Story
Partisan convoy
Memorable dates are like milestones in the fate of the country and people. Behind each - events and destinies.
March 29 at Leningrad region- Day partisan glory. The partisans, like the fighters on the front line, brought victory closer.
The Day of Partisan Glory is dedicated to the arrival of the convoy, on which the partisans delivered food across the front line to Leningrad. It was a unique operation that we must remember.
During the war years in the rear of the advancing Nazi German troops guerrilla war was launched. Partisan brigades were stationed in the Luga, Belebelkovsky and Poddorsky (now the Novgorod region), Dedovichsky and Dnovsky (now the Pskov region) districts of the Leningrad region within the pre-war borders. In August 1941, on the territory of these regions in the occupied zone with an area of 10,000 square kilometers, the so-called "partisan region" arose. The partisans drove the enemies out of this zone. Soviet power was restored on this territory, schools and other Soviet institutions worked. The partisans were a significant force.
If in July 1941 there were about 18 thousand fighters in partisan detachments, then by January 1944 a well-armed partisan army consisting of 13 partisan brigades operated in the region. The total number of partisans was 35 thousand people. 13,500 partisans were killed in battles with the Nazi invaders. The partisan movement from July 1941 to February 1944 provided significant assistance to the military command of the Red Army in solving strategic tasks to defeat the Nazi troops near Leningrad and expel them from the territory of the Leningrad region. Population Growth partisan detachments was mainly at the expense of local youth 17-20 years old.
For 32 months of the war, partisan detachments of the Leningrad Region destroyed more than 100 thousand enemy fighters, disabled railway equipment, bridges, communications ...
In the partisan region, the local population, having learned about the plight of Leningraders dying of hunger, collected and sent a food convoy, which delivered more than three thousand pounds of food to the besieged city in March 1942. The products delivered at the most critical moment of the blockade saved more than one Leningrad life.
This date is significant, memorable, and dear to Ekaterina Grigoryevna Nikitina. She miraculously escaped in January 1943, when the Germans came to her village of Tomsino. Father said: "Run, daughter, to the partisans." On the night of January 15-16, 1943, the Germans burned the village along with its inhabitants, among whom were the parents and relatives of Ekaterina Grigoryevna. This is not forgotten! Memory returns to that time, which remains an unhealed wound on the destinies of people.
The early years of Nikitina, like many of her peers who lived in the neighborhood, are a partisan struggle against the Nazis, this is intelligence and sabotage, this is life in forests and swamps in any weather.
Ekaterina Grigorievna remembers her peers who fought in partisan detachments, were underground fighters, along with adults. She remembers how a convoy with food for the besieged city began to form in the village of Nivki.
Among those who accompanied the partisan convoy were women and teenagers, the same age as the current schoolchildren.
Having survived in the incredibly difficult conditions of partisan life, in peacetime for many years working as a teacher, Ekaterina Grigoryevna is convinced that the current young generation should know the truth about the war. Young people should be proud of the glory of their ancestors, their compatriots who laid down their lives on the altar of the Fatherland, for the sake of the lives of others, so that patriots grow in our country, so that the younger generation does not run out of love for small homeland and great homeland.
Memory ... She is not able to forget the soldiers of the war, that they gave their lives to their Motherland.
In Novaya Ladoga, the exploits of fellow countrymen - partisans are not forgotten: Grigory Vasilyevich Vasilyev, Nikolai Mikhailovich Rogov, Konstantin Makhaev, Anna Nikolaevna Astafieva, Lyubov Alexandrovna Abramova.
Ekaterina Grigoryevna often recalls partisans - Leningraders from the 7th partisan brigade Kotov, with whom she shared her partisan fate.
The detachment included a nurse, Elena Ivanovna, from Leningrad. During the third punitive expedition, the partisans had to change their place of deployment, but 4 fighters fell ill with typhus and were not transportable. And Elena Ivanovna stayed with them. They were hidden in a hole and covered with branches and trees. One of the policemen suspected something and stopped. And another called him and asked why he stopped. “Yes, yes. The mouse ran," he replied. He did not betray the partisans, and they remained alive. Here is such a case.
In the farm platoon there was a Leningrader Kozyrev, 25 years old - a tall handsome man, a real hero from a fairy tale. He was engaged in the preparation of food for the detachment. In the detachment was a shoemaker Vasily Ivanovich - an educated, intelligent, courteous person. It was these features that were characteristic of Leningraders.
Anatoly Sidorov was no more than 18 years old. He, along with Ivanov Sergey, were demolition workers in a demolition platoon, where Artemy Sokolov was the commander. More than 5 echelons were derailed and presented to high awards. “They received awards, I don’t know. After the war, Anatoly Sidorov, according to rumors, worked in Opochka as a secretary of the city committee of the Komsomol, and Sergey Ivanov graduated from the Polytechnic Institute and taught there. In the battles near Riga, he lost his arm. He was a very modest person, ”recalls Ekaterina Grigoryevna.
With a kind word, she also recalls Volodya Shiryaev, the head of the hospital from Astrakhan, from where he was born, and many other partisans with whom her fate brought her together.
A lot of time has passed, and the war years are remembered every day.
“No one can be indifferent to the war time experienced by the people,” Ekaterina Grigoryevna Nikitina is sure.
Tatiana ALEKSINA
On June 29, 2010, the Day of Partisans and Underground Workers was established in the country. On this day in 1941, a decision was made to form partisan detachments.
These two events are related.
A large formation of partisans operated at the junction of the Pskov, Novgorod and Leningrad regions. One of the legendary pages in the history of the partisan brigade is the food convoy, which was assembled by collective farmers in the territory occupied by the Germans in March 1942 and delivered across the front line to besieged Leningrad.
The partisans collected a huge amount of food: 2,370 pounds of bread and cereals, 750 pounds of fat - a total of 56 tons of provisions! In different places of the partisan region, 223 carts were prepared for food and 30 for fodder for horses on the road. Part of the cart was hidden in the forest, the other was hidden in farms and zaimka.
On the evening of March 5, the convoy set off, collecting carts from other villages along the way. Each cart had to have a weight not exceeding 300 kilograms, so the drivers were most often women and teenagers.
On March 29, 1942, the delegation of the food convoy met with the leadership of the besieged Leningrad. Four partisans were awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union.
In June 1941, Petya Ryzhov was in his seventh year. He was part of the propaganda team that traveled around the villages and agitated the villagers to hand over provisions. Many in Leningrad at that time had relatives: some went to study before the war, some were called to the city to work at a factory by industrialization. So the hunger of the city taken under blockade was perceived by many as a personal grief.
Today, Pyotr Timofeevich Ryzhov is trying to restore the names of all the participants in the Oboz. He has already identified the names of 28 teenage drivers and 30 women. Few of them survived.
And for many years P.T. Ryzhov is trying to convince the authorities of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region to recognize the day - March 29 - as official memorable date However, no positive decision has yet been reached in the city.
It's a shame. Indeed, immediately after the war, the feat of the partisans and their supporters was hushed up in the official press. Stalin did not favor the partisans, and the Leningrad ones, after the well-known "Leningrad affair", in particular. For some reason, this trail of silence continues to this day.
Petr Timofeevich Ryzhov hopes to live to see the day when March 29 will become a memorable date in the hero city, and a monument will be erected to the teenage drivers of the legendary Oboz.
How was the idea born to send food to the starving residents of Leningrad? How did the partisans in the rear of the Germans manage to collect such an amount of food during the hungry war winter? How did 223 carts manage to go 120 kilometers behind enemy lines and cross the front line in order to get to their own? About this in the article:
Strauss, O. Oboz: almost a year before the blockade was broken, teenage drivers on 223 carts delivered food to Leningrad / Olga Shtraus // Motherland. - 2018. - No. 1. - S. 42-47. - (Battles of the Motherland. Feat).
Fedorova O.Yu.,
leading bibliographer of the methodological and bibliographic department Central Library them. A.N. Zyryanov.
Alexey Zakhartsev
own correspondent (St. Petersburg)
70 years ago, a partisan convoy with food for the besieged city arrived in besieged Leningrad. Invaluable cargo was collected by residents of the surrounding areas occupied by the Nazis, and under the nose of the enemy was transported across the front line.
Almost forty tons of food saved so many Leningraders during the most terrible period of the blockade, when thousands of citizens died of hunger and cold every day. Equally important was the moral support for Leningrad.
The anniversary of the feat of partisans and collective farmers these days is dedicated to solemn meetings, rallies, meetings of veterans in the Pskov region, where the convoy began to form. The archives of the Faila-RF bureau in St. Petersburg contain memories of a unique operation by one of the organizers of the partisan movement in the Leningrad Region, Alexander Georgievich Porutsenko. All his life he worked in the Pskov region (part of it at one time was part of the Leningrad region). Before the war, he headed the Dedovichi District Executive Committee, after the liberation of his native land from the Nazis, he revived collective farms and industries; the dairy plant he ran was considered one of the best in the region. Leaders of this type - honest, disinterested, fair, rooting for the cause, devoted to the Motherland - invariably attract people to themselves, especially at the time of the most difficult trials.
Despite the fascist occupation, raids by punishers who burned entire villages, shot residents, on a significant territory of Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod regions the whole Partisan Territory operated, where the Soviet power remained the main one - even schools and libraries worked. And all together - who remained in the villages and who went into the forests - fought: they undermined enemy trains, staged sabotage in warehouses, ambushes on roads, conducted reconnaissance, carried out tasks from the Headquarters of the partisan movement. Newspapers at that time reported more than once about "the actions of Comrade P.'s partisans." And the convoy across the front line "the partisans led under the leadership of Comrade P."
Alexander Porutsenko recalls:
The idea to collect a partisan convoy with food for the besieged city was born in the Partisan region as a popular initiative. The occupiers all the time tried to put up leaflets that Leningrad had fallen. Back in the autumn of 1941, in the village of Goristaya, we captured the policeman Zhukov, who was found to have a document issued by the German command for the right to travel to Leningrad. Passes for the parade on Palace Square and invitation cards for a banquet at the Astoria were found on the dead and captured Nazi officers.
When the Germans broke their teeth about Leningrad, they began to spread rumors in the occupied territory that the city would surrender anyway - it was surrounded, it had no connection with the country, the inhabitants were starving, dying, wait for the news of the fall. Of course, we partisans, having constant radio contact, listening to the reports of the Sovinformburo, told fellow villagers as it really is: "Leningrad is fighting and will not be surrendered."
In February 1942, the command of the Second Partisan Brigade was preparing an operation for the Day of the Red Army. In the village of Zheleznitsy, the command and political staff of all detachments was gathered to discuss a plan of attack on the German garrison in Dedovichi. A representative of the headquarters of the North-Western Front, Colonel Alexei Nikitich Asmolov, flew to this meeting. We asked him about the situation in Leningrad. Asmolov honestly said that the situation is very difficult, the city is poorly provided with food, the people are starving, thousands of people die every day. This excited the partisans. In addition to strengthening the armed struggle here, in the rear, I also wanted to help Leningrad in some way. And the idea arose: to go to the villages, talk about the current situation and collect food, so that later they could send it to the besieged city. That's what they decided on. We were well aware that the Nazis were constantly scouring the edge, and meetings in the villages should be held with extreme caution. But war is war and, unfortunately, not always everything went smoothly.
About 200 punishers raided the village of Upper Niva, when the village gathering was already ending, and they began to shoot everyone from machine guns in a row. 28 people died, including the chairman of the village council Mikhail Vorobyov, the chairman of the collective farm Ivan Smirnov. Semyon Ivanovich Zasorin, a representative of the partisan headquarters, received nine bullets ... And still, the collective farmers were not afraid. In the morning they brought food collected for Leningraders to our headquarters, and on one of the carts - the dying Semyon Zasorin. Our partisan doctor Lidia Radevich helped him, and on the very first flight we sent a seriously wounded comrade to the hospital on mainland where he was rescued.
Party bread. 1942
The Gestapo tried to disrupt the meeting in the village of Zeleny Klin, killed the chairman of the village council, the chairman of the collective farm, and many fellow villagers. However, the surviving collective farmers collected food. Shooting in Zeleny Klin was heard in the neighboring village of Novaya, but from there they also came to the place where the carts with provisions were collected.
It is worth noting: there were no special bins in the Partizan region. They collected food that the collective farmers buried for themselves, for a rainy day, as a rule, in the forests so that the Nazis would not take it away. Everyone brought as much as they could. Who is a frozen mutton carcass or jug with honey, who is a pound of butter or a piece of lard. These were not surpluses at all: people really tore off from themselves to help the starving Leningraders.
Along with food, they collected money for the Red Army support fund and signed two letters from partisans and the population of the temporarily occupied territories: one to the Central Committee of the party, the other to Leningraders, where there were such words: “The bloody fascists wanted to break our spirit, our will. They forgot that they were dealing with the Russian people, who never stood and never will kneel. Together with you we will fight to the end against the invaders and we will win!”
The collected signatures barely fit into 13 school notebooks, which went from hand to hand, from yard to yard, from village to village. It is terrible to imagine what would have happened if these documents had been caught by the Gestapo, and if the Nazis had simply found out about the collection of products.
But no one blabbed. The Nazis became aware of the convoy only when the priceless cargo had already arrived in Leningrad and our newspapers, including Pravda, wrote about it. The village of Nivki, where the convoy was formed, was completely destroyed by the punishers ...
A camp was set up in the forest, where the received food was packed and, just in case, immediately dispersed and hidden, buried in the snow. The area was carefully guarded from uninvited guests. At the same time, they worked out the route. To the front line -120 kilometers. It was decided to move in the direction of Kholm - Staraya Russa, through the forests, through the Rdeysky swamps, which the Germans were afraid of - the equipment got stuck there. And on a sleigh it was possible to pass through the frozen swamp. At the same time, intelligence was looking for the most suitable place to cross the front line. It is very dangerous for two or three people. Here it was necessary to transfer a whole sledge train. We stopped at the site between the villages of Zhemchugovo and Kamenka.
It was necessary to prepare more than 200 carts, pick up good harness for horses, experienced drivers. All this was provided by the collective farms, and a delegate from among the fighting partisans and the best collective farmers stood out from each village council. Since after visiting the besieged Leningrad we had to return home, behind the front line, the newspapers wrote very briefly about the envoys of the Partisan Territory: machine gunner Misha, teacher Katya, Tatyana M. Now we can say that Catherine not only opened a school for partisan children, but also participated in battles. Aunt Tanya, a collective farmer from the village of Drovyanaya, sheltered and nursed the seriously wounded. And the machine gunner Misha - the future Hero of the Soviet Union Mikhail Kharchenko - by that time had destroyed several hundred Fritz.
The Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union is awarded to M. S. Kharchenko. April 1942. Photo from bibliopskov.ru.
Only one episode. After the attack on the German garrison in Dedovichi, the Germans tried to cut off the road for the retreat of the partisans and threw more than 300 punishers against us. Our intelligence found out about this - and it was decided to set up an ambush. In the most critical area, they disguised Mikhail with a machine gun. He let the enemy chain up to fifty meters, and then killed everyone. The Nazis counted 80 corpses. And that's just for one fight. The Gold Star of the Hero was awarded to Mikhail Kharchenko just before returning from Leningrad to the Partisan Territory. After the war, one of the collective farms in the Pskov region was named after him. These are the wonderful people who brought food to besieged Leningrad!
The preparation took several days. A total of 223 carts were formed. To move more compactly and as imperceptibly as possible, the convoy was divided into seven parts. On the night of March 4-5, we set off on a journey from the village of Nivki to Glotovo ...
We decided to move at night and hide in the woods during the day. Fires were forbidden. They ate only dry rations. Several times the guards entered into battle with groups of Nazis - fortunately, random ones - they tried to bombard the accumulation of sledges from the air, but managed to take cover in time. Several horses were killed. Food from their sleigh was immediately transferred to other carts. It became calmer when they entered the dense forests and swamps.
March 12 approached the front line. Intelligence arrived, reported the situation, contacted the headquarters of the partisan movement and our units. The sappers of the 8th Guards Division made passages in the minefields. We decided on the night of the 13th to start the transfer.
At eight in the evening, two partisan detachments accompanying the convoy began a battle with the German garrison near the village of Zhemchugovo. As a result, it was possible to push back the Fritz and make an approximately one-kilometer gap in the front line, through which the sleigh was transported right past the German dugouts. Several times the fascists counterattacked, trying to break through to their positions, but the partisans held out until the last supply was at their own.
Right in the trenches, we hugged the commissar of the 8th Guards Division of the North-Western Front, Lednev. Together with him we went to the headquarters of General Vatutin. We were told: since Leningrad is far away, there is no point in going by carts. We decided to deliver all the food and the official delegation of the partisan region - 22 people - to railway to Lake Ladoga. The rest of the partisans should be assigned to the 8th Guards Division. On the shore of Ladoga, the products were loaded into lorries, and the partisans were given a bus. We drove along the track laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga, which Leningraders called the Road of Life.
On the Leningrad land we were met by Kosygin, then he was an authorized representative of the Defense Committee, secretary of the city committee Kuznetsov, chairman of the Leningrad City Council Popkov. And in Leningrad, it seems that the whole city rejoiced at us. We visited dozens of factories, on warships Baltic Fleet. Everywhere the envoys of the partisan region were received as relatives. It was an exciting demonstration of the unity of the front and the rear and a symbol of our common victory, which neither the Leningraders, who, despite the hellish famine, worked and produced products for the front, nor the partisans, who smashed the enemy in the rear, had any doubts.
The poetess Vera Inber wrote in those days, addressing the partisans:
The road of life.
"Thank you, comrades and brothers,
For everything you bring to him!
Our city embraces you
He presses you to his heart!
He thanks you great city,
In granite clad shores.
Thank you! And your bread is dear to him,
And most importantly, care is expensive!
Your gifts - we will not forget them!
You risked your life taking them...
Thank you! Where are these people
This land cannot be conquered!
A reception was arranged in Smolny, where the partisans were awarded state awards. And then - the way back for the front line. The delegates toured all the villages, all the partisan detachments - conveyed the most cordial words from the Leningraders for the collected products. The battle behind the front line continued no less fiercely than on the front line.
The next time the partisan delegation ended up in Leningrad after the complete lifting of the blockade, when the enemy was thrown back from the walls of the city.
In the previous issue of Gdovskaya Zarya, we began a story about the emergence of a partisan region in the north-west of the Leningrad Region, on an area of more than 100 square kilometers (recall that until 1945 Dedovichsky, Dnovsky, Porkhovsky, as well as Gdovsky, Plyussky districts were part of Leningrad region). In March 1942, a large food supply "Partisan convoy" headed from the Dedovichi district to besieged Leningrad. It is about this event, which has become one of the legendary pages in the history of the struggle against Nazi German invaders during the Great Patriotic War, about the selflessness of the partisans, about the courage, resilience and sacrifices of the civilian population, read today. (According to materials prepared by Leonid Alekseevich Baranov, a member of the partisan underground movement in the Dedovichi region.)
The value of the Partizan region
The partisan region played a significant role in supporting the military operations of the North-Western Front. This region was a kind of cradle of the partisan movement, and its center was the Dedovichi district. It was here that thousands of partisans received shelter and food in the initial period of the Second World War.
Here, many detachments and brigades were formed, trained and tempered in the crucible of partisan resistance. Almost all the leaders of the partisan units and formations of the Leningrad region received practical experience in the fight here.Many partisan detachments and formations came to the Dedovichi district for rest and reorganization. Dedovichsky district was the main, leading territory in the Partisan region, was an important political and partisan link in the north-west of the Leningrad region.
By the end of 1941, the work of 73 collective farms and 11 village councils was restored in the Dedovichi district, and schools, clubs and first-aid posts began to work on January 1, 1942. 675 replacements were poisoned in the detachments of the 2nd Leningrad partisan brigade.On the territory of the district in the winter of 1942 there were up to 3.5 thousand partisans. All of them received help from local residents - it was food, clothes. During 1942, the 2nd LPB and other partisan formations received: 3370 centners of grain, 3180 centners of potatoes, 600 centners of meat, 880 centners of vegetables, 200 thousand liters of milk, 30 thousand eggs.
In the area, as in Soviet years, procurement was carried out, the norms of state deliveries were maintained. For the partisans, 560 sheepskin coats, 740 pairs of boots, 700 sheepskins for sheepskin coats, 1500 meters of canvas were collected, 500 pairs of skis were made (from the report of Porutsenko to the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in March 1942). The influx of fighters into partisan detachments also intensified, but there were not enough weapons. The following journalists worked in the area: I. Vinogradov, I. Shmatov, K. Obzhigalin. They published newspapers in the difficult conditions of the "Partisan Territory" in the Serbolovsky Forest - "People's Avenger", "Dnovets", "Commune". They were the first heralds of the victories of the Red Army, the victories of the partisans of the region, they told about the life of besieged Leningrad. At first, handwritten newspapers and leaflets were written.Later newspapers were printed on small presses. Ivan Vinogradov wrote in the regional committee:“The partisan region lives as before, in the Soviet way. Collective farms are holding general meetings, agitators are working, harvesting is in full swing.”
Having mastered a significant territory, the partisans waged an active war against the invaders. They blew up military trains, bridges, destroyed transport communications, through which the Nazis brought reserves towards Leningrad, constantly kept railways and highways under control.
Partisans of the 2nd LPB and other brigades in January-February 1942 conducted 4 major military operations from the territory of the Dedovichi region and defeated the fascist garrisons in the villages of Yaski, Tyurikovo, the regional center of Dedovichi and the city of Kholm. The combat activities of the partisans were repeatedly reported in the reports of the Soviet Information Bureau. Arrived from Leningrad, the head of the partisan department of the headquarters of the North-Western Front A.N. Asmolov told the leadership of the organizing committee and the command of the 2nd LPB about the plight of besieged Leningrad. The organizational troika of the Dedovichi district (Petrova, Porutsenko, Mayorov, Loseva, Lilbok) made a proposal at their meeting - to assist Leningrad and form a food convoy. The command of the 2nd LPB supported the initiative. Measures were developed to escort and protect the convoy. The final decision on the formation of the convoy was made on February 17, 1942 at a meeting in the village of Nivki. On February 21, at a meeting of chairmen of village councils, it was decided to start collecting food. The population of the Dedovichi district supported the idea of helping the inhabitants of the besieged city. Journalist Ivan Vinogradov, on behalf of the inhabitants of the Partizan region, wrote a letter to the Kremlin I.V. Stalin, in which, in particular, it was emphasized that in the rear of the Germans “the faithful Soviet power and the collective-farm system people”, ready for a deadly fight with the enemy. Food collection took place in difficult combat conditions, on the borders of the partisan region there were battles with punishers, many villages were burned to the ground. The Germans, having learned about the collection of convoys, opened the "season" of hunting for collectors of signatures for letters. Despite the danger of this enterprise, the signatures were able to fit on 13 school notebooks! During the collection of signatures and products, many activists died, several chairmen of collective farms, ordinary collective farmers and residents were shot. But people continued to collect food for the besieged Leningrad, money for the defense fund and signatures of residents under a letter to Moscow. A great deal of work was done in the district by the organizing committee of the Belebelkovsky district, headed by N.A. Sergachev - 37 food carts were sent to the convoy. Despite the proximity of the front, the Poddor and Ashev collective farmers sent 25 more carts. The partisans of the Dnovsky district were unable to take part in the formation of the convoy due to hostilities on their territory. From the story of Fyodor Efimovich Potapov, more products were collected than originally planned. So much that they could hardly load 223 wagons. Dedovichan F.E. was appointed head of the convoy. Potapov is the head of the procurement office of the district. I.A. became the head of security. Alexandrov, and intelligence was commanded by M.S. Kharchenko. About 60 partisans and 80 militia fighters guarded the convoy along the route. The convoy to the besieged Leningrad was formed secretly from the enemy. On the night of March 4-5, 1942, under cover of darkness, a convoy of 161 wagons left the village of Nivki, Dedovichi District. The convoy was escorted on the road by the leaders of the organizational trio and the leadership of the 2nd Partisan Brigade. On the way from Nyvok to the front line on March 8, near the village of Zakharovo, 37 carts from the Belebelkovsky district joined the convoy, and later - 25 carts from the Poddorsky and Ashevsky regions. In total, 223 carts set off along the German rear. The convoy had to overcome the path of 120 km behind enemy lines, along impassable roads, forests and swamps. All reports on its progress, route adjustments were sent to the Dedovichi headquarters. The convoy moved covertly. Partisan intelligence found a gap in the German front line near the village of Lopari, and on the night of March 11-12, 1942, the convoy crossed the front line. Behind the front line, the partisan convoy was met by soldiers of the 8th Guards Division. By order of the command of the North-Western Front, food was reloaded from carts to trucks and delivered to the nearest railway station- Black Yard. 5 wagons of food were formed, which followed to Tikhvin, and then to Leningrad. The epic with the partisan convoy is described in memoirs and books about the Leningrad partisans and had a great political resonance during the Great Patriotic War. We believe that I.F. put an end to this issue. Starodubtsev in his book “There is no draw in the battle”, who noted the outstanding role of A.G. Porutsenko, as one of the leading leaders of the Partizansky region. He writes that the very idea and organization in March 1942 of the legendary convoy from the German rear to besieged Leningrad is connected with the name of Porutsenko (p. 340). Mass rallies and meetings were held along the way of the convoy behind the front line. On March 29, 1942, in Vsevolozhsk, the delegation was met by the leaders of Leningrad: A.N. Kosygin, P.S. Popkov, M.N. Nikitin and A.A. Kuznetsov. Many warm words of gratitude were said. When meeting A.N. Kosygin said: "Thanks from all Leningraders." The next day, March 30, a delegation from the Partisan Territory of 22 collective farmers and partisans, headed by A.G. Porutsenko, among whom there were at least 11 Dedovichians, received A.A. Zhdanov. A delegation of Leningrad partisans from the population of the Partisan Territory transferred 35,000 rubles in money and 85,600 rubles to the Defense Fund. government bonds. The money was handed over to the bank of the city of Valdai, the receipt was handed to Zhdanov during the reception of the delegation. For a successful operation to deliver food to the besieged city, its participants were awarded government awards. Scout M.S. Kharchenko was presented to the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the following days, the delegates visited the Kirov and Metal Plants, in units and formations of the front, on warships of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. On April 7, 1942, the delegation of the Partisan Territory left Leningrad. The newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" in March 1942 wrote about the convoy: "... Years will pass, but their feat will not be forgotten. Beautiful songs will be composed about the deeds of the partisans, for this is a living legend that our great people are creating.In 1942, from September 7 to 12, the Germans made a decisive, already fourth attempt to defeat the Partisan Territory. The three previous ones ended unsuccessfully for them. To carry out the fourth operation, the Germans concentrated a strong army grouping, attracted military units, tanks and aircraft. The offensive was carried out from the stations of Dno, Dedovichi, Chikhachevo and Sudoma. The fighting took place on the territory of the Dedovichi district. All reports reported heavy fighting on the outskirts of every village and village.
After two weeks of stubborn resistance, the LSHPD decided to withdraw units from the battle area and relocate towards Ostrov, Porkhov, Pskov and Luga. The task was set - to keep the main forces of the partisans to fight in the rear of the Germans in other areas.
Only the 3rd regiment of the 2nd LPB and the brigade headquarters remained in the region, whose task was to tie down the enemy forces. Unnoticed by the enemy, detachments of the 3rd brigade A.V. left the region. Herman, the regiments of the 2nd brigade went to the Pskov region, the 4th LPB went to the Porkhov region. The German plan failed.At the end of September, the Germans captured the entire territory of the Partisan region. They brutally dealt with the population of the Dedovichi district.375 villages were burned to the ground, 924 civilians were shot, 1837 people were deported to Germany. According to eyewitnesses, bombing, tank attacks and military operations of the infantry left behind a desert in the region. Part of the population went to neighboring areas, but not all of them left the Partizansky region. Small partisan groups took refuge in the dense forests of the region, and resistance to the invaders continued.
On the territory of the district in October 1942, by order of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, an inter-district Dedovichi Party Center was created to coordinate the fight against the invaders, which was headed by A.G. Porutsenko. Belebelkovsky, Poddorsky, Pozherevitsky districts and part of Ashevsky were subordinate to the center. The party center created party groups, small detachments of partisans, self-defense detachments in the field. The population of the former Partisan region, partisan groups and underground fighters intensified the fight against the invaders, carrying out attacks on German garrisons on the territory of the region, disrupting communications and movement German troops towards the Northwestern Front. Undermined bridges, organized a rail war.
Later, in order to more effectively manage political and economic activities in the areas of the LShPD, it was decided to form the 13th LPB from small partisan detachments. Yurtsev was appointed commander of the brigade, and Porutsenko was appointed commissar. This brigade consisted of up to 1000 fighters and carried out a number of successful operations on the territory of the Dedovichi region. On February 26, 1944, the 13th LPB carried out a successful operation to liberate the regional center of Pozherevitsy, defeating an SS battalion. February 27, 1944 Dedovichi district was liberated from German occupation. The fighters of the partisan detachments of the Leningrad region joined the regular army, some of them began to restore their native land. The Germans did not have a continuous line of defense in the section of the front line crossing between the village of Zhemchugovo and the village of Kamenka. Therefore, he was chosen by partisan intelligence. Such were the features of the situation on the North-Western Front during this period.Fighter of the 8th Guards. Panfilov Rifle Division Alexey Zherdev later recalled: “That night we were raised to our feet by shooting behind the enemy line. Grenade explosions and machine-gun bursts were heard. We did not immediately understand what was happening in the German rear. Soon, regimental reconnaissance went to neutral, and miners moved behind it and began to mark passages in minefields with milestones. And suddenly, on the "no man's" land, a peasant sleigh pulled by horses appeared. They rushed to our trenches. And we couldn't believe our eyes. After all, not tanks - the convoy broke through the front! Excitement seized the fighters. Many even climbed the parapet... "Come on!" - heard from our trenches. Soon the loaded sledges were speeding by. Carriers - among them women and teenagers - drove the horses with all their might. The next day, the command announced that a convoy with bread for Leningrad had passed through the front ... "
Faith inber wrote:
Your gifts - we will not forget them,
You risked your life taking them. Thank you! Where are these peopleThis land cannot be conquered!
Vissarion Sayanov dedicated his lines to this event:"We go off-road, where the flame is,
Where the conflagration is a formidable shadow. Blood brothers! Do you hear? With youPartisans of native villages ... "
Who went into the blizzard? Who's there?
“This is us - let the frost grow stronger!” On deaf roads, on swampsPartizansky passes the convoy…
In memory of those who are in the most difficult conditions, often sacrificing own life, collected and conducted the Khlebny partisan convoy to the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad, 5th of March from the village Nyvky, Dedovichsky district, youth skiing troops start , the participants of which will follow the same route along which, behind enemy lines 75 years ago, the partisans managed to carry out more than two hundred food carts.Food delivered to the besieged Leningrad from the Partizansky region saved more than one thousand lives.
70 years ago, partisans from Novgorod and Pskov, collective farmers and peasants were sent to besieged Leningrad across the front line from the occupied territory with food - more than three thousand pounds of grain, meat, peas, honey and butter.
The whole country helped besieged Leningrad, but the partisan food convoy in March 1942 still remains unique. There is no other example in the entire history of wars when people who were in the territory occupied by the enemy, exposing themselves to mortal danger, responded to the call of the partisans. It was a massive feat, the equal of which history did not know.
Food collection took place in extremely difficult conditions. On the borders of the Partizansky region, battles with punitive expeditions of the Nazis did not subside. Many villages were burned to the ground, but even the inhabitants of these villages gave away everything that was hidden away. While collecting food, the collective farmers at their meetings proposed to send a letter to the Central Committee of the Party. This idea was supported by the entire population of the Partizan region. "Let these simple words will pass through the front line, reach the walls of the Kremlin, announce the deeds and feelings of Soviet citizens who have temporarily fallen under the yoke of the Nazis.
This is how the letter began, which spoke about the atrocities of the Nazis, about the courage and patriotism of the Soviet people, not broken by bloody terror, about the tireless struggle against the invaders. The patriots who signed the letter swore that they would not lay down their arms as long as at least one occupier remained on Soviet soil. “The bloody fascists,” the letter said, “wanted to break our spirit, our will. They forgot that they are dealing with the Russian people, who have never stood and will never kneel.” This letter was copied on 13 student notebooks and discussed at secret collective farm meetings. More than three thousand Soviet people on the other side of the front, despite the mortal danger for everyone, if the notebook fell into the hands of the enemy, put their signatures without hesitation.
Many lost their lives while collecting food and signatures. So, in the village of Velikaya Niva of the Sosnitsky village council, the chairman of the collective farm I. Smirnov, the chairman of the village council M. Vorobyov and the head of the Volotovo anti-fascist underground Pavel Afanasyevich Vaskin died during a meeting.
By the beginning of March 1942, 8 tons of meat, 9 tons of rye, 2.5 tons of wheat, 5 tons of peas, 238 kg of cereals, 51 kg of butter and other products were collected - a total of 223 carts. Drivers for the convoy were carefully selected at collective farm meetings. Courage, resourcefulness and a role in collecting food were taken into account. Among them were 30 women.
The convoy set off on its way to Leningrad on March 5, 1942. The route of the campaign was planned in advance. The 120 kilometers of the way were not easy. The horses were exhausted. Often people in front of the cart trampled the road. The convoy moved only at night. On the route, more than once the sleigh fell into the swamp. The Germans did not have a continuous line of defense in the section of the front line crossing between the village of Zhemchugovo and the village of Kamenka. Therefore, he was chosen by partisan intelligence. A. Zherdev later recalled: “That night we were raised to our feet by shooting behind the enemy line. There were grenade explosions, machine-gun bursts. We did not immediately understand what was happening in the German rear. And suddenly, on the "no man's" land, ... peasant sleighs pulled by horses appeared. They rushed to our trenches. And we couldn't believe our eyes. After all, not tanks - the convoy broke through the front! Excitement seized the fighters. Many even climbed the parapet... "Come on!" - was heard from our trenches. Soon the loaded sledges were speeding by. The next day, the command announced that a convoy with bread for Leningrad had passed through the front ... ".
On March 29, the convoy arrived in Leningrad, accompanied by 22 people, among whom was 19-year-old Evdokia Orlova, who lived and worked in the village of Volot after the war.
On the Leningrad land, representatives of the partisan region were met by a delegation headed by the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR N. Kosygin, then there were meetings with city leaders, residents and workers.
The Pravda newspaper published in March 1942 an editorial entitled “Soviet people will never be slaves” with the words: “ Dear brothers! Your words, imbued with selfless love for the motherland, passed through the front line, they reached the Kremlin, they will become the property of all our people. Your deeds and feelings fill the heart of every Soviet patriot with pride. The people, as the greatest treasure, will keep simple school notebooks in which your holy feelings and your great deeds are recorded.
Vera Inber wrote:
Your gifts -
we won't forget them
You risked your life taking them.
Thank you!
Where are these people
Such a land cannot be conquered.
Food delivered to the besieged Leningrad from the Partizansky region saved more than one thousand lives.
It cannot be argued that the history of the convoy has been forgotten. The date of his arrival in Leningrad was regularly noted for a number of years. But as the years pass, much is forgotten. There are no witnesses of those battle, legendary days. Therefore, it is so necessary that the events of those military and moral deeds of compatriots be preserved in the memory of generations. A piece of this memory should be the story of the legendary partisan food convoy.
