Cornish - Partisan warfare on the eastern front 1941-1944

O n 22 June 1941 Hitler launched Operation Barbarossathe invasion of the USSRbut the frontiers his troops crossed that Sunday morning were not those of the late 1930s. Between 1939 and 1941 the borders of the Soviet Union had moved dramatically westwards, absorbing the Baltic States, Galicia, a large chunk of Poland, and the Romanian provinces of Bessarabia and North Bukovina. Although these nations and regions had formed part of the tsarist empire and included ethnic Russian minorities, they were largely non-Russian in composition. Indeed, an influx of Russian administrators and a policy of Russification combined with Communist practices, such as collectivisation, had done much to alienate the population of these new acquisitions, as did the ruthless purges of undesirable elements. Tens of thousands were executed, imprisoned and deported, deportations of Poles and Ukrainians continuing until Friday 20 June 1941, presumably to be resumed after the weekend.The NKVD (the acronym for the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs), headed by L.P. Beria, was as effective as Himmlers SS at removing those deemed unreliable or a threat to the regime.Thus it was that the population in many border regions greeted the invaders with great enthusiasm anticipating a dramatic improvement in their lives.

But, as thousands of locals cheered and even took pot shots at retreating Soviet troops during the last week of June and into July, Moscow was recovering from its initial horror at the events on its western borders. On 3 July Stalin broadcast to the people of the USSR. Candidly admitting German successes in Lithuania, western Belarus, Latvia and western Ukraine, he continued calling for a scorched earth policy in the face of the enemy advance but behind enemy lines:

In areas occupied by the enemy guerrilla units, mounted and on foot must be formed, diversionist groups must be organised to combat enemy troops, to foment guerrilla warfare everywhere, to blow up bridges and roads, damage telephone and telegraph lines, set fire to forests, stores, transports. In the occupied regions conditions must be made unbearable for the enemy and all his accomplices. They must be hounded and annihilated at every step and all their measures frustrated ... All forces of the people for the demolition of the enemy.

This speech also cast Hitler and his Fascist followers as the aggressors and the Russians, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Moldavians, Georgians, Estonians... and the other free people of the Soviet Union as the victims.

Having given his blessing to the formation of partisan units, the state apparatus swung into action. On a local level the Communist Party began to organise the nuclei of partisan groups. In Moscow the military and civilian government leadership formed the State Defence Committee (GKO) and military authority was incorporated into the Stavka (Supreme Command), both headed by Stalin himself.

Fifteen days after Stalins broadcast the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued detailed instructions to regional Party organisations. Local Party leaders were ordered to organise resistance themselves,to destroy the hoarders and their collaborators... to put an end to such unbearable conditions [whereby] leaders of the Party leave their posts and retreat deep into the rear... thus becoming deserters and pitiful cowards. Partisan leaders were encouraged to recruit members from particularly reliable, leading Party, Soviet, and Komsomol (the Communist youth organisation) and also non-Party members devoted to the Soviet regime. Personnel were to have knowledge of the local population, the area and the terrain. A network of saboteurs and specialists was to support the fighters, as would propagandists. Local formations were to be divided into companies, platoons and sections with responsibility for a specified area of operations. Membership was to be voluntary and, at least in the early days, the leadership was to be elected. Bases were to be well concealed and stores laid in. Although this directive did not create more than a rough template for partisan organisation, it did specify that such groups should arm themselves, train and take guidance from the headquarters staff made up of members of the executive committees of the regional, district and village Soviets.There was no mention of co-ordination with the Red Army, this was purely a Party structure.

Appropriately, considering its role as the guardian of the USSRs internal security, the NKVD was also setting up its own partisan fiefdom. On 5 July the Administration for Special Tasks was activated. Amongst its portfolio of duties was the establishment of partisan formations.The unit title for its organisation was the Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade of Special Purpose. Amongst its 20,000 men and women, including 2,000 foreignersGermans, Austrians, Spaniards, Poles, Czechs and Americans to name but a few, were hundreds of sportsmen and women, members of rifle clubs and those deemed fit enough for the rigours of life behind enemy lines.

Whilst this formation underwent training near Moscow, the NKVD organised from its provincial staff so-called Destruction Battalions, which were responsible for security behind the Red Armys lines. They were to guard against air-dropped saboteurs and agent provocateurs but, should the Red Army fall back, they would carry out the destruction of any useful infrastructure such as power stations or railway depots. They were to allow themselves to be bypassed by the enemy and then to re-emerge to carry out acts of sabotage and wage a war of terror against local collaborators. They would wear civilian clothing and live off the land. Again, there was no direct mention of co-ordinating their activities with the Red Army which implied a mutual distrust likely based on the NKVDs activities during the purges of recent memory and the perception of the militarys failure to defend Mother Russia during the early days of Barbarossa.

The third body to become involved in the partisan war was the Red Army itself. The sheer speed of the Axis advance had taken the Soviets completely by surprise as the panzers overran defensive positions so rapidly that formations simply dissolved. As Moscow sought desperately for solutions it dispatched orders that were out of date or were never received. Frequently, these orders were obeyed for fear of reprisals leading to the loss of scores of thousands of troops and mountains of equipment. In a series of vast pincer movements the Axis surrounded divisions, corps and armies by the dozen. Hundreds of thousands of bewildered POWs were marched westwards, often under minimal guard. However, for those Red Army men and officers isolated but still motivated and able to fight there were the alternatives of making their way back to their own lines or forming partisan groups. Unfortunately, many of those who escaped captivity or were not captured returned to their side of the line unaware of Order 270, dated 16 August 1941. In this Stalin declared that every soldier was obliged to fight to the last (and) forbidden to surrender, otherwise he would be considered a deserter and either shot or arrested for such an offence.The core of those groups who could not get back to their lines and chose to fight as partisans were often officers or NCOs and they became known as Okruzhentsy (those who escaped the encirclement). Political officers were often ordered to remain behind to continue the fight as their formations disintegrated.