Sydir Kovpak | |
|---|---|
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| Born | June 7, 1887 |
| Died | December 11, 1967 (aged 80) |
| Allegiance |  Russian Empire Soviet Union |
| Service years | 1914–1925 1941–1945 |
| Rank | Major-General |
| Commands | Putyvl partisan detachment [uk;ru;pl] 1st Ukrainian Partisan Division Allied partisan units |
| Conflicts | |
| Awards | Hero of the Soviet Union (twice) Cross of St. George (3rd, 4th Class) Medal of St. George (3rd, 4th Class) Order of Lenin (4 times) Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 1st Class Order of Suvorov, 2nd Class Order of the Red Banner Medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War", 1st class |
| Other work | Various top positions in government of Soviet Ukraine |
Sydir Artemovych Kovpak (Ukrainian:Си́дір Арте́мович Ковпа́к;Russian:Си́дор Арте́мьевич Ковпа́к,romanized: Sidor Artemyevich Kovpak), (June 7, 1887 – December 11, 1967) ledSoviet partisans in Ukraine from 1941 to 1944 during theAxis-Soviet War phase ofWorld War II.
Kovpak was born to a poorUkrainian peasant family inKotelva village inKharkov Governorate,Russian Empire (in present-dayUkraine).[1] Kovpak is ofZaporozhian Cossack descent.[2] For his military service inWorld War I, he was awarded twoCrosses of St. George personally by theEmperorNicholas II of Russia (an award for exceptional military heroism). After theRussian Revolution he joined theAll-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and fought for theRed Army partisan units against theGerman forces, as well as againstDenikin'sWhite Army inVasily Chapayev's cavalry division. In the interwar period he was a head of the local government in the town ofPutyvl,Sumy Oblast (province).
At the time of theGerman invasion of Soviet Ukraine partisan units led by Sydir Kovpak wagedguerrilla warfare againstAxis forces originally in partisan strongholds inSumy andBryansk regions but later its operation spread deep into German-occupied territory includingKyiv,Zhytomyr,Rivne,Homyel,Volyn and other regions. These partisan units also fought against thenationalistUkrainian Insurgent Army. In 1944 partisans under Kovpak's leadership raided enemy forces throughoutwestern Ukraine andBelarus and even reachedRomanian border regions during theCarpathian raid inflicting heavy casualties on theGermans.
Kovpak mastered guerrilla tactics and was awardedHero of the Soviet Union title twice (1942;[3] 1944[4]). In the summer of 1943 Germans managed to hunt down and kill Kovpak's second in commandSemyon Rudnev who was replaced by a new right-hand manPetro Vershigora who would later become a writer and dedicate his books to Kovpak's underground resistance.
Sydir Kovpak was promoted to therank ofMajor General in 1943. According to the memoirs of his lieutenant Vershigora, his promotion and General's stars were airdropped to his partisan unit's position deep behind the front lines. After the end of theSecond World War Sydir Kovpak held key positions in the leadership ofSoviet Ukraine, including Vice Chairman of theSupreme Court of Ukraine in 1947 andSupreme Soviet of Ukraine in 1967. He also was a member of theSupreme Soviet of the Soviet Union for the 2nd through 7th convocations.
Kovpak was portrayed (byKonstantin Stepankov) in Soviet film trilogyDuma o Kovpake (Дума о Ковпаке,Poem of Kovpak):
A TV documentaryЕго звали ДЕД (He was called GRANDPA) (Ukrainian language, produced byTRK Era, director Oleksiy Barbaruk-Trypilsky, 36 min, screened in 2011) documents Kovpak's life during the war.
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