Bumazhkov, Tikhon

Born 1910; died December 1941. One of the first organizers of partisan detachments during the Great Patriotic War; Hero of the Soviet Union (Aug. 6, 1941). Member of the CPSU from 1930. Born in Chausy Raion, Mogilev Oblast.

Before the war Bumazhkov was first secretary of the ACP (Bolshevik) committee of Oktiabr’skii Raion, Poles’e Oblast, Byelorussian SSR. Early in the war he commanded the Red October Partisan Detachment in Byelorussia. Maintaining contact with units of the Red Army, Bumazhkov’s detachment struck damaging blows at the enemy’s rear and head-quarters, and it destroyed bridges. He was the first Soviet partisan to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. From August 1941 he was chief of the political section of a large unit of the Central Front. He died in battle near the village of Orzhitsa, Poltava Oblast.