considered the fifth front (along with the 1st Baltic Front
1st Baltic Front
The First Baltic Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The commanders of it were Army General Andrey Yeryomenko and succeeded by Army General Bagramyan. It was formed by re-naming the Kalinin Front in October 12, 1943 and took part in several important military...

, 1st Belorussian Front
1st Belorussian Front
The 1st Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during World War II...

, 2nd Belorussian Front
2nd Belorussian Front
The 2nd Belorussian Front was a military formation of Army group size of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...

and 3rd Belorussian Front
3rd Belorussian Front
The 3rd Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...

). Upwards of 300,000 partisans took part in the operation.

Resistance fighters

Aleś Adamowicz
Ales Adamovich
Ales Adamovich was a Soviet writer and a critic, Professor and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Doctor of Philosophy in philology, Doctorate in 1962 ; the people's deputy...
Zygmunt Andruszkiewicz
Yitzhak Arad
Yitzhak Arad
Yitzhak Arad , is an Israeli historian, retired IDF brigadier general and a former Soviet partisan who has served as director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993...
Asael Bielski
Asael Bielski
Asael Bielski was the second-in-command of the Bielski partisans during World War II.-Early life:Asael was the third son of David and Beila Bielski, being about two years younger than his brother Tuvia who later commanded the Bielski Otriad...
Tuvie Bielski
Tuvie Bielski
Tuvia Bielski was the leader of the partisan group the Bielski partisans who were situated in the Naliboki forest in pre-war Poland during World War II.-Life:...
Masza Bruskina
Masha Bruskina
Masha Bruskina was a 17-year-old Soviet Jewish partisan who was a volunteer nurse. She was arrested on October 14, 1941, by members of the Wehrmacht's 707 Infantry Division and the 2nd Schutzmannschaft Battalion; Lithuanian auxiliary troops under the command of Major Antanas Impulyavichus...
Janka Bryl
Janka Bryl
Janka Bryl was a Belarusian writer best known for his short stories.-Early life:Five years after Bryl was born in Odessa, Ukraine, the family moved back to the village of Zahora in his parents' native Kareličy District of Hrodna, then part of Poland .-World War II:Bryl served in the Polish Navy...
Eugenio Calò
Eugenio Calò
Eugenio Calò is a national hero of Italy. Born in Pisa to an old Sephardi family, he was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour, Italy's highest honor for heroism. Eugenio Calò was an Italian partisan, second in command of the Pio Borri partisan division that fought the Germans in...
Maria Fedecka
Maria Fedecka
Maria Aniela Fedecka - - was a Polish social worker, member of Workers' Defence CommitteeR. During World War II she was an activist in the Polish Underground and Polish anti-Holocaust resistance in Wilno...
Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner
Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...
Vassili Kononov
Henryk Krajewski
Aleksander Krzyżanowski
Aleksander Krzyzanowski
Aleksander "Wilk" Krzyżanowski was a Polish officer, major, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and Commandant of the Armia Krajowa in the Vilnius Region.- Biography :...
Władysław Liniarski
Dov Lopatyn
Dov Lopatyn
Dov Lopatyn was the head of the Judenrat in Łachwa, Poland in 1941-1942. He refused the demand of the Einsatzgruppen that the Lakhva Ghetto inhabitants line up for deportation, and on September 3, 1942, he led one of the first ghetto uprisings of the war.More than half of the ghetto population was...
Piotr Maszerau
Pyotr Masherov
Pyotr Mironovich Masherov , - October 4, 1980) was the first secretary of Belarusian committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union and a communist leader of Soviet Belarus.- Overview :...
Pancelajmon Panamarenka
Panteleimon Ponomarenko
Panteleimon Kondrat'evich Ponomarenko ; 9 August 1902 18 January 1984) was a general in the Red Army before becoming a Soviet administrator in Belarus and then Kazakhstan. He was born in Krasnodar Krai, Russia....
Sergiusz Piasecki
Sergiusz Piasecki
Sergiusz Piasecki , was one of the best known Polish language writers of the mid 20th century. His crowning achievement, published in 1937, was the third most popular novel in the Second Polish Republic...
Moše Pijade
Zinaida Portnowa
Zinaida Portnova
Zinaida Martynovna Portnova, commonly known as Zina Portnova was a Russian teenager, Soviet partisan and Hero of the Soviet Union.-Biography:...
Iwan Sergeiczik
Ivan Sergeychik
Ivan Sergeichik was a Belarusian Soviet NKVD-official and military commander.-History:From November 1931 through March 1935 he worked for the State Political Directorate and from March 1935 through November 1937 he worked as special prosecutor for NKVD in Minsk, Belarus.-World War II:Shortly after...
Arturs Sproģis
Arturs Sproģis
Arturs Sproģis was a Latvian colonel and commander of the Soviet partisans during the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany in World War II.-Early life and career:...
Piatro Szełachonaw
Petr Shelokhonov
Petr Illarionovich Shelokhonov, was a Russian actor and director, designated Honorable Actor of Russia .-Childhood:Petr Shelokhonov was born in 1929, in Belarus, then a part of the Soviet Union; Peter Larionovich Shelokhonov...
Zygmunt Szendzielarz
Zygmunt Szendzielarz
Zygmunt Szendzielarz was commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Home Army Brigade.-Early life:...
Janusz Szlaski
Petro Werszyhora
Pyotr Vershigora
Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora or Petro Petrovich Vershyhora was a Soviet writer and one of the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement in Ukraine, Belarus and Poland....
Shalom Yoran
Shalom Yoran
Shalom Yoran is a survivor of the Holocaust and a former Jewish partisan. His World War II memoir, The Defiant. A True Story of Jewish Vengeance and Survival, was published in 2003....
Simcha Zorin
Simcha Zorin
Shalom Zorin was a Jewish Soviet partisan commander in Minsk.Many Jewish partisans in Belorussia had their own units that operated as part of the general Belorussian partisan movement and the overall Jewish resistance movement fighting the Nazis in occupied Europe, although some of these Jewish...

Resistance units

19th Infantry Division (Poland)
29th Infantry Division (Poland)
Anti-Fascist Military Organisation
Armia Krajowa
Armia Krajowa
The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

in Belarus
Bataliony Chłopskie
Bielski partisans
Bielski partisans
The Bielski partisans were an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek and Lida in German-occupied Poland...
Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje
Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje
The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during World War II...
Leśni
Leśni
Leśni is one of the informal names applied to the anti-German partisan groups operating in occupied Poland during World War II. The groups were formed mostly by people who for various reasons could not operate from settlements they lived in and had to retreat to the forests...
National Armed Forces
Polish 30th Infantry Division
Polish 30th Infantry Division
The 30th Polesie Infantry Division , was a unit of the Polish Army in the interbellum period. It was stationed in Kobryn, as well as other towns of the Polesie Voivodeship - Brzesc nad Bugiem and Pinsk...
Soviet partisan regiment 1941–1944
Soviet partisan united formation 1941–1944
Szare Szeregi
Szare Szeregi
"Gray Ranks" was a codename for the underground Polish Scouting Association during World War II.The wartime organisation was created on 27 September 1939, actively resisted and fought German occupation in Warsaw until 18 January 1945, and contributed to the resistance operations of the Polish...
Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe
Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe
Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe were armed anti-Nazi resistance units organized by the right-wing Polish organization Konfederacja Narodu. They existed between 1942 and 1944 .- Beginnings :The idea to create the UBK was conceived among Warsaw’s conspirational circles in early 1940s...

External links

Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II
Interviews from the Underground: Eyewitness accounts of Russia's Jewish resistance during World War II' documentary film and website

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