the soviet partisan movement 1941-1944 by edgar m. howell

GERMAN OCCUPATION POLICIES IN OPERATION 89
About this time help came from another source. In the fall of
1941, as the Red Army fell back before the German October offensive
a violently anti-Communist Russian named Voskoboinikov had gathered
a sizable group of anti-Soviet natives under his command and taken
over control of a portion of the forest south of Bryansk. When the
partisans began to concentrate in the region, Voskoboinikov came to
the attention of Moscow, and Soviet agents were parachuted in who
assassinated him. The leadership of the group then fell to Bronislav
Kaminski, a Russian engineer of Polish extraction who had fallen from
grace prior to the war and served a penal sentence in Siberia. 136 Kaminski,
taking the lead from his predecessor, centered his aspirations on
the overthrow of the Stalin regime and the founding of a new Russia
under a Russian National Socialist Party in which there would be no
collectives and the church would be free of political pressure. l37
The first active German contact with the Kaminski organization was
in January 1942 when railway repair troops, who were under constant
pressure from the partisans, encountered a heavily armed group of
Russians wearing white arm bands with a St. George's cross on them.
A bitter enemy of the Red Army, Kaminski since assuming command
had built an organization of some 1,400 well-armed men, and was waging
a constant war against the partisans in his area. He controlled much
of the territory south of Bryansk and during this first winter of the war
aided the Germans in keeping the rail lines throughout the area
operational . 138
By the summer of 1942 his command had grown to a strength of
more than 9,000 men, well-armed, with good transport, and under strict
discipline. Although very jealous of his sovereign rights, he willingly
cooperated with the German authorities in their fight with the bands.
In the face of the growing partisan movement the Germans saw the
obvious advantages to be gained from fostering Kaminski, and in July
made him chief mayor (Oberbuergermeister ) of the Autonomous
Administration Lokot, an extensive jurisdiction comprising eight rayons,
and brigade commander of the militia. 139
136
MS #P-123, "National Instinct and Governmental Institutions under German
Occupation in Western Russia" (Hist Div, EUCOM), p. 34. OCMH, Foreign Studies
Br; rpt, Dr. Guenzel, Ch, Adm Council, Mil Gov See, Army Group Center,
on Autonomous Administration Lokot, 25 May 43. Filed in Rosenberg Collection.
EAP 99/158.
137
Bericht 5, Ic, AOK 2,15.IV.42., Anl. 362 z. KTB, Band IV, AOK 2. 23617/62.
138
Ibid.
139 Guenzel, report, op. cit.; entry for 24 Aug 42, in KTB 2, Teil 4, Pz AOK 2,
1.VII.30.IX.42. 28499/4.