Page 207 - The Chief Culprit

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Partisans or Saboteurs?

Leninism dictates that a socialist country, using the favorable world situation, must take
on the initiative of making military advances against the capitalist surroundings with the
purpose of widening the socialist front. . . . Leninism’s motto, “defend your land on for-
eign soil,” can at any moment turn into practical action.”
—D   M P D  
R A, J , ­ .

hrough partisan actions, one can fight against even the strongest enemy. e aggres-
sor can take over the country in a matter of days, but then for years wage an exhaust-
Ting war against partisan groups. History abounds with examples of small and poorly
armed partisan units eventually defeating powerful armies.
e Red Army had a vast experience fighting against partisans. Commanders of the Red
Army knew how difficult and costly partisan warfare could be. During the Russian civil war,
the population of the former Russian Empire resisted the Communists mostly through par-
tisan methods. An entire partisan army under the leadership of Nestor Makhno was active in
southern Ukraine. In the Tambov province, after the civil war, the Communists waged a real
war against the partisan army of Alexander Antonov. In Siberia and in the northern Caucasus,
war against partisans continued until the mid-1920s and in Central Asia until the beginning
of the 1930s.
Soviet leaders knew that partisan tactics would win the war against any aggressor. e
Soviet Union has the largest territory of any country in the world. at territory naturally
facilitated partisan warfare. Did Stalin create light mobile units and station them in the
woods in the event of a German attack? Yes, Stalin created such units. ey were created back
in the 1920s. In Belorussia alone, during peacetime there were six partisan units, number-
ing three hundred to five hundred men each. One should not be confused by the seemingly
small numbers. e units were comprised only of commanders, organizers, and specialists.
Each peacetime partisan unit was a nucleus, around which at the very beginning of the war
developed a powerful formation numbering in the thousands.

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