The article addresses a little-studied theme – the system of training partisan personnel during the Great Patriotic War. Partisans were trained throughout the entire period of the existence of the partisan movement in the Leningrad region. From the first days of the war, partisan teams and training centers were set up, providing short-term training for their participants. In the process, partisans mastered Soviet and captured weapons, had fire and drill training, studied the basics of guerrilla warfare tactics. There was organized the training of certain groups of radio operators, signalmen, and scouts. Particular attention was paid to the training of guerrilla unit commanders. In 1942, the partisan camps and training centres were staffed with military and civilian personnel on a regular basis. They trained command and enlisted personnel for partisan detachments and sabotage groups. Personnel training was carried out in accordance with training programs on various military specialties. After severe casualties that the partisans suffered in the winter of 1941–1942, there was organized a system meant to regularly examine the combat skills of the partisans. In order to eliminate the detected shortcomings in the partisan units, the Command launched intensive short-term courses and modified training programs in the partisan special schools and training centers. The article draws upon materials from the archive in the Leningrad Region, many of which were introduced into scientific circulation for the first time.
partisan cadres; partisan training; short-term courses; special classes; training centers.