O. Kashirin
V. Fedyushkin
ARREST OF GENERAL VLASOV
HOW IT REALLY REALLY
A lot of articles and books have been written about the fate of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). But it’s strange: we never read anywhere how we arrested the commander of the ROA, the traitor number one, General Andrei Vlasov. It is only known that he “suffered fair retribution,” that is, he was ultimately shot.
Even in the memoirs of G.K. Zhukov “Memoirs and Reflections” it is only said that Andrei Vlasov was captured by a special detachment under the command of Captain M.I. Yakushev (right: Yakushov). And in publications on this subject, the question remained open. In them, the story of the capture of Vlasov was called "semi-mysterious and still unsolved."
We present documents from the archive of the Tula Directorate of the FSB, allowing us to tell you how it all happened.
"Secretly
REFERENCE
The commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union KONEV and members of the Military Council of the Front KRAINYUKOV and PETERS
No. 13857 / sh dated 05/15/45 informed the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal of the Soviet Union, Comrade Stalin, the following circumstances of the capture of the traitor Motherland Vlasov.
12.5. s / g commander of a motorized rifle battalion 162t.br. 25 since Captain Yakushov Mikhail Ivanovich received an order from the commander of the brigade, Colonel Mishchenko, to detain part of the Vlasov division of General Bunyachenko, who, according to intelligence, were in the Katovitsa area, 40 km. Southeast Pilsen and sought to reach the location of American troops.
Performing this task, Captain Yakushov attracted the commander of the Vlasov b-Kuchinsky Pyotr Nikolaevich to his side. Kuchinsky indicated where Bunyachenko’s headquarters were located and warned that Vlasov was there.
Together with Kuchinsky, captain Yakushov overtook Bunyachenko’s headquarters, put a car across the road, delayed the movement of this headquarters and quickly found a car in which Vlasov was covered with a blanket.
Vlasov resisted and tried to get out of the car, but with the help of his driver Ilya Nikitovich Komzolov, he was put into the car. On it, Vlasov was taken out of the common column.
The main and direct executor of the capture of Vlasov was the commander of the battalion 162 vol. 25 since captain Yakushov.
According to the commander, 162 tons of br. And the commander of 25 t. K. was assisted by the operative officer of the Smersh department of 162 t. Br. senior lieutenant Ignashkin Ilya Petrovich and head of the Smersh department 162 vol. Major Vinogradov Pakhom Timofeevich.
All work on the elimination and capture of the Vlasovites was carried out under the personal supervision of the commander of 162 tons of Br. Colonel Mishchenko. General Guidelines for the Elimination of Vlasovites at an Location of 25 Vol. carried out by the commander of 25 tons K. Major General Fominyh.
Of the Vlasovites, the capture of Vlasov was especially actively promoted by captain Kuchinsky and helped by the driver Kuchinsky - Alexander Dovgas, the driver of the car Vlasov Komzolov. Komzolov and Dovgas are located in 25 tons of K., and Kuchinsky, together with a convoy of surrendered Vlasovites, from the location of 25 tons of K., departed and his location is being specified.
Comrade Konev asks to reward:
1. Yakushov Mikhail Ivanovich.
2. Senior Lieutenant Ignashkin Ilya Petrovich.
4. Colonel Mishchenko Ivan Petrovich.
5. Major General of the tank forces Fominykh E.I.
Utekhin 17.5.45 g. "
NOTE:
Konev did not ask Konevsky, his driver A. Dovgas, and the driver of the car Vlasov I. Komzolov for rewarding the Vlasovites who participated in the seizure, offering to limit themselves to forgiveness for crimes committed against their homeland. But Moscow decided differently.
"ORDER OF THE PRESIDIUM
Supreme Council of the USSR
ABOUT AWARDING ORDERS
GENERALS, OFFICERS
AND ORDER OF HAPPINESS
RED ARMY
For the successful completion of the special task of the front command to award:
THE ORDER OF SUVOROV 11 DEGREES
2. Senior Lieutenant Ignashkin Ilya Petrovich.
3.Colonel Mishchenko Ivan Petrovich.
4. Major General of the tank troops Fomins Evgeny Ivanovich
5.Kapitan Yakushov Mikhail Ivanovich.
ORDER OF DOMESTIC WAR 1 DEGREE
Captain Kuchinsky Pyotr Nikolaevich.
ORDER OF DOMESTIC WAR 11 DEGREES
1. Dovgas Alexander Stepanovich.
2. Komzolov Ilya Nikitovich.
Chairman of the Bureau
Supreme Council of the USSR
M.KALININ
Secretary of the Bureau
Supreme Council of the USSR
A. GORKIN
Interrogation Protocol
I, the senior investigator of the Smersh counterintelligence department of the 12th spare rifle division, captain Miroshnichenko, interrogated me as a witness
Kuchinsky Pyotr Nikolaevich, born in 1904, native of the village of Dolgoe, Starobinsky district, Minsk region, Russian, citizen of the USSR, former candidate member of the CPSU (b), by social origin from peasant farm laborers, secondary education, in 1932 we were convicted under Art. 180 a UKBSSR, Military Tribunal 4 pp. Corps to 2 years in prison, released early. It is in the service of 40zsp. 12 12 app. Page divisions - camp Alkino BASSR.
1. About responsibility for giving false testimony under article 95 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR warned.
Question:Tell us, when and under what circumstances did you detain the traitor to the Motherland, the former General of the Red Army of Vlasov?
Answer:Former General of the Red Army, traitor to the Motherland Vlasov Andrei Andreevich with my direct participation was detained in the following circumstances. For a long time I served in the so-called “Russian Liberation Army”, formed by Vlasov with the help of the German military command, from among the former soldiers of the Red Army who were captured by the Germans and who changed the homeland. This ROA, commanded by the Germans as a traitor to the Soviet Army Vlasov, was intended and led, together with German troops, an armed struggle against the Red Army. As part of the ROA, I was in the service of the first (600) of its Russian division as the commander of the battalion of the 3rd rifle regiment, and had the rank of captain.
Shortly before the surrender of Germany, the former ROA commander of the ROA, having convened the entire command staff of the first (600) Russian division, where I was also present, announced to all of us that he was not going to go over to the Red Army units and was negotiating with his headquarters with the American command army on the transfer to the side of the last of all parts of the ROA. On May 10, 1945, the first (600) Russian division went over to the side of the American army, concentrated in Rosenthal (in the Czech Republic) and disarmed, and on May 11, 1945, when orders came from Vlasov, to go deep into the territory occupied by American troops, began to go on the march.
As a result of disorder and unplanned retreat, a traffic jam was created on the highway where we concentrated and parts of the first (600) Russian division could not advance anywhere by appointment (by order) and stood on the spot, on the highway until the morning of May 12, 1945. By this time, representatives of the Soviet units arrived at the place where the division was concentrated and began to offer us, the commanders of the ROA, to transfer our units and units of the Red Army. I met then with the commander of a battalion of machine gunners 162 t. Br. (representative of the Soviet units) captain Yakushev and talked about it, ordered his battalion to follow the Red Army, and he himself and Yakushev began to transfer to the side of the Soviet troops other units of his regiment of the first (600) Russian division of the ROA.
When we did this, and the units of the ROA division for the most part began to move towards the Red Army, and Captain Yakushev and I arrived at the headquarters of 162 vol. report on the work done. At that time, who met me by chance there, the counterintelligence major Vinogradov, since I was wearing the clothes of a German officer, drew attention to me and, after finding out who I was, gave me the task of finding the first, commander, and delivering him the commander (600 ) Russian division of the ROA. At the same time, he was Major Vinogradov, asked me to try to find out the whereabouts of the commander of the ROA Vlasov. I agreed with this, together with Captain Yakushev, in a car to fulfill the task of Major Vinogradov, I drove into the territory occupied by American troops.
At one of the forks of the road, we were detained by American tank soldiers who were there with a car (tank) and were not allowed further into the territory of their troops. While we were explaining them in broken German, at this time an American wedge heeled past us, deep into the American troops, and then passenger cars, among which I recognized the vehicle of the commander of the first (600) ROA division.
Seeing this, I sat down to drive my car and, contrary to [protests] of the American tank soldiers, did not let us go deeper into the territory of my troops, together with Captain Yakushev went to catch up with the American tankette. Having caught up with her and jumping out in front, I turned my car around and put it across the road, as a result of which the traffic was blocked, the wedge heel and the cars that followed it were stopped.
Looking at these cars, Yakushev and I found in them all the command of the first (600) ROA division and in one of the cars of the closed (disguised) blankets and raincoat tents, the commander of the ROA Vlasov, in the same car with which was also his first adjutant captain Antonov .
In the beginning, we promoted all the indicated persons from the vehicles, and then, having finished viewing all the vehicles, put them back and, turning around, began to follow the composition of all seven vehicles to the side of the Red Army troops. Yakushev rode in the head of the convoy in the same car with Vlasov and his adjutant, and I rode the commander of the first (600) division, closing in my car, after the car.
COPY
“To the Chairman of the Council of Ministers
and to the Minister of the Armed Forces of the USSR -
Comrade Stalin I.V.
captain Kuchinsky Pyotr Nikolaevich,
located in the 7th branch of Podolsky
inspection and filtration camp No. 174,
Moscow, Stromynka house number 10
Petition.
... I am Kuchinsky P.N. In the Red Army he was in the following positions: platoon commander, assistant company commander, adjutant of the senior battalion, assistant chief of staff of the regiment, head of 4 divisions headquarters and commander of a separate battalion. Since the beginning of World War II (June 1941), he was appointed commander of 53 Dep. Supply station service battalion southwest. Front with a place of deployment in Kiev ...
Further, Kuchinsky talked about participating in the defense of Kiev, wandering in encirclement, captivity, the reasons for joining RO A and serving in its ranks in France, Belgium, Holland, in the city of Münsingen (Germany), where ...he was appointed adjutant of the battalion commander and stayed in this position until I crossed to the Red Army. During the presence of the ROA on the fronts, both against the Red Army and against the allied forces, did not participate.
After the operation to transfer the ROA forces of the 1st Division to the side of the Red Army and after the detention of Vlasov, I remained until May 14, 45, at the location of 162 vol.
May 14-45, in the morning, I was issued a certificate by the commander of 162 vol. Colonel T. Tishchenko Ivan Petrovich in that, with my direct participation, the troops of the 1st division of the ROA were transferred to the Red Army and that, with my direct participation, Lieutenant General A. Vlasov was detained. With this certificate, on May 14, I he went to the location of the ROA units that sided with the Red Army and was detained along the way by counterintelligence of the 2nd Ukrainian Front and taken to the Smersh counterintelligence operational group of the Ukrainian Front.
On May 25–45, he was summoned from prison to the office of the head of counterintelligence of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Lieutenant General T. Korolev, who in a four-hour conversation reported his autobiography, service in the Red Army, being held captive, service in the ROA and details of the transfer units of the ROA on the side of the Red Army and the detention of Vlasov A.A. at the end of the conversation, by order of Lieutenant General Comrade Korolev, he was dressed in the form of the Red Army and placed in a private apartment. On June 2–45, he was again summoned to the office of the head of counterintelligence of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Lieutenant General T. Korolev, who informed me that, by order of Moscow, they would not judge me for the operation to detain A. Vlasov. and for the transfer of units of the 1st division of the ROA to the side of the Red Army - they will be awarded the government order.
By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from June 19 to 45, I am among the generals and officers of the Red Army for the successful conduct of a special command assignment (for the operation to detain AA Vlasov and for transferring the units of the 1st ROA division to the side Red Army) was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree. (The decree was published in the newspaper Pravda from June 20 to 45)
December 27 -45, at 4-00 a.m. I was called to the counterintelligence department of 12 app. page division and together with the operational officer "Smersh" 12 app. page of the division by senior lieutenant T. Romanov was sent to Moscow along with my investigative material.
Based on the foregoing, I ask:
1. Your instructions on speeding up the parsing of my case and announcing to me the results of the decision.
2. I consider myself guilty of fear of starvation in captivity, violated the oath, and in a Bolshevik way, bravely did not die in captivity, as he did not endure all the hardships and deprivations of the hungry captivity, that he had not fulfilled the dream of switching to the Red Army earlier .
I ask you to make out my question according to all the rules of existing laws to give me the opportunity to free, honest, conscientious and long-term with all my skills and abilities - to atone for my guilt before the Motherland. I will work where I will be useful and where I will be indicated. My investigative material is in the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "Smersh" with Colonel General T. Abakumov.
(Spelling and stylistics of scripts preserved)
ABBREVIATIONS:
battalion
t.br. - tank brigade
because - tank corps
zsp. - spare rifle regiment
zsd. - spare rifle division
For many years, the details of the operation to capture Vlasov were sealed with the stamp "secret." The state could not disclose the fact that Vlasov was discovered and detained by the Vlasovites.
It so happened that the decree was seen in the newspaper by the son of Kuchinsky. For four years the family considered him dead, Kuchinsky’s wife married again ...
In Moscow, Kuchinsky was not allowed to live and was actually sent to soft link to the Tula region. There he lived and worked until the end of his days.
Numerous archival materials contain stories about the hunting of security agencies on Vlasov. Judging by these documents, after the capture of Vlasov, Kuchinsky was used as an identifier to identify the command staff of the 600th division, official officers and agents of intelligence and intelligence services. It is possible that at some stage of this work he came under suspicion and was sent to filter in the general manner. The lifelong soft link to Tula was most likely due to his knowledge of SMERSH.
According to the State Awards Service of the President of the Russian Federation, neither Kuchinsky, nor Dovgas, nor Komzolov have ever lost their awards.
Our country is traitor - Andrei Vlasov. It would seem that the negative image of this historical figure is completely unambiguous. But Andrei Vlasov still meets different assessments, even from domestic historians and public figures. Someone is trying to imagine him not even a traitor to the homeland, but a fighter against Bolshevism and "Stalinist totalitarianism." For this reason, the fact that Andrei Vlasov created an army that fought on the side of the most fierce opponent of our country, who staged genocide against the peoples of the USSR and destroyed millions of ordinary Soviet people, is not taken into account.
In just four years, Andrei Vlasov has gone from one of the most promising and respected Soviet generals to the gallows - the "number one traitor" of the Soviet Union. Arriving at the age of 18, during the Civil War, in the Red Army, Andrey Vlasov from the age of 21 held staff and command posts. At 39, he was already a major general, commanded the 99th Rifle Division. Under his command, the division became the best in the Kiev military district, Vlasov himself received the Order of the Red Banner. By the beginning of World War II, Vlasov commanded the 4th mechanized corps stationed near Lviv. Then Joseph Stalin personally called him and ordered him to form the 20th Army, which further operated under the command of Vlasov. Vlasov’s fighters were especially distinguished in the battles near Moscow, after which they even wrote the book “Stalin's Commander” on Vlasov on a special assignment from the Red Army Political Administration. March 8, 1942, Lieutenant General Vlasov was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, and a little later, retaining this position, became commander of the 2nd shock army. Thus, in the first year of the war, Andrei Vlasov was considered one of the most capable Soviet military leaders, taking advantage of the personal location of Joseph Stalin. Who knows, if Vlasov was not surrounded, maybe he would have risen to the rank of Marshal and would have become a hero, not a traitor.
But, having been captured, Vlasov in the end agreed to cooperate with Nazi Germany. For the Nazis, this was a great achievement - to entice the whole lieutenant general, the army commander, and even one of the most capable Soviet military commanders, the recent "Stalin commander", who enjoyed the favor of the Soviet leader. December 27, 1942 Vlasov invited the Nazi command to organize the "Russian Liberation Army" from among former Soviet prisoners of war who agreed to go over to the side of Nazi Germany, as well as other elements dissatisfied with the Soviet regime. For the political leadership of the ROA, a Committee was set up to liberate the peoples of Russia. Not only high-ranking defectors from the Red Army, who sided with Hitler Germany after the capture, but also many white emigrants, including Major General Andrei Shkuro, Ataman Peter Krasnov, General Anton Turkul and many others, were invited to work in KONR. In fact, it was KONR that became the main coordinating body of the traitors who sided with Nazi Germany and the nationalists who joined them, who were in Germany and other European countries before the war.
The closest ally and chief of staff of Vlasov was the former Soviet Major General Fedor Trukhin - another traitor, before the capture of the former deputy chief of staff of the North-Western Front, and after the capture agreed to cooperate with the German authorities. By April 22, 1945, the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia included a whole motley conglomerate of formations and units, including infantry divisions, Cossack corps, and even their own air forces.
The defeat of Nazi Germany put the former Soviet Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov and his supporters in a very difficult position. As a traitor, all the more so of such a rank, Vlasov could not count on indulgence from the Soviet government and understood this perfectly. Nevertheless, for some reason he several times refused the options of refuge offered to him. 
One of the first refuge Vlasov was offered by the Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco. Franco's proposal came at the end of April 1945, when a few days remained before the defeat of Germany. Caudillo was going to send a special plane for Vlasov, which would deliver him to the Iberian Peninsula. Although Spain did not take an active part (with the exception of sending volunteers from the Blue Division) in World War II, Franco was positive about Vlasov because he saw him as an ally in the anti-communist struggle. It is possible that if Vlasov had accepted Franco’s offer then, he would have safely lived in Spain to a very old age - Franko hid many Nazi war criminals, and much more bloody than Vlasov. But the commander of the ROA refused the Spanish asylum, as he did not want to leave his subordinates to the mercy of fate.
The next proposal came from the opposite side. After the victory over Germany, Andrei Vlasov found himself in the occupation zone of American troops. On May 12, 1945, Captain Donahue, who was the commandant of the zone where Vlasov was located, invited the former ROA commander to secretly go deep into the American zone. He was ready to provide Vlasov with refuge in American territory, but Vlasov also refused this offer. He wanted refuge not only for himself, but for all the soldiers and officers of the ROA, which the American command was about to ask for.
On the same day, May 12, 1945, Vlasov headed deeper into the American zone of occupation, intending to meet with the American command at the headquarters of the 3rd US Army in Pilsen. However, along the way, the car in which Vlasov was located was stopped by servicemen of the 25th Panzer Corps of the 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The former ROA commander was detained. As it turned out, the former ROA captain P. Kuchinsky informed the Soviet officers about the possible whereabouts of the commander. Andrey Vlasov was delivered to the headquarters of the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Ivan Konev. From the headquarters of Konev Vlasov was transported to Moscow.
As for Vlasov’s closest associates on the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and the command of the Russian Liberation Army, the generals Zhilenkov, Malyshkin, Bunyachenko and Maltsev were able to get to the American occupation zone. However, this did not help them. The Americans safely extradited the Vlasov generals to Soviet counterintelligence, after which they were all also transferred to Moscow. After the arrest of Vlasov and his closest assistants, KONR was headed by Major General of the ROA Mikhail Meandrov, also a former Soviet officer, a colonel who was captured when he was deputy chief of staff of the 6th Army. However, Meander did not for long manage to walk free. He was interned in an American prisoner of war camp and stayed there for a long time until February 14, 1946, almost a year after the end of the war, was surrendered by the American command to the Soviet authorities. Upon learning that he was going to be extradited to the Soviet Union, Meander tried to commit suicide, but the guards of a senior prisoner managed to stop this attempt. Meandrov was transferred to Moscow, to Lubyanka, where he joined the rest of the accused in the case of Andrei Vlasov. Vladimir Baersky, also a general of the ROA and deputy chief of staff of the ROA, who, along with Vlasov, stood at the origins of the Russian Liberation Army, was even less fortunate. On May 5, 1945, he tried to drive to Prague, but on the way, in the city of Pribram, he was captured by Czech partisans. The commander of the Czech partisan detachment was a Soviet officer, captain Smirnov. The detained Baersky began to curse with Smirnov and managed to slap the commander of the partisan detachment. After this, the Vlasov general was immediately seized and hanged without trial.
All this time, the media did not report the detention of “traitor number one”. The investigation of the Vlasov case was of tremendous national importance. In the hands of the Soviet government was a man who was not just a general who sided with the Nazis after captivity, but led the anti-Soviet struggle and tried to fill it with ideological content.
After arriving in Moscow, he was personally interrogated by the head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence SMERSH, Colonel General Viktor Abakumov. Immediately after the first interrogation by Abakumov, Andrei Vlasov was placed as a secret prisoner with number 31 in an internal prison in Lubyanka. The main interrogations of the traitor general began on May 16, 1945. Vlasov was "put on the conveyor", that is, they were interrogated continuously. Only the investigators who interrogated and the guards guarding Vlasov changed. After ten days of conveyor interrogation, Andrei Vlasov fully admitted his guilt. But the investigation into his case lasted another 8 months.
Only in December 1945 the investigation was completed, and on January 4, 1946, Colonel-General Abakumov informed Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin that the top leaders of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia Andrei Vlasov and his other associates were being detained in the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence “SMERSH”. Abakumov suggested that all those detained for treason be sentenced to death by hanging. Of course, the fate of Vlasov and his closest associates was a foregone conclusion, and yet the verdict to the former Soviet general was discussed in great detail. This is the question of how the Stalinist justice was accomplished. Even in this case, the decision was made far from immediately and not solely by any higher person in the structure of the state security organs or the military tribunal.
Another seven months passed after Abakumov reported to Stalin about the completion of the investigation in the case of Andrei Vlasov and the top leadership of KONR. On July 23, 1946, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided that the leaders of the KONR Vlasov, Zhilenkov, Malyshkin, Trukhin and a number of other associates would be tried by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR at a closed trial chaired by Colonel-General of Justice Ulrich without participation parties, i.e. attorney and prosecutor. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) gave the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR an order to sentence them to death by hanging, and to execute the sentence in prison. It was decided not to cover the details of the trial in the Soviet press, but after the end of the process to report the verdict of the court and its enforcement.
The trial of the Vlasovites was launched on July 30, 1946. The meeting lasted two days, and immediately before the sentencing of Vlasov and his associates, members of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR consulted for seven hours. The sentence to Andrei Vlasov was passed on August 1, 1946. Messages about the sentence and its enforcement appeared in the central newspapers of the Soviet Union the next day, August 2, 1946. Andrei Vlasov and all other accused pleaded guilty to the charges against them, after which, in accordance with paragraph 1 of the Decree of the USSR PVS of April 19, 1943, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced the accused to death by hanging, the sentence was carried out. The bodies of the hanged Vlasovites were cremated in a special crematorium, after which the ashes were poured into an unnamed moat near the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow. Thus ended his life a man who called himself Chairman of the Presidium of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Liberation Army.
Many decades after the execution of Vlasov and his assistants, some part of the Russian right-wing conservative circles began to hear voices about the need to rehabilitate the general. He was proclaimed a fighter against "Bolshevism, atheism and totalitarianism", which allegedly did not betray Russia, but simply had its own view of its future fate. It was a question of the "tragedy" of General Vlasov and his supporters.
However, do not forget that Vlasov and the structures he created until the last fought on the side of Nazi Germany - the terrible enemy of our state. Attempts to justify the behavior of General Vlasov are very dangerous. And the matter is not so much in the personality of the general himself, maybe it can be called tragic, but in the deeper consequences of such an excuse for betrayal. Firstly, attempts to justify Vlasov are another step on the road to revising the outcome of World War II. Secondly, Vlasov’s justification breaks the value system of society, since he claims that treason can be justified by some lofty ideas. Such an excuse can be found for all traitors in this case, including for ordinary policemen who took part in the robbery and terror of the civilian population, in the genocide of the Soviet people.
General Vlasov at the beginning of World War II was on a par with the best commanders of the Red Army. General Vlasov distinguished himself in the Battle of Moscow in the fall of 1941. By the middle of the summer of 1942, when Vlasov surrendered to the Germans, a large number of soldiers and officers of the Red Army were captured by the Germans. A large number of the population of Ukraine, Russia, the Baltic states and the Cossack formations of the Don Cossacks sided with the Germans. After Vlasov was interrogated by German field marshal Theodore von Bock, the Russian Liberation Army, or ROA, began its life. Andrey Vlasov, together with like-minded people (naturally with the Germans), wanted to start a new civil war on the territory of the USSR.
Meanwhile, the general was one of Joseph Stalin's favorites. Vlasov first distinguished himself in the Battle of Moscow, when the Red Army at the approaches to the capital created a layered defense, and then repulsed the Germans with counterattacks.
General Andrey Vlasov
On December 31, 1941, a photograph of General Andrei Vlasov was placed on the front page of the Izvestia newspaper, along with other military leaders (Zhukov, Voroshilov, etc.). The very next year, Vlasov was awarded the order, and later he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Joseph Stalin instructs Soviet writers to write a book about General Vlasov, "Stalin's Commander." After this advance by Stalin, Vlasov became very popular in the country. He is sent greeting cards and letters from all over the country. Vlasov often gets into the camera lens.
General Andrey Vlasov
Andrei Vlasov was drafted into the armed forces of the Red Army in 1920. In 1936, Vlasov was awarded the rank of major. The following year, the rapid growth of Andrei Vlasov's career began. In 1937 and 1938, Vlasov served in the military tribunal of the Kiev military district. He was a member of the military tribunal and signed the death sentences.
Vlasov’s excellent career was the result of the mass repressions that Stalin carried out in the Red Army in command in the mid-30s. Against the background of these events in the country, the career of many military men was very rapid. Vlasov was no exception. At 40, he became a lieutenant general.
According to many historians, General Andrei Vlasov was an excellent and strong-willed commander, at the same time he was a diplomat and was well versed in people. Vlasov gave the impression of a strong and demanding personality in the Red Army. Thanks to the good qualities of the commander, Joseph Stalin was loyal to Vlasov, and always tried to move him up the career ladder.
General Andrey Vlasov
When the Great Patriotic War began, she found Vlasov when he served in the Kiev Military District. He with many commanders and fighters of the Red Army retreated east. In September 1941, Vlasov left the encirclement in the Kiev boiler. Vlasov left the encirclement for two months, and he did not retreat with the soldiers of the Red Army, but with a female military doctor. In those days of the heavy retreat of the Red Army, General Vlasov sought to break through to his own as quickly as possible. Dressing in civilian clothes with a military doctor in one of the settlements, Andrei Vlasov left the encirclement in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Kursk by the beginning of November 1941. After leaving the environment, Vlasov fell ill and was placed in a hospital. Unlike other officers and soldiers of the Red Army who left the encirclement, Vlasov was not interrogated. He still enjoyed Stalin's loyalty. Joseph Stalin remarked on this subject: "Why bother a sick general."
General Andrey Vlasov
With the beginning of the winter of 1941, the German units of Guderian rapidly advanced to the capital of the USSR. The Red Army in echelon defense hardly confronts the Germans. The critical situation for the Soviet Union is about to begin. At that time, the defense of Moscow in the “Battle for Moscow” was commanded by Georgy Zhukov. To perform a combat mission, Zhukov specifically selected, in his opinion, the best commanders. At the time when these events took place, General Vlasov was in the hospital. Vlasov, like other commanders, was appointed to the lists of commanders in the battle for Moscow without his knowledge. Developed an operation to counter-attack the Red Army near Moscow, General Sandalov. The counterattack operation of the Red Army, when Vlasov arrived at headquarters, was fully developed and approved. Therefore, Andrei Vlasov did not take part in it. On December 5, 1941, the 20th strike army inflicted a counterattack on the Germans, which drove them away from Moscow. Many people mistakenly believe that General Andrey Vlasov commanded this army. But Vlasov returned to headquarters only on December 19. Only two days later he took command of the army. Incidentally, Zhukov repeatedly expressed his displeasure, due to the passive command of the army Vlasov. After that, the Red Army successfully counterattacked the Germans and Vlasov was promoted. But Vlasov made almost no effort to implement these events.
General Andrey Vlasov
Many historians seriously argue that Vlasov, even before the outbreak of war with Germany, was an ardent anti-Stalinist. Despite this, in February 1942 he attended a meeting with Joseph Stalin and was very impressed by his strong personality. Vlasov was always in good standing with Stalin. Vlasov’s army has always fought successfully. Already in April 1942, Lt. Gen. Andrei Vlasov, Stalin was appointed commander of the 2nd shock army.
General Andrey Vlasov
On April 19, 1942, Vlasov first appeared before the 2nd shock army with a speech: “I will start with discipline and order. No one will leave my army, simply because he wanted to leave. The people of my army will leave either with orders to increase or to be shot .... Regarding the latter, of course I joked ”
General Andrey Vlasov
At that moment, this army was surrounded and urgently needed to do something to withdraw it from the boiler. The army was cut off by the Germans in the Novgorod swamps. The situation of the army became critical: there was not enough ammunition and food. Meanwhile, the Germans systematically and calmly destroyed the surrounded army of Vlasov. Vlasov asked for support and help. In the beginning of the summer of 1942, the Germans blocked the only road (it was also called the "Road of Life"), along which food and ammunition of the 2nd shock army were provided. On the same road, Red Army fighters left the encirclement. Vlasov gave his last order: to break through to everyone on their own. Together with the breakout group, Lieutenant General Vlasov headed north in the hope of breaking out of the encirclement. During the retreat, Vlasov lost his temper and was completely indifferent to the events. Many of the surrounded officers of the 2nd shock army shot themselves while trying to capture them by the Germans. Systematically, soldiers from the 2nd shock army of Vlasov left the encirclement in their small groups. The 2nd shock army consisted of several hundred thousand soldiers, of which no more than 8 thousand people were saved. The rest were killed or captured.
General Andrey Vlasov
Against the background of the encirclement of the 2nd shock army, the anti-Soviet sentiments of General Vlasov escalated. July 13, 1942 Vlasov voluntarily surrendered. Early in the morning a German patrol passed through the village. Locals told the Germans that they were hiding the Russian military. The German patrol captured Vlasov and his companion. This happened in the village of Tukhovezh, Leningrad Region. Before surrendering, Vlasov spoke with local residents who had contact with Russian partisans. One of the inhabitants of this village wanted to surrender Vlasov to the Germans, but did not manage to do this. According to local residents, Vlasov had the opportunity to go to the partisans, and then return to his own. But for unknown reasons he did not.
General Andrey Vlasov
On July 13, a secret note was brought to the NKVD headquarters, which mentioned that the commanders of the 2nd shock army Vlasov, Vinogradov and Afanasyev had reached the partisans and were safe with them. On July 16, they found out that a mistake had been made in the message and Vlasov was not with the surviving commanders. And the commander of Vinogradov did not leave the encirclement. In search of Vlasov and other commanders, on behalf of Stalin, sabotage troops were sent to the rear of the Germans. Almost all search groups died.
General Andrey Vlasov
Vlasov decided to surrender to the enemy for many reasons. Firstly, he suggested that the Soviet Union was not able to destroy the German army, against the background of the events that took place on the Volkhov front in Myasniy Bor. He decided that it would be better for him that he would surrender to the Germans. Vlasov planned that after the defeat of the Soviets, he would become the head of the leadership of the conquered country.
General Vlasov was transported to Germany, to Berlin. In one of the houses on the outskirts of Berlin was the headquarters of Vlasov. The Germans needed such a figure from the Red Army. Vlasov was offered to become the head of the army in liberation from Bolshevism in Russia. Vlasov begins to travel to concentration camps in which Soviet soldiers are imprisoned. He begins to create the backbone of the ROA (Russian Liberation Army) from captured Russian officers and soldiers. But not many join this army. Later, in the occupied city of Pskov, a parade of several ROA battalions takes place, at which Vlasov hosts a parade. At this parade, Andrei Vlasov claims that there are already half a million soldiers in the ranks of the ROA who will soon be fighting against the Bolsheviks. But in reality this army did not exist.
Throughout the entire existence of the ROA, German officers, and Hitler himself, disdained and distrusted this formation.
General Andrey Vlasov
After the defeat of the Wehrmacht at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, General Vlasov decides to act actively and decides to invite the Germans to lead the five hundred thousandth army of Russian prisoners of war who will take up arms and stand against the USSR. After a meeting of Hitler with the top command of the Wehrmacht, it was decided not to create a combat-ready Russian army of the ROA. Hitler categorically forbade the formation of military units from Russian volunteers, due to distrust of them.
After Vlasov refused to create his army, he was taken under house arrest. During idleness, Vlasov in his residence often indulged in drinking and other entertainment. But at the same time, with the leaders of the ROA, Vlasov was planning an action plan for various events. Understanding that nothing can be expected from the Germans in terms of helping create an army, the leaders of the ROA planned to take refuge in the Alps and hold out there until the allies arrived. And then surrender to them captive. That at that time was their only hope. Moreover, Vlasov has already made contact with MI-6 (British military intelligence). Vlasov believed that going over to the side of England, he and his army would be at war with the USSR when England, going to Europe, began a war with Russia. But the British did not begin to negotiate with Vlasov, considering him a war criminal who acts contrary to the interests of the Allies.
In the summer of 1944, Andrei Vlasov marries the widow of the murdered SS man Adele Billinberg. Thus, he wanted to get the Germans loyalty to themselves. Moreover, he wanted this act to go to Himmler, who in the summer of 1944 received Vlasov. Hoping for the help of the Vlasov formations, Himmler allows the creation of the Vlasov Army. As a result, General Vlasov succeeds: the first division of the ROA is formed under his leadership. Immediately begins the preparation of sabotage units to overthrow power in Russia. It was planned to commit terrorist acts in Moscow against the Soviet government. Vlasov also wanted to create clandestine organizations in large Russian cities in order to counter Soviet power.
General Andrey Vlasov
After the creation of his army, General Vlasov moved to the Czech Republic. In November 1944, the first congress of the Committee of the Liberation Peoples of Russia took place in Prague. The Germans, and Vlasov himself, seriously planned that if he won the war, Vlasov would become the head of the government governing Russia.
But events unfold in a different way. The Red Army moves west and systematically destroys the scattered German army. Soviet troops approach the borders of Czechoslovakia. Vlasov understood that the only chance for his salvation was to surrender to the Americans.
From the Editor:
Every year on May 9, our country celebrates Victory Day and pays tribute to the valiant defenders of the Fatherland - the living and the dead. But it turns out, far from everyone who should be remembered with a kind word, we remember and know. The lies of totalitarian ideology have been creating myths for many years. Myths that became true for several generations of Soviet people. But sooner or later the truth becomes known. People, as a rule, are in no hurry to part with myths. It’s more convenient and familiar ... Here is one of the stories about how a national hero, a favorite of power "became a traitor." This story happened with the fighting Lieutenant General of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov.
Who are you, General Vlasov?
So, the fall of 1941. The Germans are attacking Kiev. However, they cannot take the city. The defense has been greatly strengthened. And it is headed by forty-year-old Major General of the Red Army, the commander of the 37th Army Andrei Vlasov. The personality in the army is legendary. Traveled all the way - from private to general. He passed a civil war, graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary, and studied at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Friend of Michael Blucher. Before the war, Andrei Vlasov, then still a colonel, was sent to China by military advisers to Chiang Kai-shek. He received the award of the Golden Dragon Order and a gold watch, which aroused the envy of the general general of the Red Army. However, Vlasov did not rejoice for long. Upon returning home, at the Alma-Ata customs, the order itself, as well as other generous gifts of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, were seized by the NKVD ...
Returning home, Vlasov quickly received general stars and appointment to the 99th infantry division, famous for its backwardness. A year later, in 1941, the division was recognized as the best in the Red Army and the first among the units was awarded the Order of the Battle Red Banner. Immediately after this, on the orders of the People's Commissar of Defense, Vlasov took command of one of the four created fur corps. Headed by a general, was stationed in Lviv and practically one of the very first of the Red Army units entered the fighting. Even Soviet historians were forced to admit that the Germans “first got their faces”, namely from the mechanized corps of General Vlasov.
However, the forces were unequal, and the Red Army retreated to Kiev. It was here that Joseph Stalin, shocked by the courage and ability of Vlasov to fight, ordered the general to assemble the retreating units in Kiev, form the 37th army and defend Kiev.
So, Kiev, September-August 1941. There are fierce battles near Kiev. German troops suffer enormous losses. In Kiev ... trams run.
Nevertheless, the notorious Georgy Zhukov insists on the surrender of Kiev to the attacking Germans. After a short internal “disassembly”, Joseph Stalin gives the order: “Leave Kiev.” It is not known why this order was received by Vlasov’s headquarters last. The story is silent about this. However, according to some as yet unconfirmed reports, this was revenge on the obstinate general. Revenge is none other than Army General Georgy Zhukov. Indeed, more recently, a few weeks ago, Zhukov, inspecting the positions of the 37th army, came to Vlasov and wanted to stay overnight. Vlasov, knowing the nature of Zhukov, decided to joke and offered Zhukov the best dugout, warning of night shelling. According to eyewitnesses, the army general changed after these words in person and hastened to retire from positions. It’s clear, the officers who were present at the same time said who was willing to turn their heads ... On the night of September 19, almost undestructed Kiev was abandoned by the Soviet troops.
Later, we all learned that 600,000 military personnel got into the “Kiev Cauldron” by Zhukov’s efforts. The only one who with minimal losses led his army out of the encirclement was “Andrei Vlasov, who did not receive an order to leave.”
Vlasov, who had been leaving the Kiev encirclement for almost a month, caught a cold and was hospitalized with a diagnosis of middle ear inflammation. However, after a telephone conversation with Stalin, the general immediately left for Moscow. The role of General Vlasov in protecting the capital is described in the article “Failure of the German plan to encircle and capture Moscow” in the newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda, Izvestia, and Pravda of December 13, 1941. Moreover, the general’s troops are called the “savior of Moscow”. And in the "Reference to Commander of the Army Comrade Vlasova A. A. ”, dated 24.2.1942 and signed by the deputy. Head human resources department of the NPO of the Human Resources Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Zhukov and We read by the sector of the Human Resources Department of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Frolov: “In his work as commander of a regiment from 1937 to 1938 and in his work as commander of an infantry division from 1939 to 1941, Vlasov is certified to be fully developed, well trained in operational tactical terms. commander. "
(Military History Journal, 1993, N. 3, pp. 9-10.). This has never happened in the history of the Red Army: possessing only 15 tanks, General Vlasov stopped the army of Walter Model in the Moscow suburb of Solnechegorsk and drove off the Germans, who were already preparing for the parade on Moscow Red Square 100 kilometers away, freeing three cities ... from which to get the nickname "Savior of Moscow." After the battle of Moscow, the general was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.
What remains of the Sovinformburo reports?
And everything would be simply magnificent if, after a completely mediocre operational policy of the Headquarters and the General Staff, Leningrad would end up in a ring akin to Stalingrad. And the Second Shock Army, sent to the rescue of Leningrad, was hopelessly blocked in Myasniy Bor. This is where the fun begins. Stalin demanded punishment for the perpetrators of the situation. And the top military officials, sitting in the General Staff, really did not want to hand over to Stalin their drinking buddy friends who commanded the Second Shock. One of them wanted to command the front unilaterally, without any organizational capabilities. The second, no less “skilled”, wanted to take this power from him.
The third of these “friends”, who drove the Red Army soldiers of the second Shock Army in full dress under German fire, subsequently became the Marshal of the USSR and the Minister of Defense of the USSR. The fourth, who did not give a single intelligible command to the troops, imitated a nervous attack and left ... to serve in the General Staff. It was reported to Stalin that "the command of the group needs to strengthen the leadership." Then Stalin was reminded of General Vlasov, who was appointed commander of the Second Shock Army. Andrei Vlasov understood that he was flying to his doom. As a man who went through the crucible of this war near Kiev and Moscow, he knew that the army was doomed, and no miracle would save her. Even if it’s a miracle, he himself - General Andrei Vlasov, savior of Moscow.
One can only imagine that the battle general changed his mind in « Douglas », startled by the tears of the German anti-aircraft guns, and who knows, be the German anti-aircraft gunners more fortunate, and bring down this « Douglas » .
Whatever grimace history made ... And now we would not have had the heroically deceased Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. According to the existing, I emphasize, information that has not yet been confirmed, a presentation on Vlasov was lying on Stalin’s table. And the Supreme Commander even signed it ...
Official propaganda presents further events as follows: traitor general A. Vlasov voluntarily surrendered. With all the ensuing consequences ...
But few people still know that when the fate of the Second Shock became obvious, Stalin sent a plane for Vlasov. Indeed, the general was his favorite! But Andrei Andreyevich has already made his choice. And he refused to evacuate, sending the wounded on the plane. Eyewitnesses of this case say that the general threw through his teeth « Which commander is throwing his army to perdition? »
The fact that Vlasov refused to leave virtually starving due to criminal errors of the High Command of the fighters of the 2nd Shock Army and fly away, saving his life, there is evidence of eyewitnesses. And not the Germans, but the Russians, who went through the horrors of the German and then Stalinist camps and despite this, did not blame Vlasov for treason. General Vlasov with a handful of fighters decided to break through to his ...
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 in the barn, where the encirclement found refuge, burst in ... no, not the Germans. To this day, it is not known who these people really were. According to one version, these were amateur partisans. On the other - armed local residents, led by a church headman, decided to buy the Germans' location at the cost of general stars. On the same night, General Andrei Vlasov and the soldiers accompanying him were transferred to regular German troops. They say that before this the general was badly beaten. Notice your ...
One of the Krasnoarmeytsev, who accompanied Vlasov, then testified to the SMERSHAa investigators: “When we were handed over to the Germans, the technotels shot everyone without talking. The general stepped forward and said: “Do not shoot! Yageneral Vlasov. My people are unarmed! "" Here is the story of "voluntary withdrawal." By the way, from June to December 1941, 3.8 million Soviet troops fell into German captivity, in 1942 more than a million, total of about 5.2 million people will be conquered.
Apot was a concentration camp near Vinnitsa, where senior officers of interest to the Germans were held, prominent commissars and generals. A lot of the Soviet press wrote that Vlasov got scared, lost control of himself, saved his life. Documents state the opposite.
Here are excerpts from official German and personal documents that after the war ended up in SMERSH. They characterize Vlasov from the other side’s point of view. These are documentary evidence of the Nazi leaders, who can hardly be suspected of sympathizing with the Soviet general, whose efforts destroyed thousands of German soldiers near Kiev and Moscow.
So, the adviser to the German embassy in Moscow, Hilger, in the protocol of 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.).
Avot view of Goebbels general. Having met Vlasov on March 1, 1945, he wrote down in his diary: “General Vlasov is a highly intelligent and energetic Russian military leader; he made a very deep impression on me ”(Goebbels J. Recent Entries. Smolensk, 1993, p. 57).
Vlasov’s attitude towards the vrodeba is clear. Maybe the people who surrounded him were the last scumbags and idlers who were just waiting for the start of the war to cross the Germans. Annette, itut documents do not give rise to doubt.
... and the officers who joined him
The closest associates of General Vlasov were highly professional military leaders, who at different times were marked by high awards of the Soviet government for their professional activities. So, Major General V. F. Malyshkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner with the medal “XXlet of the Red Army”; Major General F. I. Trukhin - Order of the Red Banner with the medal “XXlet of the Red Army”; Zhilenkov G. N, secretary of the Rostokinsky district committee of the CPSU (B.), Moscow. - Order of the Red Banner of Labor ( Military historical Journal, 1993, N. 2, p. 9, 12.). Colonel Maltsev M.A. (ROA Major General) - Commander Air forcekONR forces, was at all times instructor pilot the legendary Valery Chkalov (“Voice of the Crimea”, 1944, N. 27. Afterword of the editors.).
Colonel A.G. Aldan (Neryanin), the Chief of Staff of the General Staff of the High Command of the Soviet Union, was highly praised for graduating from the General Staff from the Academy in 1939. The then Chief of 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 marks. It is hard to imagine that they were all cowards who had left the service of the Knights for the sake of saving their own lives. Generals F. And Trukhin, G. N. Zhilenkov, A. A. Vlasov, V. F. Malyshkin E. Zakupny during the signing ceremony of the KONR manifesto. Prague, November 14, 1944.
If Vlasov is innocent, then who?
By the way, if we are talking about documents, then we can recall one more. When General Vlasov was 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 laid on the table to Stalin, who came to the conclusion: to admit the bankruptcy of the accusations made against General Vlasov in the death of the 2nd Shock Army and in its military unpreparedness. And what kind of unpreparedness can there be if the artillery did not have ammunition even for one salvo ... A certain Viktor Abakumov led the investigation from SMERSH (remember this name). Only in 1993, decades later, did Soviet propaganda through gritted teeth report this. (Military History Journal, 1993, N. 5, pp. 31-34.).
General Vlasov- Hitler Kaput ?!
Back to Andrei Vlasov. So the military general calmed down outside the German captivity? Facts are told by a friend. It was possible, of course, to provoke the guard by automatically turning up the crap, one could raise a rebellion against the Wiemer, kill a couple of dozen guards, flee with them and ... get suddenly camps — this time Stalin's. It was possible to show unwavering beliefs and ... turn into an ice block. Vlasov did not experience any particular fear of the Germans. Once the "guards" of the concentration camp guards decided to arrange a "parade" of captive Red Army men and decided to put Vlasov at the head of the column. The general refused this honor, and several of the "organizers" of the parade were sent by the general to a deep knockout. Well, atut and camp commander Nashum arrived.
The general, who was always distinguished by originality and non-standard decisions, decided to act differently. For a whole year (!) He persuaded the Germans of their loyalty. Azatem vmart and aprele 1943 Vlasov makes two trips to the Smolensk and Pskov regions, and criticizes ... German politics in front of large audiences, makes sure that the liberation movement resonates with the public.
Nose "shameless" speech scared Nazi sends him under house arrest. The first attempt ended in complete collapse. The general was eager for battle, sometimes committing reckless actions.
The all-seeing eye of the NKVD?
Itut something happened. The Soviet intelligence came out general. Someone named Melenty Zykov appeared in his entourage, who held the position of division commissioner in the Red Army. The person is bright and ... mysterious. Generator he edited two newspapers ....
It is still not known for certain whether this man was the one whom he betrayed himself. Only a year ago, circumstances “surfaced” that could turn over all ideas about the “General Vlasov case”. Zykov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, a journalist, worked in Central Asia, then in Izvestia with Bukharin. He was married to the daughters of Lenin's comrade-in-arms, the People's Commissar of Education Andrei Bubnov, after being arrested in 37, was arrested. Shortly before, he was released (!) And called on to serve in the army of the battalion commissar (!).
Captured near Bataysk in the summer of 42, being the commissar of a rifle division, whose numbers he never named. They met SVlasov in the Vvinnytsia camp, where they contained Soviet officers especially interesting for the Wehrmacht. From there, Zykov was brought to Berlin by order of Goebbels himself.
The stars and commissioners of distinction remained unsympathetic in the tunic delivered to the administration of military propaganda Zykov. Melenty Zykov became the general’s closest adviser, although he received only the rank of captain of the WROA.
There is reason to believe that it was Zykov who was the Soviet intelligence agent. The reasons are very significant. Melenty Zykov was very actively in contact with the highest German officers, who, as it turned out, were preparing the assassination of Adolf Hitler. For this, they paid. It remains a mystery of what happened on a June day in 1944, when Rassndorf was called to the telephone in the village. Captain ROA Zykov came out from home, got into the car and ... disappeared.
According to one version, Zykov was kidnapped by the Gestapo, who uncovered an attempt on Hitler, and then shot in Sachsenhausen. A strange circumstance, Vlasov himself was not very worried about Zykov’s loss, which suggests the existence of a plan for Zykov’s transition to an illegal position, that is, returning home. In addition, in 1945-46, after the arrest of Vlasov, SMERSH was very actively looking for traces of Zykov.
Yes, so active that there was an impression of deliberate sweeping tracks. When in the mid-nineties in the FSB archives they tried to find the criminal case of Melenty Zykov of 1937, the attempt was unsuccessful. Strange, right? Indeed, all the other documents of Zykov, including the reader form in the library, and the registration card in the military archive, were in place.
General's family
Another significant circumstance indirectly confirming Vlasov’s cooperation with Soviet intelligence. Usually the relatives of the “traitors to the Motherland,” especially those 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 the given situation, everything was a waste of additional turnover. For the past decades, Nisoviet, low-Western journalists have been unable to obtain information that shed light on the fate of the family of the general. Only recently it became clear that the first wife of Vlasov, Anna Mikhailovna, who was arrested in 1942, after serving 5 years in a Nizhny Novgorod prison a few years ago, lived in the city of Balakhna. The second wife, Agnes Pavlovna, whose marriage the general concluded in 1941, lived and worked as a doctor in the Brest Regional dermatovenerologic Dispensary, Died two years ago, Asyn, who has achieved a lot of this life, lives and works in Samara.
The second son, illegitimate, lives and works in Saint Petersburg. At the same time, he denies all kinship with the general. Unogo grows up a son, very similar to a nadad ... His illegitimate daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren also live there. One outlaw, a promising officer of the Russian fleet, does not even imagine who his grandfather was. Here you have a decision after that, were General Vlasov a “traitor to the Motherland”.
Open Speech Against Stalin
Six months after the disappearance of Zykov, on November 14, 1944, Vlasov proclaims in Prague the manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Its main provisions: the overthrow of the Stalinist regime and the return to the peoples of the rights they won during the 1917 revolution, the conclusion of an honorable peace with Germany, the creation of a new free statehood in Russia, “approval national labor system ”,“ comprehensive development of international cooperation ”,“ liquidation of forced labor ”,“ liquidation of collective farms ”,“ granting the intelligentsia the right to freely create ”. Not true, the very familiar demands proclaimed by the political leaders of the past two decades.
What is the betrayal of the motherland? Of Soviet citizens in Germany, hundreds of thousands of applications for military service are received by the CONCER.
Star...
On January 28, 1945, General Vlasov assumed command of the KONR Armed Forces, which the Germans allowed at the level of three divisions, one reserve brigade, two squadrons of aviation and an officer school, about 50 thousand people in total. At that moment, these military units were still not sufficiently armed.
Lieutenant general A. Vlasov and representatives of the German command inspect one of the Russian battalions in the army group "North", May 1943. In the foreground, a Russian non-commissioned officer (deputy platoon commander) with the spogons and nets of the eastern troops, introduced in August 1942.
The war was ending. The Germans were already under-general Vlasov, they were saving their skin. On February 9 and April 14, 1945, the only Germans forced the participation of the “Vlasovites” in the battles on the Eastern Front. For the first time, several hundred Red Army soldiers cross over to Vlasov’s side. The second is fundamentally changing some views of the official of the war.
On May 6, 1945, an anti-Hitler uprising broke out in Prague ... I called upon the Czechs who rebelled, and Prague entered ... The first division of the army of General Vlasov. It enters into battle with the armed armed marshes of SSivermacht units, captures the airport, where fresh German units arrive, and frees the city. Czechs rejoice. Avesma eminent commanders of the already Soviet army are beside themselves with an outrageous outrage. Well, again this is Vlasov's upstart!
Away, strange and terrifying events began. KVlasov is visited by those who prayed for help yesterday, and will ask the general ... to leave Prague, because Russian friends are unhappy. IVlasov gives the command about waste. However, the walkers are unsaved, they were shot ... by the Czechs themselves. Incidentally, the help of uVlasov was requested by a non-group of impostors, the Aludi, who carried out the decision of the highest body of the Czechoslovak Republic.
... and the death of General Vlasov
But this is already unsafe for the general, colonel General Victor Abakumov, the head of SMERSH gave the command to Vlasov to detain. SMERShevtsy took under a peak. On May 12, 1945, the troops of General Vlasov were squeezed between the American and Soviet forces of southwestern Bohemia. The Vlasovites, who fell into the hands of the Red Army, are shot in place ... 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 was in the rear of the Soviet troops. We know already that the first one is one more, compiled on the basis of eyewitness accounts. Indeed, General Vlasov was in the very same ROA column.
Only now he was hiding on the floor in full of Willis, as claimed by Captain Yakushov, who allegedly took part in this operation. The general sat quietly in the car. The car was not the Willis at all. Moreover, this same car was of such a size that the general simply could not fit two meters tall, wrapped in a carpet ... There was no sort of lightning attack by the scouts. They (the scouts), dressed in a slender uniform, were quietly waiting on the sidelines when Vlasov’s car came to take off. When the car slowed down, the senior of the group saluted the general and invited him to leave the machine. Is that how they meet traitors?
And then the fun began. There is evidence of the military prosecutor of the tank division, which brought Andrei Vlasov. 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 ... the general uniform of the Red Army (old model), with insignia and orders. A stunned lawyer did not find anything better than asking the general to present documents. What he did, having demonstrated to the prosecutor the checkbook of the commanding staff of the Red Army, the identity card of the General of the Red Army No. 431 of February 13, 1941. and party ticket of a member of the CPSU (b) No. 2123998 - all in the name of Vlasov Andrey Andreevich ...
Moreover, the prosecutor claims that the day before Vlasov’s arrival in the division, an unthinkable number of army bosses came in and did not even think of showing any hostility or hostility to the general. Moreover, a joint dinner was organized.
On the same day, the general was transported to Moscow by transport plane. Interesting, so they meet traitors?
Further, very little is known. Vlasov is located in Lefortovo. “Prisoner No. 32” was the name of the general in prison. This prison belongs to SMERSH, inikto, even Beria and Stalin, has no right to enter there. Inevitably - Victor Abakumov knew his business well. Why then I paid, but later. The investigation lasted more than a year. Stalin, maybe non-Stalin at all, thought what to do as a sopalny general. To build a wrang national hero? It is impossible: the military general sat quietly, spoke a lot. Retired employees of the NKVD say that Andrei Vlasov bargained for a long time: repent, they say, before the people and drive. Admit the mistakes. Forgive. May be…
They say that it was then that Vlasov met again with Melenty Zykov ...
Nogeneral was consistent in all his actions, as when he didn’t put the fighters of the Second Shock to die, as when he had abandoned his ROA in Czech Republic. Lieutenant general Of the Red Army, the holder of the orders of Lenin and the Battle of the Red Banner made his last choice ...
August 2, 1946 TASS official report published in all central newspapers: August 1, 1946 lieutenant general Red Army Vlasov A.A. and 11 of his associates were hanged. Stalin until the end was cruel. After all, there is no more shameful death for officers than a gallows. Here are their surnames: 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, Zakutniy D. E, Major General of the Red Army, Annunciation I. A, Colonel of the Red Army, Meander M. A, Colonel of the USSR Air Force Maltsev M. A, Colonel of the Red Army Red Army Bunyachenko S. K, Colonel of the Red Army Red Army Zverev G. A, Major General of the Red Army Red Army Korbukov D. D. Sub-Colonel of the Red Army Red Army Shatov N. S. It is not known where the bodies of officers are buried. SMERSH was able to keep his secrets.
Excuse us, Andrey Andreyevich!
Was Andrei Vlasov a Soviet intelligence agent? There is no direct evidence for this. Moreover, there are no documents proving this. But there are facts with which it is very difficult to argue.
Chief among them is as follows. 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 Ukraine, Moldova, Crimea ....
There is even evidence that Lavrenty Beria "ventilated the situation" therefore the issue.
IVlasov was an excellent candidate to conduct these negotiations. Why? To do this, look at the pre-war career of Andrei Vlasov. There are comedicating conclusions. Back in 1937, Colonel Vlasov was appointed head of the second Division of the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District. Translating civilian language, this means that the brave Colonel Vlasov answered the whole KGB work of the district. Repression broke out. Ipolkovnik Vlasov, who received the first pseudonym “Volkov,” was ... safely sent by an adviser to the much-mentioned Chiang Kai-shek ... Further, if you read between the lines of the memoirs of participants in those events, you come to the conclusion that there was someone else working in China ... Colonel Volkov, the Soviet intelligence officer.
It was he who, in some other way, made friendship with Snemetsky diplomats, took them to restaurants, watered vodka of a fainting state, and talked for a long, long time. It’s not known, but the ordinary Russian colonel, who knows what’s going on in the country, that people were arrested only on the street, was explained to foreigners how to get into the Alexander Garden. Where is that Sorge of this by the attempts of undercover work in Japan. All the female agents of Sorge couldn’t deliver information comparable to those of Chiang Kai-shek's wife, whose Russian colonel had very close relations ... The seriousness of the work of Colonel Vlasov is evidenced by his personal translator in China, who claims that Volkov ordered him to shoot him at the slightest danger.
Another argument. I saw the document with the stamp “Top Secret. Ex.№ 1 ”dated 1942, in which Vsevolod Merkulov reports to Joseph Stalin on the work to destroy traitor general A. Vlasova. So Vlasov was hunted by more than 42 reconnaissance and sabotage groups with a total number of 1,600 people. Verify that in 1942 such a powerful organization as SMERSH could not “get” one general, even if he was well guarded. I do not believe. The conclusion is more than simple: Stalin, knowing full well the strength of the German special services, strongly convinced the Germans of the betrayal of the general.
Nonetheless simple were the Germans. Hitler Vlasov was so inappropriate. Novot of the anti-Hitler opposition Andrei Vlasov fell into the suit. Now it is not known what prevented Stalin from bringing the case to the end - only the situation is on the front, the roofing felts are too late and even the unsuccessful attempt of the nafurer. IS Stalin had to choose between the destruction of Vlasov or his abduction. Judging by everything, they stopped at the last. But ... This is the most Russian "but." The thing is that at the time of the “transition” of the general to the Germans of the USSR, there were three reconnaissance forces: the NKGB, SMERSH and the GPU of the General Staff of the Red Army. These organizations competed fiercely with each other (remember this). IVlasov, judging by everything, worked at the GRU. Otherwise, how can it be explained that the general was brought to the Second Shock by Lavrenty Beria and Kliment Voroshilov. Interesting, right?
Further, the court on Vlasov ruled SMERSH and therefore did not allow anyone to do so. Even the trial was closed, although the severance of things, the trial of the traitor should be vowel and open. It is necessary to see Vlasov’s photos in vain — something awaiting eyes, as if asking: "For a long time, end the clowning." Nonesnal Vlasov Osvara special services. They executed him ... The people present at the same time claim that the general behaved with dignity.
The scandal began the next day after the execution, when Joseph Stalin saw fresh newspapers.
It turns out that SMERSH was to seek written permission from the military prosecutor and the GPU. They asked, and answered him: "Execution postpone additional orders." This letter of the day lies in the archives.
But Abakumov "did not see the answer." Why I paid. In1946: the year at the behest of Stalin, Viktor Abakumov was arrested. They say that Stalin visited him in prison and reminded him of General Vlasov. However, these are just rumors ...
By the way, there is no article in the indictment of Andrei Vlasov that incriminates treason. Only terrorism and counter-revolutionary activities.
They captured Vlasov on May 12, 1945. Already on May 15 he was in the Lubyanka. After a short stay in boxing “for new arrivals”, Vlasov was escorted to the office of chief V. Abakumov
He stayed there for about 40 minutes. After that, the head of the internal Lubyanka prison received a written instruction: “I ask you to include the arrested No. 31 for additional food at your half of the food card”.
This very number 31 was Andrei Vlasov. As an honorary visitor, he was assigned a separate cell. All the rest went under their own surnames, were in common cells, and they were not supposed to have any additional soldering. And the food card of the highest command staff in the starving country was very non-symbolic (oranges, cervelat, chocolate and so on). Amazingly reverent attitude to the traitor of the motherland!
On August 1, 1946, the prisoner was read the death penalty by hanging. But this is not the end of Vlasov’s story.
Since the death of Vlasov is covered in the shadow of doubt. Nina Mikhailovna - a relative of the general, without knowing it herself, issued sensational news. In her opinion, Andrei Vlasov was not hanged in Lefortovo according to the verdict. Instead of her cousin, an outsider ascended the scaffold. “After the war, I went to Leningrad, where I met with the Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot Alexander Pokryshkin,” she says.
Pokryshkin was a distant relative of the husband of Aunt Vali, Andrei Vlasov’s niece. Alexander Ivanovich said that he went with his wife Alexandra to the public execution of the Vlasovites. So he claimed that instead of godfather Andrei some little peasant was executed, probably a jailer. Pokryshkin knew Vlasov well, more than once met with him. And I was sure that it was not he who was hanged. And in Lomakino no one believed in the execution of Vlasov: they say they don’t kill good people. And one collective farmer, Pyotr Vasilyevich Ryabinin, also Lomakinsky, often went to his daughter in the Far East after the war to trade in tobacco. Once, the daughter Nastya took him to a concert of amateur performances. And suddenly Ryabinin saw that he went on stage to play the accordion ... Andrei Vlasov. He shouted: "Andrey! I am Lomakinsky, I am here!" The artist turned pale, crumpled the end of the performance and ran away.
They ran to look for him behind the curtains, but did not find him. Then Ryabinin told me and Aunt Vale that he immediately recognized Andrei as soon as he played the instrument. And then he sang a song of his beloved ... It is possible that Vlasov was not executed after the war, he survived, and, moreover, died his death.
Nothing to add here. If you believe this evidence, the "execution" of Vlasov was public. How then to explain the fact that the traitor was stripped of all awards by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 16, 1990. It is possible that this was indeed a well-staged performance. Let us recall, for example, the "executed Mikhail Koltsov," who had been met at the front under a false name by people who knew him well back in 1943. Her Majesty History is very good at keeping her secrets.
The photograph survived - Vlasov in the prisoner of war camp. In a tunic with no insignia, with a hedgehog barely regrowing hair, with protruding ears. ... He stands with his hands behind his back ... He looks very peaceful, almost indistinguishable from a village teacher. But this is at first glance ... It is worth taking a closer look, and you notice bitter folds in the corners of your mouth. But folds ... All the muscles of the face, as if petrified. ... This is a terrible photograph of a man who will take weapons against the Russian people, still does not preserve the hope of salvation ...
"Until the last drop of blood I will fight against Bolshevism." These words were terrible in their consequences, all who spoke them, doomed themselves to the path to camps, prisons.
For tens of thousands of soldiers lies the responsibility of General Vlasov. But didn’t he think of them when they passed the death sentence. Could it be that these A.A.Vlasov saw these soldiers when they shifted their glasses with an awkward noose and the enkavedeshnik ripped them off the former general? Is it not for these soldiers that the former seminarian prayed when they knocked out a bench from under his feet. And immediately the brick walls jerked up, and then, as if falling down. When there were no walls around, only heavenly blue, only a cloud floating below.