Choosing to fight

How Ded Talash became the most famous Belarusian partisan

In the centre of Petrikov, a legendary bearded partisan looks menacingly at the visitors of the town square. This is a monument created by the famous Soviet sculptor, Zair Azgur. In the history of our country, in military terms, there were partisans who were much more significant than the Polesie peasant: Vasily Korzh, Batka Minai, Yemelyan Barykin, but it was Ded (Grandfather) Talash who — with the light hand of Yakub Kolas — acquired all-Union fame and love. The personality of this ‘poleshuk’ is, of course, extraordinary. There is even an anecdote about Talash, which they say he invented himself.

The land was scarce

Two huts in the village of Novoselki, in the Petrikov District, represent the museum of Ded Talash. The new spacious hut is original while a more unusual-looking option is a new building. More precisely, a copy of a house from the second half of the 19th century (the real building was burned down by the Polish invaders). It was in such a ‘mansion’ that Vasily Talash moved into when he joined the house of his wife, says the senior researcher of the museum, Nadezhda Muratshina, “Our hero was born in the village of Belka, now it is part of Petrikov. His father was married twice and there was very little land. Therefore, Vasily was favourably married to a girl with a dowry. What did he do? He fished, worked on the land, raised children, having two sons and three daughters. He was leading the life of an ordinary Polesie peasant.”
The turning point was 1919, when during WWI, and then the Civil War, these lands were occupied by Polish units.
This year marks the 177th anniversary since the birth of Ded Talash, who lived for almost 102 years! Just imagine, he is older than Chekhov, Gorky and Lenin! He was born 17 years before the abolition of serfdom! At the time of the events immortalised in Drygva [The Quagmire by Yakub Kolas], Vasily Talash was 75 years old! It seemed his life had been lived, but it was not so!

He could not stand the Poles

At the end of the 19th and early 20th century, the land issue was acute in the Russian Empire. Only after the 1917 Revolution did the peasants have the opportunity to get real land allotments. These steps by the Bolsheviks were well received by the rural poor, therefore, the local peasants perceived negatively the appearance of the Polish authorities in Polesie enforcing the previous land policy. Most of them sided with the power of the people and the Red Army during the Soviet-Polish war.
In 1919, a detachment of the Red Guards was quartered in Novoselki. The commander settled in Vasily’s house — a respected villager. They developed friendly relations. Talash — as an experienced tracker and fisherman — served as a scout. The information was transmitted to Petrikov, where a large contingent of the Red Army was based. When the Poles arrived, Vasily did not go down well with them right away. They wanted to requisition hay, he defended it with a pitchfork and an axe. To spite Ded Talash, the haystack was simply burned. As a result, the 75-year-old peasant went into the woods, where he organised a partisan detachment of 300 people (there were many dissatisfied people) from his fellow countrymen and began to take revenge on the invaders. In general, they beat the enemy as best they could.
The episode when Ded Talash scattered the Polish crew, became a textbook event. Józef Pilsudski himself (as popular rumour assures us) ordered his sailors to expand the area of operation of the river flotilla in Pripyat. And then they faced Belarusian partisans. Our hero single-handedly scattered the Polish river patrol and beat them with a rifle butt, taking ammunition and weapons.
According to Yakub Kolas, there were three enemies, but Talash insisted that there were five. The fact of this operation is indirectly confirmed by the captured Polish bandolier, which is kept in the family of the legendary partisan’s great-grandson.
After the advance of the Red Army to the west, Vasily went to serve in the reconnaissance of the 417th Infantry Regiment; he was even given uniforms (boots instead of bast shoes, and his pants were almost generals — with stripes). However, the aged soldier was quickly discharged for health reasons, as he came through typhus.
After the war, he became Chairman of the Novoselki Rural Council and a delegate to the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Polesie Region.
Subsequently, it has become known from archival documents that Talash repeatedly appealed to the new government with a request to award himself the Order of the Red Banner. He was a consistent person: he served the Fatherland, so should be given a reward. If not himself, who will ask for him? And he achieved not only an order, but also a personal pension, a new house (the old one was burned by the Poles) and a respectful attitude. He did not even join the collective farm, being a self-serving person, with his allotment, cow and opinions. The peasant really wanted to have his own piece of land, and he got it.

There is a people’s war

In the collection of Talash’s great-great-grandson, Valery Drigo, there are many interesting things from his famous ancestor, for example, a rare razor (possibly presented to him by Yakub Kolas), although Vasily Talash himself never shaved his beard. The list of values includes the seal of the Revolutionary Military Council, issued in 1918 to the division (on the eve of the Soviet-Polish war), the famous astrakhan hat from the portraits of a partisan, a Polish leather bandolier — a trophy taken from sailors, a box of matches from 1943. The latter exhibit was produced at the Novobelitsk Plywood and Match Plant, immediately after the liberation of Gomel from the Nazi invaders.
“At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was in his 97th year. It seemed obvious he could no longer be a partisan. But Vasily Talash did not accept this. He was even arrested by the Germans, but he was released due to his advanced age. However, the Motherland needed the symbols of Resistance, and the old partisan went back in harness. He faked his death and went into the woods,” says Valery Drigo. “His task was to agitate among the recruits. He boasted a huge life experience and a big talent for storytelling. In January 1943, at the age of 99, Talash was sent to Moscow from a partisan airfield. Here he visited plants, factories and military units with stories about the military heroic deeds of the Belarusian partisans. In addition, he turned out to be the oldest partisan, and indeed a fighter in the USSR.”
Family history is connected with Vasily Talash’s trip to Moscow, which has already become a popular anecdote. After speaking at the enterprise, the veteran of the partisan movement was dropped off near the hotel. He decided to take a walk around the capital. When asked if he would get lost, he dismissed the idea, saying that he didn’t get lost in the Polesie woods, and wouldn’t here.
Of course, it was winter and snowy. All the buildings looked the same, and the grey-haired ranger got lost. How was he to find a hotel whose name he had forgotten? Natural ingenuity and life experience helped. He asked passers-by where the partisan Talash was staying, about whom they’d wrote in the newspapers, adding that he wanted to meet with him. The Muscovites showed the right hotel.
The great-great-grandfather was smart and strong, he enjoyed telling tales and fishing, Valery Drigo shares his family legends, “He probably lived for almost 102 years because he ate correctly: fish, cereals, vegetables, fruits. He enjoyed pears very much. A couple of these trees have even survived near the house in Novoselki. However, it was the pears that killed him. He overate unripe fruits which his body could not manage. As they said then, he died of volvulus, the doctors didn’t have time to save him. Nevertheless, he lived his life — May God grant such a life to everyone — he loved his native land very much and defended it from enemies and bequeathed it to us.”

By Stanislav Galkovsky