Vladimir Vladimirovich Gil (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Гиль; born 11 June 1906, Vileyka – died 14 May 1944, Nakol [ru]), also known by the pseudonyms I.G.
[1] Gil's German prisoner of war documentation places his birth on the same date but a year earlier and in Chaadaevka [ru], a settlement in Penza Oblast, Russia.
[1] In 1938, the Ministry of Defense promoted Gil to captain, major the next year, and then finally lieutenant colonel on 28 February 1940.
[9] In autumn 1941, Gil initiated the creation of the anti-Bolshevik "Russian National People's Party",[10] to be supervised by SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Shindowski, head of the local Sicherheitsdienst (SD) office.
After three weeks, the unit received the name "Druzhina" and was assigned to hunting Jews and Polish GL partisans in the same area.
[17] In the summer of 1943, the Druzhina Brigade redeployed to Dokshytsy to fight the Zheleznyak guerrillas, led by Ivan Filippovich Titkov [ru].
In early July, Titkov opened dialogue with Gil and then convinced him to defect back to the Soviet Union.
[18] In its first action as a partisan unit, Gil's brigade attacked the German garrisons at Dokshytsy and nearby Krulevshchyna [ru] railway station.
[19] On 20 August, the Central Headquarters for Soviet Partisans [ru] sent a working group by air to integrate the former Druzhina Brigade.
[22] In the years after World War II, Gil became the subject of many legends that his son,[3] Vadim, has repeatedly denied.