Naumov, Mikhail

Born Oct. 3 (16), 1908, in the village of Bol’shaia Sosnovka, now Bol’shaia Sosnovka Raion, Perm’ Oblast. A leader of the partisan movement in the Ukraine in the Great Patriotic War (1941–45); major general; Hero of the Soviet Union (Mar. 7, 1943). Member of the CPSU from 1928.

Naumov served in the military arm of the Unified State Political Directorate and the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs from 1930. He graduated from the Higher School of Frontier Troops in 1938 and held command positions at the border. Naumov fought as a partisan from January 1942 and was chief of staff of an operational group of partisan detachments in Sumy Oblast from October 1942 to February 1943. He was subsequently in command (until March 1944) of a large partisan cavalry unit that, under assignment by the Central Committee of the Ukrainian CP (Bolshevik), completed three deep raids into the Southern, Right-bank, and Western Ukraine. The partisans fought along more than 10,000 km of the enemy rear and engaged in 336 skirmishes, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.

In 1945, Naumov graduated from courses at the Military Academy of the General Staff and held command positions in the organs and military units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He went into the reserves in 1960. Naumov was awarded the Order of Lenin, two Orders of the Red Banner, the Order of Bogdan Khmel’nitskii First Class, the Order of the Patriotic War First Class, and the Order of the Red Star. He is the author of Khinel’ Campaigns (1953), The Steppe Raid (1961), and The Western Raid (1969).