General Vlasov life story. From heroism to betrayal
On September 14, 1901, Andrei Vlasov was born in one of the villages of the Nizhny Novgorod province. He was destined to become the most scandalous military leader in Soviet history. The general’s very name became a household word, and every Soviet citizen who served with the Germans began to be called a Vlasovite.
Little is known about the early period of the life of the future general. Andrey Vlasov was born in a Nizhny Novgorod village in 1901. His father, according to some sources, was a non-commissioned officer of long-term service. According to others, he was 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 to become an agronomist, but completed only one course. The Civil War flared up, and his education was interrupted by mobilization in the Red Army. This is how his army career began.
In the Red Army, which lacked literate and educated people, Vlasov quickly worked his way up to company commander, and then was transferred to staff work. He headed the regimental headquarters, then headed 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 he was sent to China in the late 30s 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 to be the best. In just a few months, he managed to restore such order that, based on the results of the exercises, it 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 the mechanized corps, and also received the Order of Lenin. The corps was stationed in the Lviv region and was one of the first Soviet units to enter into hostilities with the Germans.
He proved himself well in the first battles, and within a month Vlasov was promoted again. He was urgently transferred to Kyiv to command the 37th Army. It was formed from the remnants of units retreating from the west of the Ukrainian SSR, and the main task was to prevent the Germans from occupying 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 command of the 20th Army in the most important direction of the German attack - Moscow. Vlasov did not disappoint again; during the German offensive, the army managed to stop Hoepner’s 4th Panzer Group at 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 published on the front pages of major Soviet newspapers as the most distinguished in the defense of Moscow.
Doomed to Captivity
However, this popularity also had a downside. Vlasov began to be perceived as a lifesaver, which ultimately led to an inglorious end. In the spring of 1942, the 2nd Shock Army penetrated the German defenses, occupying the Lyuban ledge. It was planned to be used as a springboard for a further attack on Leningrad. However, the Germans took advantage of favorable conditions and closed the encirclement in the Myasny Bor area. Supplying the army became impossible. Headquarters ordered the army to retreat. In the Myasny Bor area, they managed to briefly break through a corridor through which several units emerged, but then the Germans closed it again.
Vlasov at that time held the post of deputy commander of the Volkhov Front of Meretskov and, as part of a military commission, was sent to the army location to assess the situation on the spot. The situation in the army was very difficult, there was no food, no ammunition, and there was no way to organize its supply. In addition, the army suffered very heavy losses in the battles. In fact, the 2nd strike was doomed.
By this time, the commander of the army, Klykov, had become seriously ill, and he had to be evacuated to the rear by plane. The question arose about a new commander. Vlasov proposed to Meretskov the candidacy of Vinogradov as chief of staff of the army. He himself did not want to take responsibility for the dying army. However, Meretskov appointed him. In this case, his track record played against Vlasov. He already had successful experience in breaking through encirclement, and also proved himself well near Moscow. If anyone could save a dying army, it would only be 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, they managed to break through a 400-meter corridor for several hours, along which some of the wounded were carried out, but the Germans soon closed it.
On June 24, a 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 their horses and their own belts and still died from exhaustion, there were no more artillery shells left, there was almost no equipment. The Germans, in turn, conducted hurricane shelling. After a failed breakout attempt, Vlasov gave the order to escape as best he could. Break up into small groups of 3-5 people and try to sneak out of the encirclement.
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 visited villages, introducing himself as a village teacher and asking for food. On July 11, in the village of Tuchovezhi, he entered a house, which turned out to be the house of the village headman, who immediately handed over the uninvited guests to the Germans. Having set the table for them in the bathhouse, he locked them and informed the Germans about it. Soon their patrol detained the general. Some sources contain claims that Vlasov deliberately intended to surrender to the Germans, but this is somewhat doubtful. To do this, there was no need to wander through the forests for two and a half weeks, hiding from patrols.
Captured
Smolensk Appeal"
Smolensk Appeal", in which Vlasov called for people to come over to his side in order to build a new Russia. It even contained some political points such as the abolition of collective farms. The German leadership approved the appeal, but considered it as a purely propaganda action. They wrote about it in the newspapers, and there were also Leaflets were printed in Russian to be dropped into Soviet territories.
The party leadership was completely indifferent to Vlasov. Hitler and Himmler had nothing to do with the captured general; they were not interested in him. Vlasov’s main lobbyists were the military, who may have seen Vlasov as a potential leader of the future puppet government, if there was such a thing. On the initiative of Field Marshals von Kluge and von Küchler, Vlasov made several trips to 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 the fact that the military was playing their game and trying to enter their territory. The Russian Committee was dissolved, 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, Vlasov’s activities became known in the USSR. Stalin was so indignant that he personally edited 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, in the first days of the war he was recruited by the Germans, and then returned to Moscow, showed himself well for some time to avoid suspicion, and then deliberately led the army into encirclement and finally defected to the Germans.
Vlasov found himself in a difficult situation. In Moscow they had already learned about his activities, but in Germany he found himself in limbo. The party leadership, including Hitler, did not want to hear about the creation of a separate army, which the military sought. When Field Marshal Keitel tried to probe the waters, Hitler made it clear that he would not allow it to go beyond ordinary propaganda actions.
For the next year and a half, Vlasov became a party animal. 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 secured their support, it would be possible to influence Hitler and Himmler at least indirectly, Vlasov was even arranged to marry the widow of an SS man.
But all that his patrons managed to achieve was the creation of a “school of propagandists” in Dabendorf. The party did not give permission for more.
Russian Liberation Army
Khivi" right down to the village police who had nothing to do with the ROA.
However, at the beginning and middle of the war, the Germans created small detachments (usually the size of a company/battalion and very rarely a regiment), the so-called. eastern battalions/companies, which were often involved in anti-partisan operations. A significant part of their personnel was later transferred to the ROA. For example, the former Soviet commissar Zhilenkov, before coming to Vlasov, held a prominent position in the RNNA - the Russian National People's Army, numbering several thousand people. Which just acted against the 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, eastern battalions and companies were part of German divisions, under which they were created and controlled by German officers. The personnel of these units sometimes wore cockades and stripes later used by the ROA, which creates additional confusion. However, these units, which appeared even when Vlasov was a Soviet general, were subordinate to the Germans and Vlasov had no influence on them.
the same Bolsheviks, only against collective farms." Thus, we can sum up this confusing issue. The ROA did not operate in the occupied Soviet territories, but part of the personnel of this army had previously served in the German eastern battalions in Soviet territories.
The combat path of the newly formed army turned out to be very short. During the five months of its existence, ROA units took part in battles with Soviet troops only twice. 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 ROA Division fought alongside the Germans in the Furstenberg area. After this, all ROA units were withdrawn to the rear. Even in the face of the inevitable end, the Nazi leadership did not have much confidence in the newly-made allies.
By and large, the ROA remained a propaganda force and not a real fighting force. One combat-ready division, which took part in hostilities only once, could hardly have had any influence on the course of the war other than propaganda.
Arrest and execution
Vlasov hoped to reach the location of the Americans, since he expected a new world war between the USSR and the USA. But he never managed to reach them. On May 12, 1945, he was arrested by a Soviet patrol following a tip. However, the Americans would still have extradited him to the USSR. Firstly, he was a symbolic and familiar figure. Secondly, the ROA was not a significant force militarily, so it would not even be considered by the Americans as a potential ally in the event of a new war. Thirdly, an agreement on the extradition of Soviet citizens was reached at a conference of allies; only a few managed to avoid this extradition.
Vlasov and all his associates from among Soviet citizens were taken to Moscow. Initially, it was planned to hold an open trial, but Abakumov, who oversaw it, was afraid that the leak of the defendants’ views would cause some undesirable consequences in society, and proposed to 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 the traitors, on August 2, 1946, a meager note was given in Soviet newspapers that the day before, by a verdict of a Soviet court, Vlasov and his closest associates had been found guilty of high treason and executed.
Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov. On the one hand, he is a contradictory, and on the other hand, a negative figure in the military history of Russia. Without a doubt, Vlasov and Bandera are traitors to their people, a sort of Trotskyists in uniform. A born traitor, a man who did not know how to distinguish grain from pleura, Vlasov was ready to do anything to betray not only strangers, but first of all his own. If Vlasov had escaped the sentence of the Stalinist court in 1946, he would have settled in the United States and would be revered today. Moreover, it should no longer be for anyone that in the USA people like him would be considered heroes, while in the country itself, over the course of 240 years of subhuman/non-human history, a cult of betrayal reigned. In other words, if you are a traitor, consider that you are a subhuman/inhuman, and what is done with traitors, then you can read about this in history books or at least use your own logic - they are simply subjected to lynching. And the phenomenon of Navalny (with the oligarchs and other subhuman riff-raff) is the phenomenon of the next “Vlasov”, which at first were Yeltsin and Gorbachev (It’s a pity that one of them died himself, and the other is still alive). The “Vlasovites” of the 21st century are the same as Bandera’s followers: the children and grandchildren of those same underdogs. If they were born rats, then they die like rats. And protecting them from attacks on them, calling them opposition, is tantamount to aiding terrorism, and therefore American interests. “They don’t count enemies - they beat them,” Suvorov and Ushakov talked about this. Today, such “people” need to be systematically eliminated, as Stalin did 75 years ago. Who then squeaked that the liquidation of Trotsky was a crime of Stalinism? Yes, no one dared to make a word! And what happened then 5 years later? The USSR emerged as a superpower. Yes, it was paid for at a gigantic price - a total of 50 million lives (30 million (20 million civilians + 10 - military losses). - losses in the Second World War and World War II, 10-12 million - civil war, 8 million - GULAG). Despite all the extremely contradictory attitudes towards Stalin, we must give him his due. And a huge thank you to the veterans who fought in the Red Army. At the right moment, they took up arms and defended the country from the invasion of the hordes of crusaders of the 20th century. But history delivered its verdict to Vlasov after the end of the war and it is not subject to revision. 
General A.A. Vlasov
Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov (1901 – 1946) is a personality as legendary, as “mythological” as Marshal G.K. Zhukov. During the war, his name became synonymous with betrayal in the Red Army. After the war, the second wave of emigration praised Vlasov to the skies as an ideological fighter against the Stalinist regime. The general began to be presented in this capacity again in the 90s. in the new Russia. This man is one of the most controversial figures of World War II.
Biography of Vlasov
Vlasov was born on September 1, 1901 (according to other sources - 1900) in the village of Lomakino, Nizhny Novgorod province, into the family of a middle peasant. He graduated from theological school and two classes of theological seminary in Nizhny Novgorod. In 1918 he entered the Moscow Agricultural Institute. In 1920 he joined the Red Army. After training in infantry courses, Andrei Andreevich commanded a platoon, a company, and participated in battles against Wrangel’s army. After the end of the Civil War, Vlasov's career progressed slowly. He was a battalion commander, then a regiment commander, head of the district department, and division commander. In 1929, Vlasov completed the Shot course, and a year later he joined the party. In 1935, Andrei Andreevich attended the first year of the Military Academy named after M.V. Frunze. In 1938, he was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division. This division was recognized as one of the best in the Red Army. After the occupation of Poland, close military contacts were established between the Soviet and German armies. In December 1940, a meeting of senior command staff was held. Vlasov also performed there. He, in particular, highlighted the disciplinary role of drill training: “We live on the border, we see Germans every day. Wherever the German platoon goes, they go extremely clearly, they are all dressed the same. I pointed out to my soldiers: “This is a capitalist army, and we must achieve results ten times greater.” And the soldiers paid attention. After all, 100 meters away we clearly see each other and, observing the German platoons, our platoons began to pull up tightly...” Vlasov noted that there were cases when a German officer clearly greeted us, but ours did not. Then “ we said that the friendly side should be welcomed,” and now the Red Army soldiers began to do this. Andrei Andreevich did not yet imagine that two years later he seemed to be a prisoner of the “friendly” army. In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th mechanized corps. At the beginning of the war. The corps, located in the Lvov region, fought the Germans more successfully than others and was able to escape from the encirclement. Vlasov was promoted. He led the 37th Army, which stubbornly defended Kyiv. The commander was among the few who were lucky enough to escape from the Kyiv “cauldron”.
In November 1941, Vlasov formed the 20th Army, which took part in the Battle of Moscow. For successfully leading the breakthrough of the German line on the Lama River and the capture of Solnechnogorsk, in January 1942 he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and promoted to lieutenant general. At the same time, in his combat description, Georgy Zhukov wrote: “Personally, Lieutenant General Vlasov is operationally well prepared and has organizational skills. He copes well with commanding troops.” In March 1942, Vlasov, as deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, was sent by the front commander, Army General Kirill Afanasyevich Meretskov, to the 2nd Shock Army, where a difficult situation arose. On April 20, he was appointed concurrent commander of this army. Even before Vlasov’s arrival, the 2nd Shock was connected with its own only by a narrow corridor. The Germans increasingly narrowed the “neck”, which was completely shot through by artillery, and the new commander did not have enough strength and means to rectify the situation. In the 20th of June, the troops ran out of ammunition and food, and divisional control was disrupted. In scattered groups, fighters of the 2nd Shock tried to break through to their own. With several staff members of the headquarters and personal cook Maria Voronova, Vlasov wandered through the forests and swamps for about three weeks. On July 11, they stopped for the night in the village of Tukhovezhi. The local elder locked them in a barn and informed the Germans. When they burst into the barn, Vlasov shouted in broken German: “Don’t shoot, I’m General Vlasov. 
Andrei Andreevich realized that his service in the Red Army was over. From the point of view of the Stalinist leadership, the prisoners were not soldiers, but traitors. Those of the captured generals who survived the war, for the most part, were either shot or ended up in camps. In the summer of 1942, Vlasov believed in Germany’s victory and decided to throw in his lot with Hitler. Vlasov was sent to the Vinnitsa camp, where Soviet generals were kept. There he was met by officer-translator Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt, a native of the Baltic states who spoke fluent Russian. Vlasov told him of his readiness to fight against Stalin and agreed to write an anti-Soviet leaflet. Later, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler described Vlasov as follows: “In this whole matter of Vlasov’s propaganda, I experienced great fear. Russians have their own ideals. And then Mr. Vlasov’s ideas arrived: Russia was never defeated by Germany; Russia can only be defeated by the Russians themselves. And this Russian pig, Mr. Vlasov, offers his services for this. Some of our old people wanted to give this man an army of millions. They wanted to give weapons and equipment to this unreliable guy so that he would move with these weapons against Russia, and maybe one day, which is very likely, for good measure, against ourselves!” 
Letter from General Vlasov "Why I took the path of fighting Bolshevism"
On August 3, 1942, Vlasov addressed a letter to Hitler, asking for permission to form the “Russian Liberation Army” (ROA) from prisoners and emigrants, since nothing would affect the Red Army soldiers as much as the performance of Russian formations on the side of the German troops...” However, the Germans did not think about Russian statehood, and viewed Vlasov and the ROA only as an instrument of propaganda and intelligence. On December 27, 1942, the Russian Committee, created under the chairmanship of Vlasov, which included several more former generals and officers of the Red Army, addressed an appeal to the population of the USSR. Although the committee was located in the suburbs of Berlin, for propaganda purposes, Smolensk was indicated as the place where the appeal was drawn up. The Russian Committee announced the creation of the ROA and called for the destruction of Bolshevism, an alliance with Germany and the construction of “a new Russia - without Bolsheviks and capitalists.”
Full text of the letter
“Calling all Russian people to rise up to fight against Stalin and his clique, for building a New Russia without the Bolsheviks and capitalists, I consider it my duty to explain my actions.
The Soviet government did not offend me in any way.
I am the son of a peasant, born in the Nizhny Novgorod province, studied on pennies, and achieved higher education. I accepted the people's revolution, joined the ranks of the Red Army to fight for land for the peasants, for a better life for the worker, for a bright future for the Russian people. Since then, my life has been inextricably linked with the life of the Red Army. I served in its ranks for 24 years continuously. I went from an ordinary soldier to an army commander and deputy front commander. I commanded a company, battalion, regiment, division, corps. I was awarded the Order of Lenin, the Red Banner and the medal of the XX Years of the Red Army. Since 1930 I have been a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
And now I am coming out to fight against Bolshevism and calling on all the people, whose son I am, to follow me.
Why? This question arises in everyone who reads my appeal, and I must give an honest answer to it. During the Civil War, I fought in the Red Army because I believed that the revolution would give the Russian people land, freedom and happiness.
As a commander of the Red Army, I lived among soldiers and commanders - Russian workers, peasants, intelligentsia, dressed in gray overcoats. I knew their thoughts, their thoughts, their worries and burdens. I did not break ties with my family, with my village, and I knew what and how a peasant lived.
And so I saw that they received nothing of what the Russian people fought for during the Civil War as a result of the Bolshevik victory.
I saw how hard life was for the Russian worker, how the peasant was forced into collective farms, how millions of Russian people disappeared, arrested without trial or investigation. I saw that everything Russian was being trampled underfoot, that sycophants, people who did not care about the interests of the Russian people, were promoted to leadership positions in the country, as well as to command posts in the Red Army.
The commissar system was corrupting the Red Army. Irresponsibility, surveillance, and espionage made the commander a toy in the hands of party officials in civilian clothes or military uniforms.
From 1938 to 1939 I was in China as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-Shek. When I returned to the USSR, it turned out that during this time the senior command staff of the Red Army was destroyed without any reason by order of Stalin. Many, many thousands of the best commanders, including marshals, were arrested and shot, or imprisoned in concentration camps and disappeared forever. Terror spread not only to the army, but to the entire people. There was no family that somehow escaped this fate. The army was weakened, the frightened people looked to the future with horror, awaiting the war being prepared by Stalin.
Anticipating the enormous sacrifices that the Russian people would inevitably have to endure in this war, I tried to do everything in my power to strengthen the Red Army. The 99th Division, which I commanded, was recognized as the best in the Red Army. Through work and constant concern for the military unit entrusted to me, I tried to drown out the feeling of indignation at the actions of Stalin and his clique.
And then war broke out. She found me at the post of commander of the 4th mech. housings.
As a soldier and as a son of my country, I considered myself obliged to fulfill my duty honestly.
My corps in Przemysl and Lviv took the blow, withstood it and was ready to go on the offensive, but my proposals were rejected. Indecisive, corrupted by commissar control and confused management of the front led the Red Army to a series of heavy defeats.
I withdrew my troops to Kyiv. There I took command of the 37th Army and the difficult post of chief of the garrison of the city of Kyiv.
I saw that the war was being lost for two reasons: because of the reluctance of the Russian people to defend Bolshevik power and the created system of violence and because of the irresponsible leadership of the army and the interference in its actions by large and small commissars.
In difficult conditions, my army coped with the defense of Kyiv and successfully defended the capital of Ukraine for two months. However, the incurable diseases of the Red Army took their toll. The front was broken through in the area of neighboring armies. Kyiv was surrounded. By order of the high command, I had to leave the fortified area.
After leaving the encirclement, I was appointed deputy commander of the South-Western direction and then commander of the 20th Army. The 20th Army had to be formed in the most difficult conditions, when the fate of Moscow was being decided. I did everything in my power to defend the nation's capital. The 20th Army stopped the attack on Moscow and then went on the offensive itself. It broke through the front of the German army, took Solnechnogorsk, Volokolamsk, Shakhovskaya, Sereda, etc., ensured the transition to the offensive along the entire Moscow section of the front, and approached Gzhatsk.
During the decisive battles for Moscow, I saw that the rear helped the front, but, like the fighter at the front, every worker, every resident in the rear did this only because he believed that he was defending his homeland. For the sake of his homeland, he endured countless sufferings and sacrificed everything. And more than once I drove away from myself the question that constantly arose:
Yes, that's enough. Am I defending my homeland, am I sending people to die for my homeland? Is it not for Bolshevism, masquerading as the holy name of the Motherland, that the Russian people are shedding their blood?
I was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front and commander of the 2nd Shock Army. Perhaps nowhere was Stalin’s disregard for the lives of the Russian people more evident than in the practice of the 2nd Shock Army. The control of this army was centralized and concentrated in the hands of the General Staff. No one knew about her real situation and was not interested in it. One command order contradicted another. The army was doomed to certain death.
Soldiers and commanders received 100 and even 50 grams of crackers per day for weeks. They were swollen from hunger, and many could no longer move through the swamps where the direct leadership of the High Command had led the army. But everyone continued to fight selflessly.
Russian people died heroes. But for what? Why did they sacrifice their lives? Why did they have to die?
I stayed with the soldiers and commanders of the army until the last minute. There were only a handful of us left and we fulfilled our duty as soldiers to the end. I made my way through the encirclement into the forest and hid in the forest and swamps for about a month. But now the question has arisen in its entirety: should the blood of the Russian people be shed further? Is it in the interests of the Russian people to continue the war? What are the Russian people fighting for? I was clearly aware that the Russian people were being drawn into a war by Bolshevism for the alien interests of the Anglo-American capitalists.
England has always been the enemy of the Russian people. She has always sought to weaken our Motherland and harm it. But Stalin, in serving Anglo-American interests, saw an opportunity to realize his plans for world domination, and for the sake of implementing these plans, he linked the fate of the Russian people with the fate of England, he plunged the Russian people into war, brought upon their head innumerable disasters, and these disasters of war are the crown all the misfortunes that the people of our country suffered under the rule of the Bolsheviks for 25 years.
Isn’t it the first and sacred duty of every honest Russian person to fight against Stalin and his clique?
There, in the swamps, I finally came to the conclusion that my duty was to call on the Russian people to fight to overthrow the power of the Bolsheviks, to fight for peace for the Russian people, to end the bloody war that was unnecessary for the Russian people, for the interests of others, to the struggle for the creation of a new Russia, in which every Russian person could be happy.
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 their history when they linked their fate with the fate of Europe, when they built their culture, their economy, their 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 advanced European countries. In the name of utopian ideas 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 Homeland within the framework of a family of equal and free peoples of Europe.
With these thoughts, with this decision, in the last battle, together with a handful of my loyal friends, I was taken prisoner.
I spent over six months in captivity. In the conditions of the prisoner of war camp, behind its bars, I not only did not change my decision, but became stronger in my convictions.
On an honest basis, on the basis of sincere conviction, with full awareness of responsibility to the Motherland, the 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 am not calling the people to return to the past. No! I call him to a bright future, to the struggle to complete the National Revolution, to the struggle to create a New Russia - the Motherland of our great people. I call him to the path of brotherhood and unity with the peoples of Europe and, first of 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 layers of 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 stand up under the banners 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 alliance with Germany.
This union, equally beneficial for both great peoples, will lead us to victory over the dark forces of Bolshevism and free us from the bondage of Anglo-American capital.
In recent months, Stalin, seeing that the Russian people did not want to fight for the international tasks of Bolshevism that were alien to them, outwardly changed his policy towards the Russians. He destroyed the institution of commissars, he tried to conclude an alliance with the corrupt leaders of the previously persecuted church, he is trying to restore the traditions of the old army. To force the Russian people to shed blood for other people's interests, Stalin recalls the great names of Alexander Nevsky, Kutuzov, Suvorov, Minin and Pozharsky. He wants to assure that he is fighting for the Motherland, for the fatherland, for Russia.
He needs this pathetic and vile deception only in order to stay in power. Only blind people can believe that Stalin abandoned the principles of Bolshevism.
Pathetic hope! Bolshevism has not forgotten anything, has not retreated one step and will not retreat from its program. Today he talks about Rus' and the Russians only in order to achieve victory with the help of the Russian people, and tomorrow with even greater force to enslave the Russian people and force them to continue to serve interests alien to them.
Neither Stalin nor the Bolsheviks are fighting for Russia.
Only in the ranks of the anti-Bolshevik movement is our Motherland truly created. The cause of the Russians, their duty, is to fight against Stalin, for peace, for New Russia. Russia is ours! The past of the Russian people is ours! The future of the Russian people is ours!
Throughout its history, the multi-million Russian people have always found the strength to fight for their future, for their national independence. So even now the Russian people will not perish, and now they will find the strength in themselves to unite in times of severe disasters and overthrow the hated yoke, unite and build a new state in which they will find their happiness." 
Monument to A.A. Vlasov in New York
At the beginning of 1943, blue Adreev crosses and the letters ROA were sewn onto the uniforms of soldiers of the Russian Wehrmacht security battalions, which was supposed to indicate that they belonged to the Vlasov army. However, Vlasov did not actually lead them. 
Vlasov captured by Colonel Lindeman
In the spring of 1943, with the permission of the German command, he undertook several trips to the occupied Soviet territories. His speeches to the population were not quite what the Berlin leadership expected. In Smolensk, for example, he said: “I am not Hitler’s puppet.” In Luga he asked those gathered: “Do you want to become slaves of the Germans?” "No!" - answered the crowd. "I think so too. But for now the German people will help us, just as the Russian people helped them in the fight against Napoleon.
The activities of the ROA headquarters were initially limited to publishing the newspapers “Zarya” and “Volunteer” and organizing propaganda courses. Many German generals, since 1941, supported the idea of forming a pro-German Russian army, considering it necessary for victory over the USSR, but Hitler was categorically against this. In June 1943, he banned all military formations of the ROA, and Vlasov himself was even placed under house arrest for some time. 
In 1945, about 427 thousand Russians and Ukrainians served in the German armed forces. Subsequently, it was they who began to be called “Vlasovites,” although they had nothing to do with Vlasov himself. The German leadership did not want to transfer these formations under the command of Vlasov, fearing the strengthening of his army. Therefore, in fact, the ROA did not exist until the end of 1944.
However, the position of the Wehrmacht on the fronts worsened, and Himmler himself was forced on September 16, 1944 to accept the “pig” Vlasov. This was preceded by the marriage of Andrei Andreevich to Adele Bielenberg, the widow of a high-ranking SS officer. Vlasov’s first wife, who remained in the USSR, was arrested and sent to a camp as soon as her husband’s infidelity became known.
G. Himmler allowed the formation of combat-ready POA formations and invited Vlasov to unite all anti-Soviet national organizations and military units under the auspices of the “Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia” (KONR), the prototype of the post-Soviet government. On November 14, 1944, the KONR manifesto was announced in Prague, and Vlasov was elected chairman.
Before the end of the war, two divisions and a brigade of the ROA were formed, as well as several units, including aviation. The third division was in the process of formation. The number of ROA was about 50 thousand people. The Vlasov units were staffed mainly from already existing Russian volunteer battalions and SS units, as well as prisoners and former eastern workers released from camps.
Not only Himmler, but also other leaders of the Third Reich began to show belated interest in Vlasov.
On February 28, 1945, Joseph Goebbels met with the general, who left the following review: “General Vlasov is a highly intelligent and energetic Russian military leader. He believes that Russia can only be saved if it is liberated from the Bolshevik ideology and adopts an ideology like the one that the German people have in the form of National Socialism. He characterizes Stalin as an extremely cunning man, a real Jesuit. Not a single word of which can be trusted. Bolshevism among the Russian people before the start of the war had relatively few conscious and fanatical adherents. However, Stalin managed, during our advance across Soviet territory, to make the war against us a sacred patriotic cause, which was of decisive importance.
We could have achieved a lot in our Eastern policy if, back in 1941 and 1942, we had acted in accordance with the principles that Vlasov advocates here. But it takes a lot of effort to correct our omissions. And yet it was no longer possible to catch up.
For the only time, units of the 1st ROA Division of General Sergei Bunyachenko took part in a battle against the Red Army. Then, on April 13, 1945, by order of the German command, they attacked the Soviet Erlenhof bridgehead on the western bank of the Oder. The attack failed, and Bunyachenko withdrew the division from the front. The Germans, who had less than a month left before capitulation, did not pursue them. Vlasov ordered his troops to retreat to the Czech Republic where together with the ROA he hoped to surrender to the Americans. At the end of April - beginning of May, an agreement was reached between the ROA and circles close to the exile Czechoslovak government, who were preparing an uprising against the Germans in Prague. In exchange for military assistance, Vlasov and his army hoped to receive political asylum in Czechoslovakia, not knowing that, according to an agreement between the Soviet and American commands, Prague was to be liberated by the Red Army. On May 6 and 7, Bunyachenko's division attacked the German garrison of Prague, occupied the airport and provided great assistance to the rebels. The SS units trying to suppress the uprising were amazed to see that the enemy was also wearing an SS uniform.
However, on May 7, 1945, Red Army liaison officers appeared in Prague. One of them, on the phone, suggested that Bunyachenko, on behalf of Stalin, and his division “return to the arms of the Motherland.” Bunyachenko conveyed a response to Stalin - nothing but curses - and on May 8 he and his soldiers left the city, moving together with the Germans to meet the Americans.
Most of the Vlasovites went to the territory of the Czech Republic and Bavaria occupied by American troops. Many of them were later handed over by the allies to Stalin. Vlasov himself and his headquarters, with the assistance of the Americans, were captured by a Soviet tank unit. Of the approximately 50 thousand soldiers and officers of the ROA, about 10 thousand people avoided extradition.
Vlasov was brought to Moscow, where an investigation was carried out for a year. On July 31, 1946, POA leaders appeared before the Military Division of the Supreme Court. The meeting was closed.
At the trial, Vlasov and his comrades showed their guilt. The former commander-in-chief of the “Russian Liberation Army” said in his last word: “The first fall from grace was surrender. But not only did I completely repent, albeit late, but during the trial and investigation I tried to identify the entire gang as clearly as possible. I expect the most severe punishment." Vlasov was not mistaken about the punishment - all the defendants were sentenced to death.
On the same day, August 1, 1946, Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was hanged along with generals Vasily Malyshkin, Georgy Zhilenkov, Fedor Trukhin, Sergei Bunyachenko, Viktor Maltsev. 
I ask the admins NOT to delete the file located above the text of the verdict against the Vlasovites
EXTRACT FROM THE SENTENCE IN THE CASE OF GENERAL A.A. VLASOV AND HIS ACCELERATES
Top secret
SENTENCE
IN THE NAME OF THE UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
MILITARY COLLEGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE USSR
Contains:
The presiding officer is Colonel General of Justice V.V. ULRICH.
Members - Major General of Justice F. F. KARAVAYKOV and Colonel of Justice G. N. DANILOV.
In a closed court session, in the city. Moscow, July 30, 31 and August 1, 1946, considered the case on charges:
b. deputy commander of the troops of the Volkhov Front and commander of the 2nd Shock Army - Lieutenant General VLASOV Andrei Andreevich, born in 1901, native of the village of Lomakino, Gaginsky district, Gorky region, Russian, former member of the CPSU (b);
b. Chief of Staff of the 19th Army - Major General Vasily Fedorovich MALYSHKIN, born in 1896, a native of the Markovsky mine in the Stalin region, Russian, former member of the CPSU (b);
b. member of the Military Council of the 32nd Army - brigade commissar ZHILENKOV Georgy Nikolaevich, born in 1910, native of Voronezh, Russian, former member of the CPSU (b);
b. Chief of Staff of the North-Western Front - Major General Fyodor Ivanovich TRUKHIN, a native of Kostroma, Russian, non-partisan;
b. the head of the Naval Air Defense School in the city of Libau - Major General of the Coastal Service Ivan Alekseevich BLAGOVESCHENSKY, born in 1893, a native of the city of Yuryevets, Ivanovo region, Russian, former member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks);
b. commander of the 21st Rifle Corps ZAKUTNY Dmitry Efimovich, born in 1897, native of Zimovniki, Rostov Region, Russian, former member of the CPSU (b);
b. the head of the Aeroflot sanatorium in Yalta - reserve colonel Viktor Ivanovich MALTSEV, born in 1895, native of Gus-Khrustalny, Ivanovo region, Russian;
b. commander of the 59th Rifle Brigade - Colonel BUNYACHENKO Sergei Kuzmich, born in 1902, native of the village of Korovyakov, Glushkovskoto district, Kursk region, Ukrainian, former member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks);
b. commander of the 350th Infantry Division - Colonel ZVEREV Grigory Aleksandrovich, born in 1900, native of Voroshilovsk, Russian, former member of the CPSU (b);
b. Deputy Chief of Staff of the 6th Army - Colonel Mikhail Alekseevich MEANDROV, a native of Moscow, Russian, non-partisan;
b. assistant chief of communications of the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front - Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Denisovich KORBUKOV, born in 1900, native of Dvinsk, Russian, former member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks);
b. Chief of Artillery Supply of the North Caucasus Military District - Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Stepanovich SHATOV, born in 1901, native of the village of Shatovo, Kotelnichesky District, Kirov Region, Russian, former member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks);
All in the crimes provided for in Article 1 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1943 and Art. 58-16, 58-8, 58-9, 58-10 hours. And the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.
The preliminary and judicial investigation established:
Defendants VLASOV, MALYSHKIN, ZHILENKOV, TRUCHIN, ZAKUTNY, MEANDROV, MALTSEV, BLAGOVESCHENSKY, BUNYCHENKO, ZVEREV, KORBUKOV and SHATOV, being servicemen of the Red Army and being anti-Soviet, during the tense period of the Great Patriotic War for the Soviet Union, violated the military oath, changed the Socialist ical Homeland and, at different times, voluntarily went over to the side of the Nazi troops.
Being on the enemy side, all the defendants, led by Vlasov, on instructions from the leaders of the Nazi government, throughout 1941-1943. carried out extensive treasonous activities aimed at armed struggle against the Soviet Union, and in 1944 VLASOV, ZHILENKOV, TRUCHIN, MALYSHKIN, ZAKUTNY, MEANDROV, BUNYACHENKO and others entered the so-called so-called movement created by Himmler. the “Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia” and, on instructions from German intelligence, created armed detachments from among former White Guards, criminals, nationalists and other anti-Soviet elements, calling them the “Russian Liberation Army” (ROA); organized espionage and sabotage in the rear of Soviet troops, murders of officers and soldiers of the Red Army, and also prepared terrorist attacks against the leaders of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the Soviet Government. The defendant Vlasov and his accomplices, with the help of the Germans, set as their final goal the overthrow of the Soviet Government, the liquidation of the socialist system and the organization of a fascist state on the territory of the Soviet Union. To carry out their criminal activities, VLASOV and all his accomplices received the necessary material resources and weapons from the German command, and all their practical activities were supervised by Himmler and his assistants.
Based on the evidence collected in the case and personal confessions of the defendants both during the preliminary and judicial investigation, the specific treacherous activities of each of the defendants have been established as follows:
1). VLASOV, being the deputy commander of the troops of the Volkhov Front and at the same time being the commander of the 2nd Shock Army of the same front, in July 1942, while in the area of the city of Lyuban, due to his anti-Soviet sentiments, betrayed his homeland and went over to the side of the Nazi troops, betrayed him to the Germans secret information about the plans of the Soviet command, and also slanderously characterized the Soviet Government and the state of the rear of the Soviet Union. Soon after this, VLASOV agreed to the German command to lead the so-called units formed by the Germans. “Russian army”, while expressing a desire to become part of the future “Russian government”, and discussed with responsible representatives of the German Foreign Ministry the issues of dismemberment of the Soviet Union. In December 1942, VLASOV, together with other traitors to the Motherland, on instructions from the German military command and German intelligence, created the so-called. “Russian committee”, which set as its goal the overthrow of the Soviet state system and the establishment of a fascist regime in the USSR. Heading this “committee,” VLASOV recruited his like-minded people from among the enemy elements, issued anti-Soviet leaflets to the Red Army soldiers and the population of the USSR, traveled to camps where Soviet prisoners of war were kept, and throughout the occupied territory of the Soviet Union, calling on Soviet citizens for an armed struggle against the Soviet government and the Red Army. At the end of 1944, VLASOV, on instructions from German intelligence and Himmler personally, united the White Guard organizations that existed in Germany and, together with his closest accomplices - traitors TRUCHIN, MALYSHKIN, ZHILENKOV and ZAKUTNY, headed the so-called so-called created by the Germans. "Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia" (KONR).
Setting his goal with the help of the Germans to seize power in the USSR, VLASOV, under the leadership of the fascists, formed from among the White Guards, criminals and traitors to the Motherland, the so-called. “Russian liberation army”, organized espionage and sabotage in the rear of the Soviet troops and prepared terrorist attacks against the leaders of the Soviet Government. VLASOV, leading the recruitment effort in the so-called. "ROA" of Soviet prisoners of war, dealt with persons suspected of anti-fascist activities, and personally approved death sentences.
Having been appointed by order of Hitler to the post of commander-in-chief of the so-called. "ROA", sent the military units it formed to the front for military operations against Soviet troops.
VLASOV in 1944, in addition to Himmler, entered into a personal criminal relationship with Goering, Goebbels and Ribbentrop, negotiated with them and jointly outlined measures to strengthen activities directed against the USSR.
After the defeat and surrender of Nazi Germany, Vlasov, along with his accomplices, tried to flee to the area occupied by American troops to continue the fight against the Soviet Union, but was captured by units of the Red Army...
Based on the above, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR decides: to recognize the charge brought against VLASOV, ZHILENKOV, MALYSHKIN, TRUCHIN, BLAGOVESCHENSKY, ZAKUTNOY, MEANDROV, MALTSEV, BUNYCHENKO, ZVEREV, KORBUKOV and SHATOV for committing crimes under Art. 1st Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1943 and art. Art. 58-16, 58-8, 58-9, 58-10h. Neither 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR has been proven.
Guided by Art. Art. 319-320 Code of Criminal Procedure of the RSFSR, Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR
SENTENCED: deprive of military ranks
VLASOV - Lieutenant General,
MALYSHKINA - Major General,
ZHILENKOV - brigade commissar,
TRUKHINA - Major General,
BLAGOVESCHENSKY - Major General of the Coast Guard,
ZAKUTNY - Colonel,
MALTSEV - Colonel,
BUNYACHENKO - Colonel,
ZVEREV - Colonel,
MEANDROV - Colonel,
KORBUKOV - lieutenant colonel,
SHATOV - lieutenant colonel
And based on the totality of crimes committed, on the basis of Art. 1st Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1943:
VLASOV Andrey Andreevich,
MALYSHKIN Vasily Fedorovich,
ZHILENKOV Georgy Nikolaevich,
TRUKHIN Fedor Ivanovich,
BLAGOVESCHENSKY Ivan Alekseevich,
ZAKUTNY Dmitry Efimovich,
MALTSEV Viktor Ivanovich,
BUNYACHENKO Sergei Kuzmich,
ZVEREV Grigory Alexandrovich,
MEANDROV Mikhail Alekseevich,
KORBUKOV Vladimir Denisovich,
SHATOV Nikolai Stepanovich
SUBJECT EVERYONE TO DEATH PENALTY BY HANGING.
The property of all convicted persons, which personally belongs to them, shall be confiscated.
The verdict is final and cannot be appealed.
Authentic with proper signatures.
RIGHT:
SECRETARY OF THE MILITARY COLLEGE OF THE UPPER COURT OF THE USSR
MAJOR OF JUSTICE (MAZUR)
Thoughts about Vlasov
Analyzing the life path and personality traits of Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov, it is difficult to disagree with the fact that he will forever remain in the history of our fatherland. But will the question forever remain about who he is: a traitor to his people or a patriot - a fighter against Bolshevism, the ideology of the destruction of man and his soul? The assessment of his personality will undoubtedly always depend on the situation in which our and his fatherland, Russia, will find itself. And now, from what has just been said, we can understand who Andrei Vlasov was. Those who considered him a traitor, at one time, without sparing their lives, went into battle against a cruel enemy and died under the tracks of tanks and a hail of bullets, those who considered him a traitor devoted most of their lives to serving with faith and truth to the Russian people and the Russian land, even if it was part of the USSR, which is hated by many today, where the Russians were perfectly protected, unlike today’s Russia, by a strong army, incorruptible law enforcement agencies, a powerful economy and a wonderful culture. And who considers him a patriot? One part is the descendants of opponents of Soviet power who fled from Russia. These people, as a rule, still live far from their historical homeland and often do not have objective sources of information abroad, so their opinion can be ignored. The overwhelming majority of supporters of Vlasov the patriot were those who, in the depths of their souls, always hated Russia and its people, who caused chaos in Russia and secretly stole its people's wealth.
And how can one even be considered a patriot who entered the service of a man who brought grief and death to his people? Of course, in the Kremlin there were also those who brought a lot of grief to all Russians, who actually forced all the prisoners to become traitors (for which the Lord’s punishment later befell them all), but it was impossible not to take into account the fact that the Russian land then rested on them; if not for them, it would be much easier for our enemies to achieve one hundred percent success. We also need to remember those who chose to die fighting or suffer in captivity to the end, but did not make contact with the enemy. The fact that Vlasov allegedly only wanted to take advantage of the military power of Germany, and then, after the defeat of Bolshevism in Russia, turn it against the Germans themselves, also cannot be an excuse, since among the Nazis there were quite smart people who perfectly understood what could happen bring. Most likely, Vlasov was a traitor. Firstly, by going over to the side of the Germans, he betrayed the Russian people and Soviet power; secondly, he, having escaped from the front and repented before the Soviet regime, also betrayed the Nazis, who had saved his life several years before. Such a person hardly deserves respect. In the 90s in Russia and the West they tried to create the image of an ardent fighter for democracy for Vlasov. This, frankly speaking, cannot be called anything other than nonsense. Is the man who commanded the army of a totalitarian state a democrat? And his soldiers were not distinguished by their special humanity, characteristic of true democrats. According to eyewitnesses, many Vlasovites were even more cruel than the Germans themselves.
Thus, taking into account all of the above, we can say that Andrei Vlasov is a man who, in difficult times, betrayed his Motherland and his people, thanks to his enemies, became a “patriot”, but, nevertheless, his name, the name of a people’s traitor, will never be forgotten; so great was his betrayal.
P.S. food for thought: If Andrei Andreevich Vlasov really was such an ardent anti-communist, then why did he enlist in the Red Army in 1920 and participate in battles against the army of the white general Pyotr Nikolaevich Wrangel?
The lies of totalitarian ideology gave rise to myths. Myths that became truth for several generations of Soviet people. Some of the characters in these myths were frightened, others were elevated to the rank of heroes, and some, especially fast myth-makers, managed to earn titles, ranks and quite good social benefits from their work.
But history is a terrible thing, and sooner or later the truth, no matter how unsightly, becomes known. People, as a rule, are in no hurry to part with myths. It's more convenient...
From a yellowed photograph, and smart, slightly ironic eyes are looking at me. And old-fashioned saucer glasses, touchingly held together with duct tape, give them an academic expression. If it weren’t for the uniform and the general’s stars in the buttonholes, one could assume that the person in the photo is a school teacher.
This photo is over fifty years old. It was made in the summer of 1941 in besieged Kyiv, and only recently declassified from archival special storage facilities. Personally, I will never forget when I received it in my hands and read on the back the bold ink stamp “DECLASSIFIED.”
And all these years, the person depicted in the photo had one - only one title-stamp in the Soviet Union - “traitor general”....
It got to the tragic-comic level, some fairly well-known Soviet journalists - namesakes of the general - hastening to prove their innocence - signed - “.... - not a relative of the traitor general.
Everything in this world is changeable - in the morning you are a national hero, a favorite of the authorities, and by the evening, you see, you have become a traitor. This is exactly the story that happened to the combat lieutenant general of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov. A story that has lasted for more than half a century. Maybe it's time to finally tell the truth. A truth that not everyone will accept...
WHO ARE YOU, GENERAL VLASOV?
So - autumn 1941. The Germans attack Kyiv. However, they cannot take the city. The defense has been greatly strengthened. And the Kiev Special Fortified Area is headed by a forty-year-old Major General of the Red Army, commander of the 37th Army, Andrei Vlasov. A legendary figure in the army. He has gone all the way - from private to general.
He went through the civil war, completed two courses at the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary, and studied at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Personal friend of Vasily Blucher. Konstantin Rokossovsky, and...Chan-kan-shi....
Just before the war, Andrei Vlasov, then still a colonel, was sent to China as military advisers to Chai-kan-shi. He received the Order of the Golden Dragon (according to other information from the White Moon) and a gold watch as a reward, which aroused the envy of the entire generals of the Red Army. However, Vlasov was not happy for long. Upon returning home, at the Alma-Ata customs, the order itself, as well as other generous gifts from Generalissimo Chai-kan-shi, were confiscated by the NKVD...
Returning home, Vlasov quickly received general's stars and an appointment to the 99th Infantry Division, famous for its backwardness. A year later, in 1940, the division was recognized as the best in the Red Army and was the first among the units to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. Immediately after this, Vlasov, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense, took command of one of the four created fur corps. Headed by a general, he was stationed in Lvov, and was practically one of the very first units of the Red Army to enter hostilities. Even Soviet historians were forced to admit that the Germans “got punched in the face for the first time,” precisely from the mechanized corps of General Vlasov. However, the forces were unequal, the corps was practically destroyed and the Red Army retreated to Kyiv.
It was here that Joseph Stalin, shocked by Vlasov’s courage and ability to fight (and on the personal recommendation of Nikita Khrushchev), ordered the general to gather the retreating units in Kyiv, form the 37th Army and defend Kyiv.
So, Kyiv, August-September 1941. Fierce fighting is taking place near Kyiv. German troops are suffering colossal losses. In Kyiv itself... there are trams. People who remember those days claim that during the defense only a few shells exploded on the city streets.
However, the well-known Georgy Zhukov insists on the surrender of Kyiv to the attacking Germans. After a small intra-army “showdown,” Joseph Stalin gives the order: “Leave Kyiv.” It is unknown why Vlasov’s headquarters was the last to receive this order. History is silent about this. However, according to some as yet unconfirmed data, this was revenge on the obstinate general. The revenge of none other than Army General Georgy Zhukov. After all, just recently, a few weeks ago, Zhukov, while inspecting the positions of the 37th Army, came to Vlasov and wanted to stay the night. Vlasov, knowing Zhukov’s character, decided to joke and offered Zhukov the best dugout, warning him about night shelling. According to eyewitnesses, the army general, whose face changed after these words, hastened to retreat from his position. Well, in the evening, at dinner, the officers discussed Zhukov’s “district” in every detail. It’s clear, said the officers present at the time, who wants to expose their head... And knowing the “knock system of those years,” one can only assume how quickly Zhukov learned about the officers’ conversation...
On the night of September 19, Kyiv was abandoned practically undamaged by Soviet troops. Later, we all learned that 600,000 military personnel ended up in the “Kiev cauldron” through Zhukov’s efforts. The only one who withdrew his army from encirclement with minimal losses was “Andrei Vlasov, who did not receive the order to withdraw.”
Having been out of the Kyiv encirclement for almost a month, Vlasov caught a cold and was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of inflammation of the middle ear. However, after a telephone conversation with Stalin, the general immediately left for Moscow. The role of General Vlasov in the defense of the capital is discussed in the article “The failure of the German plan to encircle and capture Moscow” in the newspapers “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Izvestia” and “Pravda” dated December 13, 1941. Moreover, among the troops the general is called nothing less than “the savior of Moscow.” And in the “Certificate for the Army Commander Comrade. Vlasov A.A.”, dated 24.2.1942 and signed by Deputy. Head Personnel Department of NPOs of the Personnel Directorate of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Zhukov and Head. The Sector of the Personnel Administration of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) reads: “By working as a regiment commander from 1937 to 1938 and by working as a rifle division commander from 1939 to 1941, Vlasov is certified as comprehensively developed, well prepared in operational-tactical attitude by the commander.” (Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 3, pp. 9-10.).
This has never happened in the history of the Red Army, possessing only 15 tanks, General Vlasov’s units stopped Walter Model’s tank army in the Moscow suburb of Solnechegorsk, and pushed back the Germans, who were already preparing for the parade on Moscow’s Red Square, 100 kilometers away, liberating three cities. .. There was something to get the nickname “Savior of Moscow” from.
After the battle of Moscow, the general was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.
WHAT IS LEFT BEHIND THE SOVINFORMBURO REPORTS?
And everything would be just great if, after the completely mediocre operational policy of the Headquarters and the General Staff, Leningrad found itself in a ring akin to Stalingrad. And the Second Shock Army, sent to the rescue of Leningrad, was hopelessly blocked in Myasny Bor. This is where the fun begins. Stalin demanded punishment for those responsible for the current situation. And the highest military officials sitting on the General Staff really did not want to “give” their friends and drinking buddies, the commanders of the Second Shock, to Stalin. One of them wanted to have absolute command of the front, without having any organizational abilities for this. The second, no less “skillful,” wanted to take this power away from him. The third of these “friends,” who drove the Red Army soldiers of the Second Shock Army in parade step under German fire, later became the Marshal of the USSR and the Minister of Defense of the USSR. The fourth, who did not give a single clear command to the troops, imitated a nervous attack and left... to serve in the General Staff. Stalin was informed that “the group’s command needs to strengthen its leadership.” It was here that Stalin was reminded of General Vlasov, who was appointed commander of the Second Shock Army. Andrei Vlasov understood that he was flying to his death. As a person who had gone through the crucible of this war in Kiev and Moscow, he knew that the army was doomed, and no miracle would save it. Even if this miracle is himself - General Andrei Vlasov, the savior of Moscow.
One can only imagine what the military general in the Douglas, flinching from the explosions of German anti-aircraft guns, changed his mind, and who knows,
The German anti-aircraft gunners were luckier, and they would shoot down this Douglas. No matter what grimace history makes. And now we would not have the heroically deceased Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. According to existing, I emphasize, information that has not yet been confirmed, there was a proposal for Vlasov on Stalin’s table. And the Supreme Commander-in-Chief even signed it...
Official propaganda presents further events as follows: traitor general A. Vlasov voluntarily surrendered. With all the ensuing consequences...
But few people to this day know that when the fate of the Second Shock became obvious, Stalin sent a plane for Vlasov. Of course, the general was his favorite. But Andrei Andreevich has already made his choice. And he refused to evacuate, sending a wounded military doctor on the plane. They say that this woman is still alive today.
Eyewitnesses of this incident say that the general said through gritted teeth, “What kind of commander abandons his army to destruction.”
There are eyewitness accounts that Vlasov refused to abandon the fighters of the 2nd Shock Army who were actually dying of hunger due to the criminal mistakes of the Supreme Command and fly away to save his life. And not Germans, but Russians, who went through the horrors of the German and then Stalinist camps and, despite this, did not accuse Vlasov of treason. General Vlasov with a handful of fighters decided to break through to his...
Soviet propaganda knew its job very well. When the “scandal” around Vlasov began, what was the main thing? Far from it being that he “betrayed”. They were targeting mass participation and morality - endless stories began in the press that “Vlasov had women. A lot of women...”. Interestingly, at the same time, and in the same years, national heroes Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky had exactly the same number of women. Moreover, order in the personal lives of these “non-traitors” was personally restored by.... Joseph Stalin. But the press and propaganda preferred to remain silent about this. They chose to make General Vlasov with his two OFFICIAL and LEGAL wives the main libertine of the Red Army.
CAPTIVITY
On the night of July 12, 1942, Vlasov and a handful of soldiers accompanying him went to the Old Believer village of Tukhovezhi and took refuge in a barn. And at night, the barn where the encirclement found shelter was broken into... no, not the Germans. To this day it is unknown who these people really were. According to one version, these were amateur partisans. According to another, armed local residents, led by a church warden, decided to buy the favor of the Germans at the cost of the general’s stars. That same night, General Andrei Vlasov and the soldiers accompanying him were handed over to regular German troops. They say that before this the general was severely beaten. Please note - your...
One of the Red Army soldiers who accompanied Vlasov then testified to SMERSH investigators: “When we were handed over to the Germans, they wanted to shoot everyone without talking. The general came forward and said, “Don’t shoot! I am General Vlasov. My people are unarmed!” That’s the whole story of “voluntary capture.” By the way, between June and December 1941, 3.8 million Soviet military personnel were captured by Germans, in 1942 more than a million, for a total of about 5.2 million people during the war.
And then there was a concentration camp near Vinnitsa, where senior officers of interest to the Germans - prominent commissars and generals - were kept. Much was written in the Soviet press about how Vlasov allegedly chickened out, lost control of himself, and saved his life. The documents state the opposite: Here are excerpts from official German and personal documents that ended up in SMERSH after the war. They characterize Vlasov from the point of view of another side. This is documentary evidence of Nazi leaders, who certainly cannot be suspected of sympathizing with the Soviet general, through whose efforts thousands of German soldiers were destroyed near Kiev and Moscow.
Thus, the adviser to the German embassy in Moscow, Hilger, in the protocol of the interrogation of the captured General Vlasov on August 8, 1942, briefly described him: “he gives the impression of a strong and direct personality. His judgments are calm and balanced” (Archive of the Institute of Military History of the Moscow Region, d. 43, l. 57..). And here is the opinion about General Goebbels. Having met with Vlasov on March 1, 1945, he wrote in his diary: “General Vlasov is a highly intelligent and energetic Russian military leader; he made a very deep impression on me" (Goebbels J. Latest entries. Smolensk, 1993, p. 57).
Regarding Vlasov, it seems clear. Maybe the people who surrounded him in the ROA were the last scum and slackers who were just waiting for the start of the war to go over to the side of the Germans. But no, and here the documents give no reason to doubt.
...AND THE OFFICERS WHO JOINED WITH HIM
General Vlasov's closest associates were highly professional military leaders who at various times received high awards from the Soviet government for their professional activities. So, Major General V.F. Malyshkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”; Major General F.I. Trukhin - the Order of the Red Banner and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”; Zhilenkov G.N., Secretary of the Rostokinsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Moscow. - Order of the Red Banner of Labor (Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 2, pp. 9, 12.). Colonel Maltsev M.A. (Major General of the ROA) - commander of the Air Force of the KONR, was at one time an instructor pilot of the legendary Valery Chkalov (“Voice of Crimea”, 1944, N. 27. Editorial afterword). And the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the KONR, Colonel Aldan A.G. (Neryanin) received high praise when graduating from the Academy of the General Staff in 1939. The then Chief of the General Staff, Army General Shaposhnikov called him one of the brilliant officers of the course, the only one who graduated from the Academy with “excellent” " It’s hard to imagine that they were all cowards who went into service to the Germans to save their own lives
IF VLASOV IS INNOCENT - WHO THEN?
By the way, if we are talking about documents, then we can remember one more. When General Vlasov ended up with the Germans, the NKVD and SMERSH, on behalf of Stalin, conducted a thorough investigation of the situation with the Second Shock Army. The results were put on the table to Stalin, who came to the conclusion that the accusations brought against General Vlasov in the death of the 2nd Shock Army and in his military unpreparedness were unfounded. And what kind of unpreparedness could there be if the artillery did not have enough ammunition for even one salvo... The investigation from SMERSH was headed by a certain Viktor Abakumov (remember this name).
Only in 1993, decades later, Soviet propaganda reported this through clenched teeth. (Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 5, pp. 31-34.).
GENERAL VLASOV - HITLER KAPUTT?!
Let's return to Andrei Vlasov. So did the military general calm down in German captivity? The facts tell a different story. It was possible, of course, to provoke a guard into firing a machine gun at point-blank range, it was possible to start an uprising in the camp, kill a couple of dozen guards, run to your own people and... end up in other camps - this time Stalin’s. It was possible to show unshakable convictions and... turn into a block of ice. But Vlasov did not feel any particular fear of the Germans. One day, the concentration camp guards who “took to their chests” decided to organize a “parade” of captured Red Army soldiers and decided to put Vlasov at the head of the column. The general refused such an honor, and several “organizers” of the parade were knocked out by the general. Well, then the camp commandant arrived in time to hear the noise.
The general, who was always distinguished by his originality and non-standard decisions, decided to act differently. For a whole year(!) he convinced the Germans of his loyalty. And then in March and April 1943, Vlasov makes two trips to the Smolensk and Pskov regions, and criticizes... German policies in front of large audiences, making sure that the liberation movement finds a response among the people.
But for his “shameless” speeches, the frightened Nazis send him under house arrest. The first attempt ended in complete failure. The general was eager to fight, sometimes committing reckless acts.
THE ALL-SEEING EYE OF THE NKVD?
And then something happened. Soviet intelligence contacted the general. In his circle appeared a certain Milenty Aleksandrovich Zykov, who held the position of divisional commissar in the Red Army. The personality is bright and... mysterious. At the general's he edited two newspapers
To this day it is not known for certain whether this man was who he said he was. Only a year ago, circumstances “surfaced” that could turn all ideas about the “case of General Vlasov” upside down. Zykov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, a journalist, worked in Central Asia, then at Izvestia with Bukharin. He was married to the daughter of Lenin's comrade-in-arms, People's Commissar of Education Andrei Bubnov, and was arrested after him in 1937. Shortly before the war, he was released (!) and drafted into the army as a battalion commissar (!).
He was captured near Bataysk in the summer of 1942, while he was a commissar in a rifle division whose numbers he never gave. They met Vlasov in the Vinnitsa camp, where they kept Soviet officers of particular interest to the Wehrmacht. From there Zykov was brought to Berlin by order of Goebbels himself.
On the tunic of Zykov, who was brought to the military propaganda department, the stars and commissar insignia remained intact. Milenty Zykov became the general's closest adviser, although he received only the rank of captain in the ROA. (Some researchers suggest that the Leningrad literary critic Volpe, who disappeared without a trace during the Leningrad blockade winter, was hiding under the name Zykov).
There is reason to believe that Zykov was a Soviet intelligence officer. And the reasons are very strong. Milenty Zykov was very actively in contact with senior German officers who, as it turned out, were preparing an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. He paid for this. It remains a mystery what happened on a June day in 1944 when he was called to the telephone in the village of Rasndorf. ROA captain Zykov left the house, got into the car and... disappeared.
According to one version, Zykov was kidnapped by the Gestapo, who uncovered the assassination attempt on Hitler, and then shot in Sachsenhausen. A strange circumstance, Vlasov himself was not very concerned about Zykov’s disappearance, which suggests the existence of a plan for Zykov’s transition to an illegal position, that is, to return home. In addition, in 1945-46. - after Vlasov’s arrest, SMERSH was very actively looking for traces of Zykov.
Yes, so actively that it seemed like they were deliberately covering their tracks. When in the mid-nineties they tried to find the criminal case of Milentiy Zykov from 1937 in the FSB archives, the attempt was unsuccessful. Strange, isn't it?
After all, at the same time, all of Zykov’s other documents, including the reader’s form in the library, and the registration card in the military archive, were in place.
THE GENERAL'S FAMILY
And one more significant circumstance that indirectly confirms Vlasov’s cooperation with Soviet intelligence. Usually, relatives of “traitors to the Motherland,” especially people occupying a social position at the level of General Vlasov, were subjected to severe repression. As a rule, they were destroyed in the Gulag.
In this situation, everything was exactly the opposite. In recent decades, neither Soviet nor Western journalists have been able to obtain information shedding light on the fate of the general’s family. Only recently it became clear that Vlasov’s first wife, Anna Mikhailovna, who was arrested in 1942 after serving 5 years in a Nizhny Novgorod prison, lived and lived in Balakhna a few years ago. The second wife, Agnessa Pavlovna, with whom the general married in 1941, lived and worked as a doctor at the Brest Regional Dermatovenerologic Dispensary. She died two years ago, and her son, who has achieved a lot in this life, lives and works in Samara. By the way, the death of Dr. Podmazenko is also not accidental. In recent years, she actively wrote letters with requests to rehabilitate her front-line husband. To no avail. And then one day, when she felt bad (she was seriously ill), an ambulance arrived, whose doctors “dropped” the patient from the stretcher...
The second son is illegitimate, lives and works in St. Petersburg. At the same time, he denies any relationship with the general. He has a son growing up, very similar to his grandfather... His illegitimate daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren also live there. One of the grandchildren, a promising officer of the Russian Navy, has no idea who his grandfather was
So decide after this whether General Vlasov was a “traitor to the Motherland.”
OPEN ACTION AGAINST STALIN
Six months after Zykov’s “disappearance,” on November 14, 1944, Vlasov proclaimed the manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia in Prague. Its main provisions: the overthrow of the Stalinist regime and the return to the people of the rights won by them in the revolution of 1917, the conclusion of an honorable peace with Germany, the creation of a new free statehood in Russia, “the establishment of the national labor system,” “the comprehensive development of international cooperation,” “the elimination of forced labor", "liquidation of collective farms", "granting the intelligentsia the right to create freely." Are these not very familiar demands proclaimed by political leaders of the last two decades? And what is “betrayal of the Motherland” here? KONR receives hundreds of thousands of applications from Soviet citizens in Germany to join its armed forces.
STAR....
On January 28, 1945, General Vlasov took command of the Armed Forces of the KONR, which the Germans resolved at the level of three divisions, one reserve brigade, two aviation squadrons and an officer school, a total of about 50 thousand people. At that time, these military formations were not yet sufficiently armed. The war was ending. The Germans no longer cared about General Vlasov - they were saving their own skins. February 9 and April 14, 1945 were the only occasions when the Vlasovites took part in battles on the Eastern Front, forced by the Germans. In the very first battle, several hundred Red Army soldiers went over to Vlasov’s side. The second one radically changes some ideas about the end of the war. As you know, on May 6, 1945, an anti-Hitler uprising broke out in Prague... At the call of the rebel Czechs, Prague includes... The first division of General Vlasov's army. She enters into battle with heavily armed SS and Wehrmacht units, captures the airport, where fresh German units arrive, and liberates the city. The Czechs are rejoicing. And very eminent commanders of the Soviet army are beside themselves with rage and anger. Of course, again it’s the upstart Vlasov.
And then strange and terrible events began. Those who just yesterday begged for help come to Vlasov and ask the general... to leave Prague, since his Russian friends are unhappy. And Vlasov gives the command to withdraw. However, this did not save the walkers; they were shot... by the Czechs themselves. By the way, it was not a group of impostors who asked for help from Vlasov, but people who carried out the decision of the highest body of the Czechoslovak Republic.
...AND THE DEATH OF GENERAL VLASOV
But this did not save the general, Colonel General. Viktor Abakumov, the head of SMERSH, gave the command to detain Vlasov. The SMERSHists took the show. On May 12, 1945, General Vlasov's troops are squeezed between American and Soviet troops in southwestern Bohemia. Vlasovites who fell into the hands of the Red Army were shot on the spot... According to the official version, the general himself was captured and arrested by a special reconnaissance group that stopped the convoy of the first division of the ROA and SMERSH. However, there are at least four versions of how Vlasov ended up in the rear of the Soviet troops. We already know about the first one, but here is another one, compiled on the basis of eyewitness accounts. Indeed, General Vlasov was in that same ROA column. Only he was not hiding in the carpet on the floor of the Willis, as Captain Yakushov, who allegedly took part in that operation, claims. The general sat calmly in the car. And the car was not a Willys at all. Moreover, this same car was of such a size that a two-meter-tall general simply wouldn’t fit in it wrapped in a carpet... And there was no lightning attack by the scouts on the convoy. They (the scouts), dressed in full dress uniforms with medals, calmly waited on the side of the road for Vlasov’s car to catch up with them. When the car slowed down, the leader of the group saluted the general and invited him to get out of the car. Is this how they greet traitors?
And then the fun began. There is evidence from a military lawyer of the tank division to which Andrei Vlasov was taken. This man was the first to meet the general after his arrival at the location of the Soviet troops. He claims that the general was dressed in ... a general's uniform of the Red Army (old model), with insignia and orders. The stunned lawyer could not find anything better than to ask the general to produce documents. Which he did, showing the prosecutor his hand
personal book of the commanding staff of the Red Army, identity card of the Red Army general No. 431 dated 02.13.41, and party card of a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) No. 2123998 - all in the name of Andrei Andreevich Vlasov...
Moreover, he claims that the day before Vlasov’s arrival, an unimaginable number of army commanders came to the division, who did not even think of showing any hostility or hostility towards the general. Moreover, a joint lunch was organized.
On the same day, the general was transported to Moscow by transport plane. I wonder - is this how they greet traitors?
Very little is known further. Vlasov is located in Lefortovo. “Prisoner No. 32” was the name of the general in prison. This prison belongs to SMERSH, and no one, not even Beria and Stalin, has the right to enter there. And they didn’t enter - Viktor Abakumov knew his business well. For which he later paid, but more on that later. The investigation lasted more than a year. Stalin, or maybe not Stalin at all, thought about what to do with the disgraced general. Elevate him to the rank of a national hero? It’s impossible - the military general did not sit quietly - he spoke a lot. Retired NKVD officers claim that they bargained with Andrei Vlasov for a long time - repent, they say, before the people and the leader. Admit mistakes. And they will forgive. May be...
They say that it was then that Vlasov met again with Melenty Zykov...
But the general was consistent in his actions, as when he did not leave the Second Shock fighters to die, as when he did not abandon his ROA in the Czech Republic. The Lieutenant General of the Red Army, holder of the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner of Battle, made his last choice...
On August 2, 1946, an official TASS message published in all central newspapers - on August 1, 1946, Lieutenant General of the Red Army A. A. Vlasov and his 11 comrades were hanged. Stalin was cruel to the end. After all, there is no death more shameful for officers than the gallows. Here are their names: Major General of the Red Army Malyshkin V.F., Zhilenkov G.N., Major General of the Red Army Trukhin F.I., Major General of the Red Army Zakutny D.E., Major General of the Red Army Blagoveshchensky I.A, Colonel of the Red Army Meandrov M. . A, Colonel of the USSR Air Force Maltsev M.A., Colonel of the Red Army Bunyachenko S.K., Colonel of the Red Army Zverev G. A, Major General of the Red Army Korbukov V.D. and Lieutenant Colonel of the Red Army N.S. Shatov. It is unknown where the bodies of the officers were buried. SMERSH knew how to keep its secrets.
Forgive us, Andrey Andreevich!
Was Andrei Vlasov a Soviet intelligence officer? There is no direct evidence of this. Moreover, there is no document proving this. But there are facts that are very difficult to argue with.
The main one among them is this. It is no longer a big secret that in 1942 Joseph Stalin, despite all the successes of the Red Army near Moscow, wanted to conclude a separate peace with Germany and stop the war. Having given up Ukraine, Moldova, Crimea...
There is even evidence that Lavrenty Beria “ventilated the situation” on this issue.
And Vlasov was an excellent candidate to conduct these negotiations. Why? To do this, you need to look at the pre-war career of Andrei Vlasov. You can come to stunning conclusions. Back in 1937, Colonel Vlasov was appointed one of the leaders of the second department of the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District. Translated into civilian language, this means that the brave Colonel Vlasov was responsible for all the KGB work in the district. And then the repressions broke out. And Colonel Vlasov, who received the first pseudonym "Volkov", was... safely sent as an adviser to the already mentioned Chai-kan-shi... And then, if you read between the lines of the memoirs of the participants in those events, you come to the conclusion that he did not work in China who other than... Soviet Colonel Volkov... intelligence officer. It was he, and no one else, who made friends with German diplomats, took them to restaurants, gave them vodka until they fainted, and talked for a long, long time. About what is unknown, but how can an ordinary Russian colonel behave this way, knowing what is happening in his country, that people were arrested only for explaining to foreigners on the street how to get to the Alexander Garden. Where is Sorge with his attempts at undercover work in Japan? All of Sorge’s female agents could not provide information comparable to that of Chai-kan-shi’s wife, with whom the Russian colonel had a “very close” relationship... The seriousness of Colonel Vlasov’s work is evidenced by his personal translator in China, who claims that Volkov ordered him to shoot him at the slightest danger.
And another argument. I saw a document marked “Top Secret. Ex.. No. 1” dated 1942, in which Vsevolod Merkulov reports to Joseph Stalin about the work to destroy the traitor general A. Vlasov. So, Vlasov was hunted by more than 42 reconnaissance and sabotage groups with a total number of 1,600 people. Do you believe that in 1942 such a powerful organization as SMERSH could not “get” one general, even if he was well guarded. I don't believe. The conclusion is more than simple: Stalin, knowing full well the strength of the German intelligence services, tried his best to convince the Germans of the general’s betrayal.
But the Germans turned out to be not so simple. Hitler never accepted Vlasov. But Andrei Vlasov suited the anti-Hitler opposition. It is now unknown what prevented Stalin from completing the job, either the situation at the front, or a too late and, moreover, unsuccessful attempt on the Fuhrer’s life. And Stalin had to choose between destroying Vlasov or kidnapping him. Apparently, they settled on the latter. But... This is the most Russian “but”. The whole point is that at the time of the general’s “transition” to the Germans, there were already three intelligence services operating in the USSR: the NKGB, SMERSH and the GRU of the General Staff of the Red Army. And these organizations competed fiercely with each other (remember this). And Vlasov, apparently, worked for the GRU. How else can one explain the fact that the general was brought to the Second Shock by Lavrentiy Beria and Kliment Voroshilov. Interesting, isn't it? Is every general “delivered” to the army by the first people of the country?
Further, the investigation of Vlasov was carried out by SMERSH and did not allow anyone into this case. Even the trial was held behind closed doors, although logically, the trial of a traitor should be public and open. And you need to see photographs of Vlasov in court - eyes expecting something, as if asking, “Well, it’s a long time, stop clowning.” But Vlasov did not know about the quarrel between the special services. And he was executed... People present claim that the general behaved with dignity.
The scandal began the day after the execution, when Joseph Stalin saw the latest newspapers. It turns out that SMERSH had to ask for written permission for the execution from the Military Prosecutor's Office and the GRU. He asked, and they answered him - “The execution will be postponed until further notice.” This letter remains in the archives to this day.
But Abakumov “did not see the answer.” For which he paid. When Viktor Abakumov was arrested on Stalin's personal orders, it is said that Stalin visited him in prison and reminded him of General Vlasov. However, these are just rumors...
By the way... according to some sources, Andrei Vlasov’s operational pseudonym in the GRU was the nickname “Raven”. It is known that the GRU, when appropriating pseudo, was always distinguished by allegory. And who knows, maybe
the operative who led Vlasov, and who was shot in the mid-1940s, knew that “Raven,” like the raven bird, would live another hundred and twenty years.
Why don't they tell the truth about Vlasov? The situation is “a la Kafka”. It is not beneficial for the current Russian authorities for two reasons - there are still a lot of living veterans who went through the war and are intoxicated by propaganda. This is in the sense of another scandal. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. In the event of the official rehabilitation of “traitor general” Vlasov, the Russian Federation, according to current legislation, will be forced to pay multi-billion dollar compensation to the still living soldiers of General Vlasov’s army who served their time in the camps. And it is also unprofitable for the West to admit its short-sightedness and “purchase” by the Soviet intelligence services. cause? The amount of money pumped into the NTS and other “anti-Soviet” organizations. There are no words... Just swear words...
By the way, in the indictment against Andrei Vlasov there is no article incriminating “Treason of the Motherland.” Only terrorism and counter-revolutionary activities. And the main evidence at the trial were leaflets and a film about the Prague Manifesto... The most interesting thing is that when mass rehabilitation of those in prisons and camps began after the war, the “Vlasovites” were the first to be pardoned. And then the policemen and other “traitors to the Motherland”...
He earned a reputation as the “savior of Moscow” and one of those commanders whom Stalin highly rated. He was even allowed to give comments to foreign journalists, which demonstrated confidence in the general. However, everything went smoothly only up to a certain point: in June 1942, the 2nd Shock Army, commanded by Vlasov, was surrounded. The general refused to leave his soldiers in the lurch and did not board the plane sent to evacuate him.
Vlasov is among the commanders who particularly distinguished themselves in the battle of Moscow. Newspaper "Izvestia"
After this, Vlasov hid from the enemy for several weeks, but was soon extradited. Events developed as follows: Vlasov, together with the cook Voronova, knocked on the house of the headman of the Old Believer village of Tukhovezhi, into which they wandered in the hope of finding food. The headman offered them lunch, and without wasting any time, he contacted the local auxiliary police. The next day a German patrol arrived in the village. No matter how Vlasov tried to convince everyone that he was a simple teacher, nothing came of it. They compared his face with a newspaper photograph and came to the conclusion that the prisoner was very valuable. The headman was generously rewarded: he became the happy owner of a cow, several packs of shag, a couple of bottles of vodka and even, what was especially pleasant, a certificate of honor.
On July 14, Vlasov was escorted to the headquarters of the 18th German Army. Many historians believe that during interrogation he introduced his opponents to the battle plans of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, and also told everything he knew about the military industry, arms supplies and much more.
Vlasov among German officers
The next place where Vlasov was taken was the Vinnitsa military camp, where captured senior officers were kept. There he accepted an offer to cooperate with the Third Reich and became the head of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) and the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). They included Soviet soldiers captured by the Germans.
It is unknown whether Vlasov wore a German uniform. Having examined the surviving photographs, we can conclude that the only element of Nazi symbols present on Vlasov’s clothes was the ROA cockade. However, there is evidence that the Germans did not forget to celebrate the services of the former Soviet general to the Third Reich. For example, in 1943 he was awarded the rank of Colonel General.
Vlasov’s name appeared on leaflets printed in German printing houses. The main idea of these agitations was that it was necessary to rebel against Stalin, his subordinates and the state regime of the USSR as a whole. These leaflets fell into the hands of both prisoners of war and Soviet soldiers - the Nazis dropped them in batches from airplanes. One of the most famous propaganda pieces, allegedly written on behalf of Vlasov, was called “Why I took the path of fighting Bolshevism.”
Vlasov and ROA officers during the sentencing
In April 1945, Vlasov found himself in a precarious position. It was obvious that the Soviet government would not spare the traitor general. However, Vlasov refused the asylum that Franco planned to provide him: he again did not want to leave his soldiers. On May 12, Vlasov was again captured - this time by Soviet soldiers. The decision to execute the general was made only a year later, in July 1946. On August 1, the sentence was carried out: Vlasov was hanged.
There is no “third force” in the Patriotic War
The Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) issued a statement in early September, which has already sparked fierce debate. This statement concerns issues of the history of our Fatherland, that is, all of us. Moreover, issues that are very important for national identity. And the reason for the speech was the book of Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov “Forbidden Topics in the History of the 20th Century.” Its author is the head of the department of church historical disciplines at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. He calls in his book, at a minimum, to reconsider the unambiguous attitude towards General Vlasov, as well as other famous Russian collaborators (primarily the White Cossack generals P.N. Krasnov and A.G. Shkuro), as traitors to the Motherland.
“”Was General A.A. Are Vlasov and his associates traitors to Russia?”, we answer – no, not at all. Everything that they undertook was done specifically for the Fatherland, in the hope that the defeat of Bolshevism would lead to the re-creation 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 with armed force any kind of colonization or dismemberment of our Motherland.”
Attempts to rehabilitate collaborators have been going on for several years now. As recently as January last year, one of the Don Cossack societies, led by the “Don Ataman” and State Duma deputy from United Russia Viktor Vodolatsky, launched an unsuccessful demarche to rehabilitate Krasnov. This year, the idea of rehabilitating Vlasov is being actively promoted. In his native village of Lomakino, in the Gaginsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region, they are going to open a Vlasov museum. And here is the statement of the ROCOR.
For people who are well acquainted with the mood in the ROCOR, this statement did not come as a surprise. Indeed, during the Second World War, many hierarchs of the ROCOR collaborated with the Nazi occupation authorities. And the flock of this church has always largely consisted of anti-Soviet emigrants, including former collaborators who fled to the West after the war.
We cannot do without analyzing the historical role of the personality of General Vlasov and the very phenomenon of collaboration in the USSR. Moreover, I am not going to touch here on aspects of Vlasov’s personal life (his love affairs, etc.). This is precisely the field for church leaders to evaluate the moral character of a man who never missed an opportunity to have mistresses (including minors - during a business trip to China), an actual bigamist (with a living and undivorced wife in the USSR, Vlasov got married in Germany in 1944 ). Our subject is a political portrait of the commander of the ROA (“Russian Liberation Army”). Let's try to draw it without the intention of putting some kind of stigma in advance.
At the beginning of 1942, there were probably few Soviet military leaders who were as favored by the attention of the Supreme Commander, who made such an impressive career during the six months of war as Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. From corps commander to deputy front commander - it was not easy in those difficult months when Soviet troops suffered defeats more often than they achieved success. What is this luck? For the time being, luck smiled on the general - in the fall of 1941 he emerged unharmed from encirclement near Kiev. Having been appointed commander of the 20th Army on the outskirts of Moscow, he spent the most difficult period of the defensive battle in the hospital and actually took command of the army when it was already advancing.
But there is no doubt that he also possessed military leadership abilities. In any case, not below the average level of the then Red Army generals. Otherwise, it is unlikely that Headquarters would have pushed him so hard.
Obviously, Vlasov also had the strong grip of a careerist. He took every opportunity to advance to a prominent role. He couldn't stand being a statist.
This character trait will subsequently not allow him to be content with the role of a simple captive general. He considered himself capable of influencing the course of historical events, skillfully applying them to his benefit.
Thus, before the war, Vlasov did not arouse any suspicion in terms of political loyalty to the top of the CPSU (b). His origins - from middle peasants - were impeccable in class. True, her studies at the theological seminary were a little spoiled, but in the end, Stalin himself also studied at the seminary. And both did not finish it: Stalin began preparing the revolution, and the teenager Vlasov was captured by the revolution taking place. In 1930, he joined the party and kept his party card even in captivity. In 1937-1938 took an active part in the political “cleansing” of the ranks of the Red Army.
In his “open letter” “Why did I take the path of fighting Bolshevism?”, written in March 1943 and distributed in the form of a leaflet, Vlasov stated: “From 1938 to 1939 I was in China as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek. When I returned to the USSR, it turned out that during this time the senior command staff of the Red Army was destroyed without any reason by order of Stalin.” Here the truth is only the first sentence. The rest is a lie. Firstly, repressions against the command staff of the Red Army began in 1937. And at this time Vlasov was in the USSR. Moreover, before his business trip as an adviser to the Chinese leader, Vlasov was a member of the military tribunal of the Kyiv Military District. Historians testify: in the cases in which he took part, there is not a single acquittal pronounced on his initiative. The closed orientation characterized him in front of “responsible comrades in the authorities” in the most positive way: “He works a lot on the issue of eliminating the remnants of sabotage.”
It was not evasion, but the most active participation in repressions against command personnel that allowed Vlasov to receive such a prestigious appointment in 1938 - a military adviser to China.
From there he returned with the Order of the Golden Dragon, granted to him by the Chinese Generalissimo, and with three suitcases of all sorts of goods. In captivity, according to his apologist V. Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt (author of the famous book about Vlasov “Against Hitler and Stalin”), he often recalled with resentment that these three suitcases were confiscated from him by customs, and he could not openly receive the Chinese order in the USSR wear. Here we clearly see the motive of a petty resentment of an extremely vain person, who is also an outright money-grubber.
Did Vlasov even then formulate all those claims against the Soviet system that he later set out in his programs of the ROA and KONR (“Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia”)? Was his appearance as a communist, selflessly devoted to the cause of Lenin-Stalin, a mask under which an ideological enemy was hidden? Or did he criticize the “Stalinist regime” in captivity only in order to ingratiate himself with his German patrons? I'm leaning towards the second option. After all, if Vlasov was a convinced anti-Stalinist at the very beginning of the war, this would certainly have manifested itself in something. And he had opportunities for treason even before the summer of 1942. But, as we will see, he did not think about surrendering until the last moment. And he had to come up with a legend on the fly. Obviously, neither before nor after he had any definite beliefs. Or rather, he had one conviction - he, Vlasov, a life-lover and a woman-lover, under all circumstances should not only live, but also live well. Even in captivity.
Upon returning from China, Vlasov was sent to inspect the 99th Infantry Division. Vlasov discovered shortcomings in her training, the most significant of which was that... her boss was “studying the tactics of Wehrmacht combat operations.” The division commander was arrested, and Vlasov was appointed in his place.
In the summer of 1940, Vlasov received his first general rank, and in the winter of 1940/41 he was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps. This corps took part in the famous tank battle of the first week of the war near Brody in Western Ukraine. Despite the huge losses that the corps suffered, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended the strategically important Kiev fortified area.
We must pay tribute to the troops led by Vlasov - the Germans did not manage to take Kyiv on the move.
In mid-September 1941, the Southwestern Front, and with it the 37th Army, found itself surrounded. Several hundred thousand Soviet soldiers and officers then died or were captured, the front commander M.P. Kirponos shot himself, and Vlasov wandered around for a long time, but finally reached the location of the Soviet troops. If he had previously harbored some anti-Stalinist plans, he probably would have already tried to bring them to life - the situation allowed.
In those difficult months, the NKVD had not yet engaged in super-rigid checking of those who had escaped the encirclement (he would begin it later - from the beginning of the counter-offensive near Moscow) - every soldier, and even more so the general, was dear to the front. Vlasov soon receives an appointment to lead the 20th Army, which was concentrating north-west of Moscow for a future counter-offensive. But, due to illness, he was able to actually take command only in mid-December 1941.
In the aforementioned “open letter” he spoke about this period: “I did everything in my power to defend the capital of the country. The 20th Army stopped the attack on Moscow and then went on the offensive itself. She broke through the front of the German army, took Solnechnogorsk, Volokolamsk, Shakhovskaya, Sereda, ensured the transition to the offensive along the entire Moscow section of the front, and approached Gzhatsk.”
In fact, during the defensive battle near Moscow, Vlasov was recovering from an inflammation of the middle ear received during a month and a half of wandering around Ukraine after the defeat of the Southwestern Front. He arrived at the army command post on December 19, 1941. Under the leadership of Vlasov, the 20th Army successfully continued the offensive for some time.
Vlasov became one of the heroes of the battle for Moscow, glorified throughout the country.
His portraits were published in newspapers. On February 6, 1942, Andrei Vlasov was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and received a 70-minute audience with Stalin.
Vlasov outlined his impressions of his first meeting with the Supreme Commander in letters to his wife and mistress in approximately the same terms:
“...You won’t believe it, dear Anya! [wife] What joy I have in my life! I talked with our greatest Master. This was the first time in my life that I had such an honor. You can’t imagine how worried I was and how inspired I came away from it. You probably won’t even believe that such a great man has enough time even for our personal affairs. So believe me, he asked me where my wife was and how she lived..”
“Dear and sweet Alichka! [mistress from the South-Western Front, with whom he left the encirclement] ...The biggest and most important Master called me to him. Imagine, he talked with me for a whole hour and a half. You can imagine how lucky I was... And now I don’t know how I can justify the trust that HE places in me..."
One must think that Vlasov is quite sincere here in his delight at meeting the leader. Why did he have to pretend?! Although he clearly took into account the possibility of perlusration, he actually had reasons for joy.
My career was going well. Our troops drove the enemy back from Moscow, and 1942 promised to be a turning point in the war. In any case, this is what the Supreme Commander himself said, who promised on the anniversary of the Red Army, February 23, 1942, that by the end of the year the enemy would be expelled from the borders of the Soviet country. And on the eve of this day, Vlasov was awarded the Order of Lenin!
Perhaps Vlasov, at the head of the army, or even the front, would have reached Berlin, and would have remained in history as one of the famous military leaders of the Soviet Union, if not for the fatal appointment to Leningrad.
But then it was perceived as another promotion, as another opportunity to win an impressive victory. On March 8, 1942, Lieutenant General Vlasov was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.
This front was given decisive importance in the defeat of the German Army Group North. The 2nd Shock Army of the Front in January 1942 crossed the Volkhov between Chudovo and Novgorod and advanced almost to Lyuban, creating a bridgehead that threatened the rear of the enemy group near Leningrad. However, then our advance stalled. The flank armies failed to support the 2nd strike. Probably the best solution would have been to withdraw this army to its original lines in advance, but Headquarters still hoped for a resumption of the offensive. To “strengthen” the front command staff, Vlasov and another “group of comrades” were sent there.
However, the coming spring did not bring relief to our troops on the Chudovsko-Luban bridgehead. The Germans managed to extremely narrow and then cut the corridor connecting the 2nd Shock Army with the main forces of the front. The army began to be supplied by air, which was not an easy task under the dominance of German aviation.
April 20 A.A. Vlasov, deputy front commander K.A. Meretskov, was appointed part-time commander of the 2nd Shock Army instead of the seriously ill N.K. Klykova. Going to the bridgehead, Vlasov probably hoped to rescue the army from a difficult situation and thus earn another triumph. However, there is another version of this purpose. Vlasov’s apologists believe that a conflict of ambitions arose between Meretskov and Vlasov, and the front commander decided to get rid of Vlasov by sending him to the encircled army and then not giving it any help. What speaks against this version is that Meretskov’s inaction, if it were real, would not have passed the attention of the Supreme Commander, and if so, it would not have gone unpunished. But Vlasov himself, having found himself surrounded for the second time during the war along with an entire army, could believe that he was deliberately “framed.”
There was something to despair about: instead of the expected triumphal march to Berlin, awards and honors as the most successful Soviet general (and maybe even a marshal?), he had to hide from the Germans. According to some reports, when it became clear that the army could no longer remain surrounded, a plane was sent for Vlasov from the “mainland”. But the army commander categorically refused to fly, allegedly saying: “What kind of commander leaves his army?” This legend seems plausible. If Vlasov had already decided to surrender, he would have carried out this intention without delay. But he wandered through the forests for almost three weeks (together with his new “front-line girlfriend”), and only gave up when he was betrayed by the head of the village where Vlasov hid in a barn.
Obviously, the decision to surrender was made spontaneously by Vlasov, when he realized that he was caught and the alternative to captivity was only death. But I didn’t want to die – that’s humanly understandable. At this moment (if not even earlier), a whole wave of frustration could rise in Vlasov at his own unfortunate fate and at the leadership that sent one of its best military leaders to face shame. Mixed in here are the memories of the autumn of 1941, when I had already experienced the death of the army and the escape from encirclement. In a word, the man broke down (he even said at the trial that he was “faint-hearted”).
But, having broken down once, he then tried with all his might to convince himself and others that this was a conscious, and ideological choice.
I didn’t want to be just a captured Soviet general or go to a hungry, lice-infested concentration camp. In addition, it was necessary to somehow compensate for the lost vain hopes. The winner was unable to enter Berlin. So... we must enter Moscow as a winner!
In the elite layers of the Third Reich, opposition to the methods of warfare by the Nazi leadership had long been developing. This opposition was fragmented, pursued different goals, and there were several groups in it. Some groups considered it necessary to use the potential of the anti-Bolshevik sentiments of part of the Soviet people in the interests of victory for Germany. As the defeat of the Soviet Union became an increasingly vague prospect, these sentiments took hold of an increasing number of people involved in the development and implementation of policy in the occupied eastern territories.
Back in 1941, groups of people close to the leadership of the OKH (High Command of the German Ground Forces) and the commands of army groups in the East tried to create something like “national liberation committees” calling on the peoples of the USSR to turn their arms against the “Stalinist regime.” There were no committees in reality, the whole idea was purely propaganda, but it was disavowed by the Nazi leadership. Hitler wanted the victory over Soviet Russia to be won exclusively by the Germans, without any, even fictitious, political role for the Russians.
But these groups of people did not give up their attempts. Their connection with the future organizers and participants in the conspiracy against Hitler on July 20, 1944 is noteworthy. They wanted, as is known, to conclude peace with the Western powers and war to a victorious end against the USSR. The “Liberation Army,” composed of Russian defectors, could be useful in this case. But in order to lead such an army, a Soviet general with a big, famous name was needed. And just then Vlasov turned up.
It is not clear how soon Vlasov realized that he was drawn into a complex internal political game of “influence groups” in the leadership of the Third Reich, being only a pawn in it.
But thanks to his remarkable intelligence and natural peasant instinct, he immediately sensed that the Germans were interested in him. And I decided to take advantage of this. He understood exactly what words what exactly Germans expected from him. And he tried to make the most of the situation for himself. He began to create a noble aura of “savior of the Fatherland”, “fighter against the regime”. The Germans, interested in playing the “Russian card” for their showdowns, began to play along with him.
It is not so important whether Vlasov was sincere when, in conversations with the Germans who patronized him, he spoke about his desire to save the Russian people from “Stalin’s tyranny” and at the same time prevent them from being enslaved by Hitler. As a military man, he was obliged to understand (and he did understand, of course) that there could be no “third force” in that war. Having moved to another front line and accepting the help of the Hitler regime, he could not possibly be against it. He could think whatever he wanted, but a person is judged for his actions.
And his words were not distinguished by their principles. The Synod of the ROCOR calls on us to see a patriot in Vlasov, assures that “everything that they [the Vlasovites] did was done specifically for the Fatherland, in the hope that the defeat of Bolshevism would lead to the re-creation of a powerful national Russia... The “Vlasovites” were ready, the need to resist by armed force any colonization or dismemberment of our Motherland.” And here is what the representative of the then German Foreign Ministry G. Hilger writes about his conversation in August 1942 with Vlasov and two other Soviet captured Soviet officers who expressed their readiness to cooperate with the Reich:
“...I directly told the Soviet officers that... it was not in Germany’s interests to promote the restoration of independent Russian statehood on the basis of Great Russian aspirations. Soviet officers objected that various other solutions were possible between an independent Russian state and a colony, such as dominion, protectorate, or aided state status with its temporary or permanent German occupation.”
And this, according to some, is “powerful national Russia”: a protectorate of Germany, and even forever occupied by the Wehrmacht?!
Even if we make allowances for what we now call realpolitik, such statements are undisguised servility. No one pulled their tongue - they spoke out themselves. They could have looked for softer expressions, especially since this conversation did not oblige them to anything. And the word is not a sparrow. And even if we imagine that the Nazi leadership would have relied on the ROA, changed its eastern policy and won the war (though it is not clear how), then the fate of Russia in an alliance with such a Germany would have been precisely that - a puppet state, a protectorate of the Reich. And this, in the opinion of the ROCOR, was “done for the Fatherland”?!
Sometimes you can hear that Vlasov’s model of behavior was the only one possible for a person of such convictions (if, of course, what he expressed while in captivity was his sincere conviction, and not a reaction to the situation). But was Vlasov the only one who saw the shortcomings of the Stalinist model of socialism? And many other Soviet military leaders who were captured and critically assessed the Stalinist regime, but, nevertheless, did not cooperate with Vlasov, no matter how much he begged them?!
Here, for example, is General Mikhail Lukin, the former commander of the 19th Army, who was captured near Vyazma in October 1941, losing an arm and a leg. The already mentioned Strik-Strikfeldt reports about Vlasov’s conversation with him:
“...He asked Vlasov:
You, Vlasov, are you officially recognized by Hitler? And have you been given guarantees that Hitler will recognize and respect the historical borders of Russia?
Vlasov had to give a negative answer.
You see! - said Lukin, - without such guarantees I cannot cooperate with you. From my experience in German captivity, I do not believe that the Germans have the slightest desire to free the Russian people. I don't believe they will change their policy. And from here, Vlasov, any cooperation with the Germans will serve the benefit of Germany, and not our homeland.”
Exactly what was said. Let me remind you that these words are conveyed by Vlasov’s apologist. Most likely, in reality this conversation took place much more harshly. It is known that General Ponedelin, who was sentenced to death in absentia in the USSR (and was still shot in 1950) and knew about this, spat in Vlasov’s face in response to an offer to cooperate. And Lukin, even after the war, was marooned for several months in prison, but still was not convicted.
Having agreed to use his name in Wehrmacht propaganda campaigns, but having no real power or influence behind him, Vlasov became a double traitor, deceiving the exhausted Soviet prisoners of war who believed this propaganda.
Many of them, perhaps, joined the ROA even for ideological reasons. But once there, they became simply Wehrmacht soldiers, forced to shoot at their compatriots.
Having found himself in captivity for the second time - now in Soviet captivity - Vlasov did not lose his inherent optimism in life. He hoped that at the trial he would be credited with “saving military personnel from hunger and humiliation... They will remember this merit of mine.” He was probably extremely surprised that this didn’t happen.
In order to dot all the i's, it is appropriate to offer the following analogy. After the war, the leaders of the collaborationist regime were tried in France. Its nominal head, Marshal Petain, was sentenced to death, replaced by the then provisional president of the Fourth Republic, General de Gaulle, due to the old age of the convicted person, with life imprisonment. The actual head of the Vichy regime, Laval, was shot.
At the same time, Petain was one of the authors of the “miracle on the Marne” in 1914, the man who saved Paris. And in 1940, many considered him to have saved the Fatherland again - this time from the horrors of war. It didn't help. Just as Laval was not credited for his “merits” in reducing the quotas of French workers forcibly taken to work in Germany and sent from France to Jewish concentration camps.
Decades have passed. The scale of collaboration in France was many times higher than in our country. There are no fewer descendants of the Vichyists in France than there are descendants of Resistance fighters. However, it is imperceptible that anyone tried to start a campaign to rehabilitate “the fighters against the rotten and corrupt regime of the Third Republic - Petain and Laval.” The nation has already assessed their treasonous activities - in the form of a death sentence, and does not intend to return to this anymore.
And we should learn this.
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