Range of Partisans?

[Biber]

I'm working with my 6th grade son on a research project which involves Ukrainians Jews who took to the forests as partisans. Can anybody offer any idea as to what kind of range (territory) such groups covered? What I've encountered tends to be along the lines of "active in such and such province." Just what does this really mean? Also with regard to where certain people were from, it seems, to me at least, to be probitively too far away to join up with a group so far away. I'm just trying to put into perspective where they were from and their subsequent partisan activities.

Anyone out there well versed on the topic of Ukrainian partisans?

[wm]

Ukrainian partisans were members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. I suppose you mean the Soviets partisans.
Partisans were usually constrained by their lack of logistics: ammunition, food, medical support. So their rarely left their place of residence. Most of them worked by day, and fought in their spare time anyway.
The Soviets were different as they were supplied by air and lived from the land so they could afford to "travel". But still they tended to cluster around the infrastructure they built in forests and other easy to defend places.
The provinces were oblasts. They can be easily found on a map.

A fugitive didn't have to seek for a Soviet partisan unit hiding somewhere in the forest. It could have been even inadvisable as they tended to execute strangers on the spot. Generally he would find a sympathizer or a partisan team (patrolling, on assignment, confiscating food) that would help him to join. And such people were everywhere.

[Art]

There were known cases of partizan forces raiding over a distance of hundreds kilometers, see for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydir_Kovpak
It's a common knowledge that by the end of war partizans from Ukraine were operating in Slovakia and South Poland.
In general mobility of population was huge (evacuations, forced relocations, refugees, conscription to the army etc) : there was nothing impossible for in being a long-long distance from his home area.

Ukrainian partisans were members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

"Ukrainian partizan staff" and "Ukrainian partizan division" were officially used terms.

[ML59]

Ukrainian partisans were members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. I suppose you mean the Soviets partisans.

You are mixing up (would say messing up) ideological/political aspects with geographical/ethnic aspects.
In general parlance, anything label as "soviet" means "related to the Soviet Union" , there is no specific reference to ethnicity, language or any other local aspect. There were Belorussian "soviet" partisans as well as Ukrainians, Russians, Lithuanians, Latvians and so on. To say that Ukrainian partisans were members of UPA is a gross oversimplification: right-wing, ultranationalistic Ukrainians joined UPA , thousands of other Ukrainians joined "soviet" (i.e: loyal to USSR government) partisans units, operating mostly in the east of Ukraine.

[Der Alte Fritz]

As a general source for partisans in English you can refer to the book

Surviving the Holocaust with the Russian Jewish partisans Author: Jack Kagan; Dov Cohen which is about partisans in the forests of the Pripet Marshes in Belorussia and the associated Hollywood film Defiance (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defiance_(2008_film)) which would give a very good general impression. Partisans in the Ukraine would not be so different as they tended to operate mainly in the southern edge of the Pripet marshes.

As regards range of operation, this tended to be quite small as their only transport was the occasional vehicle and mainly horse drawn transport. However German anti-partisan sweeps would tend to force groups to move large distances at short notice and then set up another base outside the area of the sweep. So range of operations would tend to be within an oblast but groups might move location when forced to and set u p in another oblast.

[ML59]

As regards range of operation, this tended to be quite small as their only transport was the occasional vehicle and mainly horse drawn transport.

As a rule, partisans moved on foot. In broken, wooded areas, that means as low as 15-20 km per day, providing there were enough food and water reserves. Motor vehicles were never used more that occasionally, there were simply not enough resources (gasoline, oil, petrol, spares, tyres) to keep them operational. Even horses require extensive logistic support to assure provision of fodder (very bulky and not easily transportable) and everything else; only small detachment could move on horseback without attracting the attention of Germans, collaborators, spies etc.

[ML59]

For a better understanding of the soviet partisan movement i suggest reading "The Soviet Partisan Movement 1941-1944" by Leonid Grenkevich, edited by David M.Glantz

[wm]

Ukrainian partisans were members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. I suppose you mean the Soviets partisans.

You are mixing up (would say messing up) ideological/political aspects with geographical/ethnic aspects.
In general parlance, anything label as "soviet" means "related to the Soviet Union" , there is no specific reference to ethnicity, language or any other local aspect. There were Belorussian "soviet" partisans as well as Ukrainians, Russians, Lithuanians, Latvians and so on. To say that Ukrainian partisans were members of UPA is a gross oversimplification: right-wing, ultranationalistic Ukrainians joined UPA , thousands of other Ukrainians joined "soviet" (i.e: loyal to USSR government) partisans units, operating mostly in the east of Ukraine.

So it's like to other perfectly logical, but uninformative and useless term "Polish concentration camps"...

The Ukrainians fighting in the Soviet forces should be simply called Soviets, as they didn't fight for any Ukrainian cause: their own country, freedom, or preservation of the Ukrainian culture and way of life.

Biber asked about partisans which would have allowed an Jewish fighter among them. The answer isn't Ukrainian (geographical) partisans because there were numerous partisan groups fighting there: Soviet, Ukrainian, Polish, and even Czech. And even those groups were divided even further politically, and
according to their goals.

Of course there is nothing wrong with 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division because it was its name. But still it wasn't a real Ukrainian Division, it was a Soviet one.
Even the Russian Wikipedia calls its commander a Soviet, not Ukrainian leader, despite the fact he was born in Ukraine.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Since the Bielski partisans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bielski_partisans) are a well recorded group with several books about them in English, does anyone know the name of a similar group in the Ukraine? In the case of the Bielski group many of them came to the west after the war and so you have connections such as an episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? featured UK television personality Natasha Kaplinsky discovering that her great uncle Ytsak Kaplinski was a member of the Bielski partisans. He survived the war and emigrated to South Africa.

The other place to look is in Jewish Holocaust historical records since any group would come under the rubric of Holocaust survivor, assuming that they survived as partisans that is.

[Art]

Of course there is nothing wrong with 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division because it was its name. But still it wasn't a real Ukrainian Division, it was a Soviet one.

You can understand Ukrainian as:
- belonging to ethnic group.
- belonging to territory
From both definitions there Soviet Ukrainian partisans is a legitimate term, the same as Scottish Divisions in the British Army.
For the sake of clarity you just can view Soviet Ukraine and Polish Galicia Ukraine as two different countries which had little in common.

[wm]

does anyone know the name of a similar group in the Ukraine?

There were Jewish forest "towns" in Volhynia; Birobidżan, Nalewki, Palestyna (about three thousand people in total) - protected by the Soviet partisans, and there were many Jews among them (for example Brynski group accepted a thousand, Shmuel Spector says the Jews contributed more to the Soviet partisan effort in Volhynia than anywhere else).
The prime movers behind all this were people believed to be Jews although they weren't: Anton Brynski - an Ukrainian, and the commander of one of the largest Soviet partisan group there, and Józef "Maks" Sobiesiak - his subordinate of Polish origin.

[Biber]

The project we are working on involves a young Jewish boy who joins up with the partisan group of Moshe Gildenman ("Dyadya Misha") active in Volhynia. The story is about the 12 year old Motele Schlein and is somewhat well known (perhaps rather, not entirely obscure) among Jewish and Holocaust studies circles. I'm just trying to look into and corroborate aspects of the story. The story tells of Motele being from "Krasnovka", the location of which I'm not entirely certain (if anybody can shed light on this it would be appreciated). He subsequently worked as a cowherd outside of Dombrovitsia. And the part of his story, for our purposes, ends at Ovruch, where Motele blew up a German officers club, having smuggled explosives in a violin case - I'd love to confirm this in German records. I'm just trying to get a feel for the geographical range of partisan groups and how they managed to get about that range.

[wm]

A good idea with that confirmation in German records. Many partisans (of any nationality) embellished their stories as if they were no tomorrow. Including some serial embellishers capable of producing not only fictional battles out of thin air, but entire fictional partisan groups too.
All that for fame, for profit (like in veterans benefits), or both.

[White Fox]

Just wondering if Partisans were ever involved in the confiscation of German Trucks e.g. The EinHeitsdiesel. Writing a fiction novel based on historical fact and I need to be accurate.

[Biber]

A good idea with that confirmation in German records. Many partisans (of any nationality) embellished their stories as if they were no tomorrow. Including some serial embellishers capable of producing not only fictional battles out of thin air, but entire fictional partisan groups too.
All that for fame, for profit (like in veterans benefits), or both.

Surely that is likely the case in some instances, though I'm certainly not approaching it from that stand point. That is why I'm treading very lightly and seeking corroboration only for my own interest. There are certain histories that you just don't mess with.