Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
Encyclopedia
The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (in Russian: Комитет Освобождения Народов России, abbreviated as КОНР, KONR) was a committee composed of military and civilian anticommunists
Anti-communism
Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the rise of communism, especially after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the beginning of the Cold War in 1947.-Objections to communist theory:...
from territories of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
(most being Russians
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....
). It was founded with the approval and sponsorship of 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...
on November 14, 1944, in German-controlled
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...
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...
(purposely chosen because it was a Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
city that was still not under Soviet control).
The committee's stated goals were
- "The overthrow of StalinJoseph StalinJoseph 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...
's tyranny, the liberation of the peoples of Russia from the BolshevikBolshevikThe Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
system, and the restitution of those rights to the peoples of Russia which they fought for and won in the people's revolution of 1917" - "Discontinuation of the warWorld War IIWorld 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...
and an honorable peace with Germany" - "Creation of a new free people's political system without Bolsheviks and Exploiters"
The committee sought to overthrow the regime of 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...
in the Soviet Union via an independent 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....
, which would be armed by and work in alliance with 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...
. The committee expressed its support for the creation of a new more-or-less democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
government in Russia. The goals of the committee were embodied in a document known as 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...
. The manifesto's fourteen points guaranteed the freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly, as well as a right to self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
of any ethnic group living in territories belonging to Russia (the same rights were already guaranteed by the text of the Soviet Constitution
1936 Soviet Constitution
The 1936 Soviet constitution, adopted on December 5, 1936, and also known as the "Stalin" constitution, redesigned the government of the Soviet Union.- Basic provisions :...
). At the same time official ideology of Nazi Germany considered Slavic people inhabiting majority of Soviet Union to be subhumans
Untermensch
Untermensch is a term that became infamous when the Nazi racial ideology used it to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Poles along with other Slavic people like the Russians, Serbs, Belarussians and Ukrainians...
.
The Prague Manifesto did not contain any anti-semitic or otherwise racially
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
inspired rhetoric, which caused a conflict with many Nazi propagandists. To appease the latter, the manifesto's authors agreed to include a criticism aimed at the Western Allies
Western Allies
The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...
in the manifesto's preamble.
The "exploiters" referred to in the stated goals of the committee were capitalists
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and political allies of what was called "plutocracy
Plutocracy
Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy. The word plutocracy is derived from the Ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratos, meaning to rule or to govern.-Usage:The term plutocracy is generally...
".
The chairman of the committee was General Vlasov
Andrey Vlasov
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow was a Russian Red Army general who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.-Early career:...
, who also commanded 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....
. The committee was viewed as the political arm of the Russian Liberation Army, although it also united several Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
and other ethnic forces that were anti-Soviet.
After the surrender of Germany to the Allies, the committee ceased to operate—its members rechanneling their energy towards saving the Russian Liberation Army and other former Soviet citizens who had collaborated with the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
from forced repatriation to the Soviet SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
. During the immediate post war period, several new organizations sprung up that intended to continue the committee's goal of fighting communism (i.e., The Union of the St. Andrew Flag; the Committee of United Vlasovites, or Vlasovtsy, followers of Vlasov; the Union of Battle for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
Union of Battle for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
The Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was an organization of anti-communist Russians, regardless of ethnic origin, which emerged from the youth organization of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of...
), started by veterans of the committee and the Russian Liberation Army who managed to escape forced repatriation to the Soviets. Two latter organizations participated in US-led efforts to form a united anti-Soviet platform of SOviet emigres.
According to NTS
National Alliance of Russian Solidarists
The National Alliance of Russian Solidarists ), known by its Russian abbreviation "NTS" is a Russian far-right anticommunist organization founded in 1930 by a group of young Russian anticommunist White emigres in Belgrade, Serbia .The organization was formed in response to the older generation of...
author Boris Prianishnikov, Vlasov had personally given the chairman of NTS, Victor Baidalakov, the written authority to preside over the Committee upon his absence/disappearance, but Baidalakov did not act upon this mandate.
In the United States an organization with a similar name, the American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
The American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia , also known as the American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism, was an American anti-communist organization founded in the late 1940s which worked for the liberation of Russia from Communism...
, was founded in the late 1940s, and became known for their CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
-run and later Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
-funded propaganda broadcaster Radio Liberty, which operated from Munich, in West Germany.
See also
- 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...
- National Committee for a Free GermanyNational Committee for a Free GermanyThe National Committee for a Free Germany was a German anti-Nazi organization that operated in the Soviet Union during World War II.- History :...