The national composition of Roa Vlasov. From heroism to betrayal

The history of the creation, existence and destruction of the so-called Russian Liberation Army under the command of General Vlasov is one of the darkest and most mysterious pages of the Great Patriotic War.

First of all, the figure of its leader is amazing. Nominee N.S. Khrushchev and one of the favorites of I.V. Stalin, lieutenant general of the Red Army, Andrey Vlasov was taken prisoner on the Volkhov front in 1942. Leaving the encirclement with the only companion - the cook Voronova, in the village of Tukhovezhi, he was given to the Germans by the local headman for a reward: a cow and ten packs of makhorka.
Almost immediately after being imprisoned in a camp for senior military near Vinnitsa, Vlasov goes to cooperate with the Germans. Soviet historians interpreted Vlasov's decision as personal cowardice. However, Vlasov's mechanized corps in the battles near Lvov proved to be very good. The 37th Army under his leadership in the defense of Kyiv too. By the time of his capture, Vlasov had the reputation of one of the main saviors of Moscow. He did not show personal cowardice in battles. Later, a version appeared that he was afraid of punishment from Stalin. However, leaving the Kyiv Cauldron, according to Khrushchev, who was the first to meet him, he was in civilian clothes and was leading a goat on a rope. No punishment followed, moreover, his career continued.

There are other versions. One of them says that he was a GRU agent and fell victim to the post-war "showdown" in the Soviet special services. According to another version, he was an active participant in the conspiracies of "marshals" and "heroes". He went to establish contacts with the German generals. The goal was to overthrow both Stalin and Hitler. In favor of the latest version, for example, Vlasov's close acquaintance with the repressed in 1937-38 speaks. the military. Blucher, for example, he replaced as an adviser to Chiang Kai-shek. In addition, his immediate superior before the capture was Meretskov, the future marshal, who was arrested at the beginning of the war in the case of "heroes", gave confessions, and was released "on the basis of instructions from the directive bodies for reasons of special order."

And yet, at the same time as Vlasov, the regimental commissar Kernes, who went over to the side of the Germans, was kept in the Vinnitsa camp. The commissar went out to the Germans with a message about the presence in the USSR of a deeply conspiratorial group. Which covers the army, the NKVD, Soviet and party organs, and stands on anti-Stalinist positions. A high-ranking official of the German Foreign Ministry Gustav Hilder came to meet with both of them. Documentary evidence of the last two versions does not exist. But let's go back directly to the ROA, or, as they are often called "Vlasovites." You should start with the fact that the prototype and the first separate "Russian" unit on the side of the Germans was created in 1941-1942. Bronislav Kaminsky Russian Liberation People's Army - RONA. Kaminsky, born in 1903 to a German mother and a Pole father, was an engineer before the war and served time in the Gulag under Article 58. Note that during the formation of RONA, Vlasov himself still fought in the ranks of the Red Army. By the middle of 1943, Kaminsky had 10,000 fighters, 24 T-34 tanks and 36 captured guns under his command. In July 1944, his troops showed particular cruelty in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. On August 19 of the same year, Kaminsky and his entire headquarters were shot by the Germans without trial or investigation.

Around the same time as RONA, the Gil-Rodionov squad was created in Belarus. Lieutenant Colonel of the Red Army V.V. Gil, speaking under the pseudonym Rodionov, in the service of the Germans created the Fighting Union of Russian Nationalists and showed considerable cruelty against Belarusian partisans and local residents. However, in 1943, with most of the BSRN, he went over to the side of the Red partisans, received the rank of colonel and the Order of the Red Star. Killed in 1944. In 1941, the Russian National People's Army, also known as the Boyarsky Brigade, was created near Smolensk. Vladimir Gelyarovich Boersky (real name) was born in 1901 in the Berdichevsky district, it is believed that in a Polish family. In 1943 the brigade was disbanded by the Germans. From the beginning of 1941, the formation of detachments of people calling themselves Cossacks was actively going on. Quite a lot of different divisions were created from them. Finally, in 1943, the 1st Cossack division was created under the leadership of the German colonel von Pannwitz. She was thrown into Yugoslavia to fight the partisans. In Yugoslavia, the division worked closely with the Russian Security Corps, created from white émigrés and their children. It should be noted that in the Russian Empire, the Kalmyks, in particular, belonged to the Cossack estate, and abroad all emigrants from the Empire were considered Russians. Also in the first half of the war, formations subordinate to the Germans from representatives of national minorities were actively formed.

The idea of Vlasov about the formation of the ROA as the future army of Russia liberated from Stalin, Hitler, to put it mildly, did not cause much enthusiasm. The head of the Reich did not need an independent Russia at all, especially having its own army. In 1942-1944. The ROA as a real military formation did not exist, but was used for propaganda purposes, to recruit collaborators. Those, in turn, were used by separate battalions mainly to perform security functions and fight partisans. Only at the end of 1944, when the Hitlerite command simply had nothing to plug the gaps in the defense with, was the go-ahead given to the formation of the ROA. The first division was formed only on November 23, 1944, five months before the end of the war. For its formation, the remnants of the units disbanded by the Germans and battered in battles that fought on the side of the Germans were used. As well as Soviet prisoners of war. Few people looked at nationality here. The deputy chief of staff Boersky, as we have already said, was a Pole, the head of the combat training department, General Asberg, was an Armenian. Great help in the formation was provided by Captain Shtrik-Shtrikfeld. As well as figures of the white movement, such as Kromiadi, Chocoli, Meyer, Skorzhinsky and others. The rank and file, in the circumstances, most likely, no one checked for nationality. By the end of the war, the ROA formally numbered from 120 to 130 thousand people. All units were scattered over vast distances and did not represent a single military force.

Until the end of the war, the ROA managed to take part in hostilities three times. On February 9, 1945, in the battles on the Oder, three Vlasov battalions under the leadership of Colonel Sakharov achieved some success in their direction. But these successes were short-lived. On April 13, 1945, the 1st division of the ROA took part in battles with the 33rd Army of the Red Army without much success. But in the battles of May 5-8 for Prague, under the leadership of her commander Bunyachenko, she showed herself very well. The Nazis were driven out of the city, and could not return to it. At the end of the war, most of the "Vlasovites" were extradited to the Soviet authorities. Leaders hanged in 1946. The rest were waiting for camps and settlements. In 1949, less than half of the 112,882 “Vlasov” special settlers were Russians: - 54,256 people. Among the rest: Ukrainians - 20,899; Belarusians - 5,432; Georgians - 3,705; Armenians - 3,678; Uzbeks - 3,457; Azerbaijanis - 2,932; Kazakhs - 2,903; Germans - 2,836; 807, Kabardians - 640, Moldovans - 637, Mordovians - 635, Ossetians - 595, Tajiks - 545, Kirghiz -466, Bashkirs - 449, Turkmens - 389, Poles - 381, Kalmyks -335, Adyghes - 201, Circassians - 192, Lezgins - 177, Jews - 171, Karaites - 170, Udmurts - 157, Latvians - 150, Mari - 137, Karakalpaks - 123, Avars - 109, Kumyks - 103, Greeks - 102, Bulgarians -99, Estonians - 87, Romanians - 62, Nogais - 59, Abkhazians - 58, Komi - 49, Dargins - 48, Finns - 46, Lithuanians - 41 and others - 2095 people. Alexey Nos.

This term has other meanings as well. Roa.

Russian Liberation Army
General Vlasov inspects ROA soldiers
Years of existence
Subordination	Third Reich (1943-1944) KONR (1944-1945)
	Armed forces
Includes	infantry, air force, cavalry, auxiliaries
Function	opposition to the regular units of the Red Army
population	120-130 thousand (April 1945)
Nickname	"Vlasov"
March	"we go wide fields"
Equipment	German and Soviet captured weapons
Participation in	The Second World War: Eastern front Operation April Wind Prague operation
Marks of Excellence	Sleeve badge
commanders
Notable commanders	Commander-in-Chief: A. A. Vlasov (since January 28, 1945) S. K. Bunyachenko, G. A. Zverev, V. I. Maltsev

Russian Liberation Army, ROA- the historically established name of the armed forces of the Committee Liberation Peoples Russia (KONR), who fought on the side of the Third Reich against the USSR, as well as the totality of the majority of Russian anti-Soviet units and subunits from Russian collaborators in the Wehrmacht in 1943-1944, mainly used at the level of individual battalions and companies, and formed by various German military structures (headquarters of the SS Troops, etc.) during the Great Patriotic War.

About 800,000 people wore the insignia of the Russian Liberation Army (sleeve badge) at different times, but only a third of this number was recognized by the leadership of the ROA as actually belonging to their movement. Until 1944, the ROA did not exist as any specific military formation, but was mainly used by the German authorities for propaganda and recruiting volunteers for service. The 1st division of the ROA was formed on November 23, 1944, a little later other formations were created, and at the beginning of 1945 other collaborationist formations were included in the ROA.

The army was formed in the same way as, for example, the North Caucasian Sonderverband Bergmann, the Georgian Legion of the Wehrmacht, - mainly from Soviet prisoners of war or from among emigrants. Unofficially, the Russian Liberation Army and its members were called "Vlasovites", after the name of their leader, Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov.

Story

The Russian Liberation Army was formed mainly from Soviet prisoners of war who were captured by the Germans. On December 27, 1942, Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov and General V. G. Baersky, in a letter to the German command, proposed organizing a ROA. The army was declared as a military formation created to "liberate Russia from communism." Based on propaganda considerations, the leadership of the Third Reich announced this initiative in the media, however, without doing anything organizationally. From that moment on, all soldiers of Russian nationality in the structure of the German army could consider themselves servicemen of the Russian Liberation Army, which, however, existed then only on paper.

The formation of the ROA units began in 1943, they were involved in the security and police service and the fight against partisans in the occupied territory of the USSR.

According to the regulation on volunteers issued on April 29, 1943 by the Chief of the General Staff of the OKH, Major General K. Zeitzler, all volunteers of Russian nationality were formally united in the Russian Liberation Army.

General F. I. Trukhin was appointed chief of staff, General V. G. Baersky (Boyarsky) was appointed his deputy, and Colonel A. G. Neryanin was appointed head of the operational department of the headquarters. The leaders of the ROA also included generals V.F. Malyshkin, D. E. Zakutny, I. A. Blagoveshchensky, former brigade commissar G. N. Zhilenkov. The rank of general of the ROA was held by a former major of the Red Army and a colonel of the Wehrmacht, I. N. Kononov. Some priests from the Russian emigration served in the field churches of the ROA, including priests A. N. Kiselev and D. V. Konstantinov. One of the authors of a number of program documents of the Vlasov movement was the journalist M. A. Zykov.

Captain V.K. Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt, who served in the German army, did a lot to create the ROA.

Among the leadership of the ROA were former generals of the civil war in Russia from the White movement: V. I. Angeleev, V. F. Belogortsev, S. K. Borodin, colonels K. G. Kromiadi, N. A. Shokoli, Lieutenant Colonel A. D. Arkhipov, as well as M. V. Tomashevsky, Yu. K. Meyer, V. Melnikov, Skarzhinsky, Golub and others, as well as Colonel I. K. Sakharov (former lieutenant of the Spanish army, General F. Franco). Support was also provided by Generals A.P. Arkhangelsky, A. A. fon Lampe, A.M. Dragomirov, P. N. Krasnov, N. N. Golovin, F. F. Abramov, E. I. Balabin, I. A. Polyakov, V. V. Kreiter, Don and Kuban chieftains, Generals G. V. Tatarkin and V. G. Naumenko . One of the adjutants of General A. A. Vlasov was a member of the NTS L. A. Rar.

However, there were serious disagreements between the former Soviet prisoners of war and white emigrants, and the "whites" were gradually ousted from the leadership of the ROA. Most of them served in other Russian volunteer formations not associated with the ROA (only a few days before the end of the war formally attached to the ROA) - the Russian Corps, the brigade of General A. V. Turkula in Austria, the 1st Russian National Army, the Varyag regiment of Colonel M.A. Semyonov, a separate regiment of Colonel Krzhizhanovsky, as well as in Cossack formations (15th Cossack Cavalry Corps and Cossack Stan).

The practical creation of the ROA began only after the establishment of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR), which was formed in Prague on November 14, 1944. The Committee, equivalent to the government in exile, established the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (AF KONR), which the ROA became. She had her own command and all branches of the military, including a small air force. General Vlasov, as Chairman of the Committee, became at the same time Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, which de jure and de facto constituted a completely independent Russian national army, connected with the Third Reich only by allied relations. It was financed by the ROA by the Ministry of Finance of the Third Reich. The money was issued as a loan, reimbursable "as far as possible", and was not included in the budget of the Third Reich. On January 28, 1945, the ROA received the status of the armed forces of an allied power that remains neutral in relation to the United States and Great Britain.

After the victory of the USSR and the occupation of Germany, most of the members of the ROA were transferred to the Soviet authorities. Some of the "Vlasovites" managed to escape punishment from the Soviet authorities and escape to Western countries.

Compound

Order of General Vlasov, aimed at combating the arbitrariness of commanders in the ROA.

By April 22, 1945, the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia included the following formations, units and subdivisions:

Commander-in-Chief, a group of officers of personal subordination (Colonel K. G. Kromiadi, Lieutenant Colonel M.K. Meleshkevich, Captain R.L. Antonov, Lieutenant V.A. Reisler, etc.), personal security company of Captain P.V. Kashtanov ;

1st Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the KONR, Major General S.K. Bunyachenko, fully armed and equipped (about 20,000 people);

2nd Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the KONR, Major General G. A. Zverev, the personnel were armed with automatic weapons up to and including machine guns, there were no heavy weapons (11856 people);

The 3rd infantry division of the Armed Forces of the KONR, Major General M. M. Shapovalov, had only a cadre of volunteers, unarmed (10,000 people);

Air Force, Major General V. I. Maltsev (more than 5,000 people);

Training reserve brigade of Colonel S. T. Koida (7000 people)

Russian Corps of Lieutenant General B. A. Shteifon (5584 people);

15th Cossack Cavalry Corps (32,000 men, excluding Germans);

Separate corps of Major General A. V. Turkul (about 7000 people);

A separate Cossack corps in northern Italy (Cossack Stan) of the Marching Ataman, Major General T. I. Domanov (18395 people);

Separate anti-tank brigade of major Vtorov (1240 people);

Auxiliary (technical) troops directly subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief (about 10,000 people);

The central headquarters of Major General F.I. Trukhin, the officer reserve at the headquarters of Lieutenant Colonel G.D. Belaya, a separate cavalry squadron of Captain Tishchenko, a battalion of guards of the headquarters of Captain A.P. pers.);

1st Joint Officer School of the Armed Forces of the KONR, Major General M. A. Meandrov (785 people);

Bratislava reconnaissance school of the Armed Forces of the KONR, Major S. N. Ivanov;

Marienbad reconnaissance school of the Armed Forces of the KONR captain R. I. Becker;

Directorate of the Cossack Troops under the KONR;

In total, these formations, according to various sources, numbered about 120-130 thousand people .. These formations were scattered over a large section of the front from Zagreb (Croatia) and Tolmezzo (northern Italy) to Bad Schandau (southwest of Dresden).

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

Vlasov was interrogated several times, but rather for show. Because it was obvious that the general, who had been surrounded for a long time, was hardly well versed in the current situation. Vlasov was sent to a special officer prisoner of war camp in Vinnitsa, which was subordinate to the OKH - the supreme command of the Wehrmacht ground forces.

It is no secret that there were tensions between the generals and the party, which later culminated in a military conspiracy against Hitler. In addition, in the occupied territories, everyone played their own game. The Nazis did not have any unified policy in this direction, Rosenberg pulled in one direction, the military command in the other, the SS in the third. Everyone was in conflict with each other, and everyone was for himself.

Vlasov was far from the first general to be taken prisoner, and at first no one was interested. With the exception of a few generals from the OKH, who, on their own initiative, decided to probe the Soviet generals for future potential cooperation. Vlasov was worked on by Shtrik-Shtrikfeld, a former Russian officer from the Baltic Germans, who settled in Latvia after the revolution and served as an interpreter in the army. As a result of conversations with him, Vlasov agreed that communism must be fought, and Stalin is the main evil. Shtrikfeld suggested that he put the memorandum on paper for submission to higher authorities.

Vlasov wrote a note about the need to create a Russian army that would fight the communist forces on the side of the Germans. However, in the OKH, the general's memorandum was treated with absolutely no enthusiasm. They perfectly knew all the alignments and understood that it would be simply impossible to achieve the creation of such an army, primarily for ideological reasons. In addition, in the middle of 1942, an early victory still seemed to the Germans a reality.

It is unlikely that anyone can say what exactly prompted Vlasov to go over to the side of the Germans. Difficult conditions of captivity? But Vlasov was in a special camp with special conditions, there was a normal attitude towards high-ranking officers. Cowardice? But Vlasov, according to the testimony of those who knew him before the war, was not a coward. Ideological reasons? Vlasov himself claimed that it was they who prompted him to side with the Germans. But before being captured, there was not a hint that Vlasov was dissatisfied with something. He was a member of the party, did not fall under repression, was in good standing and generally did not have any visible problems in the official line and nothing hinted at his discontent. ambition? Perhaps they were the reason for Vlasov's decision.

In mid-1942, the chances of the Germans to win looked quite real. Probing by individual representatives of the Wehrmacht, Vlasov could be mistaken for signals coming from the very top. That his candidacy can be considered as a representative of some future non-Soviet Russia or what remains of it. Therefore, I decided to take the initiative.

"Smolensk Appeal"

The idea of creating an army looked like madness, but Vlasov made it clear that he agreed to cooperate, and in September 1942 he was transferred to Berlin to the propaganda department of the Wehrmacht. The task of the department staff, recruited from prisoners of war, was to analyze Soviet newspapers for valuable information.

Meanwhile, the situation on the fronts was changing. The Germans were thoroughly stuck in Stalingrad, and after a while the OKH remembered Vlasov and decided to use him more effectively. The captive general was given a purely propaganda role (about the same as the captive Paulus played later on the Soviet side).

It was decided to create a semi-virtual Russian committee headed by Vlasov, which would publish appeals calling for an end to resistance, to go over to the side of the Germans, etc. Leaflets with his appeals were planned to be scattered over Soviet positions. On December 27, 1942, the Smolensk Appeal was published, in which Vlasov called for people 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 viewed it as a purely propaganda action. They wrote about him in the newspapers, and leaflets in Russian were also printed for throwing 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

For a year and a half, Vlasov made acquaintances in various fields. As the situation on the fronts became worse for the Germans, they began to look closely at Vlasov already in the SS. The positions of the Wehrmacht were weakening, and after the military conspiracy in July 1944, they finally weakened. But Vlasov managed to find new patrons in the person of the SS.

The Germans were already sinking and were ready to grasp at any straw. Himmler, who had not even wanted to hear about any Russian armies before, summoned Vlasov to him. Their meeting took place in September 1944. Vlasov assured the leader of the SS that he had great authority among the Soviet generals and that there was no better figure for the job. Vlasov left Himmler with permission to create the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia - a kind of semi-virtual government in exile.

In November 1944, the first meeting of the KONR was held, at which the Manifesto of the liberation movement, the political program of the organization, was announced. In the same month, the formation of the ROA, the Russian Liberation Army, began, which had previously existed only in the form of a propaganda phantom.

In total, three divisions were formed. One of them had no weapons at all, the other did not have heavy weapons, having only small arms. And only the 1st division of the ROA, numbering about 20 thousand people, was combat-ready and fully equipped.

Formally, the ROA was not part of the Wehrmacht, but was considered an allied army. Funding came from the German treasury in the form of loans that would be repaid sometime in the future.

Contrary to popular notions, the ROA did not operate at all in the occupied territories, since by the time it was created the Soviet army was already at the German borders. This was probably the result of a common mistake: in the USSR, everyone who served the Germans began to be called Vlasov, from drivers and cooks from the Khiva to village policemen 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 ROA was recruited from among the members of the eastern battalions previously created by the Germans and separate disbanded units such as the RNNA and RONA. Soviet prisoners of war recruited in the camps were a minority. There were also very few White emigrants, relations with them did not work out due to the fact that they considered the Vlasovites "the same Bolsheviks, only against the collective farms." Thus, it is possible to sum up this confusing issue. The ROA did not operate in the occupied Soviet territories, but some 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.

In early September 2009, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, at its meetings, touched upon the disputes regarding the published book of the church historian, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov “The Tragedy of Russia. "Forbidden" themes of the history of the XX century.

In particular, it was noted that:

“The tragedy of those who are commonly called “Vlasovites” ... is truly great. In any case, it should be comprehended with all possible impartiality and objectivity. Outside of such an understanding, historical science turns into political journalism. We ... should avoid "black and white" interpretation of historical events. In particular, the naming of the acts of General A.A. Vlasov - a betrayal, is, in our opinion, a frivolous simplification of the events of that time. In this sense, we fully support Father Georgy Mitrofanov's attempt to approach this issue (or rather, a whole series of issues) with a measure adequate to the complexity of the problem. In the Russian Diaspora, of which the surviving members of the ROA became part, General A.A. Vlasov was and remains a kind of symbol of resistance to godless Bolshevism in the name of the revival of Historical Russia. ... Everything that was undertaken by them was done specifically for the Fatherland, in the hope that the defeat of Bolshevism would lead to the restoration of a powerful national Russia. Germany was considered by the "Vlasovites" exclusively as an ally in the fight against Bolshevism, but they, the "Vlasovites" were ready, if necessary, to resist by armed force any kind of colonization or dismemberment of our Motherland. We hope that in the future Russian historians will treat the events of that time with greater fairness and impartiality than is the case today.”

So, a very authoritative part of the Russian Orthodox Church is ready to forgive A. Vlasov both cooperation with the Nazis, and direct participation in hostilities against the Red Army in the name of the fact that this was done in order to destroy "godless Bolshevism." Let's try to impartially figure out how to interpret the actions of Lieutenant General of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov, and later the commander of the ROA.

Born on September 14, 1901 in the village of Lomakino, now the Gaginsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region, in a peasant family. Russian.

In the Red Army since 1920. After graduating from the commander's course, he participated in battles with the White Guards on the Southern Front. Since 1922, Vlasov held command and staff positions, and also taught. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Army Command Courses. In 1930 he joined the CPSU (b). In 1935 he became a student of the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. From August 1937, he was commander of the 133rd Infantry Regiment of the 72nd Infantry Division, and from April 1938, assistant commander of this division. In the autumn of 1938 he was sent to China to work as part of a group of military advisers. From May to November 1939, he served as chief military adviser. Awarded the Order of the Golden Dragon.

In January 1940, Major General Vlasov was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division, which in October of the same year was recognized as the best division in the district. For this, A. Vlasov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Kyiv Special Military District, and a month later he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

That is, it can be stated that Andrei Andreyevich made a brilliant military career precisely at the time when the Stalinist regime destroyed the command staff of the Red Army in tens of thousands. The "best friend of all the military" did not doubt Vlasov's loyalty and devotion.

The war for Vlasov began near Lvov, where he served as commander of the 4th mechanized corps. For skillful actions, he received gratitude and, on the recommendation of N.S. Khrushchev was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended Kyiv. After fierce battles, scattered formations of this army managed to break through to the east, and Vlasov himself was wounded and ended up in the hospital.

In November 1941, Stalin summoned Vlasov and ordered him to form the 20th Army, which was part of the Western Front and defended the capital. On December 5, near the village of Krasnaya Polyana (located 27 km from the Moscow Kremlin), the Soviet 20th Army under the command of General Vlasov stopped parts of the German 4th Panzer Army, making a significant contribution to the victory near Moscow. Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, the 20th Army drove the Germans out of Solnechnogorsk and Volokolamsk. On January 24, 1942, for the battles on the Lama River, he received the rank of lieutenant general and was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner.

G.K. Zhukov assessed Vlasov’s actions as follows: “Personally, Lieutenant General Vlasov is well prepared operationally, he has organizational skills. He copes with the management of the troops quite well. After the successes near Moscow, A. A. Vlasov, along with other generals of the Red Army, is called the "saviors of the capital." On the instructions of the Main Political Directorate about Vlasov, a book is being written called "Stalin's commander."

On January 7, the Luban operation began. The troops of the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front, created to disrupt the German offensive on Leningrad and the subsequent counterattack, successfully broke through the enemy defenses in the area of \u200b\u200bthe settlement of Myasnoy Bor (on the left bank of the Volkhov River) and deeply wedged into its location (in the direction of Lyuban). But having no strength for a further offensive, the army found itself in a difficult position. The enemy cut her communications several times, creating a threat of encirclement.

On March 8, 1942, Lieutenant General A. Vlasov was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. On March 20, 1942, the commander of the Volkhov Front, K.A. Meretskov sent his deputy A. Vlasov at the head of a special commission to the 2nd shock army (Lieutenant General N.K. Klykov). “For three days the members of the commission talked with commanders of all ranks, with political workers, with soldiers,” and on April 8, 1942, having drawn up an inspection report, the commission departed, but without General A. Vlasov. The dismissed (“seriously ill”) General Klykov was sent to the rear by plane on April 16.

The question naturally arose, to whom to entrust the leadership of the troops of the 2nd shock army? On the same day, a telephone conversation took place between A. Vlasov and divisional commissar I.V. Zueva with Meretskov. Zuev proposed to appoint Vlasov to the post of commander, and Vlasov - the chief of staff of the army, Colonel P.S. Vinogradov. The Military Council of the [Volkhov] Front supported Zuev's idea. So, from April 20, 1942, Vlasov became commander of the 2nd shock army, while remaining deputy commander of the [Volkhov] front. He received troops that were practically no longer able to fight, he received an army that had to be saved. During May-June, the 2nd shock army under the command of A. Vlasov made desperate attempts to break out of the bag.

"TO THE MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE VOLKHOV FRONT. I report: the troops of the army have been conducting tense fierce battles with the enemy for three weeks ... The personnel of the troops are exhausted to the limit, the number of deaths is increasing and the incidence of exhaustion is increasing every day. As a result of the cross-fire of the army area, the troops suffer heavy losses from artillery mortar fire and enemy aircraft ... The combat strength of the formations has sharply decreased. It is no longer possible to replenish it at the expense of rears and special units. Everything that was taken. On June 16, battalions, brigades, and rifle regiments had, on average, only a few dozen men left. All attempts by the eastern group of the army to break through the passage in the corridor from the west were unsuccessful. Army troops receive fifty grams of crackers for three weeks. The last days there was absolutely no food. We eat the last horses. People are extremely exhausted. Group mortality from starvation is observed. There is no ammunition…”

On June 25, the enemy completely completed the encirclement of the army. The testimonies of various witnesses do not answer the question of where Lieutenant General A. Vlasov was hiding for the next three weeks - whether he wandered in the forest or whether there was some kind of reserve command post to which his group made its way. On July 11, 1942, in the village of Old Believers Tukhovezhi, Vlasov was extradited by local residents (according to another version, he surrendered himself) to a patrol of the 28th Infantry Regiment of the 18th Wehrmacht Army.

While in the Vinnitsa military camp for captured senior officers, Vlasov agreed to cooperate with the Nazis and headed the "Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia" (KONR) and the "Russian Liberation Army" (ROA), made up of captured Soviet soldiers.

Vlasov wrote an open letter "Why did I take the path of fighting Bolshevism." In addition, he signed leaflets calling for the overthrow of the Stalinist regime, which were subsequently scattered by the Nazi army from aircraft at the fronts, and also distributed among prisoners of war.

Russian Liberation Army, ROA - military units formed by the German headquarters of the SS Troops during World War II from Russian collaborators. The army was formed mainly from Soviet prisoners of war, as well as from among Russian emigrants. Unofficially, its members were called "Vlasovites", after their leader, Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov.

The ROA was formed mainly from Soviet prisoners of war who fell into German captivity, mainly at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, during the retreat of the Red Army. The creators of the ROA was declared as a military formation created to "liberate Russia from communism" (December 27, 1942). Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov, who was captured in 1942, together with General Boyarsky, proposed in a letter to the German command to organize a ROA. General Fyodor Trukhin was appointed chief of staff, General Vladimir Boyarsky was appointed his deputy, and Colonel Andrey Neryanin was appointed head of the operational department of the headquarters. The leaders of the ROA also included generals Vasily Malyshkin, Dmitry Zakutny, Ivan Blagoveshchensky, and former brigade commissar Georgy Zhilenkov. The rank of General of the ROA had a former major of the Red Army and Colonel of the Wehrmacht Ivan Kononov.

Among the leadership of the ROA were the generals of the white army V.I. Angeleev, V.F. Belogortsev, S.K. Borodin, colonels K.G. Kromiadi, N. A. Shokoli, lieutenant colonel A. D. Arkhipov, as well as M. V. Tomashevsky, Yu. K. Meyer, V. Melnikov, Skarzhinsky, Golub and others, as well as Colonel I. K. Sakharov (formerly lieutenant of the Spanish army, General F. Franco). Support was also provided by: Generals A.P. Arkhangelsky, A.A. von Lampe, A.M. Dragomirov, P.N. Krasnov, N.N. Golovin, F.F. Abramov, E.I. Balabin, I.A. Polyakov, V.V. Kreiter, Donskoy and Kuban chieftains generals G.V. Tatarkin and V.G. Naumenko. The army was financed entirely by the German state bank.

However, there was antagonism between former Soviet prisoners of war and white emigrants, and the latter were gradually forced out of the leadership of the ROA. Most of them served in other Russian volunteer formations not associated with the ROA (only a few days before the end of the war formally attached to the ROA) - the Russian Corps, the brigade of General A.V. Turkula in Austria, the 1st Russian National Army, the Varyag regiment of Colonel M.A. Semenov, a separate regiment of Colonel Krzhizhanovsky, as well as in Cossack formations (15th Cossack Cavalry Corps and Cossack camp).

On January 28, 1945, the ROA received the status of the German armed forces. On May 12, 1945, an order was signed to dissolve the ROA. After the victory of the allies and the occupation of Germany, most of the members of the ROA were handed over to the Soviet authorities. Some were shot on the spot by the NKVD, together with the soldiers of the United States and Great Britain, and some were sent for many years to the Gulags of the USSR. Some of the "Vlasovites" managed to get asylum in Western countries, as well as in Australia, Canada and Argentina.

At the end of April 1945, A. Vlasov had the armed forces under his command in the following composition:

1st Division Major General S.K. Bunyachenko (22,000 people)
2nd Division Major General G.A. Zverev (13,000 people)
3rd Division Major General M.M. Shapovalova (not armed, there was only a headquarters and 10,000 volunteers)
reserve brigade of lieutenant colonel (later colonel) S.T. Koydy (7,000 men) is the only commander of a large unit not extradited by the US occupation authorities to the Soviet side.
Air Force General V.I. Maltsev (5000 people)
VET division
officer school of General M.A. Meandrov.
accessory parts,
Russian Corps Major General B.A. Shteifon (4500 people). General Steifon died suddenly on 30 April. The corps that surrendered to the Soviet troops was led by Colonel Rogozhkin.
Cossack Stan Major General T.I. Domanova (8000 people)
group of Major General A.V. Turkula (5200 people)
15th Cossack cavalry corps of Lieutenant General H. von Pannwitz (more than 40,000 people)
Cossack reserve regiment of General A.G. Shkuro (more than 10,000 people)
several small formations numbering less than 1000 people;

In general, these formations numbered 124 thousand people. These parts were scattered at a considerable distance from each other, which became one of the main factors in their tragic fate. However, in fact, all the ROA servicemen who, at the time of Germany's surrender, were outside the zone occupied by Soviet troops, were extradited by the Western occupation authorities to the Soviet side. And it was legally justified. According to international law, persons who previously had Soviet citizenship and, due to various circumstances, took the path of serving the Nazis, took an oath of allegiance to the Motherland and betrayed it, were considered collaborators and traitors subject to extradition.

Separate parts of the Vlasovites were used by the Germans for security service and punitive operations, in particular, the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, where they were distinguished by cruelty and looting.

The Vlasovites entered the battle against units of the Red Army for the first time on February 8, 1945. On that day, the anti-tank detachment of Colonel I.K. Sakharova achieved partial success in an attack near the town of Nei-Levin on a position occupied by units of the 990th regiment of the 230th Stalinist rifle division. On April 13, two Vlasov infantry regiments attacked the bridgehead held by the forces of the 415th separate machine gun and artillery battalion from the 119th fortified area of the 33rd Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. During the first attack, the Vlasovites occupied the first line of trenches, having achieved success where the Germans could not achieve it for two months. But then, during the battle, the division commander, Major General S.K. Bunyachenko refused to continue unpromising attacks due to the strong artillery cover of the bridgehead from the eastern bank of the Oder. He carefully led the regiments out of the battle, and the fighting qualities of the Vlasovites were mentioned in a positive context in the report of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) dated April 14, 1945.

Among the Vlasov military leaders were regular commanders of the Red Army (5 major generals, 2 brigade commanders, 29 colonels, 16 lieutenant colonels, 41 majors), who had excellent attestations while serving in the Red Army, and even three Heroes of the Soviet Union (pilots Antilevsky, Bychkov and Tennikov ). A number of commanders of the Red Army, having spent from a year to three years in German camps, joined Vlasov after the publication of the Prague Manifesto and the creation of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR), when no one doubted the outcome of the war. Among them are colonels A.F. Vanyushin, A.A. Funtikov, lieutenant colonels I.F. Rudenko and A.P. Skugarevsky and others. In April 1945, under the legal command of A.A. Vlasov, there were more than 120 thousand people, however, who did not have time to complete the reorganization. The Vlasov army, which arose between November 1944 and April 1945, was armed with 44 aircraft, about 25 tanks and armored vehicles, more than 570 mortars, 230 guns, 2 thousand machine guns, etc.

In early May 1945, a conflict arose between Vlasov and Bunyachenko - Bunyachenko intended to support the Prague uprising, and Vlasov persuaded him not to do this and stay on the side of the Germans. At the negotiations in the North Bohemian Kozoedy, they did not agree and their paths diverged.

In an open letter from A. Vlasov dated March 3, 1943, “Why I took the path of fighting Bolshevism,” he, in particular, wrote:

“I have come to the firm conviction that the tasks facing the Russian people can be resolved 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.

The highest achievements of the Russian people are inextricably linked with those periods of its history when it linked its fate with the fate of Europe, when it built its culture, its economy, its way of life in close unity with the peoples of Europe. Bolshevism fenced off the Russian people with an impenetrable wall from Europe. He sought to isolate our Motherland from the advanced European countries. In the name of ideas utopian and alien to the Russian people, he prepared for war, opposing himself to the peoples of Europe.

In alliance with the German people, the Russian people must destroy this wall of hatred and mistrust. 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.

With these thoughts, with this decision in the last battle, along with a handful of friends loyal to me, I was taken prisoner.

I was in captivity for over six months. In the conditions of the prisoner-of-war camp, behind its bars, I not only did not change my mind, but strengthened my convictions.

On an honest basis, on the basis of sincere conviction, with full awareness of responsibility to the Motherland, people and history for the actions taken, I call on the people to fight, setting myself the task of building a New Russia.

How do I imagine New Russia? I will talk about this in due time.

History does not turn back. I do not call the people to return to the past. Not! I call him to a brighter future, to the struggle for the completion of the National Revolution, to the struggle for the creation of New Russia - the Motherland of our great people. I call him to the path of brotherhood and unity with the peoples of Europe and, above all, to the path of cooperation and eternal friendship with the Great German people.

My call met with deep sympathy not only among the broadest sections of the prisoners of war, but also among the broad masses of the Russian people in areas where Bolshevism still reigns. This sympathetic response of the Russian people, who expressed their readiness to breastfeed themselves under the banner of the Russian Liberation Army, gives me the right to say that I am on the right path, that the cause for which I am fighting is a just cause, the cause of the Russian people. In this struggle for our future, I openly and honestly take the path of an alliance with Germany.

So, the combat general of the Red Army, who personally saw the atrocities of the Nazis on Soviet soil, called on the Russians to "alliance with Germany." At a time when the furnaces of German concentration camps were stoked with might and main by the bodies of his former fellow citizens, A. Vlasov, together with the German special services, developed "cunning" plans for recognizing the ROA as a "belligerent" with neutrality towards the USA and England. Of course, a drowning man clutches at straws, but it is hard to imagine a more insane combination generated by the hopelessness of Hitler's fascism and his henchmen.

On May 12, 1945, A. Vlasov was captured by servicemen of the 25th tank corps of the 13th army of the 1st Ukrainian front near the city of Pilsen in Czechoslovakia while trying to escape to the western zone of occupation. The tankers of the corps pursued Vlasov's car at the direction of the Vlasov captain, who informed them that his commander was in this car. Vlasov was taken to the headquarters of Marshal Konev, from there to Moscow.

At first, the leadership of the USSR planned to hold a public trial of Vlasov and other leaders of the ROA in the October Hall of the House of the Unions, however, due to the fact that some of the accused could express views during the process that "objectively could coincide with the mood of a certain part of the population dissatisfied with the Soviet government", it was It was decided to make the process closed. The decision on the death sentence against Vlasov and others was taken by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on July 23, 1946. On July 30-31, 1946, a closed trial took place in the case of Vlasov and a group of his followers. All of them were found guilty of high treason. By the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, they were stripped of their military ranks and hanged on August 1, 1946, and their property was confiscated.

The time has come to return to the beginning of our study and compare Hauptmann Shukhevych and Lieutenant General Vlasov, UPA and ROA. We have already noted that both Shukhevych and most of the UPA fighters were not citizens of the USSR before the war. That is, by definition, they could not change him. Raised on the radical ideology of the OUN, they fought for the Ukraine that corresponded to their ideals. Yes, they collaborated with the Nazis, but who in those days did not dream of an alliance with the invincible Fuhrer? The Germans did not appreciate the opportunities that opened up before them in the event of a formal restoration of Ukrainian sovereignty. But the hopes of the OUN members were quite justified. Another thing is that Hitler would then not be Hitler, but the greatest political strategist. Until the autumn of 1944, the OUN were used by the Abwehr as an auxiliary force in the occupied territory. However, after the liberation of Ukraine, for many years they waged a guerrilla war against the Soviet regime, defending their ideals with all the methods available to them. It was a full-scale civil war with heavy losses on both sides. Thousands of Galicians died under the heavy boot of "Uncle Joe", but stopped the fight only after the complete depletion of the sources of replenishment and weapons. As in every civil war, there was no right or wrong. Each side fought for its own vision of Ukraine. Therefore, neither the UPA fighters, nor their commander-in-chief cannot fail to inspire a certain respect. As for their status as a “belligerent”, then this should be recognized for them precisely in a civil war.

The Stalinist commander Andrei Vlasov and his associates, on the contrary, were citizens of the USSR, took the oath of allegiance to the Motherland, being in the ranks of the Red Army. Therefore, they are clearly traitors and collaborators. If R. Shukhevych was devoted to the ideals of the OUN all his adult life, then A. Vlasov, having joined the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the age of 29, after the captivity suddenly “saw the light” and desired to fight against “godless Bolshevism”. And on the side of the bloody Hitler, guilty of the deaths of tens of millions of Russians. Therefore, it makes no sense to compare the ideological "credo" of the OUN and Vlasovites: the former had it, while the latter did not. It is significant that if the OUN members fought underground for a long time against Bolshevism, then the Vlasovites immediately after the defeat of Germany surrendered and did not even think about fighting for the “new Russia”.

Concluding our reflections, let us return to “godless Bolshevism” for the declarative, basically, struggle against which the fathers of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad call for the rehabilitation of A. Vlasov. So, before the war, L. Trotsky noted that the most ardent anti-Bolshevik is J. Stalin, who destroyed more communists than Hitler and Mussolini combined. According to the logic of church hierarchs, and the mustachioed "father of all peoples" should be forgiven?

Putin's modern rashists accuse Ukraine of all sins and crimes. Although, it was the Russian Federation that brazenly sent its troops into the Crimea, started a senseless massacre in the Donbass, capturing part of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions ... Syria, Turkey ... Russian propagandists have no shame or conscience.

Ukraine for them is a fascist junta, where “Banderites of the Galicia division” are in power…

The Museum of the Poster of Ukraine under the magazine "Museums of Ukraine" politely reminds of Vlasov's ROA. Their crimes and symbolism. Which, surprisingly, became the state in the Russian Federation.

So who are the “fascists, junta and Nazis”? I would like to ask the successors of Goebbels' propaganda and Vlasov's fascist ideology ...

Press Service of the Poster Museum of Ukraine

Russian Liberation Army, ROA- the historical name of the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR), who fought on the side of the Third Reich against the political system of the USSR, as well as the totality of the majority of Russian anti-Soviet units and units from Russian collaborators in the Wehrmacht in 1943-1944, mainly used at the level separate battalions and companies, and formed by various German military structures (headquarters of the SS Troops, etc.) during the Great Patriotic War.

Until 1944, the ROA did not exist as any specific military formation, but was mainly used by the German authorities for propaganda and recruiting volunteers for service. The 1st division of the ROA was formed on November 23, 1944, other formations were created a little later, and at the beginning of 1945 other collaborationist formations were included in the ROA.

The army was formed in the same way as, for example, the North Caucasian special-purpose battalion "Bergmann", the Georgian Legion of the Wehrmacht, - mainly from Soviet prisoners of war or from among emigrants. Unofficially, the Russian Liberation Army and its members were called "Vlasovites", after the name of their leader, the former Soviet lieutenant general Andrey Vlasov.

At the end of June 1942, the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front was cut off from the main forces of the Red Army. Most of the fighters died, the survivors scattered through the swampy forests. In this critical situation, the army commander and at the same time the deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, General A. Vlasov, abandoned the troops entrusted to him and disappeared in an unknown direction. In early July 1942, Vlasov surrendered to the Germans. Due to his high official position, Vlasov knew a lot, so he was soon sent to the Vinnitsa prisoner of war camp, which was run by German military intelligence - the Abwehr. There Vlasov declared his consent to participate in the struggle against the Red Army on the side of the Nazis. In early August 1942, he proposed to the German authorities to create an independent volunteer "Russian Liberation Army" (ROA) to fight in alliance with Germany against the Stalinist regime. This idea interested the Nazi leadership, and Vlasov was entrusted with the recruitment of volunteers in prisoner-of-war camps and in an emigre environment. Vlasov pursued the task of uniting all anti-Soviet forces. However, the practical implementation of this plan by Hitler was postponed. Given the cases of transition of such volunteers to the side of the Red Army, there was little trust in them. It was not until mid-1944 that the Nazi rulers began to realize that things were now going very badly for them. In September 1944, the head of the SS and the Gestapo, G. Himmler, met with Vlasov and gave the green light to the formation of independent Russian divisions from proven forces.

On November 14, 1944, in Prague, with the money of the German Reich, the so-called “Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia” (KONR) was formed. The committee adopted a manifesto of the anti-Soviet movement, literally reproducing Hitler's propaganda texts about the USSR, England and the USA. Following this, the formation of ROA divisions began from units that had previously taken part in the fight against Soviet partisans, in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, in hostilities on various sectors of the Soviet-German front, as well as volunteers from France, Denmark, Norway, the Balkan countries, Italy and etc. with a total number of up to 50 thousand fighters. In December 1944, at the direction of the Minister of Aviation of Nazi Germany G. Goering, the air forces of the ROA were also created on the basis of the “Russian air group”, formed as part of the Luftwaffe back in November 1943 (in total, they were provided with 28 Messerschmitt and Junkers aircraft ”). ROA units managed to take part in battles with Soviet troops during the Vistula-Oder and Berlin operations in the spring of 1945, as well as on the Yugoslav-Hungarian border.

PROPAGANDA

To reinforce the ROA, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad was also involved, which could not forgive the Soviet authorities for religious persecution. Here is what, for example, calling for armed struggle against Soviet soldiers, wrote in one of the Vlasov publications in November 1944, the priest of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad Alexander Kiselev: “Who among us does not have a heartache at the thought that the bright cause of saving the Motherland is connected with the necessity of fratricidal war - a terrible thing. What is the answer? What's the way out? And he himself answered: "War is evil, but sometimes it is the least evil and even good."

And here is another, how terrible, just as absurd text - also from the Vlasov newspaper, only dated already in 1945. This is a short article entitled “The Poles lost 10 million people”: “The British Reuters agency reports the information bureau of the Polish armed forces, according to which Poland lost 10 million people during this war. Such are the terrible results of the fatal war for the Polish people, caused by the criminal policy of the Warsaw government deceived by London.” In other words, the Vlasovites who fought together with the Germans in Poland believed that it was not Hitler and his assistants who were to blame for the terrible sacrifices made, but the Poles themselves and their allies!

MYTHS ABOUT VLASOVIANS

In some publications, one can find statements that the Vlasovites did not participate in hostilities against the Red Army. Such, unsupported by facts, theses do not stand up to scrutiny. Suffice it to quote the Vlasov newspaper "For the Motherland", which from November 15, 1944 was published in Russian twice a week in the territories occupied by Hitler. One of Vlasov's closest associates, Major General F. Trukhin, himself exposes his movement in the very first issue of the mentioned newspaper: “The German people are convinced that they have true allies in the person of our volunteers. In the battles on the Eastern Front, in Italy, in France, our volunteers showed courage, heroism and an unbending will to win.” Or: “We have cadre units of the Russian Liberation Army, the Ukrainian Vizvolny Viysk and other national formations, united in battles and having gone through a harsh school of war on the Eastern Front, in the Balkans, in Italy and France. We have experienced and trained officers.” And further: "We will courageously, not for life, but for death, fight with the Red Army." The article also states that the Vlasov troops will have in their composition all the types of troops necessary for the conduct of a modern war, and weapons with the latest technology: "In this regard, our German allies are of great help." The editorial of the newspaper “For the Motherland” dated March 22, 1945, speaks of the solemn transfer to the Vlasovites of the Russian battalion, which was still in parts of the German army: “Glorious and instructive is the path traveled by the battalion. It was formed in Belarus and distinguished itself there in battles with partisans. After this preliminary combat training, which showed a high degree of courage, fearlessness and stamina of Russian soldiers, the battalion was included in the active German army, was in France, Belgium, Holland. On the memorable days of the Anglo-American offensive in the summer of 1944, the battalion took part in hot battles. fighters have awards for bravery.”

And here are excerpts from a report on the arrival of the former commander of the German division, which previously included this Russian battalion: “Great, brothers! - his greeting is heard in purely Russian. Until today, you belonged to the German army. For a year and a half you fought alongside the German soldiers. You fought near Bobruisk, Smolensk, in France, Belgium. Many feats are yours, the third company is especially glorious. We are now required to fight to the last drop of blood. We need to win in order to liberate long-suffering Russia from the 25-year yoke of Jews and communists. Long live the new Europe! Long live liberated Russia! Long live the leader of the new Europe, Adolf Hitler! Hooray! (Everyone stands up. Three powerful cheers shake the hall)”.

We will also cite interesting excerpts from a letter to the editors of the newspaper from one Russian volunteer from the front: “I went through the hard school of war together with my soldiers. For three years we have been hand in hand with the German comrades on the eastern, and now on the northeastern front. Many fell heroes in battle, many were awarded for bravery. My volunteers and I look forward to the next evening broadcasts. Say hello personally to General Vlasov. He is our commander, we are his soldiers, imbued with true love and devotion.”

Another message says: “We have a group of volunteers here in the German battalion. Four Russians, two Ukrainians, two Armenians, one Georgian. Having heard the call of the committee, we hasten to respond and want an early transfer to the ranks of the ROA or national units.

Another common myth is that Vlasov's campaign materials supposedly did not contain a single word of anti-Semitism. One “eyewitness” defending the general recalls: “I hardly saw all the Vlasov leaflets, but if at least one came across with a call to fight the “Jewish-Bolshevik” regime, General A. Vlasov would cease to exist for me. The slightest hint of anti-Semitism was completely absent.” Our own analysis of issues of the newspaper Za Rodinu, the printed organ of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, shows that almost every issue contains calls for a fight against “Judeo-Bolshevism” (the newspaper’s stable stamp), direct attacks on Jews (true, not necessarily Soviet), lengthy quotations of speeches by Hitler, other Nazis, or reprints from the fascist newspaper Völkischer Beobachter, to one degree or another touching on the topic of “Judeo-communism”. We do not consider it necessary to reproduce them here.

Of particular interest in the "biography" of the Vlasov movement is the episode associated with the Prague events in May 1945. An absurd version is being planted that Prague, they say, was liberated from the Nazis by the Vlasovites! Without going into details of the offensive operation of the 1st, 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, as a result of which a million-strong enemy grouping was surrounded and defeated and thereby assisted the insurgent Prague, let us pay attention to the following. Even before the start of the Prague operation, Vlasov, who realized that the Wehrmacht had come to an end, telegraphed to the headquarters of the 1st Ukrainian Front: “I can hit the rear of the Prague group of Germans. The condition is forgiveness for me and my people.” Thus, by the way, there was another betrayal - now of the German masters. However, no response was received. Vlasov and his associates had to make their way through the German detachments in Prague to the Americans. They expected to sit out with the Americans until the third world war. The Vlasovites seriously proceeded from the fact that the United States and England, after the defeat of Germany, would dare to attack the USSR. And now, between the troops of the three fronts of the Red Army, moving day and night along all roads to the insurgent Prague, on May 6, 1945, the 1st division of the ROA slipped there, numbering about 10 thousand people, in which A. Vlasov himself was. Such a small, demoralized formation, of course, could not have played any serious role in the liberation of Prague, in which there were more than a million Nazis. The Prague residents, mistakenly mistaking the ROA division for the Soviet one, at first greeted it cordially. But the clumsy maneuver of the Vlasovites was soon understood, and the armed detachments of the Czechoslovak Resistance threw them out of Prague, having managed to partially disarm them. Fleeing, the Vlasovites were forced to engage in battle with the SS barriers that blocked their path to the zone of American troops. This ended the “decisive role” of the Vlasovites in the liberation of Prague.

END OF MOVEMENT

On May 12, 1945, the Soviet command learned from radio interception that Vlasov was located in the area of the Czech city of Pilsen. The operation to capture it was carried out by the 162nd tank brigade under the command of Colonel I. Mashenko. The forward detachment of the brigade captured the commander of one of the ROA battalions, who indicated the exact location of Vlasov. Everything else was a matter of technique. Some time later, the general was taken to the headquarters of the 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front, and then by plane to Moscow. The trial of Vlasov and his eleven henchmen took place in July-August 1946. By the decision of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, Vlasov and his closest accomplices were sentenced to death.

Most of the Soviet collaborators chose to surrender to the Americans and the British. The allies, as a rule, considered the “Vlasovites” as prisoners of war of the anti-Hitler coalition. According to the Yalta agreements of the allied powers of 1945, all citizens of the USSR who found themselves abroad as a result of the war, including traitors, were subject to repatriation. By decision of the courts, most of the participants in the Vlasov movement ended up in labor camps, and the officers were executed.

However, not all Nazi accomplices were extradited to the Soviet side. So, the remnants of the 1st Russian National Army of the white emigrant B. Smyslovsky (about 500 people) on the night of May 2-3 managed to escape from the zone of French occupation in Austria (Vorarlberg land) to neutral Liechtenstein. There they were interned. The "Smyslovites" were not formally part of the Vlasov army. They operated independently from July 1941, when the Russian Foreign Battalion was created at the headquarters of the German Army Group North to collect intelligence. Later, it was transformed into a training reconnaissance battalion, that is, in essence, into a school for the training of intelligence officers and saboteurs. At the end of 1942, Smyslovsky headed a special structure to combat the partisan movement. In 1945, Smyslovsky's army numbered almost 6 thousand people.

The French and the Soviet side demanded that the Smyslovites be handed over to them, but the then Liechtenstein authorities, who sympathized with Hitler, refused to do so. In 1946, the Argentine government agreed to receive Smyslov and his accomplices. Transportation costs were later borne by the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Americans, in contrast to the British, also tried not to extradite those who could be useful to them for future subversive work against the USSR. And this is understandable: after the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Soviet Union, which conquered all of continental Europe, the words of F. Schiller that only Russians can defeat Russians acquired particular relevance ...

WHO ARE THEY?

According to some estimates, a total of 800 thousand to 2 million Soviet citizens and emigrants from Russia and the USSR fought (or helped) against the USSR and its allies on the side of the Germans - those who participated in the terrorist actions of the invaders, prolonged them and slowed down coming of victory.

For most of our contemporaries, the common noun in relation to all of them, the name "Vlasov" and the concept of "traitor" mean the same thing. On the Internet, we found the memoirs of one of the participants in the Vistula-Oder operation - K. V. Popov, which contain characteristic assessments of this group of people: “In Germany, we met Vlasovites. We did not take them prisoner - they shot them, although there was no such order. We hated these traitors to the Motherland fiercely - they were worse than the Nazis. They found diaries. There, the traitors described how they were captured, how they were kept, how they went over to the side of the enemy. I read such a diary of one murdered Vlasovite and I. Vlasovets wrote that he wanted to return to his own, but the Germans were vigilantly watching them. Then, when the opportunity arose to cross, it became clear: they would not believe their own people, they would not forgive them - that’s how they had to shoot their own people to the end. ”

Attempts to make general Vlasov and his comrades-in-arms fighters against Stalinism, fighters for democratic Russia have little connection with reality. Indeed, in Vlasov's appeals there was a lot of such rhetoric. Of course, the ideological opponents of the Soviet government joined the Vlasov units, but in the vast majority they were those who wanted to avoid the hard fate of German captivity. The morale of the Vlasovites fluctuated depending on the situation at the front. That is why the German command considered the Vlasov units as unreliable.

The “ideological commitment” of most Vlasovites was just a beautiful wrapper for their desire to save their own lives at all costs, and if they were lucky, to make a career, get rich, or settle old scores with offenders. With “ideology” they only calmed their mental anguish due to treason and cooperation with the Germans. It is unlikely that they, shooting at Red Army soldiers and partisans, did not understand that they could potentially shoot at their own fathers or mothers, brothers or sisters, sons or daughters, who were not related to the crimes of the regime, but rather were its victims. How did they then differ from the “criminals-Bolsheviks”? Therefore, objectively, the Vlasovites did not fight against Stalinism, but against their own people, and the Vlasov team was just an obedient cog in the Nazi machine of conquest. If the Russian collaborators fought against Bolshevism, then why did they also fight on the Atlantic coast with the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, receiving thanks and promotions from the German command for this? It's just that the Vlasovites miscalculated, betting on the invincibility of the Reich.