Occupation and Resistance in the USSR (1941 to 1944)

The occupation regime (the "New Order")

Between 1941 and 1944 Germany held much of Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic area and western Russia. Occupation means a foreign power rules the land and the people by force.

• Rule: civil regions called Ostland and Ukraine, plus a zone under the army. Local police were set up, and some people collaborated, while many others refused.
• Racist plans: the Nazi leaders saw Slavs as "lower" people and planned to take land for German settlers (the Generalplan Ost).
• Economic robbery: farms were forced to hand over grain and animals to feed Germany and its army.
• Forced labour: about 3 million Soviet civilians, called Ostarbeiter, were taken to work in Germany, under poor conditions.

Civilian suffering and mass murder

Ordinary people lived in hunger and fear.

• Collective punishment: if partisans attacked, a whole village could be punished. Thousands of villages in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia were burned.
• Prisoners: millions of Soviet soldiers captured in 1941 died in camps from hunger and disease.
• The murder of Jews: in the occupied USSR, Jewish communities were shot in mass killings, for example at Babi Yar near Kyiv in September 1941. This was part of the Holocaust (see the Holocaust lesson).
• Total toll: about 27 million Soviet people died in the war, about half of them civilians.

The partisan movement and the underground

Partisans are armed fighters who work behind enemy lines. They hide in forests and marshes and strike supply lines, small posts and trains.

• 3 July 1941: Stalin called for a "partisan war" behind German lines.
• 30 May 1942: the Central Staff of the Partisan Movement was set up, to link the groups with Soviet command and send radios, explosives and orders.
• Where: strongest in Belarus (forests and marshes), also in Ukraine and western Russia. By 1944 about a million people took part in the movement.
• Underground: groups in towns wrote leaflets, passed information and helped escapes. A famous example is the "Young Guard" in Krasnodon, made of teenagers.
• Not one story: ordinary people resisted in many ways; some others cooperated with the occupiers, and some suffered punishment from both sides.

The Rail War and its meaning

In August and September 1943 partisans carried out the Rail War and later Operation "Concert", timed with Soviet attacks. Over 200,000 rails were blown up. A broken rail stops a train, and repair takes time, so ammunition and fuel reached the German front late.

Partisans also gave the Red Army news about German troops, helped when the Soviet army advanced in 1943 and 1944, and kept hope alive among civilians. The occupiers answered with harsh punishments.

Try it

Use step 5. Put the slider at 0, then at 4, then at 8. Write down the train stop point and the delay. Which is bigger: the effect of the first group or the last group? Why does the train stop at the first cut?

Key formulas and definitions

• 1941 to 1944: German occupation of the western USSR
• About 3 million Ostarbeiter taken to Germany
• 3 July 1941: Stalin's call for partisan war
• 30 May 1942: Central Staff of the Partisan Movement
• Aug to Sep 1943: Rail War, over 200,000 rails
• Total Soviet dead: about 27 million (about half civilians)
• Partisans = fighters behind enemy lines; underground = hidden groups in towns

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Thinking all occupied people resisted the same way. Some resisted, some cooperated, and most tried to survive.
• Mixing up partisans (fighters in forests) and the underground (hidden groups in towns).
• Saying the Rail War ended the occupation by itself. It slowed supplies and helped the Red Army, which freed the land.
• Forgetting that about half of the 27 million dead were civilians.