Press releases

Partisan Chronicles: Battle For Bread

MINSK, 24 April (BelTA) - In the autumn of 1943 when the Red Army was a short distance away from Belarus the German occupation authorities were preparing to expropriate peasants’ food supplies. The situation for the Wehrmacht dramatically worsened. Hitler's army was in bad need of food.

Agriculture was totally destroyed in the three years of the war. People would surely die without food. Communist Party district committees and primary organizations and partisan units were tasked with keeping the harvest safe and disrupting enemy food procurement operations. The grain procurement plan had to include a significant portion of settlements located in close vicinity of German garrisons.

“Partisan Chronicles: Battle for Bread” is a new page of the joint project of BelTA and the Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War History. The project is based on a unique collection of handwritten partisan journals provided by the Belarusian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War History. The collection was assigned the status of historical and cultural value of international importance (Class 1). Every week BelTA brings these chronicles to light and posts their digital copies. Each of them sheds light on various aspects of partisans’ life, gives a glimpse into thoughts and feelings of people who risked their lives to fight a battle behind enemy lines.

BelTA will publish digests of these chronicles and upload their digital versions complementing the unique content with photos from its own archives till 3 July 2019.

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