Kirill Orlovskii

Born Jan. 18 (30), 1895, in the village of Myshkovichi, now in Kirovsk Raion, Mogilev Oblast, Byelorussian SSR; died there Jan. 13, 1968. A leader of the partisan movement in Byelorussia. Hero of the Soviet Union (Sept. 20, 1943) and Hero of Socialist Labor (Jan. 18, 1958). Member of the CPSU from 1918. Son of a peasant.

Orlovskii served in World War I as a noncommissioned officer. In June 1918, on instructions from the underground Bobruisk district party committee, he organized a partisan detachment, which operated against the German occupation forces. From December 1918 to April 1919 he worked in the Bobruisk cheka and then completed a commanders’ training course. He directed partisan groups in Western Byelorussia from 1920 to 1925. Orlovskii graduated from the Marchlewski Communist University of the National Minorities of the West in 1930. He worked in agencies of the State Political Directorate (GPU) and the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of Byelorussia from 1925 to 1937. He was also involved in the construction of the Moskva-Volga Canal. He carried out combat missions in 1937–38 in the Spanish Civil War and then worked in agencies of the NKVD of the USSR.

From October 1942 to August 1943, Orlovskii successfully commanded the large Falcon (Sokoly) partisan detachment, which operated in Baranovichi Oblast. He was severely wounded. Orlovskii worked for the People’s Commissariat of State Security of Byelorussia from August 1943 to December 1944. He became chairman of the Rassvet Kolkhoz in Kirovsk Raion, Mogilev Oblast, in January 1945. He was a deputy to the third through seventh convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1956 to 1961. Orlovskii was awarded five Orders of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the Byelorussian SSR, and various medals.