Tiraspol, January 22. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. Today marks the 107th anniversary of the Tiraspol underground activist Viktor Semenovich Panin`s birth. From 1941 to 1944, together with workers of the underground organization he created distributed leaflets that reported the true state of affairs at the front. The informational opposition to fascist Romanian propaganda gave faith and hope to those who lived in occupied Tiraspol.
When the Great Patriotic War began, Viktor Panin from Tiraspol was 28 years old. He worked as the head of the automobile military training center with the central council of Osoaviahim (the society for the defense, aviation and chemical construction assistance is the Soviet socio-political defense organization that existed in 1927-1948, DOSAAF predecessor).
On the night of June 22, 1941 Viktor Semenovich, like all residents of Tiraspol, woke up to a terrible roar. It turned out that it was German planes that bombed the Tiraspol airfield.
The very next day Panin was sent to the 15th Infantry Division, located in Tiraspol, as commander of an auto-platoon, lieutenant technician in the 96th medical battalion.
In the first month of the war, his division, consisting of 12 armies, fought on the territory of Moldova on the Prut River, near the city of Balti. Then there was a tactical retreat, ending in a mousetrap near Uman. Together with his comrade-in-arms, Panin was sent to a prisoner of war camp, where the Red Army men were kept in the open air for weeks without any medical assistance. Panin, however, managed to escape and return to his native Tiraspol. In the fall of 1941, he created an underground group. It included 13 people.
On August 13, 1941, fascist Romanian troops completed the occupation of Pridnestrovie. There was a new order established on the occupied lands. There was formed the Governor General Transnistria, the center of which was the city of Tiraspol from August 19 to October 17, 1941, and later is was Odessa. According to the German-Romanian agreement, the interfluve of the Dniester and the Bug was transferred to the Romanian leadership for “administration and economic exploitation.”
Romanian Units on the Streets of Tiraspol
The words of the head of the Romanian government, Marshal Ion Antonescu are eloquent proof of what was planned to be done in the Transnistria created by the Romanians:
"The interests of the Romanian state are above their own interests, and these interests require that we pump out (from Transnistria) as much as possible to cover the economic needs of the war and especially for future operations, so that we can feed on it."
The Romanian occupation administration introduced a regime of forced labor, restricted movement and a policy of forced eviction. Ghetto and concentration camps appeared in Transnistria for the systematic extermination of Jews.
During the fascist Romanian occupation, local residents were forbidden to speak in a language other than Romanian in public places. Violators were threatened with imprisonment.
Deportation of People, 1941-44
Nevertheless, there began a resistance movement in Pridnestrovie from the first weeks of the occupation. Already in the summer of 1941, there appeared underground organizations. Resistance cells operated in all areas. Forms and methods of resistance were different: information warfare, diversion, sabotage, prisoners-of-war rescue raids.
Panin’s group learned information from Sovinformburo reports (information agency in the USSR, formed on June 24, 1941) on the radio. By some miracle, the underground fighters managed to get a radio. The device was mounted in an inactive stove in Panin`s house. They made hidden wiring and listened to the voice of their native Moscow using headphones.
The first leaflets created by Panin’s organization contained the speech of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, delivered on November 7, 1941, on the day of the 24th anniversary of the Great October Revolution on Red Square during the legendary military parade.
Viktor Semenovich recalled: “We listened to the speech of Comrade Stalin on Red Square and adopted the first Sovinformburo report. Inspired by success, we wrote about it in leaflets and distributed them in the city and Zakrepostnaya Slobodka.”
In envelopes that looked like the small flags of the Motherland, people found messages telling about the true situation on the fronts and about the soldiers and partisans` heroic deeds.
This information inspired people and neutralized the propaganda “guns” of the invaders that Moscow was taken by German troops. At the same time, the leaflets caused a stir among the enemies, the search for underground activists began. But the patriots continued to systematically issue leaflets that informed the population about the situation on the fronts, urging them not to despair and resist.
The most striking moment from the memoirs of Viktor Panin is related to the distribution of leaflets with cartoons on Hitler and Antonescu.
“In 1942, a member of the Gezmeier detachment brought me a book depicting a caricature on Hitler leading a dog on a chain, and the inscription “Antonescu” along the dog. Pictures were good. They wrote in the text: here he is Hitler-the-man-eater ... There were more than 500 copies scattered in red packets around the city. On the second day, the whole gendarmerie and the police were put on high alert to search for the leaflets` author,” Viktor Semenovich recalls.
Memoirs from the Book of the Veteran of the Great Patriotic War Viktor Panin, written personally
The text under the caricature read: “Here they are fiends - Hitler-the-man-eater and his lickspittle on a chain - Antonescu, devouring children, old people, women in their womb. Destroying cities, villages, culture, civilization of the world. Here he is, the one who turned the cities of Rostov, Stalingrad, Sevastopol and dozens of other our cities into a pile of ruins with his pirate troops. What did he bring to our country? Is it culture, poverty, hunger? The victorious Red Army cleanses our land from fascist dragons step by step, and it won't be long before they are exiled completely. Long live the Red Army!”
For the convenience of distributing leaflets, Tiraspol was divided into sectors. A worker of an underground group was assigned for each of them.
The leaflets were written by hand, then each was sealed in a bright red envelope. They were distributed two to three times a week. Usually on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The methods of distribution were different. For example, one of the underground workers put a leaflet in a nut, carefully glued two halves of the shell, and then distributed these nuts on the market. His mother, a resident of Sukley, acted even easier. The underground workers put nuts at the bottom of the milk jug, while the edges were being waxed. They poured milk of the depth of two thumbs from above. With such a milk jug, she managed to get to the city easily, and scatter such "informational" nuts in a convenient place.
These leaflets enhanced the confidence that the liberation of Tiraspol from the fascist occupation was just around the corner.
In addition, Tiraspol underground fighters campaigned among foreign workers. So, cars were repaired by French workers at a motor transport plant, located in Krasnye Kazarmy. Underground workers tried by all means to influence them and ensure that they sabotaged fascist orders. Their efforts were crowned with success. As Panin himself wrote later, the French rejoiced at the successes of the Soviet troops.
Panin's group also managed to organize a series of prisoners of war`s escapes. To this end, false documents were produced. After all, after escaping from the camp, a person needed to somehow live, move around the occupied territory and at the same time avoid a new arrest.
Romanian gendarmes raged in search of "bandits", as they called the underground workers. Yet the diversion continued. As a result of all the actions, the invaders failed to arrest Viktor Panin. And on April 12, 1944, Tiraspol was liberated.
After the war, Viktor Semenovich became the head of the Tiraspol traffic police, a little later he headed Automobile Administration in Tiraspol. Then he was appointed CEO of Tiraspoltrans. Panin was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War II degree, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor.
Viktor Panin passed away on August 2, 1996.
