At the Baikovo cemetery in Kyiv, a man who became a legend during his lifetime sleeps in eternal sleep, a man whose very name terrified the Nazis - Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak.
Smart kid
He was born on June 7, 1887 in the Poltava region, into a large peasant family. Every penny counted, and instead of school, Sidor from a young age mastered the skills of a shepherd and a tiller.
At the age of 10, he began helping his family by working in the shop of a local merchant. Smart, quick-witted, observant - “the little guy will go far,” the village elders, wise with worldly experience, said about him.
In 1908, Sidor was drafted into the army, and after four years of military service, he went to Saratov, where he got a job as a laborer.
From the Emperor to Vasily Ivanovich
But just two years later, Sidor Kovpak again found himself in the military ranks - the First World War began.
Monument to Sidor Kovpak in Kyiv.
Private 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment Sidor Kovpak was a brave warrior. Having been wounded several times, he always returned to duty. In 1916, as a scout, Kovpak particularly distinguished himself during the Brusilov breakthrough. With his exploits, he earned two St. George Crosses, which were awarded to him by Emperor Nicholas II.
Perhaps the Tsar Father got a little carried away here - in 1917 Kovpak chose not him, but the Bolsheviks. Returning to his homeland after the October Revolution, Kovpak discovered that the war was following him on his heels - the Reds and the Whites came together to the death. And here Kovpak assembled his first partisan detachment, with which he began to destroy Denikin’s troops, and at the same time, according to old memory, the Germans who occupied Ukraine.
In 1919, Kovpak’s detachment joined the regular Red Army, and he himself joined the ranks of the Bolshevik Party.
But Kovpak did not get to the front right away - he was brought down by the typhus that was raging in the dilapidated country. Having climbed out of the clutches of the disease, he nevertheless goes to war and finds himself in the ranks of the 25th division, commanded by Vasily Ivanovich Chapaev himself. The commander of the captured Chapaev team, Sidor Kovpak, was already known for his zeal and thrift - he knew how to collect weapons on the battlefield not only after victories, but also after unsuccessful battles, striking the enemy with such insolence.
Kovpak took Perekop, finished off the remnants of Wrangel’s army in the Crimea, liquidated the Makhnovist gangs, and in 1921 he was appointed to the post of military commissar in Greater Tokmak. Having replaced several more similar positions, in 1926 he was forced to demobilize.
To the partisans - vegetable gardens
No, Kovpak was not tired of the war, but his health was failing him - old wounds bothered him, and he was tormented by rheumatism acquired in the partisan detachment.
And Kovpak switched to economic activity. He may have lacked education, but he had the spirit of a strong businessman, observation and intelligence.
Starting in 1926 as chairman of an agricultural artel in the village of Verbki, Kovpak 11 years later reached the position of chairman of the Putivl City Executive Committee of the Sumy Region of the Ukrainian SSR.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Sidor Kovpak was 54 years old. Not so much, but not so little for a man whose whole life was connected with war and hard peasant labor.
But in difficult times, Kovpak knew how to forget about age and illnesses. He took upon himself all the organizational work to create a partisan detachment in the Putivl region. There was very little time to organize - the enemy was approaching rapidly, but Kovpak was busy preparing bases and caches until the last moment.
He was almost the last of the leadership to leave Putivl for gardening on September 10, 1941, at the moment when German units had already appeared in the village.
Many partisan detachments died at the very beginning of the war due to the fact that their leaders were simply not prepared for such activities. There were also those who, having laid their bases, out of fear, preferred to hide, hide, rather than join the fight.
But Kovpak was completely different. He has vast military experience behind him, combined with the experience of a talented business executive. In just a few days, from the Putivl activists and encirclement scouts who went into the forests with him, Kovpak created the core of the future detachment.
Power from the forest
On September 29, 1941, near the village of Safonovka, Sidor Kovpak’s detachment carried out the first combat operation, destroying a Nazi truck. The Germans sent a group to destroy the partisans, but they returned empty-handed.
On October 17, 1941, when the Nazis were already on the outskirts of Moscow, in the Ukrainian forests Kovpak’s detachment teamed up with the detachment of Semyon Rudnev, a career military man who took part in battles with Japanese militarists in the Far East.
Kovpak (sitting on the left) reads the code from the mainland to the partisans. Detachment Commissioner S.V. Rudnev (sitting on the right), 1942
They appreciated each other's acumen and developed mutual respect. They had no rivalry for leadership - Kovpak became the commander, and Rudnev took the post of commissar. This managerial “tandem” very soon made the Nazis shudder with horror.
Kovpak and Rudnev continued to unite small partisan groups into a single Putivl partisan detachment. Once, at a meeting of the commanders of such groups, punitive forces with two tanks showed up directly into the forest. The Nazis still believed that partisans were something frivolous. The result of the battle adopted by the partisans was the defeat of the punitive forces and the capture of one of the tanks as a trophy.
The main difference between Kovpak’s detachment and many other partisan formations was, paradoxically, the almost complete absence of partisanship. Iron discipline reigned among the Kovpaks; each group knew its maneuver and actions in the event of a surprise attack by the enemy. Kovpak was a real ace of covert movement, unexpectedly appearing here and there for the Nazis, disorienting the enemy, delivering lightning-fast and crushing blows.
At the end of November 1941, the Nazi command felt that it practically did not control the Putivl area. The loud actions of the partisans also changed the attitude of the local population, who began to look at the invaders almost with ridicule - they say, are you the power here? Real power is in the forest!
Sidor Kovpak (center) discusses the details of a military operation with detachment commanders, 1942.
Kovpak is coming!
The irritated Germans blocked the Spadashchansky forest, which became the main base of the partisans, and sent large forces to defeat them. Having assessed the situation, Kovpak decided to break out of the forest and go on a raid.
Kovpak's partisan unit grew rapidly. When he fought behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, more and more new groups joined him. Kovpak's unit turned into a real partisan army.
On May 18, 1942, Sidor Kovpak was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In August 1942, Kovpak, along with the commanders of other partisan formations, was received in the Kremlin, where Stalin asked about problems and needs. New combat missions were also identified.
Kovpak’s unit received the task of going to Right Bank Ukraine in order to expand the zone of partisan operations.
From the Bryansk forests of Kovpak, several thousand kilometers were fought through the Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhitomir and Kyiv regions. Partisan glory, surrounded by legends, was already rolling ahead of them. They said that Kovpak himself was a huge bearded strongman who killed 10 fascists at a time with a blow of his fist, that he had tanks, guns, planes and even Katyushas at his disposal, and that Hitler personally feared him.
Sidor Kovpak inspecting the new bridgehead, 1943
Hitler is not Hitler, but smaller Nazis were really afraid. On the policemen and German garrisons the news “Kovpak is coming!” was demoralizing. They tried to avoid meeting with his partisans in any way, because it did not promise anything good.
In April 1943, Sidor Kovpak was awarded the rank of Major General. This is how the partisan army got a real general.
The most difficult raid
Those who met the legend in reality were amazed - a short old man with a beard, looking like a village grandfather from the ruin (the partisans called their commander - Grandfather), seemed absolutely peaceful and did not in any way resemble the genius of partisan warfare.
Kovpak was remembered by his soldiers for a number of sayings that became popular sayings. While developing a plan for a new operation, he repeated: “Before you enter God’s temple, think about how to get out of it.” About providing the connection with everything necessary, he said laconically and a little mockingly: “My supplier is Hitler.”
Indeed, Kovpak never bothered Moscow with requests for additional supplies, obtaining weapons, ammunition, fuel, food and uniforms from Nazi warehouses.
In 1943, the Sumy partisan unit of Sidor Kovpak set off on its most difficult, Carpathian raid. You can’t erase a word from the song - in those parts there were many who were quite satisfied with the power of the Nazis, who were happy to hang “Jews” under their wing and rip open the bellies of Polish children. Of course, for such people Kovpak was not a “hero of a novel.” During the Carpathian raid, not only many Nazi garrisons were defeated, but also Bandera detachments.
The fighting was difficult, and at times the position of the partisans seemed hopeless. In the Carpathian raid, Kovpak’s formation suffered the most serious losses. Among the dead were veterans who were at the origins of the detachment, including Commissar Semyon Rudnev.
Living legend
But still, Kovpak’s unit returned from the raid. Upon his return, it became known that Kovpak himself was seriously wounded, but hid this from his soldiers.
The Kremlin decided that it was impossible to risk the hero’s life any further - Kovpak was recalled to the mainland for treatment. In January 1944, the Sumy partisan unit was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after Sidor Kovpak. Command of the division was taken over by one of Kovpak’s comrades, Pyotr Vershigora. In 1944, the division carried out two more large-scale raids - Polish and Neman. In July 1944, in Belarus, a partisan division, which the Nazis never managed to defeat, united with units of the Red Army.
In January 1944, for the successful conduct of the Carpathian raid, Sidor Kovpak was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time.
Sidor Kovpak, 1954
Having healed his wounds, Sidor Kovpak arrived in Kyiv, where a new job awaited him - he became a member of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR. Probably, someone else would have been blamed for lack of education, but Kovpak was trusted by both the authorities and ordinary people - he earned this trust with his whole life.
Born on June 7, 1887 in the village of Kotelva (now an urban-type settlement in the Poltava region of Ukraine) into a poor peasant family. Ukrainian. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1919. Participant of the First World War (served in the 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment) and the Civil War. In the last of them, he led a local partisan detachment that fought in Ukraine against the German occupiers together with the detachments of A. Ya. Parkhomenko, then was a fighter of the legendary 25th Chapaev Division on the Eastern Front, participated in the defeat of the White Guard troops of generals A. I. Denikin and Wrangel on the Southern Front. In 1921-1926 - military commissar in a number of cities in the Ekaterinoslav province (from 1926 and now - the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine). Since 1937 - Chairman of the Putivl City Executive Committee of the Sumy Region of the Ukrainian SSR.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War since September 1941. One of the organizers of the partisan movement in Ukraine is the commander of the Putivl partisan detachment, and then of the formation of partisan detachments of the Sumy region.
In 1941-1942, S. A. Kovpak’s unit carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, in 1942-1943 - a raid from Bryansk forests to Right Bank Ukraine in Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhitomir and Kiev regions; in 1943 - Carpathian raid. The Sumy partisan unit under the command of S.A. Kovpak fought in the rear of the Nazi troops for more than 10 thousand kilometers, defeating enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. Kovpak's raids played a big role in the development of the partisan movement against the Nazi occupiers.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 18, 1942, for the exemplary performance of combat missions behind enemy lines, the courage and heroism shown during their implementation, Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 708) .
In April 1943, S. A. Kovpak was awarded the military rank of “Major General”.
The second Gold Star medal was awarded to Major General Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 4, 1944 for the successful conduct of the Carpathian raid.
In January 1944, the Sumy partisan unit was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after S. A. Kovpak.
Since 1944, S. A. Kovpak has been a member of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR, since 1947 - Deputy Chairman of the Presidium, and since 1967 - member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd-7th convocations.
Best of the day
The legendary partisan commander S.A. Kovpak died on December 11, 1967. He was buried in the capital of Ukraine, the hero city of Kyiv.
Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich (1887-1967)- one of the organizers and leaders of the partisan movement in the territory of Ukraine temporarily occupied by the Nazis in 1941 - 1944, major general (1943), twice Hero of the Soviet Union (1942, 1944); born in Kotelva (now Poltava region of Ukraine); participant in the First World War: private, then corporal of the 186th Aslandzu Infantry Regiment of the 47th Infantry Division of the 16th Army Corps on the Southwestern Front; served in a rifle company, in regimental communications and reconnaissance teams, and took part in battles in the Carpathians (1914-1915).
In 1918-1920 S.A. Kovpak was in the ranks of the Red partisans, serving in units of the Red Army on the Eastern and Southern fronts. In the post-war years, he worked as a county and district military commissar in Ukraine, studied at advanced training courses for senior command staff "Vystrel", after leaving the military for health reasons (1926), he led a number of military cooperatives, from 1935 he was the head of the city road department, and since 1939 - Chairman of the Putivl City Executive Committee of the Sumy Region.
At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, due to the rapid advance of the front line to the east, S.A. Kovpak was involved through the party line in organizing the partisan movement (July-August 1941), appointed commander of one of the partisan detachments of the Putivl district of the Sumy region, and carried out a lot of work on laying partisan bases. When on the evening of September 10, 1941, German reconnaissance units approached Putivl, he and his comrades left the city and headed to the Spadshchansky forest. From that time on, the “odyssey” of the famous partisan commander began.
In September 1941 - December 1943 E.A. Kovpak commanded the Putivl partisan detachment, the Putivl united partisan detachment and the Sumy partisan unit. If in mid-October 1941 the Putivl partisan detachment numbered 57 fighters in its ranks, then by June 12, 1943, on the eve of the famous Carpathian raid, there were more than 1.9 thousand partisans in four detachments of the Sumy partisan unit.
Led by S.A. Kovpak partisan detachments in 1941-1943. operated in the occupied territory of Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian Federation - in Sumy, Chernigov, Kyiv, Zhitomir, Rivne, Ternopil and Stanislav regions of the Ukrainian SSR, Gomel, Pinsk and Polesie regions of the BSSR, Oryol and Kursk regions of the RSFSR.
In October-November 1942 and June-September 1943, the Sumy partisan unit under the command of S.A. Kovpaka made two outstanding raids behind Nazi lines: first from the Sumy region to Right Bank Ukraine, and then from the territory of Belarusian-Ukrainian Polesie to Carpathian Ukraine.
During the last raid, Kovpakov partisans fought 4 thousand kilometers across the occupied territory. Considering the threat that Soviet partisans posed to the German occupation administration in Galicia, Reichsführer SS G. Himmler on August 3, 1943 sent SS Gruppenführer E. von dem Bach-Zelewski a lightning telegram with a categorical demand to defeat the Kovpak partisans and ensure that “ Kovpak ended up in our hands, dead or alive.” And at a meeting of the Defense Commission of the Polish General Government on September 22, 1943 in Krakow, the governor of the Galicia district, O. Wächter, in particular, said: “Kowpak’s gangs carried out very smart propaganda and showed high discipline in their attitude towards people.”
In October-December 1943, having returned from the Carpathian raid, detachments of the Sumy partisan unit were stationed in the Olevsky district of the Zhitomir region, conducting combat and sabotage operations on the Belokorovichi-Rokitnoye railway section, in the area of the Belokorovichi and Olevsk stations. Taking into account age and health status, December 23, 1943 S.A. Kovpak was recalled to the Soviet rear. He was replaced as commander of the formation by P.P. Vershigora.
Already during 1941 - 1942. S.A. Kovpak proved himself to be a talented organizer and commander of Ukrainian partisans, who managed to develop his own style and specific methods of leading partisan warfare behind enemy lines, and enjoyed a high degree of trust from his subordinates.
S.A. Kovpak was one of the first partisan commanders who astutely assessed the importance of partisan raids in the armed struggle in the occupied territory. In the early autumn of 1942, during a meeting in Moscow of a group of partisan commanders from Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine with the head of the TsShPD P.K. Ponomarenko, he expressed his views as follows: “By raids we achieve contact with the population, raise their spirit of struggle against the occupiers, force the population to come over to our side; by raids we force the enemy to withdraw his forces from other objects, leaving them unprotected; With raids, we do not give the enemy the opportunity to use tactics of destroying partisans by encircling them at their location.” He also emphasized that the raids discipline the partisans and give them the feeling of representatives of Soviet power in the occupied territory.
He was also one of the few partisan leaders who tried to find a compromise between the size of the partisan detachment (formation) and its maneuverability and mobility. According to S.A. Kovpak, the partisan formation must strive to reach such a strength that would give it the opportunity to repel an attack by a large part of the enemy and at the same time maintain its mobility.
The authority of S.A. Kovpak already in 1941-1942. went far beyond the borders of the Sumy region and the limits of its own formation. The famous Ukrainian writer N. Sheremet, who was on a business trip in the Ukrainian partisan formations in Polesie from December 16, 1942 to April 17, 1943, in a memo addressed to the first secretary
Central Committee of the Communist Party (b)U N.S. Khrushchev wrote: “The Hero of the Soviet Union, Comrade, now enjoys almost legendary fame in Ukraine. Kovpak S.A. He is loved and respected by the partisans and the population, and hated by his enemies. Modest and simple in everyday life, affectionate, and when necessary stern; a brilliant partisan tactician and military leader - this is how the partisans know their “father” or “grandfather.” And Hero of the Soviet Union M.I. Naumov in a letter dated January 6, 1944 to N.S. Khrushchev recommended appointing S.A. Kovpak was the head of the USHPD branch in Right Bank Ukraine and believed that it was he who was capable of intensifying the combat activities of the Ukrainian partisans.
An interesting characteristic given by S.A. Kovpaku is an enemy. In the memorandum of the German Sonderstaff "R" (Russia), which ended up in the hands of Ukrainian partisans, there are such lines about S.A. Kovpake: “...Generally recognized among commanders and privates [partisans] as a specialist in long-distance travel. The main activity - raids on rear units and military institutions, is in constant motion. He doesn’t engage in sabotage, his people are hardy and adapted to marches. It is staffed by those who escaped from captivity, officers, and fanatical youth who remained surrounded. In Moscow they consider him “the father of the partisan movement in Ukraine”... He does not value his life. He himself goes into battle and has young imitators..."
Along with this, S.A. Kovpak had a stubborn, often unyielding character, often behaved extremely emotionally, and was capricious. He was burdened by the subordination of the USHPD, was suspicious of the NKVD employees, and openly disliked those who worked in headquarters far from the front. He was a typical partisan "dad".
Merits of S.A. Kovpak's work in the field of partisan warfare was highly appreciated by the leadership of the USSR. He was awarded the military rank of major general and awarded two “Golden Stars” of Hero of the Soviet Union (1942, 1944). He was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner (1942), Suvorov and Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 1st degree (1944), medals “Partisan of the Patriotic War” 1st and 2nd degree (1943), and other USSR medals. Among the foreign awards S.A. Kovpaka - Order of the Battle Cross and White Lion (Czechoslovak Republic), Gold Star of Garibaldi (Italy).
After being recalled to the Soviet rear, S.A. Kovpak was on treatment and rest for a long time. On November 11, 1944, he was appointed a member of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR, and from March 6, 1947 until the day of his death, he worked as Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR. He was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviets of the Ukrainian SSR and the USSR. He took an active part in the social and political life of the republic.
Kovpak S.A. is the author of the widely known memoirs “From Putivl to the Carpathians”, “Soldiers of Malaya Zemlya. From the diary of partisan campaigns,” which were repeatedly published in Russian and Ukrainian, including abroad.
S.A. was buried. Kovpak in Kyiv.
120 years ago this famous partisan general was born.
It is known that in the Kovpak partisan formation, the people's avengers marched in their parades to musical accompaniment: four accordions and a violin. They called it an orchestra - proudly, although not entirely correctly. As they say: “War is war, but music is eternal!”
Everything that Kovpak himself did was also unique. It didn't fit into the usual rules and that's why it was successful...
AWARDS FROM THE HANDS OF THE TSING
Sidor Kovpak - a peasant family, was born in the settlement of Kotelva in the Poltava region. He received a very basic education - that is, the basics of literacy, and then served for ten years with the shopkeeper Khvesak, and became a clerk. Hwesak even wanted to give his daughter to him.
As is the case with Sloboda or Poltava residents, economic spirit was combined in Kovpak with artistry. He resembled the smart and cunning Vyborny from Natalka Poltavka. In his younger years, he even portrayed vaudeville lovers well. But when he got married, his wife Ekaterina forbade him to go on stage...
He fought in the First World War, in the infantry, and went into reconnaissance. He received two “Georges” for bravery from the hands of Tsar Nicholas II himself when he arrived at the front.
The revolutionary storm captured him too. When Kovpak returned home, he immediately joined the partisans who rebelled against Hetman Skoropadsky.
In 1919 he fled from Denikin to Russia and ended up in Chapaev’s division. I knew the division commander himself, for whom he served in the trophy team. Perhaps this maneuver saved him for the future, because the Ukrainian partisans of that time, even the Reds, were “independent.” Then they paid for it: in the 1930s, the NKVD shot several thousand of them in the Poltava region.
And Sidor Artemovich was a military commissar in the south of Ukraine and a successful director of a cooperative that supplied provisions to the army.
Before the war, he was appointed chairman of the city executive committee in Putivl (now a regional center in the Sumy region).
GRANDFATHER
S.A. Kovpak can be compared to such great partisan leaders of the 20th century as Makhno, Che Guevara, Tito or Hekmatyar.
In the fall of 1941, the German invaders “took” Putivl. The mayor of the city (he is 55 years old, his name is Grandfather, he has almost no teeth, suffers from rheumatism) takes nine civilians with him and quickly “moves” with them to the nearby Spadshchansky forest massif, 8 kilometers wide and 15 kilometers long. The Germans fired at them. They ran away and lost each other. To get to their people, to find their comrades, some of them sang throughout the forest...
Three days later they gathered “to the kupa” and found a food “base”, previously laid out by the economic Kovpak in the forest.
Grandfather sat down and smoked a samosad with cherry leaves. Now it was possible to choose tactics. One of two things: either guard this forest until the end of the war, or go on a raid. Kovpak chose the second...
By the end of September, the detachment consisted of 42 people, 36 rifles, 5 machine guns, 20 rounds of ammunition per rifle and an incomplete disk for the machine gun, 8 grenades. Almost a ton of explosives, but without detonators. The latter were mined in minefields.
After joining with the partisans of Semyon Rudnev, the detachment became 57 people, and a light machine gun appeared. With these forces, Kovpak began the war against the fascist invaders...
The detachment was replenished with Glukhovsky, Krolevets folk avengers and brave people from other places, and gradually grew into the Sumy partisan formation with one and a half thousand “bayonets”.
At first, the Kovpakovites did not know where the front was; they had no connection with Moscow, much less support from it. They took everything from the Germans in battle. Grandfather liked to repeat: “My supplier is Hitler.” It went on like this almost a year!
Subsequently, Stalin said: if not for the partisans, the war would have lasted five years, not four. In the summer of 1942, the formation covered 6,047 kilometers in battle. 12 trains, 25 tanks and armored vehicles, and almost 5,000 enemy soldiers and officers were destroyed.
Today, some are inclined to consider the Kovpakovites only a Soviet myth. But it’s worth imagining in that war people who have been fighting for almost a year without commands or help “from above.” These were universal soldiers: they burned tanks, shot down planes and even boarded ships - this was a fact in the spring of 1943 in Pripyat.
Kovpak was a genius of maneuver. He knew how to appear out of nowhere and create the impression of being in four or five places at once, far from each other.
“JOKES” OF A GUERILLA GENERAL
Grandfather had a saying: “ The wolf has a hundred roads, but the hunter has only one" He considered himself a wolf (although he could not help but know that his worst enemy, Hitler, called himself the same thing!). And Sidor Artemovich also had a saying: “ Before entering God's temple, think about how to get out of it" He was very careful! But sometimes he allowed himself courage. In the spring of 1942, Kovpak took Putivl for his birthday. I stayed for a while and went back into the forests...
He also liked to secretly break into the telephone network. Having quietly listened to what he needed, Grandfather gave the order: attack. And as a farewell, he cheerfully swore at his opponent over the phone.
In the spring of 1942, Moscow awarded Kovpak the Gold Star of a Hero, and Rudnev, who served time before the war as an enemy of the people, with the Order of the Badge of Honor. Sidor Kovpak allegedly prepared a telegram to Stalin: “ My commissar is not a milkmaid to give such an order!».
Already at the end of the summer of 1942, Grandfather was summoned to Moscow. There, among others, a very strange conversation took place between Kovpak and Stalin and Voroshilov. They asked: is it true that the Germans are creating Cossack regiments in Ukraine? Perhaps Stalin was afraid that partisanship was ordinary Ukrainian separatism. He was told that this was not the case. But all the same, Joseph Vissarionovich decided to take matters into his own hands. The Main Partisan Headquarters was created in Moscow, headed by Marshal Voroshilov. On September 5, the People's Commissar of Defense issued order No. 00189 “On the assignment of the partisan movement.”
RAID
Only then S.A. Kovpak began receiving weapons from Moscow. But, besides weapons, he received something else: an order for a raid on Right Bank Ukraine, and subsequently - in the Carpathians...
Stalin had a multi-purpose calculation. First, reconnaissance in force: are the Germans preparing a serious line of defense along the Dnieper? Secondly, sabotage in the depths of German communications before the summer campaign of 1943. Thirdly, to pit some Ukrainian partisans against others. And yet they pushed...
There is a version that Semyon Rudnev spoke out against this confrontation “with his Ukrainians,” and for this he was killed by his own partisans. Be that as it may, everyone understood: if Soviet partisans came to the Carpathians, a clash with the “UPA warriors” was inevitable! Whatever Kovpak and Rudnev thought... Ultimately, the heaviest battles of the entire war were fought by the Kovpaks in the Carpathians. But not with “our own people,” but with the SS men of General Kruger.
The Carpathian raid of the Kovpak compound is considered an unprecedented collective feat. In four months, 4,000 kilometers were covered with fighting, and large rivers were crossed several times. Oil fields, 14 railway and 38 highway bridges were destroyed, 19 trains were derailed. Partisan losses: 228 fighters, another 200 missing and 150 wounded. For several weeks, in six groups, they left the encirclement. They united again only in the fall of 1943 in the Zhitomir forests, from where they went out on the described raid.
Wounded in the leg during the Carpathian raid, Grandfather never fought again. The Sumy partisan unit, called the 1st Partisan Division named after Kovpak, was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Vershigora.
PERSONAL LIFE AND DESERVED FAME
Sidor Artemovich Kovpak did not have any children of his own. He got married late, already at 39 years old. Ekaterina Efimovna had a son from her first husband. He died during the war. It is interesting that while Kovpak was a partisan, his wife was not evacuated, but lived in the occupied territory with her husband’s relatives in Kotelva. After the end of the war, Sidor Artemovich took her to Kyiv, where they lived together for exactly 30 years. Ekaterina Efimovna died in 1956.
But after this bereavement, Grandfather married again. The wife's name was Lyubov Arkhipovna. She already had a daughter, Lelya.
During Soviet times, there were 34 Kovpak museums in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, including school ones. At the moment, their number has decreased significantly, but on May 25 of this year a new one was opened - in the homeland of the partisan general, in Kotelva. There are several museums in the Sumy region, in particular in Glukhov. It is headed by veteran Alexander Filippovich Reva. Here on display is a captured Magyar officer's fur coat, in which Kovpak fought. Also preserved is the only German sign: “Vorsich Kolpak!” - “Careful, Kolpak!”
Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak was born on June 7, 1887 in the Ukrainian village of Kotelva into an ordinary peasant family. He had five brothers and four sisters. Since childhood, he helped his parents with housework. Plowed, sowed, mowed grass, looked after livestock. He attended a parochial school, where he received his most elementary education. At the age of ten, young Sidor began working for a local merchant and shopkeeper, rising to the rank of clerk by the time he came of age. He served in the Alexander Regiment, stationed in Saratov. After graduation, he stayed in this city, working as a loader in a river port.
When the First World War began, Kovpak was mobilized into the army. In 1916, fighting as part of the 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment, he took part in the famous Brusilov breakthrough. Sidor Artemovich was a scout, even then standing out among the rest with his savvy and ability to find a way out of any situation. He was wounded several times. In the spring of 1916, Tsar Nicholas II, who personally came to the front, among others, awarded young Kovpak two medals “For Bravery” and the Cross of St. George III and IV degrees.
After the start of the revolution, Kovpak chose the side of the Bolsheviks. When in 1917 the Aslanduz regiment went into reserve, ignoring Kerensky’s order to attack, Sidor, along with other soldiers, returned home to his native Kotelva. The civil war forced him to rebel against the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky. Hiding in the forests, Sidor Artemovich learned the basics of partisan military art. The Kotelvsky detachment, led by Kovpak, bravely fought with the German-Austrian occupiers of Ukraine, and later, united with the soldiers of Alexander Parkhomenko, with Denikin’s troops. In 1919, when his squad fought out of war-torn Ukraine, Kovpak decided to join the Red Army. In the 25th Chapaev Division, as a commander of a platoon of machine gunners, he fights first on the Eastern Front, and then on the Southern Front with General Wrangel. For his courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
After the end of the Civil War, Kovpak decides to engage in economic work. Also, having become a member of the RCP (b) in 1919, he worked as a military commissar. In 1926, he was elected director of the military cooperative farm in Pavlograd, and then chairman of the Putivl agricultural cooperative, which supplied provisions to the army. After the approval of the USSR Constitution of 1936, Sidor Artemovich was elected as a deputy of the Putivl City Council, and at its first meeting in 1937 - chairman of the city executive committee of the Sumy region. In peaceful life he was distinguished by exceptional hard work and initiative. In the thirties, many former “red” Ukrainian partisans were arrested by the NKVD. Several thousand people were shot in the Poltava region alone. Only thanks to his old comrades who occupied prominent positions in the NKVD, Kovpak was saved from inevitable death.
In the early autumn of 1941, the Nazi invaders approached Putivl. Kovpak, who was already 55 years old at that moment, toothless and suffering from old wounds, was hiding with nine friends in the nearby Spadshchansky forest area measuring 10 by 15 kilometers. There the group finds a food warehouse that Kovpak prepared ahead of time. At the end of September, they were joined by Red Army soldiers from the encirclement, and in October - by a detachment led by Semyon Rudnev, who became Kovpak’s closest friend and comrade-in-arms during the Great Patriotic War. The detachment increases to 57 people. not much, even less cartridges. However, Kovpak decides to start a war with the Nazis to the bitter end.
The headquarters of the Sumy partisan unit headed by S.A. Kovpak discusses the upcoming operation. In the center near the map are the formation commander Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak and Commissioner Semyon Vasilyevich Rudnev. In the foreground, one of the partisans is typing something on a typewriter.
In Ukraine, in the first days of the occupation, a huge number of forest groups were formed, but the Putivl detachment immediately managed to stand out among them with its daring and at the same time carefully-calibrated actions. Everything that Kovpak did did not fit into the normal rules. His partisans never sat in one place for long. During the day they hid in the forests, and moved and attacked the enemy at night. The detachments always walked in a roundabout way, hiding behind barriers from large enemy units. Small German detachments, outposts, and garrisons were destroyed to the last man. The marching formation of the partisans could take up a perimeter defense in a matter of minutes and begin to fire to kill. The main forces were covered by mobile sabotage groups, which blew up bridges, wires, and rails, distracting and disorienting the enemy. Coming to populated areas, the partisans raised people to fight, armed and trained them.
At the end of 1941, Kovpak’s combat detachment carried out a raid in the Khinelsky forests, and in the spring of 1942 - in the Bryansk forests. The detachment grew to five hundred people and was well armed. The second raid began on May 15 and lasted until July 24, passing through the Sumy region to the well-known Sidor Artemovich. Kovpak was a genius for covert movement. After performing a series of complex and lengthy maneuvers, the partisans unexpectedly attacked where they were not expected at all, creating the effect of being present in several places at once. They spread terror among the Nazis, blowing up tanks, destroying warehouses, and derailing trains. The Kovpakovites fought without any support, not even knowing where the front was. Everything was captured in battles. Explosives were mined from minefields.
Kovpak often repeated: “My supplier is Hitler.”
In the spring of 1942, on his birthday, he gave himself a gift and captured Putivl. And after a while he went into the forests again. At the same time, Kovpak did not look like a brave warrior at all. The outstanding partisan resembled an elderly grandfather taking care of his household. He skillfully combined soldier's experience with economic activity, and boldly tried new options for tactical and strategic methods of partisan warfare. Among its commanders and fighters were mainly workers, peasants, teachers and engineers.
Partisan detachment S.A. Kovpaka passes along the street of a Ukrainian village
“He is quite modest, he did not so much teach others as he studied himself, he knew how to admit his mistakes, thereby not exacerbating them,” wrote Alexander Dovzhenko about Kovpak.
Sidor Artemovich was easy to communicate with, humane and fair. He understood people very well, knew how to correctly use either the carrot or the stick.
Vershigora described Kovpak’s partisan camp as follows: “The master’s eye, the confident, calm rhythm of camp life and the hum of voices in the thicket of the forest, the leisurely but not slow life of confident people working with self-esteem - this is my first impression of Kovpak’s detachment.”
During the raid, Kovpak was especially strict and picky. He said that the success of any battle depends on insignificant “little things” that were not taken into account in time: “Before entering God’s temple, think about how to get out of it.”
At the end of spring 1942, for his exemplary performance of combat missions behind enemy lines and his heroism, Kovpak was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his comrade-in-arms Rudnev, who served time before the war as an enemy of the people, was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.
It is indicative that after Kovpak was awarded the Order of Commissar Semyon Rudnev, he returned it with the words: “My political officer is not some kind of milkmaid to be awarded such an order!”
Joseph Vissarionovich, interested in the successes of the partisan movement in Ukraine, decided to take control of the situation. At the very end of the summer of 1942, Sidor Artemyevich visited Moscow, where, together with other partisan leaders, he took part in a meeting, which resulted in the creation of the Main Partisan Headquarters, headed by Voroshilov. After this, Kovpak began to receive orders and weapons from Moscow.
Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the Sumy partisan unit Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak (sitting in the center, with the Hero's star on his chest) surrounded by his comrades. To the left of Kovpak is Chief of Staff G.Ya. Bazyma, to the right of Kovpak - assistant commander for housekeeping M.I. Pavlovsky
Kovpak’s first task was to carry out a raid across the Dnieper into Right Bank Ukraine, conduct reconnaissance in force and organize sabotage in the depths of German fortifications before the offensive of Soviet troops in the summer of 1943. In mid-autumn 1942, Kovpak's partisan detachments went on a raid. Having crossed the Dnieper, Desna and Pripyat, they ended up in the Zhitomir region, carrying out the unique operation “Sarnen Cross”. At the same time, five railway bridges on the highways of the Sarny junction were blown up and the garrison in Lelchitsy was destroyed. For the operation carried out in April 1943, Kovpak was awarded the rank of “Major General”.
In the summer of 1943, his formation, at the command of the Central Headquarters, began its most famous campaign - the Carpathian raid. The detachment’s path ran through the deepest rear areas of the Nazis. The partisans had to constantly make unusual transitions through open areas. There were no supply bases nearby, just like help and support. The formation traveled more than 10,000 kilometers, fighting Bandera, regular German units and the elite SS troops of General Kruger. With the latter, by the way, the Kovpakovites fought the bloodiest battles of the entire war. As a result of the operation, the delivery of military equipment and enemy troops to the Kursk Bulge area was delayed for a long time. Finding themselves surrounded, the partisans were able to escape with great difficulty, dividing into several autonomous groups. A few weeks later, in the Zhitomir forests, they again united into one formidable detachment.
During the Carpathian raid, Semyon Rudnev was killed, and Sidor Artemyevich was seriously wounded in the leg. At the end of 1943, he went to Kyiv for treatment and did not fight again. For the successful conduct of the operation on January 4, 1944, Major General Kovpak received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time. In February 1944, the partisan detachment of Sidor Kovpak was renamed into the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division of the same name. It was headed by Lieutenant Colonel P.P. Vershigora. Under his command, the division made two more successful raids, first in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, and then in Poland.
After the end of the war, Kovpak lived in Kyiv, finding work in the Supreme Court of Ukraine, where he was Deputy Chairman of the Presidium for twenty years. The legendary partisan commander enjoyed great love among the people. In 1967, he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR.
He died on December 11, 1967 at the age of 81. The hero was buried at the Baikovo cemetery in Kyiv. Sidor Artemovich had no children.
The tactics of Kovpak’s partisan movement received wide recognition far beyond the borders of our Motherland. The partisans of Angola, Rhodesia and Mozambique, Vietnamese field commanders and revolutionaries from various Latin American countries learned from the examples of the Kovpakov raids. In 1975 at the film studio named after. A. Dovzhenko shot a feature film trilogy about the partisan detachment of Kovpak called “The Thought of Kovpak.” To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the partisan movement in Ukraine in 2011, the Era TV channel and the Paterik-film studio produced a documentary film “His name was GRANDFATHER.” On June 8, 2012, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin with the image of Kovpak. A bronze bust of the Hero of the Soviet Union was installed in the village of Kotelva, monuments and memorial plaques are available in Putivl and Kyiv. Streets in many Ukrainian cities and villages are named after him. In Ukraine and Russia there are a number of museums dedicated to Sidor Artemovich. The largest of them is located in the city of Glukhov, Sumy region.
Among other things, you can find here a trophy German road sign with the inscription: “Caution, Kovpak!”
His name was DED. Kovpak (Ukraine) 2011
In July 1941, a partisan detachment was formed in Putivl to fight behind enemy lines, the commander of which was approved by the Putivl district party committee S.A. Kovpaka. The material and technical base of the detachment was laid in the Spadshchansky forest.
From the very first battles, the detachment was helped by the combat experience of the detachment commander S.A. Kovpak, tactics, courage and ability to navigate in the most difficult situations.
On October 19, 1941, fascist tanks broke into the Spadshchansky forest. A battle ensued, as a result of which the partisans captured three tanks. Having lost a large number of soldiers and military equipment, the enemy was forced to retreat and return to Putivl. This became a turning point in the combat activities of the partisan detachment.
Subsequently, Kovpak’s detachment changed its tactics to mobile raids along the rear, while simultaneously striking at the enemy’s rear units.
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