ABSTRACT
It goes without saying that the most important characteristic of the first period of war was the failure of German forces to destroy the Red Army. Second, because of this failure, the fledgling partisan movement was able to begin assisting regular Red Army forces. They did so by attempting to disrupt enemy communication lines, chiefly railway communication, by conducting reconnaissance, by sabotaging the German attempts to exploit economically the occupied territories, and, last but not least, by providing political leadership and organisation to millions of people living in the enemy rear. All of these functions were interrelated, and their fulfilment depended on many factors and varied from sector to sector of the Soviet-German front.
