Russian Liberation Army

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A soldier of the Russian Liberation Army

Russian Liberation Army (Russian: Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya Русская Освободительная Армия, abbreviated in Cyrillic as POA, in Latin as ROA, also known as the Vlasov army) was a group of volunteer Russian forces allied with Nazi Germany during World War II.

The ROA was organized by former Red Army general Andrey Vlasov, who tried to unite all Russians in opposing the regime of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Amidst the volunteers were Soviet prisoners of war, eastern workers (Ostarbeiter), and Russian White emigrés (some of whom were veterans of the anticommunist White Army during the Russian Civil War). On 14 November 1944 it was officially renamed the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Russian Peoples (VS-KONR).

1 Origins
2 Formation of ROA
3 Turning against the Germans
4 Surrender
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Origins

Russian volunteers who enlisted into the German Wehrmacht wore the patch of the Russian Liberation Army, an army which did not yet exist but was presented as a reality by German propaganda. These volunteers (called Hiwi, an acronym for Hilfswilliger meaning "willing to help") were not under any Russian command or control; they were exclusively under German command carrying out various noncombat duties. Soon, several German commanders began forming small armed units out of them, primarily used in combatting activities of the Soviet partisans.

Adolf Hitler permitted the idea of the Russian Liberation Army to circulate in propaganda literature so long as no real formations of the sort were permitted. As a result, some Red Army soldiers surrendered or defected in hopes of joining an army that did not yet exist. Meanwhile the newly captured Soviet general Andrei Andreevich Vlasov, along with his German and Russian allies, was desperately lobbying the German high command, hoping that a green light would be given for the formation of a real armed force that would be exclusively under Russian control.

Hitler's staff repeatedly rejected these appeals with hostility, refusing to even consider them. Still, Vlasov and his allies reasoned that Hitler would eventually come to realize the futility of a war against the USSR with the hostility of the Russian people and respond to Vlasov's demands.

When Hitler was informed about the large number of Russian and other former Soviet citizen volunteers in the Wehrmacht (a figure estimated at nearly 1 million) he panicked. Upon hearing a false report that these units were unreliable and defecting to the partisans, Hitler ordered their immediate transfer to the western front. Realizing the catastrophic effect that this would have on the Eastern Front, many German commanders took various elusive measures to keep their Russian volunteers from being transferred. Nevertheless, many Russian volunteers were transferred and forced to serve on western front positions.

A number of such soldiers were on guard in Normandy on D-Day, and without the equipment or the motivation to fight the allies, most promptly surrendered. There were instances of bitter fighting to the very end, triggered by mishandled propaganda from the Allies that promised quick repatriation of soldiers back to the Soviet Union if they gave up.

A total of 71 Eastern battalions served on the Eastern Front and 42 battalions, composed from destroyed German divisions, served in Belgium, Finland, France, and Italy.

[edit] Formation of ROA

The ROA did not officially exist until the fall of 1944, after Heinrich Himmler persuaded a very reluctant Hitler to permit the formation of 10 Russian Liberation Army divisions (Soviet historiography mistakenly labels all Russians who worked in any capacity under German sponsorship, whether as a HiWi, police force, the SD, Gestapo, etc. as a 'Vlasovets', or 'Vlasov Soldier').

On 14 November in Prague, Vlasov read aloud the Prague Manifesto before the newly created Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. This document stated the purposes of the battle against Stalin, and spelled out 14 democratic points which the army was fighting for. German insistence that the document carry anti-Semitic rhetoric was successfully parried by Vlasov's committee; however, they were obliged to include a statement criticising the Western Allies, labelling them "plutocracies" that were "allies of Stalin in his conquest of Europe".

By February of 1945, only one division, the 1st Infantry (600th German Infantry) was fully formed, under the command of General Sergei Bunyachenko. It fought briefly on the Oder Front before switching sides and helping the Czechs liberate Prague. A second division, the 2d Infantry (650th German Infantry), was incomplete but already put into action under the command of General Grigorii Meandrov. This division was joined in large numbers by eastern workers which caused it to nearly double in size as it headed on its march south. A third, the 3rd Infantry (700th German Infantry), only began formation.

Several other Russian units, such as the Russian Corps, the Cossack Cavalry Corps of General Helmuth von Pannwitz, the Cossack Camp of Ataman Domanov, and other primarily White emigre formations had agreed to become a part of Vlasov's army. However, their membership remained de jure as the turn of events did not permit Vlasov to use these men in any operation (even fluid communication was often impossible).

The first and only active combat the Russian Liberation Army undertook against the Red Army was by the Oder on 11 April 1945, done largely at the insistence of Himmler as a test of the army's reliability. After three days, the outnumbered first division had to retreat. No defections to the Soviet side were reported; however, up to 300 Red Army soldiers had surrendered during battle. Vlasov then ordered the first division to march south to concentrate all loyal to him Russian anticommunist forces together. As the army, he reasoned, they could all surrender to the Allies on "favorable" (no repatriation) terms. Vlasov sent several secret delegations to begin negotiating a surrender to the Allies.

[edit] Turning against the Germans

During the march south, the first division of the ROA came to the help of the Czech insurgents to support the Prague Uprising which started on May 5, 1945, against the German occupation. Vlasov was initially reluctant, but ultimately did not resist General Bunyachenko's decision to fight against the Germans.

The first division engaged in battle with Waffen-SS units that had been sent to level the city. The ROA units armed with heavy weaponry fended the relentless SS assault, and together with the Czech insurgents succeeded in preserving most of Prague from destruction. Due to the predominance of Communists in the new Czech Rada, the first division had to leave the city the very next day and tried to surrender to US Third Army of General Patton.

[edit] Surrender

With the end of the war being imminent, the ROA began seeking active contact with the Western Allies, hoping they would sympathise with their goals and potentially use them in a future war with the USSR.

The Allies had little interest in aiding or sheltering the ROA, fearing such aid would severely harm relations with the USSR. Soon after, Vlasov and many of his men were caught by the Soviets. Some were initially taken into allied custody then forcefully extradited to the Soviets by the Allies; only the principality of Liechtenstein ignored the USSR demands to extradite them and permitted those men to emigrate to Argentina. Several allied officers who were sympathetic to the ROA soldiers permitted them to escape in small groups into the American controlled zones.

The ROA soldiers who were repatriated were either summarily executed by SMERSH guards, or sent to Gulag with a minimum sentence of ten years. The Soviet government labelled all ROA soldiers (called Vlasovtsy, followers of Vlasov) as traitors and refused to honor any amnesties promised in turn for their surrender. Vlasov and several other leaders of the ROA were tried and hanged in Moscow on August 1, 1946.