From an old US Army pamphlet; Axis History Forum • View topic - The Soviet Partisan Movement 1941-1944
And here is the Grenkevich version; http://books.google.com/books?id=YsB...tisans&f=false
And another interesting book; http://books.google.com/books?id=gaX...kraine&f=false
JeffinMNUSA

PS. And a handbook on the German Army with a section on Partisan warfare; http://books.google.com/books?id=b3W...age&q=&f=false

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Thank you, good stuff.

It is my understanding that in the beginning the Soviet Partisan Movement was mostly military in nature. Partisan groups were fairly small and were made up of Red Army troops that were left after big encirclement operations (Summer 1941) and Army or NKVD commando groups that were air dropped or infiltrated behind enemy lines.

Not until 1943 was there any large civilian participation in partisan activities. By then people in occupied territories realized the Evil that Germans represented.

By 1944 there were very large partisan groups numbering in hundreds thousand strong, which were causing large material and personal loses in the German Rear Areas.

Oleg;
The Partisans fell under control of the Ponomarenko of the Party in Moscow, and as early as 1942 some sophisticated operations were being run. The movement snowballed and by Operation Bagration there were Partisan formations every bit as good as frontline Red Army units slamming into the Axis rear. Grenkevich cites numerous contributions of the Red Partisan Movement-from attritting com and supply, controlling people and resources and denying them to the enemy, troop diversions, etc and etc-but the contribution he gives the wink to as the most important is INTEL. Pretty curious how STAVKA was able to anticipate most Axis moves and dispositions but the Axis knew nothing about theirs.
JeffinMNUSA

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I also would like to add that there were a lot of Anti-Soviet (Nationalist) partisan groups that operated in Ukraine, Belorussia and some Baltic Territories after their liberation by Red Army. I know that some groups in Ukraine were active till 1957.

NKVD (SMERSH) groups were responsible for their termination. I remember reading about SMERSH operation “LONE WOLF” to liquidate the Nationalist Partisan Groups after the war. Real (JAMES BOND) type of operations. There were mostly Single Operating Agents that were charged with finding and terminating the leadership of the Nationalist Movements.

Oleg;
Soviet Secret Army - e-book about NKVD Army in WW2
The NKVD also had whole armies to deal with nationalist groups like the Forest Brothers in the Baltics, Armij Krajowa in Poland and the UPA in Ukraine; as well as plain old bandit groupings that were running amok all over. The vast majority were liquidated within a few years after the Fall of Berlin. Some few lasted much longer, the most notable being some elements of the UPA who lasted until the mid 1950s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army Then some elements of the Lithuanian resistance might have been even longer lived; http://www.lituanus.org/1988/88_3_01.htm
JeffinMNUSA

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Zhukov was placed to deal with the problem in Ukraine. A movie or series recently came out about that. I believe it was called "liquidation"...

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The war against Russia will be such that it cannot be conducted in a knightly fashion. This struggle is one of ideologies and racial differences and will have to be conducted with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting harshness. -Adolf Hitler

Slon;
Well the nationalists had the last word in that very long dispute.
Jeff
MN
USA

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