The Crimean resistance movement during World War II refers to various decentralised groups who resisted the occupation of Crimea by Nazi Germany during World War II. Also often referred to by the term Crimean partisans, the resistance movement in the Crimean peninsula formed a significant part of the Soviet partisan movement during World War II, and included many of the peninsula's various ethnic groups, such as Russians, Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, and Greeks.
Following the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, preparations began for the establishment of a partisan movement in the Crimean peninsula in the case it were to fall into the hands of the German authorities.[1][2]
The first Crimean partisan organisation was established in early October 1941, at an underground centre of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the eastern Crimean city of Kerch. Ivan Kozlov[ru], Vasily Kolesnichenko[ru], and Ye. V. Yefimova were the organisers of the centre. In other cities throughout the peninsula, remnants of the Communist Party organised in cities such as Sevastopol, Simferopol, Bilohirsk (then known as Karasubazar), and Yalta, as well as the Krasnohvardiiske Raion. From this, 24 partisan detachments were formed.[3] Shortly following the establishment of the detachments, an influx of Soviet military personnel occurred, further increasing their numbers.[4]
On 23 October 1941, the Crimean Headquarters of the Partisan Movement was established under the leadership of Alexei Mokrousov[ru].[5] 2 million rubles were allocated for materiel costs.[6] By 20 November 1941, 28 partisan detachments existed, consisting of 3,734 people, of whom 1,316 had previously been military personnel. Around 1,000 were additionally members of the Komsomol.[4][7] The Crimean Headquarters of the Partisan Movement was divided into five districts:[8]
In addition to these five districts, three partisan detachments operated in the Kerch Peninsula.[7]
The first confrontation between German forces and Crimean partisans was on 3 November 1941, when the Ichkinsky partisan detachment engaged German and Romanian forces at the Lower Kok-Asan, near Karasubazar. The five-hour battle ended in a victory for the partisans, allowing an NKVD detachment and military hospital to escape to the coast. Following the battle, they fled to the Crimean Mountains. Today a monument exists where the battle occurred.[9]
The Crimean partisans were dealt a significant blow in December 1941 when the Yalta partisan detachment was attacked by Romanian forces. According to later Soviet reports, 175 partisans were killed, 200 were wounded, and 73 went missing, including Dmitry Averkin[ru], commander of the fourth district.[10] Averkin was later found dead near the Beş Tekne[ru] spring in the Crimean Mountains.[11]
Landing support and airlifts (1941–1942)
Qarabiy yayla, pictured here in 1990, functioned as an airfield for the Crimean partisans
During the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula, the V. I. Lenin and I. V. Stalin partisan detachments provided assistance to Red Army forces, launching attacks on German forces and helping to hold landing sites.[12]Basan Gorodovikov[ru]'s 15th detachment, working with the 10th detachment, launched an attack on Gestapo officers fleeing the city of Feodosia, killing 64.[9] Partisans also participated in the Yevpatoria assault.[13] By April 1942, with Germany completely occupying Crimea, it became evident that coordination of partisan activity was necessary. Ivan Genov[ru], a partisan military commander in Crimea during the Russian Civil War, was placed in charge of organising and expanding the partisan movement in April 1942. 34 partisan leaders were dispersed throughout Crimea in order to foment resistance in the peninsula's cities and districts. Further underground party structures were established in Simferopol, Feodosia, and Karasubazar.[14]
By mid-July 1942, there were 2,217 partisans in Crimea's forests.[15] At the same time, partisans were fighting German forces at the defense of the Adzhimushkay quarry. Around mid-1942, stable communications with partisans were established by Red Army forces, and efforts to supply them by air began.[16] The North Caucasian Front was instructed by the Soviet military command to begin the process of assisting the partisans by evacuating the wounded and providing supplies. Semyon Budyonny, commander of the North Caucasian Front, personally took part in creating plans to supply the Crimean partisans.[17]
In order to facilitate the reception of aid, an impromptu air field was created by the partisans in the Crimean Mountains, in the Qarabiy yayla mountain range. The first flight landed on 28 September 1942, and flights continued until the peninsula was fully recaptured by the Soviets. In total, more than 450 people were evacuated, and 240 tonnes of cargo were delivered.[17]
Reorganisation and liberation (1942–1944)
Beginning in 1942, activities were taken out by the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement to reorganise local partisan movements and introduce further discipline. Mokrousov was recalled to Moscow and placed on trial for extrajudicial executions.[17][18] Significant debate exists between historians as to whether there was truth to these claims or if Mokrousov was framed.[19]
Following Mokrousov's removal, leadership of the Crimean resistance movement changed hands several times. On 3 August 1942, the Crimean and North Caucasian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement were merged into the Southern Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, under the leadership of Pyotr Seleznyov[ru]. Under the Southern Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, the Crimean Regional Committee re-established itself underground with Genov as its leader, and by early 1943, more than 1,300 people across 106 underground organisations were actively participating in the resistance.[20] In June 1943, the Crimean Headquarters of the Partisan Movement was re-established. Vladimir Bulatov was made commander.[21]
On 19 October 1943, the scheduled date of a wide-reaching deportation from Kerch by German forces, a detachment was formed consisting of 130 local youths. The detachment was active in the Kerch–Eltigen operation, engaging in combat with German and Romanian troops and killing at least 600. However, their commander, P. I. Nestorov, was captured in February 1944 and executed. German forces additionally sealed quarries where partisans were hiding, trapping them inside. The surviving partisans linked up with the Red Army on 11 April 1944.[12]
Crimean partisans also participated in the Rail War, a campaign of sabotage of German rail connections. At Baherove train station, the furnaces of five locomotives were blown up with mines. In Nyzhnohirskyi, an artillery depot and warehouse was bombed, killing 30 German soldiers.[12]
German military leadership in Crimea understood that with spring would come a new Soviet offensive. Therefore, Erwin Jaenecke ordered an anti-partisan operation in the Crimean Mountains.[22] Romanian generals Ioan Dumitrache and Leonard Mociulschi of the Third Army were placed in charge of the operation, leading to the deaths of 3,700 partisans per Romanian sources.[23] German sources estimated that around 7,000-8,000 partisans were in the Crimean Mountains in November 1943, though Soviet documentation places the total number of partisans around 4,000-5,000.[22]
With the beginning of the Crimean offensive, the partisans took on a significant role in the peninsula's recapture. Simferopol, Karasubazar, and Staryi Krym were recaptured on 13 April 1944. Two days later, Yalta and Alushta were recaptured.[24] By 12 May 1944, German troops had been completely forced from Crimea, bringing an end to the war in the peninsula.
Role in the war effort
Following the war's conclusion, Marshal of the Soviet UnionAleksandr Vasilevsky praised the Crimean partisans for their role in bringing about the success of the Crimean offensive.[25] Soviet partisan leader Panteleimon Ponomarenko also praised the partisans, noting that they carried out 3,226 actions against the occupation of Crimea, including 252 battles.[21] In addition to military activities, the Crimean partisans published 213 pro-Soviet newspapers, leaflets, and other agitation activities, altogether having a circulation of 3 million copies.[26] Six members of the resistance from Crimea were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 14 were awarded the Order of Lenin, and 17 were awarded the Order of the Red Banner. 3,000 members of the resistance, including 1,500 partisans, were awarded by the Soviet Union for their actions.[27]
Crimea is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukraine. To the east, the Crimean Bridge, constructed in 2018, spans the Strait of Kerch, linking the peninsula with Krasnodar Krai in Russia. The Arabat Spit, located to the northeast, is a narrow strip of land that separates the Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. Across the Black Sea to the west lies Romania and to the south is Turkey. The population is 2.4 million, and the largest city is Sevastopol. The region has been under Russian occupation since 2014.
Simferopol, also known as Aqmescit, is the second-largest city on the Crimean Peninsula. The city, along with the rest of Crimea, is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, controlled by Russia, and is considered the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Several different governments controlled the Crimean Peninsula during the period of the Soviet Union, from the 1920s to 1991. The government of Crimea from 1921 to 1936 was the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, which was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR); the name was altered slightly to the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from 1936 to 1945.
Soviet partisans were members of resistance movements that fought a guerrilla war against Axis forces during World War II in the Soviet Union, the previously Soviet-occupied territories of interwar Poland in 1941–45 and eastern Finland. The activity emerged after Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa was launched from mid-1941 on. It was coordinated and controlled by the Soviet government and modeled on that of the Red Army.
The Crimean campaign was conducted by the Axis as part of Operation Barbarossa during World War II. The invading force was led by Germany with support from Romania and Italy, while the Soviet Union took up defensive positions throughout the Crimean Peninsula. The Axis offensive routed the Red Army and enabled the three-year-long German occupation of Crimea.
Bilohirsk is a city and the administrative centre of Bilohirsk Raion, one of the raions (districts) of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which is recognised by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine, but is occupied by Russia. Population: 16,354 .
Soviet partisan detachment (1941—1944), was the main organisational form of the Soviet partisan units.
The Soviet partisans in Latvia were Soviet partisans who were deployed to Latvia and attempted to wage guerrilla warfare against the German armed forces during the German occupation of Latvia. Partisan activity was singularly unsuccessful in Latvia due to the general resistance of the population to the Soviet regime that the partisans represented.
The Crimean Bridge, also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning the Kerch Strait between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in Russia and the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea. Built by the Russian Federation after its annexation of Crimea at the start of 2014, the bridge cost ₽227.92 billion (US$3.7 billion) and has a length of 19 km (12 mi), making it the longest bridge in Europe and the longest bridge ever constructed by Russia.
The Armenians in Crimea have maintained a presence in the region since the Middle Ages. The first wave of Armenian immigration into this area began during the mid-eleventh century and, over time, as political, economic and social conditions in Armenia proper failed to improve, newer waves followed them. Today, between 10 and 20 thousand Armenians live in the peninsula.
The 390th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II. It was formed twice, first in August 1941, and after its destruction in 1942, re-formed in 1944.
Alime Seitosmanovna Abdenanova — was a Crimean Tatar scout in the Red Army during World War II. After the German occupation of Crimea began in 1943 she led her reconnaissance group in the collection of intelligence about the positions of German and Romanian troops throughout the Kerch Peninsula, for which she was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. After the group was arrested by the Germans in February, Abdenanova was tortured for over a month but refused to reveal any information to her captors. At the age of twenty she was executed in the outskirts of Simferopol on 5 April 1944. On 1 September 2014 by decree of Vladimir Putin she was posthumously declared a Hero of the Russian Federation, making her the sixteenth woman and first Crimean Tatar awarded the title.
The 396th Rifle Division was created in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army and was activated twice during the Great Patriotic War. The division followed a very similar combat path to that of the 398th Rifle Division in its 1st formation. It was first formed in August in the Transcaucasus Military District. In January 1942 it was moved to the Crimea where it joined first the 47th and then the 44th Armies in Crimean Front. On 8 May it came under attack by the German 11th Army as part of Operation Trappenjagd and by the end of the month it was destroyed in the Kerch peninsula, being officially disbanded on 14 June. In the buildup to the Soviet invasion of Manchuria a new 396th was formed in the Far Eastern Front in early 1945. The new division was one of only three formed in 1945 and served with the 2nd Red Banner Army, crossing the Amur River on 11 August and helping to reduce a Japanese fortified zone while also marching towards central Manchuria. Its rifle regiments were all decorated for their achievements and the division was disbanded before the end of the year.
The 398th Rifle Division was raised in 1941 as an infantry division of the Red Army, and served briefly during the Second World War in that role. The division followed a very similar combat path to that of the 396th Rifle Division in that unit's 1st formation. It was first formed in August in the Transcaucasus Military District. In January, 1942 it was moved to the Crimea where it joined the 44th Army in Crimean Front. On May 8, now in the 51st Army, it came under attack by the German 11th Army as part of Operation Trappenjagd and within days it was destroyed in the Kerch peninsula, being officially disbanded on May 19 after one of the briefest careers of any Soviet division. The 398th was never reformed.
Emir Üsein Çalbaş was a Crimean Tatar flying ace, squadron commander, test pilot, and friend of Amet-khan Sultan. He was nominated to receive the title Hero of the Soviet Union on two occasions but did not receive it.
Mustafa Veisovich Selimov was a Crimean Tatar communist leader, partisan, and civil rights activist. Having been the First Secretary of the Yalta Communist Party before the war, he served as the commissar of a partisan formation during the war before being exiled the Uzbek SSR as a Crimean Tatar, where he went on to hold leadership positions in the Ministry of Agriculture of the Uzbek SSR and become one of the original organizers of the Crimean Tatar civil rights movement, for which he received reprimand from party organs.
Abdulla Dagci was a Crimean Tatar Soviet partisan commander based around the city of Simferopol during World War II. Responsible for organising both the Simferopol resistance and resistance among ethnic Crimean Tatars, Dagci was captured and executed by the Germans in July 1943. Following his death, he was nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union twice, with neither nomination being accepted by the Soviet government.
During World War II, the Crimean Peninsula was subject to military administration by Nazi Germany following the success of the Crimean campaign. Officially part of Generalbezirk Krym-Taurien, an administrative division of Reichskommissariat Ukraine, Crimea proper never actually became part of the Generalbezirk, and was instead subordinate to a military administration. This administration was first headed by Erich von Manstein in his capacity as commander of the 11th Army and then by Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist as commander of Army Group A.
Yuke-Tepe, Yuki-Tepe, height 1025, is a mountain of the main range of the Crimean Mountains, the southwestern part of the Orta Syrt yaila. It is located in the Simferopol Raion. It has a dome-shaped, deciduous forest-covered summit, with a height of 1025 metres. During the World War II here several formations of Crimean resistance during World War II were based, and hard battles were fought. At the top, searchers built many memorial signs to commemorate the partisans.
Memet Bilyalovich Molochnikov was a Crimean Tatar commissar, Communist Party member, partisan, and military lawyer.
References
↑ Makarov, N. I. (1976). Непокорённая земля Российская[The Unconquered Russian Land] (in Russian). Moscow: Politizdat. p.97.
↑ Makarov, N. I. (1976). Непокорённая земля Российская[The Unconquered Russian Land] (in Russian). Moscow: Politizdat. p.34.
1 2 Shamko, Yekaterina (1959). Партизанское движение в Крыму в 1941—1944 гг[The partisan movement in Crimea, 1941-1944] (in Russian). Simferopol: Krymidzat. p.11.
↑ Malgin, A. V., ed. (2006). Партизанское движение в Крыму 1941—1942. Сборник документов[The Partisan movement in Crimea, 1941-1942: A Collection of Documents] (in Russian). Simferopol: Sonat, GAARK. p.13.
1 2 Ponomarenko, Panteleimon (1986). Всенародная борьба в тылу немецко-фашистских захватчиков 1941—1944[The All-People's Struggle in the Rear of the Nazi Invaders, 1941-1944] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka. pp.48–49.
↑ Malgin, A. V., ed. (2006). Партизанское движение в Крыму 1941—1942. Сборник документов[The Partisan movement in Crimea, 1941-1942: A Collection of Documents] (in Russian). Simferopol: Sonat, GAARK. pp.3–4.
1 2 Genov, Ivan (1969). Четыре времени года: дневник партизана[The Four Seasons: Diary of a Partisan] (in Russian). Moscow: Voyenizdat.
↑ Polyakov, V. (2009). Страшная правда о Великой Отечественной. Партизаны без грифа «Секретно»[The Horrible Truths of the Great Patriotic War: Partisans Without Sworn Secrecy] (in Russian). Moscow: Yauza, Eksmo. p.205. ISBN9785699366859.
↑ Suldin, A. V. (2014). Оборона Севастополя. Полная хроника — 250 дней[The Defence of Sevastopol: A Full Chronicle of the 250 Days] (in Russian). Moscow: AST. p.51.
↑ Makarov, N. I. (1979). Непокорённая земля Российская[The Unconquered Russian Land] (in Russian). Moscow: Politizdat. p.79.
↑ Malgin, A. V., ed. (2006). Партизанское движение в Крыму 1941—1942. Сборник документов[The Partisan movement in Crimea, 1941-1942: A Collection of Documents] (in Russian). Simferopol: Sonat, GAARK. p.7.
↑ Ponomarenko, Panteleimon (1986). Всенародная борьба в тылу немецко-фашистских захватчиков 1941—1944[The All-People's Struggle in the Rear of the Nazi Invaders, 1941-1944] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka. pp.112–113.
1 2 3 Broshevan, V. M. (2001). Крымский штаб партизанского движения[The Crimean Headquarters of the Partisan Movement] (in Russian). Simferopol.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Polyakov, V. (2009). Страшная правда о Великой Отечественной. Партизаны без грифа «Секретно»[The Horrible Truths of the Great Patriotic War: Partisans Without Sworn Secrecy] (in Russian). Moscow: Yauza, Eksmo. ISBN9785699366859.
↑ Broshevan, V. M. (2001). ""По законам военного времени"" ["According to the Laws of Wartime"]. Military-History Archive. 7: 24–30.
↑ Makarov, N. I. (1976). Непокорённая земля Российская[The Unoccupied Russian Land] (in Russian). Moscow: Politizdat. pp.44–45, 80, 135.
1 2 Ponomarenko, Panteleimon (1986). Всенародная борьба в тылу немецко-фашистских захватчиков 1941—1944[The All-People's Struggle in the Rear of the Nazi Invaders, 1941-1944] (in Russian). Moscow: Nauka. pp.112–113.
1 2 Shamko, Yekaterina; Shamko, V. I. (1986). По следам народного подвига: Маршрутами мужества и славы крымских партизан и подпольщиков в годы Великой Отечественной войны: путеводитель[In the footsteps of the people's feat: Routes of Courage and Glory of the Crimean Partisans and Underground Workers During the Great Patriotic War - a Guide] (in Russian). Simferopol: Tavriya.
↑ Ivanov, S. P. (1985). Освобождение городов. Справочник по освобождению городов в период Великой Отечественной войны 1941—1945[Cities' Liberation: Handbook on the Liberation of Cities During the Great Patriotic War, 1941-1945] (in Russian). Moscow: Voyenizdat.
↑ Vasilevsky, Alexander (1983). Дело всей жизни[The Work of a Lifetime] (in Russian). Moscow: Politizdat. pp.377, 409.
↑ Makarov, N. I. (1976). Непокорённая земля Российская[The Unconquered Russian Land] (in Russian). Moscow: Politizdat. pp.222–224.
↑ Shamko, Yekaterina (1959). Партизанское движение в Крыму в 1941—1944 гг[The partisan movement in Crimea, 1941-1944] (in Russian). Simferopol: Krymidzat. pp.148–149.
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