How Vlasov died. General vlasov and roa
VLASOV.
Brief help.
VLASOV Andrey Andreevich (1901-1946). Lieutenant General, Chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the KONR. Creator and commander-in-chief of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). Born in the village. Lomakino of the Nizhny Novgorod province in a large peasant family, the thirteenth child. After graduating from a rural school, he graduated from a religious school in Nizhny Novgorod. He studied at the theological seminary for two years. After the October Revolution, he entered the Nizhny Novgorod Unified Labor School, and in 1919 - at the Nizhny Novgorod State University at the Faculty of Agronomy, where he studied until May 1920, when he was drafted into the Red Army. In 1920-1922. studied at the commanding courses, participated in the battles with the White Guards on the Southern Front. From 1922 to 1928 Vlasov held command positions in the Don Division. After graduating from the Higher Army Shooting Courses. Comintern (1929) taught at the Leningrad School of Tactics. IN AND. Lenin. In 1930 he joined the CPSU (b). In 1933 he graduated from the higher courses of command personnel "Shot". In 1933-1937. served in the Leningrad Military District. In 1937-1938. was a member of the military tribunal in the Leningrad and Kiev military districts and, as he himself wrote, "always stood firm on the general line of the party and always fought for it." From April 1938 - assistant commander of the 72nd Infantry Division. In the fall of 1938 he was sent as a military adviser to China (pseudonym "Volkov"). Since May 1939 - Chief Military Adviser. Awarded by Chiang Kai-shek with the Order of the Golden Dragon and a gold watch.
Since January 1940, Vlasov, with the rank of major general, commanded the 99th division, which in a short time he turned into the best of all three hundred divisions of the Red Army. The newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" in a series of articles (September 23-25, 1940) glorified the division, noting the high combat training of its personnel and the skillful exactingness of the command. These articles were studied in political studies throughout the Red Army. The outstanding services of General Vlasov were especially emphasized. People's Commissar Tymoshenko awarded the divisional commander a gold watch. Later, Stalin himself ordered to award Vlasov the Order of Lenin (February 1941), and the 99th division - the challenge Red Banner of the Red Army. During the war, the division was the first of all to receive the order (Strizhkov Yu.K. Heroes of Przemysl. M, 1969).
In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Kiev Special Military District. The war for Vlasov began near Lvov. For skillful actions when leaving the encirclement, he received gratitude and was appointed commander of the 37th Army that defended Kiev. As you know, the entire Kiev grouping (five armies, about 600 thousand people) was surrounded. After fierce fighting, the scattered formations of the 37th Army managed to break through to the east, and the soldiers carried the wounded commander in their arms.
On November 8, 1941, after receiving from Stalin, he was appointed commander of the 20th Army of the Western Front. Under his command, the 20th Army distinguished itself in the December offensive near Moscow, liberating Volokolamsk and Solnechnogorsk. In January 1942, Vlasov was awarded the rank of lieutenant general, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. G.K. Zhukov, who had supported Vlasov since 1940, gave him the following characterization: “Personally, Lieutenant General Vlasov is well prepared in operational terms, he has organizational skills. He copes well with command and control of troops. "
On March 9, 1942, he was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov front. The front was created by the Headquarters for the release of Leningrad in December 1941. After the evacuation of the wounded commander of the 2nd Shock Army, Vlasov was appointed to his post (April 16, 1942).
The 2nd Shock Army was encircled in January 1942 as a result of, mainly, the mediocre actions of the Headquarters of the High Command. In turn, the front commander K.A. Meretskov, only recently freed by Stalin from the dungeons of the NKVD (and miraculously survived), was afraid to report to the Kremlin about the real situation at the front. Almost without food and ammunition, having no means of communication, the 2nd shock suffered huge losses. Finally, in June 1942, Vlasov gave the order to break through to his small groups.
In the evening of July 13, 1942, not far from the village. Tukhovezhi of the Leningrad region Vlasov fell asleep in some shed, where he was taken prisoner: apparently, the peasants reported about him (Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt V. Against Stalin and Hitler. General Vlasov and the Russian liberation movement. M., 1993. S. 106 ). While in the Vinnitsa military camp for captured officers, he agreed to cooperate with the Wehrmacht and lead the Russian anti-Stalinist movement.
In response to the order of Stalin, who declared him a traitor, Vlasov signed a leaflet calling for the overthrow of the Stalinist regime and unite in a liberation army under his leadership, Vlasov. The general also wrote an open letter "Why did I take the path of fighting Bolshevism." Leaflets were scattered from planes at the fronts, distributed among prisoners of war. On December 27, 1942, Vlasov signed the so-called Smolensk Declaration, in which he outlined the goals of the Vlasov movement. In mid-April 1943, Vlasov visited Riga, Pskov, Gatchina, Ostrov, where he spoke to residents of the occupied regions. Until July 1944, Vlasov enjoyed the strong support of German officers opposed to Hitler (Count Stauffenberg and others). In September 1944, he was received by Himmler, the chief of the SS, who at first was against the use of Vlasov, but, realizing the threat of defeat, in search of available reserves, agreed to create formations of the Armed Forces of the KONR under the leadership of Vlasov. On November 14, 1944, the Prague Manifesto, the main programmatic document of the Vlasov movement, was proclaimed. Vlasov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) created by him. Hitler was against the creation of the ROA and changed his mind only in September 1944, when the situation of the fascists on the Eastern Front deteriorated catastrophically. Most of the prisoners of war entered the ROA in order to save their lives and not die in the camps. In February 1945, the first ROA division was formed, then the second1. However, the Vlasovites did not actually fight on the Eastern Front - Hitler ordered to send all Russian and other national formations of the German army to the western front. Many soldiers and officers of such units voluntarily surrendered to the Americans and British. On April 14, 1945, the 1st ROA division was ordered to hold back the Red Army's offensive on the Oder, but the division, ignoring the order, moved south to Czechoslovakia. In early May 1945, responding to a call for help from the insurgent inhabitants of Prague, this division helped the insurgents to disarm parts of the German garrison. Upon learning of the approach of Marshal Konev's tanks, the division, leaving Prague, headed west to surrender to the Americans. On April 27, 1945, Vlasov rejected General Franco's offer of Spanish diplomats to emigrate to Spain. On May 11, 1945, he surrendered to the Americans at the Schlosselburg castle, and on May 12, he was unexpectedly captured in the headquarters column by SMERSH officers of the 162th tank brigade of the 25th Panzer Corps. At closed meetings of the Military Collegium (May 1945 - April 1946), without lawyers and witnesses, he gave extensive testimony about his activities, but did not plead guilty to treason. This behavior of his (and of some other Vlasovites) did not allow an open trial against them. The military collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, headed by General of Justice V.V. Ulrich was sentenced to death by hanging. Executed on the night of August 1, 1946 (Izvestia. 1946, August 2). According to some reports, the remains were buried in Moscow at the Donskoy cemetery.
The Vlasovites, who failed to escape, were extradited by the allies to SMERSH in the period 1945-1947.
The fate of General Vlasov continues to cause heated debate. Many agree with the official condemnation of him as a traitor, others consider Vlasov one of the countless victims of the Stalinist regime. He could have become a hero if he shot himself - remember General Samsonov, commander of the 2nd Shock Army in World War I, who, being surrounded in 1914 in a similar situation in the forests of East Prussia, committed suicide. After a long ban, the name of Vlasov appeared in the Russian press (Kolesnik A.N., General Vlasov - a traitor or a hero? M., 1991; Palchikov P.A. History of General Vlasov // New and Contemporary History. 1993. No. 2; Solzhenitsyn A. Gulag Archipelago. M., 1993; Vronskaya Doc. Traitors? // Capital. 1991. No. 22; Trushnovich Ya.A. Russians in Yugoslavia and Germany, 1941-1945 // New watch. 1994. No. 2. P. 160- 161; Tolstoy N. Victims of Yalta. M., 1995).
Notes (edit)
1) At the end of April 1945, Lieutenant General A.A. Vlasov had the following Armed Forces under his command: 1st Division of Major General S.K. Bunyachenko (22,000 people), 2nd Division of Major General G.A. Zverev (13,000 people), 3rd Division of Major General M.M. Shapovalov (not armed, there was only a headquarters and 10,000 volunteers), a reserve brigade of Colonel ST. Koidy (7000 people), Air Force General Maltsev (5000 people), anti-tank defense division, officer school, auxiliary units, Russian Corps of Major General B.A. Shteyfon (4500 people), the Cossack camp of Major General T.I. Domanov (8,000 people), the group of Major General A.V. Turkul (5,200 people), the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of Lieutenant General H. von Panwitz (over 40,000 people), the Cossack reserve regiment of General A.G. ... Shkuro (more than 10,000 people) and several small formations of less than 1,000 people; more than 130,000 people in total, but these units were scattered at a considerable distance from each other, which became one of the main factors of their tragic fate (Trushnovich Ya.A. Russians in Yugoslavia and Germany, 1941-1945 // New watch. 1994. № 2.S. 155-156).
Used materials of the book: Torchinov V.A., Leontyuk A.M. Around Stalin. Historical and biographical reference book. Saint Petersburg, 2000
Advisor to the Chinese Marshal.
Vlasov Andrey Andreevich (Volkov) - was born on 1.09.1901 in the village. Lomakino, Pokrovskaya volost, Sernachevsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province, in a peasant family. Russian. In 1919 he graduated from the 1st year of the agronomic faculty of the Nizhny Novgorod State University. In the RKKA since 1920. Member of the RKP (b) since 1930. He graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod infantry courses (1920), the higher tactical rifle-tactical refresher courses for the command staff of the RKKA im. Comintern (1929). He held various positions from platoon commander to chief of the 2nd department of the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District. From January 1936 he was a major, from 16 August 1937 he was a colonel. At the end of October 1938 he was sent to China as a military adviser. He served in Chongqing. Until February 1939, he trained at the headquarters of the chief military adviser (division commander A. Cherepanov). He lectured to the ranks of the Chinese army and gendarmerie on the tactics of rifle units. From February 1939 he was an adviser to the headquarters of Marshal Yan Xi-shan, who headed the 2nd military region (Shanxi province) and later entered the bloc for joint actions against the "red danger". In August 1939 he was transferred to the border regions of Mongolia "for violating the norms of behavior of the Soviet communist abroad." On November 3, 1939 he returned to the USSR. After China, he held positions: commander of the 72nd rifle and 99th rifle divisions of KOVO. From 02/28/1940 - brigade commander, from 06/05/1940 - major general. Was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. From 01/17/1941 - the commander of the 4th mechanized corps KOVO. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he was surrounded with corps units. After leaving, he was appointed commander of the 37th Army of the Southwestern Front. Again he was surrounded. After leaving and a corresponding check, he was appointed commander of the 20th Army, with which he took part in the defense of Moscow. Was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. From January 24, 1942 - Lieutenant General. Later he held the posts of deputy commander of the Volkhov front and commander of the 2nd Shock Army. On July 12, leaving the encirclement, he was taken prisoner. After interrogations and conversations with representatives of the German command, he agreed to cooperate with the Germans. Became the organizer of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). At the end of 1944 he headed the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR), became commander of the KONR Armed Forces. In May 1945 he was arrested by Soviet authorities and taken to Moscow. On the night of August 1, 1946, he was hanged by the decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Used materials from the book by A. Okorokov Russian volunteers. M., 2007.
Here is how the front-line writer, Hero of the Soviet Union Vladimir Karpov writes about General Vlasov: "
From 25 to 27 September in 99 and the rifle division, which was part of the Kiev Special Military District, commanded by Zhukov, observation exercises were held in the presence of the new People's Commissar of Defense. In many exercises in other districts, shortcomings were most often noted, commanders were punished by weakening their subordinates. And then, for the first time, the very high preparedness of the division was noted and the skillful exactingness of the command "Krasnaya Zvezda" was filled with articles about the successes of the 99th Infantry Division for several days. I re-read these September issues of the newspaper for 1940, such articles as "New Methods of Combat Training", "Party Conference of the 99th SD," "Commander of the Forward Division." said: “The Red Army men and the commanding staff of the division during the exercise showed the ability to solve combat missions in difficult conditions.
For success in combat training and exemplary actions at a tactical observation exercise I award:
1.99th Infantry Division - the Challenge Red Banner of the Red Army;
2 Artillery of the 99th Infantry Division - the Challenging Red Banner of the Red Army artillery "
At political studies throughout the Red Army, articles about this then-famous division were studied. Here is one of them in front of me - "Commander of the Red Banner Division." I deliberately do not mention his last name yet, so that it will become more unexpected for readers. Here is what was written in that article about the division commander: “For twenty-one years of service in the Red Army, he acquired the most valuable quality for a military leader - an understanding of the people he is called upon to educate, teach, prepare for battle. This understanding is not bookish, uninvolved, but real.“ I love service, ”the general often says. he knows how to reveal and encourage in people zeal for service He seeks in a person and develops military abilities in him, tempering them in constant exercises, trials of field life. a new direction in the combat training of troops. A military professional, he has long been convinced in practice of the mighty strength of demand ... The general led the division into the swamp and forests under the open sky. He taught for battle, for the warrior. "
The People's Commissar of Defense awarded the commander of the 99th division with a gold watch, and the government - the Order of Lenin. The 99th Rifle Division became the model for the entire Red Army. And now I will tell the readers who this famous and demanding commander was - Major General AA Vlasov. Yes, the same Vlasov, who would later become a traitor. The commander of the district Zhukov also highly appreciated the efficiency and exactingness of Vlasov. That's what he signed his certification in those days. I consider it necessary to familiarize readers with it, because "Vlasovism" is not such a simple phenomenon as it is interpreted in our literature, we will have to deal with this matter in more detail and deeper. "
Certification for the period from 1939 to October 1940 for the commander of the 99th Infantry Division, Major General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov.
1. Year of birth - 1901
2. Nationality - Russian
3 Party membership - a member of the CPSU (b) since 1930
4 Soc. position - employee.
5. General and military education - general secondary, military - 1 course of the evening military academy.
6. Knowledge of foreign languages - German, reads and writes with a dictionary.
7.Since when in the Red Army - 1920
8From what time in the posts of command personnel - 1920; in office - since 1940
9. Participation in the civil war - participated in the civil war.
10. Awards - jubilee medal of XX years of the Red Army.
11. Service in white and bourgeois-nationalist armies and anti-Soviet gangs - did not serve
Lost to the party of Lenin - Stalin and the socialist homeland.
Excellent all-round development, loves military affairs, works a lot, studies and knows military history well, is a good leader and methodologist, has high operational and tactical training.
General Vlasov successfully combines high theoretical training with practical experience and the ability to transfer his knowledge and experience to his subordinates.
High exactingness towards himself and his subordinates - with the constant care of his subordinates. He is energetic, courageous in decisions, initiative.
He knows the life of the units well, knows the fighter and skillfully guides their education, starting with the little things; he loves the military economy, knows it and teaches him to study it frequently.
The division, which General Vlasov has commanded since January 1940, under his direct leadership, has been working hard and hard to develop a detachment, platoon, company, battalion and regiment, and has achieved great success in this.
By delving into all the details of the development of small units, General Vlasov made the division strong, highly tactically developed, physically hardened and fully combat-ready.
Discipline in parts of 99 DS is at a high level.
Major General Vlasov directly supervises the preparation of the headquarters division and regiments. He pays a lot of attention to the state of accounting and storage of secret and mobilization documents and is well aware of the technology of the staff service.
His authority among the commanders and soldiers of the division is high. Physically healthy for a camping life is quite suitable.
Conclusion: The position held is quite consistent. In wartime, it can be used as a corps commander.
Commander of the 8th Rifle Corps, Major General Snegov
Senior executives' conclusion:
Agree
Commander of the KOVO troops
Army General Zhukov
Member of the Military Council of KOVO
Corps Commissioner
Source: "Roman Gazeta" 1991
Vladimir Vasilievich Karpov
MARSHAL ZHUKOV, HIS COMPANIES AND ENEMIES IN THE YEARS OF WAR AND PEACE
Book 1.
Website: http://lib.ru/PROZA/KARPOW_W/zhukow.txt
“In the days of the battle for Moscow,” Vladimir Karpov writes further, “a legend about General Vlasov began to emerge. In this battle, he did nothing special, and even on the contrary, he almost did not participate in it due to illness. But after Vlasov went over to the side of the Nazis and began to claim the role of "liberator of the peoples of Russia", he needed a prestigious biography. So they began to invent patriotic exploits for him. One (rather talented writer) wrote a whole book about him, in which he passes Vlasov as the main defender of Moscow.
Since we will have to come into contact with this person more than once, I consider it necessary to dot the "and" at the very beginning of myth-making.
I first heard about Vlasov in the pre-war years, when I was a cadet at the Lenin Tashkent Infantry School. After failures in the Finnish war, the new People's Commissar of Defense, Marshal Timoshenko, issued an order for combat training, the main idea of which was the principle: to teach what is necessary in war, under conditions close to a combat situation. This meant that we would spend most of our study and life in the field.
And there were endless exercises, entrenchments, multi-kilometer day and night marches, independent cooking (porridge) in the field or eating dry rations for several days. The disciplinary screws were tightened to the last degree: for being late from dismissal for a few minutes - arrest, for several hours - a tribunal. Some cadets, even in our school, where there was still a regime of the educational institution, could not withstand such torturous exactingness, and there were cases of suicide.
It was in such draconian conditions that General Vlasov stood out for his cruelty. During an autumn inspection of Red Army units, his 99th Infantry Division was recognized as the best in the ground forces ...
Probably, it is not difficult to imagine what this general was, who distinguished himself in this way in those incredibly difficult conditions of service.
Then Vlasov was awarded the Order of Lenin. And the People's Commissar of Defense Tymoshenko felt so much at the exercises from Vlasov's exactingness that he immediately handed him a gold watch. Krasnaya Zvezda published articles praising and promoting the unyielding exactingness of the commander of the best division. The 99th Infantry Division received the challenge Red Banner of the Red Army.
Vlasov was then considered an officer of crystal clear origin and exemplary of the party side. True, he had a small sin: he was preparing for a youth as a priest - he graduated from a two-year spiritual school in Nizhny Novgorod and then entered a theological seminary, where he studied for another two years. But who could blame the general for this? General Secretary Stalin himself was once the same seminarian. This similarity, perhaps, worked for the authority of Vlasov. All certifications and characteristics emphasize his political maturity and loyalty to the party. He himself writes in his autobiography (in the same 1940):
“He joined the CPSU (b) in 1930 ... He was repeatedly elected a member of the party bureau of the school and regiment.
Pay attention - he sat in the tribunal during the years of the most brutal repressions (1937-1939). I do not have materials about who exactly the future fighter with Bolshevism condemned and sent to the other world for anti-Soviet activities, but probably very many, because the sentence to the highest punishment - execution - was the most frequent in those years. (I leave the opportunity to search the archives and highlight this side of Vlasov's activities to other researchers, since I do not have the time and documents for this).
Here are the elephants that Vlasov ends with the description of his party portrait:
"I had no party penalties. He never was a member of other parties and oppositions and did not take any part, did not hesitate. He always stood firmly on the general party line and always fought for it. He was never brought to court by the organs of the Soviet power. ...
In general, a crystal clear, recklessly devoted communist. Vlasov is disingenuous about "not being abroad". He was abroad, in China, a little more than a year, from September 1938 to December 1939.
On this account, I have an interesting document:
REFERENCE
Secret
The candidacy of Colonel Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov was checked through the NKVD along the line of the Intelligence Directorate for sending on a business trip abroad. Check No. 167 of August 11, 1938 was received that compromising
no materials.
What task Vlasov performed, I also leave for clarification to other authors. At the end of this episode from Vlasov's life, I will only say that he signed a non-disclosure agreement, and therefore had the legal right not to mention the assignment. However, I will add such a touch to give readers food for thought. The intelligence department, using Vlasov only once, for some reason did not leave him in their cadres, but wrote a good description of his loyalty to the party and, as they say, peacefully returned the service to the troops. The conclusion in the characteristic is as follows: "Comrade Vlasov, being on a business trip, coped with the work."
I have served for many years in this respected department and I know: getting into intelligence is a very difficult business, but leaving it is even more difficult. When an officer is returned to the army after the first test, there is something behind this that does not favor this person.
I am writing about this not because it is supposed to write about a traitor - there is no Internet. The fact speaks for itself: for some reason, Vlasov did not come to the court in intelligence.
Thus, Vlasov could not complain about the difficult promotion in the service. On the contrary - a dizzying take-off: he commanded a division for an incomplete year (from January to October 1940), an incomplete month in a corps (from 22.6 to 13.7.41), from September 1941 he commanded the 37th Army until the day Kiev was surrendered. November appointed commander of the 20th Army,
which defended Moscow as part of the Western Front.
Much has been written in Western and our publications about this period of Vlasov's "military leadership".
I do not want to burden my readers with the refutation of all these fables, citing a few documents that cancel out all tendentious inventions. In his memoirs, General Sandalov, who was then the chief of staff of the 20th Army, writes that Vlasov was only appointed commander, but at the first stage of the battle for Moscow he practically did not enter the command of the army - he was
far from the front line, in the hospital.
The military council of the army, quite naturally, asked different authorities - when will the commander appear? Here is one of the telegraphic responses:
Head of the Main Directorate of Personnel of the Red Army
Major General Vlasov can be sent no earlier than November 25-26 communications
ongoing inflammation of the middle ear.
Chief of Staff of Yu.Z.F. Bodin Beginning voeisanupra y.z.f. Bialik
General Sandalov writes in his memoirs that when he was appointed chief of staff of the 20th Army, he asked Marshal Shaposhnikov: "Who is appointed commander of the army?"
General Vlasov, the commander of the 37th Army of the South-Western Front, who recently escaped from the encirclement, replied Shaposhnikov. - But keep in mind that he is sick now. In the near future we will have to do without it ...
Consequently, Vlasov practically did not take over the command of the 20th Army in November 1941, when the defensive period of the battle for Moscow was going on. In this month, the army was just forming and was in the reserve of the Headquarters.
Vlasov's absence in the "near future," which Shaposhnikov said, stretched out, in fact, for the entire period of the counter-offensive near Moscow.
Here is what General Sandalov writes about Vlasov's first visit to the headquarters of the 20th Army: "The crushing blow of the Kings division and the groups of Remizov and Katukov cost the enemy great losses, crushed his defending units and forced them to go to eastern outskirts of Volokolamsk.
At noon on December 19 in the village. Chismeny began to deploy an army command post. When I and a member of the Military Council, Kulikov, were clarifying the latest position of the troops on the communications center, the adjutant of the army commander entered and informed us of his arrival. Through the window one could see a tall general in dark glasses coming out of a car that stopped at the house. He was wearing a fur bikesha with a raised collar, and he was shod in cloaks. It was General Vlasov. He went to the communications center, and here our first meeting with him took place. Showing the position of the troops on the map, I reported that the front command was very slow in the offensive of the army and to help us threw Katukov's group from the 16th Army to Volokolamsk. Kulikov supplemented my report with the message that General of the Army Zhukov pointed to the passive role of the army commander in the leadership of the army and requires his personal signature on the operational
documents. Silently, frowning, Vlasov listened to all this. He interrogated us several times, referring to the fact that due to ear disease, he does not hear well. Then he grunted to us with a sullen look that he was feeling better and in a day or two he would take control of the army completely ...
In the evening, the group of General Remizov and the naval brigade occupied the suburban settlement of Pushkari and reached the northwestern outskirts of Volokolamsk. A few later Siberians of the 331st division of the King, in cooperation with the tankmen of General Katukov's group, made their way to the eastern and southeastern outskirts of the city. The assault on the city began at night. "
One thing is clear from the above quotes: Vlasov has nothing to do with the capture of Volokolamsk, because he was not there and did not command the army.
As for Solnechnogorsk, the liberation of which is also recorded for the merits of Vlasov, this city was liberated on December 12, long before the first arrival - December 19 - and the quick departure of Vlasov, about which General Sandalov writes.
They may object to me: but General Vlasov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the battles near Moscow! It's right. And it happened like this: all the commanders of the armies for the victory near Moscow were presented with a list to be awarded with such an order. General Vlasov was also on this list - by office, not by business.
But Zhukov was not on the list, and he was not awarded for this brilliant victory in the defense of the capital, and then for a decisive counteroffensive. There was no list ...
The list of army commanders was compiled by Zhukov as the commander of the Western Front, he could not include himself.
But the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Stalin was also not rewarded for this great battle won. Apparently, there was no time ... ".
To the begining
On July 11, 1942, General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was captured by Wehrmacht soldiers. Soon, the military leader agreed to cooperate with the Third Reich. This made him an extremely controversial figure: in Soviet times, the image of Vlasov was extremely negative, and later attempts to understand the motives of his act only gave rise to additional contradictions.
Andrei Vlasov was born into the family of a middle-sized farmer Andrei Vladimirovich Vlasov. The father of the future general was highly respected in the village and was appointed church head. Andrei grew up as a smart child. His brother, Ivan, died on the fronts of the First World War, and his father had high hopes for his youngest son, Andrei. Andrei Vlasov went to study at a theological seminary, but the revolution made adjustments, the former seminarian first became a student at the Nizhny Novgorod agricultural academy, and then went to the Red Army. All his further life was associated with "military science", however, Andrei Vlasov did not renounce his father and the church until the end of his life. In the pocket of his jacket he always kept an icon, a gift from his mother.
Having shown himself on the fronts of the Civil War, Andrei Vlasov was rapidly climbing the army career ladder. Since 1922, Vlasov held command and staff positions, and was also engaged in teaching. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Army Command Course "Shot". In 1930 he joined the CPSU (b). In 1935 he became a student at the Frunze Military Academy. Historians have different accounts of Vlasov's fate in the late 30s. According to one version, Vlasov was a member of the tribunal of the Leningrad and Kiev military districts and was directly involved in the Stalinist "purge" of the senior command staff. Historians agree on one point: in the fall of 1938, Vlasov was sent to China to work as part of a group of military advisers under Chiang Kai-shek. The Chinese side treated Andrei Vlasov with great reverence. Before leaving, Chiang Kai-shek personally awarded Vlasov with the Order of the Golden Dragon, and Chiang Kai-shek's wife presented the Soviet commander with a watch.
Andrei Vlasov met the war near Lvov with the rank of commander of the 4th mechanized corps. Later he was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which was defending Kiev. Vlasov was the last of the commanders to learn about Stalin's order to leave Kiev and his units were surrounded. The situation was very tense. In those days, more than half a million soldiers died, but Vlasov managed to get through the encirclement with minimal losses.
After leaving the encirclement near Kiev, Vlasov ended up in a hospital, but he did not manage to stay there for a long time. Stalin personally summoned the general to a meeting. The fate of Moscow was at stake. In the battle of Moscow, Andrei Vlasov again distinguished himself. With only 15 tanks, the Vlasov units stopped Walter Model's tank army in the Moscow suburb of Solnechegorsk, and drove the Germans back 100 kilometers, liberating three cities. In the newspapers of that time, General Vlasov was called nothing less than "the savior of Moscow." On the instructions of the Main Political Directorate, a book was written about Vlasov called "The Stalinist Commander". Vlasov did not rest on his laurels. Now he was sent to lead the 2nd Shock Army, which was blockaded in Myasny Bor. This became a fatal appointment for General Vlasov, and he understood this perfectly.
Vlasov is among the commanders who distinguished themselves in the battle of Moscow. Izvestia newspaper
On July 11, 1942, Andrei Vlasov surrendered to the soldiers of the Wehrmacht. According to the testimony of his personal chef, Voronova MI, it happened by chance: “being surrounded, Vlasov, among 30-40 staff workers, tried to unite with units of the Red Army, but nothing worked. Wandering through the forest, we connected with the leadership of one division, the commander of which was Cherny, and there were already about 200 of us. Around June 1942, near Novgorod, the Germans found us in the forest and imposed a battle, after which Vlasov, myself, the soldier Kotov and the driver Pogibko escaped into the swamp, crossed it and went to the villages. Deadly with the wounded soldier Kotov we went to one village, and Vlasov and I went to another. When we entered the village, I do not know its name, we went into one house, where we were mistaken for partisans, the local "self-defense" surrounded the house, and we were arrested. We were put in a collective farm barn, and the next day the Germans arrived, showed Vlasov a portrait cut out of the newspaper in his general's uniform, and Vlasov was forced to admit that he was indeed Lieutenant General Vlasov. Before that, he was recommended as a refugee teacher. "
The Geneva conference obliged the captured soldier to report the following about himself: name, rank, name of the military unit. The prisoner was not obliged to report the rest of the information, and the convention forbade to pull out this information by force. Although in practice there was anything, but General Vlasov was not beaten or tortured. He gave testimony very willingly himself, beginning with the fact that he joined the Communist Party for the sake of a career. Vlasov praised the work of the German aviation and artillery, illustrating the enemy's successes with the exact number of killed and captured. He apologized for not knowing the answer to some of the questions.
The Germans offered him cooperation - he agreed. And soon Vlasov organized the Russian Liberation Army on the basis of the "Russian battalions" created earlier. It should be noted that the Russian liberation movement arose long before the surrender of General Vlasov and from the very beginning of the war, when there were massive surrenders of Soviet soldiers and officers who did not want to fight for Stalin. The commander of Army Group Center, von Bock, in an order dated July 8, 1941, wrote: "The counting of prisoners and weapons captured to date gave the following figures: 287 704, including many divisional and corps commanders, 2585 captured or destroyed tanks, including super-heavy types." ... Many military units in full force went over to the side of the enemy - as, for example, did the 436th Infantry Regiment of Major Ivan Kononov on August 22, 1941.
Here are some more examples. In July 1941, the commander of the 48th Infantry Division, Major General Pavel Bogdanov, surrendered and invited the Germans to form a detachment from prisoners of war for operations on the Eastern Front.
In August 1941, the commander of the 102nd rifle division, brigade commander Ivan Bessonov, went over to the enemy's side, creating a special unit to fight the partisans.
Nevertheless, the collaborationist "Russian forces" needed their own leader. This was the “Stalinist commander” Vlasov.
It is difficult to find a large-scale analogy between the Russian liberation movement and the army of General Vlasov. Still, up to two million "Russians" served in the troops of the Third Reich - prisoners of war, residents of the occupied regions, emigrants. Collaboration in all other Nazi-occupied countries was much more modest. Quisling's regimes in Norway and Mussert's in the Netherlands relied on a small percentage of the population. The only experience of collaborationism, comparable in level with the Soviet one, was observed in France, where more than half of the adult male population collaborated with the Germans in one form or another.
Vlasov tried to persuade other captured Soviet generals to do the same on the instructions of the Germans. Here is his own testimony from the testimony at the trial: “In December 1942. Shtrikfeldt arranged a meeting for me in the propaganda department with Lieutenant General Ponedelin, the former commander of the 12th. In a conversation with Ponedelin, the latter flatly refused my offer to take part in the creation of the Russian volunteer army ... Then I had a meeting with Major General Snegov, the former commander of the 8th Rifle Corps of the Red Army, who also did not agree to take part in the work I was doing ... After that, Shtrikfeldt took me to one of the POW camps, where I met with Lieutenant General Lukin, the former commander of the 19th Army, whose leg was amputated after being wounded and his right arm did not function. Alone with me, he said that he did not believe in the Germans, he would not serve, and rejected my offer. Having failed in conversations with Ponedelin, Snegov and Lukin, I never addressed any of the prisoners of war generals ... "
The relationship between Vlasov and the Germans was not easy. In the spring of 1943, the Wehrmacht command prepared a plan for the propaganda operation "Prosvet", according to which the Red Army men had to make sure that not only the Germans, but also their "former comrades fighting for a free Russia" were fighting with them on one of the front sectors. The Nazis were going to hold this action near Leningrad, between Oranienbaum and Peterhof. The stake was placed on Vlasov's personal participation in it, but it was during this period that the general began to speak to prisoners of war with statements about the future independent Russia.
Naturally, the Nazi leadership was outraged. The general was put under house arrest. So he avoided participating in the provocation. The review "On the structure and activities of the Russian Liberation Army headed by Vlasov", compiled by the Leningrad Chekists at the end of August 1943, said: "During July-August, the propaganda of the" Vlasov movement "in anti-Soviet radio broadcasts in Russian was reduced to almost nothing. Nothing has been heard about the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) and Vlasov. "
The opal ended only in the fall of 1944, when Vlasov proclaimed 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 in the revolution of 1917, the conclusion of an honorable peace with Germany, the creation in Russia of a new free statehood, "the establishment of the national labor system", "the all-round development of international cooperation", "the elimination of compulsory labor "," liquidation of collective farms "," granting the intelligentsia the right to create freely. "
And Vlasov becomes the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the KONR, which the Germans allowed at the level of three divisions, one reserve brigade, two aviation squadrons and an officer school - only about 50 thousand people. It is clear that the Germans already agreed to everything - the war was approaching the borders of Germany, and Hitler needed any help.
But something strange is happening here. On May 6, 1945, an anti-Hitler uprising broke out in Prague. At the call of the rebellious Czechs, the First Division of the army of General Vlasov enters Prague. She engages in battle with units of the SS and the Wehrmacht, armed to the teeth, captures the airport, where fresh German units arrive. And the Vlasovites liberates the city. The Czechs are jubilant.
True, Vlasov himself was not in Parga - he was looking for ways of salvation for his army. At the end of April 1945, the Spanish dictator Franco granted Vlasov political asylum and sent a special plane for him, which was ready to deliver Vlasov to Spain. But the general refused to abandon his soldiers. The Americans offered to shelter him, but the second time Vlasov refused to leave his subordinates. Seeking political asylum for the soldiers and officers of the KONR Armed Forces, Vlasov went to the headquarters of the US 3rd Army in Pilsen in Czechoslovakia, but on the way was captured by the soldiers of the 25th Panzer Corps of the Red Army.
On the same day, the general was taken to Moscow by a transport plane. Then he went to Lefortovo, to the special prison SMERSH, where they began to call him “prisoner No. 32”.
The investigation lasted over a year. Why? Retired NKVD officers claim that they bargained with Andrei Vlasov for a long time - repent, they say, to the people and the leader. Admit your mistakes. And they will forgive. May be. But the general was consistent in his actions, as when he did not leave the soldiers in the Czech Republic. On August 2, 1946, an official TASS report published in all central newspapers - on August 1, 1946, Lieutenant General of the Red Army Vlasov A.A. and his 11 associates were hanged.
Many years later, some modern historians suspected that Vlasov was from the very beginning an agent of SMERSH. The documents on the secret operation were declassified: they say, Stalin, under the guise of a captured general, sent a murderer to the Germans who was ready to strangle Hitler even with his bare hands - given the gigantic growth of Vlasov and his enormous physical strength, it would have been quite easy for Andrei Andreevich to do this. But Hitler refused to meet with Vlasov.
Secondly, by his actions, Vlasov really made it clear to all Russians who are ready to cooperate with the Nazis that the Russian liberation movement is not on the path with Hitler's bloodthirsty maniacs, that the Third Reich is only a temporary ally in the fight against Bolshevism and nothing more.
Of course, there is no evidence of Vlasov's work for Soviet intelligence, but one small nuance attracts attention: the fate of his family. It is known that Stalin never stood on ceremony with the relatives of the "enemies of the people". But the Vlasov family is an exception. Vlasov's first wife, Anna Mikhailovna, was arrested immediately after her husband's capture in 1942. According to the verdict of the "troika" she received 5 years in prison, spent the term in the Nizhny Novgorod prison, lived and lived in the town of Balakhna a few years ago. The second wife, Agnessa Pavlovna Podmazenko, whom the general married in 1941, also received five years in the camps, after which she lived and worked as a doctor at the Brest Regional Skin and Venereal Diseases Dispensary. Her son still lives in Samara.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vlasov Andrey Andreevich
Lieutenant General of the Red Army.
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 4th Mechanized Corps, 20th Army, 37th Army, 2nd Shock Army (1941-1942) St. Andrew's flag Russian Liberation Army (1942-1945)
Battles / wars
1 Biography
1.1 In the ranks of the Red Army (before the start of World War II)
1.2 In the initial period of the Great Patriotic War
1.3 In the 2nd Shock Army
1.4 German captivity
1.5 German captivity and cooperation with the Germans
1.6 Capture by the Red Army, trial and execution
1.6.1 Rumors of execution
2 The image of Vlasov in the memoirs of the commanders of the Red Army
3 Vlasov and other surrounded
4 Reconsideration of the case
5 Arguments of Vlasov's supporters
6 Arguments of opponents of Vlasov and his rehabilitation
7 Alternative versions of going over to the side of the Germans
Biography
Almost everything that is known about Vlasov's life before captivity became known from his own stories to friends and associates who met him either after the start of the Great Patriotic War, or during his stay in captivity, when he, nominally, became the ideological leader of the Russian Liberation movements, and who made up their memories of him.
Born September 14, 1901 in the village of Lomakino, now the Gaginsky district of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Russian. He was the thirteenth child, the youngest son. The family lived in poverty, which prevented the father from fulfilling his desire to give all his children an education. Andrey had to pay for his education to his older brother, Ivan, who sent his brother to receive a spiritual education at a seminary in Nizhny Novgorod. Seminary education was interrupted by the 1917 revolution. In 1918, Andrei went to study to be an agronomist, but in 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army.
In the Red Army since 1919. After completing a 4-month commanding course, he became a platoon commander and took part in battles with the Armed Forces in the South of Russia on the Southern Front. He served in the 2nd Don Division. After the elimination of the white troops in the North Caucasus, the division in which Vlasov served was transferred to Northern Tavria against the troops of P.N. Wrangel. Vlasov was appointed company commander, then transferred to the headquarters. At the end of 1920, a detachment in which Vlasov commanded cavalry and foot reconnaissance, was deployed to liquidate the insurrectionary movement of N.I.Makhno.
Since 1922, Vlasov held command and staff positions, and was also engaged in teaching. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Army Command Course "Shot". In 1930 he joined the CPSU (b). In 1935 he became a student at the Frunze Military Academy. Historian A. N. Kolesnik argued that in 1937-1938. Vlasov was a member of the tribunal of the Leningrad and Kiev military districts. During this time, the tribunal has not passed a single acquittal.
From August 1937 he was the commander of the 133rd Infantry Regiment of the 72nd Infantry Division, and from April 1938 he was the assistant commander of this division. In the fall of 1938, he was sent to China to work as part of a group of military advisers, which testifies to the full confidence in Vlasov on the part of the political leadership. From May to November 1939, he served as chief military adviser. At parting, before leaving China, Chiang Kai-shek was awarded the Order of the Golden Dragon, Chiang Kai-shek's wife presented Vlasov with a watch. Both the order and the watch were taken away from Vlasov by the authorities upon his return to the USSR.
In January 1940, Major General Vlasov was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division, which in October of the same year was awarded the Challenge Red Banner and recognized as the best division in the Kiev Military District. Marshal Timoshenko called the division the best in the entire Red Army. For this A. Vlasov was awarded a gold watch and the Order of the Red Banner. The newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" published an article about Vlasov, praising his military abilities, his attention and care for his subordinates, accurate and careful fulfillment of his duties.
In his autobiography, written in April 1940, he noted: “I had no hesitation. He has always stood firm on the general line of the party and has always fought for it. "
In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Kiev Special Military District, and a month later he was awarded the Order of Lenin.
In the initial period of the Great Patriotic War
The war for Vlasov began near Lvov, where he served as commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps. For his skillful actions he received gratitude, and on the recommendation of NS Khrushchev was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended Kiev. After fierce battles, the scattered formations of this army managed to break through to the east, and Vlasov himself was wounded and ended up in a hospital.
In November 1941, Stalin summoned Vlasov and ordered him to form the 20th Army, which would be part of the Western Front and defend the capital.
On December 5, in the area of the village of Krasnaya Polyana (located 32 km from the Moscow Kremlin), the Soviet 20th Army under the command of General Vlasov stopped units of the German 4th Panzer Army, making a significant contribution to the victory near Moscow. In Soviet times, a documentarily unfounded and unreliable version appeared that Vlasov himself was in the hospital at that time, and that either the commander of the task force, A.I. Lizyukov, or the chief of staff, L.M. Sandalov, led the hostilities.
Overcoming stubborn enemy resistance, the 20th Army drove the Germans out of Solnechnogorsk and Volokolamsk. On December 13, 1941, the Soviet Information Bureau published an official message about the repulsion of the Germans from Moscow and printed in it photographs of those commanders who distinguished themselves in the defense of the capital. Among them was Vlasov. On January 24, 1942, for these battles, Vlasov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and promoted to lieutenant general.
Zhukov assessed Vlasov's actions as follows: “Personally, Lieutenant General Vlasov is well prepared in operational terms, he has organizational skills. He copes well with command and control of troops. "
After the successes near Moscow, A. A. Vlasov in the army, following Stalin, is called nothing but the "savior of Moscow." On the instructions of the Main Political Directorate, a book was written about Vlasov called "The Stalinist Commander". John Erickson, a specialist in the history of World War II in the USSR, called Vlasov "one of Stalin's favorite commanders."
Vlasov was trusted to give interviews to foreign correspondents, which speaks of trust in Vlasov on the part of the country's top political leadership.
In the 2nd shock army
On January 7, 1942, the Luban operation began. The troops of the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front, created to disrupt the German offensive against Leningrad and the subsequent counterattack, successfully broke through the enemy's defenses in the area of the settlement of Myasnoy Bor (on the left bank of the Volkhov River) and penetrated deeply into its location (in the direction of Lyuban). But lacking the strength for a further offensive, the army found itself in a difficult situation. The enemy cut her communications several times, creating a threat of encirclement.
On March 8, 1942, Lieutenant General A.A. Vlasov was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. On March 20, 1942, the commander of the Volkhov Front, K.A.Meretskov, sent his deputy A.A.Vlasov at the head of a special commission to the 2nd Shock Army (Lieutenant General N.K. Klykov). “For three days, the members of the commission talked with commanders of all ranks, with political workers, with soldiers,” and on April 8, 1942, having drawn up an inspection report, the commission left, but without General AA Vlasov. On April 16, the seriously ill General Klykov was removed from the army commander and sent by plane to the rear.
On April 20, 1942, A.A. Vlasov was appointed commander of the 2nd Shock Army, while remaining concurrently deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.
The question naturally arose, who should be entrusted with the leadership of the troops of the 2nd Shock Army? On the same day, AA Vlasov and Divisional Commissioner IV Zuev had a telephone conversation with Meretskov. Zuev proposed to appoint Vlasov to the post of army commander, and Vlasov to the chief of staff of the army, Colonel P.S. Vinogradov. The military council of the [Volkhov] front supported Zuev's idea. So ... Vlasov from April 20, 1942 (Monday) became the commander of the 2nd shock army, while remaining at the same time the deputy commander of the [Volkhov] front. He received troops that were practically no longer capable of fighting, he received an army that had to be saved ...
V. Beshanov. Leningrad defense.
During May-June, the 2nd Shock Army under the command of A.A.Vlasov made desperate attempts to break out of the bag.
We will hit Polist from the line at 20 o'clock on June 4. We do not hear the actions of the troops of the 59th Army from the east, there is no long-range artillery fire.
German captivity
The commander of the Volkhov operational group, Lieutenant-General M.S. As a result, the 2nd Shock Army was surrounded, and Khozin himself was removed from office on June 6. The measures taken by the command of the Volkhov Front managed to create a small corridor through which scattered groups of exhausted and demoralized fighters and commanders emerged.
THE MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE VOLKHOVSKY FRONT. I report: the army's troops have been conducting intense fierce battles with the enemy for three weeks ... The personnel of the troops are exhausted to the limit, the number of deaths is increasing and the morbidity from exhaustion is increasing every day. As a result of the cross-fire of the army area, the troops suffer heavy losses from artillery fire and enemy aircraft ... The combat strength of the formations has sharply decreased. It is no longer possible to replenish it at the expense of the rear and special units. Everything that was taken. On the sixteenth of June in battalions, brigades and rifle regiments, an average of several dozen people remained. All attempts by the eastern group of the army to break through the passage in the corridor from the west were unsuccessful.
Vlasov. Zuev. Vinogradov.
JUNE 21, 1942. 8 HOURS 10 MINUTES. TO THE HEAD OF GSHKA. FRONT MILITARY COUNCIL. For three weeks the troops of the army receive fifty grams of crackers. The last days there was no food at all. We finish eating the last horses. People are extremely emaciated. Group deaths from hunger are observed. No ammunition ...
Vlasov. Zuev.
On June 25, the enemy eliminated the corridor. The testimonies of various witnesses do not answer the question of where Lieutenant General A.A. Vlasov hid for the next three weeks - whether he was wandering in the forest or there was a certain spare command post, to which his group was making their way. Reflecting on his fate, Vlasov compared himself with General A.V. Samsonov, who also commanded the 2nd Army and also fell into German encirclement. Samsonov shot himself. According to Vlasov, what distinguished him from Samsonov was that the latter had something for which he considered worthy to give his life. Vlasov considered that he would not commit suicide in the name of Stalin.
German captivity and cooperation with the Germans
General Vlasov's order to end the bullying of soldiers.
Main article: Vlasovites
Wikisource has the full text of the Open Letter "Why I took the path of fighting Bolshevism"
While in the Vinnitsa military camp for captive senior officers, Vlasov agreed to cooperate with the Nazis and headed the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) and the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), composed of captured Soviet servicemen.
Not a single photograph of this period of Vlasov's life has survived, in which he would have been dressed in a German military uniform (which distinguished Vlasov from his subordinates). He always wore a simple khaki uniform with wide cuffs and uniform trousers with general's stripes, specially tailored for him (because of his huge physique) in military cut. The buttons on the uniform were without military symbols, on the uniform there were no insignia or awards, including the ROA emblem on the sleeve. Only on the general's cap did he wear the white-blue-red ROA badge.
Vlasov wrote an open letter "Why did I take the path of fighting Bolshevism." In addition, he signed leaflets calling for the overthrow of the Stalinist regime, which were subsequently scattered by the Nazi army from aircraft at the fronts, and also distributed among prisoners of war.
In early May 1945, a conflict arose between Vlasov and Bunyachenko - Bunyachenko intended to support the Prague uprising, and Vlasov persuaded him not to do this and stay on the side of the Germans. At the negotiations in the North Bohemian Kozoids, they did not agree and their paths diverged.
Capture by the Red Army, trial and execution
On May 12, 1945, Vlasov was captured by servicemen of the 25th Panzer Corps of the 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front near the city of Pilsen in Czechoslovakia while trying to move into the western zone of occupation. The corps tankmen pursued the convoy in which Vlasov was, at the direction of the Vlasov captain, who told them that it was in it that his commander was. According to the Soviet version, Vlasov was found wrapped in a carpet on the floor of a jeep. it
seems unlikely, given the interior space in the jeep and the addition of Vlasov. After the arrest, he was taken to the headquarters of Marshal I. S. Konev, from there to Moscow. From that moment until August 2, 1946, when a report about his trial was published in the Izvestia newspaper, nothing was reported about Vlasov.
Wikisource logo
The Wikisource contains the full text of the General A.A. Vlasov and his accomplices.
At first, the leadership of the USSR planned to hold a public trial over Vlasov and other leaders of the ROA in the October Hall of the House of Unions, but later abandoned this intention. According to the version of the Russian historian K. M. Aleksandrov, the reason could be that some of the accused could express views during the trial that "objectively may coincide with the moods of a certain part of the population dissatisfied with the Soviet regime."
From the criminal case of A.A. Vlasov:
Ulrich: Accused Vlasov, what exactly do you plead guilty to?
Vlasov: I plead guilty that being in difficult conditions, I lost my heart ...
It seems that at the trial Vlasov tried to take full responsibility on himself, obviously believing that in this way he would be able to mitigate the sentences for his subordinates.
The decision on the death sentence against Vlasov and others was made by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on July 23, 1946. From July 30 to July 31, 1946, a closed trial took place in the case of Vlasov and a group of his followers. They were all found guilty of high treason. By the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, they were stripped of their military ranks and on August 1, 1946, they were hanged, and their property was confiscated.
Rumors of execution
According to rumors, the execution was organized with terrible cruelty - all those executed were hanged on a piano string wire, on a hook, pushed under the base of the skull.
The image of Vlasov in the memoirs of the commanders of the Red Army
The transfer of the commander of the 2nd Shock Army A.A. Vlasov to the service of the Germans was one of the most unpleasant episodes of the war for Soviet historiography. There were other Red Army officers who took the path of fighting the Soviet regime, but Vlasov was the most senior and most famous of all. In Soviet historiography, no attempts were made to analyze the motives of his act - his name was either automatically denigrated or, at best, was simply hushed up.
A.V. Isaev noted that many of Vlasov's colleagues, who wrote their memoirs after the war, were put in an awkward position:
You write well about the former commander, they will say: "How could you not see such a bastard?" If you write badly, they will say: “Why didn't you ring the bells? Why didn't you report and tell where you should go? "
For example, one of the officers of the 32nd Panzer Division of the 4th Mechanized Corps describes his meeting with Vlasov as follows: “Leaning out of the cockpit, I noticed that the regimental commander was talking to a tall general with glasses. I recognized him immediately.
This is the commander of our 4th Mechanized Corps. I went up to them, introduced myself to the corps commander. " The surname "Vlasov" is not mentioned at all throughout the story of the battles in Ukraine in June 1941.
Also, M. E. Katukov simply chose not to mention that his brigade was subordinate to the army commanded by A. A. Vlasov. And the former chief of staff of the 20th Army of the Western Front, L.M. Sandalov, in his memoirs bypassed the unpleasant question of getting to know his commander with the help of the version about A.A.Vlasov's illness. Later, this version was supported and developed by other researchers, who argued that from November 29 to December 21, 1941, Colonel Sandalov acted as commander of the 20th Army of the Western Front, and it was under his actual leadership that the 20th Army liberated Krasnaya Polyana, Solnechnogorsk and Volokolamsk.
If Vlasov was mentioned in his memoirs, it was rather in a negative way. For example, the cavalryman Stuchenko writes:
Suddenly, three or four hundred meters from the front line, the figure of the commander of the army Vlasov in a gray astrakhan hat with earflaps and an invariable pince-nez appears from behind a bush; behind an adjutant with a machine gun. My irritation poured over the edge:
What are you walking around here? There is nothing to watch here. Here people are dying in vain. Is that how the fight is organized? Is that how they use cavalry?
I thought: now he will be removed from office. But Vlasov, feeling unwell under fire, asked in a not quite confident voice:
Well, how should you attack, in your opinion?
KA Meretskov spoke in approximately the same spirit, retelling the words of the chief of communications of the 2nd Shock Army, General Afanasyev: “It is characteristic that Vlasov, commander-2, did not take any part in the discussion of the planned actions of the group. He was completely indifferent to all changes in the movement of the group. " A. V. Isaev suggested that this description could be "relatively accurate and objective", since Afanasyev witnessed a breakdown in Vlasov's personality, which led to betrayal: the commander of the 2nd shock was taken prisoner literally a few days after "discussion of the planned actions" ...
Marshal Vasilevsky, who became chief of the General Staff of the Red Army in the spring of 1942, also wrote in his memoirs about Vlasov in a negative way:
“The commander of the 2nd shock army, Vlasov, did not stand out for his great commanding abilities, and, moreover, by nature, extremely unstable and cowardly, was completely inactive. The difficult situation created for the army demoralized him even more; he made no attempts to quickly and secretly withdraw his troops. As a result, all the troops of the 2nd Shock Army were surrounded. "
According to the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies L. Reshetnikov:
For the Soviet people, "Vlasovism" became a symbol of betrayal, and he himself was a Judas of that time. It got to the point that the namesakes wrote in the questionnaires: "I am not a relative of a traitor-general."
In this regard, search activities in the Myasny Bor area were also hampered. Local authorities adhered to the version that “traitors-Vlasovites lie in Myasnoy Bor”. This saved them from the extra hassle of organizing the funeral, and the state from the cost of helping the families of the victims. Only in the 1970s, thanks to the initiative of the search engine N.I. Orlov, the first three military cemeteries appeared near Myasny Bor.
Vlasov and other surrounded
Many of those who remained in the encirclement held out to the end, mostly fighters captured in the corridor and lightly wounded from large hospitals were captured. Many, under threat of capture, shot themselves, such as, for example, Divisional Commissar IV Zuev, a member of the Army Military Council. Others were able to go out to their own or make their way to the partisans, such as the commissar of the 23rd brigade ND Allakhverdiev, who became the commander of the partisan detachment. Soldiers of the 267th division, military doctor of the 3rd rank E.K. Gurinovich, nurse Zhuravleva, commissar Vdovenko, and others also fought in the partisan detachments.
But there were few of them, most were taken prisoner. Basically, completely exhausted, exhausted people were captured, often wounded, shell-shocked, in a semi-conscious state, such as, for example, the poet, senior political instructor M. M. Zalilov (Musa Jalil). Many did not even have time to shoot at the enemy, suddenly colliding with the Germans.
However, being captured, the Soviet soldiers did not cooperate with the Germans. Several officers who went over to the side of the enemy are an exception to the general rule: in addition to General A.A. Vlasov, the commander of the 25th brigade, Colonel P.G.Sheludko, officers of the headquarters of the 2nd shock army, Major Verstkin, Colonel Goryunov and quartermaster 1 changed the oath. rank Zhukovsky.
For example, the commander of the 327th Rifle Division, Major General I. M. Antyufeev, being wounded, was captured on July 5. Antiufeev refused to help the enemy, and the Germans sent him to a camp in Kaunas, then he worked at the mine. After the war, Antyufeev was reinstated in the rank of general, continued his service in the Soviet Army and retired as a major general. The head of the medical and sanitary service of the 2nd shock army, 1st rank military doctor Boborykin, specially remained surrounded in order to save the wounded in the army hospital. On May 28, 1942, the command awarded him the Order of the Red Banner. While in captivity, he wore the uniform of the commander of the Red Army and continued to provide medical assistance to prisoners of war. After returning from captivity, he worked at the Military Medical Museum in Leningrad.
At the same time, numerous cases are known when prisoners of war and in captivity continued to fight the enemy.
The feat of Musa Jalil and his Moabit Notebooks are widely known. There are other examples as well. The head of the sanitary service and the brigade doctor of the 23rd rifle brigade, Major N.I. After eight months of hard work in Amberg, on April 7, 1943, he was transferred as a doctor to the camp hospital in the city of Ebelsbach (Lower Bavaria). There he became one of the organizers of the "Revolutionary Committee", turning his infirmary in the Mauthausen camp into the center of the patriotic underground. The Gestapo tracked down the "Committee", and on July 13, 1944, he was arrested, and on September 25, 1944, he was shot along with other 125 underground fighters. The commander of the 844th regiment of the 267th division V.A.Pospelov and the chief of staff of the regiment B.G. Nazirov were captured wounded, where they continued to fight the enemy and in April 1945 led the uprising in the Buchenwald concentration camp.
An illustrative example is the political instructor of a company of the 1004th regiment of the 305th division D.G. Telnykh. Wounded (wounded in the leg) and shell-shocked, captured in June 1942, he was sent to the camps, finally ending up in the camp at the Schwarzberg mine. In June 1943 Telnykh escaped from the camp, after which the Belgian peasants in the village of Waterloo helped to contact the partisan detachment No. 4 from the Soviet prisoners of war (Lieutenant Colonel of the Red Army Kotovets). The detachment was part of the Russian partisan brigade "For the Motherland" (Lieutenant Colonel K. Shukshin). Telnykh took part in battles, soon became a platoon commander, and from February 1944 - a company political instructor. In May 1945, the For the Motherland brigade captured the city of Maizak and held it for eight hours until the arrival of British troops. After the war, Telnykh, together with other fellow partisans, returned to serve in the Red Army.
Two months earlier, in April 1942, when the 33rd Army was withdrawn from the encirclement, its commander M.G. Efremov and officers of the army headquarters committed suicide. And if MG Efremov with his death "whitewashed even those faint-hearted who wavered in difficult times and abandoned their commander to escape alone," then the soldiers of the 2nd shock were looked at through the prism of AA Vlasov's betrayal.
Reconsideration of the case
In 2001, Hieromonk Nikon (Belavenets), head of the For Faith and Fatherland movement, petitioned the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office to review the verdict for Vlasov and his associates. However, the military prosecutor's office concluded that there were no grounds for applying the law on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression.
On November 1, 2001, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to rehabilitate A.A. Vlasov and others, overturning the verdict in terms of conviction under Part 2 of Art. 5810 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) and terminating the case in this part for lack of corpus delicti. The rest of the sentence was upheld.
Arguments of Vlasov's supporters
The version of patriotism of A.A. Vlasov and his movement has its supporters and is the subject of discussions to this day.
Vlasov's supporters argue that Vlasov and those who joined the Russian liberation movement were driven by patriotic feelings and remained loyal to their homeland, but not to their government. One of the arguments presented in favor of this point of view was that “if the state provides a citizen with protection, it has the right to demand loyalty from him,” if the Soviet state refused to sign the Geneva Agreement and thereby deprived its captive citizens of protection, then the citizens were no longer are obliged to remain loyal to the state and, therefore, were not traitors.
In early September 2009, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, at its meetings, touched upon the controversy regarding the book of the church historian, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov, “The Tragedy of Russia.
“Forbidden” Topics of the 20th Century History in Church Sermon and Journalism ”. In particular, it was noted that:
The tragedy of those who are called "Vlasovites" ... is truly great. In any case, it must be comprehended with all possible impartiality and objectivity. Outside of such comprehension, historical science turns into political journalism. We ... should avoid the "black and white" interpretation of historical events. In particular, the naming of the actions of General A.A. Vlasov - treason, is, in our opinion, a frivolous simplification of the events of that time. In this sense, we fully support the attempt by Father Georgy Mitrofanov to approach this issue (or rather, a whole series of questions) with a measure adequate to the complexity of the problem. In the Russian Diaspora, of which the surviving members of the ROA became a part, General A.A. Vlasov was and remains a kind of symbol of resistance to godless Bolshevism in the name of the revival of Historical Russia. ... Everything that was undertaken by them was done specifically for the Fatherland, in the hope that the defeat of Bolshevism would lead to the re-creation of a powerful national Russia. Germany was considered by the "Vlasovites" exclusively as an ally in the struggle against Bolshevism, but they, the "Vlasovites" were ready, if necessary, to resist any kind of colonization or dismemberment of our Motherland by armed force. We hope that in the future Russian historians will treat the events of that time with greater justice and impartiality than is happening today.
Arguments of opponents of Vlasov and his rehabilitation
Vlasov's opponents believe that since Vlasov and those who joined him fought against the Soviet Union on the side of his enemy, they were traitors and collaborators. According to these researchers, Vlasov and the fighters of the Russian liberation movement went over to the side of the Wehrmacht not for political reasons, but to save their own lives, they were skillfully used by the Nazis for propaganda purposes, and Vlasov was nothing more than an instrument in the hands of the Nazis.
The Russian historian M.I.Frolov notes the great danger of attempts to glorify A.A.Vlasov, naming as their main consequences:
The desire to revise the results of World War II, in particular, to devalue the agreements reached by the victorious countries at the Yalta and Postdam conferences, at the Nuremberg trials over the main Nazi war criminals, to revise the principles of international law, confirmed by the UN General Assembly (12/11/1946), recognized The charter of the tribunal and found expression in its verdict. Thus, various negative geopolitical, ideological and financial consequences for Russia can be achieved.
justification of collaborationism in other countries (in particular, in the Baltic States and Ukraine), the desire to find a moral and psychological justification for the actions of anti-Russian politicians and forces, as well as the formation of public consciousness that recognizes correct separatism.
changing values in society, striving to remove the sources of positive self-awareness of the people, devaluing the victory in the Great Patriotic War by substituting the concepts of "treason - valor", and "cowardice - heroism."
According to the historian, “to represent the traitor Vlasov, collaborators 'in the role of' fighters for Russia, for the Russian people is nothing more than a moral unworthy attempt, a conscious, deliberate distortion of the fundamental values of Russian society - patriotism, love for the Motherland, selfless service the interests of her people. "
In 2009, with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church, the book “The Truth About General Vlasov: Collection of Articles” was published, the main purpose of which, according to its authors, was “to show that the point of view of Archpriest George Mitrofanov, professor of the St. A. Vlasov, for the Great Patriotic War is marginal for the Russian Orthodox Church. " The authors emphasize that the betrayal of Vlasov and the Vlasovites is "our pain and our shame, this is a shameful page in the history of the Russian people."
Alternative versions of going over to the side of the Germans.
In some memoirs, one can find a version that Vlasov was captured even earlier - in the fall of 1941, surrounded by Kiev - where he was recruited and transferred across the front line. He is also credited with the order to destroy all employees of his headquarters, who did not want to surrender with him. So, the writer Ivan Stadnyuk claims that he heard this from General Saburov. This version is not confirmed by the published archival documents.
According to V.I. Filatov and a number of other authors, General A.A. activities against Japan and Germany, and then during the Great Patriotic War was successfully abandoned to the Germans. The execution of Vlasov in 1946 is associated with the "swara" of the special services - the MGB and the NKVD - as a result of which, by the personal decision of Stalin and Abakumov, Vlasov was eliminated as a dangerous and unnecessary witness. Later, a significant part of the materials of the investigation in the "case" of Vlasov, Bunyachenko and other leaders of the Armed Forces of the KONR was destroyed.
There is also a conspiracy theory, according to which, in reality, instead of Vlasov, another person was hanged on August 1, 1946, and Vlasov himself subsequently lived under a different name for many years.
Grigorenko Petr Grigorievich:
“In 1959 I met an officer I knew whom I had seen before the war. We got to talking. The conversation touched the Vlasovites. I said: - I had quite close people there.
- Who? he asked.
- Trukhin Fedor Ivanovich - my group leader at the Academy of the General Staff.
- Trukhin ?! - even jumped up my interlocutor. - Well, so I saw off your teacher on the last trip.
- Like this?
- That's how. You remember, obviously, that when Vlasov was captured, there was a message in the press about this, and it was indicated that the leaders of the ROA would appear before an open court. They were preparing for an open trial, but the behavior of the Vlasovites ruined everything. They refused to plead guilty to treason. All of them - the main leaders of the movement - declared that they fought against the Stalinist terrorist regime. They wanted to free their people from this regime. And therefore they are not traitors, but Russian patriots. They were tortured but achieved nothing. Then they came up with the idea of "planting" each of their friends from their previous life. Each of us, hooked, did not hide why he was hooked. I was not hooked up with Trukhin. He had another, in the past, a very close friend of his. I "worked" with a former friend of mine.
All of us, "planted", were given relative freedom. Trukhin's cell was not far from the one where I “worked”, so I often went there and talked quite a lot with Fyodor Ivanovich. We were given only one task - to persuade Vlasov and his associates to admit their guilt in treason and not say anything against Stalin. For such behavior, it was promised to save their lives.
Some hesitated, but the majority, including Vlasov and Trukhin, firmly adhered to the same position: “I was not a traitor and I will not admit to treason. I hate Stalin. I consider him a tyrant and I will tell about it at the trial. " Our promises of life's blessings did not help. Our scary stories didn't help either. We said that if they did not agree, they would not be judged, but tortured to death. Vlasov said to these threats: “I know. And I'm scared. But it is even more terrible to slander oneself. And our flour will not be wasted. The time will come, and the people will remember us with a kind word. " Trukhin repeated the same.
And an open trial did not work, - my interlocutor concluded his story. - I heard that they were tortured for a long time and were hanged half-dead. As they were hanged, I won't even tell you about it ... "
Gene. P. Grigorenko "Only rats can be found underground"
USSR awards
Order of Lenin (1941)
2 Orders of the Red Banner (1940, 1941)
medal "XX years of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army"
Subsequently, by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, he was deprived of all awards and titles.
Foreign awards
Order of the Golden Dragon (China, 1939).
Watch preliminary "Logicology - about the fate of man".
Consider the tables of the FULL NAME code. \ If on your screen there is an offset of numbers and letters, adjust the scale of the image \.
3 15 16 34 49 52 53 67 72 89 95 105 106 120 125 142 148 154 157 167 191
V L A S O V A N D R E J A N D R E V I Ch
191 188 176 175 157 142 139 138 124 119 102 96 86 85 71 66 49 43 37 34 24
1 15 20 37 43 53 54 68 73 90 96 102 105 115 139 142 154 155 173 188 191
A N D R E J A N D R E V I Ch V L A S O V
191 190 176 171 154 148 138 137 123 118 101 95 89 86 76 52 49 37 36 18 3
Consider reading individual words and sentences:
VLASOV = 52 = KILLED, DELETE = 15-ON + 37-NECK.
ANDREY ANDREEVICH = 139 = 63-THROAT + 76-PERMANENT = 73-CANNON + 66-PLACES.
139 - 52 = 87 = CONDEMNED, THROAT = 3-IN + 84-LOOP.
VLASOV ANDREY = 105 = TO DEPRESS \ lives \, NECK, CHOKE, ASHIXIA.
ANDREEVICH = 86 = BREATH, EXECUTE, DIE.
105 - 86 = 19-GO \ rlo \.
ANDREEVICH VLASOV = 138 = OXYGEN, VISELICHNY, DYING = 75-CONTRACT, COMPRESSES + 63-THROAT.
ANDREW = 53 = DAVID, CLAMPED, CHANGED, LOOP \ i \.
138 - 53 = 85-LOOP, REVENGE, HANGED.
Insert the found numbers into the FULL NAME OF ANDREY VLASOV code:
191 = 106 \ 87 + 19 \ + 85 = 106-CHOKE + 85-HANGED, REVENGE, LOOP.
DATE OF BIRTH: 09/14/1901. This is = 14 + 09 + 19 + 01 = 43 = COURT, SWORD.
191 = 43 + 148-PUNCH, SAY.
DATE OF EXECUTION: 08/01/1946. This is = 1 + 08 + 19 + 46 = 74 = RIGHT, DRAWER, EXTINGUISHED = 19-OUT + 10-FOR + 45-EXECUTION = 30-CARA + 44-PAGUBA = 17-AMBA + 57-HANGED. Where the code of the YEAR of execution = 19 + 46 = 65 = HANGING.
191 = 74 + 117. Where 117 = JUDGMENT, KILLING = 15-ON + 102-VISELITS = 76-Retaliation + 41-BLOW.
FULL DATE OF EXECUTION = 129 + 65-code of the YEAR, HANGING = 194 = 2 X 97-MURDER = 108-INTERRUPT + 86-BREATH.
The number of full years of life = 76-FORTY + 100-FOUR = 176 = RESPIRATORY = 10-FOR + 166-betrayal = 76-retaliation, UNCERTAINED, DECLINED, DESTROYED + 100-HYPOXIA = 106-STRANGULATION + 70-LIFE, EXIT = 111 -JUSTICE + 65-HANGING = 51-PUNISHED, KILLED + 76-CONTRIBUTION + 49-THROAT.
Addition:
191 = 109-REVENGE, CONDEMNED, HANGED, SHAKE + 10-FOR + 72-CHANGE = FORCED = 121-ASPHYXIA + 70-LIFE, EXODUS = 146-MECHANICAL + 45-PUNISHMENT = 75-REVENGE + 116-HANGED 54-KAROY, SKATE, INHALATION, CLAMPING + 137-HANGED = 83-VISELICA + 108-EXECUTED = 97-VERDICT + 94-RUNNED = 61-BATTLE + 67-COMPRESSED + 63-THROAT = 46-STRIKED + 104-VESSELS 41-NECK.
In the summer of 1942, Lieutenant General of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov was captured by the Nazis. He was not the first Soviet general to fall into German hands. But Vlasov, unlike others, went to active cooperation, agreeing to side with Hitler.
From the beginning of the war, the Nazis were looking for collaborators among the captured Soviet military leaders. First of all, the bet was made on those who are older, in the hope of playing on nostalgic feelings for imperial Russia. This calculation, however, did not come true.
Vlasov was a real surprise for the Germans. A man who owed his entire career to the Soviet system, a general who was considered Stalin's favorite, agreed to cooperate with them.
How did General Vlasov end up in captivity, and why did he take the path of betrayal?
"Always stood firm on the general line of the party"
The thirteenth child in a peasant family, Andrei Vlasov was preparing for a career as a priest. The revolution changed priorities - in 1919, an 18-year-old boy was drafted into the army, with which he linked his life. Having shown himself well in the final part of the Civil War, Vlasov continued his military career.
The young commander of the Red Army Vlasov with his wife Anna, 1926.
In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Army Command Course "Shot". In 1930 he joined the CPSU (b). In 1935 he became a student at the Frunze Military Academy.
The repressions of 1937-1938 not only did not hurt Vlasov, but also helped his career growth. In 1938, he was assistant commander of the 72nd Infantry Division. In the fall of 1938, Vlasov was seconded to China as a military adviser, and in 1939 he became the acting chief military adviser of the USSR under the government of Chiang Kai-shek.
After returning to the USSR in January 1940, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division. Soon the division becomes the best in the Kiev military district, and one of the best in the Red Army.
Hero of the first months of the war
In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Kiev Special Military District, and a month later he was awarded the Order of Lenin.War is a difficult test for those officers who make their careers not thanks to knowledge and skills, but with the help of intrigue and groveling in front of their superiors.
However, this does not apply to Vlasov. His corps fought with dignity in the first weeks near Lvov, holding back the onslaught of the Germans. Major General Vlasov earned high praise for his actions, and was appointed commander of the 37th Army.
During the defense of Kiev, Vlasov's army was surrounded, from which hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers and officers did not leave. Vlasov was among the lucky ones who managed to escape from the "cauldron".
In November 1941, Andrei Vlasov received a new appointment. He is ordered to form and lead the 20th Army, which will take part in the counteroffensive near Moscow.
The 20th Army took part in the Klinsko-Solnechnogorsk offensive operation, the troops defeated the main forces of the 3rd and 4th tank groups of the enemy, threw them back to the Lama River - Ruza River line and liberated several settlements, including Volokolamsk.
General Vlasov was awarded in 1942.
Andrei Vlasov was included in the number of heroes of the battle for Moscow by official Soviet propaganda. On January 4, 1942, for these battles, Vlasov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and promoted to lieutenant general.
Appointment to the Volkhov front
Leading Soviet and foreign correspondents are interviewing Vlasov, a book about him is planned to be published. Everything indicates that Vlasov was considered by the top Soviet leadership as one of the most promising military leaders. That is why, at the beginning of March 1942, he was assigned to one of the most important sectors of the Soviet-German front - Vlasov became deputy commander of the Volkhov front.Since January 1942, the troops of the front, in cooperation with units of the Leningrad Front, have been conducting an offensive operation, the purpose of which is to break the blockade of Leningrad. At the forefront of the Soviet offensive is the 2nd Shock Army, which managed to break through the enemy's defenses and advance significantly.
However, the troops had to advance through forest and swampy terrain, which seriously impeded the action. Moreover, the breakthrough was never widened. At the most successful moment, the width of its throat did not exceed 12 kilometers, which created the danger of a counterstrike by the Germans and the encirclement of Soviet units.
In February 1942, the pace of the offensive dropped sharply. The task set by Moscow to take the settlement of Lyuban by March 1 was not fulfilled. On July 12, 1942, the commander of the 2nd Shock Army, General Vlasov, was captured by the Germans. He pointed out the reason: heavy losses of the 2nd Shock Army, lack of reserves, supply problems.
Andrey Vlasov was sent to strengthen the command staff of the front.
Break the blockade at any cost
Things were getting worse. On March 15, 1942, the German counteroffensive began, and a direct threat of encirclement hung over the 2nd Shock Army. They did not stop the offensive and withdraw the divisions. This is usually interpreted as a whim and stupidity of the Soviet leadership.But we must not forget that the offensive was carried out for the sake of the blockade of Leningrad, the famine in the besieged city continued to methodically kill people. Refusing to attack meant a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of people. Fierce battles were fought over the supply corridor of the 2nd Shock Army. It then closed completely, then it broke through again, but already with a much smaller width.
On March 20, a commission headed by Lieutenant General Vlasov was sent to the 2nd Shock Army with a check. The commission returned back without him - he was left to control and help the army commander Nikolai Klykov.
In early April, Klykov fell seriously ill. On April 20, Vlasov was appointed commander of the army, while retaining the post of deputy commander of the front. Vlasov was not delighted with the appointment - he got not fresh, but heavily battered troops, who were in a difficult situation. Meanwhile, the Volkhov Front was united with the Leningrad Front under the general command of Colonel-General Mikhail Khozin. He received orders to release the army.
General Khozin pondered the plans promised to the Headquarters for three weeks, and then suddenly reported that the 2nd Shock Army should be withdrawn to the throat of the breakthrough, expand it, and then gain a foothold on this line, and move the offensive to another sector.
In fact, Khozin repeated what Meretskov had previously insisted on, but three weeks were wasted. All this time, the troops of the 2nd Shock Army, eating bread and horse meat, suffering heavy losses, continued to hold their positions.
On May 14, the Stavka issues a directive on the withdrawal of the 2nd Shock Army from the Luban salient. General Khozin himself received a similar order orally two days earlier.
And what about Vlasov himself? He carried out the duties assigned to him, but did not show any large-scale initiative. Others determined the fate of his army. In spite of everything, the first stage of the withdrawal of the 2nd Shock Army was successful. But the Nazis, realizing that the prey was slipping away, increased the pressure.
The disaster began on May 30. Taking advantage of the overwhelming advantage in aviation, the enemy launched a decisive offensive. On May 31, the corridor through which the 2nd Shock Army was leaving slammed shut, and this time the Germans were able to strengthen their positions in the area.
More than 40 thousand Soviet soldiers were in the "cauldron". The people exhausted by hunger, under the continuous blows of German aviation and artillery, continued to fight, breaking out of the encirclement.
The path to salvation through the "Valley of Death"
Later, Vlasov and his supporters would say that the Soviet command "threw the 2nd shock army to the mercy of fate." This is not true, attempts to release the blockade did not stop, the units tried to break through a new corridor to the encircled ones.On June 8, 1942, General Khozin was removed from office, the Volkhov Front again became a separate unit, and General Meretskov was sent to save the situation. Personally, Stalin set him the task - to withdraw the 2nd shock army from the "cauldron", even without heavy weapons.
Meretskov gathered into a fist all the reserves of the front in order to break through to Vlasov's army. But on the other hand, the Nazis threw more and more forces.
On June 16, a radiogram comes from Vlasov: “The personnel of the troops are exhausted to the limit, the number of deaths is increasing, and the morbidity from exhaustion is increasing every day. As a result of the cross-fire of the army area, the troops suffer heavy losses from artillery fire and enemy aircraft ...
The combat composition of the formations has sharply decreased. It is no longer possible to replenish it at the expense of the rear and special units. Everything that was taken. On the sixteenth of June in battalions, brigades and rifle regiments, an average of several dozen people remained. "
On June 19, 1942, a corridor was breached through which several thousand Soviet soldiers were able to exit. But the next day, under the attacks of aviation, the escape route from the encirclement was again blocked.
On June 21, a corridor with a width of 250 to 400 meters was opened. He was shot through and through, people died in hundreds, but still several thousand people were able to go out to their own.
On the same day, a new radiogram came from Vlasov: “For three weeks the army troops receive fifty grams of crackers. The last days there was no food at all. We finish eating the last horses. People are extremely emaciated. Group deaths from hunger are observed. There is no ammunition ... ".
The corridor for the exit of the fighters, at the cost of heavy losses, was held until June 23. The agony of the 2nd Shock Army was coming. The territory that she controlled was now being shot through by the enemy.
On the evening of June 23, the soldiers of the 2nd Shock Army went to a new breakthrough. We managed to open a corridor about 800 meters wide. The space, which was narrowing all the time, was called the "Valley of Death". Those who passed through it said that it was a real hell. Only the most fortunate managed to break through.
The last hours of the 2nd shock
On the same day, the Germans attacked Vlasov's command post. The soldiers of the company of a special department managed to repulse the attack, which allowed the staff workers to withdraw, but the leadership of the troops was lost.In one of the last radio messages, Meretskov warned Vlasov that on June 24 the troops outside the "cauldron" would make a last decisive attempt to save the 2nd Shock Army. Vlasov appointed an exit from the encirclement of the headquarters and rear services for this day. On the evening of June 24, the corridor was reopened, but now its width did not exceed 250 meters.
The headquarters column, however, lost its way, ran into the German bunkers. Enemy fire fell on her, Vlasov himself was slightly wounded in the leg. Of those who were next to Vlasov, only the chief of the intelligence department of the army Rogov managed to break through to his own at night, who single-handedly found the saving corridor.
At about 9:30 am on June 25, 1942, the ring around the 2nd Shock Army was finally closed. More than 20 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers remained surrounded. In the following weeks, one by one and in small groups, several hundred more people managed to escape.
But what is important - German sources record that there were no facts of mass surrender. The Nazis noted that the Russians in Myasny Bor preferred to die with weapons in their hands. The 2nd Shock Army died heroically, not knowing what black shadow would fall on it because of its commander….
Salvation of General Afanasyev
Both the Germans and ours, knowing that the command of the 2nd Shock Army remained surrounded, tried at all costs to find it. Vlasov's headquarters, meanwhile, tried to get out. The few surviving witnesses claimed that a breakdown had occurred in the general after the failed breakthrough. He looked impassive, did not hide from the shelling.The command of the detachment was taken over by the chief of staff of the 2nd Shock Army, Colonel Vinogradov. The group, wandering around the rear, tried to reach their own. She entered into skirmishes with the Germans, suffered losses, gradually decreasing.
The key moment occurred on the night of July 11th. Chief of staff Vinogradov proposed to split into groups of several people and go out to their own people on their own. Major General Afanasyev, the chief of communications of the army, objected to him. He suggested that we all walk together to the Oredezh River and Lake Chernoe, where they could feed themselves by fishing, and where partisan detachments should be.
Afanasyev's plan was rejected, but no one began to interfere with his movement on his route. 4 people left with Afanasyev.
Literally a day later, Afanasyev's group met with the partisans, who contacted the “mainland”. A plane arrived for the general and took him to the rear.
Alexei Vasilievich Afanasyev turned out to be the only representative of the highest command staff of the 2nd Shock Army who managed to get out of the encirclement. After the hospital, he returned to duty, and continued to serve, ending his career as the chief of communications for the artillery of the Soviet Army.
"Don't shoot, I'm General Vlasov!"
Vlasov's group was reduced to four people. He parted with Vinogradov, who was ill, and because of this, the general gave him his greatcoat.On July 12, Vlasov's group split up to travel to two villages in search of food. With the general remained the cook of the canteen of the military council of the army, Maria Voronova.
General Vasov in a POW camp.
They entered the village of Tukhovezhi, posing as refugees. Vlasov, who identified himself as a school teacher, asked for food. They were fed, after which they suddenly pointed their weapons and locked them in a barn. The local headman turned out to be a "hospitable host", who summoned local residents from the auxiliary police to help.
It is known that Vlasov had a pistol with him, but he did not resist. The headman did not identify the general, but considered the newcomers partisans.
In the morning of the next day, a German special group drove into the village, which the headman asked to pick up the prisoners. The Germans shrugged it off, because they were following ... General Vlasov.
The day before, the German command received information that General Vlasov had been killed in a skirmish with a German patrol. The corpse in the general's overcoat, which was examined by the members of the group, upon arriving at the scene, was identified as the body of the commander of the 2nd shock army. In fact, Colonel Vinogradov was killed.
On the way back, having already passed Tukhovezhi, the Germans remembered their promise and returned for the unknown. When the barn door opened, a phrase in German sounded out of the darkness:
- Don't shoot, I'm General Vlasov!
Two fates: Andrey Vlasov versus Ivan Antyufeev
At the very first interrogations, the general began to give detailed testimony, reporting on the state of the Soviet troops, and giving characteristics to the Soviet military leaders. And already a few weeks later, being in a special camp in Vinnitsa, Andrei Vlasov himself would offer the Germans his services in the fight against the Red Army and Stalin's regime.What made him do this? Vlasov's biography testifies that from the Soviet system and from Stalin he not only did not suffer, but received everything he had. The story about the abandoned 2nd shock army, as shown above, is also a myth.
For comparison, one can cite the fate of another general who survived the Myasniy Bor disaster.
Ivan Mikhailovich Antyufeev, the commander of the 327th Infantry Division, took part in the battle for Moscow, and then with his unit was transferred to break the blockade of Leningrad. The 327th Division achieved the greatest success in the Luban operation. Just as the 316th Rifle Division was unofficially called "Panfilov", the 327th Rifle Division was named "Antyufeevskaya".
Antyufeev received the rank of major general at the height of the battles near Lyuban, and did not even have time to change the colonel's shoulder straps to generals, which played a role in his further fate. The division commander also remained in the "cauldron" and was wounded on July 5 while trying to escape.
Ivan Mikhailovich Antyufeev
The Nazis, taking the officer prisoner, tried to persuade him to cooperate, but were refused. At first he was held in a camp in the Baltic States, but then someone reported that Antyufeev was in fact a general. He was immediately transferred to a special camp.
When it became known that he was the commander of the best division in Vlasov's army, the Germans began to rub their hands. It seemed to them self-evident that Antyufeev would follow the path of his boss. But even having met with Vlasov face to face, the general refused the offer of cooperation with the Germans.
Antyufeev was presented with a fabricated interview in which he declared his readiness to work for Germany. They explained to him - now for the Soviet leadership he is an undoubted traitor. But here, too, the general answered "no."
General Antyufeev stayed in the concentration camp until April 1945, when he was liberated by American troops. He returned to his homeland, was reinstated in the cadres of the Soviet Army. In 1946, General Antyufeev was awarded the Order of Lenin. He retired from the army in 1955 due to illness.
But here's a strange thing - the name of General Antyufeev, who has remained faithful to the oath, is known only to fans of military history, while everyone knows about General Vlasov.
"He had no convictions - he had ambition"
So why did Vlasov make the choice he made? Maybe because in life he loved fame and career growth most of all. Suffering in the captivity of lifetime glory did not promise, let alone comfort. And Vlasov stood, as he thought, on the side of the strong.Let's turn to the opinion of a person who knew Andrei Vlasov. The writer and journalist Ilya Ehrenburg met with the general at the height of his career, in the midst of his successful battle near Moscow. Here is what Ehrenburg wrote about Vlasov years later:
“Of course, someone else's soul is dark; yet I dare to state my guesses. Vlasov is not Brutus and not Prince Kurbsky, it seems to me that everything was much simpler. Vlasov wanted to complete the task entrusted to him; he knew that Stalin would congratulate him again, he would receive another order, rise, amaze everyone with his art of interrupting quotations from Marx with Suvorov jokes.
It turned out differently: the Germans were stronger, the army was again surrounded. Vlasov, wanting to be saved, changed his clothes. Seeing the Germans, he was frightened: a simple soldier could be killed on the spot. Once in captivity, he began to think about what to do. He knew political literacy well, admired Stalin, but he had no convictions - he had ambition.
He understood that his military career was over. If the Soviet Union wins, it will be demoted at best. This means that only one thing remains: to accept the proposal of the Germans and to do everything so that Germany can win. Then he will be the commander-in-chief or minister of war of the decimated Russia under the auspices of the victorious Hitler.
Of course, Vlasov never said this to anyone, he announced on the radio that he had long hated the Soviet system, that he longed to “liberate Russia from the Bolsheviks,” but he himself gave me a proverb: “Every Fedorka has his own excuses” ... Bad people are everywhere , it does not depend on the political system or upbringing. "
General Vlasov was wrong - the betrayal did not lead him to the top again. On August 1, 1946, in the courtyard of the Butyrka prison, Andrei Vlasov, stripped of his rank and awards, was hanged for treason.
A tall man in round glasses has been unable to sleep for several days. The main traitor, General of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov, is interrogated by several investigators of the NKVD, replacing each other day and night for ten days. They are trying to understand how they could miss the traitor in their slender ranks, devoted to the cause of Lenin and Stalin.
He had no children, he never had any emotional attachment to women, his parents died. All he had was his life. And he loved to live. His father, the churchwarden, was proud of his son.
Parental traitorous roots
Andrei Vlasov never dreamed of being a military man, but, as a literate person who graduated from a religious school, he was drafted into the ranks of Soviet commanders. He often came to his father and saw how the new power was destroying his family strong nest.
He used to betray
Analyzing archival documents, traces of Vlasov's military operations on the fronts of the Civil War cannot be found. He was a typical staff "rat" who, by the will of fate, ended up at the top of the country's command pedestal. One fact speaks about how he moved up the career ladder. Arriving with an inspection in the 99th Infantry Division and learning that the commander was engaged in a thorough study of the methods of action of the German troops, he immediately wrote a denunciation against him. The commander of the 99th Infantry Division, which was one of the best in the Red Army, was arrested and shot. Vlasov was appointed to his place. This behavior became the norm for him. No remorse of conscience tormented this man.
First environment
In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Vlasov's army was encircled near Kiev. The general leaves the encirclement not in the ranks of his units, but together with his combat friend.
But Stalin forgave him this offense. Vlasov received a new appointment - to lead the main attack near Moscow. But he is in no hurry to go to the troops, citing pneumonia and poor health. According to one version, the entire preparation of the operation near Moscow fell on the shoulders of the most experienced staff officer Leonid Sandalov.
"Star fever" - the second reason for betrayal
Stalin appoints Vlasov as the main winner of the Battle of Moscow.
The general begins "star fever". According to colleagues, he becomes rude, arrogant, mercilessly obscenities to his subordinates. Constantly trumpets his closeness to the leader. Does not obey the orders of Georgy Zhukov, who is his immediate superior. The transcript of the conversation between the two generals shows a fundamentally different attitude to the conduct of hostilities. During the offensive near Moscow, Vlasov's units attacked the Germans along the road, where the enemy's defense was extremely strong. Zhukov, in a telephone conversation, orders Vlasov to counterattack, off-road, as Suvorov did. Vlasov refuses, referring to the high snow - about 60 centimeters. This argument infuriates Zhukov. He orders to attack in a new way. Vlasov again disagrees. These disputes last for more than one hour. And in the end, Vlasov still surrenders and gives the order Zhukov needs.
How Vlasov surrendered
The second shock army under the command of General Vlasov was surrounded in the Volkhov swamps area and gradually lost its soldiers under the pressure of superior enemy forces. Along a narrow corridor, shot from all sides, scattered units of Soviet soldiers tried to break through to their own.
But General Vlasov did not go along this corridor of death. By unknown means on July 11, 1942, Vlasov deliberately surrendered to the Germans in the village of Tukhovezhi, Leningrad Region, where the Old Believers lived.
For some time he lived in riga, the local policeman brought food. He told the new owners about the strange guest. A car drove up to the barn. Vlasov came out to meet them. He said something to them. The Germans saluted him and left.
The Germans were unable to accurately determine the position of a person wearing a shabby jacket. But the fact that he was wearing breeches with generals' stripes indicated that this bird was very important.
From the first minutes he begins to lie to the German investigators: he introduced himself as a certain Zuev.
When German investigators began questioning him, he almost immediately confessed who he was. Vlasov said that in 1937 he became one of the participants in the anti-Stalinist movement. However, at this time Vlasov was a member of the military tribunal of two districts. He always signed under the execution lists of Soviet soldiers and officers convicted under various articles.
Women have been betrayed countless times
The general always surrounded himself with women. Officially, he had one wife. Anna Voronina from her native village led her weak-willed husband mercilessly. They had no children because of an unsuccessful abortion. Young military doctor Agnes Podmazenko - his second common-law wife came out with him from the encirclement near Kiev. The third - nurse Maria Voronina was captured by the Germans when she was hiding with him in the village of Tukhovezhi.
All three women ended up in prison, suffered the brunt of torture and humiliation. But General Vlasov did not care anymore. Agenheld Bidenberg, the widow of an influential SS man, became the general's last wife. She was the sister of Himmler's adjutant and helped her new husband in every possible way. Their wedding on April 13, 1945 was attended by Adolf Hitler.