Fight without announcements

Kobrin → Materials about Kobrin district → Kobrin district in the years of war

Brest together with Lutsk, Gorokhov, Kovel and Helm was included into the Volynsk area so-called. "The northwest earth" ("PZUZ"), being the center of the same name "district". In 1944-1945 it was registered as "Krichevskaya". Here it is necessary to tell that rigid conspiracy reigned in OUN. All organizational structures had code names. So, the Brest nadrayonny wire passed as "Steep slope", Pinsky - "Steppe", Kobrin - "Lang". In correspondence, as well as at real-life communication, nationalists used exclusively personal pseudonyms. Very often ordinary fighters knew the commanders only on them.

OUN-UPA groups (here and there also joint stock company) were so serious rival what to resist to them by forces of regional departments of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs and NKGB and even regional managements in the territory of Ukraine and Belarus were not represented possible. It was well understood in Moscow. After front-line units on the West the connections of internal troops of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs serving as fighting cover of large KGB operations and guarantors of protection of the Soviet local authorities progressed. So, after liberation of Brest in the city some time there was the 284th shooting regiment of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs under command of the lieutenant colonel Babentsev which was carrying out these tasks (he quickly submitted to VV People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Belarusian district). Besides, where it was possible, the 12th Vysokovsky's frontier guards, the 15th Domachevsky and the 86th Brest group which staff was in the regional center were attracted. UNKVD and UNKGB at the same time acted as developers and heads of operations. Independently security officers carried out only limited military actions: arrests of members of "boyovka", capture of couriers, takings of perpetrators of the terrorist acts etc.

The meeting mentioned earlier Brest OK KP(b)B did not take place in vain. Within one week, from August 11 to August 18, 1944, the ounovets who strong saddled the South of the Brest region and feeling in a number of places full masters of the situation for the first time received effective repulse. In the territory of Divinsky district three operations in a row were performed. The 11th field investigators and soldiers managed to overtake unawares the Orlika group which came from Volhynia totaling about 100 people. KGB counterintelligence gave data on their dislocation. Orlikovtsa entered fierce firefight, but direct fight with personnel fighters strongly differed from habitual ambushes and raids. 55 Banderovites fell, 5 were taken prisoner (including the leader's aide-de-camp, the former police officer Kukharchuk). Rub - four tens fighters, having scattered on small groups, hardly came off prosecution and were dissolved in the boggy wood. In a course of action 4 mortars and 4 machine guns (a basis of fire power of insurgents), rifles, automatic machines, several thousands of cartridges etc. were thrown. Also horses, tents and an other hozimushchestvo were captured. "Orlik" (the native of Volhynia Remarenko) after deafening defeat was found in the next Kovelshchina. And when risked to seem again (in October) - it was killed, as well as 25 more members of its group.

Four days by task force clamped later other nationalists (from A.I group. Quickly, it is "Yermak" - the head of the Kobrin regional wire). Again heavy fighting. 16 insurgents are killed, 4 are taken prisoner.

Well remained house of construction of 1943 in the town of Divin of Kobrin district. In the 40-50th years of the past century the former regional center of the Brest region which popularity reached even the Kremlin generally consisted of the same huts (for an exception of a roof which was before gontovy). A photo of 2009, the suburb of the town on departure towards the village Povit

The burning log hut in one of villages of Divinsky district. Possibly, the photo is made after attack of fighters: the countrywoman explains something to the field investigator of UNKGB. 1945-1946.

Trophies: mortar, machine gun, rifles and 10 thousand cartridges. Having thrown the wagon train, ten escaped Banderovites took refuge in thickets. "Yermak" nearly got on August 18, during combing of forest area to the south of the village Big Bolota (the name very characteristic, is the settlement in Kobrin district today). Among its poplechnik 15 more people were killed, the commander got wound and hardly left an environment.

In the territory relating to the modern Brest region were especially struck with "Political gangsterism" Kamenetsky, Brest, Zhabinkovsky, Kobrin, Stolinsky, Ivanovo, Drogichinsky, Antopolsky, Gantsevichsky, Davyd-Gorodoksky, Pinsky and, certainly, mentioned Divinsky areas. How difficult was a situation there, it is possible to understand from the report of the secretary of a district committee Ya.U. Indyukov and the chairman of Divinsky regional council A.N. Karavayev sent to the regional administration: "... Gangs openly appear in Povityevsky, Lelikovsky and Habovichsky with / councils. Destroy the Soviet asset. On July 22 in the village of Povitye killed the local activist, on August 1 attempted upon murder of the chairman and secretary osobvsky with / council which came running in Divin at night. On August 2 made attack on the chairman and Habovichsky's secretary with / council on which made shots. Now these with / councils do not work and the rural asset refuses flatly work. The picked-up chairmen and Povityevsky and Lelikovsky's secretaries with / councils did not get to work and on the territory of these with / councils to be shown have no opportunity. The begun mobilization by the population district military registration and enlistment office in Red army since July 27 breaks. With m Divin of the 27th 700 people, from Novoselkovsky with / council of 1 people, from Habovichsky with / council 4 people with departure of a district military registration and enlistment office in Novoselkovsky with / council were on August 1 in a district military registration and enlistment office on an inventory, from the village of Novoselka on an inventory any person was not. On July 30 when collecting the mobilized population from Divin, for sending, from 700 people 50 people were, other population of military age disappeared in the woods, and the part joined bulbovets. On July 31 the district military registration and enlistment office by means of destructive group by the carried-out round-up in m - to Divin was collected early in the morning by the 180th persons. persons liable for call-up whom with great difficulty directed the area in Berezovsky...".

One of messages of the secretary of Pinsky regional committee of KP(b)B N. K. Zaytsev to P. K. Ponomarenko from whom it is visible that the zone from Drogichin to Baranovichi (in the north) and borders of the Polesia region (in the east) was generally controlled not by Banderovites, and bulbovets is given in p. 174.

Similar reports came to Brest and Minsk a continuous train. In most cases with desperate requests about assistance. It is enough to tell that the first secretary of the Brest regional committee of party M. N. Tupitsin repeatedly, presented each three-four weeks to the party management of BSSR volume notes with the chronicle of attacks of the Ukrainian nationalists. In "damned" Divin put garrison from a battalion of the 284th regiment of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs numbering 250 people. However participants of illegal paramilitary groups was three times-four times more and, except separate local operations, it was only necessary to defend, in essence. "Bandits burned all the boats in the area, destroy communication, plunder the population, terrorize the party and Soviet asset. It is not enough our forces for fight. One battalion of a regiment of Babentsev which was until recently. . could not take serious measures because bandits there are about 800 people", - the first secretary of the Brest regional committee of party M. N. Tupitsyn in the Central Committee of KP(b)B informed on October 31.

3.09.1944 the Head department of VV People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs approved the plan of concentration of parts of internal troops in the Belarusian district (the chief of troops - the major general V. I. Kiselyov). According to it, the being available forces were distributed in "the main western districts of Baranovichsky, Vileysky, Grodno, Brest and Pinsky regions struck with gangsterism Belarusian by the Soviet Socialist Republic". To replace the 284th regiment to Brest there arrived the 265th regiment of the 7th motor-shooting division of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs. He was temporarily billeted down the street Communistic, 16 where there were before war warehouse of regional office of Gossortfond. The military personnel had to interact with local intelligence agencies in respect of clarification of the next areas from "an enemy element". Also the management of regional UNKVD was replaced - it was headed by the lieutenant colonel V. V. Radchenko.

... Meanwhile, activity of the Ukrainian underground increased. In this regard the Brest regional committee of party appealed to command of the 28th army to help with clarification of the territory of the area. Bodies allocated 900 fighters who together with field investigators from Brest smoothed out on September 23-27 Divin's vicinities. In thickets and bogs 5 bandits, 30 deserters and nearly five hundred persons evading from an appeal were caught. However it was not succeeded to crush any fighting group: obviously, the last were warned about round-ups in time.

Thus, nationalists dictated the rules of the game. On November 4 M. N. Tupitsyn signaled to Minsk about need to urgently throw large forces of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs to problem districts: "I report in addition about actions of gangster groups. On the Dnepro-Bugsky channel around Yanovo bandits seized three engineers of Dneprobugstroy and brutally tortured them - vol. Shifrina, Obryadin, Kudysh. On November 2 bandits rushed into the village of Antonovo of Maloritsky district (20 km from Brest). Killed the chairman with/with, several activists, wounded the authorized Central Committee of KP(b)B of comrade Matveev. Bandits set as the purpose to break all governmental activities held by the Soviet and party organizations. Command of the 265th regiment (the commander, zampolit, the head of a staff), despite my offers to leave urgently to Divin's region, sit out in Brest and do not want to transfer a staff. The regional committee asks to instruct comrade Belchenko in a regiment re-deployment to the area Kobrin-Divin". The party chief of the Brest region could be understood: the regional center was already overflowed with troops, except parts of RKKA here until the end of 1944 was 221 joint venture of convoy troops of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs therefore it was possible to sleep peacefully. And here all for ten - another of kilometers - "peaceful life" was represented absolutely differently...

On the next shifrotelegramma from Tupitsyna to Minsk (21.11.1944) there is a resolution of the people's commissar S. S. Belchenko: "Troops and an opersostav at us now there enough. It is necessary to demand the most resolute and persistent actions from comrade Radchenko for elimination of the gangs coming from Ukraine".

Alas, on places everything looked much more difficult, than it seemed from windows of offices. Despite strengthening of garrisons and existence of mobile groups, blows were struck with a time in emptiness or their objectives were achieved only partially. It was not possible to weed "a nationalist weed" in any way.

Why the ounovsky underground was so hardy? Answers to a question are given by many researches, but we for descriptive reasons will use materials of UKGB archive across the Brest region and documents from the State archive of the Brest region. "Conditions of the marsh district, with big forests which last on tens of kilometers give the chance to bandits to maneuver and go to the areas adjacent to us, USSR, and from there again to appear not only in Divinskom, but also in other areas", - the first secretary of the Brest regional committee of party wrote in one of the dispatches. Really, open spaces of Polesia, Pribuzhya and even the Baranovichsky region represented the huge, excellent guerrilla zone abounding with natural shelters and hard-to-reach spots, stretched even for frontier (the western boundary with Poland).

The geographical factor was closed with another, even more important. Groups of UPA with which quick workers and divisions of internal troops furiously clashed actually represented visible part of an iceberg. In parallel there was an invisible part: administrative and organizational political system of OUN. Vertical structure: the area - the area - the area, etc. was built on the Brest region rather rigidly. In some villages there were so-called "boyovka" which were engaged in local secret-service work, executed acts of terrorism, carried out individual terror against the Soviet activists. So, a boyovka in the village Povit, it agrees indications of the captivated ounovets, the Wasp - about 20, in Habovichakh and Bogs - 30, in Divin – 28 contained by the end of 1944 of 35 people, in the village.

Primary cell in the organization were secret "pyaterk and" also "three". Indications of conductors (i.e. the managements) for members of an underground were obligatory. At cinema insurgents deeply drink, actually even among peasants the discipline was supported. In villages, as a rule, there were coherent log huts, couriers, observers - because of what questions of investigation and the notification were solved extremely effectively. Treachery was punished by death, a time not fast, but long and sophisticated. To "Smersh" and employees of UNKGB it was extremely difficult to get into "ounovsky" villages, not to mention a Banderist guerrilla warfare.

At height there was a nationalist promotion, recruiters skillfully acted. In the latter case all that negative which managed to be postponed in public consciousness of villagers in two premilitary years was wholly operated. As we know, in 1939 peasants met the Soviet power with considerable hopes. Especially slogans of release from "pansky oppression" were pleasant. In exchange state preparations, dispossession of kulaks, collectivization came - and many came round. In this regard after exile of Hitlerites even the poor sometimes became a social support for OUN.

The anti-Soviet hand-written leaflets OUN written in Ukrainian and in Russian and stuck at wells in villages of Kobrin district. In both somebody is exposed to criticism B. N. Telpuk proposed by the authorities the candidate

Therefore we will not give a big secret if we tell that the considerable part of an underground was created on a voluntary basis. And directly on the place, from peasants who, entering groups of UPA, had in villages numerous "eyes and ears" - that is acquaintances and relatives. It is excessive to mention that they perfectly knew vicinities and easily were guided in the boondocks. Here is how the citizen described, for example, ordinary "recruitment" To., in 1947 being involved as the witness in the case of the illegal armed group: "In the fall of 1944, being in a gang of "Yermak", I among others came into Kislyuk Mikhail's house, with us there was "Yermak". In the house there were already a defendant Danilyuk and Ignatyuk Mitrofan... "Yermak" asked Danilyuk why it came here on what Danilyuk began to ask "Yermak" that it was accepted in a gang and gave the weapon. But "Yermak" answered that it will not give the weapon to it and told: "Go work! I will look how you will work. Report about round-ups... about actions of the Soviet activists and then I will accept in a gang. The defendant answered: "Well".

Groups of UPA constantly were replenished also with deserters and those who were taken away in army. As there passed the appeal in the freed territories - it is known. Still bloody war in which the USSR lost millions of soldiers therefore had no time for ceremonies lasted …

… There was a frank, front terror. Residents of areas, as could, involved in fight against Councils. Any manifestation of sympathies for Red army, the slightest positive contacts with local authorities - were punished. It was possible to lose cattle, property, to sustain corporal injuries or even to leave life. As we know, the informative network of ounovets was out of competition therefore it was incredibly difficult for peasants to adhere to a certain neutrality - on them pressed from two parties. On villages the economic quitrent (fodder, products, warm clothes footwear, salt etc.) was imposed - the farther, the heavier. To grumble it was more expensive to itself: stealing and murders was the severe ordinary. Sometimes, visitors from the wood visited directly chairmen of village councils and forced them to give the written consent to cooperation from otdelami Unitary Enterprise: it was so simpler to organize supply of insurgent groups. The chairman then was responsible for deliveries with own life and life of the relatives. The secretary of the Central Committee of KShchb) B A.K. Protozanov in the report to the party management, for example, noted that "In the Divinsky Village Council the population in at one night collected 40 poods of oats, and brought to bandits. In the Povityevsky Village Council within three months... each yard gave to bandits daily on one kilogram of bread"...

"Because underground Ukrainian formations and gangster groups have close connection with local population which supports them and covers, and also tries to break our actions, - M. N. Tupitsyn reported on the first secretary of the Central Committee of KP(b)B and the chairman of Council of People's Commissars of BSSR P. K. Ponomarenko, - we make the offer on carrying out mass operation on eviction of all families of bandits and related of Divinsky district and from some villages of other areas in which counterrevolutionary gangster formations" are based (30.09.1944).

On January 15, 1945 very large KGB and army operation (KAO) which captured the Brest region (southwest) and Pinshchina (southeast) which plan was approved on January 8 by L.P. Beria began. Were involved in quick secret-service providing by UNKVD-UNKGB of the respective areas. Blocking of districts was carried out by forces of the 7th and 10th divisions of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, and also a boundary regiment. Quick employees of UNKVD and UNKGB across the Brest region (regional managements and regional departments) participated in prosecution of the found Banderovites and bulbovets.

Approximately at the same time (23.01.1945) saw the light the resolution of the Central Committee of KP(b)B "About work of the Divinsky district committee of KP(b)B" in which this district committee was accused of all sins, beginning from "did not lift a general population... did not show persistence in a short space of time to revitalize a stop", to "neglected business of return of the earth to the labor peasantry, did not take due measures to suppression of sabotage of the kulak elements breaking restoration of the Soviet land use". Got to also Brest regional committee of party led by M. N. Tupitsyn and to the 220th frontier regiment (commander major Yatsenko) which activity was called "extremely unsatisfactory".

Minsk, therefore, demanded establishing order at any cost. To it, in turn it was necessary to report to Moscow. I.V. Stalin constantly was interested in elimination process of "a counterrevolutionary underground".

Under the resolution of the Central Committee of KP(b)B the operations group of high level in number of 14 people headed by the deputy of the people's commissar of internal affairs of BSSR colonel of GB I.N. Ivashchenko was sent to Divinsky district. Its practices were approved as the annex to the main document and included 10 points. In particular, it appeared that "to Comrade Esaulov (A.A. Esaulov is the deputy of the people's commissar of NKGB BSSR - a bus comment) to reconsider staff of Divinsky RO NKGB and to take measures to replacement of persons inappropriate to work, first of all to replace the chief of RO NKGB Grigorenko". However the main thing was point 1: "Vol. to Ivashchenko and Kiselyov V. I. by forces of staff of the Divinsky operational site of NKVD-NKGB BSSR and the 220th frontier regiment of troops of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs given it during the period till February 20, 1945 to perform operation according to the plan approved by the national commissioner of internal affairs of USSR companion Beria, for elimination underground to / r nationalist formations and gangs in the area, to identification and detention of deserters and evading from an appeal in Red Army, to identification and elimination of gangster bases and shelters".

Thus, large-scale ChVO flowed in the second stage which lasted till February 20, 1945. Let's quote a fragment of the official report on activity of VV People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Belarusian district for 1945 devoted to this operation. "Parts of the 7th sd in districts of Pinsky and Brest regions it is captured by continuous check - 839 settlements, 48 799 yards with population of 165 317 people, combed forests with difficult passable bogs of 12 thousand km".

It is not necessary to be the expert to understand: measures were taken extraordinary and, in relation to the population, unambiguously repressive. The central authorities actually agreed with persistent offers M. N. Tupitsyna on "eviction of families of bandits" as in the mentioned resolution point No. 2 said literally following: "To carry out the accounting of all adult population and identification of gangster families to the same time, having prevented them that if members of families are participants to / r nationalist formations and gangs of groups will not plead guilty in bodies of the Soviet power, they will be moved from borders of the republic, and their property will be seized". However, the property at the arrested "bandits", judging by the criminal cases which are stored nowadays in UKGB archive across the Brest region was already withdrawn. For edification of locals trials at "visiting session of VK of Verkhsud of the USSR" with removal of sentences to "already arrested active participants" in Divin and "a gangster nest" - the village Habovichi were provided.

On February 17, 1945 there was a joint order behind V. V. Radchenko and A.A. Sergeyev's signatures "About changes in staff and territorial service of operational sites of UNKVD of the Brest region". Operuchastki existed since the end of the last year (order No. 00910 NKVD-NKGB BSSR) for the purpose of not dispersion of forces and improvement of secret-service service of the most problem districts. Now "in connection with change of a situation on existence of bands, and also bandit manifestations" their scheme was specified. On the Brest region there were three sites: Divinsky, Pruzhansky and Berezovsky. Chiefs put respectively the major of state security Smirnov (the deputy chief of the Brest UNKVD), the senior lieutenant Zhuravlyov, the captain Eysmont. At the same time in Divinsky district "in the help" to Smirnov the commander of the 220th boundary regiment major Yatsenko and the commander of the 265th operational regiment of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs captain Borisov were attached. It more than eloquently spoke about instability of a situation even after recently carried out largest ChVO.

Pruzhansky staff the area and the next Ruzhansky (a zone of activity of illegal immigrants of joint stock company), Berezovsky served of the same name a staff - the and Kosowski areas. And divinskiya, despite the maximum concentration of field investigators and military personnel - only the.

The portable radio station was allocated to each of operational sites. Chiefs had to report a situation daily. When carrying out the next ChVO stay in divisions of skilled quick workers was obligatory. Along administrative borders with Ukraine it was supposed "to get a dense protecting secret-service and informative network from the population which is patriotically adjusted to the Soviet power... to reduce in residency and to construct by the principle of chains for the purpose of the fastest report to our bodies about emergence in the settlement or approach of bandit groups to it".

On May 8, 1945 Germany signed the act of unconditional surrender. The European phase of World War II came to the end with full defeat of nazis and their allies. The destiny of global fight what was not known yet by a civilization, was defined on East front. The decisive contribution to the Victory over the enemy brought the Soviet Union, having paid for it the incredible price.

The message about "the end of war" extended in the West Belarusian places and villages within one week. But, as incredibly it sounds today, OUN-UPA positions in "the struck areas" not strongly reeled. Confirmation to that was shown in the summer when campaign for petition under the letter to Stalin dated for the first anniversary of liberation of Belarus (on July 3) began. In Divinsky district, as well as everywhere, there took place meetings and meetings. However as a result it was succeeded to collect only 1498 signatures! On the eve of actions ounovsky underground workers carried out acts of terrorism there and here, several activists left life, at others houses burned down.

The question, of course, rested not only against acts of intimidation. The Soviet power, to put it mildly, was not strongly welcomed by peasants, especially after introduction of system of obligatory agricultural deliveries. Even in the regional center signing of the letter to the Kremlin "absolutely broke". On July 6 M. N. Tupitsyna

reported that "the peasant B. declared: "I will not sign the letter to companion Stalin, why, that my signature was in Moscow". At meeting in a fire brigade of People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs the fireman S. declared: "For us the power is indifferent. We recognize nobody, we abstain. For us this power brought nothing good". In the district consumer union "the employee P. declared that she does not need money Soviet and the Soviet work". Etc. Let's notice, it is about Divin that was to speak about villages and farms. In the Novoselkovsky Village Council, for example, rumors that by what less signatures will be collected, by that a high probability were spread that in the area "the Polish power will be restored" (!) . The Brest regional committee with bitterness informed the top party management of the republic: "In a number of villages peasants refused to sign the letter to companion Stalin, motivating with the fact that it will cause the organization of collective farms". Approximately the same moods occurred to Polesia and in the Baranovichsky region.

The whole 1945 was extremely difficult for the Soviet power. The post-war ruin contributed to normalization political, criminal and social and economic situations a little that, of course, strongly complicated fight against the Ukrainian nationalist underground. It is unlikely will be exaggeration to tell that on the invisible front there was a real war in which victory was remote.

Fight without announcements / author of the concept and the text A.M. Suvorov//the Hidden boundary: management of KGB across the Brest region / A.M. Suvorov. – Brest: Polyschedule, 2014. – Page 171-184. Fight against gangs of the Ukrainian nationalists in Kobrin district in the years of war.
  

Popular materials


Materials about Kobrin district

Make the contribution to a reconstruction of history of Kobrin district. If you have interesting materials - share with us: admin@ikobrin.ru

Comments


Names of articles





Search in the website



Our partners

  • With BooksTime, you can scratch bookkeeping off your to-do list --permanently.