The war between German units and Soviet partisans in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union was fought by both sides with all the means at their disposal. Both aimed at the destruction of the other, and neither made a practice of taking prisoners as distinctions between soldiers and civilians blurred.

The contours of this war are uncontested, but most conclusions have rested on German sources, primarily the reports of police and army units. These sources have important limitations. They include few first-hand accounts from German or Soviet perpetrators, whose testimony would have represented incriminating evidence against themselves. The language of the German sources is coded. The reports tended to camouflage genocide, whether undertaken against Jews, Gypsies, or Belorussian villagers, in formalistic language - in terms like “Aktion,” “Sonderbehandlung,” “Umsiedlung,” and “Banditen.” In addition, these sources tend to ignore or understate the role of collaborators.

Despite a number of extensive published editions, the Russian-language sources have not been much exploited.3 Soviet historiography tended to ignore questions of human rights, to underplay the role of Jewish partisans, to exaggerate the influence of the party and popular support for it, and to emphasize the heroism and military significance of the partisans.