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LETTER FROM IVAN SHILOV

p My dear Mum, Dad and brothers,

p I am now in prison. The charges appear to be very seriousit looks like the end of the road. There we are. Can’t do anything about it. I’m not the first and probably shan’t be the last.... So I beg you not to take it too badly. I love you all, dearest mum and dad, my wife, little girl, and I love my country. If this letter ever gets through to my family, I hope it will remind you of the last days of my life. Survived at the front but not at home. Fair enough, but I don’t want any of my family to grieve over it....

p Today was the first interrogation. The next is on Monday, 11/5, when they’ll give me the works. I only fear that my arrest will make things hard for you. That’s all for today. If I get the chance I’ll write some more. Good-bye for now, love to all.

Yours,
Vanya

May 9, 1942

LETTER FROM TIMOFEI BORODIN

p My dear ones,

p Writing you in my last hour. Looks like I’ll have my lot from a bullet.

p Mum, Dad, Valya, Tonya, Lida, Nina, Zhenya, Volodya, Arkady, Sasha-if I’ve ever been unfair to any of you please 69 forgive me. My dear ones, look after yourselves and don’t ever quarrel.

p Dad, look after Tonya and Sasha. Greetings in my last hour to all at home and all the folks I know.

Borodin Timofei
20-VI-42.

Borodin’s letter on a handkerchief

p In the second half of August 1941, the Gomel Region of Byelorussia was occupied by the Cjrmans. By autumn an underground Party and Y.C.L. organisation was in full swing. It was headed by Communist Roman Timofeyenko and Y.C.L. members Timofei Borodin and Ivan Shilov.

p Timofei Borodin had been working in a printer’s. After the Germans had entered the town he went underground.

p Ivan Shilov served in the Soviet Army. Soon after the outbreak of war he had been caught in a German ring, but managed to get back 70 to his native Gomel where he, too, joined the underground Being an expert at German he disguised himself as a German officer and operated within the nazi ranks

p One had to have an ineradicable faith in victory to be able to scorn death and boldly take on such a dangerous task right under the enemy s nose

p The underground fighters riddled the occupational machine and together with the partisans disrupted the invaders’ economic, political and administrative measures, thereby bowing uncertainty and fear in the enemy ranks.

p At the commencement to 1942, members of the underground turned their attention on the town’s industrial works They blew up workshops m the engineering plant where the Germans repaired their tanks, wrecked the locomotive works and knocked out several train loads of arms and ammunition

p On the territory of Gomel Region the best sons and daughters of the Byelorussian people took up arms in dogged partisan combat against the occupational forces The partisans worked in close con tact with the town’s underground Fighters inside the town got their hands on medical supplies and passed them on to the partisans They also kept them supplied with arms, ammunition and explosives

p In May 1942, the two Y C L members Timofei Borodin and Ivan Shilov were given away and arrested

Horrible tortures began To no avail The Gestapo piomised them their lives if they were to name their fellow underground fighters and tell where to locate the partisan detachments Again to no avail The patriots would not split on their comrades On June 20, Timofei Borodin and Ivan Shilov were shot One hour before he died Timofei Borodin wrote his last note in big letters on his blood-stained hand kerchief