fourth Belarusian front. As early as the spring of 1942 the Soviet partisans were able to effectively harass German troops and significantly hamper their operations in the region. The build-up of the Soviet partisan force in the West Belarus was ordered and implemented during 1943, with nine brigades, 10 detachments and 15 operational groups transferred from the Eastern to Western lands, effectively tripling the Partisan force there (to 36,000 in December 1943). It is estimated that c. 10,000–12,000 personnel were transferred, and about same number came from the local volunteers. The build-up of the military force was complemented by the ensuing reconstruction of underground Communist Party structures and propaganda activity. The Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, certain curbing of the terror campaign (actually since December 1942, formally in February 1943) and amnesty promised to repenting collaborators were a significant factors in the 1943 growth of the Soviet partisan forces. Desertions from the ranks of the German-controlled police and military formations strengthened, with sometimes whole units coming over to Soviet partisan side, including the Volga Tatars battalion (900 personnel, February 1943), and the Gil-Rodionov's 1st Russian People's brigade of the SS (2,500 personnel, August 1943). Summarily, about 7,000 people of miscellaneous anti-Soviet formations joined the Soviet partisan force, while about 1,900 specialists and commanders were inserted in the Belarusian lands in 1943. However, the local people comprised the core of the personnel influx in the Soviet partisan force. Yitzhak Arad was active in the Vilna Ghetto underground movement from 1942 to 1944. In February 1943, he joined the Belarusian partisans in the Vilna Battalion of the Markov Brigade, a primarily non-Jewish unit in which he had to contend with antisemitism. Apart from a foray infiltrating the Vilna Ghetto in April 1943 to meet with underground leader Abba Kovner, he stayed with the partisans until the end of the war, fighting the Germans and their collaborators near Lake Narach. In the Fall 1943, the partisan force in BSSR totalled about 153,000, and by the end 1943 about 122,000, with about 30,000 put behind the front line in the course of liberation of eastern parts of BSSR (end 1943). The partisan movement was so strong that by 1943–1944 there were entire regions in occupied Belarus, where Soviet authority was re-established deep inside the German held territories. There were even partisan kolkhozes that were raising crops and livestock to produce food for