From directors to scouts: how Peter Vershigora fought the Nazis in the ranks of partisans

May 16, 1905 in the village of Severinovka in the Podolsk province of the Russian Empire, the future Hero of the Soviet Union Peter Vershigora was born in the family of the teacher. He lost his parents early and, from the age of 12, was forced to earn his own living by working as a shepherd and helping at the mill. In 1920, Peter went to seek a better fate in the village of Rybnitsa and enrolled in an agronomic school, but was unable to complete his studies because he became ill with typhus.

Returning to his native village, Vershigora worked for some time as secretary of the village council and director of the drama club, and was in charge of a reading hut. Soon he also began to play as part of a rural orchestra. In 1925, Vershigora was drafted into the army. Taking into account the skills acquired at home, he served in the music team.

Returning to civilian life in 1927, Peter Vershigora entered the directing department of the Odessa Music and Drama Institute. For several years he worked as a director and himself performed in various theaters of the USSR and the RSFSR, for some time he taught at the Odessa Theater School.

In 1936, Vershigora decided to try his hand at the cinema, for which he entered the Moscow Film Academy. After graduating from it two years later, he was accepted by the director at the Kiev film studio. Vershigora wrote a play, the story "Chekoltan" and several stories, but these manuscripts were lost during the war.

“Immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union, Vershigora decided for itself to participate in the defense of the homeland. First he became an observer of air defense, and then he was sent to the 264th Infantry Division, which is being formed in Poltava, ”military historian Yury Knutov told RT.

As Vershigor himself later wrote in his memoirs in his memoirs, initially he, as one of the most educated volunteers, was appointed regiment commander, but two hours later he was relieved of this post - yesterday the film director could not correctly divide the herring between the soldiers of his unit. So he turned out to be an assistant commander of a small platoon.

“In one of the first battles of the platoon commander, he was killed, and Vershigora took command. In just a few weeks, he instantly went from pomkomvzvoda to the battalion commander. It was a hell of fighting on the Dnieper in the summer of 1941. Vershigora was wounded, but survived, fate protected him for new achievements, ”said Knutov.

• Battle on the Dnieper
• RIA News
• © Leonid Bat

According to the memoirs of Vershigora himself, during the battles in the Kanev region, he first encountered the activities of special services - he participated in the detention of Nazi agents abandoned in the Soviet rear.

According to Yuri Knutov, later Vershigor was surrounded by a group of fighters, but they were able to capture the car from the Germans and drove about 100 km to the Soviet positions, after which they crossed the front line and went to their own. The former filmmaker tried to choose a closer type of activity and was assigned to the army’s political department as the head of the photojournalist team, but Vershigora saw his front line destination differently. He dreamed of fighting an enemy with weapons in his hands.

Kovpak Scout

“Considering how Vershigora showed himself at the beginning of the war, they turned his attention to him in intelligence. So he ended up in the GRU system, ”said Alexander Kolpakidi, historian of the special services, in an interview with RT.

In the spring of 1942, Peter Vershigor was enrolled in the intelligence department of the headquarters of the Bryansk Front. After a brief special training, on June 13 of the same year he was abandoned behind enemy lines.

“Acting in conjunction with the partisans, Vershigora controlled the activities of the Bryansk-II railway station, reporting to the center about the movement of trains. Once, during the accumulation of a large number of trains with ammunition and enemy manpower in the station area, partisans blew up access roads. Vershigora insisted by radio on drawing an airstrike on the railway junction. He was reproached for excessive rigidity while defending his opinion, and awarded with the Order of the Red Banner for the success of the operation, ”Knutov said.

According to him, performing tasks behind the front line, Vershigora proved himself to be a competent and courageous intelligence officer. It was decided to send him to the group of Sidor Kovpak, known as the Putivl partisan detachment.

“Even in the Bryansk forests, before entering the raid, Pyotr Petrovich Vershigora arrived at us, who received the nickname of the Beard from the partisans. At first he was called a photographer in our country, as he had never parted with Watering Can. This bearded man, a former cameraman who descended behind enemy lines by parachute, turned out to be a born scout by nature, a man of exceptional endurance and self-control. He became my intelligence assistant. A group of distant scouts worked under his leadership ”- this is how Kovpak himself described the beginning of work with Vershigora in his memoirs.

• The partisan formation of Sidor Kovpak. Pyotr Vershigora (center) with partisans while listening to a report from the Sovinformburo
• RIA News
• © Leonid Korobov

As Yuri Knutov said, in 1942-1943 the Kovpak detachment carried out a number of raids on enemy rear in the territory of the Ukrainian and Belorussian SSR. On June 12, 1943, the most famous - the Carpathian - raid of the Kovpak compound began. Having advanced from the Zhytomyr region, the partisans passed by Rivne and Ternopol, after which they plunged into the mountains. During the raid, Kovpak’s fighters inflicted enormous damage to the enemy’s oil industry, defeated 17 Nazi garrisons, derailed 19 echelons, and killed up to 5,000 enemy troops. Having blocked the railway, Kovpak’s detachment rendered tremendous assistance to the Soviet troops participating in the battle on the Kursk Bulge. For four months, Kovpak’s fighters marched more than 2 thousand km.

About 1,500 partisans participated in the raid. To block and try to destroy them, the Nazis involved about 60 thousand of their military and collaborators, including units removed from the front. The partisans had to abandon the convoy and leave the encirclement with several troops. The group led by Vershigory turned out to be one of the most organized.

During his work with Kovpak, Vershigora sent to the center more than 300 radiograms and several dozen written reports containing valuable information about the enemy.

In the course of the Carpathian raid, the commissar of the detachment, Semyon Rudnev, died, and at Kovpak’s state, against the background of a wound in the leg and chronic injuries, his health condition sharply worsened. The Honored Commander was invited to rest and choose a replacement. Kovpak settled on Vershigora's candidacy.

• Cavalry raid of Kovpak partisan division
• RIA News
• © Leonid Korobov

Guerrilla division

In December 1943, on the basis of the Putivl partisan detachment, the 1st Ukrainian partisan division named after twice Hero of the Soviet Union Sidor Kovpak was created. Her commander was officially appointed Peter Vershigora. Coming behind enemy lines, the division carried out two large raids on the territory of Western Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. In order to demoralize the enemy, Vershigora officially introduced a military uniform in his unit. Partisans wore epaulettes of the Red Army and hats with asterisks. The appearance of the Red Army deep in the rear of the Nazis shocked both the Germans and local collaborators.

“The division under the leadership of Vershigory played a very large role in the struggle not only with the Nazis, but also with Bandera, as well as with other nationalist groups,” said Alexander Kolpakidi.

In particular, the division’s fighters defeated the UPA * hen and the sub-school that operated under it, led by the former commandant of Hitler’s auxiliary police, Porfiry Antonyuk.

“In our hands were documents testifying to the conspiracy of the Hitler rear security and administration bodies with Bandera. The Bandera elite feverishly rushed to organizationally strengthen their alliance with the Gestapo. The true adherents of Bandera were preparing for an underground struggle against the Soviet regime - they stocked up with weapons and established radio communications, ”Vershigora wrote in his memoirs.

Fighters of the division destroyed the leadership of collaborationist groups, and the Western Ukrainian youth who were forcibly mobilized in the UPA with arms passed under the command of Vershigory.

According to Yuri Knutov, the partisan division seriously violated the Nazi communications, inflicted significant damage to the enemy in manpower and equipment (destroying even several aircraft) and undermined the morale of the Nazis. Vershigora provided substantial assistance in successfully conducting the offensive of Soviet troops in Belarus and Western Ukraine in the summer of 1944.

On July 3, the 1st Ukrainian partisan division merged with units of the Red Army in the Baranavichy area. On August 6, 1944, Vershigore was awarded the military rank of Major General, and on August 7 he became the Hero of the Soviet Union.

• Shot from the film "From the Bug to the Vistula." In the role of Peter Vershigory - Mihai Volontir
• © kino-teatr.ru

“After the war, Vershigora was appointed lecturer at the Voroshilov Higher Military Academy - the future Academy of the General Staff. Here you need to understand that at that time there were a lot of experienced officers in the troops and they selected the best of the best, unique personalities to train future generations of military leaders, ”said Andrei Koshkin, a full member of the Academy of Military Sciences, in an interview with RT.

Along with the teaching of Vershigor, he was actively engaged in literary activity, writing a number of artistic and popular science works. For the book "People with a clear conscience," he was awarded the Stalin Prize.

“Vershigora also prepared serious scientific works on the history of the partisan movement, which later, unfortunately, were forgotten,” said Alexander Kolpakidi.

In 1955, Peter Vershigora resigned and headed the military department of the Banner magazine. March 27, 1963 he died. In various cities of the USSR, monuments were erected in memory of him, streets and cultural institutions were renamed. In 1980, on the basis of his works, the cinema pedagogy “From the Bug to the Vistula” was filmed.

• The grave of Peter Vershigory
• © Wikimedia commons / SerSem

“The exploits of Vershigory are the common heritage of all the peoples of the USSR. However, objectively, it must be recognized that most of his life is connected with Ukraine. In the Ukrainian SSR, he turned from a director into a nightmare of Bandera and the Nazis. For example, such heroes can bring up new generations. However, in Kiev today they not only prefer not to remember it again, but also seriously discuss the possibility of renaming objects named in his honor, ”said Koshkin.

According to Alexander Kolpakidi, Vershigory’s life is a testament to how "the most unexpected talents" can be revealed in a person.

“Unfortunately, they wrote less about him than about other scouts and partisans. And it needs to be fixed. Vershigora is a strong and bright personality, he enjoyed great authority, ”summed up Kolpakidi.

* “Ukrainian Insurgent Army” (UPA) is a Ukrainian organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia (decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 11/17/2014).