“Approaching victory”: how the Soviet lieutenant Vasily Porik became the hero of the Resistance movement in France

Vasily Porik was born in a poor peasant family on February 17, 1920 in the village of Solomirka, Podolsk province (today - the village of Porik, Vinnytsia region of Ukraine. - RT ).

“Vasily Porik from childhood dreamed of serving in the army. In 1939, after graduating from an agricultural school, he was drafted into the Red Army and enrolled in the Odessa Infantry School, but in his last year he transferred to the Kharkov Military Infantry School, after which he received the rank of lieutenant and was sent to serve in the Kiev Military District. In 1941, Porik joined the CPSU (B.), ”Said Andrei Gorbunov, methodologist at the Victory Museum science department, in an interview with RT.

War and captivity

Experts note that the fate of Vasily Porik is still not well studied.

“So far, certain periods of his life can be restored only approximately, there are some contradictions in the documents,” military historian Yuri Knutov said in an interview with RT.

According to him, during the battles on the Left Bank of the Dnieper, Vasily Porik, reflecting the enemy’s attack, was injured and captured. According to the historian, the officer was held in the notorious Stalag camp 349, also known under the unofficial name of “Uman Pit”. The camp was organized in a former clay quarry. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war were driven into it. Communists and commanders were most often shot immediately.

“Vasily Porik managed to hide his rank and membership in the party, and none of his colleagues gave him away,” Knutov said.

He also added that, according to some sources, Porik tried to escape, but he was detained and sent deep into the rear of the German army. So Vasily ended up in the Beaumont-en-Artois concentration camp (department of Pas-de-Calais, France). He was sent to work in coal mines, the historian said.

“With the most difficult physical work, the prisoners of the concentration camp received only a piece of bread a day and a portion of turnip baland, which put them virtually beyond the brink of survival. However, Vasily Porik was determined to fight, ”said the expert.

Hero of Resistance

According to Yuri Knutov, in the concentration camp Porik managed to contact the underground anti-fascist organization and received a difficult task from her.

“He began to demonstrate a desire to curry favor with the Nazis, a willingness to cooperate with the Gestapo. Vasily played his role very convincingly, and the Germans began to trust him. He became a capo and one of the camp’s senior prisoners. The position allowed him to leave the concentration camp even for a while, and Vasily used this to seek contact with the French Resistance. In addition, he persuaded the Nazis to give the right to the most “diligent” prisoners, who were actually underground, to leave the camp from time to time, ”the historian said.

According to a number of documents, Porik and his comrades, while still prisoners of a concentration camp, carried out sabotage directed against the Nazis using explosives stolen from mines. So, they managed to derail the train loaded with coal and block the movement by rail for several days.

“The Gestapo couldn’t even suggest that the partisans needed to be searched behind barbed wire,” says Yuri Knutov.

In addition, he said, Porik and his comrades discredited ideological collaborators and real Gestapo agents in the eyes of the Nazis. They were planted with knives and leaflets, after which the relevant information was transmitted to the Nazis.

• Vasily Porik
• RIA News

In 1943 or at the beginning of 1944, according to historians, Porik was informed that the Nazis began to suspect him of having links with the underground. Without waiting for an inquiry, he fled from the concentration camp.

“After the escape, Vasily Porik joins the ranks of the Resistance Movement and organizes a partisan detachment, which included former Soviet prisoners of war, local residents and citizens driven to forced labor from different countries, including the USSR,” said Andrei Gorbunov.

Soon the lieutenant became a member of the Central Committee of Soviet Prisoners of War in France, which was created at the initiative of the French Communist Party in 1943. In the spring of 1944, Porik participated in a raid on the Beaumont concentration camp, during which security was disarmed, and the prisoners made a mass escape.

As noted by Yuri Knutov, during one of the operations, Vasily sent a young partisan to intelligence, who, out of inexperience, took a revolver with him. When he was captured by the Nazis, they realized by the presence of weapons who he was and knocked out information about the location of his comrades from him. According to the historian, one of Porik’s companions died in battle, and Vasily himself was wounded in the leg and captured.

“The Nazis brought Porik to prison and tortured, pushing metal wounds on the wound. And then, having achieved nothing, they left in the cell. Vasily managed to get a nail out of the window and open the shackles with his help. Then the partisan lured a security guard into the cell, killed him and, having got into the next room, climbed out the window. Moving over the fence of the prison, Porik fell into the moat. But he fell on the lime-strewn bodies of people shot by the Nazis, which saved him. Despite the wound, he was able to get through the fields to the home of the French underground, who went out, ”Knutov said.

The French doctors who were part of the Resistance Movement were able to put Vasily Porik on his feet, the historian emphasized. Moreover, during the treatment, the partisans did not rest, but was engaged in the repair of weapons.

In the summer of 1944, Porik returned to active combat activities, but was ambushed on July 22, was captured by the Nazis and shot in the ditch of the Arras citadel.

“According to the partisans, Porik became a victim of betrayal by several members of the Resistance, who, instead of fighting fascism, were engaged in personal enrichment. After the death of Vasily, these people immediately disappeared, ”Knutov said.

Memory of the hero

After the end of World War II, Porik's comrades who returned to their homeland from among those Soviet prisoners of war who ended up in France found Vasily's relatives. From them, parents learned about the fate of their son.

In the early 1960s, according to Yuriy Knutov, the chief editor of the Izvestia newspaper Alexey Adzhubei and the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Shelest learned about the exploits of Vasily Porik. Materials about the underground work of the Soviet lieutenant in France appeared in the press. In 1964, he was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1968, a monument was erected on the hero’s grave in the city of Henin-Lietar. His name is carved on the wall of the Arras Fortress among the names of participants in the Resistance Movement.

The French writer Andre Pierrerar wrote about Vasily Porica the book "The Young Man with the Rose." In 1970, at the Kiev film studio named after Alexander Dovzhenko about the exploits of Vasily, the feature film "Prisoners of Beaumont" was shot.

Streets in various cities of the Soviet Union and the tanker of the Novorossiysk Shipping Company were named after Vasily Porik. In honor of him, his native village was also renamed.

“Vasily Porik was one of those who, holding back the superior enemy forces in 1941, gave time to form new divisions in the rear, as well as to evacuate industry and the population to the east. He is one of those Soviet captives whom the Nazis, in spite of the terrible conditions of the camps, could not be persuaded to betray. Vasily Porik proved that a person everywhere should remain a person. He simply could not do otherwise, ”said Andrei Gorbunov.

• Tomb of Vasily Porik
• © uk.wikipedia.org

In his opinion, every "Nazi soldier destroyed by partisans, every burnt truck, every derailed train brought Victory closer."

“To confront the partisans, the Nazis had to withdraw entire divisions from the front,” says Gorbunov.

According to Yuri Knutov, "the fact that even Soviet prisoners of war who were far from their homeland did not give up encouraged the French to resist the Nazis."

“The story of Vasily Porik is a convincing testimony to the fact that, in addition to the recently imposed patriots on the Ukrainian society, Ukraine also has true heroes, on which the younger generations should be equal. The exploits of the Soviet lieutenant in France are part of the common history of all peoples living in the USSR and those who resisted Nazism in Europe, ”concluded Yuri Knutov.