Mariya Osipova

Shortly after German forces took over Minsk, Osipova worked with a teacher at the law school where she had previously studied to organize a resistance movement that would be headquartered at the school. The partisan group started off with 14 members, but by 1943 the organization had 50 active members. Initially the organization printed anti-Axis leaflets, provided hiding for the city's Jews facing persecution, and helped Soviet prisoners of war escape from German custody. After the group contacted a partisan detachment in 1941, the organization began conducting reconnaissance and sabotage missions against the German military. By late 1941 the group was in communication with the Communist Party of Byelorussia. Since then, Osipova served as the communication liaison between her unit and several other partisan units including the "Dima" unit commanded by D. Keimakh, the "Mestnyye" unit commanded S. Vaupshasov, the "Dyadi Koli" brigade commanded by N. Nikitin, the "Zheleznyak" brigade commanded by I. Titkov, and the "200th" unit named in honor of K. Rokosovsky. She also wrote for the underground newspaper "Zvezda" that was circulated throughout German-occupied Minsk. The partisans sheltered prisoners of war and Jewish refugees in their attics. On sabotage operations the partisans would steal weapons and medicine from the German military, stockpile them, and provide them to other partisans and refugees as needed. Osipova's pseudonym was Chernaya.[2][3]

Osipova's best known accomplishment as a partisan was the assassination of high-ranking SS official and General-Kommissar of Nazi-occupied Belarus Wilhelm Kube, who oversaw the Minsk Ghetto. In late 1941 the deputy commander of the "Dima" unit tasked Nadezhda Troyan with finding someone who worked inside Kube's house and would be willing to assist in a plot to kill him. Valentina Shchutskoi, who was the sister of Yelena Mazanik, suggested that Mazanik, who worked in Kube's mansion as a maid, would be suitable for the task. Troyan took a while to gain the trust of Mazanik, who was very afraid of betrayal, but after her sister Valentina confirmed the identity of Osipova for her she agreed to try to kill Kube. After explaining the plot and discussing the best methods to do it, it was decided to plant a bomb under Kube's bed. Before Mazanik placed the bomb, Osipova and Troyan left Minsk for the forest controlled by partisans, along with their families and most of Mazanik's family. Osipova gave Mazanik a small magnetic mine which she carried in her purse, having obtained the mine from a partisan unit. The assassination went as planned and after Kube was killed, she, Mazanik, and Troyan were declared Heroes of the Soviet Union.[3][4][5]