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In 1941 the Nazis overran
 vast stretches of the USSR.

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00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:41,240
Their brutal policies encouraged
 many civilians to become
 partisans

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00:00:41,240 --> 00:00:42,640
and fight the occupiers.

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00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:49,120
Originally produced
 for Russian television in 2011,

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00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:51,280
this is the story
 of Russia s Great Patriotic War

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00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:53,440
and the Red Army s long road
 from defeat to victory.

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00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:12,200
The sound of hammer blows
 echoed through the dark forest,

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00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:16,600
as German engineers worked
 hurriedly to repair the rail
 track.

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00:01:31,760 --> 00:01:37,880
The Germans were nervous. They
kept their weapons trained on
 the edge of the forest.

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00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,600
In November 1942, the
 6th Panzer Division

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00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:52,160
was on route from France to
 reinforce the German army at
 Stalingrad.

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00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,200
But the safety of its rail
 transports was a major concern
 for the Germans,

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00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:02,080
even hundreds of miles
 behind the front.

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00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:05,960
The division s commander
 was General Raus.

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00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:11,440
The thing that most concerned
 me was to make sure that the
 units

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00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:14,560
we were transporting could go
 straight into battle when they
 arrived.

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00:02:14,560 --> 00:02:17,040
Therefore in partisan areas,
 we proceeded with caution.

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00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:23,320
Trains had to go slowly,
 so they could break in time

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00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:24,960
to avoid derailing
 on sabotaged track.

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00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:29,240
And there was the ever
 present danger of an ambush.

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00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:50,760
Raus s division hadn t even
 reached the front yet,

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00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,200
and already it was suffering
 its first casualties.

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00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:15,880
On 3rd July 1941,

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00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,800
Stalin had made his first
 wartime radio broadcast to the
 Soviet people:

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00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:24,360
Partisan detachments must be
 formed in areas occupied by the
 enemy,

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00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,200
to stir up guerrilla war
 everywhere, to blow up bridges
 and roads,

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00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:36,040
sabotage telephone and telegraph
 lines, and to burn forests,
 stores and transports.

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00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:40,880
We shall create intolerable
 conditions for the enemy and his
 supporters

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00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:45,160
they must be pursued
 and eliminated at every step .

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00:03:47,680 --> 00:03:50,640
To organise the partisan war,

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00:03:50,640 --> 00:03:54,320
a special unit was formed within
 Lavrenty Beria s NKVD secret
 police.

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00:03:55,960 --> 00:04:00,240
Set up by Pavel Sudoplatov, the
 new unit was known as "OMSBON",

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00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:02,440
short for Independent
Special Motorized Brigade.

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00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:08,840
Its recruits included the best
 Soviet sportsmen. They would
 help to form

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00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,600
the nucleus of sabotage groups
 which would be sent behind enemy
 lines.

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00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,360
The recruits were sent to be
 trained at a new school for
 guerrilla warfare.

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00:04:21,120 --> 00:04:26,640
Its students included an
 international battalion, made up
 of hundreds of dedicated

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00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:32,120
anti-fascists from Spain,
 Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia
 and Yugoslavia.

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00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:42,360
Just two weeks after
 Stalin s directive,

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00:04:42,360 --> 00:04:45,680
the Wehrmacht issued orders to
 combat the threat from Soviet
 partisans.

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00:04:48,160 --> 00:04:50,760
All Axis units were to maintain
 a state of constant alert.

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00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:54,120
Soldiers were forbidden
 from walking alone.

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00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,720
Weapons were to be kept on their
 person and ready for use at all
 times.

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00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:08,200
In the 1930s, Soviet strategic
 planning had assumed

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00:05:08,200 --> 00:05:13,080
that in the event of war the Red
 Army would attack, and fight the
 war on enemy soil.

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00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,480
So caches of weapons
 and food to support

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00:05:16,480 --> 00:05:18,920
a guerrilla war on home soil
had been destroyed.

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00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:25,920
For the same reason, they had
 stopped training experts in
 guerrilla warfare.

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00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:32,160
In 1941, this infrastructure had
 to be hurriedly re-established.

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00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,640
Until it was, what training
 partisans received

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00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:38,360
if any came from
 Red Army officers,

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00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:41,480
few of whom were specialists
 in guerrilla warfare.

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00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:47,800
And crucially, hardly any
 partisan units were equipped
 with radios.

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00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:54,320
Little or no training;
 absence of radio communication;

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00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:58,640
and lack of co-ordinated action,
meant that of 2,800 partisan
 units

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00:06:00,120 --> 00:06:05,320
formed in the summer of 1941,
 only 270 lasted into 1942.

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00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:10,200
In Ukraine in 1941,

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00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:16,520
the NKVD claimed to have
 established 778 partisan units
 and 622 sabotage groups.

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00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:21,360
Theoretically, they consisted
 of 29,000 personnel.

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00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,640
By June 1942, just 110 of these
 units were still in contact.

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00:06:30,240 --> 00:06:34,440
In the midst of such chaos, only
 partisans led by experienced
 commanders,

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00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:36,360
like Vasiliy Korzh,
 proved successful.

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00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:42,800
Vasiliy Zakharovitch Korzh was a
committed Byelorussian
 communist,

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00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:45,800
who had fought as a partisan
 against Polish forces in the
 1920s.

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00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:49,840
He was also a decorated
 volunteer of the Spanish Civil
 War.

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00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:56,040
When war broke out Korzh
 immediately began organising
 local resistance,

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00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:59,840
and just 6 days
 after the invasion,

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00:06:59,840 --> 00:07:03,120
his partisans were the first to
 mount an attack against German
 troops.

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00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:13,800
In May 1942, the "Central
 Headquarters of the Partisan
 Movement"

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00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:16,440
was set up by the
 Stavka High Command.

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00:07:21,880 --> 00:07:26,280
By November 1942, it recorded
 partisan strength as 90,000
 personnel,

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operating in 1,100 detachments.

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00:07:32,320 --> 00:07:36,080
Central Headquarters
 distributed 200 radio sets,

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00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:39,280
which allowed it to communicate
 directly with the partisans,

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00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,400
to coordinate their actions, and
 assign high priority targets.

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00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:50,160
One such target
 was Raus s 6th Panzer Division.

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Central Headquarters had given
 the task of impeding its
 movement

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00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,400
to two separate Detachments,
 led by Saburov and Kovpak.

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00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:04,240
Sydor Artemyevitch Kovpak was
 another experienced partisan
 leader,

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00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:09,200
who had his detachment up and
 running before the Germans
 arrived

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00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:12,040
in his Ukrainian hometown
 in the summer of 1941.

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00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:17,200
In 1943 his unit conducted
 the legendary Carpathian Raid,

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00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,000
sabotaging supply lines and
 wiping out isolated enemy
 garrisons

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00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:25,960
in the course of a 600 mile
 advance to the Romanian border.

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00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:30,080
While planning the war
 against the Soviet Union,

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00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:35,480
Hitler had declared that the
land was to be exploited to its
 fullest potential.

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00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:42,240
The Wehrmacht s ultimate goal
 was a line running from
 Arkhangelsk in the north,

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00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:43,560
to Astrakhan in the south.

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00:08:45,360 --> 00:08:47,960
Soviet territory was to be
 carved up into zones of
 occupation.

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00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:54,480
Certain strategic areas, like
 the Crimea, would become part of
 a Greater Germany.

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00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:05,640
All was outlined in the top
 secret "Generalplan Ost"
 "Master Plan East".

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00:09:08,520 --> 00:09:11,880
The plan spelled out
 a dark vision for Eastern Europe

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00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:14,240
following the German
victory over the USSR.

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00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:17,760
It entailed a massive programme
 of deportations,

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00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:21,160
murder and enslavement
 of the native populations,

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00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:24,360
followed by the colonisation
 of the land by Germans

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00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:27,600
and other "racially
 acceptable" peoples.

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00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:35,000
All senior figures in the Third
 Reich became familiar with the
 "Master Plan East".

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00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:42,120
Generalplan Ost,
 Document number 1,

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00:09:42,120 --> 00:09:45,520
issued by SS Reichsfuhrer
 Himmler on 28th May 1940.

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00:09:46,320 --> 00:09:48,360
Top Secret. National Importance.

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00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:56,080
On 25th May I handed to the
Fuehrer a memorandum, outlining
 my thoughts

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on the treatment of local
 populations in the occupied
 Eastern territories.

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00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:02,000
The Fuehrer read
 all six pages of my report,

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00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:05,920
considered it correct
 and warmly approved it.

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00:10:10,960 --> 00:10:14,360
Most of those who escaped
 extermination were to be
 deported to western Siberia.

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00:10:15,800 --> 00:10:19,440
A minority 10% of Poles,
 25% of Belarussians,

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00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:24,640
35% of Ukrainians were
 considered suitable for
 "Germanisation".

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00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:28,320
Millions would be
 retained as slave labour.

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00:10:33,280 --> 00:10:35,200
Generalplan Ost would
never be implemented.

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00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:41,040
But those living under Nazi
 occupation still felt the
 effects of its brutal ideology.

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00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:47,280
The Nazis planned to strip
 eastern territories of all
 valuable resources.

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00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:52,720
In 1941 Special Commissariats
 were established for the
 purpose.

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00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:57,960
The Special Commissariat in
 Byelorussia was headed by
 Wilhelm Kube.

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00:11:00,960 --> 00:11:04,480
Wilhelm Kube joined
 the Nazi Party in the 1920s,

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00:11:04,480 --> 00:11:06,000
when it was still on the fringe
 of German politics.

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00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:10,360
He rose to become Gauleiter or
regional party leader of
 Brandenburg.

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00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:15,280
But he fell from favour after
 fabricating charges against a
 party rival.

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00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:21,400
In June 1941 he was given a
 chance to redeem himself in
 Byelorussia.

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00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:26,080
When the Germans moved
 into a town or village,

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00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:28,160
they would appoint a burgomaster
 or village headman.

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00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,840
Public notices printed in
 Russian listed their
 responsibilities:

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00:11:36,880 --> 00:11:39,520
All burgomasters and village
 headmen are responsible for
 safety in their area.

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00:11:41,720 --> 00:11:45,960
Should the locals fail to ensure
this, at least twice the number
 of dead German

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00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:48,360
soldiers will be taken from
 the local population and shot."

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00:11:50,080 --> 00:11:52,440
In the event of damage being
 done to roads, bridges or mines,

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00:11:53,640 --> 00:11:55,560
at least three local
 people will be shot.

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00:11:56,920 --> 00:12:00,120
Those who give shelter
 or food to strangers

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00:12:00,120 --> 00:12:03,000
or render them any assistance
 without permission of their
 burgomaster

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00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:04,720
or village headman
 will be hanged.

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00:12:07,960 --> 00:12:12,000
It didn t take long for the
 brutality of the new regime to
 be felt,

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00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:16,160
driving a deep wedge between
invaders and the occupied.

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00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:21,480
In the first winter of the war,

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00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:26,160
the Germans began to deport
 hundreds of thousands of workers
 to the Reich,

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00:12:27,480 --> 00:12:29,480
where they were to be
 used as slave labour.

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00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,640
One and a half million people,
 most of them Ukrainians, were
 transported to the Reich.

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00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:49,920
More than half a million girls
 were sent to become domestic
 servants

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00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:51,280
in German households.

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00:12:53,160 --> 00:12:56,200
The treatment such workers were
 to receive was outlined by Fritz
 Sauckel:

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00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:03,680
All these people must be fed,
housed and treated in such a way

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00:13:03,680 --> 00:13:05,640
that the greatest results are
 achieved with the minimum
 outlay.

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00:13:08,200 --> 00:13:10,880
SS chief Heinrich Himmler
 put it even more starkly:

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00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:15,880
If 10,000 Russian women
 collapse from exhaustion while
 digging an anti-tank ditch,

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00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:21,560
it interests me only insofar
 that Germany, at the end of it,
 has an anti-tank ditch.

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00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:28,480
At the Nuremberg Trials, Fritz
 Sauckel was found guilty of
 crimes

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00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:30,080
against humanity and hanged.

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00:13:31,800 --> 00:13:34,320
Himmler escaped a similar fate
 by committing suicide.

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00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:44,920
In the spring of 1942, local
 police came to the village of
 Yarmoshinki,

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00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:47,560
near Smolensk,
 looking for men of working age.

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00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:53,040
When they entered the Egorov
 household, 18-year old Mikhail
 was out.

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00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:12,560
The family had decided not to
 wait for the deportations to
 begin.

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00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:22,120
They packed their belongings and
 headed for the forest to join
 the partisans.

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00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:35,520
They met a group
 of saboteurs in the forest.

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00:14:37,760 --> 00:14:40,800
They were en route to the
 village of Selivonenki to blow
 up a bridge.

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00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:44,640
Mikhail said he knew the way.

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00:14:48,480 --> 00:14:52,760
On 5th May 1942, his
 nineteenth birthday,

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00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:56,160
Mikhail Egorov was accepted into
 the Special Guerilla Regiment
 codenamed

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00:14:56,160 --> 00:15:00,200
The Thirteen . It was
 commanded by Sergey Grishin.

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00:15:03,280 --> 00:15:06,240
Grishin began the war
 in a tank platoon.

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00:15:06,240 --> 00:15:10,000
His unit became encircled
 during Operation Barbarossa,

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00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:14,240
but Grishin escaped and returned
 to his home village to raise a
 partisan unit.

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00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:17,720
It became Special Guerilla
 Regiment The Thirteen ,

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00:15:17,720 --> 00:15:20,920
named after Grishin s favourite
action film by director Mikhail
 Romm.

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00:15:24,160 --> 00:15:28,240
At dawn on 13th May 1942,

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00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:32,200
the partisans walked 15 miles to
 attack the German garrison at
 Selivonenki.

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00:15:35,880 --> 00:15:37,840
It was Mikhail Egorov s
 baptism of fire.

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00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,360
Despite several local successes,

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00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:52,960
the partisans failed to have any
 significant impact on the German
 supply chain.

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00:15:55,480 --> 00:15:58,440
But the significance of their
 actions could be measured in
 other ways.

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00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:06,840
Thousands of German soldiers,
 urgently needed at the front,

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00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,960
had to be diverted to fight the
partisans and protect supply
 routes.

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00:16:11,760 --> 00:16:14,600
German morale began to suffer
 too. In the occupied
 territories,

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00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:19,760
anyone could be on the side of
 the partisans. No one could be
 trusted.

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00:16:21,920 --> 00:16:25,920
Any suspicious noise could turn
 out to be the start of a
 partisan attack.

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00:16:30,920 --> 00:16:34,480
The partisans wore at the nerves
 and resources of the German
 occupying forces.

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00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:47,240
German reports state
 that of the 3.6 million

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00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:51,520
Soviet prisoners-of-war
 they d captured in 1941,

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00:16:51,520 --> 00:16:55,840
by the spring of 1942, only
800,000 remained fit for work.

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00:16:57,320 --> 00:17:00,840
60% had been murdered, or had
 died of starvation or disease.

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00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:07,560
In the spring of 1942, thousands
 of Soviet prisoners of war

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00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:10,400
sat or lay in the open
 at the Suwalki camp in Poland.

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00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:16,760
They were given almost no food.
 Some had resorted to eating
 blades of grass.

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00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:23,080
It was then that the former
 chief of staff of the 229th
 Rifle Division,

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00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:28,880
Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir
 Rodionov, decided to offer his
 services to the Nazis.

185
00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:32,720
He approached the
Germans and offered

186
00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,840
to establish "a Fighting Union
 of Russian Nationalists".

187
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:42,280
Their aim would be,
 To overthrow Stalin s regime

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00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:47,800
and establish a Nationalistic
 Russian State under the
 protectorate of Germany .

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00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:55,960
Rodionov s offer was taken up by
 the Nazi Security Service the
 SD.

190
00:17:57,520 --> 00:17:59,480
Rodionov, who also
 used the alias "Gil",

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00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:03,360
was joined by a hundred former
 inmates of the Suvalki camp.

192
00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:06,520
They were issued
 with Czech military uniforms,

193
00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:10,600
and became "The 1st SS Russian
Volunteer Detachment".

194
00:18:14,240 --> 00:18:18,760
The unit soon had 500
 volunteers, most of whom were
 ex-Red Army officers.

195
00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:25,640
To prove their fighting ability,
 and their loyalty,

196
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:28,040
their first missions were
 conducted against Polish
 partisans.

197
00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:33,240
The detachment was later
 expanded to a brigade more than
 2,000 strong.

198
00:18:37,520 --> 00:18:40,880
But despite the inhuman
 conditions, some prisoners
 remained steadfast.

199
00:18:42,680 --> 00:18:45,160
Nicolay Obrynba, a medic serving
 with a militia battalion,

200
00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:49,400
was taken prisoner in
 1941 near Vitebsk.

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00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:54,680
If you don t want to lose
 yourself in a desperate
 situation

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00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:57,640
you must purge your
 soul of doubts.

203
00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:04,520
Regardless of your feelings
 towards Stalin there are two
 camps,

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00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:09,320
two ideas and two men
 leading those camps.

205
00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:15,560
And you shall support one idea,
 one camp, and one man embodying
 this idea.

206
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:20,160
You shall hold on to the end.

207
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,200
For otherwise neither death nor
 torture will justify you in your
 own eyes.

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00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:27,320
By the spring of 1942,

209
00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:31,600
the partisans were operating on
 a much larger scale across
occupied Byelorussia,

210
00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,640
Ukraine and western Russia.

211
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:42,120
Soviet reports estimated 200,000
 partisans were now operating
 behind the German lines.

212
00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:49,800
Partisan units were especially
 active in the rear of German
 Army Group North

213
00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:54,360
and Army Group Center. They made
 their camps in the forests and
 marshland

214
00:20:54,360 --> 00:20:58,080
around Bryansk, Vitebsk,
 Smolensk, Novgorod and
 Leningrad.

215
00:20:59,880 --> 00:21:02,320
A large partisan unit operated
 in the mountains of the Crimea.

216
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,920
The organisation and tactics
 of the partisans were refined.

217
00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:17,680
A partisan detachment was a
 self-sufficient unit consisting
 of 100-200 fighters.

218
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,000
It had its own commander,
 political officer and chief of
 staff.

219
00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:25,880
Each detachment had support
 and medical services

220
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:29,240
and could be divided
 into several platoons.

221
00:21:31,160 --> 00:21:32,640
Several detachments
 formed a partisan brigade.

222
00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:37,600
Each brigade has its own
 hospital and workshops,

223
00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:40,520
which produced camouflaged
 capes, sheepskin jackets and
 boots.

224
00:21:42,040 --> 00:21:44,560
A brigade could be a few hundred
 or a few thousand strong.

225
00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:49,760
The Byelorussian Dubova
 brigade, for example, had 1,700
 members.

226
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:54,880
Several brigades formed a
 partisan group, used for
 strategic operations.

227
00:21:57,040 --> 00:22:00,160
In some areas, the partisans
 drove out local German forces
 completely,

228
00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:04,000
and established enclaves
 wholly under their control.

229
00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:09,960
Near Polatsk in northeast
 Byelorrusia, the partisans set
 up their own schools,

230
00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,360
telephone lines,
 mills and workshops.

231
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:17,360
They printed their own
 newspapers and pamphlets,

232
00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:22,560
which they distributed to the
80,000 civilians living within
 the enclave.

233
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,560
They even opened an art gallery,
 which exhibited the work

234
00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:34,200
of partisans including Nicolay
 Gutiyev and Nicolay Obrinba

235
00:22:35,360 --> 00:22:36,920
who had escaped from
 German captivity.

236
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:41,240
Obrinba described what it
 meant to the partisans:

237
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:45,280
The Dubova brigade
 were proud of their paintings.

238
00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:49,240
That s why they put them
 in the headquarters,

239
00:22:49,240 --> 00:22:52,720
right next to the brigade s
 banner. We challenged the enemy.

240
00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:57,600
We can do anything, and our life
 doesn t depend on fear and
death.

241
00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:01,720
We proclaim it for
 tomorrow and forever.

242
00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:08,760
The partisans could only operate
 with the help of the local
 population.

243
00:23:10,240 --> 00:23:12,120
Villagers brought them food
 and sometimes information

244
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,480
which was vital to both their
 success and their survival.

245
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:20,800
It required great courage
 on the part of the villagers.

246
00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:24,200
If they were caught by the
 Germans, not only they

247
00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,360
but their whole communities
 might suffer brutal reprisals.

248
00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:36,880
On 13th May 1943,

249
00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:40,520
Hitler signed the orders
 approving Operation Citadel
the Kursk offensive.

250
00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:48,800
As if in reply, the partisans
 blew up both bridges over the
 River Desna near Bryansk,

251
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,600
cutting the main supply route to
 the build-up area for the
 offensive.

252
00:24:01,120 --> 00:24:04,320
It took 12 days for German
 engineers to get both bridges
 back in action.

253
00:24:06,120 --> 00:24:08,680
This delay on the eve
 of the offensive was serious.

254
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:13,960
If it happened again at the
 height of the battle it could
 be catastrophic.

255
00:24:17,840 --> 00:24:21,400
Therefore in the weeks leading
 up to the Kursk offensive,

256
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:25,560
the German High Command ordered
large-scale anti-partisan
 sweeps,

257
00:24:25,560 --> 00:24:28,560
using frontline combat troops,
 including panzer regiments.

258
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:34,640
The largest of these operations
 took place around Bryansk,

259
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:37,880
and was codenamed
 Operation Gypsy Baron.

260
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:53,200
About 50,000 soldiers took part
 in the operation, including
 local collaborators.

261
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:59,880
They faced several partisan
 brigades with a combined
 strength of approximately
 11,000.

262
00:25:02,640 --> 00:25:06,000
The partisans were hindered
 by the fact that many women,

263
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:09,080
old people and children had fled
to the forests to join them.

264
00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:15,160
It made the partisans less
 mobile, and less able to move
 their camp in a hurry.

265
00:25:18,840 --> 00:25:20,880
The Germans managed to
 separate the partisan brigades

266
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:23,640
and drive them against
 the Desna River.

267
00:25:25,760 --> 00:25:28,560
The Headquarters of the Partisan
 Movement took immediate steps to
 assist.

268
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,200
They flew in weapons,
 ammunition and medical supplies,

269
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,920
and evacuated about 900 wounded
 partisans and others most at
 risk.

270
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:42,040
Soviet aircraft bombed
 enemy troop concentrations.

271
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:48,280
But partisan casualties mounted
 rapidly. They were outgunned,
 and outnumbered.

272
00:25:52,600 --> 00:25:55,880
On the night of 2nd June, fierce
 fighting erupted at the
 Pionerskiy farm,

273
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:00,280
as the partisan detachments
 attempted to fight their way out
 of the trap.

274
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:04,720
They succeeded, but
 at a heavy price.

275
00:26:12,360 --> 00:26:14,720
As soon as German regular
 units returned to the front,

276
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,960
partisan detachments
 began to reform in the forest.

277
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:26,800
That summer,
 Central Headquarters used radio

278
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:32,920
to co-ordinate a massive
partisan assault on the German
 rail network,

279
00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:37,240
at the very height of the Battle
 of Kursk. It was codenamed
 Operation "Rail War".

280
00:26:38,760 --> 00:26:42,960
There was one problem.
 To disrupt German rail transport

281
00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,920
on the scale envisaged would
 require thousands of tons of
 explosives

282
00:26:47,960 --> 00:26:52,080
more than could be flown in by
 air. So the sabotage groups
 began to experiment.

283
00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:07,280
Before the war, it was thought
 that between 200 to 400 grammes
 of TNT

284
00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:08,480
were needed to destroy
 a rail track.

285
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:12,800
But experiments with different
 rhomboid and trapezium shaped
 charges,

286
00:27:14,600 --> 00:27:17,640
showed that a rail track could
 be blown up with as little as 75
 grammes.

287
00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,600
This discovery reduced the
 quantity of explosives needed

288
00:27:23,600 --> 00:27:26,760
by more than half, and made it
 an amount that could be
 delivered by air.

289
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:37,840
Operation Rail War began
 on the night of 3rd August 1943.

290
00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:42,400
Railways were blown up across
 Byelorussia, Leningrad, Orel and
 Bryansk.

291
00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,880
But the results of Operation
 Rail War, and Operation
 "Concert"

292
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:51,480
that followed in September,
 were disappointing.

293
00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:55,400
The Germans soon learned how
 to minimise any disruption.

294
00:27:56,840 --> 00:27:58,560
Trains travelled with their
 own track repair crews,

295
00:28:00,360 --> 00:28:03,840
who would make quick temporary
 fixes to get the train moving
 again.

296
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,840
Once the unit was past,
 the rails could be replaced.

297
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,400
Ilya Starinov, a famous
 Soviet saboteur,

298
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,600
questioned the wisdom
 of blowing up the tracks.

299
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:22,160
He thought it was better
 to blow up the trains.

300
00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:28,280
But the rail war did
 have an impact.

301
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:34,160
The Head of Transport for Army
 Group Centre reported figures
 for August 1943:

302
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:42,240
Partisan activities in August
 resulted in an average of 45
 track demolitions per day,

303
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:48,280
and damage to 266 locomotives
 and 1,373 railroad cars.

304
00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:53,840
One of the partisans greatest
 achievements during the Battle
 of Kursk

305
00:28:53,840 --> 00:28:55,920
was to blow up the Osipovitchi
 railway station.

306
00:28:57,960 --> 00:29:00,520
The mission was carried out by
 special guerilla detachment The
 Brave Men ,

307
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:04,800
led by a colonel from OMSBON,
 Alexander Rabtsevitch.

308
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,760
A Russian engineer
 working for the Germans

309
00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:38,760
managed to attach two magnetic
 mines to the fuel tanks.

310
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:50,080
The explosion destroyed 33 fuel
 tankers, 65 ammunition wagons,

311
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,600
8 Tiger tanks, 7 armored
 vehicles, 12 food wagons,

312
00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,080
5 locomotives and the
 entire rail junction.

313
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:03,720
The station was
 burning for two days.

314
00:30:08,360 --> 00:30:11,120
The partisans were 200 metres
 from the railway line.

315
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:29,880
With the machine
 gun covering them,

316
00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,280
Mikhail Egorov and a comrade
 crawled quietly towards the
 railway embankment.

317
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:41,960
Wooden barricades lined
 both sides of the track.

318
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:46,760
They were hung
 with barbed wire and tin cans,

319
00:30:46,760 --> 00:30:50,320
which would rattle and alert the
 German sentries if anyone tried
 to sneak past.

320
00:30:52,440 --> 00:30:56,560
In the dark, working by touch,
 the partisans carefully cut away
 at the wire.

321
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:00,440
A German patrol passed by.

322
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,840
It took them an hour to cut
 their way through.

323
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:08,680
Then they heard a
 train approaching.

324
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:15,920
They rushed to the rails
 to plant the explosives.

325
00:31:24,040 --> 00:31:27,000
They buried the TNT, then tied a
piece of string to the fuse pin,

326
00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:30,320
and attached the other
 end to a ramrod.

327
00:31:32,280 --> 00:31:35,160
This they drove into the ground
 50 centimetres away.

328
00:31:38,480 --> 00:31:42,120
The Germans put empty wagons
 at the front of the train,

329
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:44,800
which would trigger a simple
 pressure mine and take the force
 of the blast.

330
00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:47,560
But this mine was different.

331
00:31:50,800 --> 00:31:53,440
The empty wagons passed
 harmlessly overhead. But the
 locomotive,

332
00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:56,240
whose running gear
 overhung the side of the track,

333
00:31:57,560 --> 00:31:59,880
knocked down the ramrod
 and pulled out the fuse pin.

334
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:12,000
It was the latest example of
 ingenuity in a constantly
 evolving war

335
00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:14,760
between Soviet saboteurs
 and German transport officers.

336
00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:19,320
Soon the Germans
 would devise a counter-measure,

337
00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:20,920
and the saboteurs would
 have to think of something new.

338
00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:32,120
By the spring of 1944, Mikhail
 Egorov had derailed 5 trains and
 destroyed 5 bridges.

339
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:38,240
He was awarded the Red Star
 Medal, the Medal of Glory Third
 Class,

340
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:41,880
and the Partisan
 Medal First Class.

341
00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:53,320
According to statistics from the
German General Directorate of
 Eastern Railways,

342
00:32:55,320 --> 00:32:59,880
partisans carried out
 approximately 500 raids and acts
 of sabotage in February 1943,

343
00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,800
rising to 700 in April, and to
 more than 1,000 a month in May
 and June.

344
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,720
A derailed train blocked
 the line for about 8 hours,

345
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:14,480
so to bring movement to a
 complete halt required 3
 derailings per day.

346
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:19,640
This simple arithmetic was
 making life hell for the
 Germans.

347
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:30,440
A kite soared 300 feet above
 the dark forests of Byelorussia.

348
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:34,960
Up towards it crept
 a little sail on wooden rollers.

349
00:33:36,920 --> 00:33:39,400
When it reached the kite, its
 cargo of leaflets was knocked
 loose,

350
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:42,560
and scattered across
 the forest below.

351
00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,320
Each leaflet was an
 appeal to the men

352
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:51,360
of Lieutenant Colonel Rodionov s
 Brigade of Russian nationalists,

353
00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:54,720
urging them to join
 with the partisans.

354
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:03,160
In fact many of these men had
 already begun to question their
 new allegiance,

355
00:34:03,160 --> 00:34:05,760
after seeing the brutal way
 Germans treated their fellow
 Russians.

356
00:34:13,600 --> 00:34:16,760
Rodionov himself had been
 shocked at the way the Nazis
 were operating in the east.

357
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,480
He had been promised an
 alliance. He knew now it was all
 lies.

358
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:26,480
He sent a delegation to make
 contact with the partisans.

359
00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:35,600
Rodionov asked what guarantees
 the partisans could give for his
 own safety,

360
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,000
and that of his men.

361
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:39,760
The partisans radioed Moscow.

362
00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:42,760
The reply came straight
 from General Ponomarenko,

363
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,000
Head of the Central Headquarters
 of the Partisan Movement.

364
00:35:01,720 --> 00:35:06,080
Partisan leader Ivan Chetkov
met with Rodionov.

365
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:09,080
As a result, almost his entire
 brigade came over to the Soviet
 side.

366
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:13,240
It was renamed the 1st
 Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigade.

367
00:35:19,720 --> 00:35:24,440
Within weeks, the brigade was in
 action against its former
 masters,

368
00:35:24,440 --> 00:35:28,480
attacking a German police
 garrison in the village of
 Stujunka.

369
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:39,000
The partisans attacked at dawn
 with mortars and machineguns.

370
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:43,720
By 7am they had stormed the
 village and wiped out the German
 garrison.

371
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,200
For this successful operation,
Rodionov was promoted to Colonel

372
00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:51,200
and decorated
 with the Order of the Red Star.

373
00:35:52,160 --> 00:35:54,400
Many of the men in his unit

374
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:56,960
went on to receive the "Partisan
 of the Patriotic War" medal.

375
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:05,040
Meanwhile, Generalkommissar
 Wilhelm Kube continued his
 brutal reign in Byelorussia.

376
00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,160
In the summer of 1943,

377
00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:13,120
the NKVD Intelligence Department
 made his assassination a top
 priority.

378
00:36:15,320 --> 00:36:19,640
The task was assigned to all
 partisan units operating in the
 Minsk area.

379
00:36:19,640 --> 00:36:21,160
The hunt for Wilhelm
 Kube was on...

380
00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:26,920
On 22nd July a huge explosion
 tore through the Minsk Theatre.

381
00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:33,360
Soviet intelligence reported
 that 70 enemy soldiers had been
 killed,

382
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:38,200
and 110 wounded, but that Kube
 had left the theatre a few
 minutes before the explosion.

383
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:48,400
Weeks later, a partisan
 unit ambushed Kube

384
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:51,400
on his way to his country
 residence. But he escaped again.

385
00:36:53,680 --> 00:36:56,080
The partisans suggested bombing
 Kube s residence from the air.

386
00:36:57,960 --> 00:37:01,320
The mission was assigned to 15
 crews from an elite long-range
 bomber unit.

387
00:37:05,520 --> 00:37:09,280
But Kube survived once more, and
 moved his residence into the
 city.

388
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:15,840
On 6th September,
 a banquet was held in Minsk

389
00:37:15,840 --> 00:37:18,200
to mark the 10th anniversary
 of Hitler s rise to power.

390
00:37:23,400 --> 00:37:26,280
A bomb in the officers mess
 killed 36 military and
 government officials,

391
00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:28,440
but Kube wasn t there.

392
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:35,360
Then, Yelena Mazanik Kube s
 housemaid was contacted by
 partisan Maria Osypova.

393
00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:42,000
Maria told Yelena about the
 terrible crimes for which Kube
 was responsible.

394
00:37:43,560 --> 00:37:45,240
She persuaded her to carry out
an act of revenge,

395
00:37:46,320 --> 00:37:47,960
and gave her a
 delayed-action mine.

396
00:37:50,200 --> 00:37:53,640
On the morning of
 Tuesday 21st September,

397
00:37:53,640 --> 00:37:56,640
Yelena Mazanik put the mine in
 her bag... and went to work.

398
00:38:00,720 --> 00:38:04,200
Locals were always searched when
 entering the Generalkommisar s
 residence,

399
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:05,800
but that day Yelena was lucky.

400
00:38:07,280 --> 00:38:10,160
She knew the supervisor
 the search was a formality.

401
00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,480
She went into Kube s bedroom and
 put the mine underneath the
 mattress,

402
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:17,080
below where his head would lie.

403
00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:33,160
Maria Osypova, Yelena Mazanik
and her sister Valentina

404
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,520
were smuggled out of the city
 to a partisan safe house.

405
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,840
That night, shortly before 1am,
 Generalkommissar Wilhelm Kube

406
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:47,360
was asleep in his Minsk
 residence... when the mine
 exploded.

407
00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:54,680
The mine that killed Kube
 had a directional force

408
00:38:54,680 --> 00:38:56,000
that ensured it only
 killed its target.

409
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,240
Neither Kube s pregnant wife,

410
00:39:00,240 --> 00:39:02,440
nor his children sleeping
 in the next room, were harmed.

411
00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:17,000
By the beginning of 1944, Soviet
 records showed 300,000 partisans
 under arms.

412
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:23,960
There were nearly 150 radio sets
 in use in Byelorussia alone.

413
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:31,400
The partisans now had a
 dedicated air unit, the 101st
 Long-Range Aviation Regiment,

414
00:39:32,840 --> 00:39:35,040
which flew 20 missions
 to the partisans every night.

415
00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:42,600
In the spring of 1944, the
 Germans planned a massive
 operation

416
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:45,200
to destroy the partisan enclave
 near Polatsk, in northern
 Byelorussia.

417
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:53,840
They deployed 60,000 soldiers,
 137 tanks, 236 guns,

418
00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:56,480
70 aircraft and 2
 armoured trains.

419
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:03,920
60,000 partisans and civilians
found themselves encircled

420
00:40:03,920 --> 00:40:07,120
by units of the German
 3rd Panzer Army,

421
00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,360
which quickly seized control
 of all their airfields.

422
00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:15,400
So the partisans built a new one
 on a hill, in the middle of
 the marshes.

423
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,440
The partisans needed
 to fill the bog with soil

424
00:40:28,440 --> 00:40:30,560
to make a strip at least
 1,000 metres long.

425
00:40:33,880 --> 00:40:37,240
Logs were laid first, then
 tightly packed brushwood, and
 then soil on top.

426
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:44,000
2,000 peasants from the local
 village, supervised by Nicolay
 Obrinba,

427
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:45,520
worked on the strip
 for three weeks.

428
00:40:48,760 --> 00:40:51,200
Pits were dig for fires,
 to act as landing lights.

429
00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:57,520
Carpenters made hatches with
 iron bottoms. To put the light
 out quickly,

430
00:40:57,520 --> 00:40:59,920
you pulled a rope tied to the
 prop that held up the hatch.

431
00:41:03,520 --> 00:41:07,480
To support the partisans, the
 Soviet air force carried out 354
 missions.

432
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:12,640
These included bombing raids
 against German positions,

433
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:17,720
ferrying in 250 tons of
 supplies, and evacuating about
 1,500 casualties.

434
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:24,840
But the pressure from
 heavily-armed German troops was
 relentless.

435
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:29,400
At the end of April, the
 surviving partisans attempted to
 break out.

436
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:35,320
At first the partisan
 brigades tried to co-ordinate

437
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:38,080
their actions with the army high
 command. But communications
 broke down,

438
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:42,080
and each unit had to fight its
 own way out as best it could.

439
00:41:44,360 --> 00:41:47,680
By 27th April, the Germans had
 forced the last partisans into a
 pocket

440
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:51,520
just 20 kilometres wide.

441
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,280
The local commander ordered the
 survivors to break out at all
 costs,

442
00:41:55,280 --> 00:41:59,360
and 8 days later they succeeded
in leading 15,000 civilians to
 safety.

443
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:05,720
At the forefront
 of the fighting,

444
00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:07,840
was Colonel Rodionov s
 First Anti-Fascist Brigade.

445
00:42:09,320 --> 00:42:11,120
During his service
 with the German security forces,

446
00:42:12,920 --> 00:42:15,880
Rodionov had led his brigade in
 punitive actions against
 Byelorussian civilians,

447
00:42:17,880 --> 00:42:20,720
and had taken part in the
 destruction of 5 villages along
 the Berezina River.

448
00:42:22,440 --> 00:42:24,880
Now Rodionov atoned for these
 crimes with his own blood.

449
00:42:26,360 --> 00:42:29,400
During the breakout,
 Rodionov was killed

450
00:42:29,400 --> 00:42:31,880
while persuading his soldiers to
stand up and attack the enemy.

451
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:36,320
His remains were
 rediscovered in 1992,

452
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:41,480
and reburied in a communal grave
 for partisans in the town of
 Ushachi.

453
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:49,640
One month after the fall
 of the partisan enclave,

454
00:42:49,640 --> 00:42:51,120
the Red Army launched
 Operation Bagration.

455
00:42:53,120 --> 00:42:56,080
Soviet regular forces drove the
 enemy from all parts of
 Belorussia.

456
00:42:58,240 --> 00:43:00,520
Many partisans joined
 the ranks of the Red Army.

457
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:09,160
In the small hours of 1st May
 1945, one former partisan,
 Mikhail Egorov,

458
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:14,680
alongside Sergeant Meliton
Kantaria, was in the heart of
 Berlin,

459
00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:16,840
climbing to the very top
 of the Reichstag building.

460
00:43:19,240 --> 00:43:22,720
Egorov had brought a sack
 containing the assault banner

461
00:43:22,720 --> 00:43:27,200
of the 756th Rifle Regiment
 of the 150th Rifle Division.

462
00:43:31,280 --> 00:43:34,480
They were covered by their
 commanding officer, Lieutenant
 Aleksey Berest.

463
00:43:40,840 --> 00:43:44,080
Behind Mikhail Egorov lay two
 years of the deadly partisan war
  

464
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,160
a serious shoulder wound

465
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,400
and service as a Red Army
 infantry scout in Poland and
 Germany.

466
00:43:57,080 --> 00:44:01,720
Ahead lay a few steps to the
roof of the Reichstag, and to
 victory.