Ivan Sergeychik

Ivan Iosifovich Sergeichik ( _ru. Иван Йосифович Сергейчик) was born on June 06, 1906 in Orehovsk, Vitebsk district, Belarus. From November 1931 through March 1935 he worked for the State Political Directorate(OGPU) and from March 1935 through November 1937 he worked as special prosecutor for NKVD in Minsk, Belarus.

Shortly after the outbreak of the World War II on the Eastern Front, Belarus got heavily engaged in partisan warfare. By mid-1941, about 60 independent partisan detachments and groups were operating in the occupied territory of Belarus. They comprised 25-40 men each and were sub-divided into 2-3 combat units. The partisans were equipped mostly with small arms collected from the battlefields or captured from the enemy. The lack of coordination among small detachments, their low moral, anarchy within those units, and incidents of looting of food and clothing lead to alienation of the generally supportive local population. To alleviate these problems the Central Committee drafted thousands of NKVD service members and created the network of 1,200 Communist Party cells within partisan detachments. In April 1942, by the resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) of Belorussia (CC CP(B)B), the special courses were formed in the Vladimir region. These courses came to be known as Special Belorussian Training [Особый белорусский сбор] , as the cadets were mostly Belorussians. That initiative has considerably improved discipline and cleaned the situation. In May 1942, Ivan was sent to Vladimir were he underwent extensive special operations, psychological warfare and explosives training to prepare him for the future covert operation.

Many different partisan units operated in the occupied territory of Belarus. They were formed mainly on army principles. The main combat unit was a partisan detachment numbering from several dozen to several hundreds of men. In all, there were 1,255 detachments. The detachments were sub-divided into platoons and companies. From April 1942, many detachments were united into partisan brigades to carry out combat missions independently. That was the most appropriate structure for the partisan force organization. As a rule, a brigade comprised 3-7, and sometimes up to 10 detachments. The number of soldiers in the brigade varied from 600-800 to several thousand soldiers. Each brigade had artillery and mortar sub-units, arms workshops, field services, and a hospital. The general operational control over the detachments was exercised by the brigade command and headquarters, which worked out plans of the combat operations and controlled their deployment. Usually, the brigade was located in the territory of 1-2 districts. The brigade would be responsible for setting up the main and reserve bases, fortifications and observation posts, intelligence network of messengers, and would organize the detachments of the local self-defense forces. In all, 199 partisan brigades were deployed. In places with many active servicemen among the partisans, the partisan regiments were formed. They did not differ greatly from the brigades in their arms and numeric strength. These units conducted combat operations mostly in the territory of the Mogilev, Minsk and Vitebsk regions. In all, there were 14 partisan regiments. The first partisan formations comprising several partisan brigades appeared in the second half of 1942. By 1943, when the creation of partisan formations finished, there were about 40 partisan cells in operation.

In September 1942, Ivan was parachuted into the forest somewhere in the region of Bogushevsk, Vitebsk District and as a political commissar joined Sozonov Detachment #41 that was a part of the 1st Vitebsk Partisan Brigade.

To document his activity he led a diary. His dairy covered a period between 09/19/1942 and 07/27/1943. Throughout this period, his detachment actively participated in various diversions including placing improvised explosive devices along the roads and railroads; ambushed individual German units and involved in direct battles with regular German army. As a result of the direct confrontations with the German troops, 376 German soldiers and officers were killed and 314 were wounded. Throughout this period, the placement of the IEDs along the railroad tracks destroyed nine train engines, destroyed and damaged 135 cars with hundreds of German troops, heavy equipment and supplies. The detachment destroyed about half mile of railroad tracks and created transportation delays on the Smolensk line for 108 hours total. The detachment routinely destroyed communication lines and telephone poles.

By September 1941, Belarus was occupied by the Army Group Centre of the German Wehrmacht. The Vitebsk and Mogilev regions, the major part of the Gomel Region, the eastern districts of the Minsk Region and some districts of the Poles’e Region were under administrative control the rear section of the group.

The German administrative activity on the occupied territories was the continuation of their military campaign. German administration attempted to create such conditions for the local population that excluded possibility for the locals to conduct any business, communicate with the partisan detachments or allow partisans to infiltrate the occupied localities.

Germans set up special "restricted" areas where locals could only be permitted if accompanied by the German soldier. Special boards and markings clearly demarcated such zones and areas. The local population was allowed to be within those zones only under special permits for a short and limited period.

The law in the occupied territories was administered by the commandant’s offices or by the military headquarters directly. As soon as a particular location was occupied, Germans would install a village elder or a burgomaster. The duties and responsibilities of the local authorities were official announced and prominently displayed for the general public. The usual language of such order would be as follows:cquote
# All burgomasters and village elders are responsible for the safety of their respective district, specifically for the safety of the roads that connect to the neighboring localities. The local police and members of the militia shall conduct the guarding of the roads. Local police shall be distinguished by a white band on or around the sleeve.
# The local population is fully responsible for any partisan infiltration and/or activity in their respective district. If the German soldiers are to be killed or injured in case of the failure to comply with this regulation, the authorities shall execute local population double the amount of the German troops harmed.
# For any damage to the roads, railroads, bridges or any other terrorist activity the local authority shall execute no less than three (3) persons.
# Those who provided assistance, shelter, or food to a stranger without the burgomaster permission shall be hung.

Because of the malaria outbreak, in July 1943 Ivan was evacuated to Moscow and after his recovery he resumed his duties working for NKVD. He was awarded multiple governmental awards for his participation and heroism during his partisan campaign. Ivan passed away on April 6, 1973.