The Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War is closely associated with the beginning of collecting a collection of unique homemade weapons. Once upon a time, the museum staff had to work hard to find and preserve the rarities of the Belarusian partisans, to ensure that their collection - 62 units of original weapons - received the status of historical and cultural value of category "1". Now we can easily get acquainted with the exhibits in the museum. And today - with one of the “fighters” of that time, the TM-44 submachine gun.
Galina SKORINKO: “We are proud that we have such an exhibit.”
Top class
A guide to the history of forest weapons workshops will be the deputy chief curator of the collections of the Belarusian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War, Galina Skorinko
, who since 1974 has been opening important pages of the past to visitors. Even before we arrived, on the table at the entrance to the storage room, she placed documents, the book “Partisan Weapons” and, most importantly, a submachine gun. It was made by fighters of the partisan detachment named after G.I. Kotovsky, brigade named after S.M. Budyonny Pinsk partisan unit: Yankel Menkin and Yakov Temyakov. She met the latter at the museum.
- This homemade weapon is unique. It surprised then, it stuns now,
Galina Vasilievna flips through the “Partisan Weapons” catalog to the desired page and points to the TM-44 submachine gun.
— When defensive battles took place in Belarus at the beginning of the war, resistance was organized.
The population then began to collect weapons, often broken, they knew that everything could be useful.
And it’s true: the partisan detachments were growing, but there was no supply of weapons. That’s why they singled out people who worked with equipment: they could repair weapons.
— Guerrilla gunsmiths, based on the model of the Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh), the simplest stamped weapon, began to make their own machine guns — that’s what they called all submachine guns, —
Galina Vasilievna tells with inspiration.
— And you know what’s most interesting? Many master gunsmiths of detachments in different parts of the country simultaneously had the thought: “What if we make our own weapons?” It was truly top class to create your own submachine gun.
Ideas
Create a set of weapons with which you will fight in the future. Decide on the type of weapon. It will be gunshot or hand-held. Let's say you decide to fight in the Middle Ages theme. Make a bow and arrows, ten arrows will be enough for you. Next, you will need a melee weapon; in case of a miss on the enemy, a sword is used. But archers do not carry heavy weapons with them. Therefore, a dagger is enough. This does not mean that your great and huge ax will sit idle.
Build a flag for the blue and red teams and place it at equal distances from each other. The main task is to capture the flag and get to your base. Teams of boys will fight and shoot with arrows, hitting their opponents. In this case, the main thing is to ensure eye protection, so do not let the knight onto the battlefield without protective glasses.
If there is a weapon, then there must be armor. Using sheets of cardboard, build a helmet for each warrior. Be sure that everyone from the class or kindergarten will take part in the battle. And after the end of the battle, the children. Adults can enter the field with their weapons and also go after the enemy flag.
In case of celebration on May 9, you should assemble a paper machine for your child. How powerful and healthy it is is up to you. Products made from paper look much better than those made from cheap plastic that you buy in a toy store. And a child will understand from childhood that something made with their own hands is much more beautiful and interesting than something purchased.
Making weapons out of paper perfectly develops imagination and hand motor skills. Any assembled white paper weapon can be painted and given an unusual look. You can create an engraving effect using a black pen. The paint is perfect for swords and axes.
This way you can decorate an entire wall with a set of weapons from your favorite movie or computer game. Grappling hook, hidden daggers from assassin, grenade launchers from movies. And if you try really hard, you can assemble a weapon that looks like the real thing from afar.
To do this, you will need several modular assembly schemes. A lot of time and patience. Patience is very important in this matter. It definitely won’t work at first, but over time it will get better and better. Fortunately, in the modern world people do not experience problems with paper shortages. You can even start making weapons from notebook sheets. And once you adapt to this difficult task, feel free to buy cardboard and create unique weapons invented only by you.
Paper crafts have always been interesting for children. But this case is also interesting for adults. After all, paper provides an opportunity for creativity on an interesting topic for every man. Remember to supervise children while playing so that it does not develop into something more.
Yakov and Yankel
Before us are several yellowed sheets of letter.
Date: October 13, 1959. They bear the signature of Yakov Temyakov, a master who mastered metalworking and turning, and knew small arms thoroughly: “My personal memories from the past as a participant in the partisan movement in Belarus.” He was born in 1916 in Saratov. In 1937 he was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army, and already in 1940, after graduating from the Kyiv Military Tank School with the rank of military technician of the second rank, he was sent to Grodno: “That’s where the war captured me.” The Nazis threw all their forces into the area where the tank battalion in which Yakov Temyakov served took up defense. In just one day, June 22, the battalion had to repel 16 attacks! In August, Yakov was shell-shocked near Minsk, captured and thrown into the Slutsk prisoner of war camp. In November he escaped and later ended up in the partisan detachment of Vasily Zakharovich Korzh (then he bore the pseudonym Komarov). Over time, Korzh’s detachment became one of the largest partisan formations operating in the Pinsk region. But all the partisans had to be supplied with weapons, and where to get them? Yakov Iosifovich writes: “I made a proposal not to be content with only captured weapons, but to organize their production on the spot, on our own.” And the command gave the go-ahead. Yakov’s partner was Yankel Menkin, a native of Starobin, who before the war worked in the film service, ended up in the Slutsk ghetto and managed to escape from there to a partisan detachment. There, at the age of 23, he created his own workshop: he worked on faulty weapons, and bought tools for work from a shoe shop. Together they made one homemade PPSh-type machine gun. But to establish mass production, a large weapons workshop and the help of soldiers versed in small arms were needed.
And so, at the beginning of 1943, they equipped a dugout in the forest as a workshop, assembled a group of 8 people, acquired metalworking tools, a forge, a vice, drilling and other machines, and set up charcoal firing themselves. More than a hundred PPSh-41 and PPD-40 submachine guns were made here, and many weapons were repaired. Then the idea was born to design a new machine gun that would surpass the combat characteristics of PPSh and PPD.
The 1944 TEMYAKOV-MENKIN system submachine gun is an automatic hand-held firearm.
Yakov Iosifovich writes: “I soon reached my goal. The machine gun I designed and manufactured was 25 percent lighter than the PPSh. The intervals between shots were increased by 1.5 times against PPSh. Due to the special design of the bolt and recoil spring, the machine gun was reliable in operation and operated without a single instance of failure.” This is how the Temyakov-Menkin submachine gun of the 1944 model was born. Of course, much of him was from his “ancestors.” Researchers note that the weapon was created after studying various systems, including the captured MP-38/40 submachine gun of the Volmer system. However, the most important component - the bolt - was developed under the influence of the domestic PPSh-41.
Galina Vasilievna shows a saved description of the list of parts from which some of the . The last part is the handle plates; they were made from cow horn. When you look at this rarity, you can’t believe that it was made in a handicraft way. Maybe the carved lining on the handle with the image of a five-pointed star gives it away a little. By the way, who fought with these weapons?
Everything is complicated in the forest
Life is incomparably simpler for an urban underground worker - there is civilization all around, electricity, some kind of production, you can do dirty tricks on the occupier right at the workplace. The situation with weapons was much more complicated for the classic “forest” partisans.
Own weapons workshops appeared as the bases were developed: the first homemade products date back to 1942, and the peak of production occurred in mid-1943. Like their Western European colleagues, the Belarusian partisans focused primarily on army weapons models. But for obvious reasons, there was no data about STENs on the territory of the Byelorussian SSR, so the lion’s share of the products produced were “unlicensed versions” of the Shpagin submachine gun. Of course, from the point of view of mass production, there are more technologically advanced models: if you have a lathe, it is easier to organize the production of PPD-34, and of course, with a stamping machine, PPS. However, in the swamp and in the forest, things were difficult with machine tools, rolled sheet metal and pipes of suitable diameter, and the first PPS fell into the hands of the people's avengers only in 1944.
Between the Mosin rifle and the German k98 carbine are partisan PPSh. Pay attention to the shape of the casings and trigger guards (photo: SanSanish)
The most serious problem in the production of handicraft SMGs was the production of rifled barrels. Equipment for such an operation is rare, it is difficult to manufacture, and it is not easy to ensure the necessary tolerances during production in such conditions. So the barrels of non-repairable Mosin rifles, DP-27 machine guns and other weapons chambered for the domestic 7.62×54R cartridge were used (which is why the main partisan “automatic” ammunition in the USSR was 7.62×25 mm TT). The instructions for repairing PPSh of the Main Artillery Directorate (GAU) recommend Mosin barrels - they make two machine guns (let me remind you that according to the classification of the time, PP guns were officially called machine guns). This technology was widely used in besieged Leningrad. Rifle barrels were thinner than necessary, so special couplings were mounted on them. Instead of stamping, they used bending, and the valves for homemade PPSh were forged in primitive forest forges.
Korzh and Voitsekhovich, Voroshilov and Ponomarenko
The TM-44 that I am holding in my hands is submachine gun No. 1. It was manufactured on May 1, 1944.
On the right side of the trigger mechanism box there is an inscription: “In memory of our Major General V.Z. Komarov. from a team of craftsmen named after Kotovsky. 1.5.44”, on the left - “Death to the German invaders”. That is, the first to receive a unique partisan machine gun was Vasily Zakharovich Korzh, the commander of a partisan detachment, major general, Hero of the Soviet Union, who played a significant role in the liberation of Belarus, like his Pinsk partisan unit. He donated his TM-44 to the museum in 1949. It can be seen in the weapons workshop in the museum hall. There is another TM-44 in the storage room, donated to the secretary of the Pinsk Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Sergei Grigorievich Voitsekhovich, which he gave to the museum in 1946. Interesting fact: Temyakov and Menkin also sent submachine guns as a gift to Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov and the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus, Chief of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement Panteleimon Kondratievich Ponomarenko.
“Panteleimon Kondratievich Ponomarenko thought the weapon was so successful that in a reply telegram dated June 21, 1944, he offered to donate it to the Museum of the Patriotic War,
” Galina Vasilievna reads out the telegram.
“Unfortunately, we don’t know where these machines are now.
What is the fate of the masters? This is what is known about Yankel Menkin: he and his wife Lyubov Rabinovich, who was also with him in the partisan detachment, lived in Mikashevichi after the war. In 1991, the Menkin family left for Israel and settled in Tel Aviv. Yakov Temyakov returned to Saratov after the war. In a 1959 letter to our museum, he reported that he worked as a foreman at a Saratov toy factory: “If during the war I had to make “toys” from which the Nazis died in the fields of Belarus, now I am also busy making toys, but only real ones - for our Soviet children.”
Forest gunsmiths
The Soviet partisan movement is a unique phenomenon. It consisted of people, most of whom had nothing to do with the army before the war, and those who, as soldiers, had already experienced all the horrors of encirclement and captivity. All of them, by the will of fate, finding themselves in the occupied territories and having no contact with the Soviet troops, were not afraid and did not surrender. Their main problem at the initial stage of the struggle was not even the occupiers and collaborators, but the banal lack of weapons.
Often, the people's avengers had to collect what was left after the next battles, unnoticed by the enemy, under the cover of darkness. But thanks to the ingenuity of our people, the partisans learned not only to repair what they found, but also to make familiar weapons from improvised means, and sometimes even create their own exclusive samples.
"Wedge"
In 1942, the railways of occupied Belarus were flooded with German trains. At short intervals they walked and walked, delivering soldiers, weapons and equipment to the Eastern Front. The main task of the guerrillas in this region was to reduce the number of trains reaching their destination, but in light of the severe shortage of explosives, most of these missions looked more like suicide. Groups of poorly armed men with crowbars and wrenches became easy prey for German patrols. It is unknown how it would have ended if it had not been for railway lieutenant Tengiz Shavgulidze, who fled from a German camp in 1942 and joined the Belarusian partisans. Drawing on his natural ingenuity and experience in serving in the railway troops, he created a device that operated on the principle of a railway switch and effectively derailed German trains.
Klin Shavgulidze (https://guns.allzip.org)
The system, called “Wedge,” weighed 20 kilograms and consisted of, in fact, the wedge itself and a slope rail attached to the base. The fixture could be bolted to the rail in just a few minutes. The front wheel of the locomotive, running into a wedge, lost contact with the rail and was transferred along the slope rail from the inside of the rail to the outside. As a result, the entire train went downhill. Shavgulidze's wedges proved to be the most effective and easy-to-manufacture weapon of sabotage groups, which worked even better than explosives. The fact is that when a mine was exploded under a train, it disrupted the operation of the air brakes, causing them to automatically operate and the last cars of the train to avoid crashing. When Klin got involved, the train was completely destroyed. This invention helped the Belarusian partisans inflict considerable harm on the occupiers and at the same time save a large amount of explosives.
Interesting fact: Tengiz Shavgulidze personally tested his invention. He quietly made his way to the railroad tracks and installed the Wedge in about a minute. The first German echelon, having run into a one-time switch, dived down the slope. Only after this Shavgulidze proposed his invention as an alternative to mines.
German train derailed (https://pobeda.elar.ru)
PPD-40
The Degtyarev submachine gun is the first weapon of this type made in the USSR. At the same time, the PPD also became the first Soviet automatic weapon to be used by partisan detachments. He ended up there along with the miraculously surviving border guards and Red Army soldiers who escaped encirclement. The PPD is a typical representative of the first generation of submachine guns, which were manufactured with an eye on the German MP-18 and MP-28. With the beginning of the war, manufacturing such weapons in a factory became a complex and expensive undertaking, so Degtyarev’s invention was very quickly replaced by the simple and cheap PPSh. But factories are one thing and partisan workshops are quite another. Paradoxical as it may seem, in conditions of primitive equipment and an acute shortage of tools for partisan nuggets, the PPD turned out to be the most optimal in manufacturing - it could be assembled from what was at hand.
A makeshift PPD that belonged to a fighter from the brigade named after. Kirov Minsk partisan unit (https://popgun.ru)
The main components were made from pipes of various diameters; the barrel of a Degtyarev DP-27 machine gun or rifle was excellent as a barrel. By sawing a long rifle barrel, a partisan gunsmith could make two or even three submachine guns. Of course, the quality of such handicraft weapons at first left much to be desired, but it was still better than going at the enemy with bare hands. Unfortunately, there is no reliable information about which particular partisan detachment was the first to produce its own PPD.
Interesting fact: The Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 was the baptism of fire for the PPD. There it proved to be an effective weapon, which, in turn, influenced the attitude of the Soviet leadership towards submachine guns. Before this, they were considered exclusively police weapons, intended to suppress the protests of the striking proletariat.
Partisan PPD from the TsMVS exposition (https://popgun.ru)
PRGS
In 1943, the already mentioned Tengiz Shavgulidze worked at the Headquarters of the Minsk partisan movement as a subversive instructor, so he, like no one else, knew how much the partisans lacked hand grenades. In the spring of that year, he presented the command with a grenade of his own making. Shavgulidze's hand grenade was a piece of water pipe with a fuse in the form of a fuse and a detonator cap. This invention gained great popularity among partisans, since the destructive power of the homemade weapon was many times greater than that of standard ammunition.
Tengiz Shavgulidze (left) and a typical partisan workshop (right) (https://xexe.club)
By the end of 1943, about 7,000 Shavgulidze grenades were produced in handicraft workshops in the Minsk region. The genius designer did not stop there, and in the same year he invented a partisan rifle grenade launcher. The PRGSh was easy to manufacture, like all partisan weapons. A mortar was made from a casing from a 45-mm projectile, which was attached to the barrel of a shortened Mosin rifle. The same Shavgulidze grenades were used as a projectile. The mortar fired due to a blank cartridge. The grenade's flight range was approximately 500 meters. By January 1, 1944, the partisan detachments of the Minsk brigade already had 120 PRGSh.
Interesting fact: Shavgulidze is also credited with the authorship of various ingenious mines. One of these is considered to be a surprise mine, which looked like an ordinary rifle cartridge, but the filling was not gunpowder, but an explosive. The partisans threw such a surprise into the enemy's heavy machine gun ammunition, and at the very first burst the machine gun and its crew went out of action.
Guerrilla rifle grenade launcher Shavgulidze (https://guns.allzip.org)
PPSh
The Shpagin submachine gun, without a doubt, can be called the most popular weapon of the Great Patriotic War. It is a symbol of war, which is reflected in most monuments dedicated to the feat of the people. However, it was very difficult to produce it in the field: powerful presses were required, which were not available to the partisans. Therefore, forest craftsmen replaced stamping with forging. The second problem was the magazines, and if there were no problems with the production of sector samples for 35 rounds of ammunition and they were mastered quite quickly, then disk magazines required the release of feeder springs, which were almost impossible to produce in artisanal conditions.
Homemade PPSh in the WWII Museum in Minsk (https://popgun.ru)
For this reason, most partisan PPSh were equipped with factory magazines, but some craftsmen found a solution. A spring from a gramophone was used as the ill-fated feeder spring. These cases should be recognized as isolated, since getting a gramophone under occupation was sometimes more difficult than getting a new PPSh. By the way, the first PPSh-41 was made at home by a certain master P.V. Chernigov, gunsmith of the “Razgrom” partisan brigade, which operated in the Minsk region. The Mogilev nuggets from the Chekist partisan brigade set a kind of record by producing ten PPSh from March 30 to July 3, 1943. In total, by July 1944, they assembled 122 Shpagin submachine guns from scrap materials and broken weapons.
Interesting fact: The Germans also appreciated the PPSh.
They often converted captured weapons to use the 9x19 mm Parabellum cartridge and MP -40 magazine. In the Wehrmacht, such PPSh conversions were designated 9-mm Maschinenpistole 717( r ). In turn, the SS preferred PPSh as they were produced from Soviet factories and preferably with a drum magazine.
German sergeant major in a shelter with a captured PPSh (https://mil-history.livejournal.com)
Concealed carry submachine gun designed by Sergeev
During the period from the spring of 1943 to the summer of 1944. The senior master of the “Razgrom” partisan brigade, Nikolai Stepanovich Sergeev, developed and manufactured five submachine guns of his own design. Sergeev’s invention was intended for concealed carry and unexpected use at short distances. The submachine gun was developed for the 7.62x25 mm TT cartridge. The main feature of this sample was the bolt - the receiver did not have a cocking handle on either side. To cock the submachine gun, you had to pull the sighting sight towards you. The metal casing engaged with the bolt and cocked it. This arrangement, coupled with its small size (length 50.5 cm), made the weapon flatter and suitable for concealed carry.
Concealed carry submachine gun designed by Sergeev. Minsk WWII Museum (https://popgun.ru)
Basically, Sergeev's PP was intended for automatic fire, but there were several samples that had a special translator for switching to single mode. Everything in this submachine gun, except the barrel, which Sergeev borrowed from the PPSh, was made in a handicraft manner using the simplest tools. Of course, it also had its downsides. For example, effective firing from this weapon could only be carried out at distances of no more than 100 meters, and some samples could be cocked involuntarily. In addition, some specimens did not have a shoulder rest, which also negatively affected shooting accuracy. But if we proceed from the fact that such a weapon was supposed to be used unexpectedly for the enemy and at close range, then such a submachine gun could have a significant impact on the success of the operation.
Interesting fact: The concealed-carry submachine gun designed by Sergeev was not produced by him just like that, but for a specific owner, taking into account the specifics of its further use. In addition, such weapons also had a sacred character for the partisans. For them it was a symbol of struggle and fortitude.
Concealed carry submachine gun from their TsMVS exhibition (https://popgun.ru)
teaching staff
The Sudaev submachine gun was developed in 1942 (PPS-42) in besieged Leningrad. Alexey Ivanovich Sudaev embodied in this model all the features that should be inherent in wartime weapons: low ammunition consumption and ease of production and use. This submachine gun reached the partisans in its second modification, PPS-43. This model had a shortened barrel and butt, the barrel casing and receiver were one piece, the safety box and the shoulder rest latch were also changed. The main material for its manufacture was sheet steel, which was available in the workshops of the partisan gunsmiths.
PPS-43 - the best submachine gun of the Great Patriotic War (https://army.lv)
The partisans liked this simple and reliable weapon, but it never became widespread among their ranks. This is all due to the period in which the PPS fell into the hands of the people's avengers: at that time, Soviet troops were already conducting offensive operations and gradually transferred military operations to the territories of other countries. Perhaps, if this submachine gun had appeared a year or two earlier, it would have supplanted all other types of automatic weapons from partisan workshops. Several examples of the Sudaev system submachine gun model 1943, produced by partisan workshops, can still be found in museum collections in Russia and the CIS.
Interesting fact: the PPS was withdrawn from service only in the mid-50s, when it was replaced by the AK-47. However, for a long time, the PPS was used by special mobile units of the DPRK, as well as terrorist groups around the world. Terrorists, by the way, like partisans, fell in love with PPS because of its reliability, simplicity, and the ability to produce it in artisanal conditions.
Group photo of the command staff of the Poltava Partisan Unit named after. Molotov. Most of the partisans are armed with submachine guns of the Sudayev system (https://warhistory.livejournal.com)
Dolganov submachine gun
This submachine gun was created in 1944 by Vasily Nikolaevich Dolganov, a partisan of the “Groza” brigade operating in the Vitebsk region. Having experience in combat operations, he realized that the best scheme of action for partisan detachments was the principle of “hit and retreat.” It was difficult to adhere to such a principle due to the lack of a sufficient number of automatic weapons in the brigade, and Dolganov proposed his solution. Using his pre-war experience as a tool maker, he made his own submachine gun. The barrel was borrowed from the DP-27, the drum magazine was from the PPSh, the bolt was in the past the shaft of a wrecked German car, and the bolt casing was a drainpipe. A gasoline barrel was used to make elements of the trigger mechanism, and Dolganov made the butt from a piece of thick wire.
Dolganov system submachine gun (https://www.sb.by)
The PPD fired 7.62x25 mm TT cartridges, the rate of fire was approximately 600 rounds per minute. The sighting range did not exceed 200 meters, which was a decent indicator for submachine guns of that time (especially handicraft ones). Dolganov gave the first PPD for testing to his fellow soldier, who after the first battle praised the weapon. Soon the entire team was collecting parts for the gunsmith, and Vasily Nikolaevich produced several dozen of his submachine guns.
Interesting fact: The main disadvantage of the PPD was the retractable stock, which had an unreliable fastening. Also, when loading the drum magazine, it was necessary to equip not 71 cartridges, for which it was designed, but a maximum of 69, or even better, 67 - then no problems arose when shooting.
TM-44
In 1944, two master gunsmiths from the Kotovsky partisan detachment operating in Belarus, Yakov Temyakov and Yankel Menkin, developed their own submachine gun based on the PPSh and MP-40. The automation scheme was as follows: blowback, rigidly fixed firing pin, firing from the rear sear. The fire mode is automatic only, ammunition is supplied from a sector magazine with 35 rounds of 7.62x25 mm TT cartridges. There were no safety devices on most samples. To make the barrels for the TM-44, as in most similar homemade products, cut barrels from Mosin rifles and Degtyarev machine guns of 1927 were used. Water pipes and bicycle frames were used to make the receiver (aka casing) and stock elements.
Temyakov and Menkin submachine gun, TsMVS Museum (https://popgun.ru)
The springs were sourced from damaged balloons and airplane seats. Any cylindrical parts were suitable for the shutter - from a mill shaft to the axles of German infantry fighting vehicles. Self-taught designers cut most of the parts of the trigger mechanism from iron fuel barrels. Craftsmen carved the linings for the pistol-type handle from cow horn. Visually, the TM-44 resembles the MP-40 or MP38, but when comparing these submachine guns, it becomes noticeable that the Belarusian analogue is much longer than the German one, and also much heavier.
Interesting fact: In total, Temyakov and Menkin produced 45 copies of the TM-44. They presented the very first one to the commander of their battalion V.Z. Komarov, and now it is in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Minsk. In addition, TM-44 can be seen in the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow.
TM-44 with engraving “In memory of the company. regiment Bakradze D.I. from p/o them. Kotovsky, 10.05.44" (https://popgun.ru)
Statistics
For the partisan gunsmiths, nothing was impossible. To understand how much of a contribution they made to the fight against the invaders, just look at the statistics of the workshop of the partisan brigade named after Valery Chkalov, which was formed in 1943. During its existence, its craftsmen repaired 1,250 rifles, 278 submachine guns, 120 pistols, and manufactured approximately 2,100 parts for rifles and machine guns, and all this without taking into account the fact that the partisans sculpted themselves from improvised means. Also, do not forget that the craftsmen often did not have the appropriate education, tools and drawings. They did everything by eye and based only on their experience.
Guerrilla workshop (https://ok.ya1.ru)
The partisans did not limit themselves to local inventions; they sent the best and most proven developments to the “mainland”, so that from there they would be transferred to other partisan detachments. Thus, according to rough estimates of the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement, in the period from January 1 to August 1, 1944, they received 43 rationalization and inventive proposals for examination, and 21 of them were approved and production was launched in partisan workshops. In addition, four proposals received review and were sent to the appropriate authorities for further conclusion, for another five proposals the authors were asked for additional data and drawings, and only 15 ideas were rejected.
Partisan company on the march (https://bemil.chosun.com)
All of the above does not fit at all with the image of a partisan that the modern film industry paints for us. For many of us, a partisan is a kind of narrow-minded village peasant in a ushanka and a padded jacket, whom the German Sonderkommandos chase through the forests, and he shoots back from an old Berdanka. The Soviet partisan movement was a unique phenomenon that united all layers of society from peasants to intelligentsia. People who found themselves in partisan brigades had already managed to look at the war from all angles. What broke many people became an incentive for them to continue the fight. They believed that if they managed to survive, then they needed to make every possible effort and help their land throw off the shackles of occupation - after all, the partisans, unlike the regular troops, had nowhere to retreat, and there was simply no one to rely on except themselves, and the weapons that the partisans created “on their knees” using the most primitive tools - the best proof of this.
