General Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army. Way of the traitor

On September 14, 1901, Andrei Vlasov was born in one of the villages of the Nizhny Novgorod province. He was destined to become the most scandalous military leader in Soviet history. The very name of the general became a household name, and every Soviet citizen who served with the Germans was called a Vlasov.

Little is known about the early life of the future general. Andrei Vlasov was born in a village in Nizhny Novgorod in 1901. His father, according to some reports, was a non-commissioned officer of extra-long service. According to others - an ordinary peasant. There were 13 children in the family, Andrei was the youngest of them. Nevertheless, with the help of his older brothers, he managed to study at the Nizhny Novgorod Seminary. Then Vlasov studied at a local university as an agronomist, but he completed only one course. The Civil War flared up, and his education was interrupted by mobilization in the Red Army. And so began his military career.

In the Red Army, which lacked literate and educated people, Vlasov quickly made his way to the company commander, and then was transferred to staff work. He headed the headquarters of the regiment, then led the regimental school. He joined the party relatively late, only in 1930.

Vlasov was in good standing and was considered a competent commander. It is no coincidence that in the late 30s he was sent to China as part of a group of military advisers to Chiang Kai-shek. Moreover, for several months, Vlasov was considered the main military adviser to the Chinese leader. At the end of 1939, he was recalled to the USSR and appointed commander of the 99th division.

There Vlasov again proved himself from the best side. In just a few months, he managed to restore such order that, according to the results of the exercises, she was recognized as the best in the Kiev military district and was especially noted by the highest authorities.

Vlasov also did not go unnoticed and was promoted to commander of a mechanized corps, and also received the Order of Lenin. The corps was stationed in the Lvov region and was one of the first Soviet units to engage in hostilities with the Germans.

He proved himself well in the first battles, and a month later Vlasov again went on promotion. He was urgently transferred to Kyiv to command the 37th Army. It was formed from the remnants of the units retreating from the west of the Ukrainian SSR, and the main task was not to allow the Germans to take Kyiv.

The defense of Kyiv ended in disaster. There were several armies in the cauldron. However, Vlasov managed to prove himself here too, units of the 37th Army were able to break through the encirclement and reach the Soviet troops.

The general is recalled to Moscow, where he is entrusted with the command of the 20th Army in the most important direction of the German strike - Moscow. Vlasov did not fail again, during the German offensive, the army managed to stop the 4th Göpner Panzer Group near Krasnaya Polyana. And then go on the offensive, liberate Volokolamsk and go to Gzhatsk.

Lieutenant General Vlasov became a celebrity. His portrait, along with several other military leaders, was printed on the front pages of the largest Soviet newspapers as the most distinguished in the defense of Moscow.

Doomed to captivity

However, this popularity had a downside. Vlasov began to be perceived as a lifesaver, which in the end led to an inglorious end. In the spring of 1942, the 2nd shock army penetrated the German defenses, occupying the Luban salient. It was planned to use it as a springboard for a further offensive on Leningrad. However, the Germans took advantage of the favorable conditions and closed the encirclement in the Myasnoy Bor area. The supply of the army became impossible. The headquarters ordered the army to withdraw. In the area of ​​​​Myasny Bor, they managed to break through the corridor for a short time, along which several units came out, but then the Germans closed it again.

Vlasov at that time served as deputy commander of the Volkhov Front Meretskov and, as part of a military commission, was sent to the location of the army in order to assess the situation on the spot. The situation in the army was very difficult, there was no food, no ammunition, it was also impossible to organize its supply. In addition, the army suffered very heavy losses in the battles. In fact, the 2nd shock was doomed.

By this time, the commander of the Klykov army was seriously ill, and he had to be evacuated by plane to the rear. There was a question about the new commander. Vlasov proposed to Meretskov the candidacy of Vinogradov, chief of staff of the army. He himself did not want to take responsibility for the perishing army. However, Meretskov appointed him. In this case, his track record played against Vlasov. He already had a successful experience of breaking through the encirclement, and also showed himself well near Moscow. If someone could save the perishing army, then only a person with such experience.

However, the miracle did not happen. Until the end of June, with the support of the 59th Army, desperate attempts were made to break out of the encirclement. On June 22, for several hours, they managed to break through a 400-meter corridor, along which some of the wounded were carried out, but soon the Germans closed it.

On June 24, the last, desperate attempt to break through was made. The situation was very difficult, the army had been starving for a long time, the soldiers ate all the horses and their own belts and still died of exhaustion, there were no more artillery shells, there was almost no equipment. The Germans, in turn, carried out a hurricane of shelling. After a failed attempt to break through, Vlasov gave the order to escape, as best he could. Break into small groups of 3-5 people and try to covertly get out of the environment.

What happened to Vlasov in the following weeks has not yet been established and is unlikely to ever become known. Most likely, he was trying to get to the reserve command post, where food was stored. Along the way, he entered the villages, introducing himself as a village teacher and asking for food. On July 11, in the village of Tukhovezhi, he entered the house, which turned out to be the house of the headman of the village, who immediately handed over the uninvited guests to the Germans. Having set the table for them in the bathhouse, he locked them up and informed the Germans about it. Soon their patrol detained the general. In some sources there are allegations that Vlasov deliberately intended to surrender to the Germans, but this is somewhat doubtful. For this, it was not necessary to wander for two and a half weeks through the forests, hiding from patrols.

In captivity

Smolensk Appeal"

Smolensk Appeal", in which Vlasov called to go over to his side in order to build a new Russia. It even contained some political points such as the abolition of collective farms. The German leadership approved the appeal, but considered it as a purely propaganda action. They wrote about it in newspapers, there were also leaflets were printed in Russian to be thrown into Soviet territories.

The party leadership was completely indifferent to Vlasov. Hitler and Himmler did not care about the captured general, he did not interest them. The main lobbyists of Vlasov were the military, who may have seen in Vlasov a potential leader of the future puppet government, if there is such a thing. On the initiative of Field Marshals von Kluge and von Küchler, Vlasov made several trips to the location of Army Group North and Center in the winter and spring of 1943. He not only met with prominent German military leaders, but also spoke to local residents in the occupied territories and gave several interviews to collaborationist newspapers.

However, the party did not like that the military was playing their game and trying to enter their territory. The Russian committee was disbanded, Vlasov was temporarily banned from speaking publicly, and the military was reprimanded. The Nazi Party had no desire to turn Vlasov into anything more than a propaganda phantom.

Meanwhile, the activities of Vlasov became known in the USSR. Stalin was so indignant that he personally corrected the newspaper article "Who is Vlasov?". This article reported that Vlasov was an active Trotskyist who planned to sell Siberia to the Japanese, but was exposed in time. Unfortunately, the party took pity on Vlasov and forgave him, allowing him to lead the army. But as it turned out, even in the first days of the war, he was recruited by the Germans, and then returned to Moscow, showed himself well for some time in order to avoid suspicion, and then specially led the army into an environment and finally defected to the Germans.

Vlasov found himself in a difficult position. In Moscow, they already learned about his activities, but in Germany he was in limbo. The party leadership, including Hitler, did not want to hear about the creation of a separate army, which was what the military wanted. When Field Marshal Keitel tried to probe the waters, Hitler made it clear that he would not allow it to go beyond the usual propaganda actions.

For the next year and a half, Vlasov became a party-goer. His patrons organized meetings for him with prominent figures who looked at the "Russian question" not as radically as the leaders. In the hope that, having enlisted their support, it would be possible to influence Hitler and Himmler at least indirectly, Vlasov was even arranged for a marriage with the widow of an SS man.

But all that his patrons managed to achieve was the creation of a "school of propagandists" in Dabendorf. For more, the party did not give permission.

Russian Liberation Army

Heavi" down to the village police, who had nothing to do with the ROA.

However, at the beginning and middle of the war, the Germans created small detachments (usually the size of a company / battalion and very rarely a regiment), the so-called. eastern battalions / companies, which were often involved in anti-partisan operations. A significant part of their personnel was later transferred to the ROA. For example, the former Soviet commissar Zhilenkov, before getting to Vlasov, held a prominent post in the RNNA - the Russian National People's Army, numbering several thousand people. Which just acted against partisans in the occupied territories.

For some time, the RNNA was commanded by the former Soviet colonel Boyarsky, who later also became a person close to Vlasov. Most often, the eastern battalions and companies were part of the German divisions, under which German officers were created and controlled. The personnel of these units sometimes wore cockades and stripes used later by the ROA, which creates additional confusion. However, these units, which appeared even when Vlasov was a Soviet general, were subordinate to the Germans and Vlasov had no influence on them.

the same Bolsheviks, only against the collective farms. "Thus, we can sum up this confusing issue. The ROA did not operate in the occupied Soviet territories, but part of the personnel of this army had previously served in the German eastern battalions in Soviet territories.

The combat path of the newly minted army turned out to be very short in general. During the five months of its existence, units of the ROA only twice took part in battles with Soviet troops. Moreover, in the first case, this participation was extremely limited. In February 1945, three platoons of volunteers from the Dabendorf school took part in the battle on the side of the Germans with the 230th division of the Red Army.

And in early April, the 1st division of the ROA fought along with the Germans in the Furstenberg area. After that, all parts of the ROA were withdrawn to the rear. Even with the imminent end, the Nazi leadership did not have much confidence in the newly minted allies.

By and large, the ROA has remained a propaganda, and not a real fighting force. One combat-ready division, which only once took part in hostilities, could hardly have had any influence on the course of the war, except for propaganda.

Arrest and execution

Vlasov hoped to get to the location of the Americans, as he expected a new world war between the USSR and the USA. But he never managed to get to them. On May 12, 1945, he was arrested by a Soviet patrol on a tip. However, the Americans would have given him to the USSR anyway. First, he was a symbolic and familiar figure. Secondly, militarily, the ROA was not any significant force, so even as a potential ally by the Americans in the event of a new war, it would not be considered. Thirdly, an agreement on the extradition of Soviet citizens was reached at the conference of allies, only a few managed to avoid this extradition.

Vlasov and all his associates from among the Soviet citizens were taken to Moscow. Initially, it was supposed to hold an open trial, but Abakumov, who supervised it, was afraid that the leakage of the views of the defendants would cause some undesirable consequences in society, and suggested that they sort it out quietly. In the end, it was decided to hold a closed trial without any publications in the press. The final decision was made by the Politburo. Instead of an open trial of traitors on August 2, 1946, a stingy note was given in Soviet newspapers that Vlasov and his closest associates were found guilty of treason and executed the day before by the verdict of a Soviet court.

There is nothing unusual in the biography of Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. He was born in 1901 in the family of a simple Nizhny Novgorod peasant. After graduating from a rural school, he, as a very capable child, was sent to study further, but since the family was rather poor, they chose the cheapest educational institution for him - a religious school. But the funds were still not enough, and the teenager had to engage in tutoring.

In 1915, Vlasov graduated from college and entered the theological seminary, and after 1917 he transferred to a unified labor school of the second degree. In 1919, he was already a student at the Faculty of Agronomy at the University of Nizhny Novgorod. But there was a civil war, and A.A. Vlasov went to the Red Army. The first front for him was the South, where he fought with other Red Army soldiers against Baron Wrangel. Then he participated in the battles of Makhno, Kamenyuk and Popov.

After the end of the civil war, the former student did not return to study at the University of Nizhny Novgorod. He remained to serve in the Red Army. First he commanded a platoon, then a company. After - he taught tactics at a military school in Leningrad. In the late 1930s, his promotion went especially fast. Vlasov was appointed division commander. A few months later he was sent on a secret government mission: he became a military attache in China under Chiang Kai-shek. In 1939, Vlasov received the post of division commander - in the Kiev Special Military District.

Below are excerpts from the army characteristics of Vlasov:

"Very intelligent growing commander"

“In the division, the general order has been tightened up in a few months”

“The level of tactical training in his division is very high”

According to the results of military exercises that took place in September 1940, Vlasov's division was awarded the Red Banner. It is worth noting that the exercises were held in the presence of the People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko himself.

In 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. Already in August, Vlasov was entrusted with the command of the 37th Army. Near Kyiv, his army and a number of others (5th, 21st, 26th) were surrounded. Vlasov managed to withdraw part of his troops from the encirclement.

After that, Vlasov was assigned to the Western Front - he was again given an army, this time the twentieth. Under his leadership, the 20th Army distinguished itself in battles in the Volokolamsk direction. On January 28, 1942, Vlasov was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Even before the war, he was already twice an order bearer, which was an exceptional case (at this age, twice an order bearer before the Second World War is a rarity). In the newspapers, his name was put on a par with the name of General Zhukov. I. V. Stalin himself respected Vlasov and considered him an intelligent and talented commander.

Naturally, all these merits and successes of his could not please his rivals, and in 1942, the commander of the Volkhov Front, K. A. Meretskov, advised Stalin to send Vlasov to save the 2nd Shock Army instead of the wounded Klykov. After all, Vlasov has experience in withdrawing troops from the encirclement (he withdrew the 37th Army from near Kyiv), and, according to Meretskov, no one except Vlasov can cope with this difficult task. Stalin heeds his advice and signs the order, according to which it is Vlasov who must save the second shock army.

Meretskov excellently assessed the hopeless situation of the second shock, and Vlasov, having arrived there, understands that this task is beyond his power. But still, under his command, several attempts are made to break through the encirclement. But the fighters were simply exhausted and exhausted, although, as the Valley expedition shows, they had more than enough ammunition.

The largest battles were fought at Krasnaya Gorka and Cow Creek. Vlasov realized that these people were tired to such an incredible degree that there was no question of any withdrawal from the environment. Then Vlasov orders to leave the encirclement in small groups, whoever can, and move towards Staraya Russa, in order, if possible, to join the Luga Party.

During all this time, desperate attempts to save the dying army did not stop. For a short time, it was possible to break through the encirclement. Then a narrow corridor 300-400 meters wide was formed. Under the crossfire of the enemy, it turned into the "Valley of Death": German machine gunners sitting on both sides shot thousands of our soldiers. When a “hill” formed from the corpses, the machine gunners simply climbed onto it and fired from there. So senselessly our soldiers perished. Until mid-July, small groups of fighters and commanders of the 2nd Shock Force still seeped through the front line. Those who failed to escape were either killed or taken prisoner. These days, in an unconscious state, an employee of the army newspaper "Courage" Tatar poet Musa Jalil fell into the hands of the enemy.

And what is the fate of General A. A. Vlasov himself, the commander of the 2nd Shock Army? Having given the order to the army to leave the encirclement as best he could, he, with a small group, went towards Chudov. The path for him was very difficult: for the Germans, Vlasov was a welcome prey and, moreover, the NKVD detachment under the command of Sazonov was already “hunting” for him.

There are many versions of how Vlasov was captured. Below are some of them.

A German officer, commander of a platoon of the 550th penal battalion, taken prisoner near Vitebsk in February 1944, testified during interrogation that Vlasov, dressed in civilian clothes, was hiding in a bathhouse near the village of Mostki south of Chudov. The village headman detained Vlasov and handed him over to the head of the intelligence department of the 38th Aviation Corps.

A Soviet officer, former deputy head of the political department of the 46th Infantry Division, Major A.I. Zubov named a slightly different place - Sennaya Kerest. On July 3, 1943, he reported that in search of food, Vlasov went into one of the houses. While he was eating, the house was surrounded. Seeing the German soldiers entering, he said: “Don't shoot! I am the commander of the second shock army Andrey Vlasov "

Cook A. Vlasov Voronova. M. tells: “Being surrounded, Vlasov, among thirty or forty staff workers, tried to connect with units of the Red Army, but nothing happened. Wandering through the forest, we connected with the leadership of one division, and there were about two hundred of us.

Around July 1942, the Germans discovered us in the forest near Novgorod and imposed a battle, after which I, Vlasov, the soldier Kotov and the driver Pogibko went to the villages.

Pogiko with the wounded Kotov went to one village, and Vlasov and I went to another. When we entered the village, I don’t know its name, we went into one house, where we were mistaken for partisans, the local “samoohova” surrounded the house, and we were arrested.

According to the latest version: Vlasov, the cook Voronova M., the adjutant and chief of staff Vinogradov, badly wounded, went to the village, where Vlasov's adjutant remained with the exhausted and sick Vinogradov. Vinogradov was shivering, and Vlasov gave him his overcoat. He himself, together with the cook, went to another village, where they asked the first person they met (as it turned out, the headman of the village) to feed them. In return, Vlasov gave him his silver watch. The headman told them that the Germans were walking everywhere and suggested that while he was bringing food, they should sit in the bathhouse, and in order not to arouse unnecessary suspicion, he would ban them.

Before Vinogradov and the adjutant had time to eat, the locals had already called the Germans to hand over the partisans. When the Germans arrived, they saw Vlasov's overcoat and a man who, according to the description, was very similar to Vlasov (they really were very similar), they immediately arrested him. And then they called from the "Vlasov" village. The Germans really did not want to go there - what do they care about ordinary partisans when they are taking Vlasov himself. But, in the end, this village was on the way to the headquarters, and they stopped by.

They were very surprised when another “Vlasov” came out of the bathhouse, who said: “Don’t shoot! I am commander Vlasov! They did not believe him, but he showed documents signed by Stalin himself.

Vlasov himself wrote in his appeals and leaflets that he was captured in battle. But both German and Soviet sources claim otherwise. Major Zubov, a participant in the exit from the encirclement of a group of officers of the 2nd Shock Army, recalled that Vlasov, under all pretexts, tried to reduce the size of his group. Maybe because it would have been easier to get out, but maybe they just didn’t need extra witnesses.

On July 15, the command of the 18th German Army sent the protocols of interrogations of Vlasov to the corps commanders.

The Geneva Conference obliged the captured soldier to report the following about himself: name, rank, name of the military unit. The prisoner was not obliged to report the rest of the information, and the convention forbade the extraction of this information by force. Although in practice there was everything, but General Vlasov was not beaten or tortured. He testified very willingly himself, starting with the fact that he joined the Communist Party for the sake of a career. Vlasov praised the work of German aviation and artillery, illustrating the successes of the enemy by the exact number of killed and captured. He apologized for not knowing the answer to some questions.

Before the enemy, he gave a negative description of General K. A. Meretskov. The competence of General Meretskov does not need to be defended, and the fact that at the beginning of 1941 Meretskov was unexpectedly arrested, tortured and beaten left an imprint on his character. But even mortally insulted and humiliated, he gave all his strength, all his knowledge and all his experience to serve the Motherland. Most likely, he did not imagine that it was possible to do otherwise ...

Vlasov said that the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts were not capable of any offensive operations in the direction of Leningrad, that there were only enough available forces to hold the front, warned the Germans that one could not count on receiving reinforcements - everything was given to the southern direction. He warned of the possibility of an offensive by Zhukov in the central direction. These days the Red Army was preparing for the Stalingrad and North Caucasian operations. The Nazis rushed for the Volga, rushed to the Baku oil, and information about the alignment of our forces was extremely important. Although it is possible that they had this information even before the interrogation of Vlasov.

The Germans offered him cooperation - he agreed. He collaborated with Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop, with various high-ranking Abwehr and Gestapo officials. The Germans treated Vlasov badly: Himmler in his circle spoke of him with contempt, calling him "a runaway pig and a fool." And Hitler did not even want to meet him. Vlasov said this: “Let him up to his neck in the mud, but be the master!”. Whatever you say, he really spent the rest of his life up to his neck in mud.

In Germany, Vlasov organized the Russian Liberation Army on the basis of the previously created "Russian battalions", consisting of Russian prisoners of war recruited into the service of the Germans. It should be noted that already in 1942 these units of official German propaganda were referred to as "ROA battalions" and were used in battles with the Red Army and partisans. But, true, German machine guns were placed behind the backs of these units.

But this does not mean at all that the Vlasovites were innocent victims of a military tragedy. From May to October 1943, on the territory of the Mogilev and Minsk regions, as witnesses showed during the trial, the 636th battalion, which was part of the 707th regiment of the Nazi army, committed atrocities. He participated in the fight against partisans, robberies and executions of civilians, the destruction of entire settlements. since September 1942 personnel of the 629th ROA battalion carried out punitive operations against partisans in the Smolensk and Sumy regions. In the summer of 1943 the battalion took part in the complete destruction of the villages of Berezovka, Lesnoye, Staraya and Novaya Guta, Glubokoe, Sumy region. Dozens of settlements were destroyed in Belarus. And there are plenty of such examples.

Vlasov managed to form only 2 divisions. The first division had twenty thousand men. The second was formed only by April 1945. In addition to these detachments, two fighter detachments of 300 people were formed. There were also two volunteer detachments under the command of the white emigrant Sakharov, transferred from Denmark. Vlasov placed special hopes on a fighter group of 50 selected soldiers and officers, mainly the general's personal guard.

“Vlasov was proud of the actions of this group,” his chief of staff Trukhin testified during the investigation, “he promised to show the Germans how to deal with the tanks of the Red Army and how the Vlasovites can do it.”

Vlasov tried to persuade other captured Soviet generals to do the same on the instructions of the Germans. Here is his own testimony from the testimony at the trial: “In December 1942. Shtrikfeldt arranged for me a meeting in the propaganda department with Lieutenant General Ponedelin, the former army commander of the 12th. In a conversation with Ponedelin, to my proposal to take part in the creation of a Russian volunteer army, the latter flatly refused ... At the same time, I had a meeting with Major General Snegov, the former commander of the 8th Rifle Corps of the Red Army, who also did not agree to take part in the work ... After that, Strikfeldt took me to one of the prisoner of war camps located, where I met with Lieutenant General Lukin, the former commander of the 19th Army, whose leg was amputated after being wounded and his right arm was not working. In private with me, he said that he did not believe in the Germans, he would not serve with them, and rejected my offer. Having failed in conversations with Ponedelin, Snegov and Lukin, I no longer addressed any of the generals' prisoners of war ... "

Vlasov also helped the Germans in organizing the defense: the writer E. M. Rzhevskaya said that, while examining the diaries of Goebbels, one of the top leaders of Nazi Germany, who was appointed commandant of the defense of Berlin at the end of the war, she found a curious entry. Goebbels wrote about a meeting with Vlasov, whom he asked to advise on the organization of the defense of Berlin, taking into account the experience of defending Kyiv and Moscow.

While in Germany, Vlasov developed a program with a new state structure for his real homeland. He offered democracy for our country in exchange for socialism. As Vlasov himself wrote, with the help of Germany, he wanted already then to start building a state of law, to reunite Russia with the countries of Europe, throwing off Stalin's "Iron Curtain": "... There is only one choice - either a European family of free, equal peoples, or slavery under the rule of Stalin ."

- (1901 46) lieutenant general (1942). Since 1920 in the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded a corps and an army, deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, commander of the 2nd Shock Army (Volkhov Front), which ended up in the spring of 1942 in ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Vlasov, Andrey Andreevich- VLASOV Andrey Andreevich (1901 46), lieutenant general (1942). Since 1920 in the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded a corps and an army, deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, commander of the 2nd shock army (Volkhov Front), ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Wikipedia has articles about other people with that surname, see Vlasov. Andrei Andreevich Vlasov ... Wikipedia

- (1901 1946), lieutenant general (1942). Since 1920 in the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded a corps and an army, deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, commander of the 2nd Shock Army (Volkhov Front), which ended up in the spring of 1942 in ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Wikipedia has articles about other people with that surname, see Vlasov. Vlasov, Andrei: Vlasov, Andrei Andreevich (1901 1946) Soviet Lieutenant General, who defected to Germany during World War II, commander of the ROA, chairman of the KONR ... Wikipedia

Andrey Andreevich Vlasov- After a rural school, Andrei Vlasov graduated from a religious school in Nizhny Novgorod. I studied at the theological seminary for two years. From the age of fifteen, he was engaged in tutoring (preparing young children), earning money for his studies. In 1917, after ... ... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers

Andrei Andreevich Vlasov September 14, 1901 (19010914) August 1, 1946 Vlasov A. A. Place of birth ... Wikipedia

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Andrei Andreevich (1901 46), lieutenant general (1942). Since 1920 in the Red Army. During the Great Patriotic War, he commanded a corps and an army, deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, commander of the 2nd shock army (Volkhov Front), which turned out to be ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

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Where he was born on September 14, 1901 in a family of peasants. He received a spiritual education at the Nizhny Novgorod seminary, which he did not finish because of the beginning in 1917. Then in 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army, where he served as a platoon commander and fought on the Southern Front, and then in Northern Tavri, where Vlasov became a company commander. In 1920 a detachment under the command of Vlasov participated in the suppression of the Makhno uprising.

Since 1922 to 1929 served in command and staff positions, taught and improved his own education by graduating from the Higher Army Command Courses. In 1930, he joined the Communist Party, and Vlasov's career went uphill: from division commander to military attache in China.

With Vlasov he became commander of the 37th Army. After he was able to withdraw his soldiers and the soldiers of several other armies from the encirclement, he was entrusted with the 20th Army on the Western Front. Here he again differs, and receives the rank of lieutenant general. The merits of Vlasov at that time were noted by himself.

Of course, the lieutenant general immediately found envious people, and on their advice, Vlasov was sent to save the 2nd Shock Army, whose situation was hopeless. Vlasov made several almost unsuccessful attempts to save people, then led the soldiers out in small groups. However, part of the troops died, part was captured, only a few managed to get out of the encirclement.

On June 25, a plane was sent for the lieutenant general to save him, but Vlasov refused to leave the remaining soldiers and remained in the forests near the village of Tukhovezhi for another three weeks. On July 11, 1942, Vlasov and his cook wandered into this village, where the locals seated them at the table, while they themselves called the German police. There are several versions of exactly how Vlasov was captured, he himself always claimed that he had surrendered in battle, but neither German nor Soviet sources confirm this.

Having been captured, Vlasov unexpectedly not only began to willingly answer all the questions of the Germans, but also agreed to cooperate with them. Among those with whom he worked were Goering, Himmler, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and other high-ranking Gestapo officials. He did not achieve respect from new colleagues, but, according to eyewitness accounts, he was not too worried about this.

From Soviet prisoners of war, Vlasov formed the Russian Liberation Army, which he led. This army was created in order to fight against Bolshevism, the soldiers carried out punitive operations on the territory of the USSR against partisans, destroyed entire villages on the territory of Belarus. In total, 2 divisions were formed, and the second was formed only by April 1945. In addition, the ROA included 2 fighter detachments, each numbering 300 people.

Vlasov tried to involve other captured Soviet officers in his activities, but he did not succeed. There is documentary evidence that Vlasov advised the German leadership on the defense of Berlin based on his experience in defense and Kyiv. In April 1945, Vlasov was offered political asylum by the Spanish dictator Franco, but he once again refused to abandon his soldiers. Then the Americans offered him help in escaping, but he did not change his decision.

On May 12 of the same year, Vlasov was captured by Soviet troops, taken to Marshal Konev, and then to Moscow. For more than a year, nothing was reported about him, until the very moment of the publication in Izvestia of a note that a trial had begun on him. The trial was originally supposed to be made public, but in the end it was held behind closed doors, apparently so as not to spur anti-Soviet sentiments. The trial took 2 days, on July 30 and 31, 1946. There were no acquittals, but eyewitnesses claim that Vlasov tried to take all the blame on himself in order to alleviate the plight of his soldiers. The execution was carried out on August 1 of the same year.

In 2001, the petition for the rehabilitation of General Vlasov was rejected, he was only cleared of the charge of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. During his military career, Vlasov was awarded 2 and, as well as the Order of the Golden Dragon from the Chinese government. However, according to the verdict of the court, he was deprived of all awards and titles.

General Vlasov - a traitor to the Motherland or a fighter against socialism? We will answer this question in this article, based on facts and historical documents.

I'll tell you the truth about you

which is worse than any lie.

A.S. Griboyedov

In our critical time, the opportunity has arisen to assess the recent tragic events of national history in a new way. Previously, they were presented from the point of view of historical materialism, when the interests of the then dominant CPSU were put in the first place. Now a number of studies have appeared that go to the other extreme, evaluating historical processes from the point of view of boundless liberalism.

The attention of liberal researchers is attracted by the figure of Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. It is alleged that Vlasov changed his oath in order to fight for a free Russia, against socialist Russia, and this idea is so attractive that it justified his struggle and can be considered a hero.

We will try, as far as we can, to shed light on this issue, based on facts and published documents.

“On the thirteenth day of a deliberate pestilence by starvation of people, the Germans drove a wounded horse into the camp. And a huge crowd of prisoners rushed to the unfortunate animal, opening knives and razors on the move, hastily fumbling in their pockets for something sharp, capable of cutting or tearing moving meat. Two towers opened machine-gun fire on the formed giant pile of people. Perhaps, for the first time in the entire war, the Nazis spent cartridges so beautifully and economically. Not a single surprisingly luminous bullet made a whistle, leaving over the heads of the prisoners! And when the people fled to the barracks, in the place where five minutes ago the nag still hobbled on three legs, there was a pile of bloody, still warm bones and around them about a hundred people were killed, crushed, wounded ... "

Soviet soldiers who were taken prisoner found themselves in monstrous conditions that exceeded the limits of human strength. Among the many prisoners there were those who could not stand these sufferings and, having received an offer to put on a German uniform and receive a hearty ration of a German soldier, agreed to cooperate with the Nazis. Some went for direct treason voluntarily, out of conviction, wanting to take revenge on the Bolsheviks for their atrocities during the Civil War, collectivization, and mass repressions. There were also those who betrayed their homeland out of cowardice, justifying their low deed with some plausible pretexts. Of course, a person is free to revise his convictions, but it is quite another matter, saving his life, to change his convictions.

These latter included Lieutenant General Vlasov. The army he commanded was surrounded, and he himself surrendered in July 1942. Once in captivity, General Vlasov changed his communist beliefs to Nazi ones. However, for comparison, we can recall, for example, Lieutenant General Karbyshev. He, like Vlasov, was captured, but, unlike him, he did not surrender, but was precisely taken prisoner, because he was seriously wounded in battle. For refusing to cooperate with the Nazis, General Karbyshev was tortured to death. We can also recall Lieutenant General Denikin, who also received an offer of cooperation. Knowing full well that he lives in a time when, in the words of the famous philosopher Ivan Ilyin, “the word has become deed, and deed has become death,” he answered with a decisive refusal. And when asked why he did not want to serve the Germans, he answered with military brevity and firmness: “General Denikin served and serves only Russia. He has not served a foreign state and will not serve.”

Of course, it is difficult for us, who are in completely different conditions, to objectively judge what happened in those distant and tragic times. But we can look at events through the eyes of direct participants. Here is a fragment from the memoirs of Vasily Ivanovich Kamardin, recorded by his son:

“My father was in captivity in Germany and spoke about his camp life like this: At first they had a good boss, caring. So caring that every morning without a break he came to the barracks with convoys and soldiers and, in order to speed up the rise, laid the prisoners on long tables along the barracks and ordered them to flog with a whip in the blood. Traces of this "caring" remained on the body of his father for life. When, after the war, my father and I went to the bathhouse, I saw scars on his back and buttocks from torn pieces of meat.

In another camp, the leader was "very good." He felt sorry for them, he did not beat anyone. Only once a week, on Sundays, he lined everyone up on the parade ground and ordered them to pay off on the first to seventh. Every seventh was immediately shot. Father often happened to be the sixth. From such a “good life” and even “good food” (and the food was only swede and pieces of black, like coal bread), the father was already ready to die, as he began to walk with one blood.

Many of his comrades could not stand it and laid hands on themselves. There was not a single rise, my father recalled, so that someone, or even several, would not be immediately found hanged on hooks, which the “benefactors” of the Germans drove into the walls of the barracks specifically for this. Everyone who wished had the opportunity to hang himself, without bothering the "caring" owners once again. But my father firmly knew that suicide is a mortal sin, and, committing himself to the will of God, he endured everything to the end.

Many times, when building on the parade ground, representatives of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) offered them to join its ranks, promising all the benefits, if only they would go to kill their brothers. "Thank God! - as my father recalled, - almost no one ever failed. Despite the unbearable life, there were only a few Judas.”

In 1940, Vlasov wrote about his communist beliefs in his autobiography.

Autobiography of brigade commander Andrey Andreevich Vlasov.

... In the period 1928-1929. In 1934-1935 he graduated from the tactical and rifle training courses for the improvement of the command staff of the Red Army "Shot" in Moscow, in 1934-1935. graduated from the 1st year of the Military Evening Academy of the Red Army in the Leningrad branch.

In the Red Army he was awarded the medal "XX Years of the Red Army" No. 012543 and various personal personalized gifts. For a government business trip, he was presented for awarding the Order of the USSR.

He did not serve in the old tsarist army and the white army, he did not live in captivity and on the territory occupied by the whites.

He joined the CPSU (b) in 1930, was accepted by the divisional party organization of the 9th Don Rifle Division. Party card No. 0471565. Conducted campaign work, was repeatedly elected a member of the party bureau of the school and regiment. He was the editor of the school newspaper. He has always taken an active part in public work. He was elected a member of the district military tribunal, a member of the Presidium of Osoaviakhim regional organizations and a friend.

Didn't have any partnerships. In other parties and oppositions he never belonged anywhere and did not take any part. He didn't have any hesitation. He always stood firmly on the general line of the Party and always fought for it.

He was never brought to court by the Soviet authorities. Was not abroad.

Commander of the 99th Infantry Division

brigade commander VLASOV

The first thing that attracts attention is Vlasov's low professional training. A general whose army was captured cannot be called a skilled commander. This is also evidenced by the testimonies of Soviet commanders who had to fight under him. The passage below refers to the events that took place at the beginning of the winter of 1942 during the counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow.

“I remember Wednesday also because here I had a clash with the commander of the 20th Army, Vlasov. We had information that large enemy forces were concentrated in Sereda, and it was well prepared for a long-term defense (especially in the eastern part along the Mutnya River). All around her was open, waist-deep snowy terrain. In addition, our scouts discovered that an enemy infantry column was moving towards Sereda from the side of the Knyazhy Gory station. In the event of a protracted battle, these reinforcements could fall on the right flank of the group. I reported to the army headquarters the situation and my decision: to bypass Seredu's knot of resistance and continue to develop the offensive against Gzhatsk. Vlasov's answer was received very quickly: he ordered to attack the enemy defending Sereda with a blow from the north along the highway and, having captured it, hold it with part of the forces until the infantry approached, while the main forces continued the offensive.

An attack on the “forehead” of a well-organized defense, and even through an open area waist-deep in snow, was too risky. We would have had to overcome the zone of dense barrage, incurring unjustified losses. And the situation was such that in order to fulfill this order, part of the forces had to be returned back. I had no other choice but to carry out the tasks previously assigned to the units. The offensive developed successfully. The battle for Krasnoye Selo has just ended with the crossing of Ruza. In the course of it, further tasks for units and formations were specified, and they, without delay, continued to develop success. The 3rd Guards Cavalry Division moved around Sereda from the northwest, the 20th division from the southwest. General Vlasov again called me to the radio and demanded to report on how his order was being carried out. I confirmed my decision and tried to reasonably prove its expediency. The reaction, as one would expect, was very violent. Vlasov ordered to report to him within the agreed time that Sereda had been taken by a blow “on the forehead” from the north along the highway. I didn't answer and hung up. He immediately called again, but I ordered the signalman to answer that the corps commander had already left for the troops in order to organize a frontal attack on Sereda along the highway. This kind of military cunning helped in relations with Vlasov. After all, otherwise he could send one of his deputies, and then the Cossacks would have to climb through the snowdrifts to the dense, well-organized enemy fire. According to Pliev's plan, the village of Sereda was surrounded and taken without unnecessary losses.

In fairness, it should be noted that during that period of the war, such harsh methods of command were used not only by General Vlasov, but also by some other commanders. This is recalled by General A.V. Gorbatov: “In that situation, it was natural for the division commander to choose objects for private operations, to determine the strength of the detachment and the time for an attack using surprise. In such cases, the enemy usually had losses two, three, or even four times greater than ours. It’s another matter when they tell you everything from afar and order you to capture Maslova Pristan on January 17, Bezlyudovka on January 19, Arkhangelskoye on January 24, etc., indicating the hour of the attack, they will determine the forces (besides, they do not correspond to either the task or your possibilities). In these cases, the result was almost always the same: we had no success and suffered losses two or three times greater than the enemy.

Particularly incomprehensible to me were persistent orders - despite the failure, to attack again, moreover, from the same starting position, in the same direction for several days in a row, to advance, not taking into account that the enemy had already strengthened this sector. Many, many times in such cases, my heart bled ... But it was a whole stage of the war, at which many of our commanders learned how to fight and, therefore, how not to fight. The slowness with which this science was assimilated - no matter how obvious the bloody examples were - was the result of those general pre-war conditions in which the thinking of the commanders took shape.

A prominent domestic specialist in the field of military ethics, psychology and philosophy A.A. Kersnovsky, analyzing the behavior of the commander, who got into a difficult situation with his troops, cites General Klyuev as a negative example. During the First World War, the corps entrusted to him during the East Prussian operation was surrounded. General Klyuev “surrendered, completely unaware of what he was doing by this, of how the enemy’s morale would rise and our own would decrease when news of the surrender of such an important person as the corps commander. He knew that he was in command of the corps, but he never suspected that he was still has the honor of commanding. The higher the official position, the greater this honor. And the commander of the corps - at the appearance of which tens of thousands of people freeze, refuse their own "I", who can order forty thousand people to go to death - should realize this honor especially and pay for it when it has to - pay without flinching. ... It is easier for the homeland to endure the death in a fair battle of a corps or squadron than their surrender to the enemy.

What a strong negative impact the betrayal of General Vlasov had on his former subordinates in the midst of the Battle of Stalingrad, can be seen from the memoirs of Professor-Archpriest Gleb Kaleda, at that time an ordinary soldier of the Red Army.

“The Battle of Stalingrad… Terrible tension on both sides. The constant smell of corpses, penetrating into all the cracks, strongly affected the psyche. For a month and a half, warehouses burned in the city, and the sky was covered with black clouds of smoke. Rivers of fuel oil flowed through the streets; flooded the dugout of the commander of the 62nd Army, General Chuikov.

In fulfilling the order to drive the Germans out of the market area, we were attached to the 99th Infantry Division, which was commanded by General Vlasov before the war. This division was one of the best in the Red Army, holding the challenge banner of the people's commissar. The officers proudly told us: “We are Vlasovites!” The battles for the market began on September 21, we were supported by a tank brigade, but in three days we crawled only 800 meters, having at the beginning of the fighting a pre-war kit: 800 bayonets in a battalion. Every night the division received reinforcements, and by the end of the third day, only 200 bayonets remained in the battalions on average, more people died than the original composition of the battalion. The Germans fought heroically, they literally grabbed our tanks with their hands and smashed bottles of combustible mixture on them. Our sacrifices did not help: the right flank lagged behind and did not crawl these 800 meters, the Germans hit on it, and in three hours we surrendered these blood-stained meters, retreated ...

We were tormented by German aviation: 28 raids a day, ten and one hundred bombers each. The first raid is still nothing, the second - worse, the third - the hassle begins, and then the nerves just give up. The psychological impact is the strongest: it seems that the plane is flying right at you, the pilot turns on the siren, shells, bombs fly ...

The next day they waited for a new order. I wandered across the steppe and picked up a leaflet, fortunately I was alone: ​​it was forbidden to read leaflets. I read: "To the soldiers and commanders of the 99th Infantry Division." I turn, look at the signature: “Former commander of the 99th Infantry Division, Lieutenant General Vlasov. It was written in the leaflet: I fought, got surrounded, then I realized that military resistance was pointless and gave the order to lay down my arms. Long days of reflection led to the conclusion: the Red Army cannot win, because the army must have a one-man command, and all commanders are bound hand and foot by commissars and employees of organs who understand nothing about military affairs. But the Russian people have the strength to free themselves, there is a volunteer army, it is necessary to conclude an honorable peace with the Germans and cooperate with them. In conclusion, it was said: "Post-war Russia should be without the Bolsheviks and without the Germans." Naturally, after such a leaflet, the commanders of the 99th division were no longer proud that they were students of Vlasov.

The second thing I want to pay attention to when studying Vlasov’s autobiography is that he joined the ranks of the CPSU (b) in 1930 and “never belonged anywhere and did not take any part in other parties and oppositions. He didn't have any hesitation. I always stood firmly on the general line of the party and always fought for it. For the fact that, indeed, Vlasov "did not have any hesitation" and always fought for the general line of the party, his election as a member of the military tribunal of the Kyiv Special Military District testifies. Military tribunals were punitive bodies, with the help of which a significant part of the career officers and military leaders of the Red Army was destroyed before the war. In addition, by condemning a superior, a member of the military tribunal ensured rapid career growth. According to Vlasov's biographer A. Kolesnik, in 1937-1938 Vlasov “was a member of the military tribunal in the Leningrad and Kiev military districts. Getting acquainted with his activities in this role, it was not possible to find a single verdict of acquittal handed down on his initiative. This is the third thing that Vlasov's autobiography says.

Just a few weeks after the surrender, the following document came out signed by Vlasov: “The officer corps of the Soviet Army, especially the captured officers who can freely exchange thoughts, are faced with the question: how can the Stalin government be overthrown and a new one created? Russia? All are united by the desire to overthrow Stalin's government and change the state form. There is a question: to whom exactly to join - to Germany, England or the United States? The main task - the overthrow of the government - speaks for the fact that we should join Germany, which declared the struggle against the existing government and regime the aim of the war.

I have come to the firm conviction that the tasks facing the Russian people can be solved in alliance and cooperation with the German people. The interests of the Russian people have always been combined with the interests of the German people, with the interests of all the peoples of Europe. In alliance and cooperation with Germany, he must build a new happy Motherland within the framework of a family of equal and free peoples of Europe.

We consider it our duty to our people and to the Fuhrer, who proclaimed the idea of ​​creating a new Europe, to bring the above to the attention of the High Command and thereby contribute to the implementation of the said idea.

Former commander of the 2nd Army, Lieutenant General Vlasov

Former commander of the 41st Infantry Division, Colonel Boyarsky.

The document, drawn up in Vinnitsa on August 8, 1942, when Germany was at the zenith of its military successes, is intended to cast a shadow on the entire officer corps of the Red Army, which allegedly faces the question: in what way can the Stalin government be overthrown and a new Russia created? In addition, the document indicates that Vlasov joined a stronger master, the Fuhrer, and began to consider it his duty to serve Hitler, leaving his former one, as he himself called him "Master". Here is what he wrote to his wife, Anna Mikhailovna Vlasova, on February 14, 1942, during our counteroffensive near Moscow: « You won't believe it, dear Anya! What joy I have in life. I talked there with our biggest Boss. This honor fell to me for the first time in my life. You cannot imagine how excited I was and how inspired I left him. You, apparently, will not even believe that such a great man has enough time even for our personal affairs. So believe me, he asked me where my wife is and how she lives. He thought you were in Moscow. I said that it was far away, so I would not stop in Moscow for an hour, but would go back to the front. The case does not wait. Dear Anya, we continue to beat the fascists and drive them to the west.

On the same day, he sent a letter to his wife in the field, military doctor Agnessa Pavlovna Podmazenko, to whom he wrote practically the same as to his wife: “The biggest and main owner called me to him. Imagine, he talked to me for an entire hour and a half. You can imagine how lucky I am. You won't believe such a big man and interested in our little family business. He asked me: where is my wife and in general about health. This can only be done by HE, who leads us all from victory to victory. With him we will smash the fascist reptile."

In the same letter, he congratulated Agnessa Pavlovna, who, having become pregnant from him, left the army, with the medal “For Courage”: “Dear Alya! Now let me congratulate you on a high government award - a medal for courage. You have now overtaken Comrade. Cousin: he has a medal for military merit, and you already immediately received a second one: “for courage”. I am sincerely glad, but not only me. All our employees congratulated me.” “The medal “For Courage” is awarded for personal courage and courage shown in battles with the enemies of the socialist Fatherland; in the defense of the state border of the USSR; in the performance of military duty in conditions involving a risk to life, ”and not in the bed of an army commander.

In Stalin's time, people close to the betrayer of the Motherland were declared ChSIR "members of the family of the traitor to the Motherland", and the wife became FIR - "the wife of the traitor to the Motherland." Vlasov named the name of Anna Mikhailovna when, in May 1945, he filled out the questionnaire of the arrested person at the Lubyanka. She was arrested already in 1942, and she was held in the case as "the wife of a traitor to the Motherland." Paying for the betrayal of her husband, she spent 8 years in the camps. It is known that in recent years she lived in Balakhna, Nizhny Novgorod region. Rehabilitated only in 1992. And the regimental wife, Agnes Pavlovna, did not escape this bitter fate. In 1943, by decision of the Special Meeting, she received five years in the camps. It is known that she was also serving a link. Rehabilitated in 1989, died in 1997. The former member of the military tribunal could not help but know what awaits people close to him.

The so-called Smolensk Declaration, which is declaratively propagandistic in nature, said: “Stalin's allies, the British and American capitalists, betrayed the Russian people. In an effort to use Bolshevism to master the natural wealth of our Motherland, these plutocrats not only save their own skin at the cost of the lives of millions of Russian people, but also concluded secret enslaving agreements with Stalin.

At the same time, Germany is waging war not against the Russian people and their homeland, but only against Bolshevism. Germany does not encroach on the living space of the Russian people and their national and political freedom .

The National Socialist Germany of Adolf Hitler sets as its task the organization of a New Europe without Bolsheviks and capitalists, in which every people will be provided with a place of honor. December 27, 1942 Smolensk.

About what "place of honor" was being prepared for the Russian people in New Europe, it was said in the General Plan "Ost". The plan itself has not been preserved, but additions to the plan have been preserved, drawn up by a certain Dr. Wetzel, head of the colonization department of the First Main Political Directorate of the Rosenberg Ministry:

Top secret

It is not only about the defeat of the state with its center in Moscow. Achieving this historic goal would never mean a final solution to the problem. The point is most likely to defeat the Russians as a people, to divide them. Only if this problem is considered from a biological, especially from a racial-biological point of view, and if the German policy in the eastern regions is carried out in accordance with this, will it be possible to eliminate the danger posed to us by the Russian people.

If the German leadership manages to... prevent the influence of German blood on the Russian people through extramarital affairs, then it is quite possible to maintain German dominance in this area, provided that we can overcome such a biological danger as the monstrous ability of these people to reproduce... There are many ways to undermine the biological the strength of the people ... The goal of German policy in relation to the population on Russian territory will be to bring the birth rate of Russians to a lower level than that of the Germans. The same applies, by the way, to the extremely prolific peoples of the Caucasus, and in the future, partly to Ukraine. So far, we are interested in increasing the Ukrainian population as opposed to the Russians. But this should not lead to the Ukrainians taking the place of the Russians over time. In order to avoid an increase in population in the eastern regions, which is undesirable for us, it is urgently necessary to abandon in the East all the measures that we used to increase the birth rate in the empire. In these areas, we must consciously pursue a policy of population reduction. By means of propaganda, especially through the press, radio, cinema, leaflets, brief pamphlets, reports, etc., we must constantly instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have many children. It is necessary to show how much money the upbringing of children requires and what could be purchased with these funds. It is necessary to talk about the great danger to which a woman is exposed when giving birth to children, etc. In addition, the widest propaganda of contraceptives should be launched. It is necessary to establish a wide production of such funds. Their distribution and abortion should not be restricted in any way. Every effort should be made to expand the network of abortion clinics, as well as promote voluntary sterilization, prevent the struggle to reduce infant mortality, and prevent training of mothers in the care of infants and preventive measures against childhood diseases. It is necessary to reduce to a minimum the training of Russian doctors in such specialties, and not provide any support to kindergartens and other similar institutions. Apart from these measures in the field of health, there should be no obstacles to divorce. Assistance should not be given to illegitimate children. We should not provide financial assistance to large families in the form of wage supplements .., allow them any tax privileges.

It is important for us Germans to weaken the Russian people to such an extent that they will not be able to prevent us from establishing German domination in Europe. We can achieve this goal in the above ways ...

The above document, which conveys the very essence of German fascism, is so eloquent that it does not require comments.

Here is what SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler said about Vlasov at one of the important meetings in front of party functionaries and representatives of the state and military leadership:

“Now we have discovered the Russian General Vlasov. Our Brigadeführer Fegelein captured this Russian general. He was the commander of one shock army. Our brave Fegelein said to his men: "Let's try to treat him like he really is a general!" And famously stood in front of him at attention: "Mr. General, Mr. General! .." After all, everyone is pleased to hear this. It's like that all over the world. And it worked here too. Still, this man, after all, had the Order of Lenin number 770, he later presented it to Brigadeführer Fegelein. When the Fuhrer awarded Fegelein with the Oak Leaves, he gave this order to the Fuhrer. The Fuhrer ordered to put it in a silver case and returned it to Fegelein. So this general was treated properly, terribly polite, terribly nice. This man gave us all his divisions, his entire plan of attack, and in general everything he knew.

The price for this betrayal? On the third day, we said to this general something like this: “The fact that there is no way back for you, you must be clear. But you are a significant person, and we guarantee you that when the war is over, you will receive a lieutenant general's pension, and in the near future - here's schnapps, cigarettes and women for you. That's how cheap you can buy such a general! Very cheap. You see, in such things one must have a damned accurate calculation. Such a person costs 20,000 marks a year. Let him live 10 or 15 years, that's 300 thousand marks. If only one battery fires well for two days, this also costs 300 thousand marks ... And this Russian pig, Mr. Vlasov, offers his services for this. Some old people here wanted to give this man an army of millions. They wanted to give weapons and equipment to this unreliable type, so that he would move with these weapons against Russia, and maybe one day, which is very likely, which is good, and against ourselves!

In no, even the most barbaric and cruel, culture of the world, in which honor and valor are valued, we will not meet with the approval and encouragement of a traitor who has changed the military oath.

The great Suvorov spoke in his usual impetuous manner: "For a soldier - courage, for an officer - courage, for a general - courage." A captured general needs special courage. Obviously, Vlasov not only lacked the consciousness that he " has the honor of commanding", but also the courage to "pay without flinching." As it turned out, a general who lacks courage, who, because of his ambition and incompetence, does not spare the soldiers, can be bought cheaply. But for the soldiers who, due to the inept command of General Vlasov, were captured, the price was very high: suffering in captivity or death. With the same high price, that is, the suffering and death of Soviet soldiers, his betrayal was also paid. He betrayed everything he knew to the Germans, and as commander of the 2nd Shock Army and deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, he had extensive information about the disposition of the forces and means of the Red Army and about the plans of the Soviet High Command. Of course, these data were used by the German command in planning and conducting the summer campaign of 1942.

According to Protopresbyter Alexander Kiselev, Vlasov settled in a suburb of Berlin in a two-story stone house with a small garden, where he lived calmly, comfortably and prosperously on the general's pension. As for "cigarettes, schnapps" and women, Vlasov did not refuse either one or the other, or the third. With the approval of Himmler, he married again, and the widowed German aristocrat Adele Bielenberg became his chosen one. In fact, Vlasov became a polygamist, because with his legal wife, who remained in Russia and, because of his betrayal, found himself behind barbed wire, he continued to be legally married.

As for wine, one can cite the memoirs of I.L. Novosiltsev, who was present at the dinner given by the Governor-General of Poland Frank in honor of Vlasov after the signing of the manifesto in Prague. “Dinner was rich, wine, as they say, flowed like a river. Many could not resist the temptation, and their behavior disapproved of Vlasov. He himself was strict with himself and did not allow any excess. To test himself, he called Novosiltsev to him and asked in his ear: “Igor, how am I holding myself?” Apparently, not only "many", but Vlasov himself could not resist "the temptation", since he needed external control in order to find out how he behaves. But this is not the main thing, the main thing is whose invitation he accepted and whose wine he drank.

Hans Frank, one of the most sinister fascist criminals, was appointed by Hitler to carry out the following task: “Men capable of leading in Poland must be liquidated. Those that follow them... must be destroyed in their turn." At a meeting of the leadership in Krakow, Frank uttered the following words: “As for the Jews, I want to tell you quite frankly that they need to be removed one way or another ... Gentlemen, I have to ask you to get rid of any kind of pity. Our duty is to destroy the Jews." Frank, this executioner of the Polish and Jewish peoples, among other Nazi criminals, was sentenced to death by hanging by the decision of the international court in Nuremberg. The sentence was carried out on October 16, 1946 by American professional executioner John Wood. Despite the fact that Vlasov could not have been unaware of Frank's atrocities, he did not refuse the dubious "honor" of drinking at the table of a Nazi criminal who destroyed millions of people.

Obviously, Vlasov, whose goal was to save his life, was just a pawn in the war of German fascism against the Russian people. In the documents signed by Vlasov, there is an idea identical to the one that the Bolsheviks once proclaimed: "to turn the imperialist war into a civil war in order to overthrow the existing government." As a result, the people were plunged into the bloody chaos of a civil war, and Soviet power reigned over a vast country for many years. As you know, Lenin and the Bolshevik Party he led, acted on orders and with extensive financial support from Kaiser Germany, which was at war with Russia.

These ideas are not new, they sounded already in the 19th century. F. M. Dostoevsky, through the mouth of the character of his novel, Smerdyakov, whose surname speaks for itself, formulated them as follows: “There was a great invasion of Russia and it would be good if they subdued us ... A smart nation would subdue a very stupid one, sir, and annex it to itself. There would even be other orders, sir.” It is surprising that Smerdyakov's lackey point of view continues to attract supporters in our time.

The fascist leadership used the same methods as the Kaiser's, but failed to repeat the result. The Russian people during the Great Patriotic War did not fall for the bait, which in 1917 fell for the liberal-minded circles of the Russian Empire. Otherwise, if fascist Germany won, and the General Plan "Ost" would be implemented, then, indeed, "there would even be completely different orders, sir."

Once in the hands of Soviet justice, Vlasov went to cooperate with the investigation, realizing that this would save him from physical measures, perhaps he hoped to mitigate his fate. He revealed facts that could not be known to the court and the investigation, which, of course, could not arouse the approval of his fellow businessmen:

« Defendant Vlasov. The defendant Zhilenkov did not quite accurately tell the court about his role in his connections with the SS. In particular, he showed the court that it was only on my instructions that he contacted the representative of the SS. This is not entirely true. Zhilenkov was the first to have contact with representatives of the SS, and it was thanks to his role that I was accepted by Himmler. Until then, Himmler had never received me.

Defendant Zhilenkov. I do not deny Vlasov's testimony, but I want to say that only after my trip to the Lvov region and establishing contact with Himmler's representative d'Alcain, through the latter, we managed to organize a meeting between Vlasov and Himmler. I knew that Himmler called Vlasov a runaway pig and a fool. It fell to my lot to prove to d'Alken that Vlasov is not a pig and not a fool. So, with my active participation, a meeting between Vlasov and Himmler was organized.

Vlasov preferred to remain silent about his actions, which could cause legal condemnation, but his former subordinates paid him the same coin and gave out what he did not want to reveal to the investigation:

« presiding. Defendant Maltsev, when the question of moving to the south of Germany arose, did you suggest that one of your subordinates report on the eighteen arrested to Vlasov and what instructions did you give?

Defendant Maltsev. Yes, I suggested that Tukholnikov report the 18 arrested to Vlasov and ask him for instructions on how to deal with them. Moreover, cases were completed for six people from among those arrested, and I recommended insisting on their execution. Vlasov approved the execution of six people.

Defendant Vlasov. Yes, it was, but that was the only time I approved death sentences, and that was because Maltsev reported it to me.”

To approve the death sentences of their compatriots who are in captivity and, we can assume, who tried to show some kind of resistance - this very eloquently characterizes Vlasov. The lackadaisical attitude towards the new owners is also characteristic:

presiding. And what prompted you to communicate with Nedich and exchange pleasantries with him?

Defendant Vlasov. I did this mainly on the recommendation of the German representative with me. In fact, I never saw Nedic. I sent congratulatory telegrams and addresses to Ribbentrop, Himmler, Guderian on behalf of the Russian people.

presiding. You seem to have been close to the strangler of the Czechoslovak people, Frank, protector of the Czech Republic and Moravia, and sent various kinds of congratulations to him?

Defendant Vlasov. Yes, it took place. Frank at one time provided us with the territory and everything we needed, and later he helped us to move to the south of Germany by road.”

In his final speech at the trial, Vlasov said: “The crimes I have committed are great, and I expect severe punishment for them. The first fall into sin is the surrender. But not only did I completely repent, although it was too late, but during the trial and investigation I tried to bring out the whole gang as clearly as possible. I expect the most severe punishment." At the trial and investigation, as well as in German captivity, he betrayed everything he knew, and "tried to reveal the whole gang as clearly as possible", but did not achieve mitigation of the fate and was sentenced to the highest degree and hanged with his accomplices.

German folk wisdom says: “To lose money - to lose nothing, to lose health - to lose something, to lose honor - to lose a lot, to lose courage - to lose everything, it would be better not to be born into the world.”

It cannot be assumed that only in the Soviet Union were traitors treated so harshly. John Amery, son of Leo Amery, Secretary of State for India in the War Cabinet of Winston Churchill, was taken prisoner and led a detachment of English soldiers ready to fight on the side of Germany. British SS fought in the 11th Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division "Norland". Amery was arrested at the end of the war in Milan. He was found guilty of treason and put to death by hanging.

And yet, despite these very eloquent facts, voices are heard trying to elevate Vlasov to the rank of a national hero. The American political scientist Y. Layen, in the book “Our Secret Allies” wrote: “For many, his name has become a banner. They are sure that someday the label of a traitor will be removed from his memory, and he will take his place among the great heroes of the free Russian spirit.”

However, as the people say, “you can’t wash a black dog white” even with the help of “secret allies”. Making a hero out of Vlasov is an attempt with clearly unsuitable means. Of course, not all Americans thought so, or think so. There were and are decent people who hold a different point of view. The captain of the American army, to whom Vlasov came in May 1945, told him: “Vell, Mr. General, now it’s all over for you! Unfortunately, you changed owners in vain and bet on a dark horse!”

In conclusion, let us cite the authoritative opinion of the great American writer, Nobel Prize winner, Ernest Hemingway, who fought against fascism with weapons in his hands: death, you begin to understand that there are things worse than war. Cowardice is worse, betrayal is worse, selfishness is worse.” Prot. Alexander Kiselev. The appearance of General Vlasov. New York. Publishing House "Way of Life", p. 62.

Ibid., p. 90.

E. Hemingway. Writer and war. June 1937 2nd Congress of American Writers vol.3. M. 1968 Hood. lit. pp. 613-615.