The Zonal State Archive in Rechitsa presents a document on the Great Patriotic War – a list of partisans of the Kotovsky detachment of the Bragin district

The partisan movement in the Bragin region occupied by the Nazis arose in December 1941 with the formation of an armed group of brothers Stepan and Fyodor Filippenko on the basis of the Savichsky patriotic underground. In May-June 1942, as a result of the unification of the Filippenko group with the group of Pyotr Zinovich, the partisan detachment named after G.I. Kotovsky was created under the command of Stepan Filippenko. The detachment’s partisans inflicted losses on the enemy: they destroyed rear communications (telephone lines, bridges, dirt roads) and ammunition depots, smashed German police garrisons, fortified areas and strongholds, derailed enemy trains, and in the autumn of 1943, they helped the advancing Red Army liberate the Bragin region.

As a result, many partisans of the Kotovsky detachment were nominated for the medal «For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945», as evidenced by the list of partisans stored in the collection of the Bragin District Executive Committee (F. 214. Op. 1. D. 2. L. 1-2). Among them are the detachment commissar Pyotr Zinovich, the squad leader Martin Sherenok, the commander of the demolition group Yakov Ivashina, privates Nadezhda Ostapenko, Igor Zagoryansky, Ekaterina Melnichuk and others.

1-2. ZGARech. F. 214. Op. 1. d. 2. L. 1-2.