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 minds. And when the Great Patriotic War rumbled, then at lectures at the military academy they began to say that for the first time military intelligence was properly organized in bloody offensive battles on the Lama River in January 1942.

On the same Lame River in January 1942, for the first time, engineering support for offensive operations was properly organized. And again, it was on the Lama River in January 1942 that the rear support of troops during offensive operations was first properly organized. The 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 combat operations of troops 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, p. 13, 1972.

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

But here is the testimony of Marshal of Artillery Peredelsky: "The beginning of the organization of an artillery offensive in the form envisaged by the directive was laid in the offensive of the 20th Army on the Lama River in January 1942."

Finally, they called the army. This is the 20th Army of the Western Front. Who was in charge of her? All names are in the Soviet military encyclopedia. We open volume 3, page 104 and look.

In total, 11 generals commanded the army during the war years. 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), Reuters (March-September 1942). And who commanded the army during the most difficult 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 took place on the Lama River. This is 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 Andrei 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 Klinsko-Solnechnogorsk offensive operation. In cooperation with the 16th, 30th and 1st shock armies, it defeated the 3rd and 4th enemy tank groups, throwing them 90-100 km to the west, to the line of the Lama River, Ruza. At the same time, a large number of settlements were liberated, 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, reached the area northeast of Gzhatsk by the end of January.

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 acted next to him. Both of them subsequently became Marshals of the Soviet Union. However, neither Rokossovsky nor Govorov was held up as an example. They fought very well, but they set Vlasov as an example, because he fought excellently. It was one of the most talented commanders of the Red Army. They even wrote songs about him:

The cannons rumbled
Thunder military raged
General Comrade Vlasov
Asked the German pepper!

And then fate turned out so that this name was ordered to be forgotten and deleted from all lists. They crossed it out, and we, opening the official military directories, are perplexed why the 20th Army did not have a commander in 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 Pyany River. This is the Nizhny Novgorod province. In the family, he was the 13th, the youngest child. He studied at the theological seminary in Nizhny Novgorod. After the revolution of 1917, he began to study as an agronomist. In 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army.

He graduated from a 4-month commander's course, fought on the Southern Front. Participated in hostilities against Wrangel. In 1920 he took part in the elimination of the rebel movement of Nestor Makhno. Since 1922, he was in 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 of the Military Academy. Frunze.

Since 1937, the commander of the regiment. In 1938 he became assistant commander of the 72nd Infantry Division. Since the autumn of 1938 at work in China as a military adviser. In 1939, he served as chief military adviser.

In January 1940 Andrei Andreyevich was promoted to the rank of Major General. He was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division stationed in the Kiev Military District. At the end of that year, she was recognized as the best in the district. 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 the 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 left the 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 placed at the head 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 grouping 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 eyes he was called "the savior of Moscow."

Major General Vlasov during his stay for Moscow

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

The position of the army was very difficult. She deeply wedged into the location of the German troops advancing on Leningrad. But she did not have the strength for further offensive operations. The army had to be urgently withdrawn, 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 off all communications, it was already too late. Officers and soldiers ended up in a German cauldron. The commander of the Leningrad Front, Khozin, was blamed for this, who did not comply with the directive of the Headquarters 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 abandon the remnants of military units, as he believed that he was fully responsible for the people.

Ammunition soon 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 impersonate a refugee, but the Germans quickly identified him, because portraits of the popular commander were printed in all Soviet newspapers.

In German captivity

The captured Russian general was sent to a prisoner of war camp near Vinnitsa. The top 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 Andrey Andreevich.

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

Basically, the idea was great. In the first 2 weeks of the fighting in 1941, the entire personnel of the Red Army was taken prisoner. There were 5 million professional soldiers in the German camps. If all this mass of people were thrown against the Soviet troops, then the course of hostilities could change dramatically.

With associates from ROA

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

Only organizational issues were resolved. In the spring of 1943, the army headquarters was formed, because what kind of army is without a headquarters. Fyodor Ivanovich Trukhin (1896-1946) became his boss. He was a professional soldier of the Red Army, was taken prisoner on June 27, 1941. Then they recruited states, 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 form from volunteers who wanted to fight the Stalinist regime. Propaganda work on this issue was carried out, but not on the scale and not in such a way as to win 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 a 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 personnel of the ROA by April 1945 totaled only 130 thousand people. These were fully formed military units, but they were scattered across different sectors of the front, and they fought as part of the German units, although nominally they were subordinate to their commander, who was considered Andrey Andreevich Vlasov. In fact, he was a general without an army and could no longer show his brilliant military abilities.

In May 1945, the rapid collapse of the fascist regime began. Former Gauleiters began to feverishly look for new owners. All of them 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 with his staff also went to the American occupation zone to surrender to the commander of the 3rd US Army. He was in the Czechoslovak 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 the headquarters of the front, and from there he was transferred to Moscow.

On July 30, 1946, a closed court session began in the case of the Vlasovites. Not only Andrei Andreevich was judged, 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 the defendants to death. The traitors were stripped of their 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 the Butyrka prison. The corpses of the Vlasovites were cremated. Where the ashes were placed is unknown. But the employees of the punitive authorities had a lot of experience in this matter. So it's impossible to find it.

In Soviet captivity

Why did General Vlasov become a traitor?

Why did the famous military leader and favorite of Stalin become a traitor? He could shoot himself so as not to be captured. But apparently such a simple outcome did not suit Andrei Andreevich. He was a smart and thoughtful person. Most likely, he hated the regime he served.

From other commanders of the Red Army, he was distinguished by cordiality and attention to his subordinates, and they loved and respected him. What other Soviet general could boast of this? Is that Rokossovsky, and no one else comes to mind. So Andrey Andreevich did not look like the commander of the Red Army. His youth was spent in well-fed, prosperous and humane tsarist Russia. So there was something to compare the existing regime with.

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

Today, the attitude towards General Vlasov is ambiguous. Someone considers him a traitor and traitor, and someone is a courageous person who challenged the Stalinist regime. And this regime considered the captured general extremely dangerous. All his merits were erased from the memory of people, 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 commander of the ROA, so they tried secretly and executed secretly. And the people, whom the disgraced red commander faithfully served, remained in the dark.

Alexander Semashko

General Vlasov was not executed in 1946. He died in the Far East under a false name.

In the life of every journalist there are moments when you feel right, as they say, "in full". The feeling is amazing and a little scary. Especially when it comes to one of the mysteries of Soviet history. How many there were, and how many journalists broke their feathers about these "mysteries of history" ... Do not count ...

The usual circle of topics for newspapers in the post-Soviet space is the assassination of Kirov, the personal life of Joseph Stalin, the Beria case, the NKVD Brezhnev ... You can continue indefinitely.

About General Andrei Vlasov it is written so-so - neither more nor less. It seemed that everything had already been written, and all the details of this "case" had been announced. One of the public organizations in Russia even submitted a petition to the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for the rehabilitation of Andrei Vlasov.

While dealing with the topic "Andrei Vlasov", I also collected a lot of information, even managed to quarrel with the special services and make friends with retired SMERSH members and Chekists. Well, he wrote an unthinkable amount of articles and notes. Even sat down for a book.

But then came the very moment when you feel like a winner. While dealing with this topic, I became more and more convinced that Andrei Vlasov was a very well-used agent of the GRU. They tried to convince me for a long time and persistently that he was a traitor. Yes, so persistently that he did not believe in it even more. And then the Nizhny Novgorod newspaper "Prospekt" fell into my hands. What I read there fully confirms my version. So...

When witnesses are silent, legends are born Nina Mikhailovna

This (a relative of the general), without knowing it, gave out sensational news. In her opinion, Andrei Vlasov was not hanged in Lefortovo according to the verdict. Instead of her great-uncle, a stranger ascended the scaffold. “After the war, I went to Leningrad, where I met with the Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot Alexander Pokryshkin,” she says. “Pokryshkin was a distant relative of Aunt Valya’s husband, Andrei Vlasov’s niece. Alexander Ivanovich said that he went with his wife Alexandra to the public execution of the Vlasovites So he claimed that instead of godfather Andrey, some little peasant was executed, probably a jailer. Pokryshkin knew Vlasov well, met him more than once. And he was sure that it was not him who was hanged. And in Lomakino no one "I believed: they don't kill good people. And one of our collective farmers, Pyotr Vasilievich Ryabinin, also from Lomakin, after the war often went to his daughter in the Far East to sell tobacco. Once, daughter Nastya took him to an amateur concert. And suddenly Ryabinin saw that he came on stage to play the accordion ... Andrey Vlasov... He shouted: "Andrey! I'm Lomakinsky, I'm here!" The artist turned pale, crumpled the end of the performance and ran away.

My countryman ran to look for him backstage, but did not find him. Then he told me and Aunt Valya that he immediately recognized Andrei as soon as he played the instrument. Yes, and then he sang his favorite song ... In general, I believe that Vlasov was not executed after the war, he remained alive. I am sure that after the war, godfather Andrei lived for a long time under a different surname, and he died a natural death.

Nothing to add, as they say. If you believe this evidence, then Vlasov's "execution" was public. I have photographs of the execution. Perhaps it really was a well-directed performance. Let us recall, for example, the "executed Mikhail Koltsov," who, as early as 1943, was met at the front under a false name by people who knew him well. Her Majesty History is very good at keeping her secrets.

However, what they don’t write now about Vlasov, who headed the “Russian Liberation Army”. (It was formed from emigrants and Soviet prisoners of war, whom Hitler used in the war against the USSR.) For example, that this general purposely surrendered to the Germans in order to carry out top-secret tasks for the Red Army. They represent almost a new Stirlitz ... Meanwhile, the facts from the personal file of General Vlasov, which we managed to study in the military archives, eloquently testify to the true essence of this figure.

"Have no hesitation"

“Vlasov Andrey Andreevich, was born on September 1, or, according to the old style, on August 19, 1901 ... Voluntarily went to the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army” - these are lines from his autobiography. “I didn’t participate in oppositions and anti-party groups… I didn’t have any hesitation. I always stood firmly on the general line of the party ... ”- he answers the question of the questionnaire. Many red commanders - immigrants from the tsarist army - could not say this about themselves. And this will help Vlasov make a career. When the total eradication of "enemies of the people" from the army begins, it will be difficult to find the best candidate for election to the district military tribunal.

On March 16, 1938, Vlasov was given a characteristic: "Working a lot on the issue of eliminating the remnants of sabotage in the unit." By the way, studying the “execution cases” to which Vlasov (who was a member of the military tribunal in the Leningrad and Kiev military districts) had a hand, the historian A. Kolesnik did not find a single (!) acquittal issued on his initiative ...

But where Vlasov really revealed himself even before he went over to the Germans, it was in relations with women. It was said that in China, where he was sent (in 1938-1939) as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek, he started "bed games" with the wife of the Chinese ruler. And then he bought himself a minor Chinese woman for 3 months in order to sweeten up a dull business trip by communicating with the local Lolita.

Perhaps the seduction of Chiang Kai-shek's wife and pedophilia are just a "disinformation" of agents. But from love affairs in the USSR and Germany, Vlasov certainly no one will "smear" - a lot of documentary evidence has been preserved on this score. And he swore to all women, lied to everyone and betrayed everyone just as he had betrayed the Motherland, which he promised to "defend to the last drop of blood."

"Yours always"

Here are just a few of his adventures. In the summer of 1936, the 35-year-old regiment commander A. A. Vlasov was so carried away by his mistress Ulyana Osadcha that she gave birth to a daughter from him. As soon as the war began and the lawful wife Anna Mikhailovna Vlasova (pictured above) was evacuated, the general immediately had a PPL (field wife) - Agnes Podmazenko, who by February 42 had to leave the army for decree ... Before 25-year-old Agnes had time to leave, the general offered to warm his bed to his new lover - Masha Voronina. Together with her, they were captured, after which their amorous affairs, of course, went wrong.

Of course, the sexually anxious traitor general managed to quickly resolve the “intimate issue” even in captivity. However, instead of the frequent change of trouble-free girls with whom Germany spoiled him, Vlasov soon wanted constant and thorough female warmth, and he married a wealthy SS widow - Heidi Bielenberg ...

This list could go on. But much more eloquently about the nature of this man is not the number of extramarital affairs, but Vlasov's attitude towards his women. I will give excerpts from the letters that Vlasov simultaneously sent to Agnessa Podmazenko, who was expecting a child from him, and his legal wife Anna.

From letters to his wife:“Dear and sweet Anya! I don’t receive letters from anyone except from you, so I don’t write to anyone ... Lately, I won’t hide from you, I began to miss you very much ... I ask you to be faithful to me. I'm still faithful to you. In separation from you, I love you more than ever ... Your always and everywhere loving Andryusha. 02.02.42".

“You won’t believe it, dear Anya! .. I talked ... with our biggest Master ... You can’t imagine how worried I was and how inspired I left him. You, apparently, will not even believe that such a great man has enough time even for our personal affairs. So believe me, he asked me where my wife is and how she lives. He thought you were in Moscow. I said that it was far away, so I won’t stop in Moscow for an hour, but I’ll go back to the front ... Andryusha is yours always and everywhere. 14.02.42".

"Dear Anik! For the eleventh month we have been separated, but mentally I am always with you. ... You know, my beloved and dear Anya, that wherever your Andryusha is sent by the government and the party, he will fulfill his task with honor ... Andryusha, who loves you deeply. 04/26/42".

And here is what Vlasov wrote to Agnes (Alichka) in the SAME DAYS, who was expecting a child from him:

“Dear and dear Alichka! ... I dedicated my life to you ... loving you - your Andryusha. 02.02.42".

“Dear and sweet Alichka! ... The biggest and main Master called me to him. Imagine, he talked to me for an entire hour and a half. You can imagine what happiness I had ... I beg you, my baby, do not be bored, do not worry, it is harmful to you. I am always mentally with you. Yours always and everywhere Andryusha. 14.02.42".

“Dear and dear Alya ... you know perfectly well that wherever your Andryusha is sent by the government and the party, he will always fulfill any task with honor (exactly the same phrase, as if a carbon copy, he wrote to his wife on the same day - see above. - Auth.). ... I only think about you, my dears (you and the child), - I no longer have anyone close to my soul and heart ... Yours always and everywhere Andryusha. 04/26/42".

“Dear and sweet Alyusik. I am very offended that you write such bad letters to me… These allusions to “service”, etc… It completely offends me. After all, you probably know very well that, apart from you, I have no one in my life. …I worry. What do you have? Son? Daughter? Do not torment, rather write ... Yours always and everywhere Andryusha ... 05/10/42.

One could continue to quote letters written by Vlasov to "beloved and only women." But it is better to note that he wrote these letters during the day, and at night ... he slept with even more "beloved" Masha Voronina!

"I want to forget..."

An attempt to justify Vlasov by the fact that he called for "to create in commonwealth with Germany ... a new Russia without the Bolsheviks", let it remain on the conscience of opportunistic historians. With his speeches, the general hypocritically deceived the Russian people, saying (for example, on December 27, 1942): “Germany is not waging war against the Russian people and their Motherland, but only against Bolshevism ...” He deceived, because he knew Hitler’s directive: to turn the Russian “untermensch” (subhuman. - Auth.) into working cattle, because in the interests of Greater Germany "reproduction of Slavs is undesirable"!

Meanwhile, Vlasov was not only an unprincipled man, a destroyer of the destinies of women who trusted him, but also (at the end of his life) a thoroughly drunk person. One of his usual drinking expressions in Germany was the words: “Will we eat vodka ?!” His officially appointed German biographer, Shtrikfeldt, recalled the following Vlasov confession: “I have been drinking a lot lately ... I want to forget ...” Still, the traitor general would not want to forget himself if, already in April 1944, the Red Army crossed the borders of the USSR and began to destroy the enemy on his territory. The finale of his story is natural: a Soviet military court and a shameful death on the gallows. He couldn't have deserved anything else.

The author thanks the employees of the Podolsky military archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for their help.

He and eight other generals became heroes of the Battle of Moscow. How does the story of the betrayal of General Vlasov begin? His personality is as legendary as it is mysterious. Until now, many facts related to his fate remain controversial.

A case from the archives, or a dispute of decades

The criminal case of Andrei Andreevich Vlasov consists of thirty-two volumes. For sixty years, there was no access to the history of the betrayal of General Vlasov. She was in the archives of the KGB. But now she was born without a stamp of secrecy. So who was Andrei Andreevich? A hero, a fighter against the Stalinist regime or a traitor?

Andrei was born in 1901 in a peasant family. The main occupation of his parents was agriculture. First, the future general studied at a rural school, then at a seminary. Went through the Civil War. Then he studied at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. If you trace his entire service, it can be noted that he was a man who was incredibly lucky. The history of the betrayal of General Vlasov in this case, of course, is not meant.

Highlights in military career

In 1937, Andrey Andreevich was appointed commander of the 215th Infantry Regiment, which he commanded for less than a year, since already in April 1937 he was immediately appointed assistant division commander. And from there he went to China. And this is another success of Andrei Vlasov. He served there from 1938 to 1939. At that time, three groups of military specialists were active in China. The first is illegal immigrants, the second is undercover workers, the third is military specialists in the army.

They worked simultaneously both for Mao Zedong and in the troops of Chiang Kai-shek. This part of the gigantic Asian continent, for which all the intelligence services of the world fought then, was so important for the USSR that intelligence worked in both opposing camps. Andrei Andreevich was appointed to the post of adviser to the department in the troops of Chiang Kai-shek. Further, General Vlasov, whose history of betrayal today causes a huge amount of controversy, again falls into a streak of luck.

Lucky General's Awards

In November 1939, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 99th division in the Kiev military district. In September 1940, observation district exercises were held here. They were conducted by the new People's Commissar of Defense Tymoshenko. The division was declared the best in the Kiev district.

And Andrei Andreevich became the best division commander, a master of training and education. And it was presented in the fall at the end of the school year to What happens next defies any explanation. Because, contrary to all orders and rules, he is awarded

Two patrons and political career

All these events could be explained by another lucky coincidence. But it is not so. Andrei Andreevich made great efforts to create his positive image in the eyes of the leadership. The start of the political career of Andrei Vlasov was given by two people. This is the commander of the Kyiv military district Tymoshenko and a member of the military council, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Nikita Khrushchev. It was they who offered him the post of commander of the 37th army.

At the end of November 1940, Andrei Vlasov was waiting for another certification. His next promotion to a higher position was being prepared. How did the story of the betrayal of General Vlasov begin? Why did a person with such a fate become a dark spot in the history of the USSR?

The beginning of hostilities, or mistakes of leadership

The war has begun. Despite stubborn resistance, the Red Army suffers serious defeats in major battles. Hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers are captured by the Germans. Some of them volunteer for the German army, either for political reasons or to avoid starvation and death, like the millions of prisoners of the Nazi camps.

In the Kiev cauldron, the Germans destroyed more than six hundred thousand Soviet soldiers. Many commanders of the fronts, chiefs of staff of the army were then shot. But Vlasov and Sandalov will remain alive, and fate will bring them together in the battle near Moscow. Archival documents of those years record that on August 23, due to a mistake made by the command of the southwestern front and the commander of the 37th army, General Vlasov, the Germans managed to cross the Dnieper in its sector.

The death of the army, or the opportunity to be captured

Here Andrei Andreevich for the first time gets into an environment, abandons his positions and hastily tries to get out of it. What, in fact, destroys his army. Which is amazing. Despite the difficulties of getting out of the encirclement, the general confidently walked along the rear of the enemy. He could easily be captured. But, apparently, even the slightest opportunity for this did not take advantage. The story of the betrayal of General Vlasov is yet to come.

In the winter of 1941, German troops came close to Moscow. Stalin declares Commander, he appoints Andrey Andreyevich. It was Khrushchev and Timoshenko who offered Vlasov for this position. In the winter battle near Moscow, the myth of the invincibility of the German army disappears. The troops of four Soviet fronts managed to inflict the first crushing blow on the Germans, more than a hundred thousand Wehrmacht soldiers were killed or captured. The 20th army under the leadership of General Vlasov also contributed to this victory.

New appointment and captivity

Stalin promotes Andrey Andreevich in the rank to lieutenant general. So he becomes famous among the troops. After the battle near Moscow, he reaps the fruits of glory. He's lucky all the time. His finest hour is coming, but all luck comes to an end. Now the reader will be presented with General Vlasov, whose history of betrayal crossed out all previous achievements.

Andrei Andreevich becomes deputy commander of the 2nd Shock Army, and then heads it. During heavy bloody battles, a significant part of it dies in the forests. But those who sought to get out of the encirclement, in small groups, could break through the front line. However, Vlasov deliberately remained in the village. The next day, when the German patrol began to find out his identity, he suddenly introduced himself unexpectedly: Lieutenant General Vlasov, commander of the 2nd Shock Army.

The subsequent fate and history of Andrei Vlasov. Anatomy of betrayal

After being captured, Andrei Andreevich ends up in a special camp of the propaganda department in Vinnitsa, where German specialists work with him. He surprisingly quickly accepted the offer of the Nazis to lead the non-existent Russian army of the ROA. In mid-1943, Wehrmacht propaganda disseminates information that a Russian liberation army and a new Russian government have been created. This is the so-called "Smolensk Appeal", in which Vlasov promises the Russian people democratic rights and freedom in Russia liberated from Stalin and Bolshevism.

In the spring of 1944, Andrei Andreevich spent under house arrest at his villa in Dahlem. He was sent there by Hitler for a memorable trip through the occupied territories, where he showed too much independence. But November 14, 1944 was the day of the triumph of Andrei Vlasov as the commander of the ROA. The entire political elite of the Wehrmacht arrived at the official ceremony on the occasion of the formation of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. The culmination of the event is the announcement of the political program of this committee.

The last years of the war

What was General Vlasov thinking at that time? The history of betrayal, Russia and the people, who will never forgive him for this act, did not frighten him? Did he really believe in the victory of Germany? The turn of 1944 and 1945 is marked by numerous events in Berlin. On them, he chooses Soviet prisoners of war and osterbeiters for his political goals. In early 1945, Goebbels and Himmler met with him.

Then, on January 18, he signs a loan agreement between the German government and Russia. As if the final victory of the Germans is only a matter of time. In the spring of 1945, things were going very badly for Germany. In the west, the allies are advancing, in the east, the Red Army does not leave a single chance for the victory of the Wehrmacht, occupying one German city after another. So how could the story of betrayal end for a man like General Vlasov? An epilogue awaits the reader.

First division or endless defeat

Andrei Andreevich does not seem to notice the events taking place. For him, everything seems to be going well again. On February 10, he solemnly receives his first division, which is sent to the Eastern Front for verification. The encounters here were brief. The Red Army cannot be stopped. The ROA soldiers are running, leaving their positions. The Vlasovites made their last attempt to somehow rehabilitate themselves in the war in Prague. But even there they were defeated.

Fearing capture by Soviet troops, the Vlasovites, together with the Germans, hastily leave Prague. Separate groups surrender to the Americans. Two days earlier, General Vlasov himself did this. The tank corps of the Fomins and Kryukov were tasked with breaking through to the base where Andrei Andreyevich and his closest associates were being held, capturing them and delivering them to Moscow.

Then, an investigation will go on at Lubyanka during the year. Eleven officers and Vlasov himself, whose history of betrayal has been carefully studied by Lubyanka specialists, on July 30, 1946, are sentenced to death by hanging on charges of treason.

General Vlasov and ROA

In May 1942, near Leningrad, the threat of encirclement loomed over the 2nd Shock Army, led by Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov. Even before the encirclement ring closed around the army, exhausted by heavy battles, the army commander Vlasov turned to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command with a request for reinforcements. The headquarters did not refuse, it simply ignored the distress signal. With the last of their strength, the 2nd Strike Force made a hole in the German ring and requested permission to leave the encirclement. The headquarters did not give such permission, dooming about 10 divisions and brigades to death in the swamps. Only after the Wehrmacht again, now completely, closed the pincers of the boiler, a telegram was received from Stalin, which contained the order to leave the encirclement. They even sent a private plane for General Vlasov, but the commander loaded the wounded and documents into it, and he himself shared the fate of the remnants of the army, which for several more weeks was doomedly trying to get out of the ring. Under circumstances that were not fully clarified, Lieutenant General Vlasov was captured (either he was captured, or he surrendered himself).

Immediately after receiving a message about the capture of Vlasov, the Soviet press made of the recent editorial hero, one of the youngest and most talented generals of the Red Army (according to those same journalists), not just a traitor and traitor to the Motherland, but also "a participant in the Trotskyist conspiracy of 1937-1938" . The general was also reminded of what had recently been credited to him - the exit from the Kyiv cauldron in the autumn of 1941. Information about the recruitment of Vlasov as a spy was quickly disseminated during the period of the Kyiv encirclement. The falsification of the history of Vlasov and the Vlasovites began. To date, the range of versions of the act and activities of the former commander of the 2nd shock ranges from primitive betrayal to no less primitive justification for treason, including the fantastic hypothesis that the surrender of Vlasov was a well-planned operation of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) of the Red Army.

In the history of Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) he created, one will have to deal with assumptions and hypotheses for a long time to come. The Russian (former Soviet) archives related to this page of the Great Patriotic War have not yet become public, the memories of the Vlasovites who found themselves abroad are so biased that relying only on them in conclusions means generating new delusions. For this reason, the task of our encyclopedic note is rather modest - to focus readers' attention on the key problems of the tragic path of Vlasov and the ROA, the very knowledge of which, at least, will help to avoid the emergence and spread of new myths and misconceptions.

First of all, we emphasize the fact that Vlasov's attempts to use the symbiosis of an external enemy and the anti-Bolshevik sentiments of a part of the population to overthrow the Stalinist regime were one of the variations of anti-communist collaborationism. By the time Vlasov began to implement the idea of ​​the Russian Liberation Army, hundreds of thousands of former Soviet citizens were collaborating with the invaders in one form or another, including armed ones. Vlasovism should not be either separated from collaborationism or identified with it. For example, during the Battle of Kursk, on the side of the Germans, the so-called "Eastern battalions" created from collaborators participated (regardless of the effectiveness of this participation), but no ROA at that time existed at all.

At that time, the Nazis used Vlasov solely for propaganda purposes to decompose those on the front line of the Red Army. The formation of divisions of the ROA began at the end of 1944, and they begin to participate in hostilities only in the next year, 1945. Vlasov was distinguished from other collaborators by his desire to draw the maximum allowable line in those conditions between the interests of the Germans and the interests of his "movement", between the Wehrmacht and the ROA. The former army commander of the 2nd shock, under various pretexts, tried to get rid of the label of a traitor. “Treason ceases to be treason,” he declared, “when a high goal is achieved.” The declared "high goal" is Russia without collective farms, Bolsheviks and the Stalinist clique.

From the point of view of the motives that guided its participants, the Russian Liberation Army was not homogeneous. It included both those who took up arms, based on the basest considerations or the instinct of self-preservation, and those who fought "for an idea." It is not surprising that the ROA as a whole managed not only to fight against the Red Army and its Anglo-American allies, but also to assist the Prague uprising against the Nazis in May 1945. The ROA division left Prague after the Communist-majority Czech National Council refused to deal with German henchmen.

At the end of the war, the Vlasovites found themselves in an absolutely hopeless situation: no one had any illusions about mercy from the Red Army (by that time, the Soviet Army), and the Americans were bound by the obligation to repatriate the prisoners. It is no coincidence that they actually gave Vlasov himself to Moscow. He and 11 senior officers of the ROA were awaiting trial, charges of treason and execution. Many ROA officers captured on the territory of Austria and the Czech Republic were shot without trial or investigation. The rank and file went to camps and special settlements.

In our opinion, there is one indisputable characteristic of Vlasov and Vlasovism: they were a product of Stalinism. The policy of the Bolsheviks caused discontent among thousands of Soviet citizens, thereby feeding collaborationism. Repressions against the commanding staff of the Red Army at the end of the 30s cleared the way to the top for Vlasov, who did not differ in special military talents. How else could it have gone from major to major general in two pre-war years, and from regiment commander to deputy front commander in a year of war?

In the end, we are faced with an insoluble dilemma: it is difficult to condemn people who have fallen into the terrible millstones of war; to justify treason to the Motherland is impossible.

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