"These young women were members of a small but important Resistance movement that existed within the occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
Comprised of Soviet Army officers and political commissars whose units had disbanded--as well as Jews who had escaped the marauding Einsatzgruppen--partisan groups worked tirelessly to harass the German Army.
Most Resistance groups operated in the forests and other remote areas of the Soviet Union."
"Partisans with the 26th Division from Baku, Russia, prepare to execute two captured German policemen.
After Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin established partisan units to harass the German Army that remained in Soviet territory.
The partisans were not kind to prisoners of war, and summary executions--like the one in this photo--were not uncommon."
More on Soviet partisan units:
"The program of the partisan war was outlined in the Soviet People's Commissaries Council and Communist Party[1] directives issued on July 29, 1941 and in following documents.
Partisan detachments and diversionist groups were to be formed on the German-occupied territories, road and telecommunications disrupted, German personnel killed, and valuable resources destroyed.
Stalin, in his radio speech on August 3, 1941, reiterated these commands and directives to the people.
Hitler, when referring to that speech on August 16, pointed out that the declared partisan war in the German rear had its advantages, providing the excuse for destroying "anything that opposes the Germans"."The first partisan detachments, consisting of Red Army personnel and local people, and commanded by Red Army officers or local Communist Party activists, were formed in the first days of the war, including the Starasyel'ski detachment of Major Dorodnykh in the Zhabinka district (June 23, 1941)[2], the Pinsk detachment of Vasily Korzh on June 26, 1941[3].
The first awards of the Hero of the Soviet Union order occurred on August 6, 1941 (detachment commanders Pavlovskiy and Bumazhkov)."
"Partisans, strike the enemy without mercy"
"Soviet partisan movement activities overview 1941-1944"
"Legend (upper-left and upper-right) translation:
- Light-green blobs: the territories which were (at least for some time being - Ed.) under the partisan control.
- Dark-green lines: the partisan raids (not all of them are put on the map).
- Red circlets: other base regions of the active partisan units.
- Black lines with perpendicular hatches: German communications which partisans had systematically put out of operation for a (comparatively? - Ed.) long time.
- Red flames: locations of the major diversions by the partisans and urban underground.
- Red inverted triangles: locations of the most important battles of partisans with major German (originally, "enemy" - Ed.) formations.
- Red stars: locations of the most important military operations conducted jointly by partisans and Soviet Army.