Among the Soviet regular and partisan formations operating in the rear of the Nazi-occupied territory of the USSR in 1942, a special place is occupied by the grouping of troops of Lieutenant General P.A. Belov with the partisans of the Dorogobuzh and South Yelninsky partisan territories that were part of it. In the work offered to the reader, for the first time, with the involvement of the memories of the participants in the events, information from local residents, archival sources, the specific military operations of the "Belovtsy" and Smolensk partisans against the Nazis and their accomplices in the main period of hostilities - from January to May 1942 in the rear of the Rzhevsky ledge are examined in detail.