page_title: Kurt Agricola
section_title: Rear security operations in the Soviet Union (1941–1943)
hierarchical_section_title: Kurt Agricola / World War II / Rear security operations in the Soviet Union (1941–1943)
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Erhängte Partisanen
context_page_description: Kurt Wilhelm Albert Karl Agricola was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who held senior level occupational rear-security commands in the occupied Soviet Union. A native of Saxony, Agricola entered army service in 1908 and served during World War I. During the interwar era, he held staff assignments and continued to rise through the army's ranks in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany. His career ended stalled in January 1939, when he was sent into retirement on political grounds because of his marriage to Martha born Hahn, a Jewish woman. Reactivated again upon the start of World War II, Agricola received exclusively positions behind the front line. As rear area commander of the 2nd Army in the occupied Soviet union during 1941–43, Agricola brought changes in the Wehrmacht's harsh occupation policies and was successful in maintaining control of his area of occupied territory from Soviet partisans. Shortly after the war's end, he was arrested by Soviet authorities, convicted of war crimes and remained in captivity for a decade. One of the last German prisoners in the Soviet Union, he was released in October 1955 and died shortly thereafter in West Germany.
context_section_description: With the Battle of Moscow and the Soviet counter-offensive of the winter of 1941/42, the rear security of the occupied territory was considered by the German High Command of paramount importance, given how stretched the Wehrmacht's supply lines were. The resistance movement and the Soviet partisans, reinforced by Red Army soldiers who had evaded capture when their units were destroyed during the initial stages of the invasion, posed the most essential threat to the control of the areas behind the front. The main formations tasked with the protection of the supply lines and the destruction of the partisans were the Korücks (acronym for Kommandant rückwärtiges Armeegebiet, Commander of the Rear Area Army Territory).
  Agricola was appointed Korück 580, in the rear area of the 2nd Army, with headquarters in Kromy on 19 December 1941, with the battle for Moscow in full swing, succeeding the 64-year old Generalleutnant Ludwig Müller (who had requested his relief because of a heart ailment). Besides holding a command that lacked probability of advancement or distinction — being far behind the front — Agricola had to deal with immense problems as soon as he took over the appointment. Korück 580 was the sole formation responsible for the protection of approximately 37,000 km² of occupied territory, 800 km of railway (including the vital Kursk–Oryol line), 500 km of roads and 320 bridges. The forces at the Korück's disposal were insufficient for such a task, merely 800 men of questionable fighting value who had to operate in difficult winter conditions. Opposing Agricola's forces were 2,000 to 2,500 armed partisans.
  Agricola, finally given a chance to prove himself as commander, addressed the problems energetically. He quickly came to the conclusion that major anti–partisan actions were impossible to conduct due to the extreme conditions and the lack of forces, so he opted to concentrate and fortify his available forces in key positions. It was due to his persistence that the 2nd Army yielded to his requests and reinforced him with over 10,000 Hungarian troops until May 1942. During these months, Agricola's units battled fiercely with partisans, succeeding in killing over 7,200, according to official reports. German historian Christian Hartmann argued that the relatively heavy casualties of the Korück's troops — 1161 dead, wounded and missing — and the number of captured enemy weapons indicated that Agricola, in contrast with the typical occupation policy of the time, was not focused (at least exclusively) in reprisals against the civilian population, in the hope of terrorizing and weakening the partisan movement. Korück 580 was ultimately successful in eliminating the local partisan threat until the summer of 1942. Agricola also supported the utilization of Soviet volunteers in anti–partisan warfare. In his area of responsibility, in May–June 1942, a battalion formed of Turkestani volunteers, the Turkestanisches Infanteriebataillon 450 (Turkestani Infantry Battalion 450) took part in operations. On 30 June 1942, Agricola praised the commander of the unit, Andreas Mayer–Mader, for his effective leadership style.  
  Noting the increasing influence Soviet propaganda had on the population, Agricola called for more humane treatment, so that the population would not be an impediment in the exploitation of the occupied territory for the war effort. For this, he restrained the indiscriminate executions of civilians, though the figures of those executed remained high: he reported that until June 1942, his units had executed 1,600 out of 6,000 civilians suspected of a wide range of punishable actions (the Kommissarbefehl was also implemented) and released unharmed most of the remaining 4,400. Mass starvation, primarily due to the reckless exploitation of resources by the Wehrmacht was common in other occupied Soviet territories, and the situation in the Korück's territories was not very different. In February 1942, Agricola wrote that the food rations for the civilians were lower than those issued by the pre–war Soviet regime and felt that g
caption: Men hanged as partisans somewhere in the Soviet Union. Such a sight was common in the areas under German occupation
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