Russian collaborators in World War II. Russian collaborationism during the second world war

During the Great Patriotic War, Soviet citizens were found who were on that German side — in the ranks of the Wehrmacht, SS, paramilitary and police formations. And today there are admirers of these people who betrayed their country. Many of them like to speculate about 2 million Russians who fought with the Soviet Union on the side of Germany for ideological reasons: they say that they were so hated by the damned Bolshevik commissars. It is also a question of a "second civil war." In fact, the basis of collaboration was not at all the ideological denial of Soviet power. Yes, there were many staunch opponents of the Communists, but they did not define the face of "Russian" collaboration.

Failures from the start

To begin with, the most plausible figure is 1.2 million people. The historian calls her Sergey Drobyazkowho studied the data in more detail. Among them, there were many immigrants from Central Asia, the Baltic states, the Caucasus and Ukraine. The actual number of Russians is estimated at about 400 thousand.

Almost immediately, the Russian units showed themselves to be poor helpers. Many very quickly realized their own real situation of slaves, and the wrongness, the hopelessness of their cause. Moreover, this awareness came even before Stalingrad, when the USSR stood on the edge of the abyss. In this regard, the fate of the so-called Russian National People's Army (RNNA) is very indicative. They formed this “army" at the initiative of several white emigrants Sergey Ivanov, Konstantin Kromiadi  and others, powdering their brains with Soviet prisoners of war about the new Russian state that would arise in the course of the struggle against the Bolsheviks and Jewry. The number of participants in the formation reached 4 thousand, and the Germans had certain hopes for it. The most important RNNA mission was entrusted in the spring of 1942: it was used against the Soviet units of the 4th Airborne Corps and the 1st Guards Cavalry Corps, located in the German rear in the area of \u200b\u200bVyazma and Dorogobuzh.

It was assumed that collaborators dressed in Soviet uniform would capture the lieutenant general Pavel Belov and try to persuade the Red Army to surrender. However, the opposite happened: 100 RNNA fighters switched to the Soviet side. After that, the “army” was aimed at fighting the partisans. The struggle was sluggish, and the People’s Army massively sided with those with whom they were to fight. So, only on August 6–15, 1942, 200 officers and RNNA soldiers ran to the partisans (with weapons in their hands). And in October there was a major conflict between RNNA and the German command, which set out to clearly show who is the master and who is the servant. From the very beginning of the existence of RNNA there they wore the Soviet form, but with epaulets and white-blue-red cockades. Now an order was given to change into German uniforms. In addition, the people's army should have been divided into battalions. The personnel were indignant and refused to obey, as a result, it was necessary to use the SS troops to instruct the presumptuous lackeys. Weapons from the RNNA fighters were taken, then, however, they returned, after which 300 people immediately went to the partisans. More is more: in November, another 600 people joined the ranks of defectors. In the end, the Germans' patience snapped, RNNA was disbanded, and its parts were transferred to France.

Defector's March

In April 1943, the Nazis sought to raise the morale of their assistants and immediately enrolled all Russians in the Vlasov Russian Liberation Army (ROA). Thus, they tried to impress upon them that they are something one. The Germans did this by no means from the breadth of soul, but because a mass exodus began: in the same 1943, 14 thousand people fled to the partisans.

This was already a real disintegration, and the Germans decided to remove “helpers” from the Eastern Front far from sin. Relatively reliable units were sent to France, Holland, Belgium and the Balkans, while unreliable units were simply disbanded. This dealt a rather powerful blow to the psyche of defectors who finally understood the insignificance of their real status. Many of them preferred to flee to the partisans than go west.

In this regard, the fate of the 1st Russian national SS brigade “Druzhina” is most indicative. It was created on the basis of the Combat Union of Russian Nationalists, which was headed by the Soviet colonel Vladimir Gil (taking the pseudonym Rodionov). At first, the 1st Russian national SS detachment ("Squad No. 1") arose. After unification with "Druzhina № 2", the formation became known as the 1st Russian national SS regiment. And due to the strengthening by local residents and prisoners in May 1943, the SS brigade itself was formed. At the headquarters of the brigade functioned the German headquarters, which was headed by the SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Rosner. It is clear that there was no question of any independence. The number of brigades was 3 thousand people. Specialized "combatants" in the fight against partisans.

So, the brigade took part in anti-partisan operations in the Begoml - Lepel region. There the "Russian" SS men were taught the lesson by the partisans, which had a good educational effect. Many thought about the transition, and the partisans immediately took advantage of these moods. In August 1943, Gil-Rodionov established contact with the command of the Zheleznyak partisan brigade. He and the fighters of the SS brigade were promised amnesty in the event that the "vigilantes" go over to the partisans. The proposal was readily accepted, parts of the brigade destroyed the German headquarters, and at the same time those officers who were considered unreliable. Further, the former SS men attacked the nearest German garrisons.

Almost the entire composition of the unit, which became known as the 1st anti-fascist partisan brigade, joined the partisans. Vladimir Gil  awarded the Order of the Red Star and restored to their previous rank. Freshly baked partisans showed themselves quite well in battle. So, they defeated the German garrisons in Ilya, Obodovtsy and Vileyka. In April 1944, the Nazis launched a major operation to defeat the partisans of the Polotsk-Lepel zone. The brigade was forced to break through the German blockade. During this breakthrough, Gil received serious injuries, from which he died.

Deserters Movement

The Vlasov army, however, did not want to fight either. Andrei Vlasov stubbornly tried to convince the German command that he needed more time to prepare. With difficulty I managed to force the 1st division Sergey Bunyachenko  move to the Oder front. There, on April 13, she took part in the attack of the Soviet troops, and the Vlasovites did not like such a contribution to the fight against Bolshevism. They beat them seriously, for real. Then Bunyachenko, without hesitation, led his formation to the Czech Republic to join with other Vlasov units.

Let us leave the ideological anti-communists behind the brackets and draw an obvious conclusion. For the most part, the so-called Vlasovites were more likely deserters than anti-communists. They simply did not have the will to at least somehow resist the huge military-political machine of the Third Reich. In a number of cases, the lack of will was facilitated by an insult to the Soviet regime, in which very many were really offended. However, many offended to the end resisted the Nazi invaders, not fearing either deprivation or death. So the resentment factor, not to mention ideology, did not play a decisive role.

It is curious to compare all this with the First World War. Then those who disagree with the authorities did not run back to the Germans or Austrians, did not desert. They conducted stubborn (and rather risky) revolutionary work in the tsarist army. The Bolsheviks were famous for organization and courage, advocated the overthrow of all imperialist governments, but they did not take the Germans side. The Bolsheviks have always been in favor of holding the front, and categorically against desertion. And they never supported the deserter call "Bayonet to the ground - and go and squeeze your woman."

The Bolsheviks continued to fight, fraternizing with the Germans, while not surrendering to them, campaigning for the same Germans and preparing for a decisive revolutionary assault. The resistance of the Bolsheviks was recognized by many army chiefs, for example, the commander of the Northern Front, General Vladimir Cheremisov. He was so shocked by the Bolshevik fortress that he even financed their newspaper Our Way. And not one. Many other military leaders also funded the Bolshevik press. This, by the way, to the question of where the Bolsheviks took the money from. Well, of course, here you can and should remember the Moonsund battle, during which the Bolsheviks concentrated in their hands the resistance to the Germans.

The “helpers" of the Germans are quite another matter. They showed themselves very, very weakly. Their irretrievable losses amounted to 8.5 thousand people, of which 8 thousand were missing. In fact, it was about deserters and defectors. As a result, the Germans disbanded many of these units, leaving them for fortification work. When the allies landed on the Atlantic coast, many eastern fled, others surrendered, while others even rebelled, having killed their bosses. And already at the very end of the “helpers” they tried to use to form the Russian Liberation Army.

Lokot republic: futile public relations

Current fans of collaborationism have a special pride - Lokot district, loudly called the republic. During the war, the Germans allowed the creation of a police autonomous entity in several districts of the Oryol and Kursk regions for reasons that will be discussed below. This education was headed by Bronislav Kaminsky, leader of the so-called People’s Socialist Party of Russia “Viking” (at first the burgomaster was Konstantin Voskoboinikwhom the partisans killed). You can’t say anything, a good name for the Russian nationalist party! In her manifest we read: “Our party is a national party. She remembers and appreciates the best traditions of the Russian people. She knows that the Vikings-heroes, relying on the Russian people, created the Russian state in hoary antiquity. ” It is very significant that these collaborators are building the Russian state by non-Russian Vikings, who only rely on the Russian people! By the way, the new “Vikings” -nazis at first did not allow to create a party, the go-ahead was given only in 1943. Such is "independence".

Nowadays, Lokotsky self-government regularly promotes, trying to present as an alternative to communism and Stalinism. A lot of molasses spills over what economic prosperity the local collaborators managed to achieve after the abolition of the hated collective farm system. Saying, there were plenty of land and cattle with a bird among the peasants. At the same time, it is completely incomprehensible what kind of prosperity can be discussed in the conditions of a difficult war, when the vast majority of the adult male population is placed under arms. Moreover, powerful requisites were imposed on the local population: thousands of cattle were stolen for the needs of the German “liberator” army.

RONA field commanders

Kaminsky  created the Russian Liberation People's Army (RONA), whose strength reached 20 thousand. She acted, however, not too effectively, although she was fierce against the captured partisans and those who were suspected of aiding. Here, the administrative and legal talents of Kamensky residents appeared, which compiled a special anti-partisan code of 150 articles, each of which was based on the death penalty. They served quite productively as scouts, leading German punishers to the partisans. However, the RONA also had enough defectors: in the winter of 1942-1943 alone, thousands of Kaminsky soldiers who previously destroyed the German garrisons and warehouses switched to the partisans' side.

Kaminsky and his minions controlled only part of their autonomy, whose population was 0.5 million people. “Having looked at the map, it is easy to see that under the control of Kaminsky the territories around the railway lines Bryansk-Navlya-Lgov and Bryansk-Navlya-Khutor-Mikhailovsky were given,  - the historian writes Alexander Dyukov. - It was in these areas that the so-called Southern Bryansk Partisan Territory acted ... Thus, Kaminsky was transferred territories de facto controlled by partisans ... In order to save “German blood”, the command of the 2nd Panzer Army went on to provide invaders who demonstrated their loyalty Bronislaw Kaminsky  “Militarize” the area subordinate to him and fight the partisans, naturally, under German control ” (Die Aktion Kaminsky. Trampled victory. Against lies and revisionism).

One of Kamenians, Mikheev, honestly admitted: "Only 10% of the forest belonged to us." And the general Bernhard Frame  stated: "The militants of the engineer Kaminsky cannot repel major attacks on themselves." In fact, the Nazis set up some kind of experiment on the “untimers” subordinate to them, whose main task was to protect the railway lines from partisans. The experiment failed miserably, therefore, by the way, the Germans didn’t do this anywhere else.

The end of Kaminsky was inglorious: the Germans shot him during the suppression of the Warsaw uprising.

Suicide complex

In general, if the deserters desperately wanted to live, and the stray wanted to atone, ideological anti-communists sought death with the perseverance of suicides. And here it is appropriate to recall one more “heroes” of the anti-Bolshevik struggle. “Member, and then head of the Russian Imperial Union-Order N. Sakhnovsky  fought in the Belgian Walloon legion of the SS troops under the command of a deeply religious Catholic Leon Degrell- the historian writes Vladimir Larionov. - Sakhnovsky’s battalion received weapons only in Ukraine, and, escaping from the encirclement, in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky operation of the Red Army, the battalion almost completely died in a heroic hand-to-hand combat ”(“ Knights of Holy Russia ”).

It’s just some kind of extravaganza - “died in hand-to-hand combat,” but the weapon did not give out! It is clear why the Nazis assigned the Russian “helpers” the role of slaves and cannon fodder. But how could Russian people grab such a deadly bait? It is significant that fans of collaboration are glorifying the Cossacks who went for Peter Krasnov and were ultimately surrendered to Joseph Stalin by Western democracies. (The act of extradition for some reason is called betrayal, which is ridiculous, because the Allies did not betray anyone. They just fulfilled their allied obligations, betraying to the USSR those who fought on the side of Germany, including themselves.) How it is known that many of these unfortunates committed suicide for fear of "terrible reprisal."

These horrors are pretty exaggerated, the attitude towards collaborators was often very liberal. Here is an example: on October 31, 1944, the British authorities handed over to the Soviet allies 10,000 repatriates who served in the Wehrmacht. As soon as they arrived in Murmansk, they were announced forgiveness, as well as exemption from criminal liability. The verification, however, had to pass, and collaborators spent a year in the filtration camp, which is quite logical. After that, the vast majority released, moreover, accrued seniority.

Archive data has long been discovered that exposes the lie that supposedly all or most of the prisoners were in prison. Historian Victor Zemskov  worked in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, studied the materials stored there. It turns out that by March 1, 1946, 2 427 906 repatriates were sent to their place of residence, 801 152 - to serve in the Soviet Army, 608 095 - were enlisted in the working battalions of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR. But 272,867 people (6.5%) were placed at the disposal of the NKVD of the USSR. Actually, they were sitting.

The suicide of the Cossacks is a terrible end, which shows the whole depth of despair and doom of the "Russian" collaboration.

Thousands of fighters against Bolshevism did not constitute any independent power, did not possess any subjectivity. First they went to fight for the Germans, then they rushed to seek the protection of the Anglo-Americans, hoping for their help and intercession. But among collaborators, holding the extreme right views, there were enough people who perfectly understand what Western democracies are. They knew that they were plutocracy, trying to subjugate Russia. The same Krasnov in the novel "From the Two-Headed Eagle to the Red Banner" put in the mouth of his hero Sablin the words that England was the main enemy. And now, people who fought yesterday for the anti-democrat Adolf Hitler, with some blind hope, rush into the arms of this very main enemy.

Pyotr Krasnov (third from left)

It may be objected that Krasnov and Krasnodovtsy used a ghostly, but still chance for salvation. Yes, this is so, although it is indicative that they themselves considered themselves completely dependent on some external, foreign forces. And this shows the flaw in collaboration, which was expressed in a terrible disease of the will. If these people were really confident in their righteousness, they would continue the struggle, for example, entering into an alliance with the Serbian Chetniks Dragee Mikhailovich.

In any case, one could make an attempt, because everything is better than to settle accounts with life, committing the terrible sin of suicide. However, in fact, it turned out that these people had no faith in themselves, there was only a blind hatred of Bolshevism, which was combined with a wild fear of him. And this hatred in half with fear blinded and deafened the collaborators. They were not looking for the Truth, but the Force, seeing it in the deadly Teutonic armada. They fell under the banner of foreign invaders, which means political suicide. And then many of them - quite naturally - committed a literal suicide.

Here are indicative lines from a certain diary Lydia Osipovawho passionately hated Bolshevism and wished for the arrival of the German liberators: “They bomb, but we are not afraid. Liberation bombs. And so they think and feel everything. No one is afraid of bombs ... But I decided upon the arrival of the Bolsheviks to poison myself and poison Nikolai [husband. - A. E.]  so that he does not know this. " To read all this is wild, here some absolutely terrible, infernal abysses open. And again, there is suicidality. The lack of one's own strength, hatred and fear - all this threw ideological collaborators into the spinning funnel of suicide. They are so merged with the alien Force that they dissolved in it and perished together with it.

Will disease

Now we need to recall that collaborationism also existed in countries where there were no Bolsheviks in power. I wrote very well about this Yuri Nersesov: “The population of the Third French Republic with colonies by the beginning of the war exceeded 110 million people ... At least 200 thousand French citizens fell into the German army. Another 500 thousand served in the military units of the collaborationist government of Marshal Peten, who independently fought against allies in Africa and the Middle East, and also joined German formations, forming, in particular, an infantry regiment and an artillery division in the illustrious 90th light motorized division African Corps Field Marshal Rommel. Considering the police, Gestapo and fascist militants who were hard at catching partisans and underground fighters, about 1 million are obtained, with 80 thousand dead.

The same picture will be in any other European country. From Poland, where, with 35 million pre-war populations from the territories occupied by Germany alone, 500,000 people joined the army and police, to Denmark, which, having capitulated to Germany with almost no resistance, lost only about 50,000 soldiers and prisoners to the SS troops on the Eastern Front 2.5 thousand people.

So it turns out that the proportion of collaborators in European countries, where there was neither the Gulag, nor the collective farms, is much higher than the Soviet one ”(“ The Myth of the Second Civil ”).

There were, of course, ideological people there, as, say, a Belgian SS man Leon Degrel. In the winter of 1945, he led three battalions and three separate companies of Walloon volunteers to help German cities. After the battles near Stargard, only 625 people survived. Or SS volunteer Eugene Volo, the last of those who received the Iron Cross in the Reich Chancellery. Although there were a minority, and most collaborators simply submitted to the Force, being bewitched by the power and ruthlessness of the German military-political machine. The same thing with most "Russian" collaborators. True, the disease of the will, which compels one to seek the Force (and not to be), was inherent in Hitler's ideological accomplices.

I must say that in our country this disease of will is fatally superimposed on our long-standing Westernism, inherent in very different people, and even those who are very, very far from collaboration. In the West they see the Power they are bowing to. Not the Truth, but the Force, expressed in the ruthless, overwhelming expansion and unbridled accumulation of material resources. This Force kills and enslaves the will, turning a person into an object, a vehicle of cosmic power. Ultimately, the subjects of the Force themselves become such objects. Recall that the plutocrat is a slave to his capital.

In 1941-1945, the majority of Russians fought on the side of Truth, opposing the armada of the German Force. And the minority bowed before the Force, which made him weak and doomed to defeat.

Alexander ELISEEV

Collaborationism to one degree or another accompanied all major armed conflicts in world history (it was only called otherwise), however, it was in World War II that it acquired the most mass character.

The word collaborationism appeared in 1940 and originally denoted the collaboration of the French with the Nazis, to which the head of the Vichy regime, Marshal Philippe Peten, called. During the war years, collaboration was widespread, and SS national divisions were created in all territories occupied by Germans. Of the 38 SS divisions, only 12 were manned by the Germans. Volunteer armies and national divisions were formed on all fronts of the war: from India to Denmark. There were not only separate Greek, Polish, Czech and Lithuanian formations, although representatives of these nations were represented in other German parts.

Much has been said about the causes of collaboration. This is dissatisfaction with the existing government, and mercantile interests. The first reason most often they try to justify Soviet collaborationism, since the time elapsed since the Civil War, collectivization and dispossession was very small on a historical scale.

The unity of the people, which Soviet propaganda spoke of, had not yet formed by 1941, the standard of living left much to be desired, so part of the population in the occupied territories, if they did not accept the Germans with bread and salt, had some hope with the advent of the “new government”.

If we talk about European collaborationism, then it is worth considering the artificial according to the results of the Versailles Peace, which has become the cause of nationalism among the ethnic majority of many countries.

When people talk about collaborationism today during the war years, they usually recall the Russian Liberation Army of General Vlasov, the Cossack SS divisions and the Galichina division. However, despite the undoubted similarities of these combat units, they varied significantly. The backbone of the ROA was made up of white emigrants whose nominal goal was the fight against Bolshevism, Cossack divisions fought for the "independence" promised to them and the Cossacks.

With "Galicia" the situation was very strange. According to the memoirs of Kubiyovich, the initiator of the creation of the division, Wechter, believed that "Galicia was a country in which it was necessary to renew German (Austrian) influence, which had been going on since the second half of the 18th century."

It is significant that initially Hitler was very skeptical of the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating national divisions in the occupied territories. According to the racial theory of the Third Reich, all "non-Aryans" were considered "untimers," "subhuman," and therefore, in the future, the Germans planned the areisation of the conquered peoples.

The theory that the Cossacks belong to the Ostrogoths allowed Hitler to attract a significant part of the Cossacks to their side, and therefore the idea of \u200b\u200bliberation from "" should be no less attractive to them.

Already in December 1942, the Cossack Administration of the Don, Kuban and Terek (Kozaken Leite-Stelle) was organized. The promised independence of the Cossacks implied not only special priority conditions for the Cossacks, but also their obligations to the Reich. A large food tax was levied from the Cossack territories. The idea of \u200b\u200bcreating an independent Cossack did not live long, the Third Reich abandoned it in January 1943.
  The Germans failed to incline towards cooperation. It was the Cossacks that were the core of the cavalry of the Red Army, by the end of 1941, 116 cavalry Cossack divisions fought against the Nazis.

Most of the Soviet collaborators were the so-called "Khivis" - soldiers of the auxiliary forces of the Wehrmacht. For the most part, they were recruited among captured Red Army soldiers. According to the historian Romanko, the number of “Khivis” in the Wehrmacht was 665-675 thousand people.
  On April 29, 1943, Khivi was officially allowed to wear the German uniform, but without German emblems, without buttonholes and shoulder straps. With all its numerous “Khivis,” it is impossible to unambiguously be attributed to ideological collaborators; prisoners came to help Nazi Germany for reasons of conformism.

In the occupied territories there were also formed yagdkommands (fighter or hunting teams) - “false partisans”, which were used to search and destroy real partisans.

By the end of 1943, the number of “eastern units” amounted to about 300-350 thousand people, but such a large number did not speak of quality.

Desertion, low combat readiness and frequent transitions to the side of the Red Army indicated that the Germans could only rely on collaborators with great caution.

What can I say if the “illustrious” Galichina division lasted less than two years and suffered a crushing defeat at Brody in the summer of 1944.

By and large, collaboration was the greatest deception of World War II. The inhabitants of the occupied territories went to cooperate with the Germans, hoping for a better life, however, as history has shown, all the propaganda of the Third Reich was only a tool for the functioning of the German military machine.

Now we are a little trample on the fertile field of Russophobia, densely fertilized with myths of the Second World War. It will be about Russian collaborators - those whom it was customary not to notice in the USSR. And I did not have to notice a lot of things.

For obvious reasons, it so happened that in the USSR all peoples were equal, but some peoples were more equal than others. This primarily concerned the Russians. It is enough to recall Stalin's famous toast “For the Russian people!”, Which he uttered shortly after the end of the war in Europe, in May 1945. “I am raising a toast to the health of the Russian people not only because they are the leading people ... I drink to the health of the Russian people because they are the most outstanding nation of all the nations that make up the Soviet Union,” this is from there.

Perhaps that is why they tried to talk less and quieter about Russian collaborationism. If the book, film or newspaper article referred to collaborators - one could bet that they would speak either of “Bandera” or of the Baltic “forest brothers”. Although both quantitatively and qualitatively, Russian collaborators clearly outplayed both Ukrainian, Estonian, and Lithuanian with Latvian.

According to the most primitive estimates, in the military detachments or militarized organizations, one way or another cooperating with the Germans, in the Ukrainian lands included in the region of 200-250 thousand people, and at least twice as many Russians (and this despite the fact that the territory of Ukraine was completely occupied, and from the territory of Russia under the German occupation (and, accordingly, propaganda with mobilization) only a small piece fell, otherwise, probably, the number of Russian collaborators would be measured in millions).

The list of Russian military units alone on the German side has a dozen names: here you have both the ROA (“Vlasovites”), and the RONA, it’s the 29th SS division (“First Russian”), and the 30th SS division (“Second Russian ”), and the SS“ Druzhina ”brigade, and the SS regiments“ Varyag ”and“ Desna ”, and the Russian personnel in the SS divisions“ Charlemagne ”and“ Dirlewanger ”, and the 15th Cossack cavalry corps of the SS, and ... and I already tired of listing it all. If you wish, here there is a more or less complete list, but fire me, listing all too long.

The Russians, both during the Union and now, have not heard much from this list. Even the abbreviation "ROA", that is, the "Russian Liberation Army", will say little to the inhabitants of Russia - but the other abbreviation, UPA, is probably familiar to almost every Russian (despite the fact that the number of UPA and ROA is quite comparable). Like the SS division “Galichina”, about which the Russians know everything seems to be right down to the names of the soldiers and the characteristics of each rifle - however, when mentioning, for example, the 15th Cossack (Russian) SS corps, they will be genuinely surprised. The only thing that the Russians remember for the most part is the name of Vlasov and the derogatory "Vlasovites" (at the same time, they do not associate it with the Vlasov ROA, in contrast to, for example, Bandera and UPA - banned in the Russian Federation - approx.).

Strictly speaking, such a peculiar historical memory (“I know about the Ukrainians, I hear about my first time”) was not formed in itself. For example, under the Union about Bandera and generally about the UPA one way or another spoke regularly (not least because the Ukrainian diaspora abroad actively covered the events in Ukraine and provoked the legitimate opposition of the Soviet regime). There were caricatures in newspapers where Ukrainian nationalists were portrayed in a recognizable UPA field uniform with a trident on their shoulders. There were references in the books. There were articles in magazines. There were films: “White Bird with a Black Mark” (1971), “Annychka” (1968), “Anxious Month of Veresen” (1976), “High Pass” (1981), mini-series “Special Detachment” destination ”(1987) and many others.

They talked about “Vlasovites” in mass movies (I emphasize massively) already in 1985, when the films “Battalions Ask for Fire” and “Check on the Roads” appeared on the screens almost simultaneously (it was filmed already in 1971, but censorship did not pass) , and to them also the mini-series “Confrontation” according to the script of Julian Semenov, the author of books about Stirlitz. Before that, in Soviet cinema, the topic was touched on only a couple of times, of which I can only remember the movie "The Liberation", and it’s even more interesting not to watch this five-part quintessential pathos, but to read about how the director got the permission for the first time (after twenty-odd years after the end of the war, huh) show on the screen the general defector Vlasov.

In short, after a long ordeal, Vlasov’s show was allowed on the condition that his name would not be mentioned anywhere, not only in the film, but also on the set. Therefore, even on the set of the hero played by Yuri Pomerantsev, they simply called “general”. And in order to understand how General Vlasov looked at all, I had to, with enormous difficulties and humiliations, beg for a brief look at a single photograph from the archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for review ...

... Therefore, is it any wonder that the Russians know who Stepan Bandera is, but they don’t know who Andrei Vlasov is, Lieutenant General of the Red Army, one of the leading participants in the defense of Moscow from the Germans, the most talented Soviet commander who was captured in 1942 and agreed to fight for the German army? Is it worth grabbing your head when a Russian man who has just talked about the Roland and Galichina divisions does not know anything about the 29th and 30th Russian SS Grenadier Divisions? About Major General of the Russian Imperial Army, Ataman of the Great Don Army Petr Krasnov and about the hero of World War I and Civil War, Lieutenant General of the White Guard Andrei Shkuro, who created the Cossack Camp military unit for the Wehrmacht? About the All-Russian Fascist Party, about the Asano brigade, about the organization of the KONR, about Khivi, about the Russian detachment of the 9th Wehrmacht army, about the 101st schutzmannsaft battalion Muravyov, oh ... stop, I'm tired of listing again.

No. The Russian can talk about Shukhevych and Bandera, who after a short cooperation with the Germans became their enemies, about the UPA fighters who fought with the Germans, but will not know about the Lokot Republic, a de facto independent region in the territory of Bryansk occupied by the Germans , Oryol and Kursk regions with a total size of Jamaica and with a population of 600 thousand people (comparable to one modern Montenegro or two Iceland).

From the autumn of 1941 to the end of the summer of 1943, the Lokot Republic (with its capital in the town of Lokot) was almost completely independent of the Germans (who watched the experiment with interest). The "republic" had its own leadership, its own fully functioning economy (collective farms were immediately liquidated), its own laws and its criminal code, and finally, its own army - the Russian People's Liberation Army (RONA): 14 battalions, from 12 to 20 thousand men, brought down in five infantry regiments, which were armed with 36 field guns, 15 mortars and about ten tanks. There was its own, native, Nazi party and its own courts, its own police and its own prosecutor's office. There was also its own “star”: Antonina Makarova, she’s Tonka the machine gunner, who shot more than a thousand and a half (!) Prisoners sentenced to death by the Germans from the Maxim machine gun, and for each shooting she received from the Germans 30 average ... pah, Reichsmark . The record, however.

Even after the return of the Red Army, the Lokotans (or Lokotuns? Elbows? Elbows? ..) continued to be weird: RONA, who left after the Germans, was marked by inhuman cruelty during the suppression of the Warsaw uprising, and those who remained shot in the NKVD-isst until the beginning of the fifties years.

Of course, the average Russian will not tell you all about this closely (but he will tell by heart the biography of Bandera, yeah). Moreover: they do not want to know this even now that there is Internet and information in the public domain. Of course, it’s much easier to turn a blind eye to obvious facts and talk about “Ukrainians-traitors”, although even those few Ukrainians who collaborated with the Germans not because of hopelessness, but for ideological reasons, cannot be put close to the same scumbags among the Russians the collaborators who did everything seem to be so that they can be safely deleted from the lists of the human race.

So the myth of “faithful Russians” is just a myth. Which seems dumber the more you know. A nation with logs in the eye looks ... flawed, or something. Although - this is their and only their decision.

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Main article: Collaborationism in World War II St. Andrew's flag, used by some Russians ... Wikipedia

Main article: Collaborationism in World War II Baltic collaboration in World War II military and political cooperation with the German occupation authorities in the Baltic during World War II. Content ... Wikipedia

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There are various forms of collaboration: military, political and economic. One way or another, many Soviet people who did not dare to join the partisans had to interact with the occupation regime. Candidate of Military Sciences A. Tsiganok claims that about 10% of the population in one way or another collaborated with the occupiers.

Agricultural activities, road repairs, cleaning in administrative institutions or the execution of a death sentence - all these actions in territories captured by the Germans during the Second World War fall under the definition of collaboration. Until April 1943, there were no clarifications in the legal sphere regarding the severity of guilt against Nazi accomplices.

Who are collaborators and what did they do during WWII

Auxiliary police units were formed from the local residents of the occupied territories, which allowed the German administration to maintain order in the settlements. The duties of the guards included checking documents, guarding prisons and concentration camps, guarding agricultural facilities.

The police also had to catch the "encirclement" - soldiers of the Red Army, who got out of the boilers. Any person in the forest who did not have special permission to go for firewood was subject to capture and delivery to the German administration. Policemen received 30 Reichsmarks, rations, clothes, shoes and 6 cigarettes per day.

To destroy partisan detachments and a loyal population of them, collaborative policemen created Schuma battalions, whose participants paid well (from 40 to 130 Reichsmarks depending on age and marital status; married people with children received more than single people).

The battalions totaled 500 people, and only 9 of them were Germans. Together with regular troops, such units carried out anti-partisan operations, which were particularly cruel. From the report on the Swamp Fever operation (Belarus, 1942), we see that the punishers killed 389 armed partisans in the battle, while the number of executed “suspicious persons” after the battle amounted to 1274 people (3 times more than those killed in the battle).

Another way to cooperate with the Nazis should be identified - economic and passive military interaction, which is also quite widespread. There were about 1 million voluntary assistants to the Wehrmacht (they were called Hilfwilliger Hivi). They performed the work of orderlies, cooks, sappers.

Who decided to serve the Hitler regime

In 1941, the position of the Wehrmacht was unequivocal - all the military personnel of the USSR were subject to destruction, it was not planned to involve them in units of German troops. Russian geographer and publicist P. Polyan claims that of the captured Red Army soldiers in the first year of the Second World War only 20% of people survived.

With the first setbacks on the Eastern Front, the growth of the partisan movement, the situation began to change. The German military-political leadership formed police units from collaborators, which allowed the release of a significant part of the personnel for battles at the forefront.

The second reason is that the Soviet leadership equated surrender to crime. The order of August 16, 41, No. 270, "On the responsibility of servicemen for surrendering and leaving weapons to the enemy," was in force.

Another stratum of the population, in which many collaborators were noted, is citizens with an anti-Soviet position. These are mainly those who lost property during collectivization, relatives of repressed citizens. It should be noted that the motive for the struggle against Bolshevism is very exaggerated in Western historiography. In reality, few contributed to the Third Reich under these slogans. The children of those who were repressed as a member of the monarchist movement were often not given details of the events because of fear. For security reasons, the new generation was not inspired by the idea of \u200b\u200bthe need to fight against Bolshevism.

The Nazis successfully recruited representatives of national minorities of the Soviet Union, using the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating independent states. The strategy was effective where the national question was especially acute - Ukraine, the Baltic states, the Caucasus.

Historians do not give exact numbers, since the topic of collaboration has been hushed up for a long time and has not been studied properly. But most scientists agree that the lion's share of those who collaborated with the Nazis had the main task to survive. There were few who fought against Bolshevism.

How distinguished military collaborators

In 1941, in the Babiy Yar tract (near Kiev), with the participation of Ukrainian collaborators, mass shooting of Soviet prisoners of war, as well as the civilian population of Jewish and gypsy nationalities, was carried out. The death toll ranges from 100 to 150 thousand people.

“Winter Magic” is an anti-partisan operation in the north of Belarus, carried out in 1943, in which Ukrainian and 7 Latvian police battalions took part. As a result of the rally, about 11 thousand people were killed, including children.

The Kryukovskaya tragedy that occurred in the village of the Chernihiv region ended in the deaths of more than 6 thousand people, most of which were impossible to identify. These are only the largest operations of collaborators, hundreds of thousands of people suffered from them all.

The more time passes after the war, the more questions arise for everyone who is interested in history, and the more valuable the still pictures taken at that time. Here's what it looks like.