On June 29, the Russian Federation celebrates the Day of Partisans and Underground Fighters. Oddly enough, until recently this holiday was absent in the Russian calendar, and this despite the fact that partisan detachments and underground groups made a colossal contribution to the great cause of the Victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi aggressors. Historical justice triumphed only four years ago. And the initiators of its restoration were regional deputies.
Whoever says what, but sometimes the regional legislative bodies make very sensible proposals, which, for whatever reason, were not thought of by the federal parliamentarians before. So, in 2009, the Bryansk Regional Duma made a proposal to introduce a new memorable date - the Day of partisans and underground fighters. In 2010, this proposal was supported by the State Duma of the Russian Federation and signed by the then head of state D. A. Medvedev. And now, for the fourth year, the Day of Partisans and Underground Fighters is officially celebrated on June 29 - on the anniversary of the adoption by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the AUCPB of the directive on the creation of partisan detachments and resistance behind enemy lines.
Partisan formations and underground groups operating throughout the territory of the Soviet Union occupied by the enemy made a colossal contribution to the common cause of approaching the victory of the Soviet people over Nazi Germany. In fact, the partisan struggle was the response of ordinary Soviet citizens to the Nazi occupation. Soviet people of both sexes and of all ages, nationalities and professions fought in partisan formations, regardless of the presence or absence of military training. Although the backbone of the partisan formations was created, of course, on the initiative of the party organs and with the active participation of the Soviet special services, most of the partisans were still ordinary Soviet people - the very ones who drove trains and stood at the factory machines before the war, taught children at school or gathered crops on the collective farm fields.
According to historians, in 1941-1944. on the territory of the western regions of the Soviet Union, there were about 6,200 partisan detachments and formations, uniting over 1 million fighters. Considering that by no means all partisan detachments were taken into account, and some of them included people opposed to the Soviet regime and therefore did not subsequently receive proper coverage in Soviet historical literature, it can be assumed that in reality partisans and underground fighters during the war years could be order more.
Naturally, the Belarusian, Bryansk, Smolensk forests became the main focus of the partisan war against the Nazi invaders. On the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, the famous formation of Sidor Kovpak, a partisan commander who had gone through the Civil War, operated. But no less active than the forest guerrillas, the city underground members acted, disorganizing the work of the occupation administration and police bodies, saving the life and freedom of many thousands of Soviet citizens.
One of the key territories for the deployment of partisan and underground warfare during the Great Patriotic War was the Crimean peninsula. For the Russian state, Crimea has always been of strategic importance, several times the territory of the peninsula has become an arena of fierce battles. Crimea did not escape this fate either during the Great Patriotic War. The German command paid great attention to the capture of the peninsula, understanding its role in the further advance to the oil regions of the Caucasus, consolidation in the waters of the Black and Azov Seas. It was also envisaged to use the Crimea as an air base from which Luftwaffe aircraft would fly.
More than twice the enemy's forces were concentrated against the defenders of the Crimea. Their core consisted of German and Romanian units under the command of E. von Manstein. Despite the fact that the German and Romanian troops in aggregate outnumbered the Soviet units stationed on the peninsula, both in manpower and in armament (especially significant superiority was in aviation), thanks to the incredible heroism of the Soviet military personnel and the local population who helped them, the defense of the peninsula continued almost a year - from September 12, 1941 to July 9, 1942.
The German units managed to overcome the famous Perekop, through which the only land route to the Crimea passed, relatively quickly. Within a month and a half, Soviet troops were driven out of the peninsula, evacuating through the Kerch Strait, and German units reached the southern coast of Crimea. Therefore, almost the entire period from the end of October 1941 to July 1942. - this is the history of the defense of Sevastopol. The city of Russian naval glory turned out to be a "tough nut to crack", which the Germans did not manage to take for a long time, even after the complete occupation of the Crimean peninsula.
By the time the Germans invaded the Crimean Peninsula, Sevastopol was a well-fortified naval base, and a significant number of the Soviet Navy was concentrated here. It was the sailors who played a key role in the defense of Sevastopol, since by the time the German assault began, there were no Red Army ground units left in the vicinity of the city. The city was defended by units of the Black Sea Fleet marines, coastal units, ship crews, as well as ordinary citizens. Later, other units of the Soviet army arrived at Sevastopol, but the superior enemy forces did not reduce the onslaught, organizing a real blockade of the city of naval glory. During the siege, Sevastopol was practically completely destroyed by aerial bombardments and artillery fire.
On July 9, 1942, after a heroic 250-day defense of Sevastopol, Soviet troops were still forced to leave the city. However, the Sovinformburo gave a message that the defense of the city had been stopped, back on July 3. German and Romanian units entered the city. For almost two years, until the beginning of May 1944, the legendary city of naval glory came under the rule of the invaders. Many Soviet citizens living in the city were repressed on ethnic or political grounds. The Nazis created their own administrative and police structures, in which, in addition to German and Romanian military personnel and police, representatives of the local population were also involved.
In the conditions of a two-year occupation, Soviet patriots had no choice but to continue the struggle against the Nazis either through partisan actions in the wooded mountains of the Crimean peninsula, or through clandestine activities in cities and towns. On October 21, 1941, when it became clear that German troops would still manage to occupy the territory of the peninsula, the Headquarters of the Crimean Partisan Movement was formed. It was headed by Alexey Vasilievich Mokrousov.
At the start of the war, Mokrousov was already 54 years old. Behind his back are the years of the revolutionary underground in the Russian Empire (which is interesting - at first not in the Bolshevik Party, but in the militant organization of anarchists in the territory of Donbass), service in the Tsarist Baltic Fleet, arrest and flight abroad, leadership of the Union of Russian Workers in Argentina, participation in February and October revolutions. It was Mokrousov who commanded a detachment of anarchist sailors who occupied the Petrograd telegraph in the days of October, and later led the Black Sea revolutionary detachment, which established Soviet power in Crimea.
In the Civil, under the command of the legendary revolutionary, there was first a brigade, and then the whole Crimean insurgent army. After graduating from Grazhdanskaya Mokrousov, it seemed, he returned to a peaceful life - he led an agricultural commune in the Crimea, worked as the head of the Kolyma expedition, director of the Crimean state reserve. However, during the Civil War in Spain, Mokrousov went to fight on the side of the Republicans, was at the headquarters of the commander of the Aragonese Front. Naturally, a person with such combat and life experience did not remain idle even with the beginning of the Great Patriotic War - he was entrusted to lead the entire partisan movement of Crimea, and after the liberation of the peninsula - to command the 66th Guards Rifle Regiment.
The headquarters of the partisan movement divided the territory of Crimea, for the convenience of the operational leadership, into six partisan regions. The first included the forests of the Old Crimea, the Sudak region, where the Sudak, Staro-Crimean and Feodosia partisan detachments operated. The second, in the Zuisky and Karasubazar forests, included the Dzhankoy, Karasubazar, Ichkinsky, Kolaysky, Seytlersky, Zuisky, Biyuk-Onlarsky partisan detachments, as well as two Red Army detachments. In the third region - on the territory of the state reserve of Crimea - Alushta, Evpatoria and two Simferopol partisan detachments fought. Near Yalta and Bakhchisarai - in the fourth partisan region - the Bakhchisarai, Yalta, Ak-Mechet and Ak-Sheikh detachments, the Red Army detachment fought. The sixth region included the Kerch quarries. And the fifth partisan area just covered the outskirts of Sevastopol and neighboring Balaklava. The Sevastopol and Balaklava partisan detachments operated here.
In addition to partisan formations conducting direct armed struggle against the occupation forces, numerous clandestine groups were formed in the occupied territories. At the beginning of 1942, their number reached 33, uniting 400 people. After 34 organizers were sent to the occupied territories in April 1942, they formed 37 underground groups in 72 settlements. By 1943, there were already 106 underground groups on the territory of the Crimean peninsula, uniting more than 1,300 people. It is noteworthy that a significant part of the partisan and underground formations was made up of young people - Komsomol members and even pioneers, who, along with adults, participated in combat missions, establishing communication between various partisan and underground groups, supplying partisan detachments, and intelligence.
Sabotage and sabotage against infrastructure facilities of the occupation authorities have become a frequent occurrence in the occupied Crimea. The figures below speak for themselves regarding the scale of the activities of partisans and underground organizations on the territory of the Crimean peninsula: in the period from November 1941 to April 1944, 29383 military personnel and policemen - German, Romanian, local traitors - were killed. Partisan detachments carried out 252 battles and 1,632 operations, including 81 sabotage on the railroad and 770 attacks on enemy vehicle columns. The invaders lost 48 steam locomotives, 947 wagons and platforms, 2 armored trains, 13 tanks, 211 artillery pieces, 1940 cars.112.8 kilometers of telephone cables and 6,000 kilometers of power lines were destroyed. A significant number of cars, guns, small arms, and ammunition were seized by the partisans and used against the previous "owners".
However, in addition to direct armed clashes, resistance to the occupying authorities included a more “peaceful” segment, which, nevertheless, was just as important in the overall cause of approaching victory. Moreover, it was often the invisible work carried out by the Soviet underground workers who remained deep in the rear that saved the lives of hundreds and thousands of Soviet citizens, including both prisoners of war and civilians. Many "invisible" fighters of the partisan front had in their hands not submachine guns and machine guns, but fountain pens, but this does not diminish the importance of their contribution to the fight against the Nazi invaders. Sometimes one signature saved hundreds of lives, one rewritten document, handed over to the scouts, allowed the "forest" partisans to conduct a successful operation against the occupation forces. Of course, people who chose the path of underground struggle for themselves, albeit without “going into the woods,” risked every hour, because if they were exposed by the Nazi special services, they would be instantly liquidated.
A large role in the underground struggle was played by the collectives of enterprises, or rather that part of them, which, according to the decision of the party organs, remained on the territory of the peninsula occupied by the enemy in order to conduct subversive activities and all kinds of obstruction of the Nazis in the implementation of their plans to create an occupation infrastructure. In particular, in the city of Sevastopol, one of these underground groups operated for Krymenergo.
The Krymenergo enterprise, which honorably fulfilled the duties of providing power to the Soviet troops during the defense of Sevastopol, became a branch of a German joint-stock company during the years of occupation. Those of the workers who did not leave with the Soviet troops continued their work, while some of them, risking their lives, carried out subversive activities against the occupation authorities.
Sevastopol is a special city and it has always been inhabited by good and brave people. The heroic traditions of the Russian army, patriotism, a clear identification of oneself with the Russian state have always been inherent in most of the Sevastopol residents. Naturally, the years of the Great Patriotic War became the next, after the legendary defense of Sevastopol in the Crimean War, an exam for the townspeople for honor and loyalty to the Russian state. Many civilians of Sevastopol stood up to defend their homeland. Among them there were those who are difficult to imagine in another situation in the role of a “man with a gun”. In fact, they could not have taken a gun in their hands during the years of underground work, which in no way diminishes the importance of the activities that they were engaged in during the period of the German occupation.
Dina Aleksandrovna Kremyanskaya (1917-1999) in 1942 was 25 years old. A diminutive intelligent woman, she worked as a secretary at Krymenergo and was a faithful companion of her husband and chief in the service, Pyotr Evgenievich Kremyansky (1913-1967). The manager of Krymenergo, thirty-year-old Pyotr Kremyansky, was appointed chief engineer of the enterprise during the years of occupation.
The Hitlerite authorities of Sevastopol, apparently, did not suspect that the engineer, who did not show any particular disloyalty to the new rulers of the Crimea, was in fact leading a group of underground workers. In addition to Pyotr Evgenievich Kremyansky, the underground group "Krymenergo", which in 1943 became part of the larger underground organization of Vasily Revyakin, also included Dina Kremyanskaya, electrician Pavel Dmitrievich Zhichinin, electrician Nikolai Konstantinovich Fesenko, electrician on duty Yakov Nikiforovich Sekretarev and some others employees.
Due to his position as chief engineer of Krymenergo, Pyotr Evgenievich Kremyansky issued dozens of fictitious certificates that saved more than one human life and destiny. Many Soviet citizens, with the help of the underground workers from Krymenergo, were able to stay in their homeland and were not hijacked to work in Germany. The issuance of more than two hundred fictitious certificates in itself was the highest risk, since the identification of such activity meant the inevitable execution for the head of Krymenergo and his associates. Nevertheless, the employees of the enterprise performed their civic and patriotic duty without hesitation, which once again speaks of them as worthy and courageous people.
In addition to his activities in Krymenergo, Kremyansky also coordinated underground groups formed by Soviet prisoners of war in Lazarevsky barracks. Every day, up to thirty Soviet prisoners of war were summoned to carry out work on the territory of "Krymenergo", while in fact they did not work during the day, but received food from the enterprise, which at least somehow supported their physical existence. An even more risky step was the creation of an underground printing house, on which the reports of the Information Bureau were printed, with their subsequent distribution among the townspeople.
One cannot fail to note the high professionalism of these purely civilians, shown by them in their underground work. Despite the fact that underground work requires the highest effort and constant attentiveness, even to trifles, and any puncture can cost many people their lives, over the years of illegal activity, the Krymenergo group managed not only to save the lives of hundreds of Soviet prisoners of war and save many civilians from hijacking to Germany, but also not to lose a single participant.
Fortunately, Pyotr Evgenievich and Dina Aleksandrovna Kremyanskiy were never exposed by the Nazi invaders and, having risked their lives almost daily and hourly during the two years of occupation, were able to safely meet the soldiers - liberators. However, there were collisions here too. Staying in the occupied territory, in itself, did not paint a Soviet citizen, especially work in leading positions in German organizations. Moreover, the underground work was carried out by the employees of "Krymenergo" "in the shadows", and they occupied positions in the occupation structure openly, which was known to many townspeople, among whom there were, of course, "well-wishers".
The leader of the underground group, Pyotr Kremyansky, was arrested, but two years later the competent authorities still figured out who Pyotr Evgenievich really was and what he had been doing during the years of the German occupation of Crimea, and released him from prison. This is the great merit of his wife Dina Aleksandrovna, who was not afraid to go to Moscow, to meet with the deputy of the all-powerful Beria and to achieve the restoration of justice. Fortunately, in those years, despite the accusations of totalitarianism on the Soviet authorities, the barrier between ordinary citizens and Soviet party and government officials was not yet so insurmountable. Petr Evgenievich and Dina Aleksandrovna Kremyanskiy rightfully took their well-deserved places among other respected residents of Sevastopol, who made a huge contribution to the cause of its liberation from the Nazi occupation.
They died many years after the war - Pyotr Evgenievich Kremiansky in 1967, and Dina Aleksandrovna Kremianskaya in 1999. Their son, Alexander Petrovich Kremyansky, served all his life in the USSR Navy, devoting his life to the defense of the Fatherland already as a career serviceman - a naval officer. On September 22, 2010 in Sevastopol, a solemn opening of the plaque of honor took place at the house at the address: pl. Revyakina, 1 (the square is named after the head of the communist underground organization, which included a group of patriots - employees of "Krymenergo"). It was in this building during the war years that the employees of "Krymenergo" conducted their underground work. The memorial plaque will remind the new generations of Sevastopol residents, city guests, about the contribution of members of the underground group "Krymenergo" to the defense of their homeland from the Nazi invaders, about the greatest risk, despite which they performed their seemingly invisible and routine work.
An example of an underground struggle at the Krymenergo enterprise is another confirmation of the high patriotism of Soviet citizens. Millions of ordinary Soviet people, including representatives of the most peaceful professions, who had never before shown any special passionarity, had no relation to defense or special services, rallied during the war years and turned into selfless fighters, to the best of their strength and capabilities, bringing victory over the enemy closer. Therefore, the Day of Partisans and Underground Fighters is not just a memorable date, but a reminder to all of us, ordinary Russian people, about what genuine defense of our Motherland is. Eternal memory to heroes - partisans and underground workers …
