p If anyone had warned the nazi chiefs that they would never be the real masters in captured territory, they would have scoffed. But that was just what happened. The Byelorussians had a wartime saying: "Peasant lands, partisan forests, German roads and Soviet government.” It was very close to the truth. The hitlerites found out that they were unable completely to destroy Soviet power in captured territories. Could anything be more convincing evidence of the stability and endurance of the system and its bonds with the people?

p Underground Party branches were formed and were active in occupied territory from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. They had close ties with the population and partisan units. A Party centre in Minsk guided the work of the 212 underground in the Byelorussian capital through five clandestine district committees, with the underground rural Party committee co-operating closely, along with numerous other rural anti-fascist groups. The Minsk underground was closely associated with the partisan movement.

p A new form of resistance evolved: building up large nazifree zones behind the enemy lines. Partisans in Orel and Bryansk regions and the Ukrainian partisans liberated more than 500 villages in the autumn of 1941, and an extensive partisan zone was established in the Bryansk area. It stretched 260 km north to south and 40-50 km east to west. The initiative was in the hands of the Orel Regional Party Committee.

p The number of such zones increased rapidly. Enemy garrisons and the occupation administrations were driven out, with Party and government bodies taking over openly, representing the Soviet system in the enemy rear. Collective farms were put back into operation, newspapers and handbills were printed, and production of equipment and products for partisans was built up. The zones were also useful as a training ground for partisans.

p People in liberated areas joined the patriotic movement, aiding the front and bringing closer the final defeat of the enemy. On the 24th anniversary of the Red Army, partisans and collective farmers in the Leningrad zone sent 223 horsedrawn carts of food to the beleaguered city. Among the carters were 30 women. The carts were accompanied by a delegation carrying a message to the defenders of Leningrad. The carts crossed the front-lines and reached their destination safely.

p The German Command was aware of the danger of partisan zones. Numerous well-armed punitive expeditions were sent to wipe them out, and depending on the situation the partisans either defended their zones, with some surviving until the invader was driven out by the Red Army, or withdrew, setting up new zones elsewhere.

p A large-scale nazi operation was mounted against the Bryansk partisan zone in July=August 1942. Battles raged for more than a month, with the enemy failing to accomplish his mission. In the Dorogobuzh partisan zone, Smolensk Region, however, things went differently because the terrain was hard to defend. The large partisan force moved out by decision of the underground Smolensk Regional Party Committee. 213 The punitive expedition did not find the partisans, whose relocation, far from reducing the scale of their activities, only facilitated more extensive operations.

p The number of underground Party organisations in occupied territory increased considerably towards the end of 1942. An underground Central Committee was set up in the Ukraine to improve guidance of underground work and partisan warfare. Regional Party committees were active in most of the Ukrainian regions, with some, like the Chernigov Committee, headed by A. F. Fyodorov, also active far outside the limits of the region.

p The Ukraine had 23 regional committees, 67 city committees, .564 district committees and 4,316 primary Party organisations.  [213•1  Nine underground regional committees, 174 city and district committees, 184 territorial Party branches and 1,113 primary Party organisations in the partisan units operated in Byelorussia.  [213•2  And it was much the same elsewhere in occupied territory.

p Erich Koch, nazi Reichskommissar of the Ukraine, had his residence in Rovno, thinking the small Ukrainian town would be safer than a large industrial centre. But he did not reckon with the underground. One Rovno group, under T. F. Novak, had more than 170 members, and another, under P. M. Miryushchenko, nearly 2oo.  [213•3  Also active there was N. I. Kuznetsov, a courageous undergrounder disguised as a German officer. He shot and killed Alfred Funk, fascist head judge in the Ukraine, on the premises of a German court. Then, helped by a group of partisans and undergrounders, Kuznetsov kidnapped General von Illgen, commander of special punitive forces. Kuznetsov made an attempt on the life of Paul Dargel, Koch’s political deputy, the actual head of the occupation administration in the Ukraine. Finally, he executed another of Koch’s deputies, General Hermann Knut, and then General Hans Hehl.

p Underground Komsomol organisations and branches were active under Party leadership. The Ukraine had nine regional underground Komsomol committees and 213 city and district committees.  [213•4  The Young Guard, an underground youth 214 organisation in Krasnodon, made things uncomfortable for the fascists and their menials in a large section of the Donets Basin. Heading the group was a headquarters comprising YCL members’I. V. Turkenich (commander), V. I. Tretyakevich (commissar), Ulyana Gromova, Ivan Zemnukhov, Oleg Koshevoi, Sergei Tyulenin and Lyuba Shevtsova. The organisation issued more than 30 leaflets, each* -in 5,000 copies.  [214•1  Its combat groups attacked and destroyed troopcarriers, executed traitors, helped Soviet POWs to escape and committed subversive acts in enemy-run factories.

p Partisan zones multiplied towards the end of 1942, their area expanding. The biggest were in Byelorussia, with more than half its territory under partisan control by the end of 1943. A large partisan belt, stretching from north-west to south, crossed Byelorussia and the Ukraine, Kalinin, Smolensk, Orel and . other regions of the Russian Federation. The zones served as operational bastions that the enemy dared not enter and from which actions were mounted. They were a dependable base for the popular struggle. An area of more than 200,000 sq km was under partisan control in the summer of 1943,  [214•2  equal to that of Britain, Belgium and Denmark combined. Many millions of people lived there, resisting the enemy heroically.

p Soviet literature, including newspapers and leaflets, was brought in across the battle-lines and widely circulated in the zones. Meetings, lectures and concerts were held, and films shown. The people observed all Soviet holidays, while the partisans hit the enemy in force to mark them. Donations were collected for tanks and planes, the money being sent to Moscow, along with conscripts for the Red Army.

But the most important fact of all was that the Soviet system existed in a large part of enemy-occupied territory either openly or clandestinely. Neither politically nor spiritually were occupied areas cut off from the rest of the Soviet land. Soviet people, even those in the occupied areas, defended Soviet power and the socialist system devotedly. Nothing the invaders did could shake the patriotism of the Soviet people and their faith in final victory over fascism.