Commander of the Putivl partisan detachment and formation of partisan detachments of the Sumy region, member of the illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine, major general. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union.
Born on June 7, 1887 in the village of Kotelva (now an urban-type settlement in the Poltava region of Ukraine) into a poor peasant family. Ukrainian. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1919. Participant of the First World War (served in the 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment) and the Civil War. In the last of them, he led a local partisan detachment that fought in Ukraine against the German occupiers together with the detachments of A. Ya. Parkhomenko, then was a fighter of the legendary 25th Chapaev Division on the Eastern Front, participated in the defeat of the White Guard troops of generals A. I. Denikin and Wrangel on the Southern Front. In 1921-1926 - military commissar in a number of cities in the Ekaterinoslav province (from 1926 and now - the Dnepropetrovsk region of Ukraine). Since 1937 - Chairman of the Putivl City Executive Committee of the Sumy Region of the Ukrainian SSR.
Participant of the Great Patriotic War since September 1941. One of the organizers of the partisan movement in Ukraine is the commander of the Putivl partisan detachment, and then of the formation of partisan detachments of the Sumy region.
In 1941-1942, S. A. Kovpak’s unit carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Sumy, Kursk, Oryol and Bryansk regions, in 1942-1943 - a raid from Bryansk forests to Right Bank Ukraine in Gomel, Pinsk, Volyn, Rivne, Zhitomir and Kiev regions; in 1943 - Carpathian raid. The Sumy partisan unit under the command of S.A. Kovpak fought in the rear of the Nazi troops for more than 10 thousand kilometers, defeating enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. Kovpak's raids played a big role in the development of the partisan movement against the Nazi occupiers.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 18, 1942, for the exemplary performance of combat missions behind enemy lines, the courage and heroism shown during their implementation, Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 708) .
In April 1943, S. A. Kovpak was awarded the military rank of “Major General”.
The second Gold Star medal was awarded to Major General Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 4, 1944 for the successful conduct of the Carpathian raid.
In January 1944, the Sumy partisan unit was renamed the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after S. A. Kovpak.
Since 1944, S. A. Kovpak has been a member of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR, since 1947 - Deputy Chairman of the Presidium, and since 1967 - member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd-7th convocations.
The legendary partisan commander S.A. Kovpak died on December 11, 1967. He was buried in the capital of Ukraine, the hero city of Kyiv.
Awarded 4 orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, Bogdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree, Suvorov 2nd degree, medals, foreign orders.
A bronze bust of twice Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpak was installed in the urban village of Kotelva, monuments are in Kyiv, Putivl and Kotelva. Streets in many cities and villages are named after the Hero.
Monuments
Bronze bust in the urban village of Kotelva
Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich was born in the village of Kotelva in the Poltava region on June 7, 1887 into a peasant family. He became famous as the commander of the Putivl partisan detachment.
Sidor Artemyevich completed his studies at a parochial school, and from the age of ten he worked for a shopkeeper, doing the most difficult and dirty work.
After military service, he got a job in Saratov as a laborer in a tram depot. In the summer of 1914, at the beginning of the First World War, a Poltava resident was mobilized into the tsarist army.
Two years later, while being part of the Aslanduz infantry regiment, he took part in the Brusilov breakthrough. Known as a brave intelligence officer, he was twice awarded the Cross of St. George.
Sidor Kovpak was imbued with revolutionary sentiments, which prompted him to take the side of the Bolsheviks.
The front-line soldier was elected by the soldiers in 1917 to the regimental committee, which decided that the Aslanduz regiment had failed to cope with the task of the offensive of the Kerensky government, and the regiment was placed in reserve by the front command. A year later, Kovpak decided to return to the Poltava region and take part in the battle for Soviet power.
During the Civil War, Sidor Kovpak found himself at the head of the Kotelevsky detachment of partisans, which in the spring of 1919 joined the Red Army. Being part of the 25th Chapaev Division, he took part in the defeat of the White Guard troops near Guryev, as well as in the battles in the Crimea and near Perekop. He joined the CPSU in the same year.
Since 1926, Kovpak was involved in party and economic work. He was elected as a deputy of the Putivl City Council in the first elections to the local Council after the adoption of the Constitution of the Soviet Union in 1936. At the first session of the Council he was elected chairman of the executive committee and it was in this post that he faced the Great Patriotic War.
In 1941, a partisan detachment was formed in Putivl, whose commander was Kovpak. The material and technical base of the detachment created for the battle behind enemy lines was located in the Spadshchansky forest.
During the year, Sidor Artemyevich’s unit carried out raids behind enemy lines in the Oryol, Sumy, Bryansk, and Kursk regions.
The Sumy partisan unit, commanded by Sidor Kovpak, traveled about ten thousand kilometers behind the rear of the German troops, and managed to defeat enemy garrisons in 39 settlements. These raids played a huge role in the fight against the Nazis.
In 1942, for the successful conduct of operations to destroy foreign garrisons, Sidor Artemyevich received the honorary title “Hero of the Soviet Union” and the “Gold Star” medal. In the fall of the same year, Kovpak was approved as a member of the illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
In the spring of 1943 he received the honorary rank of major general. Before entering the Carpathian roadstead, Sidor Kovpak’s formation consisted of approximately 2,000 partisans.
In January 1944, according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, it was decided to award the commander with the second Gold Star medal. A month before, Sidor Artemyevich was unwell, and he went to Kyiv for treatment. In February 1944, the unit was reorganized into Ukrainian Partisan Division No. 1. In the same year, Sidor Kovpak received membership in the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR. Already in 1947 he received the post of Deputy Chairman of the Presidium, and in 1967 he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council.
He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, as well as medals from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Sidor Artemyevich lived in Kyiv. On December 11, 1967, the famous partisan commander died.
Kovpak A.S. was buried at the Baikovo cemetery in the capital of Ukraine.
7.6.1887 - 11.12.1967
Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich - commander of the Putivl partisan detachment and formation of partisan detachments of the Sumy region, member of the illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine, major general.
Born on May 26 (June 7), 1887 in the village of Kotelva, today an urban-type settlement in the Poltava region, into a poor peasant family. Ukrainian. Member of the CPSU(b)/CPSU since 1919. Graduated from parochial school.
From the age of 10, Sidor Kovpak worked as a laborer for a local shopkeeper, doing the dirtiest and hardest work. After serving his military service, he worked in Saratov at the river port and tram depot as a laborer.
At the beginning of the First World War, in July 1914, S.A. Kovpak was mobilized into the tsarist army. In 1916, as part of the 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment S.A. Kovpak took part in the Brusilov breakthrough, became famous as a brave intelligence officer and was twice awarded the St. George Cross.
The experienced front-line soldier was imbued with revolutionary sentiments and took the side of the Bolsheviks. In 1917, the soldiers elected S.A. Kovpak to the regimental committee, by whose decision the Aslanduz regiment did not comply with the order of the Kerensky government to attack, and the front command transferred the regiment to reserve. Over time, the soldiers of the regiment went home.
In 1918 S.A. Kovpak returned to his native Kotelva, where he took an active part in the struggle for Soviet power and headed the land commission for the distribution of landowners' lands among poor peasants.
During the Civil War, S.A. Kovpak became the head of the Kotelvsky partisan detachment. Under his command, the partisans, together with units of the Red Army, carried out military operations against the Austro-German occupiers and Denikin’s troops. In May 1919, the partisan detachment joined the active Red Army. As part of the 25th Chapaev Division S.A. Kovpak took part in the defeat of the White Guard troops near Guryev, as well as in the battles against Wrangel’s troops near Perekop and in the Crimea.
In 1921-25. S.A. Kovpak worked as an assistant and then as a military commissar in Tokmak, Genichesk, Krivoy Rog, and Pavlograd. Since 1926 he has been involved in economic and party work. At the first elections to local Soviets, after the adoption of the USSR Constitution of 1936, S.A. Kovpak was elected deputy of the Putivl City Council, and at its first session - chairman of the executive committee. In this position S.A. Kovpak was caught up in the Great Patriotic War.
In July 1941, a partisan detachment was formed in Putivl to fight behind enemy lines, the commander of which was approved by the Putivl district party committee S.A. Kovpaka. The material and technical base of the detachment was laid in the Spadshchansky forest.
After appropriate preparation, on September 8, 1941, S.A. Kovpak sent the entire partisan detachment into the forest, and on September 10, fascist troops broke into Putivl. Soon the encircled Red Army soldiers joined the detachment, and its number grew to 42 fighters, 36 of them had weapons.
On September 27, 1941, a group of party activists from Konotop joined the Putivl detachment. The partisan detachment began its first military operations against the Nazi occupiers in the area of the village of Safonovka. In mid-October, a partisan detachment under the command of S.V. arrived in Spadshchansky forest. Rudneva.
On October 18, 1941, the Putivl partisan detachment was finally formed. Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak became its commander, Semyon Vasilyevich Rudnev became its commissar. The detachment consisted of about 70 fighters, the same number of rifles, mostly captured, and a light machine gun.
On October 19, 1941, fascist tanks broke into the Spadshchansky forest. A battle ensued, as a result of which the partisans captured three tanks. Having lost a large number of soldiers and military equipment, the enemy was forced to retreat and return to Putivl. This became a turning point in the combat activities of the partisan detachment.
On December 1, 1941, about 3 thousand Nazis, supported by artillery and mortars, began an attack on the Spadshchansky forest. S.A. Kovpak closely monitored the mood of the partisans and took their opinions into account. Having extensive combat experience, S.A. Kovpak understood how much the success of this battle meant for raising the morale of the fighters and uniting the squad.
The unequal battle lasted the whole day and ended in victory for the partisans. Inspired by the example of the commander and commissar, who fought together with everyone else, the partisans did not retreat a single step from the position they had taken. All enemy attacks in this battle were repulsed. The enemy lost about 200 soldiers and officers, the partisans obtained trophies - 5 machine guns and 20 rifles.
It was in these first battles that the combat experience of the detachment commander S.A. helped. Kovpak, his military talent, courage and bravery were revealed, combined with a deep understanding of partisan tactics, with sober calculation and the ability to navigate in the most difficult situations.
Since it was dangerous to remain in the Spadshchansky forest, S.A. Kovpak and S.V. Rudnev changed their tactics: the detachment became mobile and inflicted crushing blows on the enemy during raids. These raids tested new tactics and strategies, which made a great contribution to the development of partisan warfare.
During the raid S.A. Kovpak was especially demanding and picky, knowing firmly from his own experience that the success of a battle sometimes depends on insignificant “little things” that were not taken into account in a timely manner. During maneuvering operations, the partisans gradually developed their own iron laws of partisan marching:
Go on a hike after dark, and during daylight rest in the forest or in remote villages; know everything that is happening in front and to the sides; do not walk for a long time in one direction, prefer roundabout roads to straight roads, do not be afraid to make a hook or loop. When passing by large enemy garrisons, protect yourself from them with barriers. Destroy small garrisons, outposts, and ambushes without leaving a trace.
Do not, under any circumstances, disturb the formation of the movement, do not leave anyone from the ranks. Always be prepared so that two minutes after the enemy appears, the marching column can take up a perimeter defense and open fire to kill from all types of weapons. Some guns move into position, while others fire directly from the road.
The main forces move along remote country roads, paths, roads that are known only to local residents, and sabotage groups go out onto highways and railway lines, closing them to the enemy - tearing bridges, rails, wires, derailing trains. Where the partisan column marches at night there is silence, but far around everything thunders and burns. When you enter a village, rouse the people to fight, use everything for this: leaflets, radios, agitators, arm the local partisans, teach them your experience, so that tomorrow, when you are far away, the flames of fires will not die out behind you, the roar of explosions will not stop.
In December 1941 - January 1942, the Putivl detachment carried out a military raid in the Khinelsky forests, and in March - in the Bryansk forests. There it quickly increased to 500 people, well armed with domestic and captured weapons. This was the first Kovpakov raid.
The second raid on their native Sumy region began on May 15 and continued until July 24, 1942. During this time, the partisans fought a number of battles with superior forces of the Nazis. The enemy lost about one and a half thousand people. The raid was significant in that on the night of May 27, 1942, the detachment entered Putivl. The hometown greeted the liberators with tears of joy and gratitude.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 18, 1942, for the successful conduct of military operations to destroy enemy garrisons, enemy military equipment, and undermine railway structures, Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 708) .
Considering the active participation of S.A. Kovpak in the development of the partisan movement, the Central Committee of the Party, by decision of October 2, 1942, approved him as a member of the illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
On October 26, 1942, the formation went on a raid from the Bryansk forests to Right Bank Ukraine. Having crossed the Desna, Dnieper and Pripyat with battles, the Kovpakovites reached the Olevsk area in the Zhitomir region.
With every day of the struggle, the formation of partisan detachments under the command of S.A. Kovpak gained experience in active operations behind enemy lines. The best examples of partisan art include the famous operation "Sarnen Cross", carried out during a raid on Right Bank Ukraine: the partisans simultaneously blew up 5 bridges on the railway lines of the Sarnensky junction and completed the campaign by defeating the enemy garrison in Lelchitsy. S.A. Kovpak and S.V. Rudnev showed great military skill in this raid.
April 9, 1943 S.A. Kovpak was awarded the military rank of "Major General". “Now,” said Sidor Artemyevich, “we must fight competently, more intelligently. After all, we are now, almost, a part of the regular Red Army.” In Moscow they thought the same: in all orders and radiograms, the connection of S.A. Kovpak was called "military unit No. 00117".
Carrying out the tasks of the Central Committee of the Party for the further development of the partisan movement in Ukraine, the illegal Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks) on April 7, 1943, reviewed the operational plan of combat operations for the spring-summer period and decided to redeploy several large partisan formations to the western and southwestern parts of Ukraine with the aim of developing a nationwide struggle in the Volyn, Lviv, Drohobych, Stanislav, and Chernivtsi regions, as well as for organizing local partisan formations and joint combat and sabotage operations on railway communications and oil fields.
The partisans set out on a military campaign in the Carpathian region on June 12, 1943. By the time they entered the Carpathian roadstead, the formation numbered about 2,000 partisans. It was armed with 130 machine guns, 380 machine guns, 9 guns, 30 mortars, 30 anti-tank rifles, rifles and other weapons.
During the raid, the partisans fought about 2 thousand kilometers, destroyed and wounded more than 3,800 Nazis, blew up 19 military trains, 52 bridges, 51 warehouses, disabled power plants and oil fields near Bitkov and Yablonov.
This raid became one of the outstanding partisan operations during the Great Patriotic War. Carried out during the Battle of Kursk, it had great moral and political significance. Sowing confusion and anxiety behind enemy lines, the formation drew upon itself significant enemy forces, destroyed railway lines, and delayed the transfer of fascist troops to the front. In addition, the raid had a great influence on the development of partisan warfare in the western regions of Ukraine: thousands of new patriots rose up to fight the enemy.
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 4, 1944, for the successful implementation of the Carpathian raid, Major General Kovpak Sidor Artemyevich was awarded the second Gold Star medal (No. 16).
In December 1943 S.A. Due to illness, Kovpak went to Kyiv for treatment. On February 23, 1944, the unit was reorganized into the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpaka. Under the command of P.P. Vershigory, she made 2 more raids behind enemy lines in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, as well as on the territory of Poland.
Since 1944 S.A. Kovpak is a member of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR, since 1947 - Deputy Chairman of the Presidium, and since 1967 - member of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR. Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the 2nd-7th convocations.
The legendary partisan commander S.A. Kovpak lived in Kyiv. He died on December 11, 1967. He was buried in Kyiv at the Baikovo cemetery.
He was awarded four Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky 1st degree, the Order of Suvorov 2nd degree, medals, as well as orders and medals of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia.
Bronze bust of twice Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpak. installed in the urban-type village of Kotelva in the Poltava region, monuments in Kyiv, Putivl and Kotelva. Streets in many cities and villages are named after the Hero.
Last year, May 25 marked the 120th anniversary of the birth of Sidor Kovpak, the legendary commander and organizer of the partisan movement in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. They wrote a lot about him, but only good things and only what was necessary for the government of that time. It was his name that our President Yushchenko mentioned when comparing the number of trains blown up (during the occupation of Ukraine in 1941-1944) with the railway disasters in 2007. But the same President Yushchenko, in the seventeenth year of independence, plucked up courage and awarded the UPA commander Roman Shukhevych the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously. That is, the question of recognizing the fighters of the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army - popularly “Benderaites”) as a belligerent party has moved forward and its positive solution is now a matter of time. So where is the truth?
In the photo: Commissioner Rudnev and General Kovpak.
Heroes and our lives
The overwhelming majority of Ukrainian citizens are still captive of the ideological cliches of the Soviet past. Their heroes are not selfish, without human shortcomings and weaknesses, the world is only white or black, a person is only good or evil. To evaluate something so unambiguously is not only wrong, but also very harmful.
Today, proving to an eighty-year-old veteran that the “Benderites” are also, in their own way, heroes is practically useless, and perhaps even harmful. This is understandable.
Firstly, at such an advanced age, a person is no longer able to radically change his worldview, even under the pressure of facts (archival documents, memories of living witnesses). The human psyche will simply refuse to accept all this.
Secondly, the “logic” of a simple pensioner in this particular issue can be very prosaic. Many people mistakenly think that even those pitiful pension crumbs that the state currently allocates for them will have to be shared with someone else. That is, such a meager pension will be paid worse - delayed, increased more slowly due to inflation, and one-time payments for Victory Day on May 9 may be canceled altogether along with the holiday.
Thirdly, there are very influential political forces (and there are many of them), which, relying on their financial resources, quite successfully exploit outdated stereotypes for their own purposes (especially during elections). That's why they try to maintain the current state of affairs for as long as possible.
Where to run, what to strive for?
In my opinion, the main explanatory work should be carried out only with those who are about fifty and younger. Ukraine will not be able to become a strong and independent power without the faith of its own citizens in their state, in the correctness of the chosen path. It is for this that it is necessary to scrupulously understand the nuances and all the blind spots of our national history, clearing it of the ideological husk of bygone times. Any heroes are people with inherent bad and good qualities, but this is precisely what Soviet ideologists tried to keep silent about, and that is why Soviet heroes were “lifeless”, little understood by subsequent generations.
Childhood of sidor and chickens
It is not reliably clear whether Kovpak starved in childhood or not, but according to the recollections of fellow villagers (now the urban settlement of Kotelva, Poltava region), in addition to Sidor Artemovich, there were three more sisters and four brothers in the family. They lived poorly. Then, at the end of the 19th century, their neighbors were always complaining about the disappearance of chickens on their farms (not without the participation of little Sidor), and some were gossiping about the involvement of his relatives in the disappearance of horses.
In 1898, the future partisan general graduated from a parochial school and was sent as a “boy” to a shop. The lack of education affected him until his death. In 1908 - 1912 he served in the army, then was a laborer in Saratov at the river port and tram depot.
At the beginning of the First World War, in July 1914, S.A. Kovpak was mobilized into the tsarist army. In 1916, as part of the 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment S.A. Kovpak took part in the Brusilov breakthrough, became famous as a brave intelligence officer and was awarded twice St. George's Cross!
Revolution and Kovpak
In 1917, Kovpak supported the revolution, was a member of the regimental committee, and in 1918 he returned to his native Kotelva to establish Soviet power, where he created his first partisan detachment, which fought against the Austro-German occupiers together with the detachments of A. Ya. Parkhomenko.
Then his slow but steady advancement in military service began. During the Civil War, he served as part of the 25th Chapaev Division, taking part in the defeat of the White Guard troops near Guryev, as well as in battles against Wrangel’s troops near Perekop and in the Crimea.
In 1921-25 S.A. Kovpak worked as an assistant and then as a military commissar in Tokmak, Genichesk, Krivoy Rog, and Pavlograd. Since 1926, he has been involved in economic and party work. At the first elections to local Soviets, after the adoption of the USSR Constitution of 1936, S.A. Kovpak was elected as a deputy of the Putivl City Council, and at its first session - chairman of the executive committee.
Kovpak and pre-war repressions
Few people know that from the Stalinist purges of 1937 S.A. Kovpak was saved by chance and the human sympathy of the head of the secret police. Then he was the mayor of Putivl and the head of the local NKVD himself secretly warned him about the upcoming arrest.
Having learned about this, Sidor collected the most necessary things and disappeared in the same Spaschansky forest, in which a few years later he would begin to fight as a partisan. A few months later, as had already happened, there was a change of power in the NKVD, a purge. And those who ordered his imprisonment have already become guilty themselves. After a month or two, Kovpak showed up in Putivl again. And, as if nothing had happened, he sat down in his unoccupied chair as the mayor. That's how original it survived.
War on the Home Front
Much has been written about the creation and development of the partisan movement in Ukraine, but, as a rule, it is one-sided and biased.
It is incredible, but it is a fact that from a detachment of one and a half dozen people in September 1941, during 28 months of the war, Kovpak was able to gather about two thousand fighters, with well-established support services. He created his own tactics of partisan raids - in fact, he adopted and improved the tactics of Nestor Makhno, only in relation to the forested, heavily rugged swampy terrain of the west and north of Ukraine, the south of Belarus and the south-west of Russia (Oryol, Kursk and Bryansk regions). He made many raids behind enemy lines, for which he was generously awarded orders and medals, becoming twice a Hero of the Soviet Union and a major general.
The most dangerous and, at the same time, the most triumphant raid of the partisans was the raid on Western Ukraine, which would have been impossible without the help of the local population (products and intelligence), guides and liaisons of the UPA. Having learned about this joint struggle against the Germans, Moscow became very worried. Somehow, the first deputy of the “father,” the commissar of the partisan unit, Semyon Vasilyevich Rudnev, immediately dies, and Kovpak is summoned to Kyiv (in December 1943) supposedly for treatment. On February 23, 1944, his unit was reorganized into the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union S.A. Kovpak, and the command is transferred to Stalin’s nominee P.P. Vershigore. Kovpak is no longer allowed to control partisan troops. Stalin was probably afraid of his own partisans and their commanders.
Personal life of the general
In Kovpak's personal life there were three wives and several adopted children. His first official wife, Catherine, died, leaving him with a son from her first marriage. He was a pilot and died during the war. The second wife did not become official because she did not pass the test. Sidor Artemovich sent her to a sanatorium under the supervision of his good friend. The woman did not know about the external surveillance and failed the test of loyalty.
The third wife, Lyuba, outlived her husband. She had a daughter from her first marriage. Together with Kovpak, they adopted a boy, Vasily, from an orphanage, but his father’s influence and power were not good for him; he died early, from tuberculosis and far from home. Sidor Artemovich did not have his own children.
After the war
Peaceful life for Kovpak began already in 1944, when he was elected a member of the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1947, he was promoted to Deputy Chairman of the Presidium, and from 1967 to a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. In fact, he was elected as a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for life (from the second to seventh convocations in a row).
Not many people know that the right hand of Tsar Peter the Great, Prince Menshikov, could neither read nor write, except to draw his own name on documents if necessary. It is also little known that Sidor Artemovich was also not literate, that is, he wrote with spelling errors typical of elementary school students. But, despite this, he published two books of memoirs: “From Putivl to the Carpathians” (M., 1949) and “From the Diary of Partisan Campaigns” (M., 1964).
The rest of S.A.'s life Kovpak lived in Kyiv, often traveling to various events and visiting his fellow countrymen and remaining relatives in the village of Kotelva, Poltava region. He died on December 11, 1967 and was buried at the Baikovo cemetery.
Kovpak remained: “father” or “old man” - an affectionate front-line nickname among his subordinate comrades, “folk hero”, “partisan general” and a formidable warning “Attention Kovpak!” (for the occupation forces), and also a person who loves to drink, eat, and joke, both in the memories of his fellow countrymen and among the common people of all Ukraine.
Declassified archives say...
Even on the basis of those few documents that the SBU authorities recently declassified, we can conclude that the personalities of Kovpak and his commissar Rudnev seriously destroy the foundations of the Soviet mythology about the “Banderites” fighting for the Germans after their departure from Western Ukraine. It is already reliably known from Rudnev’s diaries that have become available that the “Kovpakovites” fought joint battles with the UPA against the fascists for about two weeks.
The author thanks doctors of historical sciences: Olga Vasilyevna Borisova (professor of the Leningrad National Pedagogical University named after T. Shevchenko) and Vladimir Nikolaevich Bodrukhin (professor, head of the department of history of Ukraine of the V. Dahl National University of Ukraine) for valuable and detailed consultations, without which this material would not have been written .
And also Ekaterina Ivanovna Kulinich (director of the Kotelevsky Museum named after S.A. Kovpak) for exclusive sources and materials.
And hopes for further fruitful and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Sergey Starokozhko
Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak was born on June 7, 1887 in the Ukrainian village of Kotelva into an ordinary peasant family. He had five brothers and four sisters. Since childhood, he helped his parents with housework. Plowed, sowed, mowed grass, looked after livestock. He attended a parochial school, where he received his most elementary education. At the age of ten, young Sidor began working for a local merchant and shopkeeper, rising to the rank of clerk by the time he came of age. He served in the Alexander Regiment, stationed in Saratov. After graduation, he stayed in this city, working as a loader in a river port.
When the First World War began, Kovpak was mobilized into the army. In 1916, fighting as part of the 186th Aslanduz Infantry Regiment, he took part in the famous Brusilov breakthrough. Sidor Artemovich was a scout, even then standing out among the rest with his savvy and ability to find a way out of any situation. He was wounded several times. In the spring of 1916, Tsar Nicholas II, who personally came to the front, among others, awarded young Kovpak two medals “For Bravery” and the Cross of St. George III and IV degrees.
After the start of the revolution, Kovpak chose the side of the Bolsheviks. When in 1917 the Aslanduz regiment went into reserve, ignoring Kerensky’s order to attack, Sidor, along with other soldiers, returned home to his native Kotelva. The civil war forced him to rebel against the regime of Hetman Skoropadsky. Hiding in the forests, Sidor Artemovich learned the basics of partisan military art. The Kotelvsky detachment, led by Kovpak, bravely fought with the German-Austrian occupiers of Ukraine, and later, united with the soldiers of Alexander Parkhomenko, with Denikin’s troops. In 1919, when his squad fought out of war-torn Ukraine, Kovpak decided to join the Red Army. In the 25th Chapaev Division, as a commander of a platoon of machine gunners, he fights first on the Eastern Front, and then on the Southern Front with General Wrangel. For his courage he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
After the end of the Civil War, Kovpak decides to engage in economic work. Also, having become a member of the RCP (b) in 1919, he worked as a military commissar. In 1926, he was elected director of the military cooperative farm in Pavlograd, and then chairman of the Putivl agricultural cooperative, which supplied provisions to the army. After the approval of the USSR Constitution of 1936, Sidor Artemovich was elected as a deputy of the Putivl City Council, and at its first meeting in 1937 - chairman of the city executive committee of the Sumy region. In peaceful life he was distinguished by exceptional hard work and initiative. In the thirties, many former “red” Ukrainian partisans were arrested by the NKVD. Several thousand people were shot in the Poltava region alone. Only thanks to his old comrades who occupied prominent positions in the NKVD, Kovpak was saved from inevitable death.
In the early autumn of 1941, the Nazi invaders approached Putivl. Kovpak, who was already 55 years old at that moment, toothless and suffering from old wounds, together with nine friends was hiding in the nearby Spadshchansky forest area measuring 10 by 15 kilometers. There the group finds a food warehouse that Kovpak prepared ahead of time. At the end of September, they were joined by Red Army soldiers from the encirclement, and in October - by a detachment led by Semyon Rudnev, who became Kovpak’s closest friend and comrade-in-arms during the Great Patriotic War. The detachment increases to 57 people. not much, even less cartridges. However, Kovpak decides to start a war with the Nazis to the bitter end.
The headquarters of the Sumy partisan unit led by S.A. Kovpak discusses the upcoming operation. In the center near the map are the formation commander Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak and Commissioner Semyon Vasilyevich Rudnev. In the foreground, one of the partisans is typing something on a typewriter.
In Ukraine, in the first days of the occupation, a huge number of forest groups were formed, but the Putivl detachment immediately managed to stand out among them with its daring and at the same time carefully-calibrated actions. Everything that Kovpak did did not fit into the normal rules. His partisans never sat in one place for long. During the day they hid in the forests, and moved and attacked the enemy at night. The detachments always walked in a roundabout way, hiding behind barriers from large enemy units. Small German detachments, outposts, and garrisons were destroyed to the last man. The marching formation of the partisans could take up a perimeter defense in a matter of minutes and begin to fire to kill. The main forces were covered by mobile sabotage groups, which blew up bridges, wires, and rails, distracting and disorienting the enemy. Coming to populated areas, the partisans raised people to fight, armed and trained them.
At the end of 1941, Kovpak’s combat detachment carried out a raid in the Khinelsky forests, and in the spring of 1942 - in the Bryansk forests. The detachment grew to five hundred people and was well armed. The second raid began on May 15 and lasted until July 24, passing through the Sumy region to the well-known Sidor Artemovich. Kovpak was a genius for covert movement. After performing a series of complex and lengthy maneuvers, the partisans unexpectedly attacked where they were not expected at all, creating the effect of being present in several places at once. They spread terror among the Nazis, blowing up tanks, destroying warehouses, and derailing trains. The Kovpakovites fought without any support, not even knowing where the front was. Everything was captured in battles. Explosives were mined from minefields.
Kovpak often repeated: “My supplier is Hitler.”
In the spring of 1942, on his birthday, he gave himself a gift and captured Putivl. And after a while he went into the forests again. At the same time, Kovpak did not look like a brave warrior at all. The outstanding partisan resembled an elderly grandfather taking care of his household. He skillfully combined soldier's experience with economic activity, and boldly tried new options for tactical and strategic methods of partisan warfare. Among its commanders and fighters were mainly workers, peasants, teachers and engineers.
Partisan detachment S.A. Kovpaka passes along the street of a Ukrainian village
“He is quite modest, he did not so much teach others as he studied himself, he knew how to admit his mistakes, thereby not exacerbating them,” wrote Alexander Dovzhenko about Kovpak.
Sidor Artemovich was easy to communicate with, humane and fair. He understood people very well, knew how to correctly use either the carrot or the stick.
Vershigora described Kovpak’s partisan camp as follows: “The master’s eye, the confident, calm rhythm of camp life and the hum of voices in the thicket of the forest, the leisurely but not slow life of confident people working with self-esteem - this is my first impression of Kovpak’s detachment.”
During the raid, Kovpak was especially strict and picky. He said that the success of any battle depends on insignificant “little things” that were not taken into account in time: “Before you enter God’s temple, think about how to get out of it.”
At the end of spring 1942, for his exemplary performance of combat missions behind enemy lines and his heroism, Kovpak was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and his comrade-in-arms Rudnev, who served time before the war as an enemy of the people, was awarded the Order of the Badge of Honor.
It is indicative that after Kovpak was awarded the Order of Commissar Semyon Rudnev, he returned it with the words: “My political officer is not some kind of milkmaid to be awarded such an order!”
Joseph Vissarionovich, interested in the successes of the partisan movement in Ukraine, decided to take control of the situation. At the very end of the summer of 1942, Sidor Artemyevich visited Moscow, where, together with other partisan leaders, he took part in a meeting, which resulted in the creation of the Main Partisan Headquarters, headed by Voroshilov. After this, Kovpak began to receive orders and weapons from Moscow.
Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the Sumy partisan unit Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak (sitting in the center, with the Hero's star on his chest) surrounded by his comrades. To the left of Kovpak is Chief of Staff G.Ya. Bazyma, to the right of Kovpak - assistant commander for housekeeping M.I. Pavlovsky
Kovpak’s first task was to carry out a raid across the Dnieper into Right Bank Ukraine, conduct reconnaissance in force and organize sabotage in the depths of German fortifications before the offensive of Soviet troops in the summer of 1943. In mid-autumn 1942, Kovpak's partisan detachments went on a raid. Having crossed the Dnieper, Desna and Pripyat, they ended up in the Zhitomir region, carrying out the unique operation “Sarnen Cross”. At the same time, five railway bridges on the highways of the Sarny junction were blown up and the garrison in Lelchitsy was destroyed. For the operation carried out in April 1943, Kovpak was awarded the rank of “Major General”.
In the summer of 1943, his formation, at the command of the Central Headquarters, began its most famous campaign - the Carpathian raid. The detachment’s path ran through the deepest rear areas of the Nazis. The partisans had to constantly make unusual transitions through open areas. There were no supply bases nearby, just like help and support. The formation traveled more than 10,000 kilometers, fighting Bandera, regular German units and the elite SS troops of General Kruger. With the latter, by the way, the Kovpakovites fought the bloodiest battles of the entire war. As a result of the operation, the delivery of military equipment and enemy troops to the Kursk Bulge area was delayed for a long time. Finding themselves surrounded, the partisans were able to escape with great difficulty, dividing into several autonomous groups. A few weeks later, in the Zhitomir forests, they again united into one formidable detachment.
During the Carpathian raid, Semyon Rudnev was killed, and Sidor Artemyevich was seriously wounded in the leg. At the end of 1943, he went to Kyiv for treatment and did not fight again. For the successful conduct of the operation on January 4, 1944, Major General Kovpak received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time. In February 1944, the partisan detachment of Sidor Kovpak was renamed into the 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division of the same name. It was headed by Lieutenant Colonel P.P. Vershigora. Under his command, the division made two more successful raids, first in the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, and then in Poland.
After the end of the war, Kovpak lived in Kyiv, finding work in the Supreme Court of Ukraine, where he was Deputy Chairman of the Presidium for twenty years. The legendary partisan commander enjoyed great love among the people. In 1967, he became a member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR.
He died on December 11, 1967 at the age of 81. The hero was buried at the Baikovo cemetery in Kyiv. Sidor Artemovich had no children.
The tactics of Kovpak’s partisan movement received wide recognition far beyond the borders of our Motherland. The partisans of Angola, Rhodesia and Mozambique, Vietnamese field commanders and revolutionaries from various Latin American countries learned from the examples of the Kovpakov raids. In 1975 at the film studio named after. A. Dovzhenko shot a feature film trilogy about the partisan detachment of Kovpak called “The Thought of Kovpak.” To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the partisan movement in Ukraine in 2011, the Era TV channel and the Paterik-film studio produced a documentary film “His name was GRANDFATHER.” On June 8, 2012, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin with the image of Kovpak. A bronze bust of the Hero of the Soviet Union was installed in the village of Kotelva, monuments and memorial plaques are available in Putivl and Kyiv. Streets in many Ukrainian cities and villages are named after him. On the territory of Ukraine and Russia there are a number of museums dedicated to Sidor Artemovich. The largest of them is located in the city of Glukhov, Sumy region.
Among other things, you can find here a captured German road sign with the inscription: “Caution, Kovpak!”
His name was DED. Kovpak (Ukraine) 2011
In July 1941, a partisan detachment was formed in Putivl to fight behind enemy lines, the commander of which was approved by the Putivl district party committee S.A. Kovpaka. The material and technical base of the detachment was laid in the Spadshchansky forest.
From the very first battles, the detachment was helped by the combat experience of the detachment commander S.A. Kovpak, tactics, courage and ability to navigate in the most difficult situations.
On October 19, 1941, fascist tanks broke into the Spadshchansky forest. A battle ensued, as a result of which the partisans captured three tanks. Having lost a large number of soldiers and military equipment, the enemy was forced to retreat and return to Putivl. This became a turning point in the combat activities of the partisan detachment.
Subsequently, Kovpak’s detachment changed its tactics to mobile raids in the rear, while simultaneously striking at the enemy’s rear units.
Ctrl Enter
Noticed osh Y bku Select text and click Ctrl+Enter