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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 . The movement was coordinated and controlled by the Soviet Government and modelled on that of the Red Army . The primary objective of the Guerrilla Warfare waged by the Soviet partisan units was the disruption of the Eastern Front 's German rear, especially the road and railroad communications. FORMATION OF ANTI-GERMAN SOVIET RESISTANCE The program of the partisan war was outlined in the directive of the USSR PCCPeople's Commissaries Council. and Communist PartyCentral Committee of the USSR Communist Party (Bolshevik). issued on July 29 1941 and in the other following documents. The partisan detachments and diversionist groups were to be formed on the German-occupied territories, road and tele- communications disrupted, German personnel killed, valuable resources destroyed. These outlines were reiterated by Stalin in his radio speech on August 3 1941 . Hitler, when referring to that speech on August 16 1941 , pointed out that the declared partisan war in the German rear has its advantages, providing the excuse for destroying "anything that opposes Germans". It is considered, that the partisan war, decided with no consideration of the yet unknown intentions of the occupational authorities and the people's frame of mind, was set exclusively to serve military and political purposes of the USSR.Jerzy Turonek. Białoruś pod okupacją niemiecką. Warszawa—Wrocław: WERS, 1989. 186 p., ill. P.75. 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: on June 26 1941 1 and others. First awards of the partisans with order of Hero Of The Soviet Union 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 units destroyed in the Operation Barbarossa , the personnel of the Destruction Battalions , and the local Communist, Komsomol and Soviet activists. The commonest unit of the period was the Detachment . The "seed" partisan detachments, Diversion ist and organisational 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. 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 2 thousand partisan detachments (with more than 90 thousand personnel) operated on the German-occupied territories.Літвіноўскі І. А. (Litvinowski) Партызанскі рух у Вялікую Айчынную вайну 1941—1945 // Беларуская энцыклапедыя: У 18 т. Т. 12. — Мінск: БелЭн, 2001. — 560 с. p. 134. ISBN 985-11-0198-2 (т.12). However, the activities of the partisan forces weren't centrally coordinated and Logistic 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 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 occupants mass transferred the working age population to Reich to serve as slave laborers, looted, and arbitrary applied punishments for any infraction, up to burning the 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 , SMERSH and GRU 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. ''See also'': Partisan Detachment , Partisan Regiment , Partisan Brigade , Partisan Group , Partisan United Formation AREAS OF OPERATIONS Map of Soviet partisan activities | ||
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| Image:Kovpak PartisankijpgYoung Women Of The | "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/Sydir_Kovpak" class="copylinks">Sydir Kovpak 's partisan formation in Ukraine |
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