Massacre in dredge: what did the Soviet partisans in the Belarusian village

History 30/12/19 Massacre in dredge: what did the Soviet partisans in the Belarusian village

the atrocities of the German executioners, to destroy villages in the occupied territories for the support of the guerrillas – well-known fact from the history of the great Patriotic war. However, few people know that sometimes themselves partisans of cruelty was not inferior to the invaders. In the spring of 1943 the “people’s Avengers” burned Belarusian village Drazhna, simulating in this way the “fight with the policemen”.

“Defeated the garrison of the invaders”

for a Long time about events in the village Drazhna Darohi district mentioned only in the dry reports of guerrilla warfare in the South of the Minsk region in the first half of 1943. In memoirs of Hero of the Soviet Union, partisan Stanislaus sa vaupshasova, published in Soviet time, you can read the following:

“Units of the Second Minsk brigade defeated the garrison of the invaders in the village of Drazhna. These operations gave rise to persistent rumors that Gressky woods landed a powerful assault of Soviet troops with guns and light tanks”.

On the further fate of the village Drazhna where the guerrillas are re-visited in the spring, Vaupshasov silent. Meanwhile, victims of the attacks were no longer Nazi occupiers and civilians.

the attack on the village

the memory of the tragedy in dredge decades preserved only the surviving villagers, while in the 2000s the years, information about it began to collect local historian Victor hursik. He interviewed a number of witnesses, published their memoirs in the book “Blood and ashes Drazhna”. After that, the fate of the village became interested and professional historians.

according to witnesses, the following picture emerges. The guerrillas entered the dredge early in the morning of April 14. While residents were still sleeping, their house began to burn. Some of the villagers, the guerrillas killed in their own bedroom. Other drazhnentsy tried to hide in the potato cellar, but they found there. As told by the son of the former Chairman Poselkathe first Council, Nikolai Petrovsky, the attempts of the villagers to prove their loyalty to the Soviet regime were unsuccessful. For example, his sister Kate showed one of the partisans sewn into the lining of jackets Komsomol card, which she carefully preserved under German power. In response, the girl took a bullet.

the Victims of the attack on dredge have at least 217 people – mostly women, children and the elderly, including families of veterans. None of the 79 policemen, had taken refuge in the bunkers, the guerrillas did not touch. After the departure of the killers came to the village the Germans, who had injured help. Later the locals found out that the massacre committed by a group of Israel Lapidus of the guerrilla unit named Kutuzov.

“Marauding acts very much”

What caused a brutal campaign in Drazhna? According to one version, it was punishment for local self-defense forces had “people’s Avengers,” the armed resistance. Guerrilla command did not bother to “separation of grains from plevel” — quite in the spirit of the “red terror”. Note that the village Drazhna before the great Patriotic war was not distinguished by any particularly “counter-revolutionary” sentiments. In the 1930-ies on political articles were repressed only three local residents (according to the database “Open the list of victims of repression”).

According to another version, before 1943, the partisans stayed in the forest. So when I received a request from Moscow, reporting urgently needed some major “successes”. It was decided to destroy the village completely, so as not to leave witnesses, and all the dead issue of the “dead policemen” (the wording from the report). Kutuzov partisan detachment was generally in poor standing with the authorities. “Assigned” to him by the NKVD reported, for example, about the facts of looting the forest fighters. But anyway, an example of a dredge is not the only in the occupied territories.

“In the attitudes of the leaders of the guerrilla struggle of the initial period of war, expressed the requirement to destroy all Pozobnikov enemy. Therefore, the police garrison stationed in the settlements created for the civilian population is a real threat of being attacked partisans, such as the village Drazhna or Luhacovice,” — said the candidate of historical Sciences Elena Pavlova.

Timur Sagdiyev

Source:
© Russian Seven

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