What the Germans did not like the traitor Vlasov

History 25/01/20 what the Germans did not like the traitor Vlasov

Voluntarily surrendered on 12 July 1942 in German captivity the commander of the 2nd Shock army Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov, he organized and headed, as you know, the collaborationist “Russian liberation army*” (ROA*). To participate in the formation of the Third Reich has attracted up to 130 thousand Soviet prisoners of war. In addition, Vlasov also made numerous political statements aimed at expansion of cooperation with the enemy among the population of the occupied territories, and he turned to the soldiers of the red Army.

Attempt to hide the fact of captivity

Although the Germans immediately announced the capture of the famous Soviet military leader (Vlasov was one of the acknowledged heroes of the battle of Moscow) in the Soviet Union this fact long recognized publicly and officially Vlasov had been missing. 27 December 1942 Vlasov was in Smolensk, with the Declaration of the “Russian Committee”, which urged the Soviet people to rise up against Stalin and the Anglo-American imperialists, for peace and Alliance with Germany.

But after that in the red Army and among the civilian population of the USSR for a long time spread the rumour that the Germans only use the name Vlasov, the General is actually dead. And although on 24 February 1943 took place a closed meeting of the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court, which Vlasov for treason in absentia sentenced to the death penalty, the verdict remained secret and were not disclosed.

on March 3, 1943, Vlasov made an appeal “Why I took the path of struggle against Bolshevism”. In April-may 1943, he travelled to German-occupied part of the Leningrad region (now Pskov region and part of Leningrad), where he held a series of public performances. Information about this was actively soaked through the front line. Then to hide the fact of collaboration with the enemy Vlasov became impossible.

Belated fame

Paradoxically, the fact: a propaganda trip to the Leningrad region have led to the fact that the Nazi leadership for a few months is absolutely jammed Vlasov and ceased to support it. The fact that the speech of General-defector did not correspond to the types of Nazi occupation policy. Vlasov has dared something there to speak of a “free Russia”, about the German-Russian Union. But the purpose of the German policy in the East had nothing to do with the order to grant Russian some freedom. In place of Communist tyranny had to come to the colonial regime, in which Russian was given the role of the white natives for the new masters. Vlasov and actions in this policy does not fit all.

Only towards the end of the war, when the Nazis began to cling to every straw, Vlasova again pulled out of mothballs. In addition to the permission to create the POA as a full-fledged combat formation, he was allowed to act with political statements. The most vociferous was the establishment in Prague in November 1944, the “Committee for the liberation of peoples of Russia” (ACPD).

the Committee declared democratic goals, which he allegedly intended to achieve in Alliance with the German troops, overthrowing the Stalinist regime. But by this time the Germans had lost all the occupied Soviet territory. The war has moved to the Central Europe.

Vlasov was too late to attract many

of Course, a betrayal on the part of such well-known figures as General Vlasov (in the battle of Moscow he was awarded a second order of the red banner, his portraits were printed in the Soviet press, he even spoke to Western journalists) – is fraught with great moral damage to the army and the country. Were you able to avoid it? Let’s see how it happened.

About the betrayal of Vlasov and his “ideological” move to enemy of the Soviet people began to learn only in the winter of 1942/43 the city had already started a radical change in the course of the war, the Germans were surrounded by (and soon destroyed) under Stalegrado, the fortune of war clearly shifted in our direction. In these circumstances, the news that the famous Soviet military leader “embarked on the road of struggle against Bolshevism”, made the Red Army, and the impression which it would produce if performed in mid-summer 1942, when the German troops rapidly advancing to the Volga and the Caucasus.

Political speeches Vlasov in the occupied territories were soon forbidden by the Germans. Broadcast Declaration of ACPD had no one to encourage the collaboration due to the lack of in 1944 the occupied territories.

Helped or hindered the Germans Vlasov?

In captivity, Vlasov became the organizer of the largest collaborationist formations. Note, however, that, firstly, at the time of creation it could not exert any influence on the course of the fighting. Second, in addition to Vlasov in German captivity there were many Soviet military commanders of high rank.

Wilfried Shtrik-of Strikfeldt, curator of the ROA from the Abwehr, wrote that “the idea is to attract some of the Soviet General as an ally in the struggle against Stalin was born in OKH”, that is, in the main command of the land forces. Of the captured Soviet generals Vlasov for this role is suited best. But it would not be his – he would find someone else.

it is Unlikely that Vlasov had a very great prestige for the Soviet POWs, most of whom were taken before the battle for Moscow. Consequently, the predominant motive of their entry into ROA was certainly not trust personally to General Vlasov. In addition, we note that ROA did not play a strategic role.

The same Shtrik-of Strikfeldt, Vlasov’s biographer, wrote that after the distribution of leaflets by the Germans with the “Smolensk Declaration” on the front significantly increased the number of deserters from the red army. But keep in mind that his book is not so much an impartial chronicle of how the apology, turning into a Eulogy. And the defectors are and always will be.

Political speeches Vlasov delayAli formation by the Germans of the POA. And no wonder some are now even developing a version that Vlasov, in fact, carried out the secret instructions of Stalin to disrupt German plans for the establishment of the collaborationist army.

*- an organization banned in Russia

Yaroslav Butakov

Source:
© Russian Seven

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