In 1941, having committed a treacherous attack on the USSR, the Nazi troops began to move quickly enough deep into the territory of the country. Both the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSR were occupied. But the partisans of Belarus were especially distinguished during the years of heavy and bloody war.
We will tell about their feat in more detail.
Reasons for the emergence of a mass partisan movement
Appearing on Belarusian soil in June 1941, the Nazi troops soon captured the entire territory of the BSSR. The German command began to pursue a brutal policy of mass destruction of civilians.
Special units were created, the purpose of which was to carry out punitive operations. Communists, Komsomol members, family members of Red Army commanders, as well as all suspicious elements, were identified in all settlements of Belarus. All these people were tortured to death.
There were also special German troops that identified persons belonging to Jewish and Gypsy nationalities. All Jews (and there were a lot of them in Belarus) and Gypsies moved either to the ghetto or to concentration camps.
In total, there were about 200 such camps in the occupied territory.
German soldiers and officers without a twinge of conscience robbed the local population, robbing them of food, livestock, valuables, killing people and even children just for fun. About 200 thousand Belarusians were hijacked to forced labor in Germany.
The arbitrariness of the occupation command knew no bounds, so the Belarusian forests, deaf and impassable swamps became the place where the civilian population went. Some of these people took up arms and became partisans.
The first detachments of partisans
As soon as it became known about the attack by the Nazi troops, part of the former military and party workers left their homes to create the first partisan detachments. Already at the end of June 1941, there were 4 such units, and in July it was already 35. By August, the number of units had doubled.
The very first detachment totaled 25 people. They were commanded by F.I. Pavlovsky and T.P. Pieces of paper. Later, this detachment expanded to 100 people.
The subordination system was strict, it included the detachment commander, commissar and other chiefs. Inside the detachment, special groups were also created with a hierarchy of submission. These were sabotage, propaganda, and intelligence groups.
The number of such units and the fighters themselves grew very rapidly. So, according to historians, by the end of 1941, large partisan formations operated in Belarus, which included about 56 thousand people. To communicate with the Soviet command, partisan detachments had both liaison officers and radio stations.
Hitler's troops could not imagine that they would meet such a rebuff from their opponents.
Liberation of territories
Partisans of Belarus already in 1942 began to carry out the liberation of their lands from Nazi invaders. Soviet power temporarily returned to cities, villages and towns throughout the BSSR. The German command was forced to conduct constant punitive operations, as well as greatly increase the occupation garrisons in the field. All this contributed to the fact that on the fronts of the war there was not enough German manpower, so the advance of the Nazi forces deep into the USSR gradually drowned.
As a result, by the end of 1942, partisans of Belarus freed about 6 voluminous zones in the country.
Sabotage work
The German command experienced great difficulties due to the active sabotage work of the Soviet partisans. First of all, this concerned permanent sabotage on the railways of Belarus. After all, it was precisely these roads that made it possible to supply ammunition to the German troops howling near Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad.
The number of partisan sabotage increased every month and reached its peak in 1943. In total, the partisans destroyed about 200 steam locomotives, 750 wagons and thousands of meters of railroad tracks.
Partisan operations related to the undermining of railways are still considered the most extensive on the territory of Belarus for all the years of the war.
Reasons for the success of the partisan movement
To counter the mass resistance of the Belarusians, the Germans decided to carry out the most brutal punitive operations. For the slightest suspicion of connections with partisans, the Germans destroyed entire villages, and they were destroyed in the most cruel way: the entire population, from small to large, was either shot or driven into one big house, and then it was set on fire.
However, such a “scorched earth” tactic only led to increased resistance among the people. Partisans strongly supported the local population, providing food and trying to hide from the Germans.
Punitive operations against partisans and resistance to them
By the end of 1942, the German command realized that with regard to the partisans it was necessary to change the tactics of the struggle. Now the Germans sought to undermine the movement from within, sending their provocateurs and agitators into the detachments.
However, the Soviet command, realizing that the partisans of Belarus militarily forced the Germans to incur significant losses, also strengthened measures to support them. So, in 1942, the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement at the Headquarters of the High Command was organized. It was headed by P.K. Ponomarenko. This headquarters coordinated the activities of all partisan formations. With the close cooperation of the regular army and partisan detachments, substantial successes were achieved.
At this time, the activities of partisans and underground workers in Belarus acquired the character of a mass national liberation movement.
The liberation of Belarus as a result of the partisan movement
Today there are historians who seek to downplay the results of the partisan movement in Belarus, believing that even without it the Red Army would be able to free the country from Nazi occupiers. However, a similar position by other historians is considered short-sighted.
It was the activity of the partisans on the territory of Belarus that led to the fact that German troops lost a lot of people and material values. And most importantly - they lost time when they could defeat our country with one powerful blow.
In the BSSR, there were many partisan formations. One of them - the Brest partisan formation - began to function literally from the very beginning of the war.
These people took an important part in the liberation of Belarus, which occurred in the summer of 1944. At this time, partisan detachments were the strongest military formations that could cope with almost any task. After the territory of the BSSR was cleared of the invaders, tens of thousands of partisans joined the ranks of the Red Army.