shortly after the german invasion of the soviet union in 1941 nazarova signed up for training to become a nurse but was soon appointed by the district party committee as the deputy commander of a youth paramilitary battalion assigned to tracking down and capturing axis paratroopers entering the city. however the group was overrun by numerically superior forces and most members of the unit fled ostrov after the german occupation began. in july 1941 nazarova hosted a group of resistance members in her apartment, and the group decided that she should be the official leader of the partisan detachment they had formed. initially they gathered weapons for soviet prisoners of war and partisans and helped injured red army soldiers find their way to soviet-controlled territory by providing them with maps, compasses, weapons, and provisions while they were in a hospital where nazarova worked as a nurse. later they managed to get their hands on blank passports and provided the prisoners with forged versions of documents they were required to carry by german authorities. the group began engaging in reconnaissance activities after one of the partisans began working at a german mess hall, and even took the risk of posting leaflets listing atrocities committed by the german military at a local wehrmacht headquarters. the unit's sabotage operations included cutting telephone cables, setting fire to office buildings and barracks, derailing trains, and even causing regular power outages after one of the partisans began working at a power plant. the group's most crucial activities consisted of stealing a map of plans for the leningrad blockade and providing the soviet airforce with information of the location of a fuel depot for bombing.