Gomel "bandit Katya", or Why the fascists promised 3000 marks for a fragile girl and allotted land

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

During the Nazi occupation of Soviet territories, the Germans regularly used leaflets to communicate with the enslaved population. So, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War around the Belarusian Dobrush one could find announcements calling for assistance in the capture of the elusive "bandit Katya". For a tip-off on the trail of the "main saboteur" the German command promised a reward of 3,000 marks and even a substantial allotment of land. By all accounts, it was clear that the fragile girl managed to give the Germans serious trouble.

Belarusian youth and bold initiatives

The Belarusian partisan Varvara Vyrvich (real name of "bandit Katya") was born in 1922 in the Gomel region in a wealthy family of the director of a match factory. Before the war, Varya became a student at the Odessa Polytechnic, intending to graduate as an engineer. In June 1941, a successful sophomore, along with her friend Lina Lanovenko, voluntarily went to the front as nurses of a medical echelon. On the way, the girls became seriously ill, and were hospitalized unconscious at the Kagan station. Fate turned out to be merciful, and the friends managed to quickly recover. Then a joint decision was made to join the local intelligence school, where young people were trained in shooting and mine-blasting business, and radio operators were trained. Varvara successfully completed the course and in the spring of 1943 she was thrown into the German rear under the code name "Katya".

Volunteer, partisan and commander

Having walked hundreds of front-line kilometers with the medical instructor's bag, Varya joined the Belarusian partisans. Brave volunteers were responsible for rear sabotage, derailing fascist trains and burning German headquarters on the captured land. The girl very quickly began to enjoy authority in the ranks of like-minded people. She was appreciated for her courage and ability to accurately navigate the forest using maps. Varya was offered to command a youth partisan detachment. The area of action of the young avengers outlined the Dobrush forests near the Gomel-Bryansk railway with a base in a dense thicket. The partisans were named Budennovtsy in honor of the legendary cavalryman.

Conspiracy, sabotage and high-profile cases of Vary Vyrvich

At home in Pinsk, Varya found her parents hanged, which only confirmed her decision to fight against the Germans. The mentor of the underground detachment, the ex-secretary of the district party committee, spoke of Katya as a person with a cool head. This feature saved her from erroneous steps in extreme situations. Varya progressively placed messengers in each settlement of the district. She personally organized many operations to eliminate railroad trains and at the same time arranged the delivery of food and explosives to the wards of the partisans. There were up to 150 people in her detachment.

Details of the results of Varvara's clandestine work were described in the December 1943 issue of Smena magazine. One of the most successful operations was the destruction of a large ammunition depot in Novo-Belitsa. But most often the detachment is them. Budyonny blew up rails and sleepers. In response to the railway sabotage, the Germans strengthened their security, combing the surrounding areas with dogs. Therefore, the partisans had to go hundreds of kilometers deep into the forest each time.

Young fighters with fascism moved on horses, repulsed from the police. But from time to time the policemen attacked the impudent partisans from the Katya detachment. But the "Budennovtsy" skillfully hid themselves from attacks and quietly eliminated the traitors. Soon there were almost no policemen in the entire area.

One for all

More and more volunteers joined Varvara. In the Dobrush region, she was considered one of the first inspirers and mentors of local youth. The girl often met with the underground in the house of forester Vasily Moskalenko. At such moments, long-term plans were discussed, information about the approaching trains traveling to the east of the country was transmitted, details of the next sabotage were developed.

One of the most loyal assistants of the "bandit Katya" was the shy-looking Fedya Kukharev. He himself came to the partisan detachment, saying that he wants to fight fascism in the company, and not alone. Soon Kukharev successfully coordinated the sabotage. He was assisted by Zhenya Stetsky, who was in charge of intelligence, and two more - Dudarev and Kulikov - supplied bombs and explosives. The guys even developed their own "handwriting". Entering the next village, they immediately blew up 2 hundred rails, going further. Once a member of the detachment Vanya Pankov's father was killed by the Germans in Dobrush. When this tragic news reached Varina's associates, the Komsomol members unanimously and without hesitation decided to take revenge together.

On the same night, underground fighters Levkov and Ishuntsev, under the cover of a minor partisan Natasha Malysheva, blew up the house where the police chief and the pro-German burgomaster lived. True, the couple was very lucky, and by a lucky chance they both survived. Then Pankov decided that he would defend the honor of the murdered parent personally. He tracked down the head of the local police, neutralized him and took him out of town to be shot.

Dobrush underground partisans did not have a single loud failure, for which they were popularly called elusive avengers. During the entire period of active sabotage activities, the detachment of the "bandit Katya" lost only four comrades, killed in a fierce open battle.

Post-war Komsomol practice

After the complete liberation of Belarus by the Red Army in 1944, the Komsomol members were able to get out of the underground. Varya Vyrvich deservedly received the Dobrush district committee of the Komsomol under her leadership. Then many compatriots, colleagues and just acquaintances girls wondered why the prominent, slender and serious secretary of the Komsomol district committee Varvara Vyrvich was called Katya. For all her exploits and the unerring organization of the most serious underground operations, Varvara Vyrvich was awarded the high orders of the Red Banner and the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, as well as the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War."

But not only adults became heroes in that war. So The 14-year-old pioneer managed to defend the Star Quarantine quarries from the Nazis: the feat of Volodya Dubinin.