Partisan brigades were active from shortly after Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 through the end of the war in 1945.
On the BSSR territory, the first brigade-like unit («Pavlovskiy harrison») was created in January 1942 (Aktsyabrski dist.
The most notable Czechoslovak partisan brigade was the Jan Žižka partisan brigade, formed from a core of Soviet-trained paratroopers dropped into Slovakia in August 1944.
[2] The brigades comprised from several hundred to several thousand fighting persons in 3—7 detachments (rarely called battalions).
The emphasis on the brigades was put in order to enhance the offensive capabilities of the partisan units, to facilitate their cooperation, mutual coordination of activities, more effective radio communications and logistical support.