ABSTRACT

Soviet works on the partisan movement have been adept at finding German quotations illustrating the problems caused by partisans for German forces. For 1941 such references frequently refer to Red Army units operating behind German lines as a result of the mass encirclements to the south of Army Group North,1 or partisan control of typically isolated rural areas. Although in the long term the partisan movement could not be left to develop even in the most isolated areas, in the short term it was rarely able to cut the principal supply arteries to the front for any significant length of time, even if threatening and at times causing some disruption to them. Along the main supply arteries, where partisan units were supposed to be most active, partisans faced the greatest likelihood of meeting with superior forces, and hence in these areas a partisan presence tended to be transitory.