Partisan united formation

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, a Soviet partisan united formation (1941–1944) (Belarusian: партызанскае злучэнне united formation), also called a military-operational group or a centre (Belarusian: ваенна-аператыўная група (ВАГ)), became one of the organisational forms which grouped together various Soviet partisan units. A united formation linked several of the smaller partisan units - partisan brigades or regiments or detachments - with a view to conducting wide-scale and center-coordinated military operations in the rear of occupying Axis forces.

On the territory of the BSSR[1] about 40 such units developed in the period 1941 to 1944, mostly in 1943.

The higher-level Soviet ruling bodies - the Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, the Belarusian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement, and underground Province, Inter-District and District Committees of the Communist Party - organised units of this kind. Usually, local Communist leaders or higher Red Army officers took command, and the staffs of the respective united formations carried out management functions.