Operation "Bagration": how the guerrilla struggle during the Great Patriotic War turned into a nationwide war

In the last days of May 1944 in the area of the Kirov military-operative group of the Mogilev partisan connection was discussed with the command of the 9th partisan brigade of the upcoming operation to disrupt traffic on the railroad Mogilev - Orsha. In April, the Soviet troops broke through the front line in the Rogachev Area and pushed back the fascists over the Drut River. Now it was necessary to disrupt the transfer of enemy troops in this direction.

On the night of June 1, 1944 detachments of the 9th partisan brigade of the Kirov partisan zone took initial positions near the village of Gorbachi. At exactly 12 o'clock at night the first explosion occurred.

Partisans needed only an hour to carry out the operation on the railroad Mogilev - Orsha. As a result, 860 rails were blown up. The enemy in the combat zone of partisan groups was destroyed.

Operation "Bagration": how the partisan struggle during the Great Patriotic War turned into a nationwide struggle.

Vyacheslav Selemenev, Candidate of Historical Sciences (Belarus):

The National Archives keeps operational reports of the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement, which give the most detailed information about how the operation "Bagration" took place exactly from the partisans' point of view.