Vassili Kononov

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Vassili Makarovich Kononov or Vasiliy Makarovich Kononov was a Soviet partisan during World War II. On 29 February 1944, Latvian villagers from Mazie Bati allowed 12 men from the Soviet reconnaissance-sabotage group to stay in their barns. The next day, at six in the morning, the Germans, likely tipped off by the villagers, burned and machine-gunned the barns. All 12 partisans, including the leader Major Chugunov, his wife Antonina and their 7-month-old son, were killed. On 27 May 1944, a detachment of the First Latvian Partisan Battalion led by Kononov staged a "counter operation" against the village of Mazie Bati. In this operation, 9 villagers were accused of being German auxiliaries responsible for the prior incident. Kononov's men were sent to capture the 9 villagers pursuant to an ad-hoc Military Tribunal verdict.