Andrey Vlasov
Encyclopedia
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian
Red Army
general who collaborated with Nazi Germany
during World War II
.
, Vlasov was originally a student at a Russian Orthodox seminary
. He quit the study of divinity after the Russian Revolution
, briefly studying agricultural sciences
instead, and in 1919 joined the Red Army
fighting in the southern theatre in Ukraine
, the Caucasus
, and the Crimea
. He distinguished himself as an officer and gradually rose through the ranks of the Red Army
.
Vlasov joined the Communist Party
in 1930. Sent to China, he acted as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek
from 1938 to November 1939. Upon his return, Vlasov served in several assignments before being given command of the 99th Rifle Division
. After just nine months under Vlasov's leadership, after an inspection by Semyon Timoshenko
, the division was recognized as one of the best divisions in the Army in 1940. Timoshenko presented Vlasov with an inscribed gold watch, as he 'found the 99th the best of all. The historian John Erickson says of Vlasov at this point that [he] 'was an up and coming man. In 1940, Vlasov was promoted to major general, and on June 22, 1941, when the Germans and their allies invaded the Soviet Union, Vlasov was commanding 4th Mechanized Corps.
Shortly after the invasion began, Vlasov's corps retook Przemyśl
, holding it for six days. As a lieutenant general, he commanded the 37th Army near Kiev
and escaped encirclement. He then played an important role in the defense of Moscow
, as his 20th Army counterattacked and retook Solnechnogorsk
. Vlasov's picture was printed (along with those of other Soviet generals) in the newspaper Pravda
as that of one of the "defenders of Moscow". Described by some historians as "charismatic", Vlasov was decorated on January 24, 1942, with the Order of the Red Banner
for his efforts in the defence of Moscow. After this success, Vlasov was put in command of the 2nd Shock Army
of the Volkhov Front
and ordered to lead the attempt to lift the Siege of Leningrad
-- the Lyuban-Chudovo Offensive Operation
of January–April 1942. Other forces (the Volkhov Front's 4th, 52nd, and 59th Armies, 13th Cavalry Corps, and 4th and 6th Guards Rifle Corps, as well as the 54th Army of the Leningrad Front) failed to exploit Vlasov's advances and his army was left stranded in German-held territory. The 2nd Shock Army was surrounded and, in June 1942, destroyed.
, interrogated him about the surrounding of his army and details of battles, then had Vlasov imprisoned in occupied Vinnytsia
.
Vlasov claimed that during his ten days in hiding he affirmed his anti-bolshevism
, believing Stalin was the greatest enemy of the Russian people, and there is evidence that suggests Vlasov may have changed sides in a bid to give his countrymen a better life than the one they had under Stalin. His critics, including Marshall Kirill Meretskov
(who had endorsed Vlasov's promotion to executive officer of the Volkhov front) and most Soviet historians, argued that Vlasov adopted a pro-Nazi German stance in prison out of opportunism, careerism, and survival, fearing Stalinist retribution for losing his last battle and his army. Vlasov would have been executed by Stalin for his defeat.
While in prison, Vlasov met Captain Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt
, a German Balt who was attempting to foster a Russian Liberation Movement
. Strik-Strikfeldt had circulated memos to this effect in the Wehrmacht.
Strik-Strikfeldt, who had been a participant in the White movement
during the Russian civil war, persuaded Vlasov to become involved in aiding the German advance against the rule of Stalin and bolshevism. With Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Boyarsky
, Vlasov wrote a memo shortly after his capture to the German military leaders suggesting cooperation between anti-Stalinist Russians and the German Army.
Vlasov was taken to Berlin under the protection of the Wehrmacht's propaganda department. There he, together with other Soviet officers, began drafting plans for the creation of a Russian provisional government and the recruitment of a Russian army of liberation under Russian command.
Vlasov founded the Russian Liberation Committee, in hopes of creating the Russian Liberation Army
—known as ROA (from Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya). Together with some other captured Soviet generals, officers and soldiers, the army's goal was to overthrow Stalinism
and create an independent Russian state. Vlasov offered a democratic system of government. Many Russian POW
s as well as soldiers who received Vlasov propaganda leaflets were interested in becoming a part of this army.
In the spring of 1943, Vlasov wrote an anti-Bolshevik leaflet known as the "Smolensk Proclamation", which was dropped from aircraft by the millions on Soviet forces and Soviet-controlled soil.
Even though no Russian Liberation Army yet existed, the Nazi propaganda department issued Russian Liberation Army patches to Russian volunteers and tried to use Vlasov's name in order to encourage defections—a strategy they found effective. Several hundred thousand former Soviet citizens served in the German army wearing this patch, but never under Vlasov's own command.
Adolf Hitler
was very wary of Vlasov and his intentions. On April 3, 1943, Hitler made clear in a speech to his high command that such an army would never be created, then issued directives to dismantle any such efforts and to sequester all of Vlasov's supporters in the German army. He worried that Vlasov might succeed in overthrowing Stalin, which would halt Hitler's dreams of expanding Greater Germany to the Urals
. Hitler began taking measures against Eastern Volunteer units, especially Russian ones, arranging for their transfer to the west.
Vlasov was permitted to make several trips to Nazi-occupied Russia: most notably, to Pskov
, where Russian pro-German volunteers paraded. The populace's reception of Vlasov was mixed. While in Pskov, Vlasov dealt himself a nearly fatal political blow by referring to the Germans as mere "guests" during a speech, which Hitler found belittling. Vlasov was even put under house arrest and threatened with being handed over to the Gestapo
. Despondent about his mission, Vlasov threatened to resign and return to the POW camp, but was dissuaded at the last minute by his confidants.
According to Shalamov, Vlasov emissaries lectured to the Russian prisoners of war, explaining to them that their government had declared them all traitors, and that escaping was pointless. As Vlasov proclaimed, even if the Soviets succeeded, Joseph Stalin
would send them to Siberia
.
Only in September 1944 did Germany—at the urging of Heinrich Himmler
, initially a virulent opponent of Vlasov — finally permitted Vlasov to raise his Russian Liberation Army
. Vlasov formed and chaired the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
, proclaimed by the Prague Manifesto
on the 14th of November, 1944. Vlasov also hoped to create a Pan-Slavic
liberation congress, but Nazi political officials, generally prejudiced against the Slavs, would not permit it.
Vlasov's only combat against the Red Army
took place on February 11, 1945, on the river Oder. After three days of battle against overwhelming forces, the First Division of the ROA was forced to retreat and marched southward to Prague
, in German-controlled Bohemia
.
On May 6, 1945, Vlasov received a request from the commander of the first ROA division, General Sergei Bunyachenko, for permission to turn his weapons against the Nazi SS
forces and aid Czech resistance fighters in the Prague uprising
. Vlasov at first disapproved, then reluctantly allowed Bunyachenko to proceed. Some historians maintain it was the bitterness of the ROA against the Germans which caused them to switch sides once again, while other historians believe the sole purpose of this action was to win favor from the western Allies and possibly even the Soviet side, in the light of the nearly completed military annihilation of the German Reich
.
Two days later, the first division was forced to leave Prague as communist
Czech partisans began arresting ROA soldiers in order to hand them over to the Soviets for execution. At this point Vlasov was offered an escape, through changing into civilian clothes and flying to neutral Spain, but he refused to leave his men.
Vlasov and the rest of his forces, trying to evade the overpowering Red Army and wishing to preserve their ranks for a future war of liberation, attempted to head west to surrender to the Allies in the closing days of the war in Europe. On May 10, 1945, Vlasov and his men reached western Allied forces and surrendered to them.
. He and his generals continued talks with the British and the Americans, explaining the principles of their liberation movement and trying to persuade the western Allies to grant asylum to its participants. The Allied commanders were divided on the issue; some were sympathetic but afraid of angering the Soviet Union and of disobeying their western Allied political leaders, who were still in alliance with Stalin.
On May 12, 1945, returning from talks with Captain Richard Donahue, an American Armor Company Commander from the 37th Tank Battalion, Vlasov's car was surrounded by Soviet troops. Vlasov's American escort did not resist as Vlasov was arrested. Vlasov, along with many of his anti-communist Russian and other men, was forcibly repatriated
to the Soviet Union.
Soviet authorities sent Vlasov to Moscow, where over the course of a year he was held in the Lubyanka prison
. A summary trial held in the summer of 1946 and presided over by Viktor Abakumov
sentenced him and eleven other senior officers from his army to death for treason. The twelve men were hanged on August 1, 1946. These were among the last death sentences in the Soviet Union carried out by hanging
(later a group of Cossack
leaders allied with the Germans, including Pyotr Krasnov
, Andrei Shkuro
, and Helmuth von Pannwitz
, suffered the same fate).
A memorial dedicated to General Vlasov and the participants in the Russian Liberation Movement was erected at the Novo Deveevo Russian Orthodox convent and cemetery in Nanuet, New York
, USA. Twice annually, on the anniversary of Vlasov's execution and on the Sunday following Orthodox Easter
, a memorial service is held for Vlasov and the combatants of the Russian Liberation Army
.
social organization, "For Faith and Fatherland", applied to the Russian Federation's military prosecutor for a review of Vlasov's case, saying that "Vlasov was a patriot who spent much time re-evaluating his service in the Red Army and the essence of Stalin's regime before agreeing to collaborate with the Germans". The military prosecutor concluded that the law of rehabilitation of victims of political repressions did not apply to Vlasov and refused to ever consider the case again personally. However, Vlasov's Article 58
conviction for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda was vacated.
Documentaries:
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
general who collaborated with Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Early career
Born in Lomakino, Nizhny Novgorod Governorate, Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, Vlasov was originally a student at a Russian Orthodox seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
. He quit the study of divinity after the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, briefly studying agricultural sciences
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
instead, and in 1919 joined the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
fighting in the southern theatre in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
, and the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
. He distinguished himself as an officer and gradually rose through the ranks of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
.
Vlasov joined the Communist Party
Communist party
A political party described as a Communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government...
in 1930. Sent to China, he acted as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek
Chiang Kai-shek was a political and military leader of 20th century China. He is known as Jiǎng Jièshí or Jiǎng Zhōngzhèng in Mandarin....
from 1938 to November 1939. Upon his return, Vlasov served in several assignments before being given command of the 99th Rifle Division
99th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 99th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Soviet Union's Red Army which fought in World War II...
. After just nine months under Vlasov's leadership, after an inspection by Semyon Timoshenko
Semyon Timoshenko
Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was a Soviet military commander and senior professional officer of the Red Army at the beginning of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.-Early life:...
, the division was recognized as one of the best divisions in the Army in 1940. Timoshenko presented Vlasov with an inscribed gold watch, as he 'found the 99th the best of all. The historian John Erickson says of Vlasov at this point that [he] 'was an up and coming man. In 1940, Vlasov was promoted to major general, and on June 22, 1941, when the Germans and their allies invaded the Soviet Union, Vlasov was commanding 4th Mechanized Corps.
Shortly after the invasion began, Vlasov's corps retook Przemyśl
Przemysl
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....
, holding it for six days. As a lieutenant general, he commanded the 37th Army near Kiev
Battle of Kiev (1941)
The Battle of Kiev was the German name for the operation that resulted in a very large encirclement of Soviet troops in the vicinity of Kiev during World War II. It is considered the largest encirclement of troops in history. The operation ran from 23 August – 26 September 1941 as part of Operation...
and escaped encirclement. He then played an important role in the defense of Moscow
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of...
, as his 20th Army counterattacked and retook Solnechnogorsk
Solnechnogorsk
Solnechnogorsk is a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, the administrative center of Solnechnogorsky District. It is situated on the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Highway and the Moscow-Saint Petersburg Railway, on the coast of Senezh Lake, north-west from Moscow. Population: Originally, there was a village...
. Vlasov's picture was printed (along with those of other Soviet generals) in the newspaper Pravda
Pravda
Pravda was a leading newspaper of the Soviet Union and an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991....
as that of one of the "defenders of Moscow". Described by some historians as "charismatic", Vlasov was decorated on January 24, 1942, with the Order of the Red Banner
Order of the Red Banner
The Soviet government of Russia established the Order of the Red Banner , a military decoration, on September 16, 1918 during the Russian Civil War...
for his efforts in the defence of Moscow. After this success, Vlasov was put in command of the 2nd Shock Army
2nd Shock Army
The 2nd Shock Army was a field army of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This type of formation was created in accordance with prewar doctrine that called for Shock Armies to overcome difficult defensive dispositions in order to create a tactical penetration of sufficient breadth and...
of the Volkhov Front
Volkhov Front
The Front was reformed on the 9 June 1942 from the Volkhov Operational Group of the Leningrad Front and served until 15 February 1944, participating in the relief of the Siege of Leningrad and taking part in other operations including:-Campaigns:...
and ordered to lead the attempt to lift the Siege of Leningrad
Siege of Leningrad
The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade was a prolonged military operation resulting from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad, now known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last...
-- the Lyuban-Chudovo Offensive Operation
Lyuban Offensive Operation
Lyuban Operation was an offensive operation conducted by the Volkhov Front of the Red Army with the goal of relieving Leningrad. After German counterattack, Soviet 2nd Shock Army was cut off and surrounded. It was destroyed in June 1942 and its commander, the infamous Andrey Vlasov, was taken...
of January–April 1942. Other forces (the Volkhov Front's 4th, 52nd, and 59th Armies, 13th Cavalry Corps, and 4th and 6th Guards Rifle Corps, as well as the 54th Army of the Leningrad Front) failed to exploit Vlasov's advances and his army was left stranded in German-held territory. The 2nd Shock Army was surrounded and, in June 1942, destroyed.
Defection
After Vlasov's army was surrounded, he himself was offered an escape by aeroplane. The general refused and hid in German-occupied territory; ten days later, on July 12, 1942, a local farmer betrayed him to the Germans. Vlasov's opponent and captor, German general Georg LindemannGeorg Lindemann
Georg Heinrich Lindemann was a German cavalry officer and field commander who served in the German army during World War I and World War II . He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves...
, interrogated him about the surrounding of his army and details of battles, then had Vlasov imprisoned in occupied Vinnytsia
Vinnytsia
Vinnytsia is a city located on the banks of the Southern Bug, in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast.-Names:...
.
Vlasov claimed that during his ten days in hiding he affirmed his anti-bolshevism
Anti-bolshevism
Anti-bolshevism has two principal forms:* Anti-bolshevik Anti-communism* Anti-Bolshevik Communism...
, believing Stalin was the greatest enemy of the Russian people, and there is evidence that suggests Vlasov may have changed sides in a bid to give his countrymen a better life than the one they had under Stalin. His critics, including Marshall Kirill Meretskov
Kirill Meretskov
Kirill Afanasievich Meretskov was a Soviet military commander. Having joined the Communist Party in 1917, he served in the Red Army from 1920. During the Winter War, he was responsible for penetrating the Mannerheim Line as commander of the 7th Army...
(who had endorsed Vlasov's promotion to executive officer of the Volkhov front) and most Soviet historians, argued that Vlasov adopted a pro-Nazi German stance in prison out of opportunism, careerism, and survival, fearing Stalinist retribution for losing his last battle and his army. Vlasov would have been executed by Stalin for his defeat.
German prisoner
Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt
Wilfried Karl Strik-Strikfeldt was a Baltic German soldier involved with General Vlasov and the German sponsored Russian Liberation Army of World War II.-Early years:...
, a German Balt who was attempting to foster a Russian Liberation Movement
Russian Liberation Movement
Russian Liberation Movement is a term used to describe Russians during World War II who tried to create an anti-communist armed force which would topple the regime of Joseph Stalin...
. Strik-Strikfeldt had circulated memos to this effect in the Wehrmacht.
Strik-Strikfeldt, who had been a participant in the White movement
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
during the Russian civil war, persuaded Vlasov to become involved in aiding the German advance against the rule of Stalin and bolshevism. With Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Boyarsky
Vladimir Boyarsky
Vladimir Boyarsky was one of the generals leading the Russian Liberation Army.-References:*...
, Vlasov wrote a memo shortly after his capture to the German military leaders suggesting cooperation between anti-Stalinist Russians and the German Army.
Vlasov was taken to Berlin under the protection of the Wehrmacht's propaganda department. There he, together with other Soviet officers, began drafting plans for the creation of a Russian provisional government and the recruitment of a Russian army of liberation under Russian command.
Vlasov founded the Russian Liberation Committee, in hopes of creating the Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
—known as ROA (from Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya). Together with some other captured Soviet generals, officers and soldiers, the army's goal was to overthrow Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
and create an independent Russian state. Vlasov offered a democratic system of government. Many Russian POW
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
s as well as soldiers who received Vlasov propaganda leaflets were interested in becoming a part of this army.
In the spring of 1943, Vlasov wrote an anti-Bolshevik leaflet known as the "Smolensk Proclamation", which was dropped from aircraft by the millions on Soviet forces and Soviet-controlled soil.
Even though no Russian Liberation Army yet existed, the Nazi propaganda department issued Russian Liberation Army patches to Russian volunteers and tried to use Vlasov's name in order to encourage defections—a strategy they found effective. Several hundred thousand former Soviet citizens served in the German army wearing this patch, but never under Vlasov's own command.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was very wary of Vlasov and his intentions. On April 3, 1943, Hitler made clear in a speech to his high command that such an army would never be created, then issued directives to dismantle any such efforts and to sequester all of Vlasov's supporters in the German army. He worried that Vlasov might succeed in overthrowing Stalin, which would halt Hitler's dreams of expanding Greater Germany to the Urals
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
. Hitler began taking measures against Eastern Volunteer units, especially Russian ones, arranging for their transfer to the west.
Vlasov was permitted to make several trips to Nazi-occupied Russia: most notably, to Pskov
Pskov
Pskov is an ancient city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located in the northwest of Russia about east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: -Early history:...
, where Russian pro-German volunteers paraded. The populace's reception of Vlasov was mixed. While in Pskov, Vlasov dealt himself a nearly fatal political blow by referring to the Germans as mere "guests" during a speech, which Hitler found belittling. Vlasov was even put under house arrest and threatened with being handed over to the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
. Despondent about his mission, Vlasov threatened to resign and return to the POW camp, but was dissuaded at the last minute by his confidants.
According to Shalamov, Vlasov emissaries lectured to the Russian prisoners of war, explaining to them that their government had declared them all traitors, and that escaping was pointless. As Vlasov proclaimed, even if the Soviets succeeded, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
would send them to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
.
Only in September 1944 did Germany—at the urging of Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, initially a virulent opponent of Vlasov — finally permitted Vlasov to raise his Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
. Vlasov formed and chaired the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was a committee composed of military and civilian anticommunists from territories of the Soviet Union...
, proclaimed by the Prague Manifesto
Prague Manifesto
The Prague Manifesto is a document that was created by several members of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, an anti-communist coalition of former Soviet military and citizens who aimed to overthrow Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and establish a non-communist government in...
on the 14th of November, 1944. Vlasov also hoped to create a Pan-Slavic
Pan-Slavism
Pan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
liberation congress, but Nazi political officials, generally prejudiced against the Slavs, would not permit it.
Commander of the ROA
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
took place on February 11, 1945, on the river Oder. After three days of battle against overwhelming forces, the First Division of the ROA was forced to retreat and marched southward to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, in German-controlled Bohemia
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was the majority ethnic-Czech protectorate which Nazi Germany established in the central parts of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia in what is today the Czech Republic...
.
On May 6, 1945, Vlasov received a request from the commander of the first ROA division, General Sergei Bunyachenko, for permission to turn his weapons against the Nazi SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
forces and aid Czech resistance fighters in the Prague uprising
Prague uprising
The Prague uprising was an attempt by the Czech resistance to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation during World War II. Events began on May 5, 1945, in the last moments of the war in Europe...
. Vlasov at first disapproved, then reluctantly allowed Bunyachenko to proceed. Some historians maintain it was the bitterness of the ROA against the Germans which caused them to switch sides once again, while other historians believe the sole purpose of this action was to win favor from the western Allies and possibly even the Soviet side, in the light of the nearly completed military annihilation of the German Reich
Reich
Reich is a German word cognate with the English rich, but also used to designate an empire, realm, or nation. The qualitative connotation from the German is " sovereign state." It is the word traditionally used for a variety of sovereign entities, including Germany in many periods of its history...
.
Two days later, the first division was forced to leave Prague as communist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
Czech partisans began arresting ROA soldiers in order to hand them over to the Soviets for execution. At this point Vlasov was offered an escape, through changing into civilian clothes and flying to neutral Spain, but he refused to leave his men.
Vlasov and the rest of his forces, trying to evade the overpowering Red Army and wishing to preserve their ranks for a future war of liberation, attempted to head west to surrender to the Allies in the closing days of the war in Europe. On May 10, 1945, Vlasov and his men reached western Allied forces and surrendered to them.
Final days
Vlasov was taken into American captivity and held in a city in TyrolCounty of Tyrol
The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...
. He and his generals continued talks with the British and the Americans, explaining the principles of their liberation movement and trying to persuade the western Allies to grant asylum to its participants. The Allied commanders were divided on the issue; some were sympathetic but afraid of angering the Soviet Union and of disobeying their western Allied political leaders, who were still in alliance with Stalin.
On May 12, 1945, returning from talks with Captain Richard Donahue, an American Armor Company Commander from the 37th Tank Battalion, Vlasov's car was surrounded by Soviet troops. Vlasov's American escort did not resist as Vlasov was arrested. Vlasov, along with many of his anti-communist Russian and other men, was forcibly repatriated
Operation Keelhaul
Operation Keelhaul was carried out in Northern Italy by British and American forces to repatriate Soviet Armed Forces POWs of the Nazis to the Soviet Union between August 14, 1946 and May 9, 1947...
to the Soviet Union.
Soviet authorities sent Vlasov to Moscow, where over the course of a year he was held in the Lubyanka prison
Lubyanka (KGB)
The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. It is a large building with a facade of yellow brick, designed by Alexander V...
. A summary trial held in the summer of 1946 and presided over by Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Abakumov
Viktor Semyonovich Abakumov , was a high level Soviet security organs official, from 1943 to 1946 the head of SMERSH in the USSR People's Commissariat of Defense, and from 1946 to 1951 Minister of State Security or MGB . Abakumov was a notoriously brutal official who was known to torture prisoners...
sentenced him and eleven other senior officers from his army to death for treason. The twelve men were hanged on August 1, 1946. These were among the last death sentences in the Soviet Union carried out by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
(later a group of Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
leaders allied with the Germans, including Pyotr Krasnov
Pyotr Krasnov
Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov , 1869 – January 17, 1947), sometimes referred to in English as Peter Krasnov, was Lieutenant General of the Russian army when the revolution broke out in 1917, and one of the leaders of the counterrevolutionary White movement afterward.- Russian Army :Pyotr Krasnov...
, Andrei Shkuro
Andrei Shkuro
Andrei Grigoriyevich Shkuro was a Lieutenant General of the White Army.-Biography:...
, and Helmuth von Pannwitz
Helmuth von Pannwitz
Helmuth von Pannwitz was a German general who distinguished himself as a cavalry officer during the First and the Second World Wars. Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht and Supreme Ataman of the XV...
, suffered the same fate).
Memorial
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, USA. Twice annually, on the anniversary of Vlasov's execution and on the Sunday following Orthodox Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
, a memorial service is held for Vlasov and the combatants of the Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
.
Review of his case
In 2001, a Russian Federation-basedRussia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
social organization, "For Faith and Fatherland", applied to the Russian Federation's military prosecutor for a review of Vlasov's case, saying that "Vlasov was a patriot who spent much time re-evaluating his service in the Red Army and the essence of Stalin's regime before agreeing to collaborate with the Germans". The military prosecutor concluded that the law of rehabilitation of victims of political repressions did not apply to Vlasov and refused to ever consider the case again personally. However, Vlasov's Article 58
Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)
Article 58 of the Russian SFSR Penal Code was put in force on 25 February 1927 to arrest those suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. It was revised several times...
conviction for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda was vacated.
See also
- Russian Liberation ArmyRussian Liberation ArmyRussian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
- Russian Liberation MovementRussian Liberation MovementRussian Liberation Movement is a term used to describe Russians during World War II who tried to create an anti-communist armed force which would topple the regime of Joseph Stalin...
- Operation KeelhaulOperation KeelhaulOperation Keelhaul was carried out in Northern Italy by British and American forces to repatriate Soviet Armed Forces POWs of the Nazis to the Soviet Union between August 14, 1946 and May 9, 1947...
- Bronislaw KaminskiBronislaw KaminskiBronislav Vladislavovich Kaminski was the commander of the S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. , an anti-partisan formation made up of people from the so-called Lokot Autonomy territory in the Nazi Germany occupied areas of Russia, which was later...
- Constantine KromiadiConstantine KromiadiConstantine Gregorievich Kromiadi was a Greek born military officer and anti-communist who served in the Imperial Russian Army, the White Army, and the Russian Liberation Army....
- Engelen des doodsEngelen des doodsAngels of Death is a 1998 documentary film by Dutch director Leo de Boer. During World War II, the Soviet General Andrey Vlasov was in control of the 2nd Shock Army...
(Angels of death)
Literature and film
Books:- Wilfried Strik-StrikfeldtWilfried Strik-StrikfeldtWilfried Karl Strik-Strikfeldt was a Baltic German soldier involved with General Vlasov and the German sponsored Russian Liberation Army of World War II.-Early years:...
: Against Stalin and Hitler. Memoir of the Russian Liberation Movement 1941-5. Macmillan, 1970, ISBN 0-333-11528-7 - Russian version of the above: Вильфрид Штрик-Штрикфельдт: Против Сталина и Гитлера. Изд. Посев, 1975, 2003. ISBN 5-85824-005-4
- Бахвалов Анатолий: Генерал Власов. Предатель или герой? Изд. СПб ВШ МВД России, 1994.
- Sven Steenberg: Wlassow. Verräter oder Patriot? Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1968.
- Russian version of the above: Свен Стеенберг: Генерал Власов. Изд-во Эксмо, 2005. ISBN 5-699-12827-1
- Sergej Frölich: General Wlassow. Russen und Deutsche zwischen Hitler und Stalin.
- Russian version of the above: Сергей Фрёлих Генерал Власов. Русские и Немцы между Гитлером и Сталиным (перевод с немецкого Ю.К. Мейера при участии Д.А. Левицкого), 1990. Printed by Hermitage.
- Александров Кирилл М.: Армия генерала Власова 1944-45. Изд-во Эксмо, 2006. ISBN 5-699-15429-9.
- Чуев Сергей: Власовцы - Пасынки Третьего Рейха. Изд-во Эксмо, 2006. ISBN 5-699-14989-9.
- И. Хоффманн: История власовской армии. Перевод с немецкого Е. Гессен. 1990 YMCA Press ISBN 2-85065-175-3 ISSN 1140-0854
- Joachim Hoffmann: Die Tragödie der 'Russischen Befreiungsarmee' 1944/45. Wlassow gegen Stalin. Herbig Verlag, 2003 ISBN 3776623306.
- Russian version of the above: Гофман Иоахим: Власов против Сталина. Трагедия Русской Освободительной Армии. Пер. с нем. В. Ф. Дизендорфа. Изд-во АСТ, 2006. ISBN 5-17-027146-8.
- О. В. Вишлёв(preface): Генерал Власов в планах гитлеровских спецслужб. Новая и Новейшая История, 4/96, pp. 130–146. [Historical sources with a preface]
- В. В. Малиновский: Кто он, русский коллаборационнист: Патриот или предатель?' Вопросы Истории 11-12/96, pp. 164–166. [letter to the editor]
- Martin Berger: Impossible alternatives. The Ukrainian Quarterly, Summer-Fall 1995, pp. 258–262. [review of Catherine Andrevyev: Vlasov and the Russian liberation movement]
- А. Ф. Катусев, В. Г. Оппоков: Иуды. Власовцы на службе у фашизма. Военно-Исторический Журнал 6/1990, pp. 68–81.
- П. А. Пальчиков: История Генерала Власова. Новая и Новейшая История, 2/1993, pp. 123–144.
- А. В. Тишков: Предатель перед Советским Судом. Советское Государство и Право, 2/1973, pp. 89–98.
- Л. Е. Решин, В. С. Степанов: Судьбы генералские. Военно-Исторический Журнал, 3/1993, pp. 4–15.
- С. В. Ермаченков, А. Н. Почтарев: Последний поход власовской армии. Вопросы Истории, 8/98, pp. 94–104.
- Jurgen Thorwald: The Illusion: Soviet Soldiers in Hitler's Armies. English translation, 1974.
Documentaries:
- General for Two Devils 1995
- Europe Central by William T Vollmann
- Angels of Death 1998, director: Leo de Boer.