In English, originally the name of a medieval pole arm, similar to a bill, designed to pull knights from their horses, but more well known as a guerrilla fighter behind enemy lines in eastern Europe, rendered in Russian in its latter form, with a ‘z’ (from Fr.: partisan, one taking sides). Partisan formations existed in Ukraine during the German occupation in 1918 but the term came into widespread use during WW II. One of the downsides of the Germans' rapid invasion of the USSR in BARBAROSSA was that huge military formations and civilian populations were encircled but not destroyed. Partisan districts were set up at the end of 1941 and by April 1942 there were eleven. In 1943-4 the number expanded to twenty. The government in Moscow worked to maintain liaison with the units through air resupply, whether by landing aircraft, which was possible, given the vastness of the terrain, or by parachute. There were partisan detachments of 20 to 200 fighters, regiments, brigades comprising hundreds and thousands of fighters, and partisan formations, comprising ten or more brigades, numbering 5, 000 to 19, 000 fighting men and women. After the war, Stalin sent most of them to the gulags, presumably because they had developed abilities that might threaten his despotism. This was a correct appreciation, as illustrated in Yugoslavia, where Tito's Partisans, having defeated the Germans and the Chetniks, were strong enough to secure their country from Soviet imperialism.
— Christopher Bellamy
