How the commander of a partisan detachment Boris Lunin became a cruel punisher and repaired civilians

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

Probably, it is difficult to find a more controversial participant in the Great Patriotic War than Boris Lunin. The partisan detachment under his command distinguished itself more than once in battles with the Germans and destroyed many enemies. However, already in peacetime, a terrible truth was revealed: as it turned out, the hero not only dealt mercilessly with enemies, but also with civilians. So who was Boris Lunin: a defender of the Motherland and a hero or a ruthless killer?

War and captivity

The pre-war biography of Boris Lunin is no different. He was born into a peasant family in the small village of Turki, Saratov province. Like millions of guys all over the country, in 1939 he joined the army, served in the Chita region and Mongolia. When the war broke out, he was sent to the Western Front to command the mortar crew of the 17th Regiment of the 17th Armored Division.

But already in August 1941, Lunin's unit was surrounded by the Germans, and all the surviving soldiers were captured. Boris was among them. So he ended up in the notorious Drozdy camp, which was located 2-3 kilometers from Minsk. According to widespread reports, it was here that the Nazis killed more than ten thousand Soviet citizens. However, Lunin did not want to die, so he entered the camp police.

Apparently, by doing so, the prisoner managed to lull the vigilance of the guards and seize the right moment to escape. His plan succeeded, and already in March 1942 Lunin with several comrades in misfortune left the concentration camp. Former prisoners wandered through the forests until they came across a partisan detachment commanded by Captain Astashenok. Boris said that he is a Red Army officer and a communist. Taking his word for it, like-minded people entrusted him to command a partisan platoon.

But this was not enough for Lunin. He wanted to give orders himself, and the tough discipline in the detachment did not suit him. Therefore, a month later Boris, taking 15 people with him, left the partisans and organized his own "Shturm" detachment, which was later renamed the "Shturmovaya" partisan brigade.

It should be noted that Lunin was a desperate and risky man. It was thanks to these qualities that at the end of spring he managed to inflict noticeable damage on the German troops, and by the fall his detachment had derailed a total of nine enemy echelons. It is worth noting that before the winter Boris made all decisions on his own, having no connection with the "Big Land".

But, as it turned out, Lunin had no pity either for the fascists or for the civilians: all those who refused to help the partisans were inevitable death. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was in command of his detachment from above, Boris himself decided who lived and who died. Soon the commander, realizing that he had uncontrolled power, turned into a real tyrant: those who dared to object to him or compete with him were to be shot. Lunin, who even before the war breathed unevenly for alcohol, began to drink shamelessly, acquired a whole harem of wives and boasted of his influence.

Ivan Belik became the commander's faithful "dog", ready to carry out all his even the most cruel orders. He told about himself that he worked in the NKVD, at the front he was an ordinary telegraph-construction company, was captured, escaped from there and joined Lunin's detachment. Belik did all the dirty work, and as a reward for his loyalty, Boris allowed him to decide who to kill and whom to spare.

And Ivan used the power given to him in order to get rid of those who crossed his path even a little. So he killed a man who had once quarreled with one of his mistresses. He explained his act by the fact that the unfortunate man was a German agent. He did not spare the five villagers, who did not share something with Belik's drinking companion. Moreover, Ivan simply destroyed entire families, not sparing even children, only because he and his partner liked some things that were in the house of the unfortunate. Needless to say, all those executed were exposed as "enemies of the people."

Lunin saw all the tricks of the faithful servant, but did not pay attention. But what can I say, he himself did not differ in exemplary behavior. Those who wanted to leave the detachment, he shot. But women were especially unlucky: every girl they liked had to share the bed with the commander of the partisans. Those who dared to refuse him, he raped. And with those who bored him and became pregnant from him, Belik dealt with.

Massacre of the scouts

At the end of 1942, a group of 8 GRU scouts, commanded by Sergei Vishnevsky, entered the detachment. He also established communication between the partisan detachment and the center. Lunin at first warmly welcomed like-minded people, but soon it began to annoy him that the senior of the group began to make comments to him about the work of his fighters, and the behavior of the commander in general. Boris, naturally, did not like this, because he considered himself the only owner here, who himself assembled a detachment, annihilated the Germans, without any help from the "Big Land", and then a young man comes and tells him what to do.

Once Lunin got drunk again, and all the discontent that had accumulated in him came out. He ordered Belik to shoot the scouts, and he raped and killed one of the girls himself. He explained to Commissar Fedorov that these were not people from the GRU at all, but recruited German agents. However, the first did not believe it and refused to sign the order, but the chief of staff did it for him.

Fight against fascists

But it is worth noting that Lunin dealt with the Nazis as fiercely as with his personal enemies. Already in the summer his detachment consisted of 800 people and was renamed into the "Shturmovaya" partisan brigade. She liberated many villages that the Nazis wanted to completely raze to the ground. And during Operation Concert, the partisans destroyed more than 600 enemies, 11 echelons and a lot of different equipment. The Germans even carried out a whole punitive operation against the brigade, but it was not crowned with success.

Already at the beginning of 1944, Lunin received a Hero of the Soviet Union - the award was presented to him not just anywhere, but in the Kremlin. In July, his detachment joined forces with the Red Army.

However, after Belarus was liberated, the authorities began to receive numerous complaints about Lunin's arbitrariness. The noise was such that it reached Stalin himself. But he did not pay attention to the incident, they say, just think, the partisans killed someone there.

Pay

After the war, Boris was appointed assistant to the Minister of Motor Transport of the Byelorussian SSR. But Lunin did not give up drinking and "under the degree" often behaved inadequately and started fights. Then he was sent to the Krasnodar Territory, where the former commander became the deputy head of a large convoy in the village of Beloozerskaya. However, even here the man's behavior did not change, and after a series of drunken antics he was "asked". Then Lunin left for Anapa and got a job at a combine of communal enterprises.

Meanwhile, the KGB became interested in the strange death of a group of scouts during the war. Here the whole truth about the brave commander was revealed. In the fall of 1956, Ivan Belik was detained. There were also many witnesses to Lunin's crimes. But for Boris himself, the arrest in the spring of 1957 came as a complete surprise. Moreover, he tried to put in place a "young investigator" who, according to the former partisan, does not know what influential person he is dealing with.

Lunin was accused of killing innocent people, including children, and the Belarusian military tribunal sentenced him to seven years in prison and stripped him of all awards. Belik received the same term. To many, the sentence seemed too lenient, given that Boris and his team, among other things, shot the GRU officers. But, apparently, the court nevertheless took into account that the man showed himself well in the fight against the Nazis. However, Lunin did not agree with the verdict and more than once wrote petitions asking for clemency, claiming that he had dealt only with traitors to the Motherland. However, the former partisan was denied rehabilitation. The last years of his life, Boris lived in Anapa and died in 1994.