ABSTRACT
A recognised authority on the problem of partisan (guerrilla) warfare, Otto Heilbrunn, has articulated an interesting dictum concerning partisan fighting. He stated that one could classify partisan movements according to motivation, structure, or function. Accordingly, some movements fight wars independently, as they did in Malaya, IndoChina, and Kenya, while others operate as auxiliaries to an army.1 The latter was the case in the Soviet Union, since the partisan movement clearly operated in tandem with and was usually subordinate to the Red Army. Therefore, any evaluation of the movement’s effectiveness must be assessed within the context of how well it supported the Red Army on its march to victory.
