Belarusian Resistance

The struggle of the Belarusian people against the Nazi invaders began in the early days of the war. It took many different forms – from non-compliance with the Occupation authorities’ arrangements to actual armed resistance. Both individual, independent acts of resistance to the new regime occurred, as well as group activity. In addition, military and political resistance took a direction from Moscow.

The partisan and underground activities provided the most notable obstacles to the invaders. These partisan detachments were created in the enemy rear by a number of different bodies. They included the Red Army commanders who happened to find themselves in the rear of the Nazi army, patriotic citizens of the Republic but mostly members of the ruling political party and "Komsomol" in addition to all the Soviet organisations of Belarus, and other special military-organisational groups.

By mid-1941, about 60 independent partisan detachments and groups were operating in the occupied territory of Belarus. They comprised 25-40 men each and were sub-divided into 2-3 combat units. The partisans were equipped mostly with small arms collected from the battlefields or captured from the enemy.

These partisan detachments were also formed in the Soviet unoccupied territory. So, between July-September 1941, 430 detachments comprising over 8,000 men were formed in the short-term partisans preparation centers and partisans training courses in the eastern unoccupied part of Belarus.

In April 1942, by the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) of Belarus, the special courses were formed in the Vladimir region (Russia), which came to be known as the Special Belarusian Assembly as the cadets were mostly Belarusians. About 3,000 men passed through these courses, 15 partisan detachments and 100 organisational groups were formed and forwarded into the enemy rear. On May 30, 1942, the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement headed by P.K. Ponomarenko, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) of Belarus, was created under the Staff of the General Headquarters of the Soviet Armed Forces.

In September 1942, the territorial department of the Headquarters was created – the Belarusian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, headed by P.Z. Kalinin, Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. The Belarusian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement dealt with the formation of new partisan detachments, personnel training, provision of partisans with arms and ammunition, planning combat operations, and co-ordinating with Red Army units. The partisan movement came to have great strategic importance due to its highly centralised leadership. In November 1942, the Belarusian School of the Partisan Personnel Training was formed from the Special Belarusian Training. From 170 to 200 men trained at the school simultaneously. In September 1943, the school was reorganised into the Reserve Training Center at the Belarusian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement.

Many different partisan units operated in the occupied territory of Belarus. They were formed mainly on army principles.

The main combat unit was a partisan detachment numbering from several dozen to several hundreds of men. In all, there were 1,255 detachments. The detachments were sub-divided into platoons and companies.

From April 1942, many detachments were united into partisan brigades to carry out combat missions independently. That was the most appropriate structure for the partisan force organisation. As a rule, a brigade comprised 3-7, and sometimes up to 10 detachments. The number of soldiers in the brigade varied from 600-800 to several thousand soldiers. Each brigade had artillery and mortar sub-units, arms workshops, field services, and a hospital. The general operational control over the detachments was exercised by the brigade command and headquarters, which worked out plans of the combat operations and controlled their deployment. Usually, the brigade was located in the territory of 1-2 districts.The brigade would be responsible for setting up the main and reserve bases, fortifications and observation posts, intelligence network of messengers, and would organise the detachments of the local self-defense forces. In all, 199 partisan brigades were deployed.

In places with many active servicemen among the partisans, the partisan regiments were formed. They did not differ greatly from the brigades in their arms and numeric strength. These units conducted combat operations mostly in the territory of the Mogilev, Minsk and Vitebsk regions. In all, there were 14 partisan regiments.

The first partisan formations comprising several partisan brigades appeared in the second half of 1942. By 1943, when the creation of partisan formations finished, there were about 40 partisan formations in operation.

Local residents rendered invaluable help to the partisans as well. During the war, about 400,000 Belarusian people passed through the partisan reserves.

Of incalculable importance in the struggle against invaders were the numerous partisan attacks on Nazi garrisons and communications, which were often delivered parallel to the large-scale operations of the Red Army. In particular, the so-called "rail war" was a part of the "Bagration" military operation in Belarus’s liberation. When conducting the operation, 220 enemy garrisons and strong posts were raided and destroyed, 211,000 km railways were damaged, 2,171 trains, 6 armoured trains, 32 water pumping stations, and 295 railway bridges were detonated.

The partisan units had to combat not only the police and defence forces, but also regular German troops, as well as their Allies’ units. When conducting punitive actions against partisans and local populace (in all, the Nazis carried out 140 punitive expeditions), the Nazis were able to call upon 10 different-purpose divisions, air power, tank units and three field armies. However, even these combined forces were not able to liquidate the partisan movement but only temporarily drove them back.

Partisan activities resulted in the liberation of sizeable territories and the creation of partisan-controlled zones. By the end 1943, the partisans controlled over 108,000 sq. km of Belarus’ territory, which comprised nearly 59 % of the Republic’s area. 37,8 thousand sq. km were completely cleared from the enemy. In over 20 partisan zones, the economy was being restored & regional, district, inter-district party and Komsomol committees were functioning.

According to the official data, 373,492 men took part in the partisan movement in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War. The representatives of almost 70 nationalities of the USSR and of many European countries were among the partisans in Belarus: hundreds of Poles, Czechs and Slovaks, dozens of the French, Hungarians, Belgians, Austrians, and Dutch.

The residents of the occupied cities, towns and villages of Belarus put up stiff resistance to the invaders. The underground struggle was carried out in close cooperation with the partisan movement and with strong & active support from local residents. Underground members distributed Soviet newspapers and leaflets, revealed fascist propaganda, gave information on the front-line situation, organised sabotage groups, assassinated the invaders and their supporters, carried out acts of sabotage in different enemy establishments, collected intelligence for partisans and for the Red Army, liberated prisoners of war and sent them to the partisans.

The anti-fascist struggle was conducted by the individual patriots and independent groups, as well as by the underground (extended network of organisations) which was created in a short time by the party, Komsomol and Soviet bodies. The district underground party committees were organised in 89 districts of the Minsk, Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel, Polesie and Pinsk regions even before the full occupation of the Republic. The regional party committees went on working in 4 regions – the Gomel, Minsk, Mogilev and Pinsk regions. In all, over 8,000 communists and 5,000 Komsomol members remained in the occupied territory of Belarus with special missions for underground work.

Underground organisations were operating in practically all of the most densely-populated areas of occupied Belarus. The biggest was the underground anti-fascist activity in Minsk. There, the struggle against the invaders was headed by the Communist Party of Belarus underground city committee, created in November 1941 at the conference of the underground groups and organisations. 9,000 men belonged to the Minsk underground. In 1942, two betrayals occurred, when hundreds of underground members, including several leaders, were arrested by the Nazis. Nevertheless, the struggle continued. A newspaper "Zvyazda" and propaganda leaflets were published. Close connections were established with the underground members in other areas. In total, over 1,500 acts of sabotage were organised, about 2,200 prisoners of war and several thousand civilians joined the partisans.

In Mogilev, in the spring of 1942, about 40 groups were combined into the underground organisation "Committee on Assistance to the Red Army". In Vitebsk, 56 underground groups were operating in 1941-1942.

Stubborn resistance to the occupying forces was shown by underground members in Gomel, Osipovichi, Borisov, Bobruisk, Orsha, Zhlobin, Petrikov, Polotsk, Bragin, Dobrush, Kalinkovichi, Mozyr, and other places. Underground fighters were operating at all significant railway stations.

In the western regions of Belarus, different political forces fought against the Nazi Occupation, as a result of the recent co-existence there of two different state systems. In this region, anti-fascist organisations were created, largely through the initiative of former members of the Communist Party of Western Belarus and members of the Communist Party of Belarus. In May 1942, the "Okrug Belarusian Anti-fascist Committee for the Baranovichi Region" was formed from the anti-fascist groups from five districts. The Polish nationalist underground movement (especially, Army Krajova) also operated in Western Belarus. It was headed by the Polish government-in-exile in London. (There are no separate collections of the Polish nationalist underground organisations in the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus).

In all, about 70,000 Belarusian people belonged to & took part in underground organisations. Ten underground Party regional committees and ten Komsomol regional committees, as well as 193 inter-district, district and town committees of the Communist Party of Belarus and 214 committees of the Leninist Young Communist League of Belarus (Komsomol of Belarus) worked in the occupied territory.

The Nazi invaders suffered heavy losses as a result of Belarusian active resistance. The Belarusian patriots too experienced heavy losses – many thousands of them sacrificed their lives, fighting in an unequal struggle against the invaders. The bravery of more than a hundred partisans and underground fighters was honoured with the highest government award – the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union.