Patriots of the Homeland

an underground antifascist organization that operated from November 1942 to March 1944 at shipbuilding plants in the city of Nikolaev, which was occupied by fascist German troops, and in the village of Gorokhovka (now in Zhovtnevyi Raion, Nikolaev Oblast).

The Patriots of the Homeland was organized and led by I. V. Kozoderov, foreman at the Black Sea Shipbuilding Plant. In June 1942, Kozoderov, E. P. Lubenetskii, and A. Ia. Prikhodchenko formed a group to set up the organization. An underground meeting held on November 16 named the organization Patriots of the Homeland and elected a bureau headed by Kozoderov. By early 1943 the organization had 97 members, of whom three were Communists, seven Komsomol members, and the rest nonparty manual and office workers.

The Patriots of the Homeland engaged mainly in propaganda work. (They wrote and disseminated antifascist leaflets; about 4,000 copies were printed in Russian and German.) They also carried out diversionary actions on communication lines, conducted reconnaissance, and organized the escape of Soviet prisoners of war from fascist camps. They saved 500 Soviet citizens in the village of Gorokhovka from being taken to Germany. The Patriots of the Homeland acted jointly with the organization called the Nikolaev Underground Center. Thanks to good conspiratorial techniques, the identities of the Patriots of the Homeland were never divulged, and they fought against the occupation forces until the liberation of the city by Soviet troops.