Life of Belarusian partisans: surprisingly, partisans very rarely got sick during the war. IN

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The partisans come out of the forest

The clouds are gathering

The enemy is more and more afraid of us. Afraid of our surprise attacks. He is afraid of sabotage on the railways. He is afraid that in the event of a breakthrough in the front, the partisans will create a critical situation in the near rear. As before, the Nazis were especially worried about the fate of the only communication of the 3rd Panzer Army - the road to the west through Lepel. The state of this artery can be compared to the blockage of the veins of the limbs of a living organism - an irreversible process that constantly threatens the worst possible outcome. Intelligence reports confirm the same thing: the enemy is painfully looking for a way out. He continues to build up troops near our borders. One thing is not clear: why is the enemy slowing down, because from day to day we have to wait for the spring thaw?

These days, it seems, for the first time I so clearly felt the whole weight of the burden, the whole responsibility that was entrusted to me by the Central Committee of the CP(b)B. The Vitebsk Underground Regional Committee of the Party provided great assistance to the operational group. He closely monitored the situation in our zone. Through his representatives, who were with us almost all the time, he promptly supervised the activities of the underground district committees, party organizations of the unit. The secretaries of the Vitebsk Regional Party Committee I. B. Poznyakov and Ya. A. Zhilyanin showed particular concern for the situation in our partisan zone. I. B. Poznyakov was often and for a long time in brigades, took a personal part in the organization and conduct of military operations. We were also assisted by the instructors of the Regional Party Committee I. T. Kititsa, A. A. Admiralov, the secretary of the underground regional committee of the Komsomol V. I. Luzgin and his instructors V. T. Radkevich, A. P. Zhavnerko and others.

I once sat at the headquarters of the task force. I thought about whether we had prepared everything for a new offensive of the enemy, whether we overlooked something. “By the way, we need to prompt Sakmarkin and Romanov so that in the event of an attack by punishers from the east, they will take care of the means of evacuating the population to the rear.”

Attention was diverted by a light scratching knock. I looked out the window: a bare twig of white birch was beating against the window pane. Spring lived in the undergrowth, in the whitish fog trembling over the islands of black arable land, in the snowy slurry of the winter roads destroyed by the warmth and sun, in the lively fuss of sparrows, in the thoughtful slumber of the nearby forest. If it were possible to adjust the spring so that the Nazis would not be able to poke their heads in with equipment through the spring thaw and off-road!

There was a knock on the door. This is Dmitry Alekseevich Frolov.

New intelligence?

Yes. A revival was noticed in the garrisons along the railroad from Krulevshchina to Polotsk.

The nature of the recovery?

Captain Frolov, an experienced, thoughtful commander, who has studied the habits of the enemy well, has done a lot to improve the intelligence service, answers clearly and confidently:

The enemy is building up his strength here too. At the stations of Zyabki, Prozoroki, Kulgay, Stelmakhovo, the former garrisons were replaced by military unit number 573.

Where is this part from?

From Narva. Equipment and manpower continue to arrive in the garrisons of Zyabki, Prozoroki, Kulgai. The unit is armed with four forty-five-millimeter guns, one howitzer, two medium tanks and an armored vehicle. The German command also strengthens the garrisons near Vetrin. Tyabut knows about it.

What Captain Frolov said confirmed the previous intelligence reports of the brigades. There was no doubt that the enemy had a firm intention in the very near future to blockade the partisan zone with forces that neither we nor other partisan formations had to deal with.

As always after receiving new intelligence information, I gathered the commanders of the task force to exchange views, discuss the situation, and outline solutions. Captain Frolov described the situation at the borders of the partisan zone:

Polotsk region. The numbers of military units, their strength is becoming increasingly difficult to establish. However, the picture for us here is clear. There is an intensive preparation for military operations against the partisans. The enemy continues to fortify the right bank of the Western Dvina, building bunkers, trenches, dugouts. Work is underway to restore the Polotsk-Indra railway destroyed by partisans. The railway battalion (field post 06 313), which works here, is ethnically diverse, only the Germans have weapons. Defensive fortifications are being built on both sides of the canvas. The enemy intends to use the restored road not only in the interests of the front, but also for the transfer of troops and military cargo to the borders of the partisan zone.

Is there any new information about the redeployment of enemy troops in the Polotsk region?

Yes, I have. A suspicious movement of enemy troops from east to west has been noticed. For example, a military unit left the villages of Kupnino and Gorovye in the direction of Polotsk (field mail 10 236). A military unit (field mail 30 278-C) from the village of Zaborye and a military unit (field mail 23 349) from the village of Glinno were relocated in the same direction. In recent days, military units have arrived in Polotsk from near Vitebsk. The concentration of enemy troops in the Polotsk area is accompanied by the supply of ammunition here. In a number of places, ammunition is stacked and camouflaged. The enemy created large warehouses of artillery shells in the village of Bolshie Lezhni.

Dmitry Alekseevich spoke about the difficulties of conducting reconnaissance associated with the increased movement of enemy units in recent times. Some of them arrived in the villages for a short rest, stood for two or three days and then again headed towards the front. Others lingered longer, others did not stop at all. In this chaos of movement of people, equipment, all kinds of military cargo, and with them the loot, it was necessary to catch the intentions of the enemy, to distinguish the military units sent against the partisans from all the others.

The scouts learned to recognize the Nazi units intended for the fight against the partisans by various signs, including the signs on cars and trucks. A goat was painted on the wing of the cars of one of the military units in the northern direction, the sides of the trucks of the same unit had an eagle and a yellow triangle. With the help of these and other data, it was established that the 156th reserve battalion, the 156th engineer battalion, the 640th infantry regiment of the 281st security division, the 168th infantry regiment of the 82nd infantry divisions, parts of the 56th Infantry Division.

A large concentration of enemy troops was noted in the Lepel area. The number of the city garrison reached 2 thousand soldiers and officers. In Lepel was the headquarters of the German division and the headquarters of the brigade of the traitor Kaminsky. The main enemy forces were located in the former military town and on the outskirts of the city, especially in the southeastern part. In the very center of the city, soldiers of the enemy army occupied the buildings of the former ten-year school, a teacher training school, a nursery and an orphanage, and the district executive committee.

Almost at all intersections of streets were built bunkers with a circular sector of fire. The city was surrounded by barbed wire. About a hundred meters behind the wire were bunkers. They were connected by trenches. In the garrisons along the highway between Lepel and Bocheykovo, units of the 201st Security Division, commanded by Major General Jacobi, were stationed. The division headquarters was in Kamen. Here was the headquarters of the 601st regiment, which was part of the division, commanded by Colonel Gena. Major Kruse was his deputy. The battalions of the regiment were stationed in the surrounding villages. Each battalion consisted of four companies, the number of companies - about 100 people in each. The company was armed with about 7 light, 2-3 heavy machine guns, 4 company mortars. Each company had 6 guard dogs. It was also possible to establish the age of the personnel of the regiment. Soldiers born in 1905 and older served in it.

The 201st Security Division was part of the 7th Army (commanded by General Ainen), whose headquarters was in Vilnius. The division was transferred to the Lepel region from Polotsk and Drissa back in January 1944 to protect communications. Recently, however, scouts began to notice that the division received another task. For the personal use of the division commander, Major General Jacobi, an aircraft was allocated, on which he repeatedly flew to inspect the partisan zone from the air. The garrisons in which units of the 201st security division were stationed were replenished with manpower and weapons. Only in Kamen in early April there were three 76-mm cannons, 5 battalion mortars, 5 heavy machine guns, 15 light and heavy machine guns. A dense network of bunkers, trenches, wire fences surrounded the garrison. Church Hill, which dominated the area, was especially strongly fortified. Here were all the guns, mortars, heavy machine guns.

Artillery units arrived in other garrisons in late March - early April. Unfortunately, their numbers, number and caliber of guns in the first ten days of April have not yet been established.

A number of other signs (the strengthening of smaller garrisons, the construction of a new wooden bridge in Bocheykovo, the acceleration of defensive work along the Lepel-Kamen road with the use of explosives) indicated that the enemy was in a hurry. We were very annoyed that our scouts could not penetrate the garrisons along the Lepel - Berezino - Dokshitsy road: there were no local residents - our faithful assistants - there. Nevertheless, the approximate number of the enemy, the weapons and the nature of the fortifications were known to us. In the south and south-west of the zone, in addition to the regiments of the traitor Kaminsky, units of the 6th airfield division, the 95th and 195th infantry divisions, the 501st tank battalion, the 2nd, 12th and 24th SS police regiments, and the special battalion of Dirlewanger were concentrated and some other divisions.

Parts of the 52nd reserve infantry division, two Latvian bourgeois-nationalist formations, the 26th regiment, and separate units guarding the Polotsk-Molodechno railway were brought to the western sector. Among the garrisons of the western section of the zone, the Dokshitsy garrison was the most numerous. Up to two thousand Nazis from the 52nd Reserve Infantry Division were stationed here.

The fascist German troops were concentrated around the Polotsk-Lepel zone in seven sectors. Their total number was more than 60 thousand people. Military units, security and SS units were given 137 tanks, 235 guns, up to 70 aircraft located at the airfields of Polotsk, Ulla, Beshenkovichi, Berezino, two armored trains (one at the Zagatya station, the second ran between the Zyabki - Prozoroki stations).

This whole "armada" was given the task of crushing the partisans in a short time. By this time, there were 17,485 people in the partisan brigades of the Polotsk-Lepel zone. On April 1, the partisans were armed with 9344 rifles, 1544 machine guns, 626 light and 97 heavy machine guns, 151 anti-tank rifles, 143 mortars, 16 45-millimeter guns and 5 76-mm guns with such a meager supply of artillery shells that they were enough for just for several days of fighting.

The total length of the defensive structures of the partisans was more than 230 kilometers. Sections of individual partisan brigades, for example, Lepelskaya, named after V.I. Chapaev, “For Soviet Belarus”, 1st Anti-Fascist, named after K.E. Voroshilov, named after P.K. Ponomarenko, were stretched for 25–30 kilometers.

By April 10, 1944, the defensive lines of the partisans were the main and intermediate lines of defense to a depth of 15-20 kilometers. Particularly carefully thought out and equipped were nodes of resistance in the areas of partisan brigades named after S. M. Korotkin, named after P. K. Ponomarenko, Lepelskaya, "For Soviet Belarus", named after V. I. Lenin (commander N. A. Sakmarkin), named after K. E. Voroshilov, named after the Komsomol, the Smolensk regiment of I. F. Sadchikov, the Alexei brigade. The defensive positions of these brigades were a system of trenches and mined fields, and on tactically advantageous lines for the enemy - bunkers. Approaches to the partisan zone by April were destroyed even more thoroughly than before: bridges were destroyed, detours were filled up and mined, roads were dug up, blockages were made on forest roads. On the tank-hazardous directions, gouges, scarps, counter-scarps were built, deep ditches were dug, convenient, well-camouflaged positions were equipped for crews of anti-tank rifles and enemy tank destroyers with anti-tank grenades. Each platoon trained three daredevils - tank destroyers. For them, carefully camouflaged firing points were equipped 300-400 meters ahead of the combat formations of the partisans. In the construction of nodes of resistance, natural obstacles were skillfully used: rivers, systems of lakes and swamps, steep slopes and forests.

The experience of previous battles convinced us that poorly camouflaged bunkers are a good target for enemy artillery and mortars. Therefore, we abandoned their construction, replacing them with well-camouflaged full-profile trenches with ceilings. Bunkers were left only on the slopes of heights, special attention was paid to camouflage.

In the preparation of defensive fortifications, there were some omissions. So, in the brigade commanded by A. D. Medvedev, on the whole, the well-equipped first and second lines of defense had a significant drawback: they all faced the front in only one direction - to the south-west, the Gornovo road leading deep into the zone was not destroyed - Bortnevichi, the features of the wooded and swampy terrain were not fully used to equip advantageous positions. The command of the brigade did not fully strengthen the joints with the neighbors. In the Oktyabr brigade, they limited themselves to equipping strongholds near the villages of Vitovka, Nakol, Zuynitsa, Gloty, Olkhovka. The distance between them was significant, so the interaction of strong points was difficult. Much had been corrected even before the offensive of the invaders, something had to be completed during the fighting.

On the territory of the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone, enemy reconnaissance of all types intensified its operations: undercover, combat, aviation. Most of the spies who were sent into the zone under the guise of refugees who had suffered from the Germans and fled from the prison camps, we promptly exposed and neutralized. Military reconnaissance was aimed at establishing the combat formations of partisan units, their grouping, clarifying the approaches to the defense line, the location of firing points, and, as a rule, was carried out immediately before the battle. We responded with cunning for cunning: we transferred firing points to false positions. It was more difficult with enemy air reconnaissance, which had aerial photography facilities. In some directions, she managed to establish the outlines of the line of defense, in some places to find out the nature of our fortifications. But even here everything possible was done to confuse the enemy. We camouflaged defensive lines, built false positions.

According to the former chief of staff of the 3rd German Panzer Army, Otto Heidkemper, the fascist German command aimed, by encircling and destroying partisan formations, to liberate the territories they occupied. In the period from April 11 to April 17, during Operation Downpour (Regenschauer), the punishers were supposed to push the partisans back to the western part of the zone. After that, during the operation, code-named “Spring Festival” (“Frühlingsfest”), forces that were not put into action until further notice, including the von Gottberg group, were supposed to complete the encirclement of the partisans. The general leadership of the punitive expedition was entrusted to the commander of the 3rd Panzer Army, Colonel-General Reinhardt and SS Gruppenführer von Gottberg, the head of the failed punitive operation Cottbus.

Geidkemper writes very sparingly about the details of the plan for the punitive expedition. We knew that it was planned to be carried out in four stages. At the first, the Nazis had the task of breaking into the defenses of the partisans, capturing the left bank of the Western Dvina and capturing the partisan region near the Dvina. After that, a methodical offensive from all sides was planned to force the partisans out of the forests, deprive them of maneuverability, and exterminate them in positional battles.

At the second stage, great hopes were placed on artillery, aviation, and tanks. The fascist German command was sure that as soon as the partisans were forced out of the forest, under the pressure of technology, they would run without looking back, because they had nothing to oppose to the German artillery, aircraft and tanks.

In the north-west of the zone, a strong barrier was set up as part of the 15th Infantry Division, a special SS regiment, and the 26th police regiment. These forces, supported by armored trains, were supposed to complete the defeat of the partisans as they approached the highway. Having pressed the partisans to the railroad in the Zagatje-Prozoroki section, arranging here, as one of the captured Nazis put it, a "meat grinder", the invaders at the third stage hoped to completely destroy the partisan formations.

The fourth stage coincided in time with the three previous ones and consisted in robbing, exterminating and turning civilians into slaves.

It was assumed that the entire operation would take no more than 8-10 days. Before the full spring thaw, everything had to be finished.

The clouds over the Polotsk-Lepel Territory were thickening more and more.

On the very eve of the punitive offensive, an alarming message about the events in Brest land came to our zone. On April 3, in the area of ​​​​Ivanov, Drogichin, Bereza, Bronnaya Gora and Ivatsevichi, large forces of enemy infantry, reinforced with tanks, aircraft and other equipment, attacked the battle formations of the F. E. Dzerzhinsky partisan brigade. The Patriots held firm. They attacked the enemy from the rear, inflicted unexpected blows on the accumulation of fascists, their convoys. Only on the third day did the Nazis manage to penetrate the partisan defenses.

The command of the Brest partisan formation (S. I. Sikorsky) from the very beginning formed a circular defense, taking under the protection of about ten thousand inhabitants from the Aptopol, Kobrinsky, Berezovsky, Kossovsky, Drogichinsky and Yanovsky regions. And when the Nazis tried to attack partisan positions from the north, they were rebuffed. The partisans themselves repeatedly went over to the offensive, inflicting significant losses on the enemy.

For 17 days and nights, the partisans of the Brest formation fought with the punishers. Thanks to the help with ammunition and everything necessary, which was provided by the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement, the patriots passed this severe test.

It was smooth on paper...

This happened a few days before the start of the punitive expedition. A group of scouts from the V. I. Chapaev detachment of the V. I. Lenin partisan brigade (brigade commander N. A. Sakmarkin), led by N. V. Vorozov, penetrated the location of the 56th Infantry Division with the task of reconnaissance of the depth of the enemy garrisons. At the old highway, the scouts disguised themselves. They began to observe. Three hundred meters away, behind the fork in the road, there were cars, trailers, vans. A little to the side, under a pine tree, a field kitchen smoked. Soldiers fussed between the cars, they unwound coils, pulled the wire. A short officer was running near the soldiers, nervously gesticulating, shouting something, but his voice was not heard. The officer only interfered with the soldiers. They were in a hurry, they were also nervous, they quarreled with each other, they pushed each other, and their work did not go well because of this even more. The partisans looked at each other: it turns out that even the notorious German pedantry does not protect against the regularity so well known to all students - lack of time before exams. The Nazis clearly did not manage to complete the preparatory work before the offensive. The scouts were tempted to interfere at the last moment with the preparations of the enemy: nevertheless, something would remain unfinished.

They came back to this thought after completing the task. We decided to set up an ambush. There were no signalmen at this place, but it was not long to wait. Soon a column of Nazis appeared on the road. They let us in about fifteen meters and opened fire from all types of weapons. The fight was short-lived: whoever was not overtaken by bullets, he fled, not even trying to resist. Scouts knew from experience that it was very difficult to determine the strength of a well-organized ambush in a hurry. It is even more difficult for those who have been attacked to accept the order of battle. 35 enemy corpses remained after the battle on the old forest highway. The partisans returned home unharmed. A corresponding entry was made in the file of the V.I. Chapaev detachment. It ended with a brief traditional phrase about the most distinguished. Among them were: N. V. Vorozov, G. G. Kireev, I. I. Yakovlev.

On April 9, partisans of the V. I. Lenin brigade (brigade commander N. A. Sakmarkin) captured two soldiers from one of the units of the 56th Infantry Division. On the same days, scouts of the regiment I.F. Sadchikov brought a Nazi from the Vetrino garrison. "Tongues" confirmed the assumptions of the scouts that the punitive expedition should begin any day.

The morning of April 11 broke over the earth with a ruddy dawn, the call of village roosters, a bluish haze of fog over the melting snow. The partisan sentries were on their guard. They peered vigilantly into the hazy distance, where the April thawed patches turned black and the edge of the sky merged with undersized thickets of alder and vines.

When the first artillery salvos sounded at the location of the enemy troops and shells howled through the air, the partisans thought with alarm about the danger hanging over them. But they did not think more about themselves: behind them were hundreds of villages, where tens of thousands of peaceful people lived.

Explosions of shells mixed snow and mud. The fire grew from minute to minute. In the defense zone of the partisan brigade, N.A. Sakmarkin rumbled, moaned and trembled for about an hour. Then a battle ensued with the advanced units of the 56th German Infantry Division, which had gone on the offensive. The fight was fierce from the very beginning. A particularly tense situation developed near the villages of Krasnoye, Lyakhovo, and Zaluzhene. Having concentrated a lot of infantry with 35 tanks, artillery, bombers on a relatively narrow sector, the enemy launched four attacks one after another.

The partisans of the V. I. Lenin Brigade held firm, although the superiority of the enemy forces was enormous. The good hardening of the personnel of the units, the skill of the commanders, and the high morale of the partisans played their role.

I would like to say about the role and place in the organization of partisan actions of such a figure as the brigade commander. In the conditions of the enemy rear, a lot depended on the abilities, authority, personal example of the brigade commander. In the zone of location and operation of the brigade, he was the one-man. Reviewed and approved plans for operations, resolved all other issues. It was customary for us that the orders that came from the task force, for brigades, as a rule, were not detailed. This gave the command, primarily the brigade commander, scope for taking the initiative within the framework of a common task. The brigade commander was fully responsible for the fulfillment of the tasks of the BSHPD and the task force.

The commander of the partisan brigade named after V. I. Lenin, N. A. Sakmarkin, who began partisan activity in August 1941, perfectly coped with his duties. Together with the former secretary of the Sirotinsky district party committee S. M. Korotkin and other patriots, he took part in organizing the partisan movement in the territory between Vitebsk, Polotsk and Lepel. In the summer of 1942, a partisan brigade was already operating here. It was headed by a remarkable partisan leader Semyon Mikhailovich Korotkin (died in a plane crash in 1942). He was replaced by N. A. Sakmarkin. Subsequently, the brigade was divided into two: named after S. M. Korotkin (commander V. E. Talakvadze) and named after V. I. Lenin. The second brigade was headed by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Sakmarkin. Possessing organizational skills, having a solid experience of fighting behind enemy lines, he showed himself to be an outstanding partisan leader, a militarily competent commander. I especially appreciated his personal discipline, exactingness towards himself and his subordinates. The routine introduced in the subdivisions of the brigade, the systematic increase in combat skills by the personnel were strictly carried out. N. A. Sakmarkin was resolute, bold and at the same time reasonably courageous in battle, he was well versed in the most difficult situations, he never got lost. All this was very useful in battles with punishers.

The defensive lines of the Brigade named after V.I. Lenip stretched along the front for 33 kilometers. There were an average of 52 partisans per kilometer of defense. The brigade commander was always on the front line, appearing where it was especially difficult. On the afternoon of April 11, the situation near the village of Krasnoye, on the site of the detachment named after A.V. Suvorov, became more complicated. Upon learning of this, Sakmarkin hurried there. The numerical superiority of the enemy under Red was very significant. Assessing the situation, the brigade commander ordered, while continuing to repulse enemy attacks, at the same time to put into action on the flanks mobile groups of submachine gunners.

The tension of the battle grew. When it became the limit, tanks appeared in front of the partisan positions. Threatening coverage from left and right, they crawled closer and closer in clouds of smoke, growing into ominous hulks, drowning out the roar of engines, the clang of caterpillars, the crackle of machine guns and machine guns, the pops of shots from anti-tank rifles. When the tanks were already crawling into the trenches in cast-iron gray shadows, the shadows of the soldiers became visible in the smoky haze. Unexpectedly for everyone, the lead tank suddenly twitched and stopped about seven meters from the trench. His right side turned red, the fire spread over the armor - the tank was on fire. A cry of delight broke out from the partisans, there was a loud "Hurrah!" The punishers lay down behind the set fire to the tank and, moving back, snarled with automatic bursts.

Sakmarkin ordered the orderly to find out who set fire to the tank. He did not have time to move away, as there was a strong explosion from the left. The brigade commander looked in that direction through binoculars: an enemy tank had hit a minefield. Its tower was motionless, but fired from cannon and machine guns.

Meanwhile cast-iron shadows continued to creep out of the mist. The roar of their cannons seemed to drown out all sounds on earth. Explosions of shells in front of and behind the trenches worsened visibility. It was impossible to continue to remain in the trenches. And so many partisans died: platoon commander Efim Smirnov, fighters Stepan Galuzo, Philip Egorov, Vasily Kotlyarov, brigade chief of staff Alexander Izofatov and several other fighters were seriously wounded. “We need to keep our strength. We will still fight, ”the brigade commander thought and gave the order to withdraw the detachment to the reserve line.

Other detachments of the brigade named after V. I. Lenin also fought stubbornly. The numerical superiority and the actions of enemy equipment everywhere created very difficult situations. In a number of places, enemy tanks managed to crawl over partisan trenches. But the punitive infantry still failed to capture the fortifications. More than once, in the fire and smoke, a powerful “Hurrah!” was heard. and the chains of the enemy rolled back. At the turn near the village of Lyakhovo, a group of fighters led by the chief of staff of the K. E. Voroshilov detachment, P. D. Puzikov, steadfastly repulsed the attacks of enemy tanks.

The armor-piercer V. M. Feduro during one of the enemy attacks destroyed three Nazis, was wounded in the arm, but did not leave the front line. During the third attack, a brave partisan knocked out an enemy tank with an anti-tank rifle. Feduro did not leave the position after the second wound.

The first day of fighting during the period of a new enemy offensive was reflected in the six-volume History of the Great Patriotic War: “In battles with punishers, the partisans showed exceptional stamina and selflessness. The immortal feat was accomplished by armor-piercing partisans V. A. Volkov, V. M. Feduro, D. P. Khakhel, V. P. Khakhel, I. S. Khakhel, S. N. Korzhakov and I. V. Chernyshev from the V. I. Lenin during the fighting in the Polotsk-Lepel partisan region in April 1944. Defending the areas assigned to them, they several times allowed enemy tanks to reach 30–40 meters and shot them point-blank with anti-tank rifles. When the cartridges ran out, fearless patriots rushed under the tanks with bundles of grenades.

The fascist German command hoped to destroy the partisan defensive lines between the lakes Berezovoye, Tetcha, Yanovo and Zapadnaya Dvina with a strong blow on the right flank of the V. I. Lenin Brigade and to seize the Dvina left bank with a swift rush in the direction of Polotsk. In the evening and April, the advanced German units sought to reach the region of the large forests near the Dvina - Stralitsa. However, by the end of the day, the partisans occupied the line of Berezovo - Shishchino - Prudy - Glinniki - Adelino - their second defensive line. On the night of April 12, the command of the V. I. Lenin Brigade sent demolition men to the rear of the enemy, sabotage groups that mined the roads attacked the Nazis from ambushes.

Strong resistance was offered to the enemy by the right neighbor of the brigade named after V.I. Lenin - the partisans of the brigade "For Soviet Belarus". On the defense sector of the V. I. Chapaev detachment, the Nazis launched an offensive at 7 o'clock in the morning in the direction of the villages of Usai, Dubrovka, Yagodki. The chains of infantry were accompanied by four tanks. In the battle, which lasted about three hours, the partisans inflicted serious damage on the invaders. The German battalion advancing here lost up to 50 people killed and wounded and one tank. By 10 o'clock in the morning, under the onslaught of a numerically superior enemy, the partisans retreated to the line of the villages of Podlipki - Malinovka, which is a few kilometers from the first line of defense.

The calm was short-lived. Pulling up fresh forces, the enemy launched an offensive against the village of Podlipki. It was an even tougher fight. Instead of a battalion, the detachment repulsed the onslaught of a whole regiment, instead of four tanks - ten, artillery and mortar fire became more dense.

The guerrillas lost one by one their comrades, but held on. Nobody thought about leaving. Houses and even trees burned, the sky and earth rumbled, the broken lines of the trenches and the surroundings were poorly visible in the smoke of explosions and fire.

Partisan girls also participated in this battle. One of them is medical instructor Lena Moiseeva. She joined the partisan detachment in 1942. In the file of the partisan brigade "For Soviet Belarus" about the sanitary instructor from the V.I. Chapaev detachment Lena Moiseeva, a laconic, but much-talking entry has been preserved: "She provided assistance to the wounded in battles." Can these words really express the complexity of the work of a partisan medic! In a fleeting fight, you can’t always guess where your friends are and where your enemies are, it’s not always possible to provide timely assistance to the wounded, to take him out of the danger zone. The battle is mobile, the line of contact with the enemy is unstable. Try to find your bearings in such an environment! But you can’t make mistakes, they pay with their lives for mistakes.

Lena was well versed in the ups and downs of both night and day combat. She, like many of her friends, was not limited to the duties of a nurse. In difficult moments, the girl strove to where it was most dangerous, and there the situation often required direct participation in the battle with a weapon in her hands. And Lena took a carbine in her hands more than once. It happened this time as well. The explosion of the projectile disabled the calculation of the easel machine gun. Lena carried out three wounded under bullets. I bandaged her, sent her to the hospital, and she returned to the line of fire. Here she noticed that another of the heavy machine guns fell silent. Something happened. Creeped. Bullets whizzing overhead pinned her to the ground. She waited and moved on. Here is the machine gun. She raised herself on her hands and saw that all three machine gunners were motionless. In turn, I checked the pulse of one, the second, the third. No signs of life. It remained only to save "Maxim". It’s not a girl’s business to pull a heavy machine gun from the battlefield. But Lena didn't hesitate. In some places the machine gun clung to something. Lena made incredible efforts to free him, and she crawled and crawled. Soon the rescued "Maxim" was again in service, his fire mowed down enemy chains.

It was not easy on April 11 for the detachment named after S. G. Lazo of the brigade "For Soviet Belarus". Having begun the offensive at 8 o'clock in the morning, the enemy directed his main blow to the left flank of the detachment, where the first platoon was stationed. Three attacks, which turned into hand-to-hand combat, were repulsed. The partisans threw grenades at the chains of advancing enemies. Armor-piercer Patapkov knocked out a tank with an anti-tank rifle. The reflection of the fourth attack was led by the chief of staff of the detachment V. N. Vinokurov. Having allowed the Nazis to close range, he ordered the submachine gunners to open fire and he himself began to shoot the punishers point-blank. Four invaders fell dead from his well-aimed shots. At the decisive moment, the chief of staff raised the fighters in a counterattack, pulled ahead, but fell, struck down by an enemy bullet.

Platoon commander Yershov and political instructor Maminchenko fought desperately in this battle. The political officer was seriously wounded. Privates Pesotsky, Ilyichenko, Simonenko and many others on this memorable day destroyed five to ten fascists. And yet the punishers managed to break into the partisan trenches. There, the brutalized Nazis came across the corpse of a partisan fighter and, in a rage, began to stab him with bayonets. A partisan machine gunner who was not far away opened fire on the barbarians crowded around the body of the slain ...

On April 11, a reconnaissance officer of the N. A. Shchors detachment (the detachment held the defense near the village of Susha) D. A. Piskunov committed a courageous act. Here is how he is described in the case of the partisan brigade “For Soviet Belarus”: “While on patrol, Piskunov and two of his comrades noticed a chain of Nazis. The chain approached the village of Batukolovo in a semicircle, where the patrol was located. “Let's take the fight,” the partisan heroes decided and lay down with machine guns. Three against forty ... In an unequal battle, two died. Piskunov was left alone. Seriously wounded, he did not let go of the machine gun. Fifteen fascists shot at close range, but he himself lost consciousness. Furious fascists rushed to the almost helpless partisan. The hero opened his head, overcame himself, got to his feet and shot two more soldiers with shots. When Piskunov saw an officer in front of him, he gathered his last strength, hit him in the face with a backhand and fell himself. The Nazis in a rage burned Piskunov alive. He died a heroic death, as befits a Soviet patriot. His memory will live on for a long time."

The calculations of the fascist German command to penetrate deeply into the partisan defense were also thwarted in the defense sector of the brigade "For Soviet Belarus".

And in April, from the side of Polotsk, the partisan regiment of I.F. Sadchikov went on the offensive with tanks and artillery of part of the 252nd German division. The attackers were always supported from the air by aviation. Under the cover of strong artillery and mortar fire, a company of the Nazis tried to approach the village of Ulishche, but was surrounded by one of the regiment's detachments. The result of the battle - 44 killed and wounded, 6 prisoners of the Nazis. The rest fled in the direction of Vetrin.

On the first day of fighting, the partisan units had to meet with a numerically superior, heavily armed enemy. Thanks to the boundless courage and exceptional steadfastness of the patriots, the fascist German command failed to take the initiative in hostilities into its own hands. At the cost of heavy losses, the Nazis occupied only certain sections of the partisan defense. This testified not to success, but to the failure of the plan for the first stage of the operation. The failure of the first day seriously puzzled the Nazis. They did not expect that, having created a numerical superiority, opposing tanks, artillery and aircraft to light small arms, they would receive such a rebuff. It was smooth on paper, but they forgot about the ravines, and walking along them ...

Days and nights

The headquarters of the task force worked around the clock. On the very first day of the fighting, I radioed the secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B P. K. Ponomarenko and the representative of the BSHPD on the 1st Baltic Front I. I. Ryzhikov that the brigades were attacked by the forces of the 56 161st Separate Infantry Regiment, supported by a large number of tanks, artillery and aircraft, and that the first attacks were repulsed. In response, he received instructions: to hold defensive lines for as long as possible, to maneuver, to use ambush attack tactics, to retreat to previously prepared positions only by order of the command. At the same time, the leadership of the BSPD reminded us of our main task - to preserve strength and protect people.

Members of the task force were sent to the battlefield. A.F. Bardadyn and I.I. Zinenko were entrusted with coordinating the actions of partisan brigades in the northeast direction. On the evening of April 11, I.I. Zinenko reported that on the left flank of the V.I. the enemy here is huge. I ordered to reinforce the left flank of the V.I. Lenin brigade with two detachments from the V.I. Chapaev brigade and at the same time move four detachments of the reserve 16th Smolensk brigade to the Sloboda Paulie line, which I. K. Alosenkov.

Unfortunately, in the history of partisan struggle, in addition to descriptions of exploits and victories, there are also pages that tell about mistakes and losses. We did not do without them. One of the failures befell the partisans on the site of the brigade named after V.I. Chapaev near the village of Batyarshchina. There were many glorious deeds on the combat account of this brigade: numerous operations to defeat enemy garrisons, effective operations on railways and highways, destruction of bridges, rescue of children from German captivity. The Chapaevs were well known in Ushachsky, Vetrinsky, Polotsk and other regions, the population provided them with all kinds of assistance. By the beginning of the April operation, the brigade was the largest in the zone. In its ranks, there were 2168 fighters and commanders, the detachments were armed with 35 mortars, two guns. The length of the defensive lines of the brigade was 35 kilometers. Its combat formations were in close proximity to the front line, and, naturally, the German command threw significant forces into this sector. The advancing units of the 56th Infantry Division were given medium and heavy tanks and self-propelled guns. Of course, it was not easy to resist such a force. In addition, the command of the brigade named after V. I. Chapaev failed to make the best use of anti-tank and other means to repel the onslaught of the pressing German units.

Having captured the village of Batyarshchina, one group of enemy troops moved in the direction of the settlements of Vasilevichi, Peredovoi, Prudok and occupied them. Another group of Nazis from Batyarshchina headed along the highway parallel to the Western Dvina River. The villages of Usvitsa-1, Glybochka, Antunovo, Kiseli were occupied. Following this, Bogoroditskoye fell, where the brigade headquarters used to be. The threat of encirclement at the bend of the Western Dvina loomed over the detachments. The only way out of this situation was to withdraw the detachments to the defensive line near the town of Gomel. The partisans were forced to leave the forest. In the future, at the cost of heavy losses, the enemy managed to occupy the settlements of Doletsky and Zashchaty.

Heavy fighting continued to be carried out by detachments of the partisan brigade named after V.I. Lenin (brigade commander N.A. Sakmarkin). On April 12, they courageously repulsed the attacks of enemy tanks and infantry. The positions of the partisans were continuously shelled and bombed by 12 enemy aircraft. After the capture of Batyarshchina by the Nazi troops, the brigade named after V.I. Lenin was cut into two parts. Under the threat of encirclement were the detachments, whose positions were located east of Batyarshchina. The enemy was sure that the fate of the detachments pressed to the Western Dvina was a foregone conclusion, he considered the stubborn resistance of the partisans to be meaningless. But arrogance cost the enemy dearly. The German units advancing here during the day were so exhausted by the partisans that by the evening they stopped fighting. Patriots took advantage of this. Without rest after heavy daytime fighting, carrying the wounded in their arms, they made a long transition along the route Pukanovka - White Pluses - Turzhets and avoided encirclement. During the night, making their way through deep melted snow, people walked up to 40 kilometers. And on April 13, they already fought at the turn of Yanovo - Sloboda Paulie.

While the detachments pressed against the river were exhausting the enemy and at the same time preparing for a night raid, the main forces of the V.I. Lenin Brigade fought stubborn battles with an enemy group that was trying to break into the region of large lakes. It seemed to the punishers that as soon as they forced the partisans out of the forests, the operation could be considered completed. The partisans will scatter themselves in open areas. But here, too, the Nazis miscalculated. On April 12, the main forces of the VI Lenin Brigade had to fight, so to speak, in the open. At the village of Peredovaya, located outside the forests, the partisans, together with units of the 16th Smolensk brigade, repelled several frenzied enemy attacks with the participation of tanks. The guerrillas allowed the enemy's chains to reach 50–70 meters and shot the Nazis point-blank.

Nothing came of the punishers and the capture of a bridgehead on the left bank of the Diva River. In an effort to take advantage of the peculiarities of rough terrain, on April 12 the enemy crossed this water line and occupied a convenient height. Two detachments - one from the brigade named after V.I. Lenin, the other from the 16th Smolensk - with a swift attack knocked out the Nazis from a height and threw them across the river. The enemy suffered heavy losses.

Late at night, returning from the forward positions, I called N. A. Sakmarkin. The brigade commander reported on the situation.

How are people feeling?

Combat, comrade zone commander, fighters and commanders fight like lions. I want to note the bold actions of the chief of staff of the Kurylenko detachment Bogdanov. Together with a detachment from the 16th Smolensk brigade, he poured so much into the Nazis that not all of them found their way back across the Diva River.

Does this mean that partisans are not afraid of punishers in open areas?

Don't be afraid, Comrade Colonel. Fairy tales are that we are able to act only in the forest, from ambushes and at night. Now the punishers themselves are convinced of this.

Tell me, how did the chief of staff Izofatov die?

You already know? A heavy loss ... Alexander Kuzmich was the favorite of the brigade. At headquarters, I considered him indispensable ... It happened at noon near the village of Batyarshchina. There, under the cover of tanks, the enemy infantry strongly pressed. At a tense moment in the battle, Izofatov raised the partisans in a counterattack and was mortally wounded by a shell fragment. Several more partisans fell nearby. The fire was very strong, but there was a daredevil who, even under these conditions, carried the chief of staff from the battlefield. This was done by A. L. Shalaev.

Both submit to the government award.

I've already made arrangements.

The brigade commander spoke about other feats accomplished that day - about the heroic death of the platoon commander M. E. Smolnikov, the political instructor of the platoon G. I. Skorikov, the squad leader P. V. Morozov, the fighters N. M. Kazakova, N. N. Korolev, N. N. Fedotova, N. N. Zaitsev, V. A. Sapego, M. A. Bychkov, N. P. Ivanov, who did not concede their positions to the enemy. Attaching particular importance to these kind of test battles, I instructed Sakmarkin to request from the detachments lists of especially distinguished ones and submit them to the headquarters of the operational group. Nikolai Aleksandrovich fulfilled this order, and I would like to name their names here. Here they are: M. D. Gerasimov, M. K. Afanasiev, M. F. Rudov, S. P. Romanenko, M. N. Fedotov, N. N. Nikiforov, V. M. Nikiforov, A. V. Ivanov , I. K. Trapeznikov, V. G. Kogalenok, V. F. Ivanov, E. A. Matyushenko, P. P. Tarbeev, A. F. Korzun, T. P. Gusakov, V. V. Leonov, A I. Orlov, A. I. Pukhnachev, G. T. Dashkin, I. M. Popov, G. K. Gusakov, E. I. Eletsky, A. A. Denisov, B. V. Sidorov, P. I Gavrilov, T. T. Gusakov.

Having given the brigade commander Sakmarkin the order to take up defense at the turn of Yanovo - Sloboda Paulie, I asked for operational reports, unfolded a map on the table and began to study the situation in the northeast of the zone. To tell the truth, there was little joy in it. Particularly distressing was the failure of the brigade named after V.I. Chapaev. The enemy captured the left bank of the Dvina and advanced to the line of the Diva River. In general, on the second day of the expedition, the effectiveness of hostilities for the enemy seemed to be greater. In reality, even on April 12, the advance of the fascist troops did not at all resemble a blitz operation, which the fascist German command staked on. The enemy failed to achieve highly effective ground and aircraft operations. The partisans, contrary to the calculations of the punishers, were not afraid of tanks, artillery and aircraft and quite successfully repelled their onslaught. It should also be taken into account that the occupied territory went to the enemy at the cost of heavy losses. On the main sector of the partisan brigade named after V. I. Lenin, the 56th German division did not count up to 200 soldiers and officers killed and wounded that day. The losses of punishers in other directions were also significant.

Summing up the events of the day, comprehending what happened, weighing all the pluses and minuses of the course and results of hostilities, I came to the conclusion that there is no reason to lose heart. The exceptional courage and heroism shown by the partisans in battles inspired firm confidence that in this unequal duel they would give a good lesson to the punishers. Many events of the day evoked in my soul an extraordinary feeling of pride in our partisans. For example, the 1st detachment of the 16th Smolensk brigade alone, led by the detachment commander V.P. Kuryakov and commissar V.S. Stepichev, destroyed up to 90 Nazis in a fierce battle, showing truly high skill in battle. And how the partisans of the regiment of I.F. Sadchikov fought! In this area, the Nazis also made an attempt to crush the partisan outposts and go behind the lines of the regiment’s battle formations in the area of ​​​​the village of Zaskorki, but they could not budge the partisans and retreated ...

Watchful silence behind the black panes of the windows guarded the sleepless night of the headquarters. From time to time it was broken by the rumble of distant explosions. The footsteps of a guard could be heard under the window. Behind the partition, our radio operators were awake. In the next room, Captain Zinenko bent over maps and diagrams. Here are the breaks again. And all in the northeast. Is the enemy cunning? Perhaps, just at this early morning time, enemy chains in other directions are approaching our fortifications?

I asked the telephone operators to connect me with the commander of the VLKSM brigade, I. A. Kuksenok. This brigade was located in the western direction and occupied a seven-kilometer fortified strip between the settlements of Ryabchenko and Osinovka, which is not far from the stations of Zyabki and Prozoroki. Just in this area, an enemy armored train was cruising. The Komsomol youth brigade is not numerous, there are only 340 fighters in its ranks.

Before the expedition, the partisans seriously disturbed the invaders on the Polotsk-Molodechno railway.

On April 4, at the Khvoshchevo railway crossing, the Sibiryak detachment derailed an enemy echelon. As a result of the crash, a steam locomotive and six wagons with ammunition were destroyed. On the way back, the partisans fired on the enemy company moving along the railway track, killed more than a dozen Nazis, the rest fled. On April 8, at the Borovoye crossing, the KIM detachment blew up about fifty rails. The partisans of the detachment named after S. G. Lazo near Stelmakhov knocked out a locomotive with an anti-tank rifle, partly destroyed it, partly dispersed the guards. The next day, the KIM detachment at the same Borovoye crossing blew up another 80 rails.

On the very eve of the expedition, the partisans of the Sibiryak detachment attacked the railway crossing near the Zyabki station and blew up to 50 rails. In response to this, the enemy, with a force of up to two companies, launched an offensive in the direction of the villages of Zapolye and Boyary, but, having lost more than 30 killed, retreated.

It could be expected that the occupiers, taking care of the safety of the railway line, would launch an offensive in this sector as well. In the west, however, there was no change. However, as the brigade commander reported, the partisans were not idle here.

Well done!

For tomorrow, we also prepared a gift for the Nazis. I'll let you know when we're done.

Good, act! Just look at both. Slightly that - report in any way.

Don't worry, Comrade Colonel, we'll let you know about everything important immediately.

And indeed, on April 13, Komsomol members committed a successful sabotage on the railway - they blew up an Austrian steam locomotive. This was done by the partisans of the detachment named after S. G. Lazo. On April 14 and 15, the KIM detachment blew up a nine-meter railway bridge near the village of Borovoe, and near the village of Piskunovo, demolitionists from the Mikhail Silnitsky detachment destroyed a large section of the railway track. Another four days passed, and explosions again thundered near the Kulgay station, and near the village of Yakushino, a wagon with ammunition was blown up.

The combat operations of the VLKSM brigade were a great help in conditions when battles flared up hotter in other areas. Almost daily, committing sabotage on the railway, the brigade practically paralyzed traffic on one of the enemy's most important communications. Neither "wolf pits", nor wire fences with an alarm system, nor minefields and ambushes, nor increased patrolling of the canvas - nothing could stop the partisans. The 26th Regiment, units of the 52nd Infantry Division and other fascist formations, brought up to the railway area in early April, were also unable to protect the road from partisan attacks. It was necessary to have exceptional ingenuity, nerves of steel and boundless courage in order to make their way to the railway under these conditions and commit sabotage.

The partisans knew neither sleep nor rest. The situation became more difficult. Every day it became more and more difficult. But we didn't lose heart.

Tetcha is a quiet Belarusian village. She stands on a hill. Below - a chain of lakes and a small river. To the right is Lake Berezovoe, and behind it is the village of Krasnoye. To the left of the village is a much larger lake. The locals call him from the village of Tetcha. In Sloboda Paulie, on the opposite shore of the lake, it is known as Paulskoe. In other surrounding villages - Akulino, Gorodok, Gorbatitsa - where as. In general, it is accepted here that if in a conversation the lake is called Paul, then it means that we are talking about places close to Paul. If they talk about Lake Tetcha - this is another side. The cartographers resolved the long-standing dispute amicably. On the map of Belarus it says: “Lake. Paulskoe (Tetcha)".

Let it be. In April 1944, the lake was called none other than Tetcha. On April 14–17, stubborn battles broke out here. It is enough to look at the map to understand why the Nazis were attracted by this unremarkable little village. It stands like an outpost on a narrow inter-lake isthmus. There are no other routes deep into the partisan zone nearby.

On April 12, two detachments from the 16th Smolensk brigade occupied the isthmus between the lakes. In order to block the Nazis' path, the partisans burned the bridge across the Diva River and began to fortify themselves on the lakeside heights. All night they dug trenches, equipped machine-gun nests, cells for armor-piercers, shooters.

Before the fight, as before a meeting with the unknown, anxious. Everyone thinks about his own. Thinking about the past, far and near, helps to distract. Platoon commander Vasily Smolkotin probably recalls the nightmare of enemy captivity, the faces of comrades-in-arms blackened from hunger and torture, corpses in cuvettes, automatic bursts of escort robots. From those days, I remember a sharp feeling of hunger and thirst and an unusually strong feeling of hatred for enemies. Perhaps this feeling was the strongest of all. As if it accumulated all human feelings. Nikolai Berkutov thinks about Minsk, where before the war he was going to go to enter the institute. But instead of an institute, there was a fascist dungeon, torture, then the death of his father ...

The deputy brigade commander, as never before, is concerned. A fierce battle is ahead, and Ivan Alesenkov goes over in his memory everything related to the upcoming battle. There is no brigade. Major Shlapakov is sick, he is behind the front line. Alesenkov almost physically feels the weight that has fallen on his shoulders. The brigade does not have heavy artillery weapons or even mortars. 9 heavy machine guns and 4 anti-tank rifles - that's all that can be countered to the teeth by armed punishers. In a narrow inter-lake area, the Nazis concentrated 12 tanks and 18 guns, of which 6 were Ferdinand assault guns.

It’s good, Alesenkov thinks, that the lakes are inaccessible for tanks and artillery: the ice will not withstand.

Dawn had just dawned when the first artillery shot rang across the river. A shell whined overhead and exploded somewhere behind the battle formations. Artillery preparation began. Enemy cannons of various calibers hit the hastily built partisan fortifications with both indirect fire and direct fire. The partisans of the Kurylenko Detachment, having posted observers, lay down in the trenches. When the cannonade subsided, there was a roar of engines: enemy tanks went on the offensive.

It seemed that the outcome of the battle was a foregone conclusion. But just at the moment when the tanks, and behind them the infantry, came close to the partisan fortifications, confusion occurred in the ranks of the punishers. Quite unexpectedly for the enemy, a battle broke out on his flank. These are partisans, having passed on the ice of the lake, they broke into the battle formations of the enemy. The attack faltered. Coming to their senses, the punishers tried to attack again, but also to no avail. The three-hour battle ended badly for the enemy: two assault guns knocked out by partisans remained on the battlefield, many were killed and wounded.

In the early morning of April 15, an angry enemy showered shells on the partisan defenses for about two hours. The artillery fire was even denser than the day before. The attack began under the cover of cannons and tanks placed in convenient positions. Following the example of the partisans, this time the enemy himself sent round groups across the lake.

The Kurylenko Detachment found itself in a very difficult position. But the partisans fought to the death. Armor-piercer A. A. Karpov with a partner knocked out two enemy tanks. In the other direction, almost simultaneously, two assault guns were blown up by mines. The enemy was breaking through. The thunder of direct-fire cannons, the screeching and exploding of mines, rifle-automatic and machine-gun fire, grenade explosions, the groans of the wounded - everything merged into a general deafening noise of battle.

On the same day, a hundred-mouthed rumor spread the news of the selfless deed of the partisan Ivan Sysoev. A shell fragment wounded him in the leg. Grabbing an anti-tank mine in his hands, he rushed under the tank. The feat of Sysoev inspired the partisans. They vowed to die, but not to step back, to avenge the death of a comrade. Having missed the surviving tanks, the partisans met the enemy infantry with well-aimed fire and repulsed the attack.

It was the fourth hour of the battle. The forces of the partisans were drying up. At the most tense moment, enemy fire fell on their defensive fortifications from the side of the cemetery heights. Ivan Alesenkov appeared on the most dangerous site. He lay down behind a machine gun and opened aimed fire at a group of Nazis who had broken through to the cemetery. But this was already the last effort. There was a threat of encirclement. Despite the stubbornness of the defenders, the half-ring from the side of the village and the cemetery was shrinking, the Nazis penetrated deeper and deeper, covering the battle formations of the partisans. Assessing the situation, the deputy brigade commander ordered to retreat in hollows to the forest. Following the partisans on the ice of the lake, artillery hit the beams. The detachments retreated in an organized manner to the village of Veselaya Gorka, giving the local residents the opportunity to evacuate deep into the zone.

April 17 was warm sunny weather. Snow melted, streams murmured. The buds on the trees were swollen and looked heavy, they were bursting and threatened to burst the juices of the earth. Nature revived after winter hibernation. Everything around was renewed, good, called to life. And that further increased the hatred of the partisans and all the inhabitants of the zone for the invaders and aroused the desire to expel them from their native land as soon as possible.

After the battle near Tetcha, the punishers became more cautious and prudent. Having discovered that the approaches to the front line near the village of Veselaia Gorka were mined, the enemy began methodically shelling every meter of the foreground in the morning. The artillery bombardment continued for more than an hour. Then the infantry went on the attack. A considerable force fell on the partisans - up to an infantry regiment. To raise the "morale" of the punishers, they were drugged with schnapps before the battle. The fact is that the units of the 56th Infantry Division and the 161st Infantry Regiment operating in this direction were essentially marking time. They did not fulfill the task of securing the right flank of the group advancing along the highway Cherstvyady - Sorochino - Ushachi, and thus caused great dissatisfaction with their command. Promised to the enemy soldiers almost a joyful spring walk along the rich land turned into a daily mass funeral and did not arouse any enthusiasm. The Nazi command had no choice but to cheer them up with vodka.

Drunken soldiers huddled together, yelled wildly, bawled, climbed ahead, under the fire of partisan machine guns and machine guns. The snow darkened from the sun at the front line of defense was densely strewn with the bodies of the dead and the wounded left behind. The wounded moaned, asked for help, but the survivors hurried to carry their feet. This clearly showed the disintegration of the Nazi army, which the higher officers and generals were still trying to hide from the soldiers, junior commanders, from themselves.

The battle at Vesela Gorka subsided in the afternoon. Only 6 bombers did not leave the positions of the partisans alone. They thought that the enemy would be limited to this. But after a short respite, the enemy launched a new attack.

This time, four tanks and two assault guns were thrown into the offensive. No matter how hard the enemy artillerymen tried in the morning, they failed to neutralize all the minefields. An assault gun and one tank were blown up by mines. But three tanks and one assault gun nevertheless came close to the partisan trenches. Hiding behind the tanks, the infantry went on the attack. The partisans met her with dense fire. The barrels of machine guns began to overheat, one after another they failed. The time came when the partisans had only half of their machine guns left in the line of fire.

One of the tanks came in from the left flank and opened fire along the trenches with a cannon and a machine gun. By this time, the situation had developed in such a way that remaining in the trenches was tantamount to death. The command of the brigade, in agreement with the headquarters of the operational group, decided to withdraw the detachment to a new line. But the tank that broke through threatened to cut off the escape routes. Vasily Smolkotin's platoon was ordered to cover the withdrawal of the detachment. The daredevils continued to lie in the trenches even when an enemy tank was advancing on them, threatening to crush them. Noticing that the detachment was retreating, the Nazis rushed after them. But their ardor was cooled by well-aimed rifle and machine-gun fire. Partisan "pocket artillery" - grenades completed the job. The battle at Vesela Gorka cost the punishers heavy losses.

This day was also hot in other sectors of the 16th Smolensk brigade. The 1st detachment withstood a difficult battle near the village of Gorbatitsa, which is a few kilometers from Vesela Gorka. This is evidenced by a note made by an eyewitness: “Close to the screaming Nazis, the partisans beat them at close range with rifles, machine guns, machine guns, blew them up with grenades, courageously withstanding heavy artillery and mortar fire and incessant raids by German bombers.” In battle, the platoon commander I.F. Bubnov distinguished himself. The fearless partisan destroyed up to ten Nazis. The partisan machine gunners also distinguished themselves.

After the memorable January battle of the partisans of the 16th Smolensk brigade in the villages of Krasnoe and Krasnaya Gorka, the punishers began to call it "Smolensk-Zonder" ("Smolensk Special"). The April battles raised the prestige of the brigade even higher.

It is curious that in 1943, in January and February 1944, when the Nazis hoped to easily defeat the partisans, they addressed us in leaflets only "from a position of strength." They poured threats, did not choose expressions. In April 1944, the punishers try to flirt with us: “Partisans! You are the best Russian people, for only the best can endure all the hardships of your partisan life. Come join us…”

The events of April 14–17 in the Tetcha region played an important role in changing the form and tone of the appeal to us by the fascist invaders. It was a recognition of our strength and our own weakness. The rebuff to the punitive forces in the northeastern direction also had a direct military-operational significance: the enemy stopped the offensive here.

On April 18, I.K. Alesenkov, deputy commander of the 16th Smolensk brigade, and I examined new positions on the line of the villages of Polovinniki - Aksyuty - Gorovatka - Novy and Stary Rog.

But still, our punishing guys did a great job of beating, - Ivan Kuzmich said with sparkling eyes.

It looks like they won't show up here for the time being, or maybe not at all. This is a victory, and a big one. But after all, she got it in a fierce battle, obtained with considerable blood.

Well, our losses cannot be compared with the losses of the Nazis, Comrade Colonel.

I'm not talking about that. You write sparingly about heroes - that's what I wanted to say. I heard that machine gunner V.P. Aleinikov distinguished himself in battle. What feat he accomplished is unknown.

That's right, we had a problem with this. We don't make it, no time. Do you want to know how the machine gunner Aleinikov distinguished himself? He covered the withdrawal of the detachment. The punishers tried to intercept the fourth detachment on the withdrawal routes, and if not for Aleinikov, it would have been difficult for him. With well-aimed fire, Aleinikov detained the Nazis, laid them down and pressed them to the ground. The detachment made a maneuver and broke away from the pressing enemy. Enemy gunners spotted a machine-gun point and opened fire on it. The shells fell thickly, but did not hit the target. The gun was silent. When the Nazis rose, Aleinikov opened fire again. He put a lot of Nazis there.

Whole?

Followed the order and safely departed.

For this twice well done. This is how it should be reported.

I agree, Comrade Colonel. But there are many heroes, but no one wants to write.

What does "no one wants" mean?

You understood me wrong. During the fighting, everyone is rushing to the front line. And people, you know, are few.

And yet, one should not get off with the word "distinguished". Now you have a break, so write.

Let's do it. It is necessary, perhaps, to tell in more detail about the machine gunner N. Ya. Paus. Amazing endurance man. You see, the punishers are nearby, but he does not shoot. He will let me in at 15–20 meters, and how he will open fire at point-blank range. Killed many Nazis. And in the fifth detachment, the fighters P. N. Krasovsky and I. G. Kalugin knocked out a tank. They also deserve an award.

And what, "tank fear" has passed?

Gone! They learned to repulse tanks like that, that enemy tankers no longer climb ahead, they are careful.

The new line of defense of the 16th Smolensk partisan brigade was located in a kind of triangle between the lakes of Yanovo, Tetcha, Cherstvyadskoye. This is just in the center of that very original figure, which on the map resembles a wedge of cranes flying to the north-west, a little to the left of Polotsk. Among the Ushachi lakes, these are the largest. They have a significant impact on the climate of the surrounding area. When it gets cold in the summer, it draws warmth from the lakes. But on warm spring days, they breathe damp cold air for a long time. Here, spring comes later than in other places.

The mood of the partisans was cheerful, even upbeat. They were proud of their military deeds and were ready to continue the unequal struggle. Jokes and laughter were heard here and there. In one of the groups of partisans there was a conversation about the fish wealth of the local lakes. The mustachioed partisan mercilessly smoked self-garden and spoke with dignity and great knowledge of the matter:

Fish - she is also educated, she will not live anywhere, she is looking for places that are more satisfying and quieter. Take Cherstvyadskoye Lake, the largest among the local ones. Why does crucian carp, carp, roach, pike and even burbot love him? Because the water in the lake is warm, gentle and there is more than enough food for fish. Satisfaction, frankly, you will not find better. There is something to pamper both pike and crucian carp. In summer, how reeds and reeds grow along the coast and around the islands - a wonderful marvel. Below, under water, there are whole underwater meadows, in which fish fatten. Crucian and shroud indulge in plankton, and pike hunts for small fish. One thing is wrong. In frosty winters, there is little air in the lake, and the fish suffocate. In the first military winter, in the forty-second, as she poured into the rivers, to the ice holes. What they didn’t get her with - and sacks, and sieves, and perforated old buckets! They were carting.

The fighters sit and listen to their older comrade, and it seems that there is no more important concern for them than the problem of saving fish in severe winters in Lake Cherstvyadskoe.

And in Paulskoe why there are no zamors? It's also shallow, - asks a young partisan with fluff on his upper lip not yet touched by a razor.

The narrator doesn't answer right away. He squints his right eye, takes three deep puffs, and, making sure that no one is able to answer such a serious question, he says in a professorial manner:

The Diva River flows through Paulskoe Lake, as well as through Beryozovoe Lake. It flows in near the Tetcha, flows out in the northern part and runs further, into Lake Yanovskoe. The river almost never freezes. That is why it always, like a pump, supplies fresh air to the lakes.

Oxygen, someone adds.

Exactly, - the narrator agrees and reaches into his pocket for a pouch.

And for a long time the partisans continue to talk about the problem of improving the climate in the shallow lakes of the Ushachyna region, expressing considerations about artificially forcing fresh air into them. It seems that people have forgotten where, in what environment they are. In reality, this conversation, like hundreds of others like it, was the outlet that helped, at least for a short time, to distract from the spectacle of death and destruction, from the hardships of war, to get in touch with the ordinary peaceful life for which the partisans fought and died.

Wherever we were, in any company, in any platoon and department, we met such a ringleader, an interesting storyteller or a mischievous joker-joker - in a word, partisan Vasily Terkin, without whom it is difficult to while away free minutes. And what was not discussed at the halts, in respite between battles!

When meeting with the command staff, the partisans were mainly interested in two questions: how with ammunition and what is the situation in the sectors of other brigades. Thanks to the attention and help of the command of the 1st Baltic Front and the BShPD representation on this front, we significantly replenished our stocks of cartridges, mines and other ammunition. Most of the partisan airfields were still in operation. As for the situation on the defensive lines, by the end of the second decade of April, after the failure of an attempt to cut the partisan zone along the Ulla - Ushachi - Kublichi line, the enemy left the northeastern sector alone and began to hastily prepare for an offensive in other directions.

Baturinsky bridge

On the muddy spring road, a horseman raced at full speed. The horse was tired and sweaty from the fast run, but the rider urged on. In the villages through which he flew in a whirlwind, without stopping, crowds gathered, anxious glances followed the flashed cavalryman and turned around in the direction from which he was riding. From the artillery cannonade, it was possible to understand that somewhere there, in the forests, a fierce battle was flaring up.

The messenger galloped up to the headquarters of the operational group at the flax mill near Ushachi, tied his horse to the fence and, running up the steps of the porch, slammed the door.

Allow me to report, - he turned to Captain I. I. Zinenko, - an urgent package from the headquarters of the brigade named after V. I. Lenin.

Began? - asked the captain, accepting the package.

That's right, Comrade Captain, it's begun. Such strength is rushing - horror.

Calmly. The forces of the punishers in all directions are considerable. However, we beat them.

If only there was one gun. And then there is nothing to answer. Fire is the strongest.

Wait a minute, - Captain I. I. Zinenko ran through the report with his eyes.

Can I see the commander?

He is not at headquarters, but should be soon. Can you tell me the details in order?

Certainly. I've just come from the front.

I'm listening to.

On the Berezina, about one and a half kilometers from the Baturinsky bridge, the enemy is preparing rafts and other watercraft. By all appearances, he is going to cross the river. We can’t interfere with anything: we don’t have artillery and mortars, you know. They set up surveillance. They report: to the left of our defense, in the village of Biryuli, the punishers pulled up eight guns, and on the south side along the highway not far from the Baturinsky bridge they installed heavy mortars. Today, at dawn, German intelligence approached the bridge.

Number?

To the company. Our bunkers opened fire, and the reconnaissance retreated. And it started at eight o'clock. The enemy opened heavy artillery-mortar and machine-gun fire and simultaneously launched an offensive from three directions in groups of 30-50 people. They began to drag rafts to the river and launch rafts. We made an attempt to cross, but ours literally mowed down everyone who was on the rafts. The rest retreated. The fight has stopped. The observers noticed that the enemy was changing the position of the artillery, pulling it closer to the Berezina. Brigade commander E. I. Furso and commissar V. S. Svirid left for the Baturinsky bridge. Hear what's going on?

There was a fight in the southwest. The glass in the windows rattled slightly during the explosions. The equestrian messenger listened, and his face became more and more frowning. He refused to eat, drank a mug of milk, and while Captain Zinenko was on the phone, he examined the horse, which had begun to cool down. The captain called a messenger and transmitted the order agreed with me by phone: to hold the occupied lines by all means, to disrupt the enemy's crossing of the Berezina.

In the south-west, along the Berezina River, the partisan brigades named after V.I. Lenin (commander E.I. Furso, commissar V.S. I. M. Timchuk). To their left, near Pyshno, stood the Alexei brigade, to the right, to the north of Lake Medzozol, the TsKKP(b)B brigade, and even further away, the Oktyabr brigade.

The brigade named after V.I. Lenin was not numerous. In its ranks, along with economic and other services, there were 340 fighters and commanders. They were armed with 140 rifles, 85 assault rifles, 8 light machine guns, three anti-tank rifles and a light mortar. The brigade specialized mainly in sabotage operations and had many successful operations on its combat account. Despite the small number and light armament, the unit put up stubborn resistance to the punishers.

The 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade had much larger forces. By the beginning of the expedition, its number was 1413 people. It was armed with one 76 mm and four 45 mm guns, 12 light and medium mortars, and 53 machine guns. In cementing this partisan brigade, the old communist appointed as its commissar, an active participant in the civil war, I. M. Timchuk, played an important role. He was one of the organizers of the partisan movement in Logoisk, Pleshchenitsky and other areas, the party underground in Minsk, and took part in many military operations. Under the guidance of an experienced partisan leader, political and educational work was carried out exceptionally well in the subdivisions of the brigade.

Ivan Matveyevich Timchuk was directly involved in the preparation and conduct of combat operations of the brigade. One of them was the attack on the section of the Kolodishchi-Smolevichi railway in September 1943. Then the partisans blew up 2485 rails, destroyed the bridge on the Volma River and two military trains at the Smolevichi station, set fire to the station warehouses and barracks with artillery fire, and destroyed all the sidings on the stage. Following this, the partisans of the 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade made daring attacks on the enemy in Vileika and on the Logoisk-Pleschenitsy road. Not a single battle with punishers, not a single brigade combat operation against the invaders took place without the leadership and personal participation of I. M. Timchuk. For courage and heroism, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The enemy troops, which were part of the Gottberg group, acted against the brigades named after V.I. Lenin and the 1st Anti-Fascist. They were mainly special police and punitive formations.

The core of the group was an SS battalion under the command of a notorious fascist thug, the executioner of Khatyn Dirlewanger. Created on the personal orders of Hitler, this special terrorist SS formation was staffed with traitors, criminals and morally corrupt elements. Dirlewanger's youths committed cruel and bloody reprisals against civilians. During one of the cartel expeditions, they killed five thousand people. Among them were many women and children.

Two SS regiments, two battalions from the traitor Vetvitsky's group and a regiment from the traitor Kaminsky's brigade also operated in the southwestern sector. The main task of the southwestern group was to occupy the massif between the lakes Sho and Medzozol, take control of the road Chernitsa - Lesiny - Vesnitsk and open the way to Ushachi.

The area in the area of ​​​​Lake Medzozol is a vast swampy and forested lowland. The roads here wind through a seemingly endless forest. They either run into small villages sheltered in the thicket, or lead along the gat through the swamp, where, surrounded in the summer by a sharply smelling wild rosemary, dark twisted pines grow, gray blueberry bushes peep out, and bright cranberry flowers glisten on moss pillows.

Punishers cursed these "damn places" inaccessible to tanks. They had to limit themselves to artillery, mortars, and aircraft. The enemy intended to compensate for the lack of tanks by sending groups of submachine gunners to the rear of the partisans. But this idea, as the prisoners later showed, was coldly received among the soldiers.

Preparatory combat operations, designed to improve the initial positions, the enemy had been conducting in the southwest since April 15 in the area of ​​​​the villages of Shalagira, Kovali. The partisans gave an organized rebuff to the enemy. In the following days, the enemy, with relatively small forces, made attempts to advance from Berezino to Berespolye - Novoye Selo, but thanks to counterattacks from the flanks and a strong defense of the 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade on the Prodoynitsa River, he was detained.

Now the enemy, having concentrated considerable forces in the southwest, went on the offensive against the partisans. The battle on the Berezina flared up. The enemy relied on artillery. Putting the guns on direct fire, the Nazis opened heavy fire on the partisan bunkers. The artillery attack was supported by enemy mortars. But the infantry did not appear. Nevertheless, I. A. Smunev, who commanded the 2nd detachment of the V. I. Lenin brigade in defense, realized that somewhere there, beyond the Berezina, to the right of a dry lichen forest, in the depths of a spring-like withered aspen and birch forest, punishers are accumulating for the decisive shot. He passed along the chain the order to the anti-tank rifle crews to open fire on enemy artillery.

The tank destroyers began firing at the enemy cannons, which fired at the partisan fortifications for about an hour. Great was the joy of the partisans when the armor-piercers, in a duel with the fascist artillerymen, put two guns out of action one after the other. But the rest continued to conduct intense fire, destroying bunkers, uprooting young trees, scattering sticky swamp mud in all directions.

The time has come when it became impossible to stay in the bunkers. Some of them were destroyed, others had loopholes blocked up, and others had exits. Smunev ordered to leave the firing points that had become unusable and go to the trenches and trenches. Riflemen and machine gunners took up new positions: some adapted themselves in freshly dug craters, some lay down in the trenches.

The partisans waited for the artillery fire to weaken. But he kept growing. More than an hour has passed since the shelling began. Enemy gunners were supported by machine gunners. Everyone understood that the decisive moment was approaching - the attack. And indeed, infantrymen soon crawled out of the camouflaged shelters and headed towards the river. In order to disperse the attention and forces of the partisans, the punishers moved towards the Berezina in three directions.

The situation became more difficult. Watching through binoculars the fascists moving towards the river, I. A. Smunev heard that the battle broke out to the left, somewhere beyond the junction of his detachment with the 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade. Shooting moved into the depths of the partisan defense. There was no doubt that, having broken through the defenses, the enemy would cover the left flank of the detachment and threaten encirclement. But Smunev decided to hold on. A fight ensued at the crossing.

Baturinsky bridge was shrouded in thick smoke. The land around was plowed with shells, bombs, mines. It seemed that not a single living soul remained on the partisan lines. But as soon as the Nazis launched a new attack, the hillocks suddenly came to life and poured machine-gun and automatic fire on the enemy chains.

In the afternoon, the Baturinsky bridge fell. The bridgehead on the left bank of the Berezina was in the hands of the enemy. There was a threat of disunity of the brigades of the southwestern group.

Just at that moment, the commander of the V.I. Lenin Brigade, E.I. Furso, and Commissar V.S. Svirid, arrived at the Baturinsky Bridge. They took command of the battle and led the partisans into the attack. The first was followed by the second. Neither in the forehead, nor from the flanks, it was not possible to knock down the enemy from the bridgehead he had captured without artillery. Sowing in the destroyed partisan fortifications, in the ruins of bunkers, the Nazis fired heavily from there. I had to retreat and gain a foothold on a new frontier.

On the outskirts of the defensive strip in the depths of the forest, the demolitionists mined the forest paths, the road, and prepared for a meeting with the enemy. Restoring interrupted communications with neighbors, repelling the enemy on the right flank, the main forces of the brigade fought until dark. In the forest, the partisans managed to seize the initiative from the enemy and exterminated up to 100 punishers, took trophies.

The partisan brigade named after the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks also had to withstand a strong onslaught of punishers.

“The morning caught me in the fifth detachment,” says N. N. Polozov, former assistant to the brigade commissar for the Komsomol. - The brigade commander A. D. Medvedev visited the detachment the day before. I reported to him about the mood of the fighters and assured him that the Komsomol members would not let him down. Before the attack of the punishers in the brigade, they checked the state of the material and technical part, strengthened the line of defense, and carried out a lot of political work among the personnel of all five detachments. In early April, a special meeting was held at the brigade headquarters on preparations for the upcoming battles. After the meeting, the brigade command checked the readiness of the detachments. With the participation of the commanders and commissars of the detachments, Komsomol meetings were held everywhere. The patriots who spoke at them swore an oath not to spare themselves for the sake of protecting the civilian population from the Nazis. Everyone was in an exceptionally fighting mood. And then came the day of the decisive battle with the punishers.

Intelligence reported that the Nazis were moving in the direction of the defensive positions of the fifth detachment. Mortar fire soon began. The first ranks of the Nazis were mowed down by our machine gunners and submachine gunners, but the enemy threw new forces. Hot battles continued throughout the day in the areas of all units of the brigade. Twice a day, fascist planes bombed partisan positions and surrounding villages. By the end of the day, the punishers managed to break through our defense line on the left flank: one of the main machine-gun points was disabled by a direct hit from an enemy mine. Under the cover of night, the command of the brigade ordered the partisans to withdraw to the positions of the second line of defense. In order to cover the right flank of the neighbors, in the area of ​​​​the settlement of Gornovo-Belyashi, on the orders of the task force, we set up combat guards on the paths leading north from the village of Peresechino.

On April 17, the enemy became especially active in the defense sector of the 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade. From Berezino and Chernitsa, he launched an offensive in the direction of the settlement of Lesina. Fierce battles flared up near Svistopolye and Lesin. The enemy brought artillery, mortars, and aircraft into battle. 12 planes made four raids on only one village of Lesina. Punishers attacked the same settlement four times, but were driven back with heavy losses. In the area of ​​​​Svistopol, the partisans with a swift attack repulsed a group of punishers who were trying to go into the flank. Retreating, the Nazis fell into a swampy swamp, threw down their weapons, tried to hide in the bushes. Everywhere overtook partisan bullets. As trophies, the partisans seized not only weapons, but also documents.

From April 20 to April 24, the partisan brigades named after V.I. Lenin and the 1st Anti-Fascist brigades fought hard near the villages of Lesina, Khramenki, Zarubovshchina. Punishers managed to take over Zarubovshchina.

But if Dirlewanger knew what temporary success would turn out to be, he would never linger in this village ...

Alekseevtsy

In the southern sector near Pyshno, the Aleksey brigade, led by A.F. Danukalov, held the defense.

I well remember my first meeting with Alexei Fedorovich Danukalov at the end of 1943. The brigade commander entered the premises of the headquarters of the operational group, saluted in a military way and said quietly, but clearly:

Comrade Colonel, brigade commander Danukalov has arrived on your orders!

The young brigade commander had strong-willed features and a quick, but attentive look with a squint. Hair With a forelock at the left temple and a mustache made him look like a Cossack. Danukalov was dressed modestly, but neatly. The collar of the protective tunic sparkled with impeccable whiteness. He spoke with restraint, highlighting the main thing in the topic of conversation. And the main thing was to take care of the partisans, their weapons, life, clothing, food in the new area where the brigade moved.

I have heard a lot about the fighting of the partisan brigade "Aleksey", about the courage, resourcefulness, military skill of its commander A.F. Danukalov. Bold attacks on garrisons, dashing battles in ambushes, sabotage on the railways, deep raids on enemy rear lines, active operations of the underground in Vitebsk and other cities - all this was spoken of with great warmth and admiration.

It was all the more interesting to listen to the story of Alexei Fyodorovich himself about his life over tea. He was born in the village of Mikhailovka, Dergachevsky District, Saratov Region. Father Fyodor Kuzmich was a collective farm blacksmith. The villagers respected a strong, stern, but fair man. Alexei was the eldest son in the family. The younger sisters and brother loved their brother, who adopted a lot of good things from his father. Alexey graduated from the seven-year school and the Balashov Agricultural School. He went to work at MTS, then went to a military school. There he joined the ranks of the Communist Party.

Aleksey Danukalov began the war as a political commissar of a tank battalion. He participated in the battles on Belarusian soil, then in the Smolensk region. Somewhere on the Dnieper, near Smolensk, a tank battalion was surrounded. They retreated across the river with a fight. Danukalov led a cover platoon.

At the most intense moment of the battle, Danukalov lay down behind a machine gun and scribbled from it until he was convinced that the battalion was out of danger. The battalion commander Leonid Khlystov was seriously wounded. Alexey bandaged him. Approached fighters helped to transfer the wounded to the river. However, there was nothing to think about the crossing of the battalion commander across the fast Dnieper without a boat, and Danukalov sent fighters to look for a boat. They didn't return.

Aleksey Danukalov spent several days with a wounded battalion commander not far from some German unit.

Hungry, cold, overgrown with bristles. The difficult trials that fell to the lot of Danukalov these days prepared him for the difficult partisan everyday life, taught him to control himself in times of danger, to navigate in the most difficult situations.

Soon, Alexei, along with the battalion commander, was accidentally discovered by Valery Imangulov and Grigory Koshelev, who also could not get out of the encirclement. Four in green tunics, perhaps, did not even think that it was from this handful that the partisan brigade would begin, which for almost three years would actively fight the enemy.

The battalion commander was slowly recovering, the wound on his leg was healing, but he still could not walk. And when more than two dozen people had already gathered around Danukalov, it was decided to send Khlystov with several Red Army soldiers to one village where there were no Nazis. Danukalov himself, with 19 fighters and commanders, went into the forests to start hostilities.

Before moving on to the story of the first partisan actions, Alexei Fedorovich thanked him heartily for tea with sugar - a rather rare delicacy in the partisan region, lit a cigarette and, with a pretty Gorky "okaya", continued:

There is a Slobodskoy district in the Smolensk region. The forests there, however, are not very large, but they suited our detachment quite well. Exactly 28 of us gathered in that forest like Panfilov's. Everyone found that fate did not bypass me with organizational abilities. Promoted to commander. Agreed. Alexander Gribovsky became commissar, Alexander Petrov became chief of staff. Petr Antipov and Dmitry Korkin were appointed to other command positions. All these are fighting, reliable guys. With them on any task to go is not scary.

At first we had no bases, no communications, no permanent camp. They walked through the forest. They attacked individual enemy vehicles, small convoys of invaders, and procurement points. Destroyed the police, German servants.

The cold has begun. We decided to move to the Liozno district of the Vitebsk region. There, the forests are more reliable, and communications are nearby. By the spring of 1942, our detachment had grown into a fairly large partisan unit. In the Liozno region, we were joined by a detachment operating separately in the Hotemlyansk and Dymanovsk forests under the command of N. N. Selivanenko. The commissar of the detachment was V. A. Blokhin. In the summer, our brigade was already an impressive force. The occupiers were afraid of us: detachments attacked garrisons, motor vehicles, bridges, warehouses, railways every day ...

Alexey Fedorovich told me about the brigade's very difficult combat path, from the first simple operations to deep raids on enemy rear lines. Defeat from an ambush of a large German unit near the village of Fokino, undermining the enemy echelons with food in the area of ​​the Vydreya station, the destruction of seven vehicles by a sabotage group on the roads of Yanovichi - Ponizovye and Yanovichi - Surazh, an attack on the Nazis in the village of Klevtsy, the dispersal of the Unovskaya volost government, a successful sabotage on the highway Vitebsk - Smolensk near the villages of Vorony and Krivaya Versta - these are just the most significant operations of the Alekseevites carried out in August 1942.

In total, in August 1942, the partisans of the Alexei Danukalov brigade defeated 3 enemy garrisons, killed and wounded several hundred Nazis, derailed 4 military echelons, shot down an aircraft, destroyed an armored vehicle, a tank, 75 vehicles, 6 bridges, a tank truck with fuel, a tractor-tractor, a garage with cars, destroyed about 11 kilometers of telegraph and telephone communications, during this time the Alekseev partisans seized a mortar, easel and 7 light machine guns, 8 machine guns, 109 rifles, 12 revolvers, about 50 grenades, 15 thousand cartridges and other military property.

In September 1942, Alexei Danukalov was summoned to Moscow. For active combat operations behind enemy lines, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. From Moscow Danukalov returned elated. It wasn't just about the award he deserved. Alexei Fedorovich was proud that the military labors of the entire brigade, his fighting friends, were so highly valued. It was during these days that the brigade commander proposed a whole series of new combat operations. In October alone, the detachments derailed 7 enemy military echelons, blew up 30 vehicles and 6 motorcycles, destroyed and seized a lot of military property.

The winter of 1942/43 was marked by heavy fighting. The Germans tried to push the partisans out of the front line. It was especially difficult in the spring, when the punishers blocked the partisans in the Shchelbovsky forest. Having made his way out of the encirclement, the brigade commander decided to confuse the trail and evade persecution. For this, it was necessary to concentrate. Danukalov decided to withdraw the brigade to the west, to the region of the Adamov forests, which are located in the Senno region, in two groups. The brigade commander himself led the group, whose task was to bypass Vitebsk on the left side. The second part of the brigade was to make a deep raid, bypassing Vitebsk on the right. This group was led by the commissar of the brigade I. I. Starovoitov.

The road to the west was not easy. Danukalov's group had to cross the Western Dvina, which was very stormy in the spring flood, and crossed the railway in a dangerous place. May nights are short, dawn converges with dawn. And then there were the wounded on their hands, including the commissar of the detachment Nikolai Sherstnev. At the railway embankment, the group was forced to lie down by an illuminating flare soaring almost vertically upwards. The reconnaissance sent ahead reported that the posts were strengthened, and machine guns were on the towers.

This is not the first time for Alekseevites to cross the railroad. But today we must cross it without a fight: it will be difficult with the wounded. Alexey Danukalov and the commander of the detachment Dmitry Korkin went to reconnaissance themselves. They made sure that the approaches to the road were littered with dry boughs, you couldn’t get through without noise. But there was no other way. We decided to transport the detachment with a swift throw between the towers. The maneuver succeeded. The Nazis realized it only when the partisans were already out of danger. Machine-gun bursts and mine explosions could still be heard in the vicinity for a long time.

We stopped in the woods for a day's rest. The enemy tracked down the partisans. Silently removing the sentry, the Nazis attacked the camp. Some partisans rushed to run, but they were stopped by the loud voice of the brigade commander. Danukalov and Korkin led the people on the attack. The enemy wavered and retreated. He was pursued to the edge. In this battle, the Alekseevites lost several comrades. After the battle, the group moved on.

I. I. Starovoitov’s group also had to overcome many difficulties: crossing the Western Dvina, crossing two highways and two railways. In the area of ​​​​the village of Lushchakha, with a bold attack, the partisans so successfully broke through the enemy chain that they completely disoriented the enemy. The Alekseevites were already far away, and the Nazis were still pouring dense machine-gun and mortar fire on a well-targeted place, but long abandoned by the partisans. We spent the day in the forest, over which the hated "frame" - an enemy twin-body reconnaissance aircraft circled almost all the time. The partisans were well camouflaged, and the enemy failed to find their camp.

At night they crossed the railway and highway Vitebsk - Nevel. Suddenly, with a hiss and whistle, an illuminating rocket took off and hit enemy machine guns. Strong return fire and a sharp throw forward of partisan chains silenced the main firing points of the Nazis. A group of scouts headed by Mikhail Landychenko rushed towards the machine guns that were still firing.

Soon, one after another, several explosions of anti-tank grenades thundered. The enemy guns fell silent. But just at that time, an armored train crawled up to the battlefield, illuminating the path with powerful beams of searchlights. A command flew along the chain to push armor-piercers onto the canvas. Guerrilla anti-tank guns opened fire on the black body of the locomotive. The bark of large-caliber machine guns and rapid-fire cannons of the armored train drowned out everything around, including the hiss of powerful jets of steam that escaped from the punctured boiler of the locomotive. But the partisans, skillfully maneuvering on rough terrain, were already leaving the firing sector.

At the Western Dvina, partisans were attacked by enemy tanks. Yakov Gladchenko, Makar Fedoseenko and other armor-piercers focused their fire on the lead tank and knocked it out. The rest of the vehicles stopped pursuing the partisans, but continued to shoot. We had to cross the river with a fight.

In the Adamov forest, as agreed, both groups met. However, the enemy managed to find this place. At sunset, it became known in the camp that the forest was surrounded by fascists. The brigade commander frowned, thinking. Worst of all, the places are unfamiliar, you don’t know how to maneuver better, in which direction to break through. What if?..

Who is local here?

I am local.

An inconspicuous guy approached. Danukalov looked with disbelief. The boy noticed, sniffed his nose - he was offended.

Do you know the road well?

I am not leading you first.

Then this is what: you will lead out through the swamp to go to the rear of the Germans.

It's possible.

They walked all night. The Nazis did not expect a strike from the rear. They ran, they didn’t even pick up the dead.

The brigade began to act even more organized. It is amazing how the Alekseevites managed to deliver so many sensitive blows to the enemy. Indeed, often for this it was necessary to make rapid, tens of kilometers, transitions.

In the story of Alexei Fedorovich himself, the fighting looked somehow casual, usually:

In June forty-three it was. Scouts from the Progress detachment established that the punishers intend to attack the detachment in the village of Dudary. Both numerically and technically, the Nazis outnumbered our forces. To intercept the enemy, the detachment commander sent out outposts as part of a half company. A fight ensued. Punishers opened heavy fire from a cannon, battalion mortars, machine guns. The guards had to withdraw. The detachment, which was in the village, boldly met the enemy. The fight dragged on. I sent reinforcements from the Marine Corps. Rota arrived just in time. The Nazis stopped the offensive. They lost more than 25 soldiers in the battle.

In the same military laconic manner, Danukalov spoke about the June operations of 1943: a successful attack on punishers from an ambush by young partisans of the Sailor detachment under the command of the chief of staff N. G. Denisov, the explosion of the bridge on the Chashniki-Lukoml highway, the attack by the detachment named after N N. Selivanenko to the Nazi garrison in the village of Slidchany, the defeat of the 4th detachment of the enemy garrison guarding the paper mill in Chashniki. The brigade commander was talking, and I had no difficulty imagining in detail what he told me only in general terms. And the further, the better it was possible to discern behind the facts, figures, names the ultimate tension of the nerves, muscles, vision, hearing of hundreds of people, their amazing stamina, endurance, courage in the face of danger, when death hovers around, and at the same time extraordinary love to life.

Characteristically, in the most difficult conditions, the Alekseevites, moving from place to place, did not weaken, but increased their blows to the enemy. In September alone, they destroyed 34 vehicles, 12 bridges, several kilometers of telegraph and telephone communications, and one and a half kilometers of high-voltage power lines.

As the front line moved west, the partisan brigade changed its location. The inhabitants of the villages where the Alekseev detachments stopped, greeted the patriots cordially. Unfortunately, the Alekseevites could not complain about the "inattention" on the part of the occupiers. The brigade barely had time to arrive at a new place, as the Nazis equipped a punitive expedition against it. This forced the brigade to lead a mobile lifestyle almost all the time, which greatly exhausted the partisans. On the move, it was necessary to conduct combat and sabotage operations, replenish food supplies, train young partisans, conduct mass explanatory work in the detachments and among the population, and treat the wounded.

Former Alekseevites remember well October 1943, when they had to endure very heavy fighting in the Beshenkovichi region. Danukalov personally supervised the operation. A brigade consisting of 10 detachments was located in the area of ​​​​the villages of Mokhnevo, Zakhodnoye. On October 16, two regiments of punishers came out against the partisans. They were given 6 tanks, 4 armored vehicles. Two infantry battalions under the cover of a tank and two armored vehicles occupied the village of Rubezh. The brigade commander made a bold decision - to attack without waiting for the approach of new forces. Aleksei Danukalov led the partisan attacks himself. The fighting continued for almost four consecutive days. The Nazis paid a heavy price for every meter of territory.

After such battles, the Alekseevites often had to make long night marches, destroying enemy garrisons along the way. There were short breaks between fights. People were very tired, but morale and discipline in the detachments were high.

With the transition to the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone, the brigade of Alexei Danukalov had to change the nature of combat activity. Due to the fact that the enemy planted garrisons around and did not stop trying to oust the partisans, they began to use positional methods of struggle. The new tactics of warfare required the construction of defensive fortifications - trenches, rifle and machine-gun cells, bunkers with communication passages, anti-tank ditches and blockages on the roads and approaches to our defensive line.

Having taken up the defense, the detachments of the brigade carried out systematic sorties for sabotage on enemy communications, setting up ambushes in the Lepel-Berezino region. The brigade still dealt tangible blows to the enemy.

For all the time of their combat activity, the Alekseevites captured as trophies 8 cannons, 15 heavy and 110 light machine guns, 78 machine guns, 1041 rifles, 286,000 rounds of ammunition, 14 mortars, 796 hand grenades, 66 vehicles, 370 bicycles, 10 telephone sets and more. These figures are a convincing indicator of the brigade's high combat activity.

Such was the combat path of the partisan brigade of Alexei Danukalov. In the spring of 1944, there were up to 2 thousand people in its ranks. Alekseevtsy had good weapons: 3 guns, 11 mortars, 14 anti-tank rifles, a lot of automatic weapons - machine guns, machine guns. The length of the defensive lines of the connection was over 20 kilometers. The brigade organized a defense in depth, well-camouflaged. To the left of it stood the Lepel partisan brigade, to the right - the 1st Anti-Fascist.

At the junction with the 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade, the Sailor detachment held the defense. They agreed that they would help each other in the event of an attack by the Nazis.

The so-called assault brigade of the traitor Kaminsky acted against the Alekseevites. The partisans carried out successful work on the decomposition of this brigade. They sent newspapers, leaflets, helped to get on the right path to the lost, forcibly mobilized. The number of defectors kept increasing. So, on September 15, 1943, a whole company led by Captain Provatorov went over to the partisans. At the end of the month, up to 150 more people arrived. However, despite the process of decomposition, the Kaminsky brigade still remained a rather strong enemy formation. She was well armed and outnumbered the partisans.

The fighting in the location zone of the partisan brigade "Aleksey" began with reconnaissance in battle in the direction of the villages of Vetche and Kazimirovo, where the first battalion held the defense. At 10 o'clock in the morning, an enemy infantry battalion, supported by two tanks, artillery fire and mortars, attacked the front line of defense of the 17th detachment. The battle went on for four hours. The enemy made three strong attacks, but they all choked. Then the enemy concentrated his forces in the direction of the village of Vetche. The partisans left the village and took up defensive positions on the heights north of Vetche. At 2030 hours, having received reinforcements, the detachment counterattacked the enemy, drove him out of the village of Vetche and forced him to dig in near the village of Khramenki. During the counterattack, armor-piercer Ivanov set fire to a German tank. This determined the success of the offensive of our detachments.

The village of Kazimirovo, where the 13th detachment held the defense, was attacked by up to 300 Nazis with the support of two tanks. For three hours in a row they attacked the positions of the Alekseevites, but were driven back behind the Sukharevichi farm.

Thus passed the first day. In the evening, brigade commander Aleksey Danukalov called the headquarters of the task force:

Glad to report, Comrade Colonel, all attacks repulsed. The Nazis fled like rabbits. On the battlefield, they left up to forty corpses, many wounded.

Thank you, Alexei Fedorovich. Tell everyone that the task force appreciates your fighting. What did the enemy want today?

Reconnaissance in combat. The goal is to identify the location of the firing points of our forward edge. But we are not fooled either: I ordered only a part of the firing points to be put into action, - was the answer of the brigade commander.

Can't you tell me more?

The fact is that it was not quite an ordinary reconnaissance in force. In the event that a weak spot was discovered in our defense, the enemy was ready to go on the offensive. In the resulting gap, he introduced a large force. The tank attack, in the reflection of which the armor-piercer Ivanov played such a big role, was aimed at breaking through the defenses. The situation was very dangerous.

Present the armor-piercer Ivanov to the order. The fight against tanks in our conditions, Alexei Fedorovich, requires special heroism. What are your losses?

Three wounded.

In the days that followed, the enemy continued to intensify the onslaught. On April 18, large forces with tanks were brought into battle. After unsuccessful attacks in the first half of the day in the direction of the villages of Vetche, Khramenki, the enemy used aircraft. For three hours, 15 aircraft conducted a concentrated bombardment of the positions of the 17th detachment. When the raid ended, under the cover of artillery and mortar fire, the infantry went on the offensive. There was an unequal battle for two hours. Only in the evening did the partisans leave Vetcha and Khramenki. But not for long. On the night of April 19, the 17th detachment suddenly attacked the village of Vetche and captured it. At the same time, the 14th detachment raided Khramenki. “On this day, not only the enemy’s furious attacks were repulsed, but in places under the onslaught of partisans he had to retreat,” an entry in the combat log of the 13th detachment testifies. - One of the heights changed hands five times. By the end of the day, she still remained with the detachment.

In some sectors, our detachments launched counterattacks. Having received reinforcements, the enemy, with the support of three tanks and artillery, launched a new offensive. Detachment No. 17 had to withdraw to its previous positions and occupy the southern outskirts of the village of Vetche. But the enemy did not go further.

The fighting on the site of the brigade of Alexei Danukalov was distinguished by the special persistence and stamina of the partisans. The enemy was on a rampage: five days on the offensive, and the partisans were not moving.

April 21 was especially difficult. Tired, exhausted by daily battles, the Alekseevites stood on the defensive in the forest to the right of the village of Vetche. In the early morning, 8 enemy planes flew into partisan positions. During the day, 16 attacks were repulsed. The persistence of the enemy was unprecedented. And yet Alekseevtsy resisted.

True, there was a moment when some hesitated and almost began to retreat. And here an event took place, which was later told about for a long time. Valya Shlyakhticheva suddenly appeared among the partisans. She calmly and busily set up a machine gun and opened fire on the Nazis who had burst into defensive positions. The enemy's attack stalled.

The diary of the commander of the Progress detachment, Grigory Gavrilovich Ogienko, testifies to the resilience of the partisans of the Aleksey brigade:

April 19, 1944. The detachment went to the area of ​​the Logi-Bushenki highway. A whole defensive system is installed here: 18 machine-gun nests and cells for each fighter. The forest was cleared to a depth of 200 meters along the front and a width of up to one and a half kilometers.

Armor-piercer Yakov Gladchenko near the village of Kazimirovo knocked out a German tank from an anti-tank rifle ...

A group of scouts mined the Pyshno-Berezino highway near the village of Kodlubische. A car was blown up on a four-kilogram mine set by Akhmet Togushev and Ivan Olshanikov, 4 Germans were killed ...

April 21, 1944. The detachment fought heavy defensive battles with superior enemy forces. Within 12 hours, 11 enemy attacks were repulsed, supported by artillery, tanks and aircraft. The Nazis dug in 300 meters from our defenses along the highway ...

April 22, 1944. The detachment fought heavy battles in the area of ​​the Logi-Bushenka highway. For 10 hours, the detachment repelled 6 enemy attacks, supported by massive artillery fire and aircraft on our defenses. Of the 7 attacks, 2 were “psychic” ... Up to 35 Nazis were killed by rifle and machine-gun fire ... "

Among the battles that the Alekseevites had to wage, the battle for the village of Kazimirovo was especially difficult. It began at dawn on 23 April. The positions of the partisans were attacked by infantry with a total number of more than a thousand people. The offensive was supported by 4 tanks, 2 assault guns. The partisans repelled two attacks. The enemy stopped the offensive. Soon, about 50 attack aircraft appeared over the positions of the partisans. Three times they subjected the partisan fortifications to severe bombardment. During the day, the vultures dropped at least 300 bombs on the village of Kazimirovo and its environs. Among them were bombs designed to destroy powerful long-term defensive structures and defeat manpower. They also dropped special cassettes stuffed with two dozen small fragmentation bombs, which the partisans called "frogs". Cassettes opened at a height, bombs scattered to the sides and exploded in the air, showering the ground with fragments. Fortunately, the mechanism of action of the cassettes was not perfect. Often, either they did not have time to open up in the air and burrowed into the ground, or the “frogs” clock mechanism did not work. In both cases, the partisans rejoiced at the trophies. The bombs were then used as explosive material.

After intensive "processing" of the defensive lines of the Alekseevites from the air, the Nazis went on the offensive. They were convinced that the partisans were no longer capable of sustained resistance. However, from the fortifications thoroughly destroyed by the bombing, strong, organized fire met the punishers. Only after a six-hour battle, the Alekseevites left the fortifications.

The Alekseyevites withstood many such battles - near the villages of Logi, Church, Small Doltsy, Velikie Doltsy. Each of them is a glorious page in the annals of the military affairs of the Alexei brigade. Those of the locals who remember April 1944 never cease to admire the courage of the Alekseevites, their art of maneuvering and inflicting sensitive blows on the enemy in the most difficult combat situation. In all this, the great mind and iron will of the gifted partisan leader Alexei Fedorovich Danukalov was guessed, whose name during his lifetime became synonymous with courage and selfless devotion to the Motherland.

The resilience of the Alekseyevites was marveled not only by comrades in arms, but also by enemies. It is no coincidence that the traitor Kaminsky in his order in connection with the completion of the expedition notes the especially fierce nature of the fighting in the section of the Danukalov brigade. True, the name of Danukalov remained unknown to him: in the order, the brigade commander is called Alekseev. This testifies not only to the poor organization of intelligence by the enemy, but also to the brilliant organization of the secret service among the Danukalovites.

From the villages of Vetche and Khramepki to Velikiye Dolets ten kilometers. And the enemy troops, despite the large numerical superiority, the support of motorized, artillery-mortar and aviation weapons, moved forward at such a low speed, as if there was a duel of approximately equal forces.

Danukalov was the soul of the defense in the southern section of the partisan zone. These days I have many times had to talk with the brigade commander on the phone, to meet with him. Despite the very difficult situation, I never heard complaints about difficulties. In the leadership of military operations, the brigade commander was distinguished by personal courage, initiative and resourcefulness. He timely unraveled the plan of Kaminsky, who was trying to make a breach at the junction of the Alekseevskaya and 1st Anti-Fascist Brigades, go behind their lines and develop an offensive. In the pitch hell of fire, gunpowder smoke, explosions, the partisans demonstrated examples of stamina.

“The fields were covered with fragments of exploding shells and mines of all calibers,” we read in the file of the Alekseevskaya brigade. - Aviation with a hail of heavy and small bombs completed this infernal symphony. Explosions of bombs and shells plowed the ground. In places, entire companies were covered with earth, defensive structures were destroyed. The whole day from dawn to dusk was spent in fierce battles. A small April night was only a temporary respite for eating, resting and building destroyed defensive structures, cleaning and repairing weapons, mining approaches ...

Despite all the hardships and hardships, the morale and fighting spirit of the partisans were high and stable. Each fighter, commander and political worker was armed with a firm consciousness that, with his stubborn resistance and heroism, by crushing and destroying the enemy in the rear, he was making a valuable contribution to the liberation of the Russian land, hastening the complete defeat and destruction of the perfidious fascist beast.

The brigade, conducting heavy defensive battles, was subjected to systematic and heavy bombing from the air. From 18 to 30 April 1944 the enemy made 520 sorties. During the fighting, the brigade headquarters was located in the village of Velikiye Doltsy. On April 27, the brigade headquarters came under air attack by ten dive bombers and three heavy bombers. The bombardment continued for about an hour. The enemy from the air bombarded the entire village with small bombs and riddled all the houses. During this bombing, our combat brigade commander Alexei Fedorovich Danukalov was killed.

The day of April 27 is well remembered by the former assistant commissar of the brigade "Aleksey" for the Komsomol, Iosif Vladimirovich Menzhinsky. “It was quiet on the front line in the morning,” I. V. Menzhinsky said. - We managed to reproduce the latest report of the Sovinformburo and carried it to show it to Danukalov. The brigade commander met us near the house where he lived. Aleksei Fyodorovich was in a good mood. He, as always, joked, laughed. Suddenly, the roar of an aircraft engine reached our ears. Danukalov looked towards Lepel. A large red disk of the sun blinded his eyes, and he covered them with his hand. “Gritsko,” shouted the brigade commander to the commander of the detachment G. G. Ogienko, “come here armor-piercers, let them treat the vulture!” Armor-piercers appeared. As soon as they managed to fire a few shots at the fascist plane, we heard the thick rumble of many aircraft engines. Junkers were flying towards the village at a considerable height from Polotsk. Approaching the Great Doltsy, the lead aircraft suddenly left the chain and, exposing the sparkling planes to the sun, glided into a dive. Behind him, also falling to one side, the second Junkers went steeply to the ground, followed by the third. Above the village, filling the space with the howl of dropped bombs and mines, the satanic bark of heavy machine guns, the carousel of fascist vultures was spinning.

At Danukalov's command, we took refuge in a bunker. At the same time, the brigade commander ordered to open the gates of the sheds, to let the horses out of them. Above our heads, choking with machine-gun screams, the cruciform torsos of the Junkers, cruciform with non-retractable curved landing gear, swept low. Danukalov could not sit in the shelter. Seizing the moment, he climbed up. Machine-gun bursts pierced the roofs and walls of houses, dug into the liquid spring mud of the streets. The brigade commander clung to the wall of the shed.

Suddenly all sounds were drowned out by the deafening roar of exploding air mines. Houses and streets were shrouded in a suffocating stench. The smoke of the conflagrations densely covered the disk of the sun. Everyone jumped out of the bunker and did not believe what they saw: staggering, Danukalov approached the apple tree, grabbed its trunk and sank heavily to the ground. We ran up: a fragment of a mine pierced the chest right through ... "

Brigade commissar Ivan Isakovich Starovoitov ordered to report the incident to the front line, where the battle was already flaring up. On the firing lines, they did not believe that Alexei Danukalov was no more. Representatives were sent from departments. The veterans silently stood over the lifeless body and left for the position. Neither this nor the following days, the punishers were able to move the Alekseevites from their place.

They buried Alexei Fedorovich Danukalov with full military honors. Experienced partisans saw a lot. Get used to everything. Learned to face courageously and steadfastly endure the worst. And then they couldn't stop crying.

It is difficult to convey in words what a heavy loss the death of brigade commander A.F. Danukalov was for all of us. Nobody wanted to believe what had happened. After all, he was only 28 years old in February of that year. There was so much more he could do...

Tanks are on fire

On the defense sector of the Alekseevskaya brigade, it was especially difficult for the partisans to repel the offensive of tanks. We foresaw that the punishers would not fail to take advantage of the features of the local area, which is relatively accessible for the action of motorized troops, and in a timely manner created anti-tank structures - gouges, scarps, counter-scarps, anti-tank ditches, minefields. In mastering the methods of combating tanks, the Belarusian Headquarters of the partisan movement and the command of the 1st Baltic Front gave us great help. They gave us the relevant instructions. They contained a description of various types of fascist tanks and other motorized equipment, indicated their most vulnerable places, gave advice on how, from what distance it is easier to hit them. These army instructions, in fact, summarized the richest experience of Soviet soldiers accumulated in numerous battles at all stages of the war.

A great help was our own experience, obtained mainly during the autumn-winter battles. Before that, a phenomenon called "tank fear" was quite common in partisan detachments. To be honest, the fighters were shy at first. It happened that at the sight of tanks, some even left their positions. And no wonder: we did not have enough skills and even less material means for single combat with the enemy's motorized mechanized troops. Psychologically, the partisans were greatly depressed by the fact that in fights with tanks we could not use the means that were used in front-line conditions. An anti-tank rifle, an anti-tank grenade, mines and structures on the ground - that, in fact, was all that partisans could usually oppose to armored monsters.

In the course of the fighting, as far as it was possible in one case to knock out, in another - to set fire to fascist tanks, timidity gradually disappeared, the conviction grew that the devil was not so terrible as he was painted. And when they began to complete the calculations of armor-piercers, there were much more volunteers than required. The command of the detachments entrusted anti-tank weapons, and above all guns, to the most courageous and experienced partisans, who had proven themselves well in the past. In the brigade of Alexei Danukalov, who attached particular importance to the fight against tanks, partisan Grigory Ivanov, among others, received an anti-tank rifle.

He was a brave partisan, a participant in a number of serious acts of sabotage, and a well-aimed shooter. So, as part of the Komsomol group, Grigory participated in a daring ambush on the Polotsk-Molodechno railway. Going on a mission, the partisans expected to fire at the echelon with equipment and other cargo. Having made an ambush, they began to observe. At that time, trains did not risk developing high speeds in these places. For safety reasons, a platform loaded with ballast was driven in front of the locomotive. If the echelon was with soldiers, it was not safe to fire at it: the Nazis opened strong return fire, cordoned off and combed the area adjacent to the railway track.

The partisans did not have to wait long. Soon the locomotive crawled out from around the bend, puffing and puffing, as usual with a platform in front. Speed ​​- 20-30 kilometers per hour. The wagons showed up. On the platforms - equipment covered with a tarpaulin. Next is life force. Fearing the partisans, the Nazis try not to stick out, they behave quietly, even harmonicas are not heard.

The guerrillas look at each other: expect the next? .. Ivanov makes a decisive gesture with his hand: let's hit, don't miss it. All agree. Armor-piercer falls to the gun, takes aim. In this position, he somehow looks like a harpooner who took aim at a whale. "Kit" puffs like fountains of water, throws up clouds of smoke, jets of steam escape from under the wheels.

A shot rumbles, another - and the "whale" - locomotive shudders with its black body. From the holes in the boiler, steam beats - the steam locomotive "gives off its spirit."

The guerrilla ambush led the targeted shelling of the echelon from head to tail. The Nazis opened fire indiscriminately. Having recovered, they left the wagons and, bending down, went on the attack. The partisans had to withdraw. But the goal was achieved: traffic was stopped for a while, the locomotive was put out of action for a long time, the Nazis suffered losses in manpower.

Grigory Ivanov was inexhaustible in inventions. When they departed, he proposed the following plan:

They should send a steam locomotive from Polotsk - they need to somehow hold on to the train. I suggest a quick march to cut across the locomotive and make an ambush. It would never occur to the Nazis that we would risk intercepting him.

The idea seemed tempting to everyone, they agreed. The transition was not easy: we were in a hurry. After walking several kilometers towards Polotsk, the partisans, being careful, crawled up to the railway and made another ambush. An hour and a half later, a towing engine appeared from the direction of Polotsk. Ivanov aimed especially carefully. The bullet fired by him pierced the boiler and this locomotive. Traffic on the highway stopped for a while.

On the combat account of Grigory Ivanov there were many destroyed Nazis, blown up cars, lined locomotives. Therefore, it cannot be considered an accident that it was he who became the thunderstorm of German tanks during the days of the April-May operation. He applied the accumulated experience in the battles near the villages of Vetch, Khramenki, Kazimirovo.

Grigory Ivanov knocked out the first tank on April 16 during a partisan counterattack. That's how it was. For some reason, the enemy considered the defense sector in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe villages of Vetche and Kazimirovo the most vulnerable and pressed especially furiously. The Nazis, apparently, hoped that by breaking through the defenses in this sector, they would more easily overcome the resistance of the partisans in other directions. At the cost of heavy losses, by the evening the enemy still managed to occupy the village of Vetche.

The brigade headquarters ordered the restoration of the situation. Having received reinforcements, the partisans launched a counterattack. To the left of the village, they noticed the slow movement of some squares, hardly distinguishable in the evening twilight. Merged into a huge shadow on the melted snow, they seemed to be completely harmless in appearance. The danger was realized only when a dull, trembling rumble flew from the village. As the chain approached the village, the partisans heard the vibration of powerful engines more and more clearly, they more clearly distinguished the outlines of the ominous squares of tanks. Suddenly, the front car, with a menacing roar of the engine, rushed forward, towards the chain. Shaggy whirlwinds of lumpy snow could be seen rising from under the tracks, and wisps of sparks flying from the exhaust pipes.

Armor-piercers! .. - sounded along the chain.

The tanks, meanwhile, picked up speed, approached, increasing in size, filling everything around with an iron clang and rattle, menacingly shaking their guns. The front car suddenly threw a sheaf of fire from the barrel. The first cannon shot gasped, a shell swept overhead with a howl and exploded somewhere behind the battle formations of the partisans. Flashes on the muzzles of tank guns became more frequent. They were accompanied by sharp blows of shots and deaf explosions of shells. The booming rumble of tank machine guns, the patter of machine-gun bursts of infantry marching behind the tanks, were woven into the cannon roar.

The partisans lay down. Again and again it spread across the field:

Bro-oh-oh-sky-oh-oysters!..

The fire of tanks and enemy infantry increased. He pressed people more and more tightly to the ground, not letting them move forward or backward. The counterattack failed. People lay on the ground in front of the advancing tanks and waited, straining their muscles to stiffness, their heads ringing.

The gray bodies of the two forward vehicles were already very close when, somewhere on the right flank, several clicks from an anti-tank rifle were heard one after another. In the gun-machine-gun rumble, no one heard them. And only when the lead tank suddenly made a sharp jerk forward and to the side, and twists of flame slid on its armor like nimble snakes, the chain groaned with joy. The rest of the tanks turned back.

This team was outstripped by the swift throw of the partisans.

The battle cry rolled across the field, growing, capturing everyone. Great is the joy of victory. The feeling of this joy is three times stronger when you defeat even tanks.

After this battle, the name of the armor-piercer Grigory Ivanov became widely known among the partisans. He continued to keep score of knocked out enemy tanks. The second duel took place on April 19. On this day, after a respite, having brought up fresh forces, the enemy launched persistent attacks on the combat formations of the 13th detachment in the area of ​​​​the village of Kazimirovo. A small height in the vicinity of the village changed hands five times. The 14th detachment with a swift attack drove the punishers out of the village of Khramenki. The partisans entrenched themselves on the outskirts of the village.

In the conditions of fierce fighting along the entire defensive line of the brigade, armor-piercers were transferred from one sector to another. The enemy launched a new attack on partisan positions near the village of Khramenki with the support of three tanks. Grigory Ivanov was on the front line.

Terrible machines, roaring engines, crawled straight to the partisan trenches. There was a barely noticeable movement in the ranks of the fighters, betraying their excitement and impatience. The tanks moved in a triangle. The rumble of cars tore the silence, strained the nerves to the limit, squeezed the temples to the point of pain. Suddenly, from somewhere in the darkness behind the tanks, a red rocket soared into the sky, and the side vehicles began to crawl to the sides with the clear intention of clamping the detachment in pincers. The middle car, flashing its headlights unexpectedly, roared its engine violently and sped up.

Ivanov fell to the sight of an anti-tank rifle, pointed the barrel at the gray body of the left vehicle, which was moving forward obliquely. The pop of a shot - and at the same time, somewhere very close by, a shell burst. Nauseating puffs of burning wood covered the trench, crushed clods of earth mixed with snow doused those lying nearby.

Reloading the PTR, Ivanov looked ahead. The left tank, as if hitting an obstacle, stopped and began to rotate in one place, dissolving a flat track tape.

Ur-ra-ah! - burst over the trenches.

The armor-piercer looked to the right. The last tank also moved half-turn to the firing position of the calculation. Here he began to pick up the course to the right. Ivanov realized that his position had been spotted on the tank, and began to aim even more carefully. A push in the shoulder, but then fugitive explosions of shells on the right and left tightened the trench with powder haze. It was getting harder and harder to make out what was going on up there. To the right, in the trench, Ivanov heard shouts:

Tanks bypass! ..

So it didn't hit. As soon as I thought about it, I felt a blow to my side. And immediately felt weakness in the body and dizziness.

Ivanov is wounded!

Ah, that's it ... I felt the quilted jacket on my right side with my hand. Warm blood flooded his palm. The paramedics ran up and began to bandage the wound. They brought a stretcher. Gregory pushed them aside with his hand:

No, I'll stay here!

He reached for the anti-tank rifle. They helped him lie down comfortably. On the right flank, the tank continued to approach the battle formations of the partisans, firing at the trenches with a cannon and a heavy machine gun. When the curtain of smoke dissipated, Ivanov saw that the gray square had already come close to the trench. Overcoming the pain, he took aim and pulled the trigger. Armor-piercing incendiary bullet pierced the armor just under the white swastika. Another and another shot. The tank stalled, shuddered and stopped.

Fiery streams burst out through the holes and cracks, spreading over the surface of the armor.

The third tank, roaring at full engine power, scattering clods of dirt and snow with its right caterpillar, began to turn sharply. The exhaust pipes of the car threw fireworks of sparks. The tank hastily retreated. Grigory Ivanov sent an armor-piercing incendiary bullet after the outgoing tank. She struck at the armor, a beam of sparks flickered and went out with a short flash.

The last battle between armor-piercer Grigory Ivanov and fascist tanks took place on April 23. It was a very difficult day for the Alekseevites. Punishers attacked under the cover of tanks, which this time did not risk making maneuvers to bypass partisan positions from the flanks, but went straight to the center of defense with the clear intention of making a breach on the move and letting the infantry break into it. Gun barrels of tanks flashed with flame, machine guns crackled. From the position of the PTR calculation on the right flank, it was convenient to shoot at the side armor of the vehicles, and Ivanov did not miss the moment. A torch rising over one of the tanks forced the others to turn back. But the enemy did not calm down. Soon he launched a new attack. And again under cover of tanks. Having lost another car, the Nazis stopped their attacks.

The news that the tanks were on fire, that it was possible to fight them with the modest means at our disposal, inspired the patriots, raised morale in the units, and gave hope to civilians. The name of Grigory Ivanov was repeated with pride.

Armor-piercer Ivanov died in battle in the sector of the 14th detachment, repelling another tank attack. The enemy tankers spotted his firing position and concentrated all their fire on it. A fragment of a shell pierced the chest of a brave partisan. Grigory Ivanov was buried near the places where he performed his exploits.

Many followed Gregory's example. In those difficult days, another armor-piercer from Alexei's brigade, Yakov Gladchenko, distinguished himself with courage and courage. On April 22, he had to be both an armor-piercer and a machine gunner. The guerrilla occupied a firing position in the center of the defense and, when the enemy attack began, he began to "hunt" for the tank, followed by the infantry. The car, bending around the hillock, flashed a swastika on the side armor. This was enough for the armor-piercer to hit the target. A plume of smoke billowed from the stopped tank. The Nazis lay down and opened heavy fire from mortars and machine guns. A machine gunner was killed next to Gladchenko. The Nazis went on the attack, there was a threat of breaking through the defense. The armor-piercer crawled up to the machine gun and opened fire. The punishers stepped back. The partisans rushed to the counterattack and drove the enemy back. Three days later, another wrecked tank was recorded on the combat account of Yakov Gladchenko.

In the April-May operation, armor-piercing partisans became famous for their deeds. During the fighting, they destroyed and knocked out 59 enemy tanks and 7 armored vehicles.

Commissioner Korenevsky

Ushachchina is not without reason famous for its lakes. The area map is adorned with them like a necklace. Ushachi lakes are admired by everyone who has been here. They have long inspired writers, artists, musicians. Fishing enthusiasts find shelter in the magical dusk of the coastal reeds. After a tiring journey on the picturesque lake shores, ubiquitous tourists arrange halts. Researchers became interested in the history of the origin and life of lakes, their fauna and flora.

However, during the Great Patriotic War, the Ushachi lakes attracted the attention of partisans for another reason. The fact is that the labyrinth of lakes with the wooded and swampy places surrounding them is a convenient natural barrier, difficult to access for technology.

After heavy fighting, the partisans in the main directions found themselves in open areas, and the lakes to some extent compensated for the lack of forests. Chains of lakes noticeably facilitated the position of the partisans, in particular in the northeast and east directions. In a number of places, natural barriers helped the partisans not only successfully repel the attacks of the Nazis, but also strike back.

One of these sites was located between the lakes Gomel and Suya. The Gomel heights were of particular importance at this defensive line. They are located at the exit from the inter-lake defile deep into the partisan zone, towards Ushachi. The heights defended by the Brigade named after V.I. Chapaev covered the rear of the brigades that operated on the eastern and southeastern sections of the defensive line. The fascist German command made great efforts to drive the partisans out of the Gomel heights. More than once a critical situation has been created here. Once the Nazis almost made their way to the rear of the brigade named after V.I. Chapaev, but the brigade named after K.E. Voroshilov rescued. The chief of staff of the brigade A. A. Kukhto and assistant commissar L. I. Dervoedov, who were in the town of Gomel, sent reinforcements to the heights.

“In April 1944, we held the defense on the right bank of the Turovlyanka River in the Gomel Turzhets sector,” later recalled the commander of the subversive group of the G. I. Kotovsky detachment of the V. I. Chapaev brigade G. A. Kriulin. - Returning from the task of mining the railway track on the stretch Zyabki - Zagatya, we took up defense in the fortifications adapted for this, which were built back in the pre-war period. The fortifications helped us frustrate the attempts of the punishers to cross Turovlyanka and reach the road to Ushachi. In the village of Pushno, the Nazis concentrated a large number of light tanks and artillery, keeping our defensive line under fire all the time. The enemy also used aircraft. I and my group mined the probable places of the enemy's breakthrough with anti-tank and anti-personnel mines. Many enemy vehicles were blown up on our mines. In the future, we fought in the area of ​​Plino, Paperino. On the highway Kubliki - Ushachi defeated a large convoy, captured trophies. We managed to transport some of the wounded to Selishchanskaya Pushcha.”

One of the organizers of the defense in the northeast was the first secretary of the Ushach underground district party committee, commissar of the partisan brigade named after V.I. Chapaev, Ivan Fedorovich Korenevsky. The son of a poor peasant from near Ulla, he went through a great school of life. Served in the Red Army. He studied at the military academy. After graduation, he served in cavalry units in the Far East, in Kyiv, Petrozavodsk, and Belarus. During the exercises, he fell off his horse and was demobilized from the army for health reasons.

Of the civilian specialties, he liked the work of a teacher. The children became attached to a teacher who knew so much and was able to understand them so well. Ivan Fedorovich was appointed director of the school. But the school soon had to leave: they were elected second secretary of the Drissen (now Verkhnedvinsk) district party committee. A little time passed, and Korenevsky was already the first secretary of the Gorodok district committee. Party work, like everything he did, he gave himself entirely. He tried to understand the work of collective farms, MTS, state farms to the subtleties, took the needs of schools, the intelligentsia to heart, took care of the Komsomol, the pioneers. In a word, he tried to cover everything on which the growth of national wealth, the education of Soviet people as ardent patriots of their homeland, and their happiness depended.

With all his busyness, Ivan Fedorovich did not forget about his family. “In the evening, after work, dad liked to walk along the streets of Gorodok,” recalls Korenevsky's daughter Olga Ivanovna. - Take me by the hand, and we wander around the city. He told me a lot. I remember that I really wanted to have blue eyes. Dad laughed and said that since I want so much, my eyes will certainly be blue.

Dad was very fond of songs. We walk along a deserted street, watch the sunset burn down with a crimson flame, dad thinks about something of his own, frowns a little and sings softly:

Beloved city can sleep peacefully And see dreams, and turn green in the middle of spring ... "

With the invasion of the fascist hordes, the family of Ivan Fedorovich was evacuated to the east, to the city of Aksubaevo, which is north of Kazan, and he himself remained at underground work behind enemy lines. Since July 1942, I. F. Korenevsky headed the Ushachsky underground district committee of the party. Under his leadership, the district committee conducted multifaceted organizational and political work in partisan units, among the local population. In the spring and summer of 1942, communists and Komsomol members gathered volunteers in the villages for the Red Army and sent them through the famous Surazh Gates. Much has been done to involve the youth in the partisan struggle, to organize hidden reserves.

In the summer of 1942, the struggle for bread was a subject of special concern for the underground district committees of the party and the Komsomol, for all patriots. In connection with the mass robbery of peasants by the Nazi invaders, the Vitebsk regional party committee addressed the population with a leaflet, which said:

“Unprecedented in the history of grief and suffering, the occupiers brought our Motherland, rivers of tears and blood are shed by our people from the German fascist invasion.

Hitler is starvation for the people.

To rob the peasants, Hitler created detachments of German, Romanian, Austrian fascists and local traitors - the police, and this whole pack of dogs wants to pounce on you and rob you.

Peasants! Don't give a gram of bread to the jackal Hitler. Gather your bread and hide it yourself.

Remember! Bread is life. Fight and defend your life and the life of your children, protect yourself from starvation. Kill Hitler's soldiers and police than you can! Beat them not only with weapons, but also with axes, stab them with pitchforks! Know that every fascist is your mortal enemy, your death. So kill this death mercilessly if you want to live and save your children and Motherland!

Comrade peasants and peasant women!

Remember that every gram of your bread handed over to the hungry Nazi beast helps him to destroy your husbands and brothers, wives and children, helps the Nazis in the war against the Red Army. And the one who gives bread to the Nazis does not fulfill the duty of a patriot of the Soviet Motherland, he helps its oppressors. Tear off the delivery of bread by all means.

Sabotage the threshing for the occupiers, destroy the procurement points. Burn warehouses and wagons with grain. Break the carts with your bread looted by the German fascists. Do everything in your power not to give bread to the brutalized fascist gang.

Bread must be defended by struggle!

Take up arms, beat the Nazis and their henchmen. Keep in touch with the partisans, destroy the fascist invaders together with them and the Red Army.

The partisans of the V. I. Chapaev brigade, local residents of the villages controlled by the detachments of the Ushachsky and Vetrinsky districts in the summer of 1942 emerged victorious in the struggle for bread. The Nazi occupying authorities, who were still in Ushachi at that time, failed to rob the peasants. They kept all the grain they had taken and shared it with the partisans. Thanks to this, not only the V. I. Chapaev brigade, but also the K. E. Voroshilov brigade formed in the summer of 1942, as well as the partisan detachments that came to the Ushachsky district in the winter and spring of 1943, did not feel a particular lack of food.

The relationship between local residents and the partisans of the Chapaev Brigade was based on understanding, mutual assistance, and friendship. So it was in the days of relative calm. So it was when the Nazis blocked the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone. The population took an active part in all the activities carried out by the underground district party committee, primary party organizations. It contributed to the fund for the construction of aircraft and armored trains "Soviet Belarus", two years in a row replenished the ranks of the partisans, supplied the detachments not only with food, but also with clothes, underwear, and shoes. In difficult days for the partisans, when they fought heavy bloody battles, in order to cheer up the soldiers, to remind them that they are always with them in thoughts and hearts, ordinary Soviet people sent their modest gifts to the trenches - handkerchiefs, mittens, socks, pouches. These gifts touched the warriors.

The Commissar was the organizer and soul of the entire Ull underground. Back in December 1942, the underground warned the command about the preparation of the Nazis for a punitive expedition against the partisans. The commandant of Ulla Held ordered to use against the partisans all the policemen free from guard duty, the engineering and technical personnel of the airfield. The offensive was supposed to be carried out by three groups, each of them was given three machine guns. Fascist officers were placed on an armored personnel carrier. The partisans set up an ambush in the forest. Having missed the first column of the Nazis, they attacked the headquarters group and defeated it. About ten German officers were destroyed.

An underground group, which, in addition to I. A. Rybakov (later the head of the brigade hospital), included his sister Nadezhda, sisters Nina and Lyubov Gladnik, Ivan Rodin, the brother of the commissioner Pyotr Korenevsky, his wife Sophia Korenevskaya, sisters Anna and Evgenia Sidler, sisters Lydia and Valentina Bedritsky, not only passed on intelligence to the partisans, but also provided assistance with medicines and dressings.

The partisan brigade named after V.I. Chapaev operated deep behind enemy lines for more than two years. During this time, her troops committed many military deeds. Korenevsky brought up a whole galaxy of capable commissars of detachments, selflessly devoted to the cause of the Communist Party, their assistants in the Komsomol, political instructors of companies, political officers, workers of the underground district committee of the party. His associates and assistants Gennady Lapshenkov, Vladimir Vasilevsky, Valentina and Yulia Beresnev and many others say that, working under the guidance of Korenevsky, each of them went through a great school of life, received a good hardening.

I. F. Korenevsky was among the first to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Congratulating the commissar on his award, the comrades wished him new successes and began to pump.

Not the time, friends, - the commissar stopped them. - After all, I hope you understand that the most difficult is ahead.

The hardest part was indeed ahead. And he prepared for the most difficult actively, selflessly. He understood that the outcome of future battles largely depended on the political preparation of the partisans and local residents. But political preparation is an extremely painstaking task, requiring daily attention, intolerant of indifference and callousness. The steadfastness, courage and understanding of the situation, which the partisans and residents of the Ushachsky district showed, are largely due to the truly enormous political work that was carried out by the underground Ushachsky district committee of the party under the leadership of I.F. Korenevsky. Newspapers, leaflets, reports of the Soviet Information Bureau, amateur evenings, just conversations - all the variety of forms of work with people was adopted by underground party organizations and used effectively, purposefully, as required by the situation and conditions of the struggle in the occupied territory.

Brigade commissar I.F. Korenevsky was at the forefront all the days of the April-May expedition of 1944. Just as carefully as all other operations, he prepared a strike against the punitive garrisons located in the region of the Gomel heights.

Geidcamper resents

Otto Heidkemper, the former chief of staff of the 3rd German Panzer Army, is very outraged by the nature of the partisan actions against the punishers in the April-May expedition. In his book “Vitebsk. The struggle and death of the 3rd Panzer Army," he complains that the fight was not conducted according to the rules, that partisan methods, allegedly, "were a mockery of all international norms and humane methods of struggle." Even while working on his book, that is, almost 10 years after the war, he could not calmly, without irritation, recall how the partisans destroyed the punitive detachments in various ways, "delivering treacherous blows where they could." The calculations of the command of the punitive expedition, you see, did not include the reflection of small partisan groups that infiltrated to the rear through the German barrage detachments. On the other hand, the headquarters of the 3rd Panzer Army did not think that the partisans would succeed in moving "to a well-organized defense." “There are no words,” exclaims the general, “that could describe the diabolical and formidable actions of the partisans these days.”

It must be that our countermeasures, taken on the battlefields, seriously interfered with the implementation of the enemy's plans, if they are so deeply embedded in the memory of the former chief of staff of the 3rd Panzer Army. The partisans really did not give the punishers peace day or night, and in this sense Geidkemper has good reason to be indignant. Partisan subunits began to use active defense methods more boldly and with greater effect: high maneuverability, counterattacks, and unexpected combined strikes against the enemy's flanks and rear. Mobile groups of partisans more and more often made their way to the enemy's rear, destroyed headquarters, manpower, means of communication, violated the command and control of enemy troops, sowed panic in the enemy camp, and continuously weakened him. As for Heidkemper's accusation of partisans in the "lack of humanism" in hostilities, here a well-worn trick is put into play - to shift the blame from a sick head to a healthy one. The facts testify that it was the fascists who trampled on the elementary norms of humanism and humanity.

In the area of ​​​​the Gomel heights, detachments of the brigade named after V.I. Chapaev repeatedly made surprise raids on the enemy. After the punishers managed to push the partisans in this area, their main bases were located in the villages of Doletsky and Zaschaty. On the night of April 16, a detachment under the command of A. Ya. Konev delivered a sudden blow to the enemy garrisons. The village of Doletsky was taken by storm. In Zaschaty, the partisans were met by heavy fire. The enemy managed to occupy the old bunkers, and the garrison managed to hold out. In the battles for Doletsky and Zaschaty, the enemy lost up to 80 people killed and wounded. Documents captured in battles were of great value.

Detachments of the V. I. Chapaev brigade under the command of I. S. Boreiko, I. S. Vorzhev, A. I. Turov skillfully combined defensive battles with counterattacks. Near the village of Zaozerye and in other places, the Chapaevs exterminated many enemy soldiers and officers.

On the defense sector of the partisan regiment of I.F. Sadchikov, two battalions of the Nazis, supported by 6 tanks, launched an offensive in the direction of the villages of Kosarevo and Bely Dvor. The attacks were supported by artillery and mortar fire. The enemy managed to destroy part of the bunkers, a wire fence and even individual anti-tank gouges, but the Nazis advanced only 200 meters. Two tanks knocked out by partisans had to be dragged back in tow. Before the Nazis had time to recover from the day's battle, a stunning blow fell upon them. Masters of night attacks, Smolensk partisans on the night of April 17, with a sudden counterattack, drove the Germans out of the band they occupied. Furious punishers in the early morning pulled up fresh forces, reinforced them with equipment and again moved forward.

“At 5.30, our observation noticed a column moving from the Latyshki garrison in the direction of the 4th battalion,” an entry in the file of the Smolensk regiment testifies. - Observation let the enemy in at 150 meters, fired at him and retreated to a height of 148.1, where our outposts were located. After a short exchange of fire, the enemy in a deployed formation went on the offensive against our outposts. This was reported to the headquarters of the battalion and the headquarters of the regiment. Reinforcements were sent to the outposts - one platoon. Reinforced combat guards fought for forty minutes. Having mined the height, we retreated to the main line of defense.

At 11.00, the enemy in front of the front of the 4th battalion concentrated up to 1,500 infantry, up to 2 artillery battalions, 8 medium tanks, 3 armored vehicles, and after bombarding the front line of our defense with 6 aircraft, went on the offensive. The tanks went ahead, the infantry followed the tanks.

The main blow was held back by the 12th detachment, which, having let the tanks reach three hundred meters, opened fire from the anti-tank rifle. One tank was hit, the rest of the tanks, having reached the anti-tank gouges, stopped. The advance was stopped by the fire of our detachments. Then the enemy, pulling up artillery, smashed some of our bunkers with direct fire and again, with the support of tanks, went on the offensive. As a result of a five-hour battle, the enemy managed to slightly penetrate our defenses and occupy the villages of Bely Dvor, Belkovo and Tsarevo.

In the future, events in the sector of the Smolensk partisan regiment unfolded as follows. On the night of April 18, the command of the regiment sent six groups behind enemy lines with the task of laying mines on roads and setting up ambushes. Mines were placed on all approaches to the defensive line. On April 18, the enemy once again tried to crush the partisan defenses. Heavy artillery of the enemy, tanks, an armored train entered the battle, the number of bombers doubled. The 4th battalion repulsed six attacks by infantry and tanks during the day. The guerrillas several times rose in counterattacks and overturned enemy chains. After this battle, the German command stopped trying to advance in the northern sector.

The news about the courage and steadfastness of the partisans of the Smolensk regiment spread throughout the zone. The names of those who distinguished themselves were passed from mouth to mouth: commander of the detachment A.P. Bobrov, commissioners I.M. Dredun and S.S. Demin, messenger A.I. Poznyak, battalion commander H.K. . Let's talk about two of them.

The commander of the detachment Anatoly Pavlovich Bobrov is a villager. He infinitely loved his native nature, the expanse of fields, the azure expanse of lakes, the smell of a fresh furrow. He liked dashing dances, daring fun. Cheerful disposition, cheerfulness, combined with resourcefulness, the will to win made Bobrov the favorite of the detachment.

The commissar of the detachment, Ivan Mikhailovich Dredun, was by nature a calm, taciturn man. He was loved for his unostentatious courage and endurance. While still a squad leader, Dreadun was wounded in one of the battles with the punishers, but refused to transfer command of the squad to someone and leave the battlefield. “For almost 12 hours, the Dredun squad bravely defended, holding back the onslaught of the enemy many times superior,” this event is recorded in the history of the regiment. “The wound ached, the hand did not obey, but Dreadun continued to command and fire from his rifle.”

In the partisan brigade "October", which held the defense north of Lake Medzozol, there was a small detachment commanded by Fyodor Petrovich Zyryanov. The detachment showed tenacity in battle even when repelling punitive expeditions in 1943. There were many military operations on the account of the detachment. When the situation on the Berezina became more complicated and it became known about the stubborn defense, and then the fall of the Baturinsky bridge, F.P. Zyryanov volunteered to make a sortie into the camp of the enemy. He suggested, taking advantage of the lull in the brigade's sector, to cross the neutral zone at night and "make noise" in one of the garrisons. The command of the brigade agreed to such an operation.

From the place of deployment of the detachment to the village of Yukhnovshchina, where, according to intelligence, the newly arrived German unit is located, 8-10 kilometers. A group of partisans led by the detachment commander secretly made his way to the village and began to conduct surveillance. The invaders felt completely safe. At one of the houses they made a fire, cooked dinner, ate, laughed. Satisfied, we went to the house to rest. There was only one sentry left by the fading fire. Heavy with food, he took little interest in what was going on around him. The rifle stood against the wall of the house, the sentry himself squatted, warming his hands over the coals and muttering something under his breath. At Zyryanov's command, the partisans divided into three groups and silently crawled towards the house. The conditional signal for the attack was the commander's automatic burst. She was supported by the fire of 4 machine guns, 5 machine guns and 36 rifles. Grenades flew through the windows. There were screams from the house. Punishers began to jump out of the windows. Here they came under partisan bullets. A group of Nazis still managed to open indiscriminate fire, but the partisans suppressed it. Zyryanov gave the signal to withdraw. And just in time: reinforcements were coming from the neighboring village of Zashchesli.

A successful operation near the village of Nezhevshchina was carried out by a group of partisans from the Oktyabr brigade under the command of E. P. Korolkov. In an ambush battle, the patriots scattered the Nazi column. Leaving the dead and wounded on the road, the invaders fled. A day later, on April 19, a new surprise was prepared for the punishers in the same direction. “Having pulled up forces and installed three guns in the area of ​​​​the forest, which is northwest of the Klenovka farm,” it was recorded in the brigade combat log, “the enemy advanced in a deployed front in the direction of the Klenovka-Chistoe road. At the crossing over the Chistyanka River, the commissar of the 4th detachment, I. A. Kobryanov, with two platoons, made an ambush. Approaching the ford, the enemy lay down and opened fire on the edge of the forest. The partisans did not show themselves. Soon the Germans stopped shelling and began to ford the Chistyanka River. In the middle of the river, the Nazis were covered by the destroying fire of the partisans. A fight ensued. It ended in a shameful flight of the enemy.

I would like to tell you about one more of the many partisan battles. In an effort to break through to Ushachi from the south, the enemy persistently attacked the positions of the 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade near the village of Zarubovshchina. In a narrow area, the Nazis concentrated 18 guns. Aircraft attacked from the air. With the support of technology, 3 battalions of punishers attacked Zarubovshchina from the village of Pakhomenki and 3 from the Voloki region. The enemy advanced to the tar mill, which is two kilometers east of Zarubovshchina. The 3rd and 5th detachments of the 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade stopped his advance with a surprise attack. However, under the onslaught of superior Nazi forces, the partisans were still forced to retreat to the forest north of the village.

All this happened on April 24, in the morning. Punishers settled down to rest. The guerrillas took advantage of the opportunity to launch a surprise attack. The 1st and 2nd detachments from the edge of the forest unexpectedly attacked the left flank of the enemy:

Beat the fascists!

An avalanche of partisans crushed the enemy barriers, broke into the village and in a short fierce battle inflicted significant losses on the 35th battalion of the 12th Grenadier Regiment and the Dirlewanger battalion, forcing them to flee from the settlement.

The counterattack in the Zarubov region was one of the most effective. The partisans exterminated many Nazis, captured 3 guns, 3 mortars, 8 machine guns, 150 rifles and other property. Prisoners, ammunition, food were taken. Staff correspondence, codes, maps and other documents were of particular value.

Of interest is one of the orders for the special SS battalion Dirlewanger. In particular, it said that a large area in the Ushachsky district is an exceptionally dangerous area, that “everything is mined here, there are strong fortifications and strong resistance must be counted on.” When attacking this area, it was recommended to take into account that the partisans receive assistance from the Red Army. According to Dirlewanger, the partisans had especially strong fortifications “on the sector of the front where our battalion should advance. This was established by aerial photography and SD agents.

Further, the order spoke about the goals of the first and subsequent days of the offensive in the area of ​​​​Lake Medzozol. As can be seen from the order, the fascist German command was especially afraid of the actions of small groups of partisans in the rear of enemy troops. “I order,” Dirlewanger demanded, “to completely clear this territory of the enemy, to carefully carry out this operation so that small groups do not remain.” The order strictly forbade burning bonfires after dark: the Nazis, like wolves of fire, were afraid of Soviet air raids.

Familiarity with enemy documents confirmed our conclusions that the enemy's initial plans had been thwarted. The invaders hoped to quickly deal with the partisans. But our activity grew from day to day.

Material about Vladimir Eliseevich Lobank(for educational activities)

Vladimir Eliseevich Lobanok (07/03/1907 - 11/04/1984)

Born into a peasant family in the village of Ostrov, Pukhovichsky District, Minsk Region, Belarusian, statesman and party leader, one of the organizers and leaders of the communist underground and partisan movement in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War, member of the CPSU since 1930, Hero of the Soviet Union.

V.E. Lobanok began his career in agriculture. In 1924 he entered and in 1927 graduated from the Maryinogorsk Agricultural College. In 1931 he graduated from the Belarusian Agricultural Academy, and in 1956 from the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU.

Since 1931 he worked as an agronomist of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the BSSR, since 1933 - as an agronomist-economist of the authorized People's Commissariat of State Farms of the USSR for the Byelorussian SSR.

In 1934, V.E. Lobank was appointed director of the Belitsky, and in 1940, the Smolyansky Agricultural College of the Vitebsk region.

In May 1941, V.E. Lobanok was elected to partisan work as the first secretary of the Lepel district party committee.

During the Great Patriotic War, by decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b), V.E. Lobanok was left behind enemy lines to organize the communist underground and partisan movement.

From July 1941 to October 1943 he was the first secretary of the Lepel underground district party committee, at the same time from March 1942 - the commission of the underground brigade "Dubova", and from July 1943 - the commander of the Polotsk-Lepel partisan unit, which included 16 large brigades.

Under the leadership of V.E. Lobank and with his direct participation, many military operations were developed and carried out to defeat the Nazi garrisons, including in Pyshka, Kamena, Borovtsy, Umaty.

Here are some combat episodes.

The Polotsk region is engulfed in a terrible fire. Ushachi, Glubokoe, Dunilovichi and other villages were burning.

The German barbarians have already managed to hang and shoot hundreds and thousands of innocent people. It became known that a new punitive expedition had arrived at Zyabki station with the task of destroying the civilian population. The same expeditions arrived in the city of Glubokoe, the village of Bureki, and others.

In response to the atrocities of the Germans, people went to the forests, became fighters on the invisible front, took up arms, and joined the fight against the invaders. The partisan detachment of Lobank was already known for its fighting. It consisted of 30 people.

In the summer of 1942, the detachment of V.E. Lobank and other combat groups united into a partisan brigade, one of the former directors of the MTS F.F. Dubrovsky, later a major general, was appointed commander. Hero of the Soviet Union. V.E. Lobanok was appointed commissar of the brigade.

The brigade began its first battle with enemies in early August 1942 on the Ushachi-Lepel highway near the village. Royal.

The highway was mined in several places. Ambush and observers are in place. The brave commissar Lobanok is among the partisans. He gives advice and guidance. A long column of German vehicles appeared on the roads, bringing ammunition and soldiers to the front line. Machine-gun, automatic and rifle fire fell on the enemy. Gun salvos hit. Several cars at the head of the column were immediately hit. The Germans jump out of the cars in a panic, but death overtakes them everywhere. Twenty vehicles were missing the enemy that day, 69 Nazis fell at the hands of the partisans.

Bold by nature and dashing commissar V.E. Lobanok liked to go on reconnaissance or lead a group of scouts. Once it became known that a German garrison was stationed in the town of Kublichi, the commandant of which the German authorities appointed officer Tsyms. It was known that this beast Tsyms mocked the Soviet people and drank a lot. The partisans decided to act. The raid combat group was headed by V.E. Lobanok. It was decided to carry out the operation "peacefully". The partisans entered the town and occupied the indicated place. Lobanok was the first to burst into the commandant's house and "politely" offered to lay down their arms and gather to "visit" the partisans. Tsyms goggled his eyes. Despite the fact that he was drunk, he tried to resist. But he was immediately disarmed. Together with 12 other prisoners from the commandant's office, Tsyms was taken to the brigade headquarters.

Shortly after this operation, Lobanok led a more complex operation to defeat the German garrison in Kamen.

The brigade was divided into three detachments. Under the cover of darkness, the partisans silently approached the German fortifications along the town of Sichnoe and all rushed to the attack. German pillboxes and pillboxes flew up. One after another, the German barracks and communications premises blazed with fire. An explosion thundered not far from the garrison - bridges were blown up to cut off the road for the retreating Nazis.

The Germans rushed furiously in panic, not having time to grab their weapons. Accurate partisan fire mowed them down, pressing them to the ground. There was no trace left of the garrison.

Now in one place, now in another place, the partisan brigade of Dubrovsky and Lobank delivered tangible blows to the invaders, attacked and destroyed the Nazis.

It was 1943. The partisan movement grew and expanded. From one brigade created two. Dubrovsky and V.E. Lobanok were appointed brigade commanders, and each acted independently.

Vladimir Lobanok led his heroes to heavy battles with the enemy. The Germans were defeated in Chashniki, the town of Kamen. The battle group of the partisans of Lobank reached Lithuania itself, destroying the German invaders on its way.

It was the spring of 1944. Colonel V.E. Lobanok is appointed commander of the formation of partisan brigades of the Polotsk-Lepel zone. The Germans threw a 60,000-strong grouping, armed with 150 tanks, 235 guns, two armored trains, and 75 aircraft, against the partisans, commanded by V.E. Lobanok.

In just 26 days of continuous and heavy fighting, the partisans of the unit, consisting of 7485 people, destroyed 8298 German soldiers and officers and wounded 12800. Glorious armor-piercing partisans knocked out 59 enemy tanks, 111 vehicles, 7 armored vehicles, 22 guns and 2 aircraft in these battles.

In all the battles, Lobanok himself was not only the soul of this great struggle, but also a warrior and a fighter, he personally destroyed 17 German soldiers and officers, 3 German echelons, 5 vehicles, 11 bridges.

For the heroic feat shown in the performance of combat missions of the command in the fight against the Nazi invaders behind enemy lines, and for special merits in the development of the partisan movement in Belarus, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by decree of September 16, 1943, awarded V.E. Lobank the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

After the occupiers were expelled from the Belarusian land, V.E. Lobanok worked as a deputy for some time. head of the agricultural department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b), and in 1944-1946. - Chairman of the Polotsk Regional Council of Workers' Deputies.

In 1946, V.E. Lobanok was elected second secretary, and in June 1948 - first secretary of the Polessky regional party committee, from January 1954 - chairman of the Gomel regional executive committee, and from September 1956 - first secretary of the Vitebsk regional committee of the CPB.

From 1962 to 1965, V.E. Lobanok was the first deputy. Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR, at the same time - Minister of Production and Procurement of Agricultural Products of the BSSR, and from April 1974 to November 1985 - Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the BSSR.

V.E. Lobanok - Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the second-eleventh convocations, member of the Central Audit Commission of the Central Committee of the CPSU, member of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPB, delegate to all congresses of the Communist Party of Belarus, starting from the XIX, member of the presidium and deputy. Chairman of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans.

V.E. Lobanok was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, two Orders of the Red Banner of War, the Order of Suvorov I degree, the Order of the Patriotic War I degree, three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor, twelve medals of the Soviet Union.

VLADIMIR LOBANOK: STROKE TO THE PORTRAIT

It seems that so much is already known about the Great Patriotic War, but the consciousness of people still does not leave the feeling of some kind of understatement about that dashing time of 1.418 as in a dream of lived powder days and nights. They want to fully comprehend why and how that unthinkably tightly twisted at the very beginning, multi-sacrifice, oversaturated with grief and heroism, honor and dishonor, valor and baseness, loyalty and betrayal, to the joy of peaceful earthlings, was crowned with the May Victory of the forty-fifth.
One of the organizers and leaders of the partisan movement in Belarus, Hero of the Soviet Union Vladimir Eliseevich Lobanok, also did his best to bring the Victory closer. I, an ordinary fighter in a partisan unit under his command, want to add a few touches to the portrait of this wonderful person ...

Just before the war, Vladimir Lobanok, who had just been elected first secretary of the Lepel district party committee and did not even have time to move his family, was far from everything military battle by education, agronomic specialty, life experience, and character. And the corresponding directives of the first days, which demanded, when it got hot, the urgent deployment of partisan actions, rather resembled declarative appeals of the most general nature.

The briefing before leaving Gomel behind enemy lines also clarified little. There were not even maps of the required scale, and according to the old ones that were found, it was almost impossible to navigate the terrain.
It is good that even before the invasion of the Germans, they managed to pick up volunteers for underground work and hide something in the Sosnyagovska Forest. The arrival of Lobank as a plenipotentiary representative of the party and Soviet power to the Lepelshchina inspired the members of the local underground: he was already known by his first confident steps in the region.

It was extremely difficult to work, often life hung in the balance. Extreme tension in the face of constant danger, moments of anxious sleep somewhere in the hayloft, in a haystack or on the bunk beds of a dugout in Sosnyagovsky Forest, secret but such fruitful meetings with underground activists - these anxious everyday life soon culminated in practical actions to defeat the volost administrations, points for the preparation of products, and then the military garrisons of the enemy.

In the positions of group commander, detachment, commissar, brigade commander, V.E. Lobanok was the soul of all patriotic undertakings. “He not only led partisan detachments,” his combat characteristics testify, “but also with weapons in his hands, with grenades, with a“ fishing rod ”from a mine planted on a piece of iron, by his personal example he led the fighters to heroic deeds.
There was not a single operation in which he did not take part. An ambush on the Lepel-Berezino highway (where Lobanok was wounded), the defeat of the zemstvo economy of Ivansk, a major battle with Nazi robbers near the village of Zeleny Ostrov, the defeat of German garrisons, a campaign in Lithuania, distracting actions during the punitive expedition of 1943 - this is not a complete list only his major operations.”

Nothing consumes a person like war. And no school teaches so quickly as the school of war. Not much time has passed since the first armed actions of the Lepel detachment of Lobank, and his growth as a commander in this living movement towards the truth of life attracted attention immediately.
Generously gifted with the kindness of his soul, Vladimir Eliseevich was very attentive to people, never allowed himself to raise his voice to a subordinate, although sometimes the situation required this. A respectful attitude towards others, corrected only by a demanding look, combined with the unquestioning obligatoryness of commanding orders created that outwardly invisible fabric-atmosphere of command and subordination, which is commonly called "iron discipline" and which was an indispensable tool in a duel with a fierce and treacherous enemy. Never forget the deep raid into Lithuania...

After the defeat of two landowners' estates, where the Lobank group acquired horse transport, they began to mistake it for a military unit with a wagon train. Fear has big eyes. The rumor was ahead of the movement of the “red landing”, the enemy garrisons scattered on the way. Moving forward, the partisans destroyed telephone and telegraph communications, burned a bridge across the Disna River, and destroyed an echelon with provisions and officer property. A freight train was blown up near the Ignalina station, and a train rushing from the opposite side crashed into the cars blocking the tracks.
The indiscriminate shooting of the surviving invaders only increased the panic in their camp...

Moving on, the partisans defeated eight enemy garrisons, inflicted serious damage to the enemy in manpower and equipment, burned bridges, swept away volost councils, oil mills, and food warehouses. Having traveled more than 400 kilometers across Lithuania, repelling all the attacks of the punishers, the Lobank group returned to its camp near Lepel at the end of April 43. In the raid, Lobanok showed himself as a commander with brilliant military training, as if he had graduated not from an agricultural, but from the highest military academy. The growing activity of the partisans knocked down the arrogance of the invaders from parade marches “in Europe”. Something began to undermine, undermine, gradually deform such a strategically important factor in the war as time - the main element of maneuver. Something, somewhere, shifted, was done at the wrong time, introducing confusion not only into the operational, but also the strategic outlines of the headquarters.

Mastery of time - nothing more is dreamed of in war. The intensification of the punitive measures of the invaders did not help either, with up to 50 divisions on the Soviet-German front. Partisan countermeasures, as a rule, brought to naught all sorties of punishers.

Lobanok and here was on top. In May 1943, during the Cottbus punitive expedition, the Nazis managed to surround the partisans and civilians at the Domzheritsky and Palik lakes. The consolidated group of detachments under the command of Lobank broke through the encirclement, saved all the blocked ones, seizing weapons and other trophies from the enemy. And the rumor went around the detachments and villages about “Volod” (his underground nickname) as a “savior”.

In the conditions of the wooded and swampy terrain of Belarus, the difficult task of organizing the partisan forces was also creatively solved. The most convenient - mobile, flexible - we had a brigade of three to seven detachments. The brigade uniform corresponded to the territorial one - partisan territories and zones. This is 60 percent of the Belarusian land cleared of foreigners. The people said: "The land is peasant, the forests are partisan, the highway is German, but the power is Soviet."
And it turned out in aggregate: the Belarusian partisan republic is a military form of Soviet power. It was personified and carried out by the main partisan governors - commanders and commissars of brigades, detachments.

The protection of civilians was, as it were, a cross-cutting super-task of the partisans at all stages of their actions. In the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone (3.245 square kilometers of territory, 1.220 settlements, about 80 thousand inhabitants), at the end of the forty-third, 16 brigades were stationed. By order of the TsShPD of November 28, 1943, they were brought together led by an authorized representative of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B and the BSHPD, already then a Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel V.E. Lobank. Under his leadership, life in villages and towns, including the regional center of Ushachi, began to seethe. Despite the snowy winter, defensive structures were built and, for some reason, additional landing sites. All 3 power plants, 6 mills, 20 linseed oil plants, turpentine-tar, carpentry and cooperage enterprises worked in a busy mode. Telephone and radio communications worked well. Getting ready...

What they were preparing for - only one person knew everything about this, hiding in a snow-covered forest dugout near Ushachi. Colonel Lobanok knew this...

Decisive battles for the complete liberation of Belarus were coming...

The order of the head of the TsShPD to the Lobank task force in the Polotsk-Lepel zone consisted of two parts. The first, brought to the attention of the brigade command, spoke of holding the zone. The second (top secret) outlined the preparation and reception of the airborne corps in the partisan zone. Both combat missions were closely interconnected.

We will never forget the invasion of the partisan zone by a 60,000-strong group of punishers. Incredibly difficult battles had to be waged by the partisans of Lobank in April-May forty-four ...

For the sake of saving civilians and diverting enemy forces from front-line affairs, they took the fight, insanely unequal in defense, with the only chance to make up for the inequality only with the accumulated richest arsenal of specific partisan means and actions, military skill and valor of patriots.
Everyone had two words on their lips in those days: "Partisan Stalingrad." Yes, in terms of the intensity of almost a month of fighting, the battle near Ushachi was very close to this, the reddest mark of the Great Patriotic War.

The brigade commanders A.F. Danukalov, P.M. Romanov, D.T. Korolenko, V.V. Gil-Rodionov, the first secretary of the Ushach underground district committee, the commissar of the partisan brigade named after V.I. Chapaev, I. F. Korenevsky. On the plates of the mass grave of the “Breakthrough” memorial are the names of 1,450 who fell in battles with the Nazis. The main result of the battle is the salvation of the bulk of the population. Not only those 15,000 who, together with the partisans, went out into the gap on the night of May 4-5, but also those who had been saved from captivity even earlier, who, with the help of the partisans, managed to disperse during the fighting and secretly return to their villages. Although among them there were no casualties.

The military, operational and strategic significance of the duel near Ushachi lies in the fact that in a month of heavy fighting, despite more than three times the numerical and other advantages of the punishers, the partisans, skillfully combining positional battles with specifically partisan methods and means that the former chief of staff of the 3rd TA Otto Geidkemper in his memoirs will call “devilish and formidable actions”, the troops withdrawn from the front were so exhausted that this significantly weakened their resistance during the battle for Belarus that soon began in the strip between Vitebsk and Polotsk. Not to mention the serious direct losses of the Nazis in manpower: the partisans killed 8,300, wounded up to 12,000 soldiers and officers - the number of almost two divisions, destroyed a lot of equipment - tanks, artillery, vehicles, aircraft.

What kind of “Spring Festival” is this for the enemy, as the punitive expedition was called? By right of a participant in the battles with punishers in the spring of forty-four near Ushachi, seriously wounded and shell-shocked on the last lines of defense, I dare say: without Lobank, without his endurance, patience, courage, resourcefulness, personal example, and finally, simply without his naked honesty, all this a heroic epic, as well as an amazingly daring and accurate breakthrough itself, would simply be impossible.
And he remained very modest, seemingly by no means a militant person “with a quiet voice and a shy smile” (M. Svetlov). The participants in the breakthrough later joked with pride and admiration: “Field Marshal Paulus would have surrendered.” As having particularly distinguished himself in battles with punishers, and at the same time demonstrating the brilliant qualities of a military leader, the commander of the formation, Colonel Lobanok, was deservedly awarded the highest military leader, in essence, the general order of Suvorov of the first degree. And that says it all. It is significant that one of the participants in the breakthrough near Ushachi, Mikhail Yegorov, was destined, together with the Georgian Meliton Kantaria, to hoist the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag.

Lobank's personal friend, Hero of the Soviet Union, fighter pilot Alexei Maresyev, who, already without legs, with prostheses instead of them, shot down 7, and only 11 enemy aircraft, spoke with his heart in June 1974 at the opening of the Breakthrough memorial complex near Ushachi: - I, when I come to Belarus, every time I feel that I am indebted to her ... Apparently, under the influence of the surging impressions-memories "about the fires-fires, about friends-comrades," Vladimir Eliseevich made the following entry in the notebook of a deputy of the Great Allied Power: "You know when i was born? On the night of May 5, 1944, at 22:30. When we made a breakthrough.” Blessed is the person who instead of a line between two dates has another significant milestone, equal to the second birth for the sake of the Life and Happiness of people on Earth.

FROM MEMORY Anatoly Semenovich KHONYAK, partisan of the Lepel brigade

– Lobank was loved more than Dubrovsky. Why?

- Certainly. He was highly educated, erudite, humane. Once they took the city of Glubokoe. Well, it didn't work out. Dubrovsky shouted: “What did you come here for?! Bread on g ... remake! Take!" Lobanok took him away. Where possible, it is possible. Through force - it is impossible.

« OH, BIAROZY DY PINE…»

Agree, there is something significant in this symbolic coincidence. Once again, we will solemnly celebrate our dearest, brightest holiday - the Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus (Republic Day). And at the same time, let us remember Vladimir Eliseevich, who did so much for our country. renowned organizer and leader of the partisan movement in Belarus, a major party and statesman, whose life has become an example of high patriotism, steadfastness and courage, deep devotion to his homeland, his people.

Father never saw

In this essay - some of the most important touches to the portrait of Vladimir Lobank. The author was well acquainted with him and was friends for almost 30 years. I still cherish the memories of our meetings and conversations. In the fate of Vladimir Eliseevich is the fate of many thousands of his peers, Belarusian guys, whose lot fell on the hardest trials. But there are very remarkable moments in his biography, which, I think, are not known to the general public of Belarus.

Born in the village of Ostrov, Pukhovichi District. His father Yelisey Nikolaevich in 1909 - Vladimir was only two years old - went to America to look for a better life, took an active part in the labor movement. After the war, Belarusian Foreign Minister Kuzma Kiselev found an unfortunate Belarusian in America and helped him return home. But not fate: he died suddenly the night before the departure. The son never saw his father. By the way, after the war, when V. Lobanok worked as the first secretary of the Polessky regional party committee, the all-powerful Tsanava wanted to arrest him for ... his father in America. But the brave partisan was reliably defended by P. Ponomarenko, who was no less powerful then.

More interesting details. Immediately after graduating from the Belarusian Agricultural Academy in 1931, Vladimir Lobanok worked as an agronomist at the People's Commissariat for Agriculture of the BSSR. And since 1933, he was already an agronomist-economist of the authorized People's Commissariat of State Farms of the USSR for Belarus.

The most important period of his life, of course, the partisan years. Vladimir Eliseevich always spoke about them willingly and interestingly, such an inner need lived in him. He once suggested to me:

Let's go to the Lepel and Polotsk regions. If time permits, we will turn to Ushachchina. Let's visit the places where I partisans. Thank God, many of my fighting friends still live there, and, in spite of everything, they are doing well. You know, I'm always drawn to those parts...

... Then on the way we stopped in Khatyn. It was a magnificent July, smelling of honey, pure light clouds floated in the high sky, iridescent trills of carefree larks were woven into the sonorous silence of a summer day like a living ligature.

We stopped at the bronze Joseph Kaminsky. They stood and were silent. The heavy chimes of the bells of Khatyn resonated in the soul with deep sorrow and pain;

I didn't ask Vladimir Eliseevich about anything. He knew that now he was remembering those distant years, scorched by a distant war, guerrilla battles.

And how many such Khatyns are in the Vitebsk region, - he sighed heavily. - What wild atrocities the Nazis did there. As if now before the eyes of burned villages, the corpses of innocent women and children, who were so mocked by the fascist fanatics. The partisans took revenge on them mercilessly.

Partisan commander

On that trip, at other meetings, Vladimir Eliseevich spoke in detail about the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone. She is a unique phenomenon in the partisan movement in Belarus. Its territory exceeded three thousand two hundred square kilometers. There were more than a thousand settlements in the region, where up to one hundred thousand people lived. The length of the defense zone was 287 kilometers, including 25 kilometers along the banks of the Western Dvina.

At that time, such a song was still circulating among our partisans: “We are standing on the left bank, we will not let the enemy pass here,” Vladimir Eliseevich recalled. - And they didn't. By the end of 1943, 16 partisan brigades were stationed here, numbering 17,000 fighters.

Vladimir Lobanok first commanded a brigade, then a partisan formation in this zone. Remembered:

Let's not forget that all this happened under the noses of the Nazis. The Polotsk-Lepel zone was the close rear of the 3rd Panzer Army, and we did not let the enemy live day or night. Sudden raids smashed their garrisons, blew up bridges, warehouses, disabled important communications, disrupted enemy transportation by rail and highways. So, the Nazis could not use the Lepel-Berezino-Parafyanovo highway and the Lepel-Orsha railway at all. In the autumn of 1942, we liberated the Ushachi district center from the invaders, which turned into the capital of our vast partisan region.

Vladimir Eliseevich, I asked, what was required of you at that time, the commander of such a huge partisan formation?

First, I was personally responsible for everyone and everything. And not only for the partisans, but also for the civilian population. Secondly, we were all fully aware that we, and only we, in the current situation, in the deep enemy rear, can and must show the Nazis: they are not the masters here, but the partisans, the Soviet people. If we talk about courage, then it was truly massive and consisted in the fact that at this particular time the partisans showed a perfect and complete readiness to assess the measure of danger, a high moral readiness to withstand it.

Vladimir Eliseevich did not like to talk about himself. Although his brothers-in-arms recalled that he directly participated in almost all the battles carried out by the forest soldiers of his unit. And he was always distinguished by outstanding personal courage and courage. And he received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in October 1943 - during the most fierce battles with the enemy. And what does the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree, tell him, a Belarusian partisan? What about other combat awards?

It was personality

Vladimir Lobanok has held high and responsible positions in our republic for several decades in a row. Elizaveta Chagina, who worked as the secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR, recalls:

Immediately, as in 1975, Vladimir Eliseevich was elected deputy chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of our republic, he showed himself to be an experienced statesman, a real personality. Its role in the development of territorial public administration in Belarus is great. In 1977 alone, 70,000 gatherings and assemblies of citizens were held in the republic, attended by five and a half million people. Vladimir Eliseevich was keenly interested in the expressed thoughts and used them in his work. In all matters, he put the interests of the people and their well-being above all else. He knew firsthand about the needs and problems of people, and with his vast experience of working in the midst of the population, he made many valuable proposals on legislation, the style of work of our parliament and deputies.

Elizaveta Petrovna, what distinguished him most of all as a statesman?

Accessibility, humanity, simplicity, modesty. I don't remember the vice chairman's office being empty. Always people - deputies, partisans, ordinary citizens. Vladimir Eliseevich loved them. Moreover, he was a man of the highest culture. In ten years of working together, I don’t remember him raising his voice, communicating tactlessly with his subordinates. And he was always very objective in assessing officials and specific events.

Not only for me, but also for all the then deputies, employees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR, Vladimir Eliseevich remained in the memory as an image worthy of imitation. Until the last day he was in the ranks, he served his native Belarus, which he loved so dearly.

Well, it is not for nothing that it is said that modesty is the main condition of moral beauty. And the best pedigree is the services rendered to the Motherland and humanity. Patriotism is inseparable from the high personal morality of a person, from his best spiritual qualities.

Do good without getting tired

... We are sitting in our editorial office with Elena Lobanok, the youngest daughter of Vladimir Eliseevich. I ask her to tell at least a little about what kind of father he was, a family man, how he treated children.

He was always distinguished by exceptional kindness, he did it to people, he never got tired. We children never heard bad words from him. He loved us very much, and even more - grandchildren. There are three of them. My two sons and the son of my older sister Nelya, who lives in Moscow. And we, his daughters, respected and loved our father, grew obedient. They went to college and got higher education.

Father was always extremely busy, frequent business trips even on weekends. He was fond of fishing, hunting, but he was attracted not by prey, but by the opportunity to observe nature. And further. Wherever we lived, my father always planted trees and planted flowers.

I will say: the author of these lines also felt the amazing kindness of Vladimir Eliseevich. When I was in the hospital for a long time and took a lot of antibiotics, he gave me several cans of natural blueberry juice. He advised: "Drink a glass a day - and everything will be in order."

Was he satisfied with his sons-in-law?

Yes, especially Nelya's husband, the famous test pilot Valentin Mukhin. He traveled all over the world. He successfully tested our aircraft with vertical takeoff, for which he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. So it turned out that in our families there were two heroes. And my husband Valery Gurin is a professor, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Our mother, Maria Nikolaevna, studied with her father at the Agricultural Academy. They got married, lived very friendly, in love and harmony.

I know that Vladimir Eliseevich loved the famous "Forest Song".

Yes. Not only every time I listened to her with pleasure, but also sang along myself. And he was always worried, we saw that even tears appeared in his eyes.

This song is part of the life of the legendary partisan leader. Let's listen: "Oh, birch trees and pines - partisan sisters / / Oh, you are noisy, forest of youngsters! / / I only smell to the hearts / / Your song is clear / / Yes, I remember the old bastards ..."

How could he not be worried...

CAVALIER OF THE ORDER OF Suvorov

The Military Order of Suvorov was awarded to marshals and generals - commanders of fronts and armies, representatives of the highest military command and the General Staff. In total, over 390 people were awarded the Order of Suvorov of the 1st degree during the war years. Few people know that among them was the famous partisan commander - Hero of the Soviet Union Vladimir Eliseevich Lobanok. In the history of the partisan movement on Belarusian soil, this is the only case of awarding a partisan commander with a high military order.

In the history of guerrilla wars, there was, perhaps, no such stubborn and bloody battle as the one that unfolded in the spring of 1944 on a large territory of the Polotsk-Lepel zone. This happened on the eve of Operation Bagration.
According to the testimony of the former chief of staff of the 3rd German tank army, Otto Heidkemper, the German command set the task of pushing back, surrounding and destroying partisan formations, to free the territory they occupied. In the period from April 11 to April 17, the Nazis intended to push the partisans into the western part of the zone with the operation “Regenshauer” (“Rain”). After that, during the operation, code-named “Fryulingsfest” (“Spring Festival”), troops that were not put into action until further notice, including the von Gottberg group, were supposed to complete their encirclement.
The operation was carried out by large enemy forces. The German command brought here 12 SS and police regiments, three infantry, security and reserve divisions, as well as many other units and units of their troops. In total, about 60 thousand soldiers and officers, 137 tanks, 235 guns, 70 aircraft, and two armored trains took part in the fighting against the partisans of the Polotsk-Lepel zone. The punitive operation was led by the commander of the 3rd Panzer Army, Colonel General Hans Reinhardt and the General Commissar of "Belarus", SS Gruppenführer and Police Lieutenant General Kurt von Gottberg.
On the side of the enemy there was a multiple superiority in forces. There were only 17,485 partisans, 21 guns, 143 mortars, 723 machine guns, 1,544 machine guns, and 9,344 rifles in the zone.
The Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement urgently created its own task force to coordinate the combat operations of the partisan brigades in repelling the enemy offensive. This group was assigned to lead the commander of the Lepel partisan brigade, Colonel Vladimir Lobank, who was appointed commander of all partisan forces in the Polotsk-Lepel zone.
By order of the operational group, the partisans built defensive positions with a system of trenches, minefields, and bunkers with a total length of more than 287 kilometers. To make it difficult for the enemy to use military equipment, all bridges on the rivers were blown up, roads were dug up and mined, blockages were made on bypass roads and gouges were installed. The bloody battles of the partisans of the Polotsk-Lepel zone against the superior forces of the punishers lasted 25 days.
Punishers climbed ahead. On April 11, in nine hours of fighting, the Lenin Brigade repulsed four fierce attacks of enemy infantry and tanks.
Then the punishers became noticeably more active in the south of the partisan zone, where the Lepel brigade under the command of V.E. Lobank and the “Aleksey” brigade (commander A.F. Danukalov) defended.

On April 21, units of the 95th Infantry and 6th Field Divisions attacked the Lepel partisan (or as it was called “Lobankovskaya”) brigade. The battle immediately took on an extremely difficult character for the partisans. Already during the first day, the enemy pushed them several kilometers deep into the zone. True, this advance cost the punishers heavy losses. Machine gunner K. Ponizovsky in only one battle near the village of Staroe Selo destroyed twenty-five enemy soldiers and officers.
Heavy fighting was fought along almost the entire length of the border of the partisan zone. The 60,000-strong army of punishers, supported by artillery, aircraft and tanks, squeezed the ring more and more tightly. By April 30, the area where thousands of guerrillas held all-round defense had been reduced to eight square kilometers.
On the morning of April 28, 1944, the BSPD received a radiogram from V.E. Lobank. He asked for permission to break through the encirclement in the northeast direction with access to the Western Dvina.
From the memoirs of the head of the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement P.Z. Kalinin, it can be seen that on the evening of April 29, a radiogram was sent to Vladimir Eliseevich Lobank: to prepare to break through the enemy ring in order to withdraw the personnel of the partisan group and the population to the northern regions of the Minsk region. But the situation changed the plan. The breakthrough began on May 3rd. On the night of May 4, with heavy fighting, the Ponomarenko and Danukalov brigades came out of the breakthrough, on the night of May 5 - all the other forces of the partisans of the Polotsk-Lepel zone. More than 15,000 civilians escaped from the encirclement with them and went into the forests southwest of the town of Ushachi.
Thus, the operation "Spring Festival" did not justify the hopes of the German command. The Nazis, having lost 8,300 people killed and about 12,900 wounded, many different military equipment (59 tanks, 7 armored vehicles, 166 vehicles, 22 guns, 2 aircraft) did not achieve their intended goals.
In honor of the legendary feat of the partisans of the Polotsk-Lepel zone, who broke through the enemy blockade in April-May 1944, at the site of past battles, seven kilometers from the urban village of Ushachi, between the villages of Dvor, Plino and Paperno, in 1974 the memorial complex "Breakthrough" was erected .
We talked about only one operation under the command of Vladimir Lobank, for which he was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree. And the partisan commander became the Hero of the Soviet Union earlier - on September 16, 1943. In fact, his combat biography began already in the first days of the war.
Researchers V.D. Selemenev and V.V. Skalaban found in the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus a folder with documents about the events in Mozyr in late 1952 - early 1953, which reveals how they wanted to make partisan hero Vladimir Lobank an “enemy of the people”.
In August 1941 - June 1944, V.E. Lobanok was the first secretary of the Lepel underground district party committee. At the same time, from March 1942, he commanded the partisan detachment No. 68, and from August he was the commissar of the Chashnik partisan brigade “Dubova”. From June 1944, Vladimir Eliseevich was in responsible party and Soviet work.

At that time, V.E. Lobanok was the first secretary of the Polessky regional party committee. The first secretary of the CPB Central Committee N.S. Novoseltsev. It said: “... A large group of Zionist criminals is operating in the Polissya region, whose goal is to assist the United States of America during the war to organize the mass extermination of people ...”
Further, Novoseltsev wrote that the Hero of the Soviet Union, the first secretary of the Polesye regional committee of the CPB, V.E. Lobanok. And all because the father of Vladimir Eliseevich lived in the United States (he went overseas, apparently, even before the revolution, - E.I.). In addition, the first secretary of the regional committee was accused of "surrounding himself with sycophants, incompetent people."

In 1956-1962, Vladimir Eliseevich worked as the first secretary of the Vitebsk regional party committee. Since 1962, Lobanok served as First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR, and since 1974 - Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Byelorussian SSR. In addition to the Order of Suvorov, he was awarded three Orders of Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree, and three Orders of the Red Banner of Labor.
A special commission of the Central Committee of the CPB found out that behind Novoseltsev was the “gray eminence” Ivan Lugovtsov, the former secretary for propaganda of the Polessky regional party committee, the director of the Vitebsk Pedagogical Institute, who dreamed of taking revenge on Lobank.
At a meeting of the bureau of the Central Committee of the CPB, the absurdity of the accusations against V.E. Lobank. In the resolution of the Central Committee, the facts reported by Novoseltsev were recognized as "given in a distorted form or simply fictitious."

V.E.LOBANOK. The guerrillas take the fight

The book of the Hero of the Soviet Union V. E. Lobank "Partisans take the fight", first published by the publishing house of political literature in 1972, is dedicated to one of the major battles of the people's avengers of Belarus with the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War. For six months (from December 1943 to May 1944), the front-line Vitebsk group of partisans in the Polotsk - Ushachi - Lepel region chained several enemy divisions from the reserve of Army Group Center to itself. The history of the heroic struggle of the partisans of the Vitebsk region against the punishers is the basis of the book. Using extensive documentary material and his personal impressions, the author - the head of the task force of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus and the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement in the Polotsk-Lepel zone and a direct participant in the events described - talks about the main combat operations of the partisans, about the heroes of the battles. The present edition has been supplemented by the author with new materials, and a number of corrections have been made to it.

V.E.LOBANOK. In the battles for the motherland

The book tells about the partisan movement in the Vitebsk region during the Great Patriotic War: about its causes, the main actions of the partisans, gives portraits of the brightest and most famous leaders of the nationwide struggle against the Nazi invaders (K.S. Zaslonov, M.F. Shmyrev and others .)

Studying at a technical school (gg.) Secretaries of the Komsomol committee of the technical school in the 20s.

Formation Since 1931, he worked as an agronomist of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the BSSR, since 1933 - as an agronomist-economist of the authorized People's Commissariat of State Farms of the USSR for the Byelorussian SSR. In 1934, V.E. Lobank was appointed director of the Belitsky Agricultural College of the Vitebsk Region. In 1940, he was appointed director of the Smolyan Agricultural College of the Vitebsk Region. In May 1941, V.E. Lobanok was elected the first secretary of the Lepel district party committee.

Formation In 1931 he graduated from the Belarusian Agricultural Academy V.E. Lobanok with his brother Vasily

War In August June 1944, the first secretary of the Lepel underground district committee of the CP (b) B, Simultaneously with March, the commander of partisan detachment 68, Since August, the commissar of the Chashnik partisan brigade "Dubova", Since July, the commander of the I Lepel partisan brigade. Since October 1943, he led the operational group of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B and the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement in the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone, commander of the partisan unit of the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone.

War From the memoirs of Anatoly Semyonovich Khonyak, partisan of the Lepel zone: - Lobank was loved more than Dubrovsky. Why? - Certainly. He was highly educated, erudite, humane. Once they took the city of Glubokoe. Well, it didn't work out. Dubrovsky shouted: “What did you come here for?! Lobanok took him away. Where possible, it is possible. Through force - it is impossible.

Hero For the heroic feat shown in the performance of combat missions of the command in the fight against the Nazi invaders behind enemy lines, and for special merits in the development of the partisan movement in Belarus, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by decree of September 16, 1943, awarded V.E. Lobank the title of Hero Soviet Union

Commander For the skillful leadership of the forces of the partisans of the Polotsk-Lepel zone, who broke through the blockade in April-May 1944, V.E. Lobanok was awarded the Order of Suvorov, 1st degree. The Nazis lost in this operation: - killed people, - wounded people, -59 tanks, - 7 armored vehicles, -166 vehicles, -22 guns, -2 aircraft.

Head Since October, the chairman of the Polotsk Regional Executive Committee. From the second, from the first secretary of the Polessky regional committee of the CP (b) B, from the chairman of the Gomel regional executive committee. First Secretary of the Vitebsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. Since April, the first deputy. Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the BSSR and at the same time, until 1965, the Minister of Production and Procurement of Agricultural Products of the BSSR. S Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the BSSR. Member of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU in

I continue to deal with Ukrainian collaborators near Lepel.

So, with Linkov, everything is more or less clear. As he left at the end of May for Polissya, the main burden of the war with the Nazis near Lepel fell on Dubov's brigade (commander - Dubrovsky, Commissar Lobanok).

(It turns out that Yegorov, who symbolically hoisted a flag over the Reichstag together with Kantaria, was partisan under the command of Lobank near Lepel. Straight, a sacred place.)

The brigade arose around September 1, 1942 and consisted of three detachments. On its basis, the largest partisan zone in the BSSR later arose under the leadership of Lobank.

I see that in Lepel there was a craving for raids of the conquistador order: in the spring of 43, Lobanok went on a big raid in Lithuania. You can rename it in nationalist terms: "Belarusians march on Lithuania" :)

Vladimir LOBANOK: STROKE TO THE PORTRAIT

It seems that so much is already known about the Great Patriotic War, but the consciousness of people still does not leave the feeling of some kind of understatement about that dashing time of 1.418 as in a dream of lived powder days and nights. They want to fully comprehend why and how that unthinkably tightly twisted at the very beginning, multi-sacrifice, oversaturated with grief and heroism, honor and dishonor, valor and baseness, loyalty and betrayal, to the joy of peaceful earthlings, was crowned with the May Victory of the forty-fifth.

One of the organizers and leaders of the partisan movement in Belarus, Hero of the Soviet Union Vladimir Eliseevich Lobanok, also did his best to bring the Victory closer. I, an ordinary fighter in a partisan unit under his command, want to add a few touches to the portrait of this wonderful person ...

Just before the war, Vladimir Lobanok, who had just been elected first secretary of the Lepel district party committee and did not even have time to move his family, was far from everything military battle by education, agronomic specialty, life experience, and character. And the corresponding directives of the first days, which demanded, when it got hot, the urgent deployment of partisan actions, rather resembled declarative appeals of the most general nature. The briefing before leaving Gomel behind enemy lines also clarified little. There were not even maps of the required scale, and according to the old ones that were found, it was almost impossible to navigate the terrain. It is good that even before the invasion of the Germans, they managed to pick up volunteers for underground work and hide something in the Sosnyagovska Forest.

The arrival of Lobank as a plenipotentiary representative of the party and Soviet power to the Lepelshchina inspired the members of the local underground: he was already known by his first confident steps in the region. It was extremely difficult to work, often life hung in the balance. Extreme tension in conditions of constant danger, moments of anxious sleep somewhere in the hayloft, in a haystack or on the bunk of a dugout in Sosnyagovskoye Pushcha, secret, but such fruitful meetings with underground activists - these anxious everyday life soon culminated in practical actions to defeat the volost administrations, points for the procurement of products, and then the military garrisons of the enemy. In the positions of group commander, detachment, commissar, brigade commander, V.E. Lobanok was the soul of all patriotic undertakings.

“He not only led partisan detachments,” his combat characteristics testify, “but also with weapons in his hands, with grenades, with a“ fishing rod ”from a mine planted on a piece of iron, by his personal example he led the fighters to heroic deeds. There was not a single an operation in which he did not take part: an ambush on the Lepel-Berezino highway (where Lobanok was wounded), the defeat of the Ivansk zemstvo economy, a major battle with Nazi robbers near the village of Zeleny Ostrov, the defeat of German garrisons, a campaign in Lithuania, distracting actions in the time of the punitive expedition of 1943 is by no means a complete list of only his major operations.

Nothing consumes a person like war. And no school teaches so quickly as the school of war.

Not much time has passed since the first armed actions of the Lepel detachment of Lobank, and his growth as a commander in this living movement towards the truth of life attracted attention immediately. Generously gifted with the kindness of his soul, Vladimir Eliseevich was very attentive to people, never allowed himself to raise his voice to a subordinate, although sometimes the situation required this. A respectful attitude towards others, corrected only by a demanding look, combined with the unquestioning obligatoryness of commanding orders created that outwardly invisible fabric-atmosphere of diligence and subordination, which is commonly called "iron discipline" and which was an indispensable tool in a duel with a fierce and insidious enemy.

Never forget the deep raid into Lithuania...

After the defeat of two landowners' estates, where the Lobank group acquired horse transport, they began to mistake it for a military unit with a wagon train. Fear has big eyes. Rumor was ahead of the movement of the "red landing", the enemy garrisons scattered on the way. Moving forward, the partisans destroyed telephone and telegraph communications, burned a bridge across the Disna River, and destroyed an echelon with provisions and officer property. A freight train was blown up near the Ignalina station, and a train rushing from the opposite side crashed into the cars blocking the tracks. The indiscriminate shooting of the surviving invaders only increased the panic in their camp...

Having traveled more than 400 kilometers across Lithuania, repelling all the attacks of the punishers, the Lobank group returned to its camp near Lepel at the end of April 43. In the raid, Lobanok showed himself as a commander with brilliant military training, as if he had graduated not from an agricultural, but from the highest military academy.

The growing activity of the partisans knocked down the arrogance of the occupiers from parade marches "in Europe". Something began to undermine, undermine, gradually deform such a strategically important factor in the war as time - the main element of maneuver. Something, somewhere, shifted, was done at the wrong time, introducing confusion not only into the operational, but also the strategic outlines of the headquarters. The mastery of time - nothing more is dreamed of in war.

The intensification of the punitive measures of the invaders did not help either, with up to 50 divisions on the Soviet-German front. Partisan countermeasures, as a rule, brought to naught all sorties of punishers. Lobanok and here was on top. In May 1943, during the Cottbus punitive expedition, the Nazis managed to surround the partisans and civilians at the Domzheritsky and Paliksky lakes. The consolidated group of detachments under the command of Lobank broke through the encirclement, saved all the blocked ones, seizing weapons and other trophies from the enemy. And the rumor went around the detachments and villages about "Volod" (his underground nickname) as a "savior".

In the conditions of the wooded and swampy terrain of Belarus, the difficult task of organizing the partisan forces was also creatively solved. The most convenient - mobile, flexible - we had a brigade of three to seven detachments.

The brigade uniform corresponded to the territorial one - partisan territories and zones. This is 60 percent of the Belarusian land cleared of foreigners. The people said: "The land is peasant, the forests are partisan, the highway is German, but the power is Soviet." And it turned out in aggregate: the Belarusian partisan republic is a military form of Soviet power. It was personified and carried out by the main partisan governors - commanders and commissars of brigades and detachments.

The protection of civilians was, as it were, a cross-cutting super-task of the partisans at all stages of their actions.

In the Polotsk-Lepel partisan zone (3.245 square kilometers of territory, 1.220 settlements, about 80 thousand inhabitants), at the end of the forty-third, 16 brigades were stationed. By order of the TsShPD of November 28, 1943, they were brought together led by an authorized representative of the Central Committee of the CP (b) B and the BSHPD, already then a Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel V.E. Lobank.

Under his leadership, life in villages and towns, including the regional center of Ushachi, began to seethe. Despite the snowy winter, defensive structures were built and, for some reason, additional landing sites. All 3 power plants, 6 mills, 20 linseed oil plants, turpentine-tar, carpentry and cooperage enterprises worked in a busy mode. Telephone and radio communications worked well. They were getting ready... What they were getting ready for - only one person, who had taken refuge in a snow-covered forest dugout near Ushachi, knew everything about it. Colonel Lobanok knew this...

Decisive battles for the complete liberation of Belarus were coming...

The order of the head of the TsShPD to the Lobank task force in the Polotsk-Lepel zone consisted of two parts. The first, brought to the attention of the brigade command, spoke of holding the zone. The second (top secret) outlined the preparation and reception of the airborne corps in the partisan zone. Both combat missions were closely interconnected.

We will never forget the invasion of the partisan zone by a 60,000-strong group of punishers. Incredibly difficult battles had to be waged by the partisans of Lobank in April-May forty-four ...

For the sake of saving civilians and diverting enemy forces from front-line affairs, they took the fight, insanely unequal in defense, with the only chance to make up for the inequality only with the accumulated richest arsenal of specific partisan means and actions, military skill and valor of patriots.

Everyone had two words on their lips in those days: "Partisan Stalingrad." Yes, in terms of the intensity of almost a month of fighting, the battle near Ushachi was very close to this, the reddest mark of the Great Patriotic War.

The brigade commanders A.F. Danukalov, P.M. Romanov, D.T. Korolenko, V.V. Gil-Rodionov, the first secretary of the Ushach underground district committee, the commissar of the partisan brigade named after V.I. Chapaev, I. F. Korenevsky. On the slabs of the mass grave of the Breakthrough memorial are the names of 1,450 who fell in battles with the Nazis.

The main result of the battle is the salvation of the bulk of the population. Not only those 15,000 who, together with the partisans, went out into the gap on the night of May 4-5, but also those who had been saved from captivity even earlier, who, with the help of the partisans, managed to disperse during the fighting and secretly return to their villages. Although among them there were no casualties.

The military, operational-strategic significance of the duel near Ushachi lies in the fact that in a month of hardest fighting, despite more than three times the numerical and other advantages of the punishers, the partisans, skillfully combining positional battles with specifically partisan methods and means that the former chief of staff of the 3rd TA Otto Geidkemper in his memoirs will call "devilish and formidable actions", they exhausted the troops withdrawn from the front so much that this significantly weakened their resistance during the battle for Belarus that soon began in the zone between Vitebsk and Polotsk. Not to mention the serious direct losses of the Nazis in manpower: the partisans killed 8,300, wounded up to 12,000 soldiers and officers - the number of almost two divisions, destroyed a lot of equipment - tanks, artillery, vehicles, aircraft. What kind of "Spring Festival" is this for the enemy, as the punitive expedition was called?

By right of a participant in the battles with punishers in the spring of forty-four near Ushachi, seriously wounded and shell-shocked on the last lines of defense, I dare say: without Lobank, without his endurance, patience, courage, resourcefulness, personal example, and finally, simply without his naked honesty, all this a heroic epic, as well as an amazingly daring and accurate breakthrough itself, would simply be impossible. And he remained very modest, seemingly not a militant person "with a quiet voice and a shy smile" (M. Svetlov). The participants in the breakthrough later joked with pride and admiration: "Field Marshal Paulus would have surrendered." As having particularly distinguished himself in battles with punishers, and at the same time demonstrating the brilliant qualities of a military leader, the commander of the formation, Colonel Lobanok, was deservedly awarded the highest military leader, in essence, the general order of Suvorov of the first degree. And that says it all.

It is significant that one of the participants in the breakthrough near Ushachi, Mikhail Yegorov, was destined, together with the Georgian Meliton Kantaria, to hoist the Banner of Victory over the Reichstag.

A personal friend of Lobank, Hero of the Soviet Union, fighter pilot Alexei Maresyev, who, already without legs, with prostheses instead of them, shot down 7, and only 11 enemy aircraft, spoke with his heart in June 1974 at the opening of the Breakthrough memorial complex near Ushachi:

When I come to Belarus, every time I feel that I am indebted to her ...

Apparently, under the influence of the surging impressions-memories "of fires-fires, of friends-comrades," Vladimir Eliseevich made the following entry in the notebook of a deputy of the Great Allied Power: "Do you know when I was born? On the night of May 5, 1944, at 22 hours 30 minutes. When we made the breakthrough."

Blessed is the person who instead of a line between two dates has another significant milestone, equal to the second birth for the sake of the Life and Happiness of people on Earth.