Soviet Partisans - Areas of Operations - Belarus - 1943-1944

1943-1944

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

The Soviet victory at Stalingrad, a certain lessening of the terror campaign (de facto from December 1942, formally permitted in February 1943) and an amnesty promised to collaborators who wished to return to the Soviet camp were significant factors in the 1943 growth of Soviet partisan forces. Desertions from the ranks of the German-controlled police and military formations strengthened units, with sometimes whole detachments coming over to the Soviet camp, including the Volga Tatar battalion (900 personnel, February 1943), and Gil-Rodionov's 1st Russian People's Brigade of the SS (2,500 personnel, August 1943). In all about 7,000 people of different anti-Soviet formations joined the Soviet partisan force, while about 1,900 specialists and commanders were dropped into occupied Belarus in 1943. However, local people mainly accounted for most increases in the Soviet partisan force.

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

During the battles for the liberation of Belarus, partisans comprised the fourth Belorussian front. After the liberation of the Belarusian SSR, about 180,000 partisans joined the Soviet Army in 1944.

During the 1941-1944 period, the total numbers of the Soviet partisan force in Belarus reached 374,000, about 70,000 in the urban underground, and about 400,000 in the reserves. Among Soviet partisans in Belarus were people of 45 different nationalities and 4,000 non-Soviet citizens (including 3,000 Poles, 400 Czechs and Slovaks, 300 Yugoslavians, etc.). Around 65% of Belarusian partisans were local people.