Soviet Partisans - Formation of Anti-German Soviet Resistance

Formation of Anti-German Soviet Resistance

The program of the partisan war was outlined in the Soviet People's Commissaries Council and Communist Party directives issued on July 29, 1941 and in following documents. Partisan detachments and diversionist groups were to be formed in the German-occupied territories, road and telecommunications disrupted, German personnel killed, and valuable resources destroyed. Joseph Stalin, in his radio speech on August 3, 1941, iterated these commands and directives to the people. Adolf Hitler, when referring to that speech on August 16, pointed out that the declared partisan war in the German rear had its advantages, providing the excuse for destroying "anything that opposes ".

The first partisan detachments, consisting of Red Army personnel and local people, and commanded by Red Army officers or local Communist Party activists, were formed in the first days of the war, including the Starasyel'ski detachment of Major Dorodnykh in the Zhabinka district (June 23, 1941), the Pinsk detachment of Vasily Korzh on June 26, 1941. The first awards of the Hero of the Soviet Union order occurred on August 6, 1941 (detachment commanders Pavlovskiy and Bumazhkov).

In 1941, the core of the social base of the partisan movement were the remains of Red Army units destroyed in the first phases of Operation Barbarossa, personnel of destruction battalions, and the local Communist Party and Komsomol activists. The most common unit of the period was the detachment.

The "seed" partisan detachments, diversionist and organizational groups were formed and parachuted into German-occupied territories in the summer of 1941. Urban underground groups were formed as a force complementing the activities of partisan units, operating in rural areas. The network of underground structures was actively developed on German-occupied territories to control activities, and it received a steady influx of specially chosen party activists. By the end of 1941, more than 2,000 partisan detachments (with more than 90,000 personnel) operated in German-occupied territories.

However, the activity of partisan forces were not centrally coordinated and supplied until spring of 1942. In order to coordinate partisan operations the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement as Stavka, headed by Panteleimon Ponomarenko (Chief of Staff) and initially commanded by Kliment Voroshilov, was organized on May 30, 1942. The Staff had its liaison networks 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 Russian SFSR.

Initially in Ukraine and Belorussia some of the local population were supportive of the German occupation that they hoped would bring about the end of Stalinist ruleTemplate:Http://uralica.com/eastbalt.htm.

Later NKVD, SMERSH and GRU began training a special group of future partisans (effectively, special forces units) in the rear and dropping them into occupied territories. Candidates for these groups were chosen among volunteers from the regular Red Army, the NKVD Internal Troops, and also from among Soviet sportsmen. When dropped behind the German front-line, the groups were to organize and guide the local, self-established partisan units. Radio operators and intelligence gathering officers were essential members of each group since amateur fighters could not be trusted with these tasks. Some commanders of these special units, such as Dmitry Medvedev, later became well-known partisan leaders.