The+Partisan+Problem


 * A PARTISAN WAR﻿ ** [read the following article and answer the questions on the paper from Mr. Bobsein]

It wasn’t just Hitler who was brutal in his war policy against the Soviet Union. Stalin’s determination to win no matter what the cost also contributed to the horrific death count in Russia. For example, during the Battle of Moscow, Stalin had 8,000 Soviet citizens executed for not fighting hard enough. The Russian armies were forced to stand their ground against the Germans, despite terribly cold conditions of 43 degrees below freezing! To prevent his soldiers deserting (leaving) the front line around the capital, Stalin ordered special 'blocking detachments' to shoot all deserters.

Stalin also knew that his army could not compete with the Germans’. So, he came up with an idea to help even the playing field. The Soviet leadership instructed citizens (man, woman, and child) in areas conquered by the Germans to do everything they could to disrupt the German army’s operations. These guerrilla fighters were called **partisans.** Some burned down entire villages so that German troops would have no place to sleep at night and keep warm in the brutal Russian winter. Others burned fields full of food, to keep the German soldiers from having anything to eat. Others would snipe at German soldiers as they marched through city streets. Some would blow up bridges or train tracks, to keep supplies from reaching the German army. All in all, the partisans did perhaps more than even the Soviet army in weakening the German army. Basically, the Germans were left starving, freezing, and constantly having to be on guard, even if the Russian army was nowhere in sight. Of course, as deadly as the partisan activity was to the Germans, it was perhaps even more devastating to the Russian population. Not only did the civilians have to watch out for bloodthirsty Nazis, now, but they also had to watch while their homes were burned and their crops destroyed by order of Stalin. Even after the German army moved on, these civilians had nothing to eat, nowhere to stay, and millions would freeze or starve to death. And they dared not question Stalin’s orders. Soviet secret police agents operating in the countryside were ordered to kill anyone whom they believed was disloyal to Stalin. Russian peasants did not suffer only from their own side, though. Nazi rule over the territories they captured from Russia was cruel, to say the least. The German officer given power over Nazi occupied Ukraine stated that the 'lowliest German worker is a thousand times more valuable' than the entire population of the Ukraine. Starvation was widespread, with Soviet civilians forced to eat dogs - until the dog supply ran out and people were forced to turn to rats, crows and birch bark. In the Ukrainian town of Kharkov, which was administered by the German army, 100,000 people died of starvation and disease.

Matters only worsened as the German army grew more angry at the Partisan threat. Any time a single German soldier was killed by a partisan, the Nazis killed at least 10 Russians, at random, to send the message that they were not to be messed with. This policy didn’t stop the partisans, though, and in fact it only made more people willing to risk their lives to kill the hated Nazis. Which only made the Germans more brutal. Once, the Nazis killed an entire village- 1900 people- just for a few partisans.

The following is a primary document from a German soldier describing the hardships caused by Partisans and Russia's "Scorched Earth" policy (burning everything as they retreat, so the German army has no food and no shelter). He is currently spending the night in a village somewhere in the USSR, but all of the houses had been burned before they got there. Read through it, and answer the corresponding questions on your sheet.

// “ It was completely silent, except for the howls of wolves in the forests around us. A quarter of our men were always on guard, behind what little protection they could find. The rest of us waited in abandoned huts. //

//The stoves in these huts had been destroyed before we arrived- no doubt by partisans, who hoped that without shelter we would die of cold. Some of the huts were open to the sky, with their roofs burned or pulled off. Probably the partisans had not had time to completely destroy the village. There were still far too many of us, though, for what little huts remained. Hundreds of men were without any shelter. We burned whatever we could find, and hoped that the entire hut would not catch on fire. Cursing at the smoke which blinded them, our soldiers packed closely together for warmth, tried to sleep on their feet, despite the coughs which shook their bodies. Men were never warm. Those closest to the fires grew so hot they had to move, while the others hardly got any heat at all. //

//The winter was now serious: fifteen degrees below zero during the day. Any desire to piss was announced to all present, so that hands could be held under the warm urine, which often infected our cracked fingers. //

//My eyes hurt me, and my nose was so enflamed by frostbite I could no longer bear to leave it uncovered. We hid our faces like Chicago gangsters, with our collars raised and tied around our faces with strings. //

//With darkness, the temperature dropped even further, often to 35 or 40 degrees below zero. Our material was useless in the cold- gasoline froze, and oil became so hard it would block up the engine. // //The forest rang with strange noises: the bark of trees bursting as they froze. Stones crack when the temperature drops below -60. // //Guard duty was the hardest of all. To stand still one seriously risked being frozen alive. Fifteen of us were standing watch in the ruins of a building crusted with ice. We got through the first half hour beating each other to keep our blood moving. The second half hour was torture. Two men fainted. We thrust our stiffened hands from our sleeves and clumsily tried to help them. Our gloves were already so full of holes they were useless. We carried them into a hut by a fire to try to wake them. They were already dead, though. If the Russians came, they could have easily wiped us out. One man was running round and round in small circles, crying like a baby. The pain in my feet made me scream aloud. Despite orders, I abandoned my post and ran to the nearest hut. Shoving my way through a mass of soldiers, I stopped just short of the fire, and fell to my knees. Then I thrust my boots right into the coals. They instantly began to crack and hiss, and the shock of going from cold to hot made me burst into loud sobs. // //The next morning, we covered the bodies of those who froze that night with snow, marking each ‘grave’ with a stick and their helmet. There was no time for emotion. Those who were still- to their amazement- alive were just trying to keep warm. // //We tried starting up our engines, but they were frozen solid. Not one started. We had to light fires underneath the tanks, to thaw them out before we could try starting them again." //

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