World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Biography
Kovpak was born to a poor Ukrainian peasant family in Kotelva village in
Kharkov Governorate
Kharkov Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire founded in 1835. It embraced the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine. From 1765 to 1780 and from 1796 to 1835 the governorate was called Sloboda Uk ...
,
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
(in present-day
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
Emperor
The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
Nicholas II of Russia
Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...
(an award for exceptional military heroism). After the
Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
partisan units against the German forces, as well as against Denikin's White Army in a Vasily Chapayev's cavalry division. In the interwar period he was a head of the local government in the town of Putyvl,
Sumy Oblast
Sumy Oblast (), also known as Sumshchyna (), is an oblast (province) in northeast Ukraine. The oblast was created in its modern-day form, from the merging of raions from Kharkiv Oblast, Chernihiv Oblast, and Poltava Oblast in 1939 by the Presid ...
(
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...
against
Axis forces
The Axis powers, originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis and also Rome–Berlin–Tokyo Axis, was the military coalition which initiated World War II and fought against the Allies of World War II, Allies. Its principal members were Nazi Ge ...
originally in partisan strongholds in Sumy and Bryansk regions but later its operation spread deep into German-occupied territory including
Kyiv
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
,
Zhytomyr
Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...
,
Rivne
Rivne ( ; , ) is a city in western Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Rivne Oblast (province), as well as the Rivne Raion (district) within the oblast.
, Homyel, Volyn and other regions. These partisan units also fought against the
nationalist
Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
and even reached
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
n border regions during the Carpathian raid inflicting heavy casualties on the
Germans
Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...
.
Kovpak mastered guerrilla tactics and was awarded
Hero of the Soviet Union
The title Hero of the Soviet Union () was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The title was awarded both ...
title twice (1942; 1944). In the summer of 1943 Germans managed to hunt down and kill Kovpak's second in command Semyon Rudnev who was replaced by a new right-hand man Petro Vershigora who would later become a writer and dedicate his books to Kovpak's underground resistance.
Sydir Kovpak was promoted to the rank of Major General in 1943. According to the memoirs of his lieutenant Vershigora, his promotion and General's stars were airdropped to his partisan unit's position deep behind the front lines. After the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
Sydir Kovpak held key positions in the leadership of
Soviet Ukraine
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. Under the Soviet one-party m ...
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...
''), 1945,
Voenizdat
Voenizdat () was a publishing house in Moscow, Russia that was one of the first and largest publishing houses in USSR. The name is a Russian abbreviation for Voennoe Izdatelstvo (), meaning "Military Publishing House".
Voenizdat was establi ...
, 136 pages. Recorded by Evgenii Nikolaevich Gerasimov (1903-1986). English translation ''Vid Putivla do Karpat'' published by Politvydav Ukrainy, Kyiv, first print in 1973.
* ''Из дневника партизанских походов'' (''From the diary of partisan marches''), 1964, DOSAAF, Russian language, 220 pages.
* ''Воспоминания, очерки, статьи'' (''Memoirs, essays, articles''), 1987, Politvydav Ukrainy, Kyiv, Russian language, 388 pages.
Movies
Kovpak was portrayed (by Konstantin Stepankov) in Soviet film trilogy ''Duma o Kovpake'' (''Дума о Ковпаке'', ''Poem of Kovpak''):
* ''Duma o Kovpake: Nabat'' (''Дума о Ковпаке: Набат'', ''Poem of Kovpak: Alarm''), 1973 – how initially small partisan unit of twelve people grew into large force under Kovpak and Rudnev.
* ''Duma o Kovpake: Buran'' (''Дума о Ковпаке: Буран'', ''Poem of Kovpak: Storm''), 1975 – about actions in enemy rear in 1941–1942.
* ''Duma o Kovpake: Karpaty, Karpaty...'' (''Дума о Ковпаке: Карпаты, Карпаты...'', ''Poem of Kovpak: Carpathians, Carpathians...''), 1976 – about the 1943 raid into the Carpathians.
A TV documentary ''Его звали ДЕД'' (''He was called GRANDPA'') (Ukrainian language, produced by TRK Era, director Oleksiy Barbaruk-Trypilsky, 36 min, screened in 2011) documents Kovpak's life during the war.
See also
*One of the branches of Kovpak formation was at Torforazrabotki, in vicinity of Deptovka, Dmitrievka rayon, Chernigov oblast. This branch was a medical camp located deep in the woods of Chernigov oblast. The branch was hiding wounded partisans, caring for them until they could be evacuated to Bolshaya Zemlya by aircraft (U2). The commander of the camp was Naum Aronovich, which before the war was the director of Sovkhoz in Deptovka. The Doctor was Natalia Buseva, Feldsher was Claudia Buseva, several nurses from former Deptovka hospital. The camp functioned for 2.5 years until retreat of German troops in 1943.
References
* ''"How Sydir Kovpak was a guerilla before the war"'', Zerkalo Nedeli, ''(the Mirror Weekly)'',
Kiev
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...