[6] Local partisans were recruited from Red Army soldiers of all ethnicities who had been cut off by German encirclements,[7] and from Ukrainians and pro-Soviet Belarusians.

These troops had no contact with the Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (CSPD), limited their attacks on German units for lack of ammunition, and raided nearby villages for supplies.

[8] The murder of peasants by way of terrorizing them into giving up provisions began in 1943 when villages such as Kamień, Derewno, Borowikowszczyzna, Dziagwie, and Rodziewszczyzna were raided.

They were led by Vasily Chernyshov [ru] "Platon" who, equipped with a radio station, reached the Naliboki forest in April, where he took command of the entire partisan movement in the Baranovichi oblast.

[10] However, the policemen managed to barricade themselves in the station, located in an unfinished church building, and retreated in the evening after the Soviet partisans left, despite heavy losses.

The Soviet commander reported to the NKVD the killing of 250 people, the capture of weapons, the rounding up of 100 cows and 78 horses, and the destruction of a German garrison.

In reality, the number of victims was lower (now estimated at 129),[7] no Germans were present or killed, and only one Belarusian auxiliary policeman happened to be sleeping in the town on the night of the attack.

Resulting from this, on at least ten occasions the Nowogródek District division (pl) of the Armia Krajowa attempted to negotiate with the Soviet partisans to stop the attacks on hapless villages.

[16][17] Contemporaneously, the right-wing Catholic daily Nasz Dziennik published a series of articles on the Naliboki massacre, all blaming the Jews; Hanna Maria Kwiatkowska perceives the sudden focus as a balancing counterweight to the culpability of Poles in the Jedwabne pogrom whose details were coming to light.

[18] A local branch of the CPC even claimed, wrongly, that in Naliboki "Jewish partisans [had] boast[ed] of killing [...] 130 Poles".

[19][20] In conclusion, the IPN held the massacre to have been carried out by partisans from the "Stalin" brigade, accompanied by those from the "Dzerzhinsky", "Bolshevik", and "Suvorov" units.