Andrey Vlasov

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General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (Russian: Андрей Андреевич Власов; alternative transliterations of his names appear as Andrei Andreievich and as Vlassov or (in German) Wlassow) (September 14 [O.S. September 1] 1900 — August 2, 1946) was a Soviet Army General who collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.[1]

Contents 1 Early career 2 Defection 3 German prisoner 4 Commander of the ROA 5 Final days 6 Memorial 7 Review of his case 8 Literature and film 9 See also 10 External links

[edit] Early career

Born in Lomakino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Vlasov was originally a student at a Russian seminary. He quit his study after the Russian Revolution, briefly studying agriculture, and in 1919 joined the Red Army fighting in the southern theatre in the Ukraine, the Caucasus, and the Crimea. He distinguished himself as an officer and gradually rose through the ranks of the Red Army.

He joined the Communist Party in 1930. Vlasov was sent to China as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek. He then returned to Soviet Russia and reorganized the 99th Soviet Army, earning him considerable respect. During the outbreak of World War II, he became one of Stalin's favored generals. Vlasov played an important role in the defense of Moscow, his picture was printed along with other Soviet generals in the Pravda newspaper as the "defenders of Moscow". Described by some historians as "charismatic", Vlasov was decorated following his efforts in the defence of Moscow on the 24. of January with an Order of the Red Banner. After this success Vlasov was put in charge of a group of strike troops that were to try and lift the Siege of Leningrad. His expedition was unsuccessful and this force, the 2nd Strike Army (2-ая Ударная Армия), was surrounded and destroyed in June 1942.

[edit] Defection

After Vlasov's army was encircled, he was offered a plane for evacuation. Vlasov, refusing to abandon his troops, went into hiding in German occupied territory. After ten days, the Germans found him on July 12, 1942 when he was betrayed by a local farmer. Vlasov was questioned by his opponent in the battle, General Georg Lindemann. The two discussed the encirclement and details of the battle, after which Vlasov was sent to a special prison for high-ranking officers in occupied Vinnytsia.

Vlasov claims that it is during his ten days in hiding that he became affirmed in his growing anti-Bolshevik beliefs, believing that it was perhaps Stalin who was the greatest enemy of the Russian people. Vlasov's critics (such as Marshall Kirill Meretskov and virtually all Soviet historians) argue that Vlasov decided to adopt a pro-German stance in prison for reasons having to do with opportunism and careerism, as well as out of fear of Stalinist retribution over the loss of his last battle.

[edit] German prisoner

While in prison, Vlasov meets Captain Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt, a German Balt who had been making attempts at fostering a Russian Liberation Movement.
Strikfeldt, who had been a participant of the White movement during the Russian civil war^{[citation needed]}, persuaded Vlasov to become involved.

Vlasov was taken to Berlin under the protection of the Wehrmacht's propaganda department where he, together with other Soviet officers, begins 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 Russian Liberation Committee^{[citation needed]}, in hopes of creating the Russian Liberation Army—known as ROA (from Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya). Together with some other captured Soviet generals, officers and soldiers, the army's goal was to overthrow Stalinism and create an independent Russian state. Vlasov offered a democratic system of government. Many Russian POWs as well as soldiers who received Vlasov propaganda leaflets were interested in becoming a part of this army.

In the spring of 1943, Vlasov wrote an an anti-Bolshevik leaflet known as the "Smolensk Proclamation" which was dropped from aircraft by the millions on Soviet forces. As a direct consequence, thousands of Soviet troops deserted.

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 (a strategy they found effective). Several hundred thousand former Soviet citizens served in the German army wearing this patch, but never under Vlasov's command.

Hitler was very wary of Vlasov and his intentions. On April 3rd, 1943, he made it clear in a speech to his high command that such an army would never be created, then issued directives to dismantle any such efforts and to sequester all of Vlasov's supporters in the German army. He worried that Vlasov might succeed in overthrowing Stalin, which would halt Hitler's dreams of expanding Germany to the Urals. Hitler began taking measures against Eastern Volunteer units, especially Russian ones, arranging for their retransfer to the west.

Vlasov was permitted to make several trips to Nazi-occupied Russia, most notably in Pskov where a parade of Russian volunteers took place. The population's reception of Vlasov was mixed. While in Pskov, Vlasov dealt himself a nearly fatal political blow by referring to the Germans as "guests" during a speech, which Hitler found belittling. Vlasov was 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.

Only in September of 1944 did Germany - at the urging of Heinrich Himmler, initially a virulent opponent of Vlasov - finally agree to give Vlasov a green light for his Russian Liberation Army. Vlasov formed and chaired the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, proclaimed by the Prague Manifesto on the 14th of November, 1944. Vlasov also hoped to create a pan-Slavic liberation congress, but was denied permission to do so.

[edit] Commander of the ROA

Vlasov's one and only instance of fighting against the Red Army occurred on February 11, 1945, on the river Oder. After three days of battle against overwhelming forces, the First Division of the ROA was forced to retreat and march south towards Prague.

On May 6, 1945, Vlasov received a request from the commander of the first ROA division, General Sergei Bunyachenko, to turn his weapons against the SS forces and aid the Prague Uprising. Vlasov at first disapproved, then relunctantly sanctioned Bunyachenko to proceed. Some historians maintain it was the bitterness of the ROA against the Germans which caused them to switch sides again, while more critical historians believe the sole purpose of this action was to win favor from the western Allies and possibly even the Soviet side.

Two days later, the first division was forced to leave Prague in view of the communist Czech partizans who begin arresting ROA soldiers with the intention of passing them on to the Soviets. At this point, Vlasov was offered an escape via plane to Spain in civilian clothes, but he refused to do so.

Vlasov and the rest of his forces, trying to escape the overpowering Red Army and wishing to preserve their ranks for a future war of liberation, attempted to head west to surrender to the Allies in the closing days of the war in Europe. On May 10, 1945, Vlasov and his men surrendered to western Allied forces.

[edit] Final days

Vlasov was taken into American captivity and held in the city of Tyrol. He and his generals continued talks with British and Americans, explaining the principles of the liberation movement and persuading them to grant asylum to its participants. The allied commanders were divided on the issue. Some were sympathetic but afraid of angering the Soviet Union and disobeying their superior officers who were in alliance with Stalin.

On May 12, on the way from talks with American captain Donahue, Vlasov's car was surrounded by Soviet troops. Vlasov's American escort refused to resist as Vlasov was taken under arrest. Vlasov, along with many of his men, was forcefully repatriated to the Soviet Union. Many were executed or interred in the GULAG.

Soviet authorities sent Vlasov to Moscow, where over the course of a year he was held in the Lubyanka prison. A summary trial held in the summer of 1946 presided over by Viktor Abakumov sentenced him and eleven other senior officers from his army to death. They were hanged on August 1, 1946. This was one of the last death sentences by hanging in the Soviet Union (later a group of Cossack leaders allied with the Germans such as Pyotr Krasnov, Andrei Shkuro, and Helmuth von Pannwitz received the same fate).

[edit] Memorial

A memorial dedicated to General Vlasov and the participants of the Russian Liberation Movement was erected at the Novo Deveevo Russian Orthodox convent and cemetery in Nanuet, New York. Twice annually, a memorial service is held to commemorate Vlasov and the combatants of the Russian Liberation Army, once on the day of Vlasov's execution (August 1st) and once on the Sunday following Orthodox Easter.

[edit] Review of his case

In 2001, a social organization, "For Faith and Fatherland", applied to the military prosecutor for a review of Vlasov's case. The military prosecutor, himself a Red Army veteran of World War II, concluded that the law of rehabilitation of victims of political repressions did not apply to Vlasov and refused to ever consider the case again personally. However, Vlasov's Article 58 conviction for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda was vacated.

[edit] Literature and film

Books:

• Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt: Against Stalin and Hitler. Memoir of the Russian Liberation Movement 1941-5. Macmillan, 1970, ISBN 0-333-11528-7
• Russian version of the above: Вильфрид Штрик-Штрикфельдт: Против Сталина и Гитлера. Изд. Посев, 1975.
• Бахвалов Анатолий: Генерал Власов. Предатель или герой? Изд. СПб ВШ МВД России, 1994.
• Sven Steenberg: Wlassow. Verräter oder Patriot? Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1968.
• Russian version of the above: Свен Стеенберг: Генерал Власов. Изд-во Эксмо, 2005. ISBN 5-699-12827-1
• Sergej Frölich: General Wlassow. Russen und Deutsche zwischen Hitler und Stalin.
• Сергей Фрёлих ГЕНЕРАЛ ВЛАСОВ Русские и Немцы между Гитлером и Сталиным (перевод с немецкого Ю.К. Мейера при участии Д.А. Левицкого), 1990. Printed by Hermitage.
• Александров Кирилл М.: Армия генерала Власова 1944-45. Изд-во Эксмо, 2006. ISBN 5-699-15429-9.
• Чуев Сергей: Власовцы - Пасынки Третьего Рейха. Изд-во Эксмо, 2006. ISBN 5-699-14989-9.
• ИСТОРИЯ ВЛАСОВСКОЙ АРМИИ И. Хоффманн. Перевод с немецкого Е. Гессен. 1990 YMCA Press ISBN 2-85065-175-3 ISSN 1140-0854
• Joachim Hoffmann: Die Tragödie der 'Russischen Befreiungsarmee' 1944/45. Wlassow gegen Stalin. Herbig Verlag, 2003 ISBN 3776623306.
• Russian version of the above: Гофман Иоахим: Власов против Сталина. Трагедия Русской Освободительной Армии. Пер. с нем. В. Ф. Дизендорфа. Изд-во АСТ, 2006. ISBN 5-17-027146-8.

Regarding the historian Joachim Hoffmann: You may want to look at his article from the German Wikipedia.

• О. В. Вишлёв(preface): Генерал Власов в планах гитлеровских спецслужб. Новая и Новейшая История, 4/96, pp. 130-146. [Historical sources with a preface]
• В. В. Малиновский: Кто он, русский коллаборационнист: Патриот или предатель?' Вопросы Истории 11-12/96, pp. 164-166. [letter to the editor]
• Martin Berger: Impossible alternatives. The Ukrainian Quarterly, Summer-Fall 1995, pp. 258-262. [review of Catherine Andrevyev: Vlasov and the Russian liberation movement]
• А. Ф. Катусев, В. Г. Оппоков: Иуды. Власовцы на службе у фашизма. Военно-Исторический Журнал 6/1990, pp. 68-81.
• П. А. Пальчиков: История Генерала Власова. Новая и Новейшая История, 2/1993, pp. 123-144.
• А. В. Тишков: Предатель перед Советским Судом. Советское Государство и Право, 2/1973, pp. 89-98.
• Л. Е. Решин, В. С. Степанов: Судьбы генералские. Военно-Исторический Журнал, 3/1993, pp. 4-15.
• С. В. Ермаченков, А. Н. Почтарев: Последний поход власовской армии. Вопросы Истории, 8/98, pp. 94-104.

Documentaries:

• General for Two Devils 1995
• Europe Central by William T Vollmann

[edit] See also

• Russian Liberation Army
• Russian Liberation Movement
• Operation Keelhaul
• Bronislaw Kaminski
• Constantine Kromiadi

[edit] External links

• Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII, describes role of Vlasov
• Congress of Russian Americans article on Vlasov