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The Russian Liberation Army; russian: Русская освободительная армия, ', abbreviated as (), also known as the Vlasov army after its commander
Andrey Vlasov Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (russian: Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов, – August 1, 1946) was a Soviet Red Army general and Nazi collaborator. During World War II, he fought in the Battle of Moscow and later was captured att ...
, was a collaborationist formation, primarily composed of
Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...
, that fought under German command during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. Vlasov, a Soviet general, agreed to collaborate with Nazi Germany after having been captured on the Eastern Front. The soldiers under his command were mostly former Soviet
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
but also included White Russian émigrés, some of whom were veterans of the anti-communist
White Army The White Army (russian: Белая армия, Belaya armiya) or White Guard (russian: Бѣлая гвардія/Белая гвардия, Belaya gvardiya, label=none), also referred to as the Whites or White Guardsmen (russian: Бѣлогв� ...
from the
Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...
(1917–23). On 14 November 1944, it was officially renamed the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, with the KONR being formed as a political body to which the army pledged loyalty. On 28 January 1945, it was officially declared that the Russian divisions no longer form part of the
German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
, but would directly be under the command of KONR. In May 1945, members of the ROA switched sides and joined the anti-Nazi
Prague uprising The Prague uprising ( cs, Pražské povstání) was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of o ...
.


Origins

Russian volunteers who enlisted into the German Army ('' Wehrmacht Heer'') wore the patch of the Russian Liberation Army. These volunteers (called ''Hiwi'', an acronym for ''
Hilfswilliger Hiwi (), the German abbreviation of the word ''Hilfswilliger'' or, in English, auxiliary volunteer, designated, during World War II, a member of different kinds of voluntary auxiliary forces made up of recruits indigenous to the territories of E ...
'', roughly meaning "volunteers") were not under any Russian command or control; they were exclusively under German command carrying out various non-combat duties. A number of them were employed at the
Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later r ...
, where it was estimated that as much as one quarter of the 6th Army's strength was USSR citizens. Soon, several German commanders began to use them in small armed units for various tasks, including combat against Soviet partisans, driving vehicles, carrying wounded, and delivering supplies.
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
allowed the idea of the Russian Liberation Army to circulate in propaganda literature, as long as no formations of the sort were actually permitted. As a result, some Red Army soldiers
surrendered Surrender, in military terms, is the relinquishment of control over territory, combatants, fortifications, ships or armament to another power. A surrender may be accomplished peacefully or it may be the result of defeat in battle. A sove ...
or defected in hopes of joining an army that did not exist. Many Soviet
prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
volunteered to serve under German command just to get out of Nazi POW camps, which were notorious for starving Soviet prisoners to death. Meanwhile, the newly captured USSR general Vlasov, along with his German and Russian allies, was desperately lobbying the German high command, hoping that the green light would be given for the formation of a real armed force that would be exclusively under Russian control. They were able to win over Alfred Rosenberg to some extent. Although Hitler's staff repeatedly refused to even consider the idea, Vlasov and his allies reasoned that Hitler would eventually come to realize the futility of a war against the USSR without winning over the Russian people, and respond to Vlasov's demands. Irrespective of the political wrangling over Vlasov and the status of the ROA, by mid-1943 several hundred thousand ex-Soviet volunteers were serving in the German forces, either as ''Hiwi''s or in Eastern volunteer units (referred to as '' Osteinheiten'' ("Eastern units") or ''landeseigene Verbände''). These latter were generally deployed in a security role at the rear of the armies and army groups in the East, where they constituted a major part of the German effort to counter the activity of Soviet partisan forces, dating as far back as early 1942. The Germans were, however, always concerned about their reliability. Following the German defeats in the summer of 1943 the units began to disintegrate. On 12 September for example, 2nd Army had to withdraw Sturm-Btl. AOK 2 in order to deal with what was described as "several mutinies and desertions of Eastern units". A 14 September communication from the army states that in the recent period, ''Hiwi'' absenteeism had risen considerably. Following a series of attempted or successful mutinies, and a surge in desertions, the Germans decided in September 1943 that the reliability of the units had fallen to a level where they were more a liability than an asset. In an October 1943 report, the 8th Army concluded grimly: "All local volunteers are unreliable during enemy contact. Principal reason of unreliability is the employment of these volunteers in the East." Two days previously, the German army had given permission to the KTB to take harsh measures in the event of further cases of rebellion or unreliability, investing regimental commanders with far-reaching powers to hold summary courts and execute the verdicts. Since it was felt that the reliability of Russian volunteers would improve if they were removed from contact with the local population, it was decided to send them to the
Western Front Western Front or West Front may refer to: Military frontiers * Western Front (World War I), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (World War II), a military frontier to the west of Germany *Western Front (Russian Empire), a maj ...
, and the majority of them were re-deployed in late 1943 or early 1944. Many of these battalions were integrated into the divisions in the West. A number of the Russian soldiers were on guard in
Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
on
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
but, without the equipment or motivation to fight the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
, most promptly surrendered. A total of 71 "Eastern" battalions served on the Eastern Front, while 42 battalions served in
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
,
Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, and
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. An aerial contingent of Russian volunteers was formed as ''Ostfliegerstaffel (russische)'' in December 1943, only to be disbanded in July 1944 before seeing combat. The Russian airmen were regrouped into the Night Harassment Squadron 8, whose first and only mission took place on 13 April 1945, when they attacked a Soviet bridgehead at Erlenhof, on the
Oder River The Oder ( , ; Czech, Lower Sorbian and ; ) is a river in Central Europe. It is Poland's second-longest river in total length and third-longest within its borders after the Vistula and Warta. The Oder rises in the Czech Republic and flows t ...
.


Formation

The ROA did not officially exist until autumn of 1944, after Heinrich Himmler persuaded a very reluctant Hitler to permit the formation of 10 Russian Liberation Army divisions. On 14 November in
Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
, Vlasov read aloud the Prague Manifesto before the newly created Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. This document stated the purposes of the battle against Stalin, and spelled out 14 points which the army was fighting for. German insistence that the document carry
anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
rhetoric was successfully parried by Vlasov's
committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
, but they were obliged to include a statement criticising the Western Allies, labelling them " plutocracies" that were "allies of Stalin in his conquest of Europe". By February 1945, only one division, the 1st Infantry (600th Infantry), was fully organised, under the command of General
Sergei Bunyachenko Sergei Kuzmich Bunyachenko (russian: Серге́й Кузьми́ч Буняче́нко, uk, Сергій Кузьмич Буняченко; October 5, 1902, Korovyakovka, Kursk Governorate – August 2, 1946, Moscow) was a Soviet Red Army d ...
. Formed at
Münsingen Münsingen (Highest Alemannic: ''Münsige'') is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. On 1 January 2013 the former municipality of Trimstein merged into Münsingen, and on 1 January ...
, it fought briefly on the Oder Front before switching sides and helping the
Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, ...
liberate Prague. A second division, the 2nd Infantry (650th Infantry), was incomplete when it left Lager Heuberg but was sent into action under the command of General Mikhail Meandrov. This division was joined in large numbers by eastern workers, which caused it to nearly double in size as it marched south. A third, the 3rd Infantry (700th German Infantry), had only begun formation. Several other Russian units, such as the
Russian Corps The Russian Protective Corps (german: Russisches Schutzkorps, russian: Русский охранный корпус, sr, Руски заштитни корпус / Ruski zaštitni korpus) was an armed force composed of anti-communist White Russi ...
, XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps of General Helmuth von Pannwitz, the Cossack Camp of Ataman Domanov, and other primarily White émigré formations, had agreed to become a part of Vlasov's army. However, their membership remained ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legall ...
'' as the turn of events did not permit Vlasov to use the troops in any operation (even reliable communications were often impossible). A small group of ROA volunteers fought against the Red Army on 9 February 1945. Their fighting spirit earned them the praise of Heinrich Himmler.Müller, Rolf-Dieter. ''The Unknown Eastern Front: The Wehrmacht and Hitler's Foreign Soldiers''. London: I.B. Tauris, 2012. Print. The only active combat the Russian Liberation Army undertook against the Red Army was by the Oder River on 11 April 1945, largely at the insistence of Himmler, as a test of the army's reliability. After three days, the outnumbered 1st Division had to retreat. On 28 January 1945, it was officially declared that the Russian divisions no longer formed part of the
German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
, but would be directly under the command of KONR. Vlasov then ordered the first division to march south to concentrate all Russian anti-communist forces loyal to him. As an army, he reasoned, they could all surrender to the Allies on "favorable" terms, which particularly meant no
repatriation Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...
to the Soviet Union. Vlasov sent several secret delegations to the Allies to begin negotiating a surrender, hoping they would sympathise with the goals of ROA and potentially use it in an inevitable future war with the USSR.


Fight against the Germans in Prague

During the march south, the first division of the ROA came to the help of the Czech partisans in the
Prague uprising The Prague uprising ( cs, Pražské povstání) was a partially successful attempt by the Czech resistance movement to liberate the city of Prague from German occupation in May 1945, during the end of World War II. The preceding six years of o ...
against the German occupation, which started on 5 May 1945. Vlasov was initially reluctant to agree to that move, but ultimately did not resist General Bunyachenko's decision to fight against the Germans. The first division engaged in battle with '' Waffen-SS'' units that had been sent to level the city. The ROA units, armed with heavy weaponry, fended off the relentless SS assault, and together with the Czech insurgents succeeded in preserving most of Prague from destruction and liberate Prague. When the Red Army finally reached the Czech capital, the city was essentially free of German troops. "The Red Army appear in Prague only once the war had ended, de jure and de facto." Due to the predominance of communists in the new Czech ''
Rada The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the S ...
'' ("council"), the first division had to leave the city. They tried to surrender to US Third Army of General
Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...
. The Allies, however, gave in to the political pressures. Approximately 33,000 men were handed over between May and September 1945 to USSR forces. They were then executed or sent to the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...
.


Capture by the Soviets

Thousands of soldiers were initially taken into Allied custody by the 44th Infantry Division and other U.S. troops. In a move that Allied command kept secret for many years, they were then forcibly handed over to the Soviets by the Allies, due to a previous agreement between Churchill and Stalin that all ROA soldiers would be returned to the USSR. Some Allied officers who were sympathetic to the ROA soldiers permitted them to escape in small groups into the American-controlled zones. The Soviet government labelled all ROA soldiers (''vlasovtsy'', "vlasovites") as
traitor Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
s, and those who were repatriated were tried and sentenced to detention in prison and forced labour camps in Russia as for instance in Mongolia. Vlasov and several other leaders of the ROA were tried and hanged in
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
on 1 August 1946.


Order of battle

The composition of the ''VS-KONR'' was as follows: Air elements :I. ''Ostfliegerstaffel (russische)'' (1st Eastern Squadron-Russian) (1943–1944) :II. ''Störkampfstaffel'' (Night Harassment Squadron) 8 (1945) :KONR Air Force Two ace pilots of the
Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...
, Semyon Trofimovich Bychkov and , defected and became part of the ROA air force, which was commanded by Major General .


Ranks


See also

* First Russian National Army *
Ukrainian Liberation Army german: Ukrainische Befreiungsarmee , image = Ukrainian Liberation Army (УВВ).jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ukrainian Liberation Army oath to Adolf Hitler , dates = 10 February 1943 – 15 April 1945 , disbanded = , country = Rei ...
* Ukrainian National Army * '' Ostlegionen'' (mainly units of peoples from the Caucasus) * Russian Liberation Movement * Kaminski Brigade *
Operation Keelhaul Operation Keelhaul was a forced repatriation of Russian civilians (non-Soviet citizens) and Soviet citizens to the Soviet Union. While forced repatriation focused on Soviet Armed Forces POWs of Germany and Russian Liberation Army members, it incl ...
*
Russian Corps The Russian Protective Corps (german: Russisches Schutzkorps, russian: Русский охранный корпус, sr, Руски заштитни корпус / Ruski zaštitni korpus) was an armed force composed of anti-communist White Russi ...
* Russian All National Popular State Movement * Collaboration during World War II * Russian Monument (Liechtenstein) * ''Wehrmacht'' foreign volunteers and conscripts


Notes


References


Sources


Elizabeth M.F. Grasmeder, "Leaning on Legionnaires: Why Modern States Recruit Foreign Soldiers," International Security (July 2021), Vol 46 (No. 1), pp. 147–195.
*''The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956'' by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn *''Army of the Damned: on Twentieth Century'' – CBS Documentary Documentary Series, December 1962 *Fersen, Nicholas. ''Corridor of Honour. Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis 1958.''


External links

;Articles
Elizabeth M.F. Grasmeder, "Leaning on Legionnaires: Why Modern States Recruit Foreign Soldiers," International Security (July 2021), Vol 46 (No. 1), pp. 147–195.

It's Too Early To Forgive Vlasov
'' The St. Petersburg Times'', 6 November 2001 ;Other
Russian Liberation Army information page by veteran Alexander Dubov


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20201014132236/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7USp4MYJBjw Russian Liberation Army, rare footage(video) {{Authority control Foreign volunteer units of the Wehrmacht Military units and formations established in 1944 Military units and formations disestablished in 1945 Collaboration with the Axis Powers Anti-communist organizations