Russian Liberation Army

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Image:SoldierRussianLiberationArm.jpg Russian Liberation Army or ROA (Русская Освободительная Армия, Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya), also known as the Vlasov army, was a group of volunteer Russian forces allied with Nazi Germany during World War II. The ROA was organized by former Red Army general Andrey Vlasov, who tried to unite all Russians in opposing the USSR. Amidst the volunteers were Soviet prisoners of war, eastern workers (Ostarbeiter), and Russian emigrés (some of whom were veterans of the anticommunist White Army during the Russian Civil War).

Months after the invasion of the USSR, separate Russian volunteers who enlisted into the German Wehrmacht wore the patch of the Russian Liberation Army, an army which did not yet exist but was presented as a reality by German propaganda. These volunteers (called "Hiwis", an acronym for "Hilfswilliger" meaning "willing to help") were not under Vlasov's command or control; they were exclusively under German command carrying out various duties: guarding towns and villages from the Soviet partisans, chauffeurs, kitchen and medical units, rescue units. Soon, several German commanders began forming small armed units out of them, primarily used in battle against the partisans.

Adolf Hitler permitted the idea of the Russian Liberation Army to be used in propaganda literature so long as no real formations of the sort were permitted. As a result, some Red Army soldiers surrendered or defected in hopes of joining an army that did not yet exist. Meanwhile General Vlasov, along with his German and Russian allies, was desperately lobbying the German high command, hoping that a green light would be given for the formation of a real armed force that would be exclusively under Russian control. Hitler's staff repeatedly rejected these appeals with hostility, refusing to even consider them. Still, Vlasov and his allies reasoned that Hitler would eventually come to realize the futility of a war against the USSR and respond to Vlasov's demands.

When Hitler was informed about the large number of Russian and other former Soviet citizen volunteers in the Wehrmacht (a figure estimated at nearly 1 million) he panicked. Upon hearing a false report that these units were unreliable and defecting to the partisans, Hitler ordered their immediate transfer to the western front. Realizing the catastrophic effect that this would have on the eastern front, many German commanders took various elusive measures to keep their Russian volunteers from being transferred. Nevertheless, many Russian volunteers were transferred and forced to serve on western front positions. A number of them were on guard in northern France on D-Day, and without the equipment or the motivation to fight the allies, most promptly surrendered. There were instances of bitter fighting to the very end, triggered by mishandled propaganda from the Allies, promising quick repatriation of soldiers back to the Soviet Union if they gave up.

The ROA did not officially exist until the fall of 1944, after Heinrich Himmler persuaded a very reluctant Hitler to permit the formation of 10 Russian Liberation Army divisions. On 14 November in Prague, Vlasov read aloud the Prague Manifesto before the newly created Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. This document stated the purposes of the battle against Stalin, and spelled out 14 democratic points which the army was fighting for. German insistence that the document carry anti-Semitic rhetoric was successfully parried by Vlasov's committee; however, they were obliged to include a statement criticising the Western Allies, labelling them "plutocracies" that were "allies of Stalin in his conquest of Europe".

By the end of the war, only one division was fully formed, under the command of General Sergei Bunyachenko. A second division was incomplete but already put into action under the command of General Grigorii Meandrov. A third only began formation.

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

During the march south, the first division of the ROA came to the help of the Czech partisans to support the Prague Uprising which started on May 5, 1945 against the German occupation. The ROA engaged in battle with SS units that had been sent to level the city. The ROA units armed with heavy weaponry fended the relentless SS assault, and together with the Czech partisans succeeded in preserving most of Prague from destruction. Due to the predominance of communists in the new Czech Rada, the first division had to leave the city the very next day and tried to surrender to US Third Army of General Patton.

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

The Allies had little interest in aiding or sheltering the ROA, especially when that aid would severely harm relations with the USSR. Soon after, Vlasov and most of his supporters were caught by the Soviets, or forcefully extradited to them by the Allies. Even those ROA soldiers who surrendered or escaped to Allied controlled areas faced repatriation to the Soviets. The great majority of these soldiers were sent to Gulags. It was declared that all the Vlasovtsy (followers of Vlasov) were traitors. Summary exile to hard labor camps in Siberia for 10 years was the mildest sentence for them.

Vlasov and several other leaders of the ROA were tried and hanged in Moscow on August 3 1946.

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See also

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External links

no:Den russiske frigjøringsarméen ru:Русская освободительная армия

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