Belarusian partisans were fighters in irregular military

Irregular military

Irregular military refers to any non-standard military. Being defined by exclusion, there is significant variance in what comes under the term. It can refer to the type of military organization, or to the type of tactics used....

 groups participating in the Belarusian resistance movement

Belarusian resistance movement

Belarusian resistance during World War II was focused towards Nazi Germany from 1941 until 1944. Belarus was one of the Soviet republics occupied during Operation Barbarossa...

, including against Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 and collaborationism

Collaborationism

Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...

 during

Collaboration during World War II

Within nations occupied by the Axis Powers, some citizens, driven by nationalism, ethnic hatred, anti-communism, anti-Semitism or opportunism, knowingly engaged in collaboration with the Axis Powers during World War II...

 World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

World War II

In August 1941 about 231 partisan detachments were operating already. The units totaled 437 by the end of the 1941, comprising more than 7,200 personnel.

The Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje

Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje

The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during World War II...

 was formed on January 21, 1942 in the Vilna Ghetto. It took on the motto: "We will not allow them to take us like beasts to the slaughter." This was the first Jewish resistance organization that was established in the ghettos of Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. Unlike in other ghettos, where the underground resistance was coordinated to some extent with the officials of the local Jewish establishment, Vilna's Jacob Gens, head of the ghetto, cooperated with German officials in stopping armed struggle. The FPO brought together socialist-Zionists, right-wing conservatives, communists and Bundists. It was headed by Yitzhak Wittenberg

Yitzhak Wittenberg

Yitzhak Wittenberg was a Jewish resistance fighter in Vilna during World War II. He became famous as the leader of the Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye, a resistance group in the Vilna Ghetto. When the Germans learned about the existence of the group, they requested from the head of the Jewish...

, Josef Glazman, and Abba Kovner

Abba Kovner

Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...

. The goals of the FPO were to establish self-defense in the ghetto, to sabotage German industrial and military activities and to join the partisan and Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

’s fight against the Nazis.

However, as the front line moved further away, the logistical conditions steadily worsened for the partisan units, as the resources ran out, and there was no wide-scale support from over the front line until March 1942. One outstanding difficulty was the lack of radio communication, which wasn't addressed until April 1942. The support of the local people was also insufficient. So, for several months, partisan units in Belarus were virtually left to themselves. Especially difficult for the partisans was the winter of 1941-1942, with severe shortages in ammunition, medicine and supplies. The actions of partisans were prevailingly uncoordinated.

In the circumstances, the German pacification

Peace

Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...

operations in summer and fall 1941 were able to curb partisan activity significantly. Many units went underground, and generally, in late 1941-early 1942, the partisan units weren't undertaking the significant military operations, limiting themselves to sorting out the organizational problems, building up the logistics support and gaining influence with the local people. By the incomplete data, in the end of the 1941, 99 partisan detachments and about 100 partisan groups operated in Belarus. In Winter 1941-1942, 50 partisan detachments and about 50 underground organisations and groups operated in Belarus. In the period of December 1941, the German guard forces in the Army Group «Center» rear comprised 4 security divisions, 2 SS brigades, 260 companies of different branches of service.

The Battle of Moscow

Battle of Moscow

The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of...

 turned the tide in the morale of the partisans and of the local people in general. However, the real turning point in the development of the partisan movement in Belarus, and, in fact, on the German-occupied territories in general, came in the course of the Soviet winter offensive of 1942.

Vitebsk gate and West Belarus

The turning point in the development of the Soviet partisan movement came with the opening of the Vitsyebsk gate

Vitsyebsk gate

"Vitsyebsk gate" or "Surazh gate" was the conventional name in the Soviet, later also in Belarusian, historiography, given to the corridor connecting the Soviet and German-occupied territories, which was a 40 km breach in the place of contact of the German army groups "North" and "Center"...

, the corridor connecting the Soviet and German-occupied territories, in February 1942. The partisan units were included in the overall Soviet strategical developments shortly after that, and the centralized organizational and logistical support had been organized, with Gate's existence being the very important facilitating factor. As early as the spring of 1942 the Soviet partisans were able to effectively harass German troops and significantly hamper their operations in the region.

The Germans treated the local population abysmally (with the notable exception of the fraction of the civil administration headed by Wilhelm Kube

Wilhelm Kube

Wilhelm Kube was a German politician and Nazi official. He was an important figure in the German Christian movement during the early years of Nazi rule. During the war he became a senior official in the occupying government of the Soviet Union, achieving the rank of Generalkommissar for...

), maintained kolkhoz

Kolkhoz

A kolkhoz , plural kolkhozy, was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms . The word is a contraction of коллекти́вное хозя́йство, or "collective farm", while sovkhoz is a contraction of советское хозяйство...

es in East and restored land possessions in West, collecting heavy food taxes, rounded up and sent young people to work in the Germany. Overwhelmingly, Jews and even small-scale Soviet activists would feel more secure in the partisan ranks. The direct boost to the partisan numbers were the Red Army POWs of the local origin, who were let out "to the homes" in Fall 1941, but ordered by Germans to return to the concentration camps in March 1942.

In the Spring 1942, the aggregation of the smaller partisan units

Soviet partisan detachment 1941-1944

Soviet partisan detachment , was the principal organisational form of the Soviet partisan units.Numerical and structural complement of the partisan detachment varied, with usual number of about 100 to several hundred personnel, organised in the 3—4 companies, 3 platoons each, 3 sections each...

 into brigades

Soviet partisan brigade 1941-1944

Soviet partisan brigade , was the organisational form of the Soviet partisan units, the principal organisational form of the units operating on the territory of BSSR....

 began, prompted by the experience of the first year of war. The coordination, numerical buildup, structural rework and now established logistical feed all translated to the greatly increased partisan units military capability, which showed, e.g., in the increased number of diversions on the railroads, reaching hundreds of engines and thousands of cars destroyed by the end of the year.

In 1942, the terror campaign against the territorial administration, which was manned by the local people ("collaborators and traitors") was additionally emphasized. This resulted, however, in the definite split of the local people's sympathies, resulting in the beginning of the organisation of the anti-partisan units with native personnel in 1942. By the November 1942, Soviet partisan units in Belarus numbered about 47,000 personnel.

In January 1943, out of 56,000 partisan personnel, 11,000 were operating in the West Belarus, which was 3.5 less per 10 thousand local people than in the East, and even more so (up to 5-6 factor) if accounting for the much more efficient evacuation measures in the East in 1941. This discrepancy wouldn't be sufficiently explained by the German treatment of local people, nor by the quick German advance in 1941, nor by the social circumstances then existing in these regions. There is strong evidence, that this was decision of the central Soviet authorities, who abstained from the greater buildup of the Partisan forces in West Belarus, and let Polish underground military structures to grow unopposed in these lands in 1941-1942, in the context of relations with the Polish government in exile

Polish government in Exile

The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...

 of Sikorsky. Certain level of military cooperation, imposed by the respective commands, was noted between Soviet partisans and Armia Krajowa (AK)

Armia Krajowa

The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

, the people of Polish nationality were, to a degree, exampled from the terror campaign in 1942. After the break of diplomatic relations between USSR and Polish government in exile

Polish government in Exile

The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...

 in April 1943, the situation changed radically. From this moment on, AK was treated as hostile military force.

In late May 1943, Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe

Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe

Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe were armed anti-Nazi resistance units organized by the right-wing Polish organization Konfederacja Narodu. They existed between 1942 and 1944 .- Beginnings :The idea to create the UBK was conceived among Warsaw’s conspirational circles in early 1940s...

, with permission of the headquarters of the Home Army, concentrated its forces (200 men) around Wyszkow

Wyszków

Wyszków is a town in northeastern Poland with 26,500 inhabitants . It is the capital of Wyszków County . Wyszków is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship ; previously it was in Warsaw Voivodeship and Ostrołęka Voivodeship .-Description:The village of Wyszków was first documented in 1203. The town...

. The Germans soon found out about it and surrounded the Poles. A skirmish ensued, in which 4 Poles were killed and 8 wounded. German losses were estimated at 15 killed and 22 wounded. Those who were not caught, divided themselves into two groups and headed north, to Bezirk Bialystok

Bezirk Bialystok

The Bezirk Bialystok , also Belostok was an administrative unit that existed during the World War II occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany...

. On June 11, 1943, the UBK forces under Major Stanislaw Pieciul (Radecki) of the 4th Battalion engaged the Germans near the village of Pawly (Bielsk Podlaski County). 25 Poles and approximately 40 Germans died.

In July 1943 the Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe units, active in Bezirk Bialystok, consisted of five Battalions. Altogether, there were 200 fighters, and during a number of skirmishes with the Germans (including the 1943 Polish underground raid on East Prussia), 138 of them were killed. These heavy losses were criticized by the headquarters of the Home Army, who claimed that the UBK was profusely using lives of young Polish soldiers. On August 17, 1943, upon the order of General Tadeusz Bor-Komorowski

Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski

General Count Tadeusz Komorowski , better known by the name Bór-Komorowski was a Polish military leader....

, the UBK was included into the Home Army. Soon afterwards, all battalions were transferred to the area of Nowogrodek.

1943-1944

The buildup of the Soviet partisan force in the West Belarus was ordered and implemented during 1943, with nine brigades, 10 detachments and 15 operational groups transferred from the Eastern to Western lands, effectively tripling the Partisan force there (to 36,000 in December 1943). It is estimated that ~10,000-12,000 personnel were transferred, and about same number came from the local volunteers. The buildup of the military force was complemented by the ensuing buildup of the underground Communist Party structures and propaganda activity.

The Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...

, certain curbing of the terror campaign (actually since December 1942, formally in February 1943) and amnesty

Amnesty

Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...

 promised to repenting collaborators were a significant factors in the 1943 growth of the Soviet partisan forces. Desertions from the ranks of the German-controlled police and military formations strengthened, with sometimes whole units coming over to Soviet partisan side, including the Volga Tatars

Volga Tatars

The Volga Tatars are the largest subgroup of the Tatars, native to the Volga region.They account for roughly six out of seven million Tatars worldwide....

 battalion (900 personnel, February 1943), and the Gil-Rodionov's 1st Russian People's brigade of the SS (2,500 personnel, August 1943). Summarily, about 7,000 people of miscellaneous anti-Soviet formations joined the Soviet partisan force, while about 1,900 specialists and commanders were inserted in the Belarusian lands in 1943. However, the local people comprised the core of the personnel influx in the Soviet partisan force.

Itzhak Rudnicki

Yitzhak Arad

Yitzhak Arad , is an Israeli historian, retired IDF brigadier general and a former Soviet partisan who has served as director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993...

 was active in the Wilno Ghetto

Vilna Ghetto

The Vilna Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the occupied Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , during the Holocaust in World War II...

 underground movement from 1942 to 1944. In February 1943, he joined the Belarusian partisans in the Wilno Battalion of the Markov Brigade, a primarily non-Jewish unit in which he had to contend with antisemitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

. Apart from a foray infiltrating the Wilno Ghetto in April 1943 to meet with underground leader Abba Kovner

Abba Kovner

Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...

, he stayed with the partisans until the end of the war, fighting the Germans and their collaborators in the Narocz Forest in Belarus

Belarus

Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

.

In the Fall 1943, the partisan force in BSSR totaled about 153,000, and by the end 1943 about 122,000, with about 30,000 put behind the front line in the course of liberation of eastern parts of BSSR (end 1943). The partisan movement was so strong that by 1943-1944 there were entire regions in occupied Belarus, where Soviet authority was re-established deep inside the German held territories. There were even partisan kolkhozes that were raising crops and livestock to produce food for the partisans.

The Bielski partisans

Bielski partisans

The Bielski partisans were an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek and Lida in German-occupied Poland...

' activities were aimed at the Nazis and their collaborator

Collaborationism

Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...

s, such as Belarusian volunteer policemen or local inhabitants who had betrayed or killed Jews. They also conducted sabotage

Sabotage

Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is...

 missions. The Nazi regime offered a reward

Bounty (reward)

A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...

 of 100,000 Reichmarks for assistance in the capture of Tuvia Bielski, and in 1943, led major clearing operations against all partisan groups in the area. Some of these groups suffered major casualties, but the Bielski partisans fled safely to a more remote part of the forest, and continued to offer protection to the noncombatants among their band.

During the process of reorganization of the Nowogrodek Area of the Armia Krajowa

Armia Krajowa

The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...

, the Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe

Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe

Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe were armed anti-Nazi resistance units organized by the right-wing Polish organization Konfederacja Narodu. They existed between 1942 and 1944 .- Beginnings :The idea to create the UBK was conceived among Warsaw’s conspirational circles in early 1940s...

 units created a battalion, which became part of the 77th Infantry Regiment of the Armia Krajowa, under Boleslaw Piasecki

Boleslaw Piasecki

Bolesław Bogdan Piasecki was a Polish politician and writer....

. In February 1944 the battalion had around 700 soldiers (some sources put the number at around 500). The unit took part in the Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army , the dominant force in the Polish resistance....

, fighting the Germans around Lida

Lida

Lida is a city in western Belarus in Hrodna Voblast, situated 160 km west of Minsk. It is the fourteenth largest city in Belarus.- Etymology :...

 and Wilno (see: Wilno Uprising), where it suffered heavy losses.

V Wileńska Brygada Armii Krajowej, commanded by Zygmunt Szendzielarz

Zygmunt Szendzielarz

Zygmunt Szendzielarz was commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Home Army Brigade.-Early life:...

 (Łupaszko), fought against the German army and SS units in the area of southern Wilno Voivodeship, but was also frequently attacked by the Soviet Partisans paradropped in the area by the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. In April 1944, Zygmunt Szendzielarz was arrested by Lithuanian police and handed over to the German Gestapo. Łupaszko escaped or was released in unknown circumstances at the end of April. In reprisal actions his brigade captured several dozen German officials and sent several threatening letters to Gestapo but it remains unknown if and how these contributed to his release.

On June 12, 1944 General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski

Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski

General Count Tadeusz Komorowski , better known by the name Bór-Komorowski was a Polish military leader....

, Commander-in-Chief of the Armia Krajowa, issued an order to prepare a plan of liberating Wilno from German hands. The Armia Krajowa districts of Vilnius and Navahrudak planned to take control of the city before the Soviets

Soviet Union

The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 could reach it. The Commander of the Armia Krajowa District in Wilno, General Aleksander Krzyżanowski "Wilk"

Aleksander Krzyzanowski

Aleksander "Wilk" Krzyżanowski was a Polish officer, major, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and Commandant of the Armia Krajowa in the Vilnius Region.- Biography :...

, decided to regroup all the partisan units in the northeastern part of Poland for the assault, both from inside the city and from the outside.

On June 23, two squads of V Wileńska Brygada, commanded by "Maks" and "Rakoczy", attacked the Lithuanian policemen in Dubingiai

Dubingiai

Dubingiai is a town in Molėtai district in Lithuania. It is situated near Lake Asveja, the longest lake in the country. The town has 260 inhabitants as of 2003.-History:...

.

The starting date was set to July 7. Approximately 12,500 Armia Krajowa soldiers attacked the German garrison and managed to seize most of the city center. Heavy street fighting in the outskirts lasted until July 14. In Wilno's eastern suburbs, the Armia Krajowa units cooperated with reconnaissance groups of the Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front

3rd Belorussian Front

The 3rd Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...

.

Soviets enter

General Krzyżanowski wanted to group all of the partisan units into a re-created Polish 19th Infantry Division

Polish 19th Infantry Division

Polish 19th Infantry Division was formed from parts of the 1st Lithuanian-Belarusian Infantry Division in 1923. At that time it was commanded for several years by gen. Walerian Czuma and stationed in Wilno....

. However, the advancing Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 entered the city on July 15, and the NKVD

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

 started to intern all Polish soldiers.

In August the commander of all Home Army units in the Wilno area, Gen. Aleksander Krzyżanowski "Wilk"

Aleksander Krzyzanowski

Aleksander "Wilk" Krzyżanowski was a Polish officer, major, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and Commandant of the Armia Krajowa in the Vilnius Region.- Biography :...

 ordered all six brigades under his command to prepare for the Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest

Operation Tempest was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II by the Polish Home Army , the dominant force in the Polish resistance....

 - a plan for an all-national uprising against the German forces occupying Poland. In what became known as the Operation Ostra Brama, the V Brigade was to attack the Wilno suburb of Zwierzyniec

Zwierzyniec

Zwierzyniec is a town on the Wieprz river in the Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. It has 3,324 inhabitants .Zwierzyniec is the northernmost town of the Roztocze National Park. The park comprises some of the last remaining sections of the primordial forest of Central Europe, especially...

 in cooperation with the advancing units of the 3rd Belorussian Front

3rd Belorussian Front

The 3rd Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...

. However, for fear of being arrested with his units by the NKVD

NKVD

The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....

 and killed on the spot, Zygmunt Szendzielarz

Zygmunt Szendzielarz

Zygmunt Szendzielarz was commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Home Army Brigade.-Early life:...

 - Łupaszko - decided to disobey the orders and instead moved his unit to central Poland. The Operation Ostra Brama was a success and the city was liberated by Polish soldiers, but the Polish commander was then arrested by the Soviets and the majority of his soldiers were sent to Gulag

Gulag

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

s and sites of detention in the Soviet Union.

It is uncertain why Szendzielarz was not court-martialled for desertion. It is highly probable that in fact his unit was moved out of the battlefield by Gen. "Wilk" himself, due to the fact that Łupaszka's unit has been long involved in fights with the Soviet partisans and he did not want to provoke the Red Army. Regardless, after crossing into Podlaskie and Białystok area in October, the brigade continued the struggle against withdrawing Germans in the ranks of the "Białystok Home Army Area". After the region was overrun by the Soviets, Łupaszka's unit remained in the forests and Łupaszka decided to wait for the outcome of Russo-Polish talks held by the Polish Government in Exile

Polish government in Exile

The Polish government-in-exile, formally known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in Exile , was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Poland of September 1939, and the subsequent occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which...

. At the same time the unit was reorganized and captured enough equipment to fully arm 600 men with machine guns and machine pistols.

After the governments of the United Kingdom and United States broke the pacts with Poland and accepted the so-called PKWN as the provisional government of Poland, Łupaszka restarted the hostilities - this time against a new oppressor, in the ranks of Wolność i Niezawisłość organization. However, after several successful actions against the NKVD units in the area of Białowieża Forest, it became apparent that such actions would result in a total destruction of his unit.

During the battles for liberation of Belarus, partisans considered the fourth Belorussian front. After the liberation of BSSR, about 180,000 partisans joined the Soviet Army

Soviet Army

The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...

 in 1944.

During the 1941-1944 period, the turnaround in the Soviet partisan force in Belarus was about 374,000, about 70,000 in urban underground, and about 400,000 in the reserve of the partisan force. Among Soviet partisans in Belarus were people of 45 different ethnic backgrounds and 4,000 foreigners (including 3,000 Poles, 400 Czechs

Czech people

Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

 and Slovaks

Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

, 300 Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

ns, etc.). Around 65% of Belarusian partisans were local people.

As part of the Nazis' effort to combat the enormous Belarusian resistance during World War II, special units of local collaborationists were trained by the SS's Otto Skorzeny

Otto Skorzeny

Otto Skorzeny was an SS-Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he was chosen as the field commander to carry out the rescue mission that freed the deposed Italian dictator Benito Mussolini from captivity...

 to infiltrate the Soviet rear. In 1944 thirty Belarusians, known as "Čorny Kot" ("Black Cat") and personally led by Michał Vituška, were airdrop

Airdrop

An airdrop is a type of airlift, developed during World War II to resupply otherwise inaccessible troops, who themselves may have been airborne forces. In some cases, it is used to refer to the airborne assault itself. Early airdrops were conducted by dropping or pushing padded bundles from...

ped by the Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....

 behind the lines of the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

, which had already liberated Belarus during Operation Bagration. They experienced some initial success due to disorganization in the rear of the Red Army, and some other German-trained Belarusian nationalist units also slipped through the Białowieża Forest in 1945. Vituška managed to escape to the West following the war, along with several other Belarusian Central Rada

Belarusian Central Rada

The Belarusian Central Rada was nominally the government of Belarus from 1943–44. It was a collaborationist government established by Nazi Germany within the occupation and colonial administration of Reichskommissariat Ostland.- Timeline :...

 leaders.

Anti-Nazi

• Armia Krajowa
  Armia Krajowa
  The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
  
   in Belarus
• Bielski partisans
  Bielski partisans
  The Bielski partisans were an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek and Lida in German-occupied Poland...
  
  
• Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje
  Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje
  The Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye was a Jewish resistance organization based in the Vilna Ghetto that organized armed resistance against the Nazis during World War II...
  
  
• Soviet partisan regiment 1941–1944
• Soviet partisan united formation 1941–1944
• Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe
  Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe
  Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe were armed anti-Nazi resistance units organized by the right-wing Polish organization Konfederacja Narodu. They existed between 1942 and 1944 .- Beginnings :The idea to create the UBK was conceived among Warsaw’s conspirational circles in early 1940s...
  
  
• 19th Infantry Division (Poland)
• 29th Infantry Division (Poland)
• 30th Infantry Division (Poland)

Anti-Nazi

• Aleś Adamowicz
  Ales Adamovich
  Ales Adamovich was a Soviet writer and a critic, Professor and Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Doctor of Philosophy in philology, Doctorate in 1962 ; the people's deputy...
  
  
• Zygmunt Andruszkiewicz
• Yitzhak Arad
  Yitzhak Arad
  Yitzhak Arad , is an Israeli historian, retired IDF brigadier general and a former Soviet partisan who has served as director of Yad Vashem from 1972 to 1993...
  
  
• Asael Bielski
  Asael Bielski
  Asael Bielski was the second-in-command of the Bielski partisans during World War II.-Early life:Asael was the third son of David and Beila Bielski, being about two years younger than his brother Tuvia who later commanded the Bielski Otriad...
  
  
• Tuvia Bielski
• Zus Bielski
• Masza Bruskina
  Masha Bruskina
  Masha Bruskina was a 17-year-old Soviet Jewish partisan who was a volunteer nurse. She was arrested on October 14, 1941, by members of the Wehrmacht's 707 Infantry Division and the 2nd Schutzmannschaft Battalion; Lithuanian auxiliary troops under the command of Major Antanas Impulyavichus...
  
  
• Janka Bryl
  Janka Bryl
  Janka Bryl was a Belarusian writer best known for his short stories.-Early life:Five years after Bryl was born in Odessa, Ukraine, the family moved back to the village of Zahora in his parents' native Kareličy District of Hrodna, then part of Poland .-World War II:Bryl served in the Polish Navy...
  
  
• Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz
• Abba Kovner
  Abba Kovner
  Abba Kovner was a Lithuanian Jewish Hebrew poet, writer, and partisan leader. He became one of the great poets of modern Israel. He was a cousin of the Israeli Communist Party leader Meir Vilner.-Biography:...
  
  
• Henryk Krajewski
• Aleksander Krzyżanowski
  Aleksander Krzyzanowski
  Aleksander "Wilk" Krzyżanowski was a Polish officer, major, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II and Commandant of the Armia Krajowa in the Vilnius Region.- Biography :...
  
  
• Władysław Liniarski
• Dov Lopatyn
  Dov Lopatyn
  Dov Lopatyn was the head of the Judenrat in Łachwa, Poland in 1941-1942. He refused the demand of the Einsatzgruppen that the Lakhva Ghetto inhabitants line up for deportation, and on September 3, 1942, he led one of the first ghetto uprisings of the war.More than half of the ghetto population was...
  
  
• Piotr Maszerau
  Pyotr Masherov
  Pyotr Mironovich Masherov , - October 4, 1980) was the first secretary of Belarusian committee of the Communist Party of Soviet Union and a communist leader of Soviet Belarus.- Overview :...
  
  
• Pancelajmon Panamarenka
  Panteleimon Ponomarenko
  Panteleimon Kondrat'evich Ponomarenko ; 9 August 1902 18 January 1984) was a general in the Red Army before becoming a Soviet administrator in Belarus and then Kazakhstan. He was born in Krasnodar Krai, Russia....
  
  
• Sergiusz Piasecki
  Sergiusz Piasecki
  Sergiusz Piasecki , was one of the best known Polish language writers of the mid 20th century. His crowning achievement, published in 1937, was the third most popular novel in the Second Polish Republic...
  
  
• Zinaida Portnova
  Zinaida Portnova
  Zinaida Martynovna Portnova, commonly known as Zina Portnova was a Russian teenager, Soviet partisan and Hero of the Soviet Union.-Biography:...
  
  
• Ivan Sergeychik
  Ivan Sergeychik
  Ivan Sergeichik was a Belarusian Soviet NKVD-official and military commander.-History:From November 1931 through March 1935 he worked for the State Political Directorate and from March 1935 through November 1937 he worked as special prosecutor for NKVD in Minsk, Belarus.-World War II:Shortly after...
  
  
• Piatro Szełachonaw
  Petr Shelokhonov
  Petr Illarionovich Shelokhonov, was a Russian actor and director, designated Honorable Actor of Russia .-Childhood:Petr Shelokhonov was born in 1929, in Belarus, then a part of the Soviet Union; Peter Larionovich Shelokhonov...
  
  
• Zygmunt Szendzielarz
  Zygmunt Szendzielarz
  Zygmunt Szendzielarz was commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Home Army Brigade.-Early life:...
  
  
• Janusz Szlaski
• Shalom Yoran
  Shalom Yoran
  Shalom Yoran is a survivor of the Holocaust and a former Jewish partisan. His World War II memoir, The Defiant. A True Story of Jewish Vengeance and Survival, was published in 2003....
  
  
• Simcha Zorin
  Simcha Zorin
  Shalom Zorin was a Jewish Soviet partisan commander in Minsk.Many Jewish partisans in Belorussia had their own units that operated as part of the general Belorussian partisan movement and the overall Jewish resistance movement fighting the Nazis in occupied Europe, although some of these Jewish...
  
  
• Yosif Strangelski

Anti-Soviet

• Wiaczesław Adamowicz
• Stanisław Bułak-Bałachowicz
• Sergiusz Piasecki
  Sergiusz Piasecki
  Sergiusz Piasecki , was one of the best known Polish language writers of the mid 20th century. His crowning achievement, published in 1937, was the third most popular novel in the Second Polish Republic...
  
  
• Paweł Trubecki
• Michał Vituška
• Zygmunt Szendzielarz
  Zygmunt Szendzielarz
  Zygmunt Szendzielarz was commander of the Polish 5th Wilno Home Army Brigade.-Early life:...
  
  
• Lucjan Żeligowski
  Lucjan Zeligowski
  Lucjan Żeligowski , was a Polish general, and veteran of World War I, the Polish-Soviet War and World War II. He is mostly remembered for his role in Żeligowski's Mutiny and as head of a short-lived Republic of Central Lithuania.-Biography:...
  
  

Partisan operations

• Wasilij Korz raid, Autumn 1941 - March 23, 1942. 1000 km raid of a partisan formation in the Mińsk and Pińsk Woblast
  Pinsk Voblast
  Pinsk Voblast was a territorial unit in the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic created after the annexation of West Belarus into the BSSR in November 1939...
  
   of Belarus.
• Battle of Briańsk forests, May 1942. Partisan battle against the Nazi punitive expedition
  Punitive expedition
  A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
  
   that included 5 infantry divisions, military police, 120 tanks and aviation.
• The destruction of the German garrison in Lenin
  The destruction of the German garrison in Lenin
  The Lenin Garrison was destroyed on September 12, 1942 during a partisan uprising against the Nazis.After the liquidation of the Lenin ghetto in the Pinsk region and the murder of its inhabitants on August 14, 1942, about 30 Jews remained alive in Lenin, as they continued to work directly for the...
  
  , September 12, 1942.
• Raid of Sydor Kowpak
  Sydir Kovpak
  Sydir Artemovych Kovpak , June 7, 1887December 11, 1967) was a prominent Soviet partisan leader in Ukraine.-Biography:Kovpak was born to a poor peasant family in Ukrainian village near Poltava . For his military service in the World War I he was awarded two Crosses of St...
  
  , October 26 - November 29, 1942. Raid in Briańsk forests and Eastern Ukraine.
• Battle of Briańsk forests, May–June, 1943. Partisan battle in the Briańsk forests with German punitive expeditions.
• Operation Rails War, August 3 - September 15, 1943. A major operation of partisan formations against the railroad communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of Kursk
  Battle of Kursk
  The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
  
   and later the Battle of Smolensk
  Battle of Smolensk (1943)
  The second Battle of Smolensk was a Soviet strategic offensive operation conducted by the Red Army as part of the Summer-Autumn Campaign of 1943...
  
  .http://glory.rin.ru/cgi-bin/event.pl?act=more&id=32&place=&name=&word=&ids=&start=1&page=3http://slonimtown.nm.ru/rels.htm It involved concentrated actions by more than 100,000 partisan fighters from Belarus, the Leningrad Oblast
  Leningrad Oblast
  Leningrad Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . It was established on August 1, 1927, although it was not until 1946 that the oblast's borders had been mostly settled in their present position...
  
  , the Kalinin Oblast
  Tver Oblast
  Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...
  
  , the Smolensk Oblast
  Smolensk Oblast
  Smolensk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its area is . Population: -Geography:The administrative center of Smolensk Oblast is the city of Smolensk. Other ancient towns include Vyazma and Dorogobuzh....
  
  , the Oryol Oblast
  Oryol Oblast
  Oryol Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Oryol. Population: -Geography:It is located in the southwestern part of the Central Federal District, in the Mid-Russian Highlands. Kaluga and Tula Oblasts border it in the north, Bryansk Oblast is located to...
  
   and Ukraine within an area 1000 km along the front and 750 km wide. Reportedly, more than 230,000 rails were destroyed, along with many bridges, trains and other railroad infrastructure. The operation seriously incapacitated German logistics and was instrumental in the Soviet victory in Kursk battle.
• Raid on Mittenheide
  Raid on Mittenheide
  In mid-August of 1943 a Polish unit of the Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe , which was controlled by the right-wing organization Konfederacja Narodu, organized armed attack on East Prussian villages in the area of Johannisburg...
  
  , mid-August 1943. A unit of Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe
  Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe
  Uderzeniowe Bataliony Kadrowe were armed anti-Nazi resistance units organized by the right-wing Polish organization Konfederacja Narodu. They existed between 1942 and 1944 .- Beginnings :The idea to create the UBK was conceived among Warsaw’s conspirational circles in early 1940s...
  
   (English: Striking Cadre Battalions, UBK) organized armed attack on East Prussia
  East Prussia
  East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
  
  n villages in the area of Pisz
  Pisz
  Pisz is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland, with a population of 19,328 in 2004. It is the seat of Pisz County. Pisz is located at the junction of Lake Roś and the Pisa River.- Etymology :...
  
  ; by own claims some 70 Germans were killed and 40 German farms were razed to the ground while an eyewitness reports 13 killed people including a woman and two children in the age of 6 and 2 years. The attack, commanded by Colonel Stanislaw Karolkiewicz
  Stanislaw Karolkiewicz
  Stanisław Karolkiewicz was born in 1918 in the Polish historical region of Podlasie. Raised in a patriotic family, he joined the Polish Army in the 1930s, and then fought in the Polish September Campaign, in the area of Upper Silesia...
  
  , was a revenge for German atrocities, committed in Bezirk Bialystok
  Bezirk Bialystok
  The Bezirk Bialystok , also Belostok was an administrative unit that existed during the World War II occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany...
  
  .
• Operation Concerto, September 19 - November 1, 1943. "Concerto"http://glory.rin.ru/cgi-bin/event.pl?act=more&id=33&place=&name=&word=&ids=&start=1&page=3 http://slonimtown.nm.ru/konc.htm was a major operation of partisan formations against the railroad communications intended to disrupt the German reinforcements and supplies for the Battle of the Dnieper
  Battle of the Dnieper
  The Lower Dnieper Offensive took place in 1943 during the Second World War. It was one of the largest Second World War operations, involving almost 4,000,000 troops on both sides and stretching on a 1400 kilometer long front...
  
   and on the direction of the Soviet offensive in the Smolensk and Homel directions. Partisans from Belarus, Karelia, the Kalinin Oblast
  Tver Oblast
  Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...
  
  , Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the Crimea
  Crimea
  Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
  
   participated in the operations. The area of the operation was 900 km along the front (excluding Karelia and Crimea) and 400 km wide. Despite bad weather that only permitted the airlift of less than a half of the planned supplies, the operation lead to a 35-40% decrease in the railroad capacity in the area of operations. This was critical for the success of Soviet military operations in the autumn of 1943. In Belarus alone the partisans claimed the destruction of more than 90,000 rails along with 1,061 trains, 72 railroad bridges and 58 Axis garrisons. According to the Soviet historiography
  Soviet historiography
  Soviet historiography is the methodology of history studies by historians in the Soviet Union . In the USSR, the study of history was marked by alternating periods of freedom allowed and restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , and also by the struggle of historians to...
  
  , Axis losses totalled more than 53,000 soldiers.
• Battle of Połock-Lepel, April 1944. Major battle between Belarusian partisans and German punitive expeditions.
• Battle of Borysów-Begoml, April 22 - May 15, 1944. Major battle between Belarusian partisans and German punitive expeditions.
• Operation Bagration, June 22-August 19, 1944. Belarusian partisans took major part in the Operation Bagration. They were often considered the fifth front (along with the 1st Baltic Front
  1st Baltic Front
  The First Baltic Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The commanders of it were Army General Andrey Yeryomenko and succeeded by Army General Bagramyan. It was formed by re-naming the Kalinin Front in October 12, 1943 and took part in several important military...
  
  , 1st Belorussian Front
  1st Belorussian Front
  The 1st Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during World War II...
  
  , 2nd Belorussian Front
  2nd Belorussian Front
  The 2nd Belorussian Front was a military formation of Army group size of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
  
   and 3rd Belorussian Front
  3rd Belorussian Front
  The 3rd Belorussian Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War...
  
  ). Upwards of 300,000 partisans took part in the operation.
• Operation Ostra Brama, July 7-July 14, 1944. Major battle between Armia Krajowa
  Armia Krajowa
  The Armia Krajowa , or Home Army, was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II German-occupied Poland. It was formed in February 1942 from the Związek Walki Zbrojnej . Over the next two years, it absorbed most other Polish underground forces...
  
   and the Nazi German occupiers of Wilno.