Partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War - reasons, role and results

During the 1941-1945 war, partisan detachments were created in territories that turned out to be occupied by fascist invaders. In Ukraine and Belarus, where the actions of the Germans were distinguished by particular cruelty, they formed unusually quickly. Thanks to the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War, it was possible to significantly weaken the enemy's forces.

The beginning of the partisan movement

Partisan movement during the great patriotic war

The etymology of the word "partisan" in many languages ​​has similar roots. In both Italian and French, it means commitment, indicates a supporter, member of a group or party. The stem of the word parte means "part of the whole." For a long time, partisan (French) or partigiano (Italian) meant precisely belonging to a party. Supporters of various assemblies and movements were called partisans.

Only at the beginning of the 19th century, namely after the Patriotic War of 1812, did the concept of "partisans" acquire a modern meaning.

Back in the 6th century BC, the Scythians in the wars with the Persians waged the so-called partisan war, which received the definition of a "small war". The peoples of Central Asia, in the battles with the troops of Alexander the Great, actively used partisans in the current sense of the word.

It was at this time that the first irregular civilian armies emerged.

In 1941-1945, detachments could not appear everywhere. The geographical feature had a great influence on their education and formation. For example, the Belarusian impenetrable thickets became a haven for partisans, while in the Volga steppes any underground formations would be immediately eliminated by the enemy. The history of the war contains a lot of information, when in Belarus the fascists could not win because of the lightning-fast actions of the partisans.

Ukraine, especially its western regions, is a completely different matter. Here the partisan movement pursued radically different goals. The arrival of the Germans by the residents for the most part was accepted as a salvation from the Soviet regime. For this reason, many Ukrainians went over to the side of Nazi Germany. At the same time, the atrocities of the enemy on the rest of the territory of Ukraine had no borders and forced people more and more to leave for the Resistance.

From summer to autumn 1941, great importance was not attached to the partisan movement. Someone waited, someone went into the forest, so as not to be captured and the concentration camps of the Germans. Partisans could exist only in areas with dense impenetrable forests, swamps and swamps, where nature itself helped them to invisibly attack and quickly disappear. On the steppe plains, the Germans quickly destroyed them.

It is wrong to think that the actions of the partisans were chaotic. There was a strict hierarchy in their units. All were subordinate to the head of the partisan movement, who coordinated and directed military operations. The main task of the partisans was to disrupt the transport communications of the fascists (highways were fired upon, railway tracks were exploded, enemy aircraft were destroyed).

The first detachments numbered several dozen people. Only by the end of 1941, the organization of the partisan movement began to be coordinated, the supply of weapons and ammunition from the Soviet Army was centrally organized, many battles were fought shoulder to shoulder with regular troops.

The origin of the first chiefs of the partisan movement of the Second World War was in no way connected with knowledge of military affairs. They were ordinary peasants - those who were not called up for service. They did not have the necessary training and made many tactical mistakes. Recognizing the role of the partisan detachments, the Stavka later began to send its own officers for leadership and training.

As a result, the small partisan formations turned into detachments of thousands of defenders of the Motherland, ready to throw all their forces into the fight against the enemy.

Organization of the partisan movement

Units of partisans fought the enemy in all possible ways, including:

explosions of roads and railways, and even pogroms were carried out in the rear of the enemy;
intelligence service;
distribution of leaflets in the occupied territories promoting communist ideas and support for the Soviet regime;
combat operations together with the forces of the regular army;
elimination and physical elimination of traitors to the Motherland;
mobilization of the civilian population.

Significant battles of the partisans

It is difficult to calculate how many operations were carried out by the guerrillas. They are numbered not in hundreds, but in thousands. Many have gone unnoticed, but there are others whose role is invaluable. For example, in August 1943, the so-called rail war began. The partisans blew up more than 200 thousand rails, making the railway unusable in just one night.

Combat operation, codenamed "Concert" followed immediately after the rail war. Its essence was to undermine the railway communication of the Germans during the battle for the Dnieper. More than 100,000 partisans were involved from the territories of the Leningrad Region, Crimea, Belarus and the Baltic States. By their actions, the Resistance almost halved the effectiveness of the enemy's railway communication, which ensured a positive outcome of the battle. The result of their work could have been more revealing, but there was simply not enough explosives for further actions.

It was after this significant battle on the Dnieper that the partisans began to take a massive part in many battles. Unfortunately, their successful actions led to the fact that the Nazis more aggressively destroyed the civilian population supporting the Resistance.

Article source: https://article-realm.com/article/Reference-Education/Language/12844-Partisan-movement-during-the-Great-Patriotic-War-reasons-role-and-results.html