reached Ukraine and had reached Kiev by late August. In September, Rudniev formed a partisan group in Putyvl. In October, Rudniev and Sydir Kovpak's partisan detachment united into one unit, with Rudniev becoming commissar. He quickly gained respect among partisan fighters and remained Kovpak's commissar while their initially small group rose into a large well-organized formation raiding the rear of the Axis occupants. In the winter of 1942, Rudniev was wounded in battle near Vesyloye village. On April 9, 1943 Semyon Rudniev was promoted to the rank of major general. According to official sources, Rudniev, recovering from a wound, committed gunshot suicide in a sudden German attack, in order to not be taken alive. The incident happened during the 4 August 1943 "Carpathian Raid" of Kovpak's partisan group and was witnessed at first hand only by a small group of his guards (mostly killed in that action). However, Glantz states that Rudniev was killed while the partisan group was withdrawing from an attack on Deliatyn. On 4 January 1944, Rudniev was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin for bravery in the partisan battles. In July 1946, a mass grave containing Rudniev's body was discovered in a forest near Deliatyn in Zarichchia. He was reburied in Yaremche. Legacy A monument to Rudniev was installed in Putyvl. Rudniev's home village of Moiseyevka became Rudnevo in his honor. The teacher's college in Putyvl was also named after Rudniev. In Deliatyn, a monument honoring Rudniev was also erected. In 1967, the Soviet Union issued a postage stamp in honor of Rudniev. Controversies After the fall of the Soviet Union, some historians began questioning the official version of Rudniev's life and death. Basing on disclosed Soviet archives, some researchers alleged that Rudniev was not committed to strategy and approaches (especially regarding civilians) dictated by the Moscow-based Ukrainian Partisan Movement Headquarters ()). This supposedly caused Rudniev's conflicts with both Sydir Kovpak and high-ranked NKVD agent Ivan Siromolotnyi (the latter was interacting with Kovpak and Rudniev from Moscow over the radio). According to these researchers, Rudniev was attempting to collaborate with Ukrainian People's Army forces. This conflict is said to have caused Rudniev's mysterious death. Some studies suggest that Rudniev might have been assassinated by his personal radio operator, Anna Turkina (a woman trained in Moscow) by a direct order from Siromolotnyi. However, according to deputy head of the