Lester Grau - The Red Armys Do-It-Yourself, Nazi-Bashing Guerrilla Warfare Manual: The Partizans Companion, 1943

The June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union caught the Soviet leadership unprepared. As the remnants of the Red Army staggered back toward Moscow, the German forces swept over the Soviet countryside, capturing thousands of square miles of Soviet countryside. There was little to stop them. The Soviet Union desperately threw half-trained soldiers in their path while they looked for other ways to slow the Fascist invader. One possible weapon was guerrilla forces. While the Soviet leadership espoused guerrilla war, they did not want the common people to rise against the Germans. Even in these perilous times, the Soviet government wanted control. The Soviet answer was not to employ locals. Rather they quickly formed army reservists, party activists and secret police into partisan detachments and sent them into the German-occupied areas. Unfamiliar with the local area, surrounded by the enemy, and short on food and equipment, these initial detachments accomplished little, and few survived.

In 1942, when the Soviet Union decided to expand partisan war to incorporate the local Soviet citizens now living under German occupation, they did so while also extending Soviet control over the guerrillas. Military officers were assigned to lead the guerrilla bands. Military discipline was extended over the bands, and they were reorganized into squads, platoons, companies and battalions. A central partisan staff provided command and control over the guerrillas from Moscow. The partisans were trained to a common standard. Communist Party organizations were reintroduced, and the secret police watched the Germansand the partisans.

By 1943, it was obvious that Germany was losing the war. The partisan ranks swelled as did the training requirements for the partisan commanders. This 1943 edition of the Partisans Companion helped train the new guerrillas to a common standard in a hurry. It is an interesting document that covers partisan tactics, German counter-guerrilla tactics, demolitions, German and Soviet weapons, scouting, camouflage, anti-tank warfare, anti-aircraft defense, defense against a chemical attack, hand-to-hand combat, first aid, field living and winter survival. It can be read by individual partisans, but is really designed for squad and platoon-level instruction. This handbook contains the Soviet lessons of two bitter years of war and provides a good look at the tactics and training of a mature partisan force. It is geared to the partisan detachment (battalion) and smaller units. The partisans already were men and women who were expected to be reasonably self-sufficient, capable of making simple repairs and constructing their own shelter, camp ware, skis, snowshoes, and sleds. Their units were supposed to move and live clandestinely, harass the enemy, and support the Red Army through reconnaissance and attacks on the German supply lines. They were also the agents of Soviet power and vengeance in the occupied regions.

Soviet historians credit the partisans with tying down ten percent of the German army and with killing almost a million enemy soldiers. They clearly frustrated German logistics and forced the Germans to periodically sideline divisions to hunt the partisans. They clearly were part of the eventual Soviet victory over Germany.

This Soviet concept of central control of guerrilla warfare did not end with World War II. Communist guerrillas in China, Korea, and Vietnam were also centrally controlled, trained, and directed. Later, this model was employed in various wars of national liberation and even by the Fedayeen in Iraq.

So, I invite you to sit back and learn the not-so-arcane skills of being a Nazi-hunting partisan while freezing in the Pripet Marshes.

David M. Glantz

Mark W. Clark Visiting Professor of history

The Citadel, Charleston, South Carolina