Craiova Army in Belarusian Polesie. Gang "Basti". Part I
This article is unique because it tells in detail about the activities of Polish Polish Home Army units in the territory of Belarusian Polesye, its largest structure in that region - 47 Brest bypass AK or better known under the unofficial name “gang“ Basta ”. The article is written on the basis of documents from the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the NKVD and the stories of witnesses of 1945-1950 events that we collected. From the mouth of the akhovtsev themselves and those who fought with them, as well as just those who accidentally “ran into” them. Many facts in this article sound for the first time and are almost not found in the well-known literature about the anti-Soviet post-war underground. The material was collected from the 1990-ies, after the collapse of the USSR, when a lot began to open.
The authors of the article: Olga Zaitseva and Oleg Kopylov, lecturers of the history department of Vladimir State University, Russia. The article is written in 2000 year, but is laid out for the first time in 2015.
Introduction
1 September 1939, the Second World War began. Nazi Germany attacked Poland and the country, under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, was divided between the Reich and the Soviet Union. The western part was ceded to the Germans, and the eastern - to the USSR, which became part of the Byelorussian SSR. The Polish government, led by Vladislav Sikorski, fled to Paris and then to London. And 22 June 1941, the Reich attacked the Soviet Union. First of all, the former Polish lands - Brest, Grodno, Vilna and others - came under attack.
It was in these territories that the birth of a large partisan movement, famous Belarusian red partisans began ... But besides them, representatives of Polish nationality and simply ideological supporters of the Commonwealth went to the forests. And 14 February 1942 created the Craiova Army on the basis of the Polish national formations and former soldiers of the Polish army.
It was a regular army, created according to the structure of the Polish pre-war army. Subject to the very government of Poland in London. Its first commander in chief is Stefan Rovetsky. The Craiova Army operated in the former Polish territories - Western Belorussia, Western Ukraine and the Vilnius Territory of Lithuania.
Initially, the Craiova Army collaborated with the Red Army. Akovtsy made a contribution to the fight against the Nazi invaders in the rear. In January 1944-January 1945, the Craiova Army attempted to liberate Poland and its former lands. On August 1, the akhovtsy attempted to liberate Warsaw by raising an armed uprising there and launching the offensive, which was finally crushed by the Germans on October 2. Attempts were made to liberate Lviv and Vilna. This operation was called the action "Storm". But the AK forces were not so strong, and the main merit belonged to the Red Army. The action of the Poles choked.
29 August 1944, during Operation Bagration, the Red Army liberated Belarus, Lithuania and eastern Poland. But in these territories, numerous national partisan formations with a total number of about thousands of militants, including AK, continued to operate in about 60-80. And they considered the newly arrived Soviet power as an adversary.
Aspiring army
On the territory of the USSR, during the war, the following military districts of the Home Army acted:
1. Vilensky District AK (Vilensky Territory of the Lithuanian SSR, Molodechno Region of the Belarusian SSR)
2. Novogrudok District AK (Grodno and Baranovichi regions of the BSSR)
3. Belostok District of AK (border to Poland part of the Grodno region of the BSSR)
4.Polissky District AK (Brest and Pinsk regions of the BSSR)
5. Volyn district AK (Volyn and Rivne regions of the Ukrainian SSR) 6. Ternopil district AK (Tarnopol region of the Ukrainian SSR)
7.Lviv district AK (Lviv region USSR)
8.Stanislavovsky District AK (Stanislavskaya region of the Ukrainian SSR)
While the AK was in alliance with the Red Army, in 1942-1943, they successfully fought with the Germans, as well as with units of the UPA in Ukraine. And it was in Ukraine, as well as in south-eastern Poland, that they showed their ardent imperial ambitions, killing Ukrainian civilians, in response to which UPA units began to retaliate against the Polish population - the famous Volyn Massacre of 1942-1944.
After the retreat of the Germans from these territories in the 1944 year, the situation changed. These territories remained in the USSR, with the exception of the Belostok Territory, Hrubieszhov and Przemysl, which were ceded again to Poland. This enraged the local AK troops, and therefore many chose to remain in the woods and continue the struggle with the Soviet authorities.
Although during the war, some AK troops had a conflict with the red partisans. Some even fought an alliance with the Germans to fight them: so Lieutenant Jozef Svyda, nicknamed "Lyakh", whose detachment operated in the Novogrudok district of AK, received supply from the Germans in 1944 and beat the Red partisans, for which they wanted to execute him but eventually pardoned.
After the war, only Vilensky, Novogrudsky, Polessky and, in part, the Belostok Autonomous District were active in the USSR. More precisely, even their remains bordering on Poland are: the modern territories of the Grodno region, and the western part of the Brest regions, as well as in the Lithuanian SSR in the Vilna region. We will not rush into the details of the AK activity in the Grodno and Vilnius regions. In this article we will look at the activities of the Home Army in the territory of the Brest region, in the territory of the so-called Polesye.
About the main character of the article
Post history It is necessary with a brief biography of one person, named Daniel Treplinsky. He was born around February 1919. His father, Georgy Treplinsky, was from Vilnius, came from a baptized Jew, his mother was a Lithuanian. George first studied at a Catholic seminary for a priest and was sent to nourish his flock in the village of Yamno, near Brest. Only now he led a not-so-proper life for a priest: he drank and often walked around women. And with one of them, an Orthodox Pole Katharine, he married and left the priesthood. They had two sons, the youngest of whom was Daniel.
It is also known that Daniel studied at the University of Warsaw, but he left him after a year of study and returned to his homeland, to Polesye. Shortly before the war he served in the Polish Army. In the year of 1937, I kind of wanted to continue my service, but in 1939, he threw her the rank of sergeant.
And this year the Second World War began. Western Belorussia, including Brest, was ceded to the USSR and became part of the BSSR. Well, then, in June 1941, the Germans launched a massive offensive against the USSR. By this time, Treplinsky lived in his native village and he, according to some information, had a wife. But the fact is different - he, like many other young local guys, left at the beginning of 1942 in the Army Craiova to fight the German invaders.
Treplinsky was restored to the rank of sergeant in the AK ranks. He was one of the henchmen of one of the commanders of the Polesia District AK, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Dobrsky "Zhuk." About his activities during this period, it is also known that he repeatedly participated in battles with the Germans, in the summer 1943 was wounded in one of the battles in the leg. In general, among ordinary fighters, deservedly not particularly stood out.
The finest hour "Basti"
In August 1944, the territory of western Belarus, Lithuania and eastern Poland was liberated by the Red Army. About 30 thousands of AK participants continued to operate in these territories. Including in Polesie. The Polesye District of AK was finally beheaded in December 1944 of the year when Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Kraevsky was arrested by the NKVD. About 3500 thousands of AK militants in Polesie remained at the level of autonomous existence. And at that very moment Sergeant Treplinsky, nicknamed "Basta", decided to prove himself.
To the word of his pseudonym: he was also originally known by the nicknames "Cat" and "Copper", the latter is probably due to the reddish-brown hair of Mr. Treplinsky. “Basta” is his nickname from his youth. Translated from the local Polish dialects something like the modern Russian word "inadequate". And indeed, his character was not very mildly. He is described as a very irritable and emotional person. But more about that later.
At this time, he is trying to get in touch with the emigre government in London, but they did not convey any intelligible instructions, except as recommendations “not to succumb to provocations.” And then he took the initiative into his own hands: he rallied around himself a small group of AK fighters from this area, among whom was his former school friend, senior private Artemy Fedinsky, nicknamed “Victor”, whom he had made his assistant.
He went to a deceitful trick: he appropriated the rank of captain and called himself appointed to the new commanders of the AK formations in Polesye. He sent delegations to the AK detachments that acted on the territory of the Brest and Zhabinka districts, which had been exhausted by that moment, and invited them to unite under his auspices. And, oddly enough, the overwhelming majority agreed. So he rallied around him, at that time, near the 200 AK fighters.
The new captain of the “Basta” united the structures of the Brest and Zhabinkovsky AK outfits and created one 47 Brest bypass of the Home Army or known by another name “joint AK-“ Eastern Coast ””, because of the location of this bypass on the eastern bank of the Bug River.
Here is what his former colleague in 1937-1938 wrote about “Baste”; during the war, the fighter 1 of the Polish Division named after him. Tadeusha Kosciusko, Vladislav Gladsky:
“I learned that Daniil commanded a group of akhovtsev for so many years only in the past 1960 year, almost later 10 years. You know ... I was extremely surprised and amazed! I know this man since childhood, I studied with him at one time in one class of the gymnasium. But he is ... Mad! No, he is quite intelligent, educated, but he has no head! As well as special organizational skills, too ... ".
Basta reorganized the AK units in these territories. To begin with, many Poles in the Poles'e are Orthodox, in contrast to their brethren from the “big land,” from Poland, who of course are all earnestly zealous Catholics. Plus they had a distinctive community. Therefore, they caused a certain contempt for ordinary Poles. And it so happened that the high posts of AK in this area were not local Catholics from the "mainland". “Basta” corrected this, and now almost the entire officer and sergeant staff of 47 of the Brest Bypass of AK was Orthodox, and Catholics, with a few exceptions, shifted to ordinary positions.
Having changed the commanding staff, he grouped the 47 fighters of the Brest Bypass AK into two “divisions”. One acted in the Brest district, which he personally commanded, and the second, acting in the Zhabinka district, he handed over to his comrade Viktor Fedin, who also gave him the rank of lieutenant. With the enlargement of the number of AK militants in the roundabout, the divisions were divided into "dancers" - smaller units of 2-3, a dozen people each, who were headed by ranks from sergeant to ending with khorunzhim. "Plyatsuvki" in this circuit operated in the area of certain villages, i.e. on each village or several villages - on the dance. At the right moment they were united.
In the detachments of the AK, including the 47 of the Brest bypass, Polish pre-war uniforms were introduced, in particular the famous horned hat. However, many also wore trophy German or Soviet uniforms and their variations. A distinctive sign on the headgear of many akhovtsev was "Piast Eagle" - the heraldic symbol of Poland. Some wore white and red bandages, the color of the Polish flag. Many AK fighters fastened themselves to the side of the heart rinografy - images of the Virgin Mary carved on the iron on a small chain. Also some were wearing church rosaries.
The main part of the militants of the gang "Basta" were local Poles, as well as Belarusians loyal to Poland. Although among the 47 fighters of the AK circuit, there were Russians (listed: Andreev S., Kiselev Yu. And others), and Jews (M. Rubinstein, Wagenfeld B. and others), and there was also an Azerbaijani, a certain Aliyev A. , and three Armenians: Badyan L., Tadevosyan G., Sargsyan E.
Because the majority of the population in Polesie is Orthodoxy, including the majority of local Poles, then the oath was given in the presence of an Orthodox priest. Orthodox services were often performed "for the health of the Fatherland and the Polish people." Although they often did things far from being divine ...
For the entire period of existence of the gang, the following places of deployment can be distinguished: in the Brest district in the territory of the Telminsky, Chernavchitsky and Cherninsky village councils and in the Zhabinsky district of the Zhabinskovsky village council. January 19 1945, the third commander in chief of AK Leopold Okulitsky, announced the dissolution of the Home Army. But many units refused to comply with the order. Then the flowering of the gang "Basta" began.
The gang "Basti" acts
The very first gang action took place on 22 on January 1945 of the year. All 200 akhovtsev under the command of captain "Basta" attacked a temporary prison, located near the village Zelenets. It was two wooden barracks in which the criminals were temporarily housed, which, after being set up from the post-war devastation, should have been sent to normal prisons and camps.
Many of the prisoners were former AK fighters, but among them were also former punishers who served in the auxiliary police on the side of the fascists. But half of the prisoners, after all, were ordinary criminals. In the evening, the akhovtsy surrounded the prison and, after a brief exchange of fire with the guards, they gained the upper hand. Of the 75 officers of the internal troops who were guarding the prison, the 19 fighters were brutally murdered: many were not shot, but simply chopped up with axes. The rest managed to retreat.
In the morning, "this tall man, who was standing in the same uniform on such a frost that morning," ordered the construction of prisoners and built his soldiers. He invited the prisoners to take an oath of allegiance to Poland and its people. And all the 116 prisoners, as one, agreed and joined the ranks of AK. Among the prisoners was the criminal authority of Alexander Rusovsky, the familiar of Lieutenant "Victor". He suggested that "Baste" make him one of the commanders of the circuit, recommending him as a useful and executive person. Rusovsky was given the rank of lieutenant, and all the newly-made Akhovtsy were subordinate to him. Now 47 Brest bypass AK added to another department, which operated on the territory of Chernavchitsky village council.
Although the new fighters had enough uniforms, in which the akhovtsy were even slightly obsessed, as well as on the discipline in general, but weapons not enough for everyone. The gang "Basta" controlled part of the railway on the way Warsaw-Brest-Zhabinka. And here came the first benefit from the lieutenant Rusovsky - thanks to his connections, he learned when a train carrying captured weapons from the front would pass along this road. As a result, in February-April 1945, the gang "Basta" committed 6 railway sabotage.
After the war, the Soviet government began to restore the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the NKVD in the liberated territories. AK structures have begun attempts to deal with this, including the 47 bypass. 6 in March 1945, a dancer of Cornix Guschinsky, who was part of Lieutenant Rusovsky’s department, destroyed the police station in Chernavchitsy, and in March 11, the captain of “Basta” and their akhovtsy did the same in Telmach. And the same day later, March 12, was done by Lieutenant Victor in Zhabinka. According to Soviet data, only from the actions of the gang "Basta" in the Brest and Zhabinka districts, from January to April 1945, 28 servicemen of the security forces of the USSR were killed and 9 was wounded.
The Soviet leadership understood that a well-armed and trained army was operating in the territory of Western Belarus, against which we need a special reconnaissance apparatus and regular front-line units. In particular, three companies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the total number of 1945 fighters were sent to the area of Gutovichi, Zalesye and Telma villages in the area of deployment of the gang "Basta" in May 600.
At first they could not get on the trail of gangsters, and yet through one agent they managed to find out the deployment of the gang of the captain "Basta". And 2 June 1945 was one of the first major clashes of the Soviet army against Polish bandits in the forest area of the village of Zalesye. 400 Red Army vs 200 AK fighters.
In the morning, the operatives began to comb through the forest and, not having passed a kilometer, they were met by sudden heavy fire. Akovtsy began immediately defensively fiercely. It was part of a gang under the command of the captain Treplinsky himself. The number of its fighters was not very large, within a few dozen, and the Red Army initially wanted to get by with two companies of soldiers, sending one to the village, to the reserve. However, it was only part of his fighters: the other, as it turned out, ran away to report the incident to the lieutenant Rusovsky.
The shootout in the forest lasted two hours. The forces of the captain's gang were running out. But suddenly there were shots from the north side of the village. A gang of lieutenant Rusovsky came up with a part of the militants "Basta". The attack was sudden, akovtsy gradually began to surround the village. Many Red Army soldiers were simply killed. And then they fled: some settled in 7 there former trucks, others ran loose, looking for where to hide. One of the cars with 32 Red Army was undermined.
The soldiers of the MIA of the USSR MIA suffered a defeat. In total, 41 was killed by them and 6 was injured. Polish gangsters have lost 16 people.
The survivors retreated to the village of Points and called for reinforcements from Brest, 3 companies in the number of approximate 300 fighters. However, there was a delay, and reinforcements arrived only on June 5. And akhovtsev also had informants among the locals, and therefore, on the night of June 6, the village was surrounded by a gang of lieutenant "Victor" with the support of Cornet Vladimir Jankowski "Rudik". The soldiers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were again taken by surprise. The bandits, in the attack, used besides small arms actively used grenades and even used captured German panzerfaust. However, it took less than an hour, as they also suddenly disappeared, as they appeared. Apparently, they realized that their forces were still much smaller. The Soviet side lost 11 people and there were a lot of wounded and shell-shocked.
In total for June-September 1945 of the year in the Brest region alone 23 attacked military units, including 4 in the Brest region and 1 in Zhabinkovsky, where the gang "Basta" operated. It was a real war, which was also fought in the Grodno, Molodchensk and Baranavichy regions, as well as in Poland and southern Lithuania itself.
The Soviet leadership realized that it was very difficult to fight against the formations of nationalists in this way, according to the type of banal fighting, and also leads to casual casualties among the civilian population. Therefore, it was decided to expand the intelligence structure to identify small and main parts of bandit groups.
To this truth came Akovtsy, including from the gang "Basta". Pan Treplinsky decided to finally break the 47 structure of the Brest bypass AK into smaller parts. And from about 1946 onwards, he broke up large detachments into smaller ones, each one into dancing on 20-30. Each of these dancers had its own sphere of influence, as a rule, under its jurisdiction there was any one village. Well, pan captain, like many other AK field commanders, ordered the attacks on large military units of the Soviet Army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to be stopped, and to go over to smaller targets.
Nevertheless, the AK at first was quite a big success. The fact that the gang "Basta" several times successfully attacked the troops of the Interior Ministry, attracted even more militants into it. Naturally, basically, there went the Poles, who hated the USSR for annexing these territories from Poland, but, as mentioned above, there were Belarusians and people of some other nationalities. There went a lot of deserters from the Soviet Army and its former military personnel, as well as criminals and some policemen. There was even young people there: there were cases in these villages that all the guys from the classes went to the forest. Most AK fighters were in the age range from 15 to 21, although there were also older people. As of June 1946, according to the NKVD, this gang has reached its largest number in about 500 people.
The gang of “Basta” found among the population both many supporters and many opponents, more precisely those who simply feared it. This gang terrified not only the fighters of the USSR Armed Forces, the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the NKVD, but also the usual supporters of the Soviet government, often even imaginary ...
"The virgin, your heart is not too tight?"
We begin this section with the history of the former teacher from the village of Yamno, physical education teacher Andrei Kireev, which he told in 1992 year. At that time he was 82 of the year, and after 5 years he passed away from old age. He remembered very well those events taking place in 1945-1946 in this and the surrounding villages of the Brest region and the captain “Bastu” and his gang, with whom he was confronted personally.
“I myself am from Brest. I learned to be a teacher in 1932, a teacher of physical education ... In 1933, in the month of June, I was assigned to Thelma. The only school in the neighborhood ... So I lived in Yamnah ... In 1941, in June, the war began. Before the 1944, I was partisan, and then, when the advice came, I left for the Red Army. I got to Berlin ... After the war, I once lived in Minsk, and then I came back here. I returned in January 1946 ...
Somehow it means I came to work once again at school and I see, it means that the teacher in Russian, Natasha K., is crying. I ask her, they say what happened. And she told me that her son, the name I don’t remember the truth, was taken to the army, to the border troops, to the border with Poland. He wanted to come home, he took leave, a telegram means sent and said when he arrived. And he was not and was not. And a week later it turned out that he was killed ... So I learned that there is such an army of Craiova and that in our area there is some kind of gang "Basta". And soon I not only heard ...
Later, the headmaster told me about the Akhovtsy. But the fact is that winter was then, we were skiing, on a field near the forest. Well, she warned me not to take children away to the forest, and the police gave me a papeshka, just in case, with a carob shop ...
And that means something like a week after that I was skiing with 8 or 9. On the field. And, therefore, I look towards the forest, and from there, from the hill, three go down ... I came a little closer and took a closer look. Three in sheepskin coats, in breeches, in boots. With weapons: two papeshki were, and one Schmeiser. Two of these ... Polish military caps, well, with eagles, and one has German caps. One more bandage was white-red. And the average ... The face seemed painfully familiar to me! But in general, I realized that it was the Akhovtsy ... I screamed my papeshka ... It became terrible for me ... Well, I shouted to them, threatening with my own machine gun, saying I shove their weapons into their asses. They looked at me so bitterly ... I thought the end! But no, the dogs are gone ...
In the evening I am sitting at home with my wife, we had dinner. And suddenly they drummed at the door. I mean I open the door and four break in to us ... One among them was the middle one I met during the day. He alone, that with the Degtyaryov machine gun, ordered me to go out and stand at the door, and put two with carbines at the door. Threw off his sheepskin coat - in the form of Polish. In a belt, with stars on epaulets, with a collar embroidered with their officers' collar, binoculars ...
And ba! Yes this is Treplinsky Danka! This is my ex-student! The guy is not stupid, he studied tolerably, but the mischievous was scary! As soon as he was taken out a little, he started throwing chairs and because of this he tried not to get involved with him. We even communicated well with him at one time - as an interesting interlocutor. Why, he was molested by one girl at school, and I once told him about it for this ... He then got angry at me then went.
Well, he means looking at me so viciously, frowning ... Eyes are hefty from him, evil ... And then suddenly I startled somehow ... I could see that he recognized me! Silent we all mean, and I'm waiting for what's next ... I already had sweat from fear! Well, then he abruptly said so, they say you're not the same pan Andrzej? He simply called me by name ... Well, I told him that yes, he himself, your former teacher. He smiled even so slightly. He then asked me again, saying if I served in red, was I a member of the party? Well, I was not a member of the party and I swore to him by Christ that he was not and that he could check through his own people!
Well, it means that Danya sat on the bench and asked for vodka, and a piece of bread. I poured him, he drank it, ate a snack ... Then he asked the lads to pour it and eat it to give ... Done! We sat, paused again ... They dressed back in sheepskin coats, turned around to go and suddenly he turned to me and said that if I interfered with him or his people and, as he said, I would serve the holy cause of the struggle for the Motherland, he will hang me by the ribs ... And that he now has ears and eyes on me.
Of course, I was scared! But at the same time, it’s just ... After all, I don’t have such a case! Therefore, I was with peace of mind and was not particularly afraid.
Here I am ... Ah, yes, 9 class! But with the very ninth class I was working on that day ... At first the Guralnik left, then Katz ... At first I did not understand where ... And then I learned from my friends - they go to the gang "Basta"! This gang, more precisely, as many expressed themselves as “fighters for RezhemPospolit”, the Craiova Army, was widely heard ... And almost all supported them! They were given something to eat, then to bathe in the bath ... Every week, at Yamno, on Saturdays, at night, the baths were heated, these akhovtsevs were washed!
I, too, was not a supporter of the Soviets, you know ... But why this whole war? What were these thugs hoping for? Army! Craiova! A handful that ... And because the young boys died, to whom to live and live! And it means that two of them didn’t appear in that class ... Ah, yes, it was already in February! Well, I immediately knew where they were, thought the boys were gone! And I’m coming back from work to my village back ... It was not far away! The path through the forest adjoined, on the right side if you go further - a dense forest. Well, I’m coming, it means, it has become evening ... And I’m watching these two men near the forest are marking time! Both are in overcoats, and one had a slingshot on his head, and the other was wearing a hat. But without a weapon ... I approached them, the Mauser got a pistol - I was given it to the police just in case. Many teachers were given them then because of this situation ... I started threatening them with a pistol and took them to the police station ... I handed over the crooks! Fools!
Well, and the next day, in the evening, they knocked me ... I thought my wife was from a friend, well I discovered ... And so, “Basta” came to me again with four gangsters. One, the same machine gunner, stood at the door, and two, one with a carbine, the other with Schmeisser, stood at the door. Together with Basta, there was another Polish officer, also in the officer's uniform, whom I also recognized ... Vovka Jankowski was ...
They two looked at me angrily ... Well, Vovka and he laid it all out to this leader. This Vovka was something like looking at Yamno ... Well, he put the “Baste” in front of me, saying that I’m breaking the mobilization of this Army of Craiova. The fact that I did not let them kill two boys. I said so to him ... And he called me a filthy red-ass to me, curvy ...
I waited for what would happen next ... "Basta" took me by the throat ... And I answered him as I would give in the face, and he flew off to the window! And at once I heard ... These all their weapons were cocked! He showed his hand to them like that, they say, do not shoot, and in an instant he flew up to me, feeding my head and kneed me on the face. He shouted at it all so that they spread me on the table ...
He took out the rope, made a loop ... Those two stretched me, and Yankovsky twisted my shirt. I was ready to die! And I already said goodbye to life! And it’s just that they didn’t let the young boys into their hands, die prematurely ... They rolled up their sleeves ... Jankowski and Treplinsky took their papeshki, turned them over with their butts ... And how come I could thresh my ribs with my butts! From the first blows from two sides, I thought that I was going to be pulled out with blood, and from the second it came out ... I also told him that the Mother of God did not put pressure on your heart? He had a little icon of the Virgin on his left pocket, he had a heart ... I didn't even have the strength to shout ... I thought I even stopped breathing, I didn't feel ... They hit me like that five times ... They stuck me through my head, through my arms, into that loop and tightened it on the chest ... They hung me so on a clothes hook that was next to the door ...
And well my wife has come soon! I did not see how they left ... I failed because of such pain ... They took me off the loop ... First they took me to Brest, to the hospital, then to Minsk. Two months lay with broken ribs. It still hurts to breathe ... Since then, I no longer lived in Yamno ... Yes, I was scared! I would have been killed at all then ... I only came back here in the 67 year, when there were no akovets already. But from friends who have remained here have heard such! A lot of these thugs people killed. And most importantly, as a rule, for nothing! We saw that we went to the police station - consider that there is no longer a person of this ... They didn’t even feel sorry for the children! And some kind of army ... "
In addition to the action against the Soviet Army, the NKVD and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the aksovtsy were distinguished by their particular cruelty towards the supporters of the Soviet government and even simply those who disagreed. Indeed, in those bloody years in Western Belorussia, somewhere in the countryside, even entering a government agency could entail, at best, that people in tattered Polish uniforms would visit you, but if you do that regularly, one could expect the worst.
Well, about the fate of the chairmen of collective farms and members of the Communist Party and say nothing. For example, members of the gang "Basta", headed personally by the gang leader Captain Treplinsky, March 9, 1945, in the very village of Yamno, were brutally murdered by an activist of the Communist Party D. Tsygankov and his wife. Unhappy hacked with axes.
27 March of the same year the same gang in the village of Zbirogi killed the activist Bruise I. 11 in April in the village of Wielun, the Brother dancer (sergeant AK Nikita Chesakovsky) killed the Karshov family, consisting of 6 people, the house where they were killed was burnt. On April 19, in the village of Karabani, a “Pitcher” dancer (sergeant AK Oleg Kuvshinovsky) killed a Red Army soldier and activist Novikov A. with his wife and six-month-old son. The house where the dead were kept was also burned.
And this is only part of the 47 crime at the Vostochny Bereg circuit. According to archival data, only in February-June 1945, by this gang, on the territory of Telminsky, Chernavchitsky, Cherninsky and Zhabinka village councils, 28 people were killed, mainly Communist Party activists with their families, including their children.
Naturally, since the AK was opposed to the formation of Soviet power, the akovtsy also cracked down on the Red Army men and employees of the Interior Ministry. Often these killings were unfounded and brutal. Any person from the listed categories was considered "the enemy of the Polish Fatherland and its people." For example, December 4 1945 of the year, in the same village of Karabani and the same “Jug” dancer, private and foreman MVD Ushinsky V. and Blinov K. were killed and slaughtered in the forest.
7 January 1946 of the year in the village of Senkovichi, which in the Zhabinskaya district a group of akhovtsevs from the “Viktor” department personally with its leader lieutenant Fedinsky killed Interior Ministry lieutenant Kuznetsov N. along with three more operative officers. They were taken to a place near the forest from slaughtered. The police station where they were was burned.
In August, 1946, Captain Treplinsky ordered a large-scale campaign in the area of deployment of his AK unit. On August 20 near Zditovo, a gang of lieutenant "Viktor" attacked a group of Interior Ministry cadets in the amount of 63 people who were at military gatherings. 52 managed to escape to nearby villages, but the rest were awful: some were shot, others were burned in a tent, and the chief, senior lieutenant Chomsky A. and two other junior officers were hanged by the edges (the method of reprisal described in the story of Andrei Kireev) .
On August 1, 23, parts of the gang of lieutenant Rusovsky, police stations in Ivakhnovichi and Zelentsy were blown up and police officers and rural activists were killed, in total, 18 people. On August 24, parts of the captain's gang “Basta” attacked Thelma, personally led by the captain, and Jamno led by the Cornish “Rudik”. In Telmach, he drove 11 police officers and 4 rural activists into a police station and arson. With a crowd of people, he announced that "in free Poland, all the red-nosed and Bandera bastard expect it." In Yamno, 8 people were killed.
This large sortie of AK militants in the Brest region forced the NKVD and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to once again carry out a major sweep, but more on that later.
From the quotation by pan captain Treplinsky, it was also mentioned about Bandera. Indeed, the Craiova Army fought the OUN and UPA during the war years, unleashing the so-called Volyn Massacre of 1942-1944. However, this conflict, on a small scale, continued after the war.
The structures of the OUN and UPA also operated in Polesia. The fact is that many representatives of Ukrainian nationality lived there, and the OUN considered Polesye to be “ethnic Ukrainian lands”. Thus, they automatically subscribed to the AK political rivals, on a par with the USSR. However, this hatred extended to ordinary Ukrainians.
So, in April 1945 of the year, the 4 immigrant from the Ukrainian SSR was killed by officers from the department of Lieutenant Rusovsky in Zelentsy. In September, 1945 of the year, in Bratylovo, with the dance of second-lieutenant Sergiy Krupsky (“Gray”), a family of immigrants from the Ukrainian SSR Gorodnychenko G. was killed as part of 3 people.
In March 1946, the Polish-Ukrainian conflict in the Brest and Zhabinsk regions reached its peak. In the Zhabinka district, then there was a shootout between the militants of the AK of lieutenant "Viktor" and the combat of the OUN of a certain "Falcon". The Banderaites retreated and no longer appeared in those places, but the Akovites decided to take revenge.
According to the archives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, early in the morning of 11 in March 1946, a large gang of aksovtsev with an approximate number of 30 armed militants headed by the aforementioned head of the Zhabinskovskiy department of 47 of the Brest bypass AK, Lieutenant Artemy Fedinsky "Viktor" entered the village of Saleika. Next, we give the story of a resident of that village, an Ukrainian, Galina Naumenko, who was then 23 of the year.
“It was only the beginning of the morning, it was early morning. I hear someone is at the door. We all, my mother, sister and my husband woke up. The sister runs up to the window and shouts that the bandit gangsters have entered the village ...
They were all of us Ukrainians that were in the village, 40 man was brought to the center of the village, near one big house. The rest of the village rose and began to look ... And they started beating us up! One girl was hit by one bandit with a butt and that two days later she died ...
We were all without weapons. And two men, as their leader-officer, attacked, and he shot them with a pistol. And he made the third shot upwards so that his people would calm down. They surrounded us and he loudly asked: "Which one of you is Bandera?" We were all silent. We have never had Bandera here. And then they pulled three of our men out of the crowd, put them to another house, and two machine gunners stood in front of them. That officer waved his hand at them, and they shot them.
Then he dismissed us to our homes and said that if we help Bandera, he will burn the whole village. We just started to leave, and the bandits caught up with us and began to molest the young girls ... God had mercy on me and many other women, but my sister and three more ... She left home and no one saw her anymore. "
In total then 4 was killed by a resident of the village of Saleika. Such inter-ethnic reprisals, mainly against Ukrainians by AK militants, continued until the 1947 year.
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