Who is he, General A. A. Vlasov. Three times loyal general. The last secret of Andrei Vlasov

(1900-1946) Russian military leader

During the war years and especially in the post-war period, the word “Vlasovite” became synonymous with the word “traitor”. However, time puts everything in its place, and now it is obvious that the personality and fate of Andrei Andreevich Vlasov is far from so clear. Many still agree with his official condemnation; others, on the contrary, support the recent review of his case. How did Vlasov’s fate really turn out?

Andrey Vlasov was born in peasant family in the village of Lomkino near Nizhny Novgorod. He was the thirteenth child in the family, but he was lucky: he studied well at the parish school and therefore was sent to the theological seminary, as they said then, “with worldly money.” True, Vlasov did not become a priest since the revolution began. Like many others, he joined the Red Army, first commanded a company, then, after completing the Red Commanders Course, he received a regiment.

After graduating from the military academy, Andrei Vlasov served in different districts. From 1937 to 1939 he was in China as a military adviser, helping Chiang Kai-shek. For this work, the Chinese government awarded Vlasov an order, and in the USSR he was awarded the rank of major general.

Upon returning from China, Andrei Vlasov was appointed division commander, and in a short time he made it the best unit in the Red Army. The high level of training of fighters and the military culture of Vlasov himself was repeatedly noted in certifications by General Georgy Zhukov, under whose command Andrei Vlasov served before the war, in particular, in the Belarusian Military District.

After the start of the Great Patriotic War, Andrei Vlasov organized defense on the approaches to Kyiv. During the Battle of Moscow, his division liberated Volokolamsk and several other cities. In January 1942, Vlasov was appointed commander of the Second Shock Army, and a little later - deputy commander of the Northwestern Front. Vlasov was given the task of breaking the blockade of Leningrad. However, due to poor coordination of actions, the front came under attack from superior German forces. Soviet troops were scattered, and on July 12, 1942, Vlasov was captured. He spent six months in a prisoner of war camp and only in January 1943 announced his decision to cooperate with the Germans “in the fight against the Bolshevik regime.”

Later, Andrei Andreevich Vlasov said that he was prompted to take this step by the desire to help Soviet prisoners, who were in an unbearable situation compared to prisoners from other countries. At first, the German leadership agreed to the conditions proposed by Vlasov: he was allowed to publish an open letter, which was distributed among prisoners of war, and was appointed commander of the Russian Liberation Army.

In the spring of 1943, Andrei Vlasov toured several camps, where he encouraged prisoners of war to join his army. However, the German command soon became convinced of the instability of the new formation. In part, Vlasov himself provoked such an assessment, sometimes making anti-German attacks in his speeches. As a result, already in June 1943, Hitler banned Andrei Vlasov from any activity other than propaganda. Soon, all units formed by Vlasov were transferred to the Western Front to avoid the danger of mass surrender.

From that time on, all of Vlasov’s activities were limited to the publication of two newspapers in Russian: “Zarya” and “Volunteer”. Meanwhile, in 1943 there were more than 400,000 Russians in the German armed forces. It was a force to be reckoned with. Therefore, in the autumn of 1944, Andrei Vlasov was finally allowed to publish his political program, resulting in the so-called “Prague Manifesto”. After its publication, the flow of people wishing to join the Russian Liberation Army increased, and soon its number exceeded a million people.

After signing an agreement with the German command on cooperation, where Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was named commander-in-chief of the ROA (Russian Liberation Army), its first division was sent to the Eastern Front. However, under the blows of the Red Army, it was forced to retreat and began a retreat south to Czechoslovakia.

Having come into contact with Allied troops, the division stopped resistance and even took part in supporting the Prague Uprising. As units of the Red Army approached, the Vlasov division began to retreat again to surrender to American troops. The soldiers of Vlasov's army knew that the Red Army troops had received orders to shoot them as voluntarily surrendering to the enemy. Most of the division's soldiers and officers surrendered to American troops and were sent to special camps. They hoped that they would be able to stay in the West. But their hopes were not justified.

According to the agreement between Stalin and the allies, reached during Yalta Conference, all the Vlasovites who surrendered to the allies were handed over to the Red Army and upon arrival in the USSR were imprisoned. Andrei Vlasov himself and his headquarters were captured by the advancing Soviet units. Those arrested were sent to Moscow. On August 2, 1946, an official report about the trial of Vlasov and his eleven closest associates was published in the Soviet press. All of them were sentenced to hang.

In history, Andrei Andreevich Vlasov remained primarily as a tragic figure. Some modern historians are inclined to see in him only a principled opponent of the Stalinist regime.

Material 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 the Great Patriotic War)
1.2 V initial period Great Patriotic War
1.3 In the 2nd Shock Army
1.4 German captivity
1.5 German captivity and collaboration with the Germans
1.6 Captivity by the Red Army, trial and execution

1.6.1 Rumors of an execution
2 The image of Vlasov in the memoirs of Red Army commanders
3 Vlasov and other encirclement
4 Re-examination of the case
5 Arguments of Vlasov’s supporters
6 Arguments of opponents of Vlasov and his rehabilitation
7 Alternative versions going over to the German side

Biography

Almost everything that is known about Vlasov’s life before captivity became known from his own stories to friends and like-minded people 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 movement. movements, and who made up their memories of him.

Born on September 14, 1901 in the village of Lomakino, now Gaginsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region. Russian. He was the thirteenth child youngest son. The family lived in poverty, which prevented the father from fulfilling his wish - to give all his children an education. For Andrei's education he had to pay his older brother, Ivan, who sent his brother to get spiritual education to the seminary in Nizhny Novgorod. Studies at the seminary were interrupted by the revolution of 1917. In 1918, Andrei went to study as an agronomist, but in 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army.

In the Red Army since 1919. After completing a 4-month command course, he became a platoon commander and participated in battles with the Armed Forces in the South of Russia on the Southern Front. Served in the 2nd Don Division. After the liquidation 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 headquarters. At the end of 1920, a detachment in which Vlasov commanded horse and foot reconnaissance was deployed to eliminate the insurgent movement of N. I. Makhno.

Since 1922, Vlasov held command and staff positions, and also taught. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Army Command Course "Vystrel". In 1930 he joined the CPSU(b). In 1935 he became a student at the M.V. Frunze Military Academy. Historian A.N. Kolesnik argued that in 1937-1938. Vlasov was a member of the tribunal of the Leningrad and Kyiv military districts. During this time, the tribunal did not issue a single acquittal.

Since August 1937, commander of the 133rd Infantry Regiment of the 72nd rifle division, and since April 1938, 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 indicates complete confidence in Vlasov on the part of the political leadership. From May to November 1939 he served as chief military adviser. As a farewell, before leaving China, Chiang Kai-shek was awarded the Order of the Golden Dragon; Chiang Kai-shek's wife gave Vlasov a watch. Both the order and the watch were taken by the authorities from Vlasov 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 Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper published an article about Vlasov, praising his military abilities, his attention and care to his subordinates, and the precise and thorough performance of his duties.

In his autobiography, written in April 1940, he noted: “I had no hesitations. He always stood firmly on the general line of the party and always fought for it.”

In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Kyiv Special Military District, and a month later he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

During 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. He received gratitude for his skillful actions, and on the recommendation of N. S. Khrushchev, he was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended Kyiv. After fierce battles, scattered formations of this army managed to break through to the east, and Vlasov himself was wounded and ended up in the 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, near 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 tank army, making a significant contribution to the victory near Moscow. IN Soviet time A documentary unsubstantiated and unreliable version appeared that Vlasov himself was in the hospital at that time, and the fighting was led either by the commander of the operational group A. I. Lizyukov or the chief of staff L. M. Sandalov.

Overcoming stubborn enemy resistance, the 20th Army drove the Germans out of Solnechnogorsk and Volokolamsk. On December 13, 1941, the Sovinformburo published an official message about the repulsion of the Germans from Moscow and printed in it photographs of those commanders who particularly 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 operationally and has organizational skills. He copes well with commanding troops.”

After the successes near Moscow, A. A. Vlasov in the troops, following Stalin, is called nothing less than “the savior of Moscow.” On instructions from the Main Political Directorate, a book is being written about Vlasov called “Stalin’s Commander.” John Erickson, an expert on 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 indicates the trust in Vlasov on the part of the country’s top political leadership.

In the 2nd Shock Army

On January 7, 1942, the Lyuban operation began. Troops of the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front, created to disrupt the German offensive on Leningrad and the subsequent counterattack, successfully broke through the enemy’s defenses in the area of the village of Myasnoy Bor (on the left bank of the Volkhov River) and deeply wedged 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, 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 A. A. Vlasov. On April 16, the seriously ill General Klykov was removed from command of the army and sent by plane to the rear.

On April 20, 1942, A. A. Vlasov was appointed commander of the 2nd Shock Army, remaining concurrently deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.

The question naturally arose: who should be entrusted with leading the troops of the 2nd Shock Army? On the same day, a telephone conversation between A. A. Vlasov and Divisional Commissioner I. V. Zuev took place with Meretskov. Zuev proposed to appoint Vlasov to the post of army commander, and Vlasov - the chief of staff of the army, Colonel P. S. Vinogradov. The Military Council of the [Volkhov] Front supported Zuev's idea. So... Vlasov became commander of the 2nd Shock Army on April 20, 1942 (Monday), while remaining at the same time 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 strike from the Polist line at 20 o'clock on June 4. We don’t hear any actions from the troops of the 59th Army from the east, no long range art.fire.

German captivity

The commander of the Volkhov operational group, Lieutenant General M. S. Khozin, did not comply with the directives of Headquarters (dated May 21) on the withdrawal of army troops. 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 soldiers and commanders emerged.

MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE VOLKHOV FRONT. I report: the army 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 incidence of illness from exhaustion is increasing every day. Due to cross-fire in the army area, troops are big losses from artillery fire and enemy aircraft... The combat strength of the formations decreased sharply. It is no longer possible to replenish it from the rear and special units. Everything that was taken was taken. On the sixteenth of June, an average of several dozen people remained in battalions, brigades and rifle regiments. All attempts by the eastern group of the army to break through the corridor from the west were unsuccessful.

Vlasov. Zuev. Vinogradov.

JUNE 21, 1942. 8 HOURS 10 MINUTES. TO THE HEAD OF THE GSHK. TO THE MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE FRONT. Army troops receive fifty grams of crackers for three weeks. The last few days there was absolutely no food. We are finishing off the last horses. People are extremely exhausted. There is group mortality from starvation. No ammunition...

Vlasov. Zuev.

On June 25, the enemy eliminated the corridor. The testimony of various witnesses does not answer the question of where Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov was hiding for the next three weeks - whether he wandered in the forest or whether there was some kind of reserve command post to which his group made its way. Thinking about his fate, Vlasov compared himself with General A.V. Samsonov, who also commanded the 2nd Army and also found himself surrounded by the Germans. Samsonov shot himself. According to Vlasov, what distinguished him from Samsonov was that the latter had something for which he considered it worthy to give his life. Vlasov considered that he would not commit suicide in the name of Stalin.

German captivity and collaboration with the Germans

General Vlasov's order to stop bullying 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 captured 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 military personnel.

Not a single photograph of this period of Vlasov’s life has survived in which he would have been dressed in German military uniform(which distinguished Vlasov from his subordinates). He always wore a military cut specially tailored for him (due to his huge physique), a simple khaki uniform with wide cuffs and uniform trousers with general's stripes. The buttons on the uniform were without military symbols, and there were no insignia or awards on the uniform, including the ROA emblem on the sleeve. Only on his general’s cap did he wear the white, blue and red ROA cockade.

Vlasov wrote an open letter “Why I took 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 airplanes at the fronts, and were also distributed among prisoners of war.

At the beginning of 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 remain on the side of the Germans. At the negotiations in North Bohemian Kozoedy they did not reach an agreement and their paths diverged.

Captivity by the Red Army, trial and execution

On May 12, 1945, Vlasov was captured by soldiers of the 25th Tank Corps of the 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front near the city of Pilsen in Czechoslovakia while trying to cross into the western zone of occupation. The tank crews of the corps pursued the column in which Vlasov was located, at the direction of the Vlasov captain, who informed them that his commander was in it. According to the Soviet version, Vlasov was found on the floor of a jeep, wrapped in a carpet. This
seems unlikely, given inner space in the jeep and Vlasov's build. After his arrest, he was taken to the headquarters of Marshal I. S. Konev, and from there to Moscow. From that moment until August 2, 1946, when the Izvestia newspaper published a report about his trial, nothing was reported about Vlasov.

Wikisource logo
Wikisource contains the full text of the Judgment in the case of General A.A. Vlasov and his accomplices.

At first, the leadership of the USSR planned to hold a public trial of Vlasov and other leaders of the ROA in the October Hall of the House of Unions, but later abandoned this intention. According to 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 sentiments of a certain part of the population, dissatisfied Soviet power».

From the criminal case of A. A. Vlasov:

Ulrich: Defendant Vlasov, what exactly do you plead guilty to?

Vlasov: I plead guilty to the fact that, being in difficult conditions, I became cowardly...

It seems that at the trial Vlasov tried to take full responsibility on himself, apparently believing that in this way he could commute the sentences for his subordinates.

The decision to sentence Vlasov and others to death 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 in the case of Vlasov and a group of his followers. All of them were found guilty of treason. By the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, they were stripped of their military ranks and hanged on August 1, 1946, and their property was confiscated.

Rumors of an execution

According to rumors, the execution was organized with horrifying cruelty - all those executed were hanged from piano wire, on a hook hooked under the base of the skull.

The image of Vlasov in the memoirs of Red Army commanders

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 against Soviet power, but Vlasov was the highest-ranking and most famous of all. In Soviet historiography, no attempts were made to analyze the motives of his action - his name was either automatically denigrated or, in best case scenario, was simply kept silent.

A.V. Isaev noted that many of Vlasov’s colleagues who wrote memoirs after the war were put in an awkward position:

If you write well about the former commander, they will say: “How come you didn’t notice 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 it should go?”

For example, one of the officers of the 32nd tank division The 4th Mechanized Corps describes his meeting with Vlasov as follows: “Looking out of the cockpit, I noticed that the regiment commander was talking to a tall general in glasses. I recognized him immediately.
This is the commander of our 4th mechanized corps. I approached them and introduced myself to the corps commander.” The surname “Vlasov” is not mentioned at all throughout the entire narrative 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 meeting his army 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 the memoirs, it was most likely in a negative image. For example, cavalryman Stuchenko writes:

Suddenly, three hundred to four hundred meters from the front line, the figure of army commander Vlasov in an astrakhan gray hat with earflaps and the same pince-nez appears from behind a bush; behind him is an adjutant with a machine gun. My irritation boiled over:

Why are you walking here? Nothing to see here. People are dying in vain here. Is this how they organize a fight? Is this how they use cavalry?

I thought: now he will remove me from office. But Vlasov, feeling unwell under fire, asked in a not entirely confident voice:

Well, how should we attack, in your opinion?

K. A. 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 commander-2 Vlasov 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 the breakdown of Vlasov’s personality, which led to betrayal: the commander of the 2nd shock was captured literally a few days after “discussion of the planned actions” .

Marshal Vasilevsky, who became chief in the spring of 1942 General Staff The Red Army 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 was also extremely unstable and cowardly by nature, and was completely inactive. The difficult situation created for the army further demoralized him; he made no attempts to quickly and secretly withdraw troops. As a result, the troops of the 2nd Shock Army found themselves surrounded.”

According to the director of the Institute for Strategic Studies L. Reshetnikov:

For Soviet people“Vlasovism” became a symbol of betrayal, and he himself became a Judas of that time. It got to the point that namesakes wrote in their profiles: “I am not a relative of the traitor general.”

In this regard, search activities in the Myasny Bor area were also difficult. Local authorities adhered to the version that “Vlasov traitors lie in Myasny Bor.” This saved them from the unnecessary hassle of organizing funerals, and the state from the costs of helping the families of the victims. Only in the 1970s, thanks to the initiative of search engine N.I. Orlov, the first three military cemeteries appeared near Myasnoy Bor.

Vlasov and other encirclement

Many of those who remained surrounded held out until the end; mostly the soldiers captured in the corridor and the lightly wounded from large hospitals were captured. Many shot themselves under the threat of capture, such as divisional commissar I.V. Zuev, a member of the Army Military Council. Others were able to reach their own people or get to the partisans, such as the commissar of the 23rd brigade N.D. Allahverdiev, who became the commander of a partisan detachment. Soldiers of the 267th division, 3rd rank military doctor E.K. Gurinovich, nurse Zhuravleva, commissar Vdovenko and others also fought in the partisan detachments.

But there were few of them; most were captured. Basically, completely exhausted, exhausted people, often wounded, shell-shocked, in a semi-conscious state, were captured, such as the poet, senior political instructor M. M. Zalilov (Musa Jalil). Many did not even have time to shoot at the enemy, suddenly encountering the Germans.
However, once captured, the Soviet soldiers did not cooperate with the Germans. Several officers who went over to the enemy’s side are an exception to the general rule: in addition to General A. A. Vlasov, the commander of the 25th brigade, Colonel P. G. Sheludko, the officers of the headquarters of the 2nd shock army, Major Verstkin, Colonel Goryunov and the quartermaster 1, changed their oath. rank Zhukovsky.

For example, the commander of the 327th Infantry Division, Major General I.M. Antyufeev, was wounded and captured on July 5th. Antyufeyev refused to help the enemy, and the Germans sent him to a camp in Kaunas, then he worked in a mine. After the war, Antyufeyev was restored to the rank of general, continued his service in the Soviet Army and retired as a major general. The head of the medical service of the 2nd shock army, military doctor 1st rank Boborykin, deliberately remained surrounded to save the wounded of 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 a Red Army commander and continued to provide medical care prisoners of war. After returning from captivity, he worked at the Military Medical Museum in Leningrad.

At the same time, there are numerous cases where prisoners of war continued to fight the enemy even in captivity.
The feat of Musa Jalil and his “Moabit Notebooks” are widely known. There are other examples. The head of the sanitary service and brigade doctor of the 23rd Infantry Brigade, Major N.I. Kononenko, was captured on June 26, 1942, along with the staff of the brigade medical company. After eight months of hard work in Amberg, on April 7, 1943, he was transferred as a doctor to the camp infirmary 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 members. 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 an uprising in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

An indicative example is the political instructor of the company of the 1004th regiment of the 305th division D. G. Telnykh. Having been wounded (wounded in the leg) and shell-shocked in captivity in June 1942, he was sent to camps, finally ending up in a camp at the Schwartzberg mine. In June 1943, Telnykh escaped from the camp, after which Belgian peasants in the village of Waterloo helped contact partisan detachment No. 4 of Soviet prisoners of war (Lieutenant Colonel Kotovets of the Red Army). The detachment was part of the Russian partisan brigade “For the Motherland” (Lieutenant Colonel K. Shukshin). Telnykh took part in the battles, soon became a platoon commander, and from February 1944 - a company political instructor. In May 1945, the “For the Motherland” brigade captured the town of Mayzak and held it for eight hours until the British troops arrived. After the war, Telnykh, together with other fellow partisans, returned to serve in the Red Army.

Two months earlier, in April 1942, during the withdrawal of the 33rd Army from encirclement, its commander M. G. Efremov and army headquarters officers committed suicide. And if M. G. Efremov with his death “whitened even those cowardly ones who wavered in difficult times and abandoned their commander to save themselves alone,” then the fighters of the 2nd shock were looked at through the prism of A. A. Vlasov’s betrayal.

Review of the case

In 2001, Hieromonk Nikon (Belavenets), the head of the movement “For Faith and Fatherland,” applied to the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office to review the sentence of Vlasov and his associates. However, the military prosecutor's office came to the conclusion that there were no grounds for applying the law on the rehabilitation of victims political repression No.

On November 1, 2001, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to rehabilitate A. A. Vlasov and others, canceling the verdict regarding the conviction under Part 2 of Art. 5810 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) and ending the case in this part for lack of corpus delicti. The rest of the sentence was left unchanged.

Arguments of Vlasov's supporters

The version of patriotism of A. A. Vlasov and his movement has its supporters and is the subject of debate to this day.

Vlasov's supporters argue that Vlasov and those who joined the Russian liberation movement were motivated by patriotic feelings and remained loyal to their homeland, but not to their government. One of the arguments given in favor of this point of view was that “if the state provides protection to a citizen, it has the right to demand loyalty from him,” but if the Soviet state refused to sign the Geneva Agreement and thereby deprived its captive citizens of protection, then the citizens were no longer obliged to remain loyal to the state and, therefore, were not traitors.

At the beginning of September 2009, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, at its meetings, touched upon the controversy regarding the published book of the church historian, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov, “The Tragedy of Russia.
“Forbidden” topics of 20th century history in church preaching and journalism.” In particular, it was noted that:

The tragedy of those who are commonly called “Vlasovites”... is truly great. In any case, it should be interpreted with all possible impartiality and objectivity. Without such comprehension, historical science turns into political journalism. We...should avoid a “black and white” interpretation of historical events. In particular, calling 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 Father Georgy Mitrofanov’s attempt to approach this issue (or rather, a whole series of issues) with a measure adequate to the complexity of the problem. In the Russian Abroad, of which the surviving members of the ROA also became 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 they undertook 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 fight against Bolshevism, but they, the “Vlasovites” were ready, if necessary, to resist armed force any kind of colonization or dismemberment of our Motherland. 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 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 a tool in the hands of the Nazis.

Russian historian M.I. Frolov notes the great danger of attempts to glorify A.A. Vlasov, citing as their main consequences:

The desire to revise the results of the Second World War, in particular, to devalue the agreements reached by the victorious countries at the Yalta and Postdam conferences, at Nuremberg trials over the main Nazi war criminals, to revise the principles confirmed by the UN General Assembly (12/11/1946) international law, recognized by the Charter of the Tribunal and found expression in its verdict. In this way, various negative geopolitical, ideological and financial consequences for Russia can be achieved.
justification of collaboration 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-Russians politicians and forces, as well as the formation of a public consciousness that recognizes correct separatism.
a change in value orientations in society, the desire to remove the sources of the people’s positive sense of self, devaluing the victory in the Great Patriotic War by substituting the concepts of “treason - valor”, and “cowardice - heroism”.

According to the historian, “to present the traitor Vlasov, the collaborators “in the role” of fighters for Russia, for the Russian people is nothing more than a morally unworthy attempt, a conscious, deliberate perversion of the fundamental values of Russian society - patriotism, love for the Motherland, selfless service interests of its people."

In 2009, with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church The book “The Truth about General Vlasov: a collection of articles” was published, main goal which, according to its authors, was “to show that the point of view of the professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov, on the traitor general A. A. Vlasov, on 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 switching to the German side.

In some memoirs you can find a version that Vlasov was captured even earlier - in the fall of 1941, surrounded near Kiev - where he was recruited and transferred across the front line. He is also credited with the order to destroy all the 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 published archival documents.

According to V.I. Filatov and a number of other authors, General A.A. Vlasov is a Soviet intelligence officer (employee foreign intelligence NKVD or military intelligence - Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army), who since 1938 worked in China under the pseudonym "Volkov", leading intelligence activities against Japan and Germany, and then during the Great Patriotic War it was successfully abandoned to the Germans. The execution of Vlasov in 1946 is associated with the “quarrel” 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 investigation materials on the “case” of Vlasov, Bunyachenko and other leaders of the KONR Armed Forces was destroyed.

Grigorenko Petr Grigorievich:

“In 1959, I met an officer I knew, whom I had seen before the war. We started talking. The conversation touched upon the Vlasovites. I said: “I had some pretty close people there.”
- Who? - he asked.
- Fedor Ivanovich Trukhin is my group leader at the Academy of the General Staff.
- Trukhin?! - My interlocutor even jumped up from his seat. - Well, I saw off your teacher on his last journey.
- Like this?
- And like this. You remember, obviously, that when Vlasov was captured, there was a report in the press about this, and it was indicated that the leaders of the ROA would appear in open court. They were preparing for an open trial, but the behavior of the Vlasovites spoiled everything. They refused to plead guilty to treason. All of them - the main leaders of the movement - said 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 “attaching” each of their friends from their previous lives. Each of us, planted, did not hide why he was planted. I was not assigned to Trukhin. He had another, formerly very close friend of his. I “worked” with my ex-buddy.
All of us, the “planted” ones, 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 comrades to admit their guilt in treason against the Motherland and not say anything against Stalin. For such behavior, they were promised to spare their lives.

Some hesitated, but the majority, including Vlasov and Trukhin, firmly stood on their unchanged position: “I have not been a traitor and will not admit to treason.” I hate Stalin. “I consider him a tyrant and I will say this in court.” Our promises of life's blessings did not help. Our frightening stories did not help either. We said that if they did not agree, they would not be tried, but would be tortured to death. Vlasov responded to these threats: “I know. And I'm scared. But it’s even worse to slander yourself. But our torment will not be in vain. The time will come, and the people will remember us with a kind word.” Trukhin repeated the same thing.

AND open court It didn’t work out,” my interlocutor concluded his story. - I heard that they were tortured for a long time and hanged half dead. How they hanged me, 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 "Logicology - about the fate of man" in advance.

Let's look at the FULL NAME code tables. \If there is a shift in numbers and letters on your screen, adjust the image scale\.

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 Y A N D R E E V I C H
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 Y A N D R E E V I C H 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

Let's consider reading individual words and sentences:

VLASOV = 52 = KILLED, STRAPPED = 15-ON + 37-NECK.

ANDREY ANDREEVICH = 139 = 63-THROAT + 76-CLAMP = 73-GUN + 66-PLACES.

139 - 52 = 87 = CONVICTED, THROAT = 3-B + 84-LOOP.

VLASOV ANDREY = 105 = TAKE \life\, CERVICAL, CHOCKING, ASPHYXIA.

ANDREEVICH = 86 = BREATH, EXECUTED, DIE.

105 - 86 = 19th GO\rlo\.

ANDREEVICH VLASOV = 138 = OXYGEN, HANGED, DYING = 75-COMPRESSURE, COMPRESSES + 63-THROAT.

ANDREY = 53 = PRESSED, CLAMPED, TREASON, LOOP \I\.

138 - 53 = 85-LOOP, REVENGE, HANGED.

Let's insert the found numbers into the code for ANDREY VLASOV'S FULL NAME:

191 = 106 \ 87 + 19 \ + 85 = 106-Strangulation + 85-HANGED, REVENGE, LOOP.

DATE OF BIRTH: 09/14/1901. This = 14 + 09 + 19 + 01 = 43 = COURT, SWORD.

191 = 43 + 148-PUNISHABLE, SENTENCED.

DATE OF EXECUTION: 08/1/1946. This is = 1 + 08 + 19 + 46 = 74 = PUSH, RUSH, FADING = 19-OUT + 10-FOR + 45-PENITION = 30-PUNISHMENT + 44-CAMBER = 17-AMBA + 57-HANGED. Where the code for YEAR of execution = 19 + 46 = 65 = HANGING.

191 = 74 + 117. Where 117 = JUDGMENT, DESTROYER = 15-ON + 102-GAGGED = 76-RETENGE + 41-STRIKE.

FULL EXECUTION DATE = 129 + 65-YEAR CODE, HANGING = 194 = 2 X 97-MURDER = 108-ABORT + 86-BREATH.

The number of full years of life = 76-fraud + 100-four = 176 = breathing = 10-zero + 166-division = 76-produced, overwhelmed, destroyed, destroyed + 100-hypoxia = 106-death + 70-lack, outcome = 111 -JUSTICE + 65-HANGING = 51-PUNISHED, KILLED + 76-CRUSH + 49-THROAT.

Addition:

191 = 109-REVENGE, CONVICTED, HANGED, PICKED up + 10-FOR + 72-TREASON = VIOLENT = 121-ASSHYXIA + 70-LIFE, EXODUS = 146-MECHANICAL + 45-EXECUTION = 75-REVENGE + 116-HANG, G HYPOXIA = 54-KAROY, BOTTOM, SIGH, CLAMPED + 137-HANGED = 83-GAMBLED + 108-EXECUTED = 97-VERDICT + 94-STRIPPED = 61-STRIPPED + 67-SCRIPPED + 63-THROAT = 46-STICKED + 10 4-VESSELS + 41-NECK.

Traitor Andrei Andreevich Vlasov

The Vlasovites supported the current (and pre-revolutionary) flag of Russia, but the Bolsheviks could not stand it. Which one is right?!

The obvious answer - both... - suits few people. And in the dialectics of history this is so.

And what else did he keep until he returned to the USSR, a party card sewn into his riding breeches?!
And weren’t Vlasov and the “Vlasovites” a special project of L.P. Beria and the corresponding elite groups, just in case?!
After the war, ordinary “Vlasovites” were treated relatively mildly...

The desire for unambiguity in history leads to the fact that some important stories of the Russian past have to be hushed up for the sake of others. There are now thousands of pages of materials and disputes about A.A. Vlasov on the Internet. And there is an increasing desire to approach this – like many others – personality as objectively as possible.
For example, Wikipedia is striving for this.

Vlasov Andrei Andreevich (September 14, 1901, the village of Lomakino, Nizhny Novgorod province - (executed) August 1, 1946, Moscow) - Soviet lieutenant general (since 1942; deprived of his rank by court verdict). On April 20, 1942, he was appointed commander of the 2nd Shock Army, remaining concurrently deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. During the war, he was captured and collaborated with the Germans, becoming the head of a military organization of collaborators from Soviet prisoners of war - the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). Biography

In the Red Army since 1920. After completing the command courses, he took part in battles with the White Guards on the Southern Front. Since 1922, Vlasov held command and staff positions, and was also involved in teaching. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Army Command Courses. In 1930 he joined the CPSU(b). In 1935 he became a student at the M. V. Frunze Military Academy. Since August 1937, commander of the 133rd Infantry Regiment of the 72nd Infantry Division, and since April 1938, 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. From May to November 1939 he served as chief military adviser. Awarded the Order of the Golden Dragon.

Speech by A. A. Vlasov at a meeting of the senior command staff of the Red Army in December 1940

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 N. S. Khrushchev, was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended Kyiv. After fierce battles, scattered formations of this army managed to break through to the east, and Vlasov himself was wounded and ended up in the hospital.
Main article: Battle of Moscow (1941-1942)

Zhukov assessed Vlasov’s actions as follows: “Personally, Lieutenant General Vlasov is well prepared operationally and has organizational skills. He copes well with commanding troops.” After the successes near Moscow, A. A. Vlasov, along with other generals of the Red Army, is called the “savior of the capital.” On instructions from the Main Political Directorate, a book is being written about Vlasov called “Stalin’s Commander.” Perhaps a ceremonial portrait was made for this book, which is sometimes found on the Internet (I can’t definitely link it with A.A. Vlasov yet - he didn’t have so many awards). Perhaps they expected his striking successes near Lyuban. The star of the Hero of the Soviet Union has already been drawn...

Main article: Lyuban operation

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, 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 A. A. Vlasov. The suspended (“seriously ill”) General Klykov was sent to the rear by plane on April 16.

(Whoever imagines the swampy terrain where the 2nd shock army was thrown will understand that there was extremely little chance of breaking through the blockade of Leningrad in this direction. And there were, in fact, no one willing to lead such a hopeless operation. The generals tried to shift responsibility to each other. N . K. Klykov fell ill during. As a result, A.A. Vlasov turned out to be the extreme P.Z.).

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 strike from the Polist line at 20 o'clock on June 4. We don’t hear the actions of the troops of the 59th Army from the east, there is no long-range artillery fire.

MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE VOLKHOV FRONT. I report: the army 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 incidence of illness from exhaustion is increasing every day. Due to 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 from the rear and special units. Everything that was there was taken. On the sixteenth of June, an average of several dozen people remained in battalions, brigades and rifle regiments. All attempts by the eastern group of the army to break through the corridor from the west were unsuccessful.

VLASOV. ZUEV. Vinogradov.

VLASOV. ZUEV.

(Eat what you want... The failure of the Lyuban operation is already obvious to the High Command. And Vlasov and Zuev understand who will personally be responsible for this. http://www.fb2book.com/?kniga=23668&strn=52&cht=1
http://www.fb2book.com/?kniga=23668&strn=53&cht=1)

In June, the actions of Vlasov and his officers resembled the actions of the captain of the sinking ship. They were ready to be the last to leave him, just to save as many lives of their subordinates as possible. Such a soft-spoken policy did not fit into the approaches of Stalin and Zhukov to the lives of thousands and hundreds of thousands of soldiers. The forest is being cut down - the chips are flying...
In this situation, Vlasov came to new worldview conclusions, although at that moment the “native Soviet government” clearly expected one thing from him - if you can’t get out, shoot yourself...

On June 25, the enemy eliminated the corridor. The testimony of various witnesses does not answer the question of where Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov was hiding for the next three weeks - whether he wandered in the forest or whether there was some kind of reserve command post to which his group made its way. On July 11, 1942, in the Old Believers village of Tukhovezhi, Vlasov was extradited local residents(according to another version, he surrendered himself) to a patrol of the 28th Infantry Regiment of the 18th Army of the Wehrmacht.

“Commanding the troops of the 2nd Shock Army and ending up in the mountains. Lyuban surrounded by German troops, I betrayed my Motherland. This was a consequence of the fact that, starting from 1937, I was hostile to the policies of the Soviet government, believing that the gains of the Russian people during the Civil War by the Bolsheviks were nullified. I perceived the failures of the Red Army during the war with Germany as the result of inept leadership of the country and was convinced of the defeat of the Soviet Union. I was sure that the interests of the Russian people were brought by Stalin and the Soviet government to please the Anglo-American capitalists. While surrounded by the enemy, my anti-Soviet sentiments worsened even more and, not wanting to fight for interests alien to me, on July 13, 1942, taking advantage of the arrival of the Germans in the village where I was, I voluntarily surrendered to them as a prisoner.” http://www.fb2book.com/?kniga=23668&strn=53&cht=1

Of those who went out with Vlasov, Major General M.A. was captured. Beleshev, commander of the Air Force of the 2nd Shock Army (what kind of air force is there already?!), and commander of the 46th Infantry Division, Colonel F.E. Black.

Head of the Special Department of the NKVD of the 2nd Shock Army A.G. Shashkov was wounded on the night of June 24-25 and shot himself (perhaps Vlasov would have shot himself if wounded). Divisional Commissioner I.V. Zuev will die a few days later, running into a German patrol (there are other versions of his death). Chief of Staff of the 2nd Shock Army P.S. Vinogradov died, deputy. Commander P.F. Alferyev went missing and apparently also died.

At the same time, it is worth remembering that the policies of Vlasov and his circle still saved some people.

In total, 13,018 people emerged from the encirclement, despite the fact that on June 1, the 2nd Shock Army had, according to the lists of units and formations, 40,157 personnel (6 rifle brigades and 8 rifle divisions).
Of the 27,139 people who remained surrounded, most died in battle with the enemies, and some surrendered. http://www.fb2book.com/?kniga=23668&strn=53&cht=1

German captivity and collaboration with the Germans. Main article: Vlasovites

Wikisource has texts on the topic
Open letter “Why I took the path of fighting Bolshevism”

Trial and execution

On May 12, 1945, Vlasov was captured by soldiers of the 25th Tank Corps of the 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front near the city of Pilsen in Czechoslovakia while trying to escape to the western zone of occupation. The tank crews of the corps pursued Vlasov’s car at the direction of the Vlasov captain, who informed them that his commander was in this car. Vlasov was taken to the headquarters of Marshal Konev, and from there to Moscow.

Wikisource has texts on the topic
The verdict in the case of General A.A. Vlasov and his accomplices.

At first, the leadership of the USSR planned to hold a public trial of Vlasov and other leaders of the ROA in the October Hall of the House of Unions, however, due to the fact that some of the accused could express views at the trial that “objectively could coincide with the sentiments of a certain part of the population dissatisfied with Soviet power,” it was It was decided to make the process closed. The decision to sentence Vlasov and others to death 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. All of them were found guilty of treason. By the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, they were stripped of their military ranks and hanged on August 1, 1946, and their property was confiscated.

From the criminal case of A. A. Vlasov:

Ulrich: Defendant Vlasov, what exactly do you plead guilty to?

Vlasov: I plead guilty to the fact that, being in difficult conditions, I became cowardly...

Attitudes in the post-war period

The transfer of the commander of the 2nd Shock Army A.A. Vlasov to serve the Germans was one of the most unpleasant episodes of the war for the Soviet Union. There were other Red Army officers who became traitors, but Vlasov was the highest-ranking and most famous. In Soviet historiography, no attempts were made to analyze the motives of his action; his name was denigrated or, at best, simply hushed up.

A.V. Isaev noted that many of Vlasov’s colleagues who wrote memoirs after the war were put in an awkward position:

If you write about a former commander, they’ll say, “How come you didn’t see that 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?”

For example, one of the officers of the 32nd Tank Division of the 4th Mechanized Corps describes his meeting with Vlasov as follows: “Looking out of the cockpit, I noticed that the regiment commander was talking to a tall general in glasses. I recognized him immediately. This is the commander of our 4th mechanized corps. I approached them and introduced myself to the corps commander.” The surname “Vlasov” is not mentioned at all throughout the entire narrative of the battles in Ukraine in June 1941.

If Vlasov was mentioned in the memoirs, it was most likely in a negative image. For example, cavalryman Stuchenko writes:

Why are you walking here? Nothing to see here. People are dying in vain here. Is this how they organize a fight? Is this how they use cavalry?

I thought: now he will remove me from office. But Vlasov, feeling unwell under fire, asked in a not entirely confident voice:

Well, how should we attack, in your opinion?

Marshal Vasilevsky, who became the 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: “Commander of the 2nd Shock Army Vlasov, not distinguished by great commanding abilities, and also extremely unstable and cowardly by nature, was completely inactive. The difficult situation created for the army further demoralized him; he made no attempts to quickly and secretly withdraw troops. As a result, the troops of the 2nd Shock Army found themselves surrounded.”

Review of the case

In 2001, a representative applied to the Main Military Prosecutor's Office to review the sentence of Vlasov and his associates social movement"For Faith and Fatherland." However, the military prosecutor's office came to the conclusion that there are no grounds for applying the law on the rehabilitation of victims of political repression.

Position of the Russian Church Abroad

At the beginning of September 2009, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia at its meetings touched upon the controversy regarding the published book of the church historian, Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov, “The Tragedy of Russia. “Forbidden” topics in the history of the twentieth century.” In particular, it was noted that:
"...The tragedy of those who are commonly called “Vlasovites”... is truly great. In any case, it must be comprehended with all possible impartiality and objectivity. Without such comprehension, historical science turns into political journalism. We... should avoid “black white" interpretation of historical events. In particular, calling the actions of General A.A. Vlasov - betrayal, is, in our opinion, a frivolous simplification of the events of that time. In this sense, we fully support the attempt of 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 Abroad, of which the surviving members of the ROA also became 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 they undertook 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 fight against Bolshevism, but they, the “Vlasovites” were ready, if necessary, to resist with armed force any kind of colonization or dismemberment of our Motherland. We hope that in the future Russian historians will treat the events of that time with greater justice and impartiality than is happening today."

An alternative version of switching to the German side

In some memoirs you can find a version that Vlasov was captured even earlier - in the fall of 1941, surrounded near Kiev - where he was recruited and transferred across the front line. He is also credited with the order to destroy all the employees of his headquarters who did not want to surrender with him. Thus, the writer Ivan Stadnyuk claims that he heard this from General Saburov. This version is not confirmed by published archival documents.

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 for many years under a different name. Knowing the capabilities of our and other special services and the orders of politicians, the latter option cannot be completely ruled out either. Vlasov as a double, triple, etc. super agent. the appointment would have been arranged by the intelligence services of the West and the USSR, which could have been credited to him after the war. It is clear that this version still has a small chance. But...

In the photo of the hanged A.A. Vlasov is clear without glasses, but his facial features are not very clear; he somehow looks youthful.
http://neirolog.livejournal.com/182051.html
http://www.drittereich.info/files/vlasov.jpg
http://www.duel.ru/200201/01_8_2.jpg
http://www.ljplus.ru/img/l/e/lesnoy/028vlasov.jpg

Awards

USSR awards
Order of Lenin No. 770 (1941) - presented to one of Hitler's associates
2 Orders of the Red Banner (1940, 1941)
Medal "XX Years of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army"

Subsequently deprived of all awards and titles.

Foreign awards
Order of the Golden Dragon (China, 1939)

In cinema

Feature film “Liberation” (1969) “Homelands of Soldiers” (1975)

Documentary film “General Vlasov. A story of betrayal" - Russia, 2005.
Dialogue at the Gallows: New myths about General Vlasov, documentary Leonid Mlechin, (2008).

Literature
Alexandrov K. M. Officer Corps of the Army of Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov, 1944-1945. - St. Petersburg, 2001.
Alexandrov K.M. Against Stalin. Vlasovites and Eastern volunteers in the Second World War. Sat. articles and materials. - St. Petersburg, 2003.
Alexandrov K. M. Army of Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov 1944-1945. Materials for history * Armed Forces CONR. - St. Petersburg, 2004.
Alexandrov K.M. “Russian soldiers of the Wehrmacht”, M., Yauza, Eksmo, 2005.
Batshev V. S. Vlasov. Volumes 1-4. - Frankfurt am Main, 2001-2004.
Drobyazko S.I. Russian Liberation Army. - M., 2000.
Ermolov I. G., Drobyazko S. I. Anti-partisan republic. - M., 2001.
Isaev A. Short course history of the Second World War. The offensive of Marshal Shaposhnikov. - M: Yauza, Eksmo, 2005.
Okorokov A.V. Anti-Soviet military formations during the Second World War. - M., 2000.
Hoffmann I. History of the Vlasov army. - Paris, 1990.
Tsurganov Yu. S. Failed revenge. White emigration in World War II. - M., 2001.
Kolesnik A.N. Is General Vlasov a traitor or a hero? - M., 1991;
Palchikov P. A. The story of General Vlasov // New and recent history. 1993. N 2.
Shikman A.P. Figures of Russian history. Biographical reference book. - M.: 1997.
Kvitsinsky Yu. A. General Vlasov: the path of betrayal. - M., Sovremennik, 1999.
Konyaev N. M. Two faces of General Vlasov. Life, fate, legends. - M.: Veche, 2003. - 480 p. - (Dossier without retouching).
Stadnyuk I. F. Confession of a Stalinist. - M.: Patriot, 1993. - 415 p. Circulation 30,000 copies.
Finkelystein Yu. E. “Witnesses for the prosecution: Tukhachevsky, Vlasov and others ... (Damned generals)” St. Petersburg: Neva Magazine, 2001
Alexandrov K. “Tukhovezhi - Siverskaya: 60 years ago. How Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov was captured.” Social and political magazine “Posev” No. 7 2002 °C. 27 - 29
Westerburg E.-J. Deutschland und Russland: Zu den au;enpolitischen Konzepten des deutschen Widerstandes und der Vlasov-Anh;nger im 2. Weltkrieg, Erlangen, 2000 (Westerburg E.-J. Germany and Russia: Toward the foreign policy concepts of the German resistance and Vlasov’s supporters in the 2nd oh World War, Erlangen, 2000)
O.S. The meaning of Hitler's "Fifth Column". From Kutepov to Vlasov.. - Moscow: Veche, 2004. - ISBN 5-9533-0322-X

Vlasov A. A. in front of a formation of ROA soldiers, 1943.
Speech before a formation of volunteers, Eastern Front, October 1944.
Generals Vlasov and Shilenkov at a meeting with Goebbels, February 1945.

Notes
; Team of authors. "The Great Patriotic War. Commanders. Military biographical dictionary" - M.; Zhukovsky: Kuchkovo Field, 2005. ISBN 5-86090-113-5
; Khrushchev N. S. Time. People. Power.. - M.: IK "Moscow News", 1999. - T. 1. - P. 312. - (Memoirs).
; 1 2 3 4 5 Alexey Isaev. Did A. A. Vlasov command the 20th Army in December 1941?
; Konyaev N. M. Two faces of General Vlasov. Life, fate, legends. - M.: Veche, 2003. - P. 76. - 480 p. - (Dossier without retouching).
; “In April 1942, I became seriously ill. I had to go to the hospital. A new commander was appointed in my place,” based on the book by N.K. Klykov. The second strike in the battle for Leningrad. L., 1983. P. 20.
; V. Beshanov. Leningrad defense. - M.: AST, 2005. - P. 276.

; 1 2 Konyaev N. M. Two faces of General Vlasov. Life, fate, legends. - M.: Veche, 2003. - P. 93. - 480 p. - (Dossier without retouching).
; Open letter “Why I took the path of fighting Bolshevism” by General Vlasov
; The Prague Uprising: how it really happened
; Report from the commander of the 25th Tank Corps to the Military Council of the 1st Ukrainian Front about the capture of the commander of the ROA Vlasov A.A.
; E. Beevor. Fall of Berlin
; Alexandrov K.M. “Russian soldiers of the Wehrmacht”, M., Yauza, Eksmo, 2005, p.404
; Alexandrov K.M. “Russian soldiers of the Wehrmacht”, M., Yauza, Eksmo, 2005, p.405
; Konyaev N. M. Two faces of General Vlasov. Life, fate, legends. - M.: Veche, 2003. - P. 92. - 480 p. - (Dossier without retouching).
; Egorov A.V. With faith in victory (Notes of the commander of a tank regiment). M.: Voenizdat, 1974, P.16.
; Sandalov L. M. On the Moscow direction. - M.: Moscow worker, 1966.
; Maganov V.N., Iminov V.T. This was one of our most capable chiefs of staff // Military Historical Journal. - M.: 2003. - No. 1.
; Stuchenko A. T. Our enviable fate. M.: Military Publishing House, 1968, pp. 136-137.
; Meretskov K. A. In the service of the people. M.: Politizdat, 1968, P.296.
; "Vasilevsky A.M. The work of my whole life. - M.: Politizdat, 1978
; NEWSru.com:The main military prosecutor's office refused to rehabilitate General Vlasov
; Kommersant: General Vlasov was hanged correctly
; Review of the Synod of Bishops on the book by Archpriest Georgy Mitrofanov “The Tragedy of Russia. Forbidden topics in the history of the twentieth century"
; Stadnyuk, Ivan Fotievich Confession of a Stalinist (Russian). M.: Patriot, 1993/militera.lib.ru. Retrieved November 21, 2007.
; http://hronograf.narod.ru/03/vlasov2.htm

See also Vlasov, Andrey Andreevich on Wikimedia Commons?
Vlasov, Andrey Andreevich in Wikinews?

Russian collaborationism in World War II

Links
Historical encyclopedia. Vlasov A. A.
Russian Liberation Movement - Smolensk Declaration
Manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (Prague, November 14, 1944)
Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII (Lt. Gen. W;adys;aw Anders and Antonio Mu;oz (ed.))
Vlasov movement in the light of documents. NY. 1950.
Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt V.K. Against Stalin and Hitler: General Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement Ed. "Sowing", 2003. ISBN 5-85824-005-4
Traitor or decent soldier? New facts to the dispute about General A. A. Vlasov
"The Path to Betrayal"
Mysticism of the Order of Lenin No. 770"
General Holmston-Smyslovsky. Personal memories of General Vlasov
Ilya Smirnov “Brown Spots of History”
Ilya Smirnov. InterNAZional
General Vlasov - hero or traitor?
Agnes's secret. The story of the front-line wife of General Vlasov
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlasov,_Andrey_Andreevich

What is there to comment on here?!

Officer and then general Andrei Andreevich Vlasov served in the Red Army since 1920. After completing the command courses, he took part in battles with the White Guards on the Southern Front. Then he held command and staff positions, and also taught. In the fall of 1938, he was sent to China to work as part of a group of military advisers. From May to November 1939 he served as chief military adviser. Awarded the Order of the Golden Dragon.

In January 1940, Major General Vlasov was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division, which in October of the same year was recognized as the best division in the district. For this, A. Vlasov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th Mechanized Corps of the Kyiv Special Military District, and a month later he was awarded the Order of Lenin.

The war for A.A. 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 N. S. Khrushchev, was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended Kyiv. After fierce battles, scattered formations of this army managed to break through to the east, and Vlasov himself was wounded and ended up in the hospital.

In November 1941, Stalin summoned Vlasov and ordered him to form the 20th Army, which was part of the Western Front and defended the capital.

On December 5, near the village of Krasnaya Polyana (located 27 km from the Moscow Kremlin), the Soviet 20th Army under the command of General Vlasov stopped units of the German 4th Tank Army, making a significant contribution to the victory near Moscow. In Soviet times, a version appeared that Vlasov himself was in the hospital at that time, and the fighting was led by either the commander of the operational group A. I. Lizyukov or the chief of staff L. M. Sandalov.

Overcoming stubborn enemy resistance, the 20th Army drove the Germans out of Solnechnogorsk and Volokolamsk. On January 24, 1942, for the battles on the Lama River, he received the rank of lieutenant general and was awarded the second Order of the Red Banner. The armies of Rokossovsky and Govorov operated next to Vlasov. Rokossovsky and Govorov later became Marshals of the Soviet Union.

In fact, within a month or two, A.A. Vlasov turned out to be the main one responsible for the defeat of the 2nd Shock Army and the breakdown of the Lyuban operation. And here begins the story of the last four years of his life, as a result of which the concept of a traitor was assigned to him.

Yes, in the summer of 1942 he betrayed his military oath and allegiance to his state, which he served for more than 20 years and from which he received high awards. But does this betrayal cross out the fact that - for example - after the successes near Moscow, A. A. Vlasov, along with other generals of the Red Army, was called “the saviors of the capital”?! Or that the 37th Army, led by A.A. Vlasov, stubbornly defended Kyiv?! Is he the only one to blame for the failure of the Lyuban operation or was he – to be honest – clearly framed?!

For me there are no clear answers here.

And in light of the fight against the atrocities of the “Stalinist regime,” A.A. Vlasov has many chances of being acquitted. “I saw that they received nothing of what the Russian people fought for during the Civil War as a result of the Bolshevik victory. I saw how hard life was for the Russian worker, how the peasant was driven into collective farms, how millions of Russian people disappeared without trial and consequences. I saw how everything Russian was trampled underfoot." (from Vlasov's letter "Why I took the path of fighting Bolshevism").
The truth about the goals and objectives of the ROA was hidden from the Soviet people, but all of Europe knew about them. “If the ROA and the German command had mutual understanding and mutual trust, then the song of the Bolsheviks would be sung. Behind the successes, Hitler saw that it was impossible to occupy Russia, and it was impossible to defeat it,” wrote Colonel Izergin, who commanded the Cossack Corps during the Civil War, defeated the Chapaev division (then V.I. Chapaev died during the flight).
There are documented facts that Vlasov was associated with participants in the conspiracy against Hitler. General Vlasov's plans were as follows:
1. The Germans suspend the offensive of the Red Army for a time sufficient to strengthen the ROA, which begins a civil war against the Bolshevik system. At the same time, propaganda of the ideas and policies of the ROA is carried out.
2. With the defeat of Germany, the ROA becomes an ally of Western democracies in their struggle against Soviet totalitarianism.
If the allies had not sold the ROA, the outcome of events would have been different. General Vlasov wanted to unite the liberation movements of European countries that fell under the occupation of the Red Army, and national movements on the territory of the USSR.
But the Stalinist apparatus did not sit idly by, it propagandized the Soviet people against the Vlasovites, attributing to them the atrocities of punitive German units and policemen on the territory of the Soviet Union, and emphasized the anti-Semitism of the ROA.
Andrei Andreevich treated Jews kindly, not imagining the future of Russia without them. Jewish prisoners of war served in the ROA under the guise of Armenians, Georgians, and Arabs.
Stalin personally knew General Vlasov and met with him three times; not every general received such an honor. When Vlasov was captured by the Germans in 1942, Stalin did not express much concern. He became worried when he was told that Vlasov headed the ROA and was calling for a fight against Bolshevism.

Hoffmann Joachim, History of the Vlasov Army
http://militera.lib.ru/research/hoffmann/index.html
about the fate of the Vlasovites after the war
http://tr.rkrp-rpk.ru/get.php?403 and others.

So what?! Well, he is a traitor, a conscious enemy of the Soviet system. And yet, emphasizing this, we must not forget about Vlasov’s role in the battles near Kiev or Moscow. And his initial attempts to save the 2nd Shock Army (some of the fighters still managed to escape from the encirclement). And in relation to the Soviet system - everyone now living in one way or another “betrayed” it in 1989 - 1991, losing the Cold War - no matter how they then tried to justify their position. Few people, realizing the betrayal of the USSR, shot themselves or otherwise sharply outlined their attitude towards the betrayal of the Soviet system. This is a deeply ideological question. So let's get back to specifics.

Back on May 8, 1969, the Rude Pravo newspaper published a conversation with the Chairman of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia, Jozsef Smrkovsky. Pan Smrkovsky, recalling the Prague Uprising of 1945, of which he was one of the leaders, said that the Soviet command sent a special group of paratroopers in the spring of 1945, commanded by Colonel Savelyev. The group was dropped in the Brdy forest. Savelyev, according to Smrkovsky, was given the task of infiltrating the ranks of the ROA (Russian Liberation Army), formed near Prague, and convincing the Vlasovites to turn their arms against the Germans. Jozsef Smrkovsky claimed that the paratroopers completed their task, convincing the Vlasov army to take the side of the rebels. http://www.rg.ru/Anons/arc_2001/0511/hit.shtm

There is a lot of controversy about this. On the streets of the city, on the barricades, Czech rebels, fighters of Soviet sabotage detachments and former Vlasovites included in their composition fought against the SS and military police troops.
“There were a maximum of 300 - 400 people in all detachments, including no more than 150 in Hurricane,” emphasizes Pyotr Stepanovich.
And Vlasov at this time was already preparing to withdraw his army to American zone. The major, who searched Vlasov during his arrest, later said that he had an identity card signed by Voroshilov and a party card sewn into his riding breeches.
The remnants of the “liberators” failed to leave the ROA. They were disarmed by tank crews of the 25th Tank Corps. http://www.rg.ru/Anons/arc_2001/0511/hit.shtm
http://belnobility2007.narod.ru/stranica/vlasovcy.htm

Following the war, the 2nd Shock Army adequately rehabilitated itself.
Lieutenant General N.K. Klykov recovered at the right time, in July he returned to command of the 2nd Army (July-December 1942), partly saved by the policy of A.A. Vlasov - he performed the duties of its commander, but was officially approved for I didn’t have this position, “such a squiggle” (answer, but officially you’re nobody).
Then the army was commanded by Lieutenant General Romanovsky V. Z. (December 1942 - December 1943). And later, Lieutenant General (from October 1944, Colonel General) Fedyuninsky I.I. (December 1943 - until the end of the war).
At the end of 1943, units of the 2nd Shock Army under the command of Fedyuninsky were secretly transferred to the Oranienbaum bridgehead, from where on January 14 they successfully attacked in the Gostilitsa area and broke through the German defenses. This attack marks the beginning of the Krasnoselsko-Ropshinsky operation, during which the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted by the end of January. Then the army took part in the Narva and Tallinn offensive operations of 1944, and as part of the 2nd Belorussian Front took part in the Mlawa-Elbing, East Pomeranian and Berlin offensive operations of 1945. http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/2 -I_shock_army
http://www.victory.mil.ru/rkka/units/03/13.html
In the area of operations of the 2nd Shock Army near Myasny Bor and Spasskaya Polist, search work has been going on for decades to identify and rebury Soviet soldiers. Over the course of 20 years, the Novgorod search team "Dolina" discovered the remains of almost 88 thousand soldiers. On February 19, 1988, by decree of the Novgorod regional executive committee and the bureau of the regional committee of the Komsomol No. 57, a search expedition of the Novgorod regional committee of the Komsomol “Valley” was created (today the Novgorod regional public organization “Search expedition “Valley” in memory of N.I. Orlov”). Since the creation of the “Valley Search Expedition”, which now includes 38 search teams and associations with a total number of about 800 people, resolves issues of searching for the remains of the deceased and unburied defenders of the Fatherland, is engaged in establishing their names and searching for relatives. In addition, every year up to 2,000 volunteers from more than 40 regions of Russia and Kazakhstan come to Novgorod soil to remove the unburied remains of fallen soldiers from the forests and swamps of the Novgorod region. Search work are carried out on the territory of the Novgorod, Chudovsky, Batetsky districts (connected with the region of action of the 2nd Army) Malovishersky, Starorussky, Parfinsky, Poddorsky, Kholmsky, Demyansky, Marevsky, Shimsky, Valdaisky, Soletsky, districts of the Novgorod region, where during the Great Patriotic War intense fighting.
The main result of Dolina’s 20-year activity is the discovery and burial of the remains of 87,874 Soviet soldiers in military cemeteries and memorials in the region, and the identification of about 16 thousand names.
http://www.novgorod.net/~dolina/spis/
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_team
http://novgorod.allnw.ru/news/75842
Tens of thousands of young Russians have attended Dolina School (plenty of information on the Internet).

This, in just one example, is the most complex dialectic of history.
Similar things can be said about many people of any country and people at different times.
Thousands of heroes of Russian history, especially Soviet history, are dialectical.
V.I.Lenin, L.D.Trotsky, I.V.Stalin, S.M.Kirov, L.P.Beria...
Add black and the picture turns black. White - it will be lighter.
And the Reds and Whites, Greens and others have fought for Russia since 1917.

It might be possible to erect some of the monuments specifically to all Russians who gave their lives for their Motherland (they all loved it) - unfortunately, in fact - in civil wars. There were no democratic elections then...

Below in the reviews I was recommended knowledgeable people pay attention to the series of publications
http://lj.rossia.org/users/lll22021918_01/2009/10/07/ Please note.
But I think that many materials are in favor of a special assignment for Vlasov in Germany
finally destroyed.

General Vlasov

What was this man like, whose name is synonymous with betrayal, what events in his life made his collaboration with the Wehrmacht possible? Who is he, General A. A. Vlasov - an ideological opponent of Stalinism or a victim of circumstances?

Vlasov Andrey Andreevich was born in 1901, September 14 (1) in the village. Lomakino, near Nizhny Novgorod, in the family of a middle peasant. He was the youngest son in a large family. After studying at a rural school, the boy was sent to study at a theological seminary in N. Novgorod. But what happened in 1917 changed all plans, and 17-year-old Andrei Vlasov began studying to become an agronomist. 1919 became a fateful year, Vlasov was drafted into the ranks of the Red Army and he would never become an agronomist. Vlasov’s life will be closely connected with the army.

His military career began in 1919 after completing command courses, then - fighting on the fronts of the Civil War, after 1922 - command and staff positions, teaching, higher commander courses in 1929, joining the ranks of the Communist Bolsheviks, since 1935 A A. Vlasov studies at the Military Academy named after. Frunze. Swift career! The USSR high military command trusted Vlasov so much that they sent him to China in the fall of 1938 as a military adviser. And within six months, Vlasov will become Chiang Kai-shek’s chief military consultant, and part-time, his wife’s spiritual friend, as well as the owner of 4 teenage girls, which he bought inexpensively at the market, for less than half a month’s salary. The Chinese generalissimo highly appreciated Vlasov as a military specialist and presented him with the Order of the Golden Dragon, and his wife gave him a watch, while Vlasov himself brought three more suitcases of all sorts of goods to his homeland. Chinese awards, gifts and acquired goods were taken away from the military adviser in the USSR, which Vlasov was very sad about.
After returning from a business trip to China, Major General Vlasov was sent to the 99th Infantry Division for inspection, and later he was appointed commander. Head of the 4th mech. corps located in Western Ukraine, Vlasov was appointed in the winter of 1940-41. This is where it began for General Vlasov Great War. For his skillful and competent actions, Vlasov receives positive reviews from Timoshenko and Khrushchev and is sent as commander to the 37th Army, to the Southwestern Front to organize the defense of Kyiv. The army found itself surrounded through no fault of the new commander, but Kyiv had to surrender to the enemy and leave the encirclement. Only by the end of November 1941 did the remnants of the army unite with the Soviet troops. I.V. summoned Vlasov and gave the order to form the 20th Army to ensure the defense of Moscow. The battles for Moscow were fierce, but the army under the command of Vlasov managed to push the Germans back from Volokolamsk and Solnechnogorsk. For the successful defense of Moscow, Vlasov was awarded the rank of lieutenant general and awarded the Order of the Red Banner. Chief of the General Staff G.K. spoke of General Vlasov as a completely skillful and competent commander, and he himself treated Vlasov very well and appreciated him.

Fatal for Vlasov was his appointment as commander of the 2nd Shock Army. They were appointed to command the surrounded army, whose fighters barely survived the terrible frosty and hungry winter, staggering from fatigue and exhaustion. Four futile attempts were made to break through the encirclement. The remnants of the army got out of the encirclement in small groups. General Vlasov and his few companions, after three weeks of wandering through forests and swamps, went to the village on July 12, 1942, asked for food, while they ate, the headman reported to the Germans, who soon arrived in the village. General Vlasov, apparently, then made the decision to surrender. Subsequently, he was transported to Vinnitsa, to a camp for senior officers of the Red Army, where they conducted an interrogation, during which the general described in detail the state of affairs on the fronts, what strategic plans were being made at Headquarters. The Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich, Goebbels, became interested in Vlasov, and he proposed using the general for agitation among those dissatisfied with the Stalinist regime and prisoners of war. Vlasov was asked to form the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). There was no full-fledged army, only two divisions, somehow staffed. On Eastern Front The ROA never turned out to perform escort and punitive functions; the Germans, after all, did not trust the Russians. While engaged in campaigning, the general managed to resolve personal issues by marrying a millionaire widow. But the war was ending, and it was already obvious that the Nazis would not see victory, the allies would have to surrender and ask for asylum. But the allies, fulfilling the Yalta agreement, handed over the traitor general to the SMERSH detachment, and Vlasov was taken to Moscow. The investigation lasted for almost a year, although the sentence against Vlasov and his 11 accomplices was pronounced by the Politburo of the Central Committee back in 1943. The court hearing was closed, without a prosecutor or lawyer. The verdict was read out on August 1, 1946, the convicts were stripped of their titles, awards, personal property and sentenced to death by hanging.

When they talk about the glorious deeds of the Soviet troops under the walls of Moscow in the winter of 1941-1942, they immediately focus on the fact that at the beginning of the war everything was wrong with the Red Army. And then little by little the commanders and soldiers began to gain their senses. And when the Great One rumbled Patriotic War, then at lectures at the military academy they began to say that for the first time military intelligence was correctly organized in the bloody offensive battles on the Lama River in January 1942.

On the same Lama River in January 1942, the first properly organized engineering support offensive operations. And again, it was on the Lama River in January 1942 that logistics support for troops during offensive operations was first properly organized. Air defense of the troops was also properly organized for the first time on the Lama River in the same ill-fated January 1942.

Do you know where the planning of troop combat operations and operational camouflage were first properly organized? I can tell you - on the Lama River. And when? In January 1942. If you don’t believe me, then open the Military Historical Journal No. 1, page 13, 1972.

But there is one strange nuance in all this information. Everywhere the Soviet troops on the Lama River are praised, but neither the division numbers nor the army number are mentioned and no names are mentioned. Some strange nameless military units appear.

But here is the testimony of Marshal of Artillery Peredelsky: “The organization of an artillery offensive in the form provided for by the directive began with the offensive of the 20th Army on the Lama River in January 1942.”

Finally, the army was named. This is the 20th Army of the Western Front. And who commanded her? All names are in the Soviet Military Encyclopedia. Open volume 3, page 104 and look.

In total, 11 generals commanded the army during the war. The first 5 had the rank of lieutenant general: Remezov (June-July 1941), Kurochkin (July-August 1941), Lukin (August-September 1941), Ershakov (September-October 1941), Reiter (March-September 1942). And who commanded the army during the hardest battles for Moscow in the winter of 1941-42 from November to February?

But from the encyclopedia it turns out that during this period of time no one commanded the army? Truly, miracles happened on the Lama River. This turns out to be the essence of military success. Remove the commander, and the troops will immediately become the best. But we all know that there are no miracles in the world. The 20th Army at that time had a commander. His name was General Vlasov Andrey Andreevich (1901-1946).

It was under his leadership that the 20th Army was transferred to the Western Front and concentrated north of Moscow. In December 1941, as part of the troops of the right wing of the front, she took part in the Klin-Solnechnogorsk offensive operation. In cooperation with the 16th, 30th and 1st shock armies, she defeated the enemy’s 3rd and 4th tank groups, throwing them westward 90-100 km, to the line of the Lama and Ruza rivers. At the same time it was released a large number of settlements, including Volokolamsk.

In January 1942, the 20th Army, with a strike on Volokolamsk-Shakhovskaya, broke through the enemy defenses at the turn of the Lama River and, pursuing the retreating German troops, by the end of January reached the area northeast of Gzhatsk.

For the battles on the Lama River, Andrei Andreevich received the next rank of lieutenant general and the highest state award, the Order of Lenin. The armies of Rokossovsky and Govorov operated next to him. Both of them later became Marshals of the Soviet Union. However, neither Rokossovsky nor Govorov were used as an example. They fought very well, but they used Vlasov as an example, because he fought well. He was one of the most talented commanders of the Red Army. They even wrote songs about him:

The guns roared loudly
Military thunder raged
General Comrade Vlasov
He gave the Germans some pepper!

And then fate turned out in such a way that they ordered to forget this name and cross it off from all lists. They crossed it out, and we, opening official military reference books, are perplexed why the 20th Army did not have a commander during the most difficult and bloody time for the country.

Brief biography of General Vlasov

Before the Great Patriotic War

Andrei Andreevich was born on September 14, 1901 in the village of Lomakino on the Piany River. This is the Nizhny Novgorod province. He was the 13th in the family, the most youngest child. He studied at the theological seminary in Nizhny Novgorod. After the revolution of 1917, he began to study to become an agronomist. In 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army.

He completed a 4-month commander's course and fought on the Southern Front. Participated in hostilities against Wrangel. In 1920, he took part in the liquidation of the rebel movement of Nestor Makhno. Since 1922, he held staff and command positions. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Command Courses. In 1930 he became a member of the CPSU (b). In 1935 he became a student at the Military Academy. Frunze.

Since 1937 regiment commander. In 1938 he became assistant commander of the 72nd Infantry Division. Since the fall of 1938, he has been working in China as a military adviser. In 1939 he served as chief military adviser.

In January 1940, Andrei Andreevich was awarded the rank of major general. He was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division, stationed in the Kiev Military District. At the end of the same year, she was recognized as the best in the area. For this, the young general was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In January 1941, Andrei Andreevich was appointed commander of the 4th mechanized corps stationed near Lvov.

First year of the Great Patriotic War

Since June 22, 1941, the major general took part in hostilities in Ukraine. At first he commanded the 4th Mechanized Corps, and then the 37th Army. He took part in the battles for Kyiv. He escaped from encirclement, making his way to the east as part of scattered military formations. During the fighting he was wounded and ended up in the hospital.

In November 1941, he was put in charge of the 20th Army, which became part of the Western Front. In the battles for Moscow he showed the greatest strategic and tactical skill. He made a significant contribution to the defeat of the central group of German troops. At the end of January 1942, he received the military rank of lieutenant general. Became widely popular among the troops. Behind his back he was called the “savior of Moscow.”

Major General Vlasov while fighting for Moscow

At the beginning of March 1942, Vlasov was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. In March he was sent to the 2nd Army, where he replaced the sick General Klykov. He commanded this army, remaining deputy front commander.

The position of the army was very difficult. It was deeply wedged into the disposition of German troops advancing on Leningrad. But it did not have the strength for further offensive operations. The army had to be withdrawn urgently, otherwise it could be surrounded.

But the command at first did not want to give the order to retreat, and then, when the Germans cut all communications, it was too late. Officers and soldiers found themselves in a German cauldron. This was blamed on the commander of the Leningrad Front, Khozin, who did not comply with the Headquarters directive on the withdrawal of the army of May 21, 1942. He was removed from his post and transferred to the Western Front with a demotion.

The forces of the Volkhov Front created a narrow corridor through which individual units of the 2nd Army managed to reach their own. But on June 25, the corridor was liquidated by the Germans. A plane was sent for Andrei Andreevich, but he refused to throw away the remains military units, because he believed that he bears full responsibility for people.

Very soon the ammunition ran out and famine began. The army ceased to exist. They tried to get out of the encirclement in small groups. On July 11, 1942, the commander was arrested in one of the villages where he went to ask for food. At first, Andrei Andreevich tried to pass himself off as a refugee, but the Germans quickly identified him, because portraits of the popular commander were published in all Soviet newspapers.

In German captivity

The captured Russian general was sent to a prisoner of war camp near Vinnitsa. The highest command staff of the Red Army was kept there. The war dragged on, so the Germans offered cooperation to all captured officers and generals. Such a proposal was also made to Andrei Andreevich.

He agreed to cooperate with the German government, but immediately made a counter proposal. Its essence was the creation of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). It was planned as an independent military unit, associated with German troops by an allied agreement. The ROA had to fight not with the Russian people, but with the Stalinist regime.

In principle, the idea was great. In the first 2 weeks of fighting in 1941, the entire personnel of the Red Army was captured. There were 5 million professional soldiers in German camps. If this entire mass of people had been thrown against the Soviet troops, the course of military operations could have changed radically.

With comrades from the ROA

But Hitler was not a far-sighted politician. He did not want to make any compromises with the Russians. Moreover, he was disgusted to consider them as allies. Russia was to become a German colony, and its population was to be prepared for the fate of slaves. Therefore, the proposal of the captive commander was taken into account, but no fundamental progress was made in this matter.

Only organizational issues were resolved. In the spring of 1943, an army headquarters was formed, because what would an army be without a headquarters. Fyodor Ivanovich Trukhin (1896-1946) became his boss. He was a professional soldier of the Red Army and was captured on June 27, 1941. Then they recruited staff and appointed commanders of military units. And time passed. Soviet troops defeated the Germans on the Kursk Bulge, and a steady offensive began on all fronts.

Only at the end of November 1944 did military units begin to be formed from volunteers who wanted to fight the Stalinist regime. Propaganda work on this issue was carried out, but not on a scale and not in such a way as to attract millions of prisoners and millions of Russian emigrants to their side. Among these people there was a well-founded opinion that Hitler wanted to enslave Russia, so an alliance with him meant betrayal of the Motherland. The Germans did not convince anyone in this regard, since they did not have such directives from the top leadership of Germany.

In total, the ROA personnel by April 1945 numbered only 130 thousand people. These were fully formed military units, but they were scattered throughout different areas front, and they fought as part of German units, although they were nominally subordinate to their commander, who was considered to be Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. In essence, he was a general without an army and could no longer demonstrate his brilliant military abilities.

In May 1945, the rapid collapse of the fascist regime began. Former Gauleiters began to frantically look for new owners. They all rushed to curry favor with the Americans and the British. Members of the ROA also began to surrender to the Western Allied forces, completely ignoring the Soviet ones.

General Vlasov and his staff also went to the American occupation zone to surrender to the commander of the 3rd US Army. It was located in the Czechoslovakian city of Pilsen. But on the way, the detachment was stopped by soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The traitor was identified, arrested and sent to front headquarters, and from there transported to Moscow.

On July 30, 1946, a closed trial began in the Vlasov case. Not only Andrei Andreevich was tried, but also his closest associates. On July 31, the verdict was read out. The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Ulrich, sentenced all defendants to death. The traitors were deprived of military ranks and awards, and their property was confiscated. On the night of July 31 to August 1, they were all hanged in the courtyard of Butyrka prison. The corpses of the Vlasovites were cremated. It is unknown where the ashes were distributed. But the punitive authorities had extensive experience in this matter. So it is not possible to find him.

In Soviet captivity

Why did General Vlasov become a traitor?

Why did the famous military leader and Stalin's favorite become a traitor? He could have shot himself to avoid being captured. But apparently Andrei Andreevich was not satisfied with such a simple outcome. He was an intelligent and thinking person. Most likely, he hated the regime he served.

He differed from other commanders of the Red Army in his cordiality and attention to his subordinates, and they loved and respected him. What other Soviet general could boast of this? Maybe Rokossovsky, but no one else comes to mind. So Andrei Andreevich did not look like the commander of the Red Army. His youth was spent in a well-fed, prosperous and humane Tsarist Russia. So there was something to compare the existing regime with.

But there was nowhere to go and I had to conscientiously fulfill my duties. He was a true patriot of his homeland. He fought the Nazis honestly and conscientiously, and when he was captured, he tried to bring maximum benefit to his long-suffering Motherland. As a result of this, the plan to create the ROA arose. But the German command did not understand the full depth and scale of the plan. But this was salvation both for Hitler and for his entourage.

These days, the attitude towards General Vlasov is ambiguous. Some consider him a traitor and a traitor, while others consider him a courageous man who challenged the Stalinist regime. And this regime considered the captured general extremely dangerous. All his merits were erased from people's memory, and the trial was held behind closed doors, although other traitors were tried in public.

This already indirectly indicates that Andrei Andreevich was not a traitor to the Motherland. Ulrich and his henchmen could not prove the guilt of the ROA commander, so they were tried in secret and executed in secret. And the people whom the disgraced red commander served faithfully remained in the dark.

Alexander Semashko