Sydir Artemovych Kovpak , June 7, 1887 - December 11, 1967) was a prominent
Soviet partisanThe Soviet partisans were members of a resistance movement which fought a guerrilla war against the Axis occupation of the Soviet Union during the Second World War....
leader in
UkraineThe Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic or the Ukrainian SSR was one of the founders of the Soviet Union constituent republic that made up the former Soviet Union from its formation in 1922 to its abolition in 1991.-Name:...
.
Biography
Kovpak was born in a poor peasant family in
UkrainianUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
village near
PoltavaPoltava is a city in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast, as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Poltavskyi Raion within the oblast. The city itself is also designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. The current estimated population...
(then of the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
). For his military service in the
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
he was awarded two
Crosses of St. Georgethumb|Original Cross of St. George.Ist and 2nd class were in gold.The Cross of St. George ' , or simply the George's Cross, was, until 1913, officially known as the Sign of Distinction of the Military Order of St. George....
personally by the Emperor
Nicholas II of RussiaNicholas II was the last Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and claimed the title of King of Poland...
(an award for special military heroism). After the
Russian RevolutionTheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
he joined the
All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and fought for the
Red ArmyThe Red Army The Red Army The Red Army was the Soviet government’s revolutionary militia beginning in the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the USSR. Since 1946, after the Second World War, it was called the Soviet Army.The 'Red...
partisan units against the
German forcesThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
, as well as against Denikin's White Army in a legendary
Vasily ChapayevVasily Ivanovich Chapayev was a celebrated Russian soldier and Red Army commander during the Russian Civil War....
's cavalry division. In the interwar period he was a head of the local government in the town of
PutyvlPutyvl or Putivl is a picturesque town in north-east Ukraine, in Sumy Oblast. Currently about 20,000 people live in Putyvl.- History :...
,
Sumy OblastSumy Oblast is an oblast in the northeastern part of Ukraine...
(
provinceOblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
). During Stalin's
great purgeGreat Purge was a series of campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin in 1937–1938. It involved a large-scale purge of the Communist Party and Government officials, repression of peasants, Red Army leadership, and the persecution of...
Kovpak narrowly escaped arrest, being warned by the local head of
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including...
, Kovpak left the town and spent a month hiding in the forest
khutorKhutor or hutor is usually taken to refer to a single-homestead rural settlement of Eastern Europe. The word originated in Ukraine, but later came to be applied to farmsteads in Russia and Kazakhstan....
.
World War II
At the time of the
German invasion of Soviet UkraineThe Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of war between the European Axis powers, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland , and the Soviet Union which encompassed central and eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9...
partisan units led by Sydir Kovpak waged
guerrilla warfareGuerrilla warfare is the irregular warfare warfare and combat in which a small group of combatants use mobile military tactics in the form of ambushes and raids to combat a larger and less mobile formal army....
against Axis forces originally in partisan strongholds in
SumySumy Oblast is an oblast in the northeastern part of Ukraine...
and
Bryansk regionsBryansk Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Bryansk. Population: 1,378,941 ; -Time zone:Bryansk Oblast is located in the Moscow Time Zone...
but later its operation spread deep into German occupied territory including
KievKiev Oblast, also written as Kyiv Oblast is an oblast in central Ukraine....
,
ZhytomyrZhytomyr Oblast is an oblast of northern Ukraine...
,
RivneRivne Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Rivne....
,
HomyelHomiel Voblast or Gomel Oblast is a province of Belarus with its administrative center being Homyel....
,
VolynVolyn Oblast is an oblast in north-western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Lutsk...
and other regions. These partisan units also fought against the
Ukrainian nationalistUkrainian nationalism refers to the Ukrainian version of nationalism.Although the current Ukrainian state is fairly recent, some historians, such as Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, have cited medieval princes of Kievan Rus, as early precedents of specifically Ukrainian statehood.-Cossack nationalism:The...
Ukrainian Insurgent ArmyThe Ukrainian Insurgent Army was a group of Ukrainian nationalist partisans who engaged in a series of guerrilla conflicts during World War II...
. In 1944 partisans under Kovpak leadership raided enemy forces throughout western Ukraine and
BelarusBelarus is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel , Mahilyow and Vitebsk...
and even reached
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
n border regions during the famous
CarpathiaThe Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the largest mountain range in Europe...
n raid inflicting heavy casualties on the
GermansNazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany between 1933 and 1945, while it was led by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party . The name Third Reich refers to the state as the successor to the Holy Roman Empire of the Middle Ages and the German...
.
Kovpak mastered guerrilla tactics and became a living legend in the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
. In the summer of 1943 Germans managed to hunt down and kill Kovpak's second in command Semyon Rudnev who was replaced by a new right-hand man Petro Vershigora who would later became a writer and dedicate his books to Kovpak's legendary underground resistance.
Sydir Kovpak was awarded
Hero of the Soviet UnionThe title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:...
title twice and in 1943 was promoted to the rank of
Major GeneralMajor General or Major-General is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of Sergeant Major General. A Major General is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of Lieutenant General and senior to the ranks of Brigadier and Brigadier General...
. According to the memoirs of his lieutenant Vershigora, his promotion and General's stars were airdropped to his partisan unit's position deep behind Nazi lines. After the end of the Great Patriotic War Sydir Kovpak held key positions in the leadership of Soviet Ukraine.
Movie
Kovpak was portrayed (by Konstantin Stepankov) in Soviet film trilogy
Duma o Kovpake (
Дума о Ковпаке,
Poem of Kovpak):
- Duma o Kovpake: Nabat (Дума о Ковпаке: Набат, Poem of Kovpak: Alarm), 1973 – how initially small partisan unit of twelve people grew into large force under Kovpak an Rudnev. http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0070008/
- Duma o Kovpake: Buran (Дума о Ковпаке: Буран, Poem of Kovpak: Storm), 1975 – about actions in enemy rear in 1941–1942. http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0072916/
- Duma o Kovpake: Karpaty, Karpaty... (Дума о Ковпаке: Карпаты, Карпаты..., Poem of Kovpak: Carpathians, Carpathians...), 1976 – about the 1943 raid into the Carpathians. http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0074446/
External links