Andrey Vlasov
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Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov | |
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Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов | |
Chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia | |
In office 14 November 1944 – May 1945 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Mikhail Meandrov[1] |
Personal details | |
Born | Execution by hanging | September 14, 1901
Political party | Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1930–1942) |
Awards |
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Military service | |
Allegiance | Russian SFSR (1919–1922) Soviet Union (1922–1942) Nazi Germany (1942–1944) Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (1944–1945) |
Years of service | 1919–1945 |
Rank | Lieutenant general |
Commands |
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Battles/wars |
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Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (
Early career
Born in
Vlasov joined the
As a lieutenant general, he commanded the
On January 7, 1942, Vlasov's army had spearheaded the
German prisoner
After Vlasov's army was surrounded, he himself was offered an escape by aeroplane. The general refused and hid in German-occupied territory; ten days later, on July 12, 1942, a local farmer exposed him to the Germans. Vlasov's opponent and captor, general Georg Lindemann, interrogated him about the surrounding of his army and details of battles, then "had Vlasov imprisoned in occupied Vinnytsia."
While in prison, Vlasov met Captain
In 2016, in his habilitation thesis, Russian historian Kirill Alexandrov analyzed the careers of 180 Soviet generals and officers who joined the Vlasov army. He concluded that most of them personally experienced atrocities committed by the NKVD during the Great Purge and previous purges in the Red Army, which made them disillusioned with the leadership of Stalin and motivated them to defect to the Nazis. Alexandrov's work was reported to the FSB by Russian and Soviet nationalists as "inciting hatred" but his university, regardless of the political pressure, voted in favor of its scientific value.[9]
Defection
Vlasov was taken to Berlin under the control of the Wehrmacht Propaganda Department. While there, he and other Soviet officers began drafting plans for the creation of a Russian provisional government and the recruitment of a Russian army of liberation under Russian command.
Vlasov founded the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, in hopes of creating the Russian Liberation Army—known as ROA (from Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya).
In the spring of 1943, Vlasov wrote an anti-Bolshevik leaflet known as the "Smolensk Proclamation", which was dropped from aircraft by the millions on Soviet forces and Soviet-controlled soil. In March of the same year, Vlasov also published an open letter titled "Why I Have Taken Up the Struggle Against Bolshevism".
Even though no Russian Liberation Army yet existed, the Nazi propaganda department issued Russian Liberation Army patches to Russian volunteers and tried to use Vlasov's name in order to encourage defections. Several hundred thousand former Soviet citizens served in the German army wearing this patch, but never under Vlasov's own command.
Vlasov was permitted to make several trips to German-occupied Soviet Union: most notably, to Pskov, Russia, where Russian pro-German volunteers paraded. The populace's reception of Vlasov was mixed. While in Pskov, Vlasov dealt himself a nearly fatal political blow by referring to the Germans as mere "guests" during a speech, which Hitler found belittling. Vlasov was even put under house arrest and threatened with being handed over to the Gestapo. Despondent about his mission, Vlasov threatened to resign and return to the POW camp, but was dissuaded at the last minute by his confidants.[citation needed]
According to
Commander of the ROA
Vlasov's only combat against the
On May 6, 1945, Vlasov received a request from the commander of the First Division, General Sergei Bunyachenko, for permission to turn his weapons against the Nazi SS forces and aid Czech resistance fighters in the Prague uprising. Vlasov at first disapproved, then reluctantly allowed Bunyachenko to proceed. Some historians maintain it was the bitterness of the ROA against the Germans which caused them to switch sides once again, while other historians believe the sole purpose of this action was to win favor from the western Allies and possibly even the Soviet side, in the light of the nearly completed military annihilation of the German Reich.
Two days later, the First Division was forced to leave Prague as Communist Czech partisans began arresting ROA soldiers in order to hand them over to the Soviets for execution. Vlasov and the rest of his forces, trying to evade the Red Army, attempted to head west to surrender to the Allies in the closing days of the war in Europe.[11]
Capture by Soviet forces, trial, and execution
Vlasov's division, commanded by General Sergei Bunyachenko, was captured 40 kilometres (25 mi) southeast of Plzeň by the Soviet 25th Tank Corps, after their attempt to surrender to US troops was rejected. Captain M. I. Yakushev of the 162nd Tank Brigade had Vlasov dragged out of his car, put on a tank and driven straight to the Soviet 13th Army HQ. Vlasov was then transported from the 13th Army HQ to Marshal Ivan Konev's command post in Dresden, and from there sent immediately to Moscow.[13]
Vlasov was confined in Lubyanka prison where he was interrogated. A trial was held, beginning on 30 July 1946 and was presided over by Viktor Abakumov who sentenced him and eleven other senior officers from his army to death for high treason.
Vlasov was executed by hanging on 1 August 1946. His execution was among the last death sentences in the Soviet Union carried out by hanging, after which executions were conducted only by shooting.
Memorial
A memorial dedicated to General Vlasov was erected at the
Review of his case
In 2001, a Russian social organization, "For Faith and Fatherland", applied to the Russian Federation's military prosecutor for a review of Vlasov's case,[14] saying that "Vlasov was a patriot who spent much time re-evaluating his service in the Red Army and the essence of Stalin's regime before agreeing to collaborate with the Germans".[15] The military prosecutor concluded that the law of rehabilitation of victims of political repressions did not apply to Vlasov and refused to consider the case again. However, Vlasov's Article 58 conviction for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda was vacated.[16]
See also
- Bronislaw Kaminski
- Constantine Kromiadi
- Engelen des doods (Angels of death)
- Operation Keelhaul
- Russian Liberation Army
- Collaboration in the German-occupied Soviet Union
References
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (February 2008) |
- ^ Михаил Алексеевич Меандров. Штрихи к портрету // К. М. Александров. Против Сталина. Сборник статей и материалов. СПб, 2003.
- ISBN 0340485612.
- ^ Andreyev 1987, p. 21.
- ISBN 5-86090-113-5
- ^ John Erickson, The Soviet High Command, MacMillan, 1962, p.558
- ^ Bellamy, Absolute War, pg 384
- ^ Meretskov, On the service of the nation, Ch.6
- ^ Erickson, Road to Stalingrad, 2003, p.352. See also p.381, where Erickson describes 2 Shock after this operation as 'an army brought back from the dead.'
- ^ Резунков, Виктор (2016-05-03). "ФСБ и генерал Власов". Радио Свобода (in Russian). Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ^ Gerald Reitlinger. The House Built on Sand. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (1960) ASIN: B0000CKNUO. pp. 90, 100–101.
- ^ "Рубать немцев, освободить Прагу"
- ISBN 9788020426819.
- ^ Konev, I.S. (1971). "Year of Victory". Progress Publishers. pp. 230–231.
- ^ Valeria Korchagina and Andrei Zolotov Jr.It's Too Early To Forgive Vlasov The St. Petersburg Times. 6 Nov 2001.
- ^ "It's Too Early to Forgive Vlasov | the St. Petersburg Times | the leading English-language newspaper in St. Petersburg". Archived from the original on 2014-02-06. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
- ^ РОА: предатели или патриоты?
Literature and film
Books:
- Andreyev, Catherine (1987). Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521389600.
- ISBN 0-333-11528-7
- Russian version of the above: Вильфрид Штрик-Штрикфельдт: Против Сталина и Гитлера. Изд. Посев, 1975, 2003. ISBN 5-85824-005-4
- Sven Steenberg: Wlassow. Verräter oder Patriot? Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1968.
- Sergej Frölich: General Wlassow. Russen und Deutsche zwischen Hitler und Stalin.
- ISBN 3-7766-2330-6.
- Jurgen Thorwald: The Illusion: Soviet Soldiers in Hitler's Armies. English translation, 1974.
- Martin Berger: "Impossible alternatives". The Ukrainian Quarterly, Summer-Fall 1995, pp. 258–262. [review of Catherine Andrevyev: Vlasov and the Russian liberation movement]
Documentaries:
- General for Two Devils 1995
- Europe Central by William T Vollmann
- Angels of Death 1998, director: Leo de Boer.
External links
- "It's Too Early To Forgive Vlasov", The St. Petersburg Times, November 6, 2001
- Władysław Anders and Antonio Muňoz: "Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII" (describes role of Vlasov)
- Congress of Russian Americans article on Vlasov
- Newspaper clippings about Andrey Vlasov in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW