There are not so many materials on the Internet about the activities of the Russian Security Corps during the Second World War. Basically, it is argued that since the Russian White émigrés were often killed by Tito's red partisans, the Russians asked the Germans to arm them, after which the glorious White émigrés decided to go home to kill the Communists. But the Germans shook their heads and asked their Russian colleagues to kill the communists in Serbia for the time being, and then we'll see.

So when I found on the net the official collection "Russian Corps in the Balkans", published for the training of veterans of the corps in New York in 1969, I was delighted, because now I could get the official version.

"The Russian Corps in the Balkans during the Second Great War of 1941-1945. A historical essay and a collection of memoirs of comrades-in-arms" edited by D.P. Vertepova (Nashi Vesti publishing house, New York, 1963).

The book describes the military suffering of the Russian Corps in the Balkans during the Second Great War of 1941-1945 and it is a collection of memoirs of comrades-in-arms. The book, embracing 416 pages, is well illustrated: a portrait of the last commander of the Russian Corps (now the chairman of the Union of Officials of the Russian Corps) Colonel A.I. .Rogozhin; then portraits of the founder and first commander of the Corps, General M.F. Skorodumov and the next - the General Staff, General B.A. Shteyfon; there are many photographs of the Corps' senior command staff, as well as photographs illustrating the life of the Corps - the beginning of formation, the arrival of reinforcements, reviews on a campaign, etc. "The Russian Corps is the only and unparalleled phenomenon" - the introduction to this book says. and there has never been a case that, after twenty years of emigration, people in a foreign territory fought valiantly, albeit in foreign uniforms, for their lofty patriotic goals. "The Russian Corps in the Balkans was a direct continuation of the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks in Russia, interrupted for twenty years when the white armies were forced into exile. It should be noted that the areas of recruitment of the Corps were limited by the Germans only to the Balkan countries, such as: Romania with Bukovina, Bessarabia (and even then not immediately), Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece; later, at the insistence of the Germans, Hungary also agreed. Therefore, the areas for recruiting people for the Corps in other countries of dispersion of Russian emigrants were closed. Only on personal initiative did a small number of volunteers flock from other countries, as we see from the above data. Even in Germany itself, recruitment was prohibited...
F. Karius
"Herald of the pioneer" No. 82/83 August-September 1968

Those who wish can download the book from the link in pdf and dijavu, the stories of veterans speak for themselves.
Those who are too lazy to read a 450-page book can be satisfied with a brief retelling - unfortunately, there was no reading all the time, so I looked through the book in the "paragraph per page" mode.

Each section begins with a listing of the events of the observed year of the Corps' operation - 1941, 1942, etc. At the beginning, there is an official reference-retelling made on the basis of documents and stories of veterans, then official documents, if any, and then the combat stories of the memory themselves.
The summary is as follows:

1. Masturbation for White business.
2. Masturbation to Orthodoxy.
3. Masturbation to the Russian Empire.
4. Masturbation for a military uniform.
5. Masturbation for young junker boys.
6. Enumeration of uniforms, weapons, personnel, detachments, regiments, banners, badges, guns, hats, etc. etc. etc.
6. Evil communist partisans.
7. Good German officers.
8. Evil advisers
9. Ungrateful English.

Now a little more.

1. When the brave and intelligent German officers, led, ironically, by the Russophobe Hitler, decided to liberate the world from the communists, the veterans of the White Cause gladly volunteered to stand under the old tsarist banners in order to liberate Mother Russia from communism and return the monarchy there and national idea. Glory to the Emperor!

Again the command was heard: "Half the standards, listen to the crawl!" and, to the invigorating sounds of the "Guards campaign", the standard officers with a sedate step carried the standards to the barracks. Guards eagles of gray standards flew proudly - faithful companions of their unit during its centuries-old service to Russia and the Emperors and witnesses of its military glory on the fields of the Kuban, Terek, Don and North. Tavria, where the Kuban and Terek Guards Divisions, in countless battles with the Reds, glorified the name of the Guards Cossack and proved their devotion to the Motherland with their blood.

2. Alas, the unfortunate knights of the Renaissance of Russia were forced to stay in Serbia and stop the communist terror of the Titoites in the mines and railways. And all because of the vile Russophobe Hitler!

The ranks of the Corps were in a regimental bewilderment ... what actually happened? ... What caused this change? your own country. This party line, sensing the possibility of turning the Russian Corps into a formidable national force, pressed its military command, and the man who said: "I will lead you to Russia" was replaced. I repeat that in those days the Russian people, who had never lived in Germany, who believed Hitler's words about the struggle against Bolshevism, had no idea about the size of the work of the National Socialist leaders like Rosenberg and Co.

3. The fighters of the Corps spent their days cheerfully and joyfully in marches and studies. Old veterans who remembered the face of the Tsar, gray-whiskered generals and elderly Cossacks stood in the same row with the young, fledgling youth gathered to restore the victory of the White Cause. The glorious beardless cadets selflessly and honestly tried to revive the glorious Russian Army, adopting all the national traditions of Russian military training. The best relations of the glorious Russian corpsmen also developed with the Serbian population of the surrounding villages, who were very fond of their Russian friends - brothers in faith and in Slavic unity.

4. The corps heroically repelled any attack by communist gangs. Gangs of partisans armed to the teeth, a thousand or more, regularly went on the offensive and tried to squeeze the Russians out of their posts, but over and over again they suffered a shameful defeat and retreated back into the forests. (Follows a sentimental story about how a gang of communists of 1000 people, while crossing the railway track, destroyed three junkers who fought back to the last bullet).

5. Sometimes, for a change, the Corps fought in small skirmishes with the Chetniks and Ustaše. But that was rare. As a rule, the Chetniks themselves came to the Corps and asked them to help in the fight against the communists. Well, yes, it happened that the Chetniks attacked small Russian detachments and took away their weapons, so you had to keep your eyes open with them - but otherwise everything was quite neutral. Sometimes they even had to save the Ustashe themselves, Croats and Serbs, who fled from the clutches of communist terror in droves.

6. Description of combat everyday life.

7. Description of the formation of new parts.

8. Description of combat everyday life.

9. Masturbation to the uniform up to listing the color of the last cap, masturbation to banners, weapons, Orthodoxy, again to the uniform...

10. Description of combat everyday life.

11. Description of the replenishment of 300 Soviet prisoners of war - an unprecedented event in the history of the Corps, ordinary sons of the Russian land infected with Bolshevism! The nice guys were honest warriors, in their eyes you could read the tenderness and sincerity of an old Russian soldier, unspoiled by Bolshevik propaganda, they were distinguished by faith in their new commanders, obediently listened to the anti-communist lectures given in the camp, carefully went to church with the regiment ... True, under the end, when the Red Army began to advance at the front, about 30 of them fled. And then a couple more. And then the whole 1st Platoon. Which once again proves how deeply the disgusting, misanthropic Sovietism has penetrated into the souls of ordinary people!

12. The evil communists regularly attacked the glorious Russian warriors, took away their weapons, tried to win back the settlements and mines, but they never succeeded. If you had to fight with one red infection, the triumph of the Corps would be undeniable! But English aviation began to arrive to help the Titoites, which, not paying attention to the fact that the Corps acted only against the communists, and was not going to resist the allies, brutally bombed peaceful Serbian cities and shot German and Russian officers loyal to their duty. And then the communist hordes of Bolsheviks from the Soviets came to the side of the Titoites. But in this hopeless struggle, the glorious white warriors achieved impossible, amazing victories, with practically no losses!

On September 23, 1944, at 13:00, the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment entered into the first battle with the regular Soviet army. Our companies detained the enemy, but in the evening, by order of the 1st mountain division, they retreated to Jabukovac, where they stood in position until 12:00. September 25th. By evening, they began to retreat to the village. Mala Kamenitsa and received an order to occupy this village.
On September 27, at dawn, having surrounded this village, we, together with the German. b-nom, broke in and occupied M. Kamennets almost without loss and took 2960 prisoners, motorized artillery, 60 trucks, 8 horse batteries. traction, bomb throwers, machine guns, a colossal convoy and two generals. This happened because the Serbs met the "brothers" with bread and salt and gave them a rich treat. Everyone, from the generals to the last soldier, got drunk and did not post guards. We had cornet V. Karpinsky killed in the 1st platoon of the 9th company.

13. The evil communists who flooded the district literally tried to gnaw through the indestructible steel wall of the White Warriors with their teeth! Thousands of gangs attacked groups of white detachments, showering them with all possible firepower. Despite all efforts, the patrons of the communists were wasted - the Russian Army honestly held its banner and regularly repulsed gang attacks, capturing rich trophies, even when Tito's bandits were supported by the Soviet Bolshevik hordes.

We had to test the action of this terrible 36-round gun for 15 days. There was no sound of a Katyusha shot. There was no flash when fired, but the very flight of the burst of shells produced some kind of incomprehensible diabolical rumble. The approach of a line of shells fired at you created the impression of the approach of some kind of terrible hurricane. Each shell, bursting, released a whole series of small shells, covering the entire area with a roar of explosions and flashes, which gave the impression of a fiery area. All this produced a tremendous effect on morale, but the susceptibility was not great.

The Russian veterans of the White Idea are so severe in their front-line experience that even shelling from Katyushas did not inflict serious losses on them!

14. In contradiction to the previous paragraph, the losses of the Corps turned out to be great, and he, together with the Germans, could no longer hold back the onslaught of a wave of red evil spirits, so the German and Russian troops began, heroically fighting back, to retreat to Austria to General Vlasov. Despite the monstrous conditions and heavy losses, the Corps heroically repulsed all the attacks of the communists pursuing them.

Morning! Communists from all sides are firing automatic and machine-gun fire at the monastery of incredible strength, which indicates a complete encirclement. Clinging to the window sills and piers, the defenders return fire. Losses in the detachment make themselves felt.
At 7 o'clock, a woman with a white flag appears, who will give the detachment the first ultimatum, beginning with the words: "Traitors to Mother Russia, surrender!" The woman asks for an answer, she is driven away. Attacks resume.

15. With incredible losses, reaching up to two-thirds of the personnel, with the brave support of the Germans, pursued by Soviet tanks, partisan attacks and British aircraft, the Russian Corps completed its glorious military epic by coming to Austria. But - oh, what a vile English treachery! - it turned out that they were going to be extradited to the Soviet of Deputies, where a cruel death awaited honest Russian patriots. With great difficulty, they managed to convince the British that the Corps had always been loyal to the allies, and fought under oath to Hitler only and only with the communists.

We did not trust the vague rumors that reached us, considering them provocative, or, in any case, immensely exaggerated. Only our Corps Commander and a very limited number of his assistants knew and was aware of all this. It was only later, when the terrible danger of extradition was largely averted, that we realized what a burden the regiment was carrying on its shoulders. Rogozhin and learned about the measures he was taking to save us. As a result of these measures and efforts, Col. Rogozhin managed to convince the British that the people of the Corps were not German mercenaries, not traitors to the motherland, but Russian patriots who took up arms to fight exclusively against the communists - the enslavers of Russia.

Only with the help of great efforts did the majority of honest Russian Officers manage to escape from the clutches of the red beast.

During the numerous interrogations that I was subjected to by the British, the Inter-Allied Commission and representatives of the Soviet army, I always felt that they lacked the one who was responsible for the creation of the Corps, who had principled conversations with the German command in the process of formation and service of our units. While in the regiment, as a combat officer, I was far from the affairs of the Corps Headquarters and indeed often was not aware of everything that concerned its commander. The Western allies knew this, and the advisers also knew this, and if the latter nevertheless demanded my extradition as a war criminal, then this should simply be attributed to their inherent bloodthirstiness. It would have been much harder for General Shteifon if he had remained alive, and, above all, he would have been immediately removed from us and placed in a special strict camp where the generals were imprisoned and, according to the winners, "serious criminals" were isolated.

That's pretty much how it's described.

In general, the allegations that the white emigrants were driven into the corps by partisan terror are, of course, nonsense. They themselves went with great desire, in the hope of killing the communists. The Germans, as can be seen from the book, did not interfere much in the management of the camp, exercising mostly unofficial leadership, and also kept several officers in units, mainly for control. The attitude of the Bulkoguards towards them is different, but about the German units with which they interacted - almost always respectful and commendable, in the spirit of officer solidarity. So the Russian white emigrants performed the same function for the Germans as the Bandera or Latvian SS men - they guarded the rear and destroyed the communist partisans, while the big white gentlemen were busy with their own affairs at the front.

It's funny at the same time that all veteran memories are imbued with the leitmotif "what are we for?" and hatred for the "crapping Englishwoman" who treacherously betrayed them to their advisers. Gentlemen, the Bulkoguards really tried to show that they fought with the communists, and not under the control of the Germans, so when the British officers looked at them like shit, they sincerely did not understand what was happening and why they were treated so badly.

I have already mentioned the regiment. Ferguson. It seemed to us that the person treated us with special sympathy. Somehow, during his visit, in my room, sub. Ferguson asked to call the head of one of the auxiliary services in the Corps. When this officer entered the room, I stood up, gave him my hand and greeted him, then turned around and called the name of the newcomer to Ferguson, who immediately got up. At that moment, the Russian officer made a mistake and was the first to stretch out his hand and ... it hung in the air - Ferguson not only did not give him his hand, but somehow his whole body twitched and depicted undisguised contempt on his face.
To our request to help us in the search for families, in one of the military institutions in the city of Klagenfurt, an English colonel (by the way, who spoke Russian well) replied that the British would not help:
- You put a card on the Germans, she is beaten. Now you have to "pay" and you will not wait for our help. - And this was said by the colonel, who had just been explained everything related to the history of the emergence of the Russian Corps, the motives that guided us, upon admission to it, and our military epic, in which we had no clashes with the Western allies.

But the world is not without good people, and even in the vile British milieu there is a comrade in the fascist bunk.

The secretary reported something to him and he again disappeared into the office. Finally, we were called into the office. The captain sat ite raising his head, and in the most ungracious voice invited us to state our request. As always, exquisite English vol. ltn. Raevsky began to report on the purpose of our appeal to this British military engineering department. Speaking about the Russian Corps, Raevsky mentioned that it was formed from the ranks of the White Army, gene. Wrangel. The captain immediately raised his head and invited us to sit down, then offered a cigarette, and after 10 minutes he smiled and talked to us in a friendly way. It turned out that this captain volunteered to fight against the communists in the troops of Gen. Franco in Spain and would: seriously wounded. He hated the Bolsheviks fiercely and predicted to us that in 2-3 years we would fight against the communists together with the British. Needless to say, the captain immediately did everything in his power to ensure that the issue we raised was resolved favorably.

What to say. Captain Chachu of the Inhabited Island seems like an almost likable character to me after that. For my part, I am glad that at least some of these bastards ended up in the Gulag and, I hope, rotted there alive to the last person. And I recommend reading the book.

White Movement, the history of the Russian emigration, and, in general, the history of the “other” Russia. There is nothing surprising in this, especially considering that for almost 70 years of our history, information about this has been rather scarce and had only one interpretation. Meanwhile, as a result of the October Revolution of 1917, more than 2 million Russian people left Russia. This emigration was not a class, not a layer, but simply a part of the Russian people in its entire vertical section. From the upper stratum of the nobility and intelligentsia to hereditary peasants and workers. The boundaries of their settlement were very large - they were almost all the countries of Europe, China, the USA, North Africa. There was not a single continent on Earth where there were no Russians.

A fairly large number of Russians sheltered the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (S.Kh.S), then the future Yugoslavia was called that, as well as Bulgaria. At one time, King Alexander I Karageorgievich, who studied in Russia and sincerely believed in the ideals of the Orthodox-Slavic brotherhood, and also considered himself obliged to provide all possible assistance to the former subjects of the state, which more than once stood up for the defense of his Motherland, let the remnants of the Wrangel Russian Army. White emigrants were granted civil rights here. By 1941, the minimum size of the Russian colony in Belgrade was about 10,000 people. Many universities, theaters, railways of the country were staffed with Russian specialists.

In the spring of 1941, after Yugoslavia was occupied by the Germans, they appointed the former major general of the tsarist army M. F. Skorodumov as chief of the Russian emigration in Serbia. Skorodumov was a participant in the First World War, was seriously wounded and was captured by the Germans, from which he tried to escape three times, but unsuccessfully. At the initiative of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, in 1917 he was exchanged for a German officer and arrived in Petrograd, where he was drawn into the whirlwind of events that had begun in the country of revolutionary upheavals.

Immediately after the German attack on the USSR, the Russian emigration was divided into 2 opposing camps. The so-called "defeatists", that is, those who believed that it was necessary to take the side of Germany and help defeat Bolshevism (some of the emigrants were absolutely sincerely mistaken about the plans of the Germans and Japanese, believing that they were fighting exclusively against Bolshevism), as well as " defencists”, emigrants who believed that it was necessary to forget the old hostile attitude towards the Bolsheviks and jointly defeat the enemy who had attacked the common Motherland. One of the few ideas embodied by emigrants was the creation of the Russian Security Corps on the territory of Serbia.

Already in June 1941, the head of the Russian Trust Bureau in Yugoslavia (an organization that represented the interests of the Russian emigration to the German occupation forces), Major General M.F. Skorodumov, proposed the formation of a separate division from the emigrants of the Russian army, General Wrangel, but received it's a denial. In the first weeks of the war, the need to create such formations did not seem necessary to the Germans, moreover, nationalist views were very strong among the German command at that time, following which the Russians, although they opposed the Bolsheviks, remained Russian. Ultranationalist views were very strong, all the peoples of Europe were distributed according to racial pyramids, and the position of Russians in it was extremely unenviable.

At the same time, over time, away from Berlin in the occupied territories and the fronts of World War II, the German generals became convinced that the need for cooperation with other nationalities was ripe and it was necessary to start a partnership dialogue with them. And if on the main fronts this was finally understood only by 1942, then in the Balkans the situation cleared up already in 1941. In the occupied territory of Yugoslavia, partisan communist detachments of Tito appeared. In addition to committing sabotage against the occupying forces, they also killed Orthodox priests and Russian emigrants, considering them accomplices of Nazi Germany. These facts could not but affect the mood of Russian emigrants. Skorodumov once again turned to the Germans with a request to create at least self-defense units against the Yugoslav partisans.

The very fact of the strengthening of the partisan movement in the Balkans raised the question of finding additional opportunities for the conduct of police and security services before the German leadership. Against this background, it was decided to allow the formation of Russian armed detachments. The initiators of the creation of these formations did not leave hope that after they dealt with the "communist bandits" in the Balkans, they would be able to get to Russia and start fighting for its liberation from the Bolsheviks.

An interesting point is that later in their memoirs, many veterans of the Russian Security Corps tried to present their service to the Germans as an act of necessary self-defense in response to the persecution of Russian emigrants by local communists. But if we accept this version, it becomes completely incomprehensible why General Skorodumov, as well as other emigration leaders, from the very beginning sought to send Russian units to the Eastern Front. Later, trying to whitewash themselves, the former collaborators began to pass off the consequence as the cause. Like many other white émigrés who were scattered throughout Europe, they were eager to take revenge for the insulting defeat in the Civil War, albeit with the help of Hitler and German troops. It is not surprising that after all this, in the eyes of the majority of the Serbian population, Russian emigrants began to be perceived as servants of the occupation regime.

The order to form a corps was received on September 12, 1941 from the commander of the German troops in Serbia. Skorodumov was appointed its commander, who immediately began to mobilize all emigrants aged 18 to 55 years. By October 1, there were 893 volunteers in the corps. Among them were 90 Kornilovites, plus a platoon of the Kutepovskaya company. Colonel Kondratyev arrived in the corps along with the banner of the 2nd Kornilov Shock Regiment, which was considered a symbol of valor for the entire white movement.

The funeral of the soldiers of the corps who died in battles with the partisans (Belgrade, 1942)

Soon enough, Skorodumov was removed from command by the Germans because of his excessive political activity and constant requests to send a corps to Russia. The new commander of the corps was the chief of staff of the corps, Lieutenant General B. A. Shteifon. The number of the corps gradually grew. It reached its peak by September 1944, when it consisted of 11,197 people. It consisted of 5 regiments, one of which was Cossack, and also included 3 separate battalions and 5 platoons, one of which was mounted.

During its existence, the corps managed to change a number of official names:

Since September 12, 1941 it was called the Separate Russian Corps;
From October 2, 1941 - Russian Security Corps;
From November 18, 1941 - Russian Security Group;
From November 30, 1942 - Russian Security Corps (Wehrmacht);
From October 10, 1944 - Russian Corps in Serbia;
Since December 31, 1944 - just the Russian Corps.

All military operations of the Russian Corps can be chronologically divided into 3 stages:

1. Autumn 1941 - spring 1944 - parts of the Corps carried out security service on the communications of German troops in Eastern Bosnia and Serbia.
2. Spring - autumn 1944 - parts of the Corps participate in large-scale military operations by Germany and its allies against Tito's partisans in Serbia and Bosnia.
3. Autumn 1944 - May 1945 - active battles at the front against the Soviet, Bulgarian troops, as well as NOAU (People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia).

Unlike most of the eastern formations of the Wehrmacht, not a single German officer in the Russian corps had disciplinary power, nor did he hold a command position. Only the corps commander was directly subordinate to the German command. The German personnel in the corps consisted of 2 officers at its headquarters, as well as the headquarters of each of the regiments and battalions, 2 non-commissioned officers - instructors in companies. In addition, all the economic institutions of this armed association were in the hands of German military officials and non-commissioned officers.

The official uniform of the corps was the altered uniform of the Yugoslav army, the soldiers and officers of the corps wore the insignia of the imperial army. The internal life in the corps was organized according to the ways of the imperial army, and the military unit was organized according to the regulations of the Red Army. After the corps was included in the Wehrmacht, the charters of the German troops were introduced in it. For most of the war, the corps was scattered around various Yugoslav cities, where it carried out garrison service, covering communications and being involved in operations against Tito's partisans.

The rapid capitulation of Bulgaria and Romania in August-September 1944, as well as the defeat of the German Army Group South Ukraine, radically changed the situation at the front and in the Balkans in particular. Unexpectedly for the German command, the Soviet units were directly at the borders of Yugoslavia. It was at this time that parts of the Russian Corps, together with individual units of the German troops, entered into combat clashes with parts of the 57th Soviet Army, as well as their newfound allies - the Bulgarians. At the same time (September-October 1944), members of the families of the corpsmen, as well as all Russian emigrants who wanted to leave the city, were evacuated from Belgrade.

Officers of the Russian Corps, 1942

The fighting between parts of the corps and the 57th Army was very bloody. Both sides felt hatred for each other. The hatred of the whites woke up in the Soviet soldiers, who tried to strangle the people even in civilian life, although practically no one in the army took part in the hostilities of the Civil War. In turn, the soldiers of the corps awakened hatred for those who forever changed and ruined their lives. Due to the losses suffered, many regiments of the corps were abolished.

The surrender of Germany found the corps on the territory of Slovenia. The day before, on April 30, the corps commander B. A. Shteifon died of a heart attack, who was replaced in this post by Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Rogozhin. The new commander announced that the corps would not lay down Tito in front of the USSR and the Yugoslav partisans and would make a breakthrough into Austria, trying to get into the British zone of occupation. As a result, the corps managed to break through to the city of Klagenfurt, where it capitulated to the British troops. By the time of the surrender, there were about 4,500 people in its ranks. Almost all of them survived captivity, since England did not extradite them to the USSR, for the reason that they were never its citizens.

Sources used:
www.war2.name/russkij-korpus/
www.vojnik.org/serbia/ww2/4
www.istorya.ru/book/soldaty/03.php

Continuation of a block of articles about the Russian people who fought under the German banners against the Bolsheviks. This is the story of the corps of white emigrants who repulsed Bolshevism in Yugoslavia. I want to say right away that they did not adhere to the National Socialist ideology, did not consider Hitler a "liberator", but advocated united and indivisible Russia without Bolshevism - for the same slogans as in the First Civil War. When the commander of the Corps was reproached by other emigrants for cooperation with Hitler, he answered, in my opinion, very worthily: "Though with the devil, but against the Bolsheviks!" .

Brief historical excursion:

Russian Corps, Russian Security Corps, Russian Corps in Serbia (German: Russisches Schutzkorps Serbien) - a corps formed from Russian emigrants that fought against Tito's communist partisans in Yugoslavia during World War II. In total, about 17 thousand people served in the corps.

Formation

The Russian Corps was organized in 1941 after the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. At that time, many white officers lived in Yugoslavia. In the summer of 1941, a wave of murders of Russian emigrants and their families by Serbian communist partisans swept through Yugoslavia. Major General M.F. Skorodumov took the initiative to organize the Russian part to protect the emigrant population. On September 12, 1941, he ordered the formation of a Separate Russian Corps, having received the consent of the German Colonel Kevish. Skorodumov tried to achieve maximum autonomy of the corps from the German command, which caused a conflict and soon Skorodumov was arrested by the Germans. The formation of the corps, however, continued under the command of another Russian emigrant - Boris Shteyfon.

population

The initial core of the ranks of the corps was made up of those living in Yugoslavia - out of 11,197 people on September 12, 1944, there were 3,198 from Serbia and 272 from Croatia; 5067 arrived from Romania, 1961 from Bulgaria, 288 from Hungary, 58 from Greece, 19 from Poland, 8 from Latvia, 7 from Germany, 3 from Italy and 2 from France, and there were 314 Soviet prisoners of war. For all the time, 11,506 people left the corps: 1,132 were killed and died, 2,297 were missing, 3,280 were injured, 3,740 were evacuated due to illness and dismissed, and 1,057 left without permission. By the end of the war, the losses of the corps amounted to 11,506 people.

fighting

The corps was mainly used to protect Yugoslav territory from Tito's communist partisans. With the Chetniks of Dragoljub Mikhailovich, the corps basically maintained neutral relations. In 1944 the Germans ordered the corps to cover their withdrawal from Greece. At this time, the corps participated in battles not only with the Tito partisans, but also with the regular units of the Red Army and its new Romanian and Bulgarian allies. In the winter of 1944-1945, after the creation of the Russian Liberation Army, Shteifon met with Vlasov and they agreed to include the corps in the ROA. At this time, the corps retreated to Slovenia.

Corps capitulation

On April 30, 1945 Shteifon died of a heart attack. The Russian corps was headed by Colonel Anatoly Ivanovich Rogozhin. He led the corps to Austria, where he surrendered to British troops on May 12, 1945. The Soviet authorities wanted the British to hand over the captured corps to them, as well as the Cossacks of the Cossack camp. However, the British authorities did not extradite them, since most of those who served in the corps had never been Soviet citizens. On November 1, 1945, Rogozhin officially announced the dissolution of the corps and the creation of a union of corps veterans. Those who served in the corps emigrated to the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and other countries. In Novo Diveevo (New York State), a chapel of St. Alexander Nevsky was built in memory of the corps. Many veterans of the corps are buried nearby.

Corps Anthem:

On the boss roads
Walked in battles and anxieties
Forty-fifth decisive year.
From the Moravian Valley
To the Danube and Drina
All regiments went on a campaign.
Among the heat and dust
The battalions went
On the enemy, on big things.
Along the humped spurs,
Along the riverbanks
Our loud glory has passed!
On the Bosan bridge
Smoldering white bones
Winds rustle over the bones.
Remember partisan dogs
Ustashi, home-grown
About our shock regiments.
Soon to our free land
New waves are coming
The Russian Corps will come to the Fatherland.
Through native spaces,
Through the villages and villages
Peaceful life will bloom again.

Photos: fighters on the background of mortars; General Shteyfon.

The history of the emergence of the Russian Corps in Serbia.

In April 1941, after a brutal bombardment of Belgrade, the German army occupied Yugoslavia in nine days. At that time, the Yugoslav army was a morally and politically decomposed mass, largely already infected with communism. Without putting up any serious resistance, she fled in a few days ...

With the arrival of the Germans, the tragedy of Russian emigrants in Serbia began. As a result of the bombing of Belgrade, many people lost all their property, and some of their relatives. Twenty-five thousand emigrants - men, women and children, who had lived in Serbia for more than twenty years, were divided into many organizations: from the extreme right to the extreme left. The majority, however, were right-wing, a very small part were left-wing, and only a few became fascists for the sake of fashion. There were no National Socialists at all. The Serbian population at that time was hostile to the White Russians, since many Serbs were pro-communist and openly dreamed of the arrival of "father Stalin." As a result, there were a lot of incidents, clashes and beatings of Russian emigrants. In addition to all the misfortunes, thanks to the Sovietophile mood of the Serbian government, the dismissal of Russian emigrants from the service followed, and “in one day” our emigration found itself on the street without any help, funds and work.

In this situation, in June 1941, the war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union. Following this, a communist uprising broke out in Serbia, which engulfed almost the entire country: beatings of Russian emigrants by whole families began. Russian people, left without a livelihood, thrown out of service and persecuted by the Serbian communists, fled from the province to Belgrade.

At that time, I headed the Bureau for the Protection of the Interests of Russian Emigration in Serbia. In the Russian House, where the Bureau was located, all the cellars were filled with hungry Russian refugees. With great difficulty, a free canteen was created, but this did not solve the problem. Considering it my duty, I turned to the Serbian authorities with a request to protect the Russian emigration. The Serbian authorities replied that they were powerless to do anything - "turn to the Germans." After that, I turned to the German military authorities. The German command replied: "Defend yourself."

Soon, the so-called "Soviet Uzhitz Republic" was formed in Yugoslavia. At the hands of the Serbian communists, about three hundred Russian people have already died, among whom were women and children. I decided to turn to one of the few Serbian anti-communists - Minister D. Ljotić, since the latter received permission from the German command to form an anti-Bolshevik Serbian corps. I asked him for weapons so that the Russians could defend themselves and their families. Minister Ljotić, a great Russophile, replied that, unfortunately, he could not give anything: the Germans had given him less weapons than necessary. Then I turned to the Chief of Staff of the German Commander-in-Chief in the South-East, Colonel Kevish. The colonel, on behalf of the commander-in-chief, suggested that I immediately issue an order to all Russian emigrants capable of bearing arms to join the German regiments at their locations. To this I replied that I could not give such an order, since the Whites, as political emigrants, can only fight against the Bolsheviks, and when joining the German regiments, which can be transferred to other fronts, Russian emigrants will be forced to fight against non-communist states, which is absolutely impossible for Whites. I added that I could only order the formation of a separate Russian corps to fight on the Eastern Front, and it was quite natural that during the formation this corps would take part in the struggle against the Serbian communists. After long negotiations and bargaining, Colonel Kevish finally announced that the commander-in-chief had allowed the formation of a Separate Russian Corps and had promised to transfer this Corps to the Eastern Front after the elimination of communism in Serbia.

Hasty preparations began for the formation of a Separate Russian Corps. A rumor was deliberately spread that the Germans were mobilizing all the Russians so as not to arouse even more bitterness in the Serbs. The rumor about the formation of the Corps reached the German embassy, ​​that is, to the officials of the National Socialist Party. Ambassador Benzler and his assistant Faine called me to the German embassy and said: “You Russians are all communists. Who allowed you to form some kind of Russian Corps? If there are anti-communists among the Russian emigrants, then you must immediately give the order that all of them join the Serbian gendarmerie. To this I replied that I could not interfere with the Russian emigration in the Serbian civil war. Then Faina threatened: “There can be no Russian corps, no Russian organizations and Russian songs! Remember that failure to do this will reflect on your position.

In the meantime, the situation in Serbia was becoming literally catastrophic: the insurgent communists were already approaching Belgrade, and the Cossacks living in Šabac, after the murder of five Cossacks with their families by the communists, themselves took up arms and, having formed two hundred under the command of the centurion Ikonnikov, fought back together with the German units from the advancing and the communists around them. Having received a formidable warning at the German embassy, ​​I immediately went to Colonel Kevish. The latter was extremely annoyed by the actions of the ambassador. “If Benzler doesn't want it, then we do,” he said and asked me to come tomorrow.

The next day, Colonel Kevish said with a satisfied look: "All our enemies are defeated and we can hastily begin to form the Corps!"

Immediately, he ordered the formation of the Corps to begin and added that all the conditions put forward by me were accepted. These conditions were rewritten in duplicate and we both put our signatures under them. And my requirements were:

1. Only one commander of the Corps is subordinate to the German command, yet the ranks of the Corps are subordinate only to the commander of the Corps and the Russian commanders appointed by him.
2. The Corps cannot be split into parts, but will always act as a whole, that is, no part of the Corps can be given to German units.
3. The Russian Corps can only be in Russian uniform, but in no case in Serbian or German. For Germans to recognize ranks, special signs must be on the collars. On the helmets there should be white militia crosses.
4. None of the ranks of the Corps takes any oath, except for the commander of the Corps.
5. When the Corps completes the formation and the communist movement in Serbia is suppressed, the German command undertakes to transfer the Corps to the Eastern Front.
6. The Russian Corps cannot be used against any state, nor against Serbian nationalists Draja Mihailovic and others. A separate Russian Corps can only be used against communists.

In the Russian House, hasty work began on the formation of the Corps. With forty junkers, hastily trained and equipped, I took over the Serbian school barracks, where the Corps was to be formed. Day and night, the work was in full swing, as in an anthill. At this time, I received a verbal warning from private individuals that as soon as the order was given to form the Corps, I would be immediately arrested by the German embassy. Under such conditions, on September 12, 1941, I gave the order to form a Separate Russian Corps.

After issuing this order, work on the formation of the Corps went on for another two days, but on September 14 I was invited to the Gestapo and really arrested, as the German embassy reported on the radio: “In Belgrade, the Russian General Skorodumov formed the national government, forms the army and even appointed the commander of the Fleet” . A commotion broke out in Berlin and an order followed on the radio: "Immediately arrest the general, disperse the government and the army, and remove the chief of staff, Colonel Kevish, and the Gestapo officers." Rosenberg allegedly even demanded that I be hanged (all this information was given to me by the Gestapo after my arrest).

After my arrest, the lost officer of the Gestapo, Bock, arrived at night at the apartment of the Chief of Staff of the Corps, General Shteifon, and, on the orders of the German command, took away the order of Colonel Kevish on the formation of the Corps. But the Corps, under the leadership of General Shteifon, continued to form.

Only thanks to Colonel Kevish, or rather his connections with Hitler, all this provocation ended only with the removal of several German officers and my three-week arrest. On the twenty-first day of my arrest, the Gestapo told me that I had to give a signature, otherwise I would be sent to a concentration camp. The signature was as follows: “I, the undersigned, the head of the Bureau for the Protection of the Interests of Russian Emigration, General S., give my word of honor from the Russian general that I will remain silent and not say a single word about German policy in the East.”

The general situation of the first days of the formation of the Corps turned out to be so confusing that one had to have a superhuman instinct to understand it. The Germans lied all the time on the radio, in the newspapers and in words, that their command had changed its policy in the East, that they were on a crusade against the communists, and not against the Russian people. Being a distrustful person by nature, I was critical of the statements of German propaganda. But I was well aware that the emigration should be able to defend themselves and their families from the communists, and that if the Germans really did not change their aggressive policy in the East, then the war would be lost and the Bolsheviks would come to Serbia anyway, and therefore there was no way out: one way or another Russian emigration must take up arms. Back in August 1941, at a banquet in the Russian House, in the presence of representatives of the German command, I frankly said: “If the Germans go against the Bolsheviks without Russian emigration, they will lose the war, run back, and destroy themselves and the Russian emigration.” These words were remembered by all those present at the banquet, and I was summoned to the Gestapo and received a warning: "You can't say everything you think." When the Germans, after the first victories in the East, painted the letter "V" - "Victoria" on all the houses and trams of Belgrade, I inadvertently said that in two years the Germans would have to draw another letter "V" - i.e. "woe to the vanquished." And since I was surrounded by German agents who were watching my every move, I was again summoned to the Gestapo and warned that if I allowed myself one more statement against the Germans, I would be removed from the post of head of the Bureau and suffer greatly. Then the German command demanded that the Russian coat of arms (double-headed eagle) be removed from the Bureau's seal and replaced with a swastika, but I categorically refused to do so.

During this difficult time, only a small group of Russian patriots helped me. Many Serbs, supporting the communists, did not sympathize with me, considering me a fascist, and were looking for a convenient opportunity for a provocation. The Germans were at enmity with each other: the military party fought with the National Socialist Party. Unfortunately, the Russian emigration itself was not unanimous. Part of her - true Russian patriots - gave up everything to take up arms again and continue the fight against the Bolsheviks. Another part of the emigration, thinking more about their own skin, raised a howl and rushed in droves from Serbia to factories in Germany, and those who did not leave were fleeing from the Bolsheviks, hiding behind the backs of the ranks of the Russian Corps. Finally, a small part of the emigration - the so-called "left" and "Soviet patriots" - screamed that it was impossible to fight the Bolsheviks, because the interests of the Soviet government allegedly coincided with the interests of Russia. This Sovietophile group was headed by two priests: Archpriest I. Sokal and Archpriest V. Neklyudov. They gathered rallies behind the Church of the Holy Trinity and persuaded the parishioners not to go to the Russian Corps and not be afraid of the communists, since "there are no more Bolsheviks, but there are only Russian people." Both of these priests subsequently went over to the communists and, during the offensive of the Soviet troops, persuaded many parishioners to stay in Belgrade, who paid for their gullibility with their own heads. Another Sovietophile, "Young Russian" Ilya Tolstoy, Leo Tolstoy's grandson, even attacked me in the street and threatened to kill me...

So, on September 12, 1941, the Russian Corps began to be born in agony. The order to form the Russian Corps caused a strong patriotic upsurge and found a response in the hearts of Russian patriots and ideological anti-Bolsheviks who were in a hurry to join the ranks of the Corps in order to fight in the future against Russia's fierce enemy - international communism. Officers and soldiers, participants in the Great and Civil Wars, doctors, engineers, merchants, young students, owners of large enterprises and ordinary workers, leaving their families, leaving everything behind, hurried to take up arms. Everyone joined the Corps, regardless of political beliefs, without distinction in belonging to a particular party, religion or nationality.

On the first day of formation, a Russian platoon left the guards barracks, on the second - a company, on the third - a battalion. Formation proceeded at such a pace. The corps was dressed in the uniform of the Imperial Army, with a white militia cross on their helmets. The 1st Regiment, not yet having completed its formation, dealt a crushing blow to the "Soviet Uzhitskaya Republic", and from that moment the liquidation of the general communist uprising began. The country gradually came to relative peace. The last victims of the wave of murders of Russian emigrants were S. Kutenko, Konstantin Holyaro and Alexander Nesterenko - the ranks of the Russian Corps, vilely killed in the back by Serbian communists on the streets of Belgrade in the first days of the formation of the Corps. The criminals were hanged and the killing of Russian emigrants ceased.

In the early days of the appearance of the Russian Corps, there were tragicomic cases when Serbian communists themselves came to the Corps. What was their surprise when they found out that this was the Russian WHITE Corps, and not the Soviet one from Moscow, which they were looking forward to! The Russian Corps for four years fought hard against the Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian and Russian communists, inflicting crushing blows on them, since the Germans had no idea about waging a partisan war with the Reds. The corps was replenished not only by emigrants living in Serbia, but also by Russian volunteers from eleven other European countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, France, Croatia and, finally, from Russia. At the same time, the ranks of the Russian Corps were replenished not only with white emigrants, but also with volunteers from among the former Soviet citizens, as well as former Soviet prisoners of war. In February 1944, the Corps had already fielded the fifth regiment!

The valor of the ranks of the Russian Corps, fidelity to duty, unparalleled courage and intransigence towards the Bolsheviks will be appreciated by history. From 1941 to 1943, until the former captured Red Army soldiers arrived in the Corps, not a single rank of it was captured! In 1944-1945, despite poor armament and an average advanced age (there were people from seventeen to seventy years old in the Corps), the old Russian generals and officers, along with the youth, bravely entered the battle no longer with Serbian and Croatian partisans, but with regular units of the Red Army and with the Yugoslav communist brigade, which arrived from Moscow.

When the Soviet army crossed the border of Serbia, the battalion of the Russian Corps defeated the Reds in the battle near Prahov, took prisoners, 9 heavy guns, 6 heavy bombers, 32 vehicles and 70 carts. Another battalion of the Russian Corps, operating in the group of General Fisher, recaptured 2 heavy guns, machine guns from the Soviet army, captured prisoners and various property. In the autumn of 1944, the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd Regiment under the command of Major General N.A. Petrovsky was surrounded by Soviet tanks and fought valiantly against the much superior enemy forces. But it was not possible to break out of the encirclement: almost the entire battalion died by the death of the brave. At the same time, part of the Russian Corps was surrounded on all sides in Chachak: on two sides - by Tito's partisans, on the third - by the Moscow Yugoslav brigade, and on the fourth - by the treacherously attacked Chetniks, who had broken away from the troops of Drazhe Mikhailovich. Parts of the Russian Corps staunchly fought back, the commander of the 4th regiment, Colonel V.A. Gesket and Colonel F.A. Dumsky, died. Having lost five companies, parts of the Russian Corps with heavy losses nevertheless made their way through the encirclement and went through the impenetrable Bosansky mountains to Sarajevo.

Despite all the sacrifices of the Russian Corps, the National Socialists, violating the conditions signed by Colonel Kevish, first beheaded the Corps, and later renamed it "Shutskor", dressed in German uniform and never sent to the Eastern Front. For us, Russian emigrants, such bullying by foreigners was not new, because behind them there was strength, and behind us only the right, which no one in the 20th century takes into account.

In 1943, the Germans tried to offer me to again lead the Russian emigration in Serbia and take the post of commander of the Russian Corps, but I categorically refused and declared that I would return to the Corps only as a simple soldier as soon as the Soviet army crossed the border of Serbia.

The Russian Corps is a legendary page in Russian history and not only Russian, but also world history, because before it there was no case that, after twenty years of emigration, grandfathers, fathers and grandchildren took up arms to continue the struggle that they started many years ago , in 1917

Carrying high the tricolor Russian flag in the impenetrable mountains of Serbia and Bosnia, surrounded on all sides by enemies, the Russian Corps with heavy losses, making superhuman efforts, valiantly and selflessly fighting off the communists, not only took their families, wives, children and old people out, but also saved ALL Russian emigration in Serbia, providing her with her echelons, without which she would have perished in the same way as she perished in all other countries of Eastern Europe.

The Russian Corps showed the whole world not only its military prowess, but also its political far-sightedness, for back in 1941 it foresaw and realized that only later, after the war, statesmen of the whole world began to understand. We are not to blame for the defeat. We were not mistaken, because if we were mistaken, then there would be no communism in Serbia after the war, and Russian emigration would not be sitting in DP camps in Austria, Germany and Italy. For us, white Russian émigrés, communist power has always been and will always be enemy number one. That is why the Russian Corps is a continuation of the White Struggle, which we started in 1918, but only this time - on the territory of Serbia.

Every Russian patriot knows perfectly well that only Russians can save Russia. All foreigners, whoever they may be, will always pursue their own, and not Russian, interests first of all. They can only be employees of necessity, but by no means the saviors of Russia.

And therefore, twenty-five thousand Russian emigrants in Serbia were by no means obliged to sacrifice themselves and die without struggle and resistance for the triumph of the victory of Stalin-Roosevelt, as well as for the triumph of the victory of Hitler-Mussolini. Russian emigrants can and must fight, take risks and sacrifice themselves only for the triumph of the victory of National Russia over communism that has enslaved it!

As I noted above, a significant part of the Russian emigration hatched plans for the "spring campaign of the White Army", timing it to coincide with the German attack on the USSR. It was assumed that the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) would be the main unifying force of this campaign. Two ways were envisaged in the “struggle for Russia”: “If this struggle is waged under the flag of the liberation of Russia, participate in it as part of the armed forces. If there is a struggle against the Bolsheviks, but not for Russian unity, try to invest in this struggle on Russian territory and help those Russian forces that will inevitably wake up ... ”wrote its editor-in-chief V.V. Orekhov.

However, the Hitlerite leadership, hoping to put an end to the Soviet Union in a few months, scornfully brushed aside the Russian emigrants who were crowding into "allies". Thus, on the eve of the German invasion of the USSR, the head of the 2nd (German) department of the ROVS, General Lampe, offered the German High Command cooperation in the fight against Soviet power. There was no answer. In the first weeks of the war, Lampe sent Brauchitsch another letter of similar content, to which he received an answer and an assurance that "Russian emigration is not expected to be attracted." After that, Lampe issued an order for the department, in which he directly indicated that each member of the union was free to act at his own discretion, maintaining, if possible, contact with the ROVS.

The French department of the union has registered more than one and a half thousand people who want to participate in the war on the side of Germany. In Bulgaria, which sheltered Russian white emigrants, more than 80% of young people, inspired by the hope of joining the "liberation war for their homeland", began to look for opportunities to join the fight against Bolshevism.

A special upsurge among Russian emigrants reigned in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (as Yugoslavia was then called). At one time, King Alexander I Karageorgievich, who sincerely believed in the ideals of the Orthodox-Slavic brotherhood and considered himself obliged in every possible way to help the former subjects of the state, which repeatedly stood up for the defense of his homeland, let the remnants of the Wrangel Russian Army into his country, granting white emigrants civil rights. The minimum number of the Russian colony in Belgrade by 1941 was 10 thousand people. In fact, all universities, theaters, railways were staffed with Russian specialists.

In the spring of 1941, after the occupation of Yugoslavia, the German administration appointed Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Skorodumov as chief of the Russian emigration in Serbia.

A participant in the First World War, he was seriously wounded during the retreat, was taken prisoner, from where he unsuccessfully fled three times.

At the initiative of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, he was exchanged for a German officer and arrived in Petrograd at the height of the events of 1917. There Skorodumov joined a secret officer organization, after the disclosure of which he fled to the South of Russia, where he joined the Volunteer Army.

The second wound was received during the capture of Kyiv. Together with the army of General Bredov, he retreated to Poland, where he was interned.

He returned to the Crimea, fought at Perekop, after the evacuation he spent a year in the Gallipoli camp, in 1921 he arrived in Bulgaria, from which he fled to Yugoslavia. Here Skorodumov headed the local department of the EMRO.

After the German attack on the USSR, the former major general turned to the German military authorities with a proposal to create a Russian division from emigrants. At first, he was refused, because he insisted on sending the future formation to the Eastern Front, while the German command needed units to carry out security services in the territory of occupied Yugoslavia. However, soon the chief of staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in the South East, Colonel Kevish, allowed Skorodumov to form the so-called Russian Security Corps from among the white emigrants.

An interesting point. In their numerous memoirs, the veterans of the Russian Security Corps try to present their service to the Germans as an act of self-defense in response to the persecution of Russian emigrants in Serbia by local communists. However, if we accept this version, it becomes completely incomprehensible why General Skorodumov and other emigration leaders so persistently sought to send Russian formations to the Eastern Front.

It seems that, trying to whitewash themselves, the former collaborators pass off the effect as the cause. The fact is that, like white emigrants in other countries, they were eager to take revenge for the defeat in the Civil War, even with the help of Hitler. It is not surprising that after that, in the eyes of the majority of the Serbian population, Russian emigrants became German servants. September 12, 1941 M.F. Skorodumov issued an order to the Russian émigré colony with a call to join the Corps. It ended with the words “I will take you to Russia!” Thousands of volunteers responded to the call of the general. Representatives of many youth and public organizations joined the Corps. Among them were representatives of the Falconry and monarchists, members of the NTS and fascist organizations, members of veteran unions of participants in the last two wars. Among them was Colonel-Markovian Kondratiev, wounded 19 times during the First World War and the Civil War, who later died from the twentieth wound, staff captain Novitsky, wounded six times in the Civil War, who later died in the bunkers of the 3rd regiment. According to lieutenant Granitov, there was no forced mobilization, because Skorodumov did not have the strength and means to carry it out. There was an order to recruit, but those who wanted to go to the Corps. Russian volunteers from other countries also joined the Corps: Poland, France, Greece, Italy.

The Corps included representatives of the Cossacks, who made up the 1st (Cossack) regiment under the command of Major General V.E. Zborowski. former head of the Kuban Cossack division in Gallipoli. Initially, this regiment consisted of a Kuban battalion (1st), a battalion of former ranks of the Wrangel 1 army. The bunker fortifications were dilapidated fortified firing points near bridges, roads and other objects, where small garrisons of corpsmen (2nd) were located on combat duty, battalion of unfired and hastily trained youth (3rd cadet). At the end of 1942, the regiment became completely Cossack, as Cossacks from other regiments were poured into it, and its third battalion consisted of Donets. The Don Cossacks mostly lived in Bulgaria and at the first opportunity joined the Corps in the summer of 1942. On October 29, 1941, the Guards Division of the Own E.I.V. arrived in Belgrade with their standards. The convoy under the command of Colonel N.V. Galushkin. As part of the Corps, the division was renamed the 7th Guards Hundred of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment, in 1942 it was renamed the 12th Guards Hundred, and at the very end of 1942. at the beginning of 1943. when the 1st regiment was reorganized into a Cossack regiment, the Guards Hundred became the first.

It should be said that among the emigrant colony there were those who saw in the creation of the Corps a betrayal of Russia and Yugoslavia, which sheltered Russian emigrants. At the head of supporters of such views stood two Orthodox priests. They persuaded their Belgrade parishioners not to go to the Russian Corps and not be afraid of the communists. Pro-Soviet agitation was also launched by members of the Mladorossov party, one of them. the grandson of Leo Tolstoy, Ilya, even attacked M.F. on the street. Skorodumov and threatened to kill him.

During its existence, the Corps has changed several official names:

After the end of World War II, on November 1, 1945, the Union of Former Officials of the Russian Corps was created.

Initially, three regiments were deployed. Since September 1943, a stream of volunteers from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Odessa went to the Corps. Replenishment amounted to 50% of the total number of military personnel, and the 4th and 5th regiments were deployed from it.

The service of the corpsmen was initially regulated by the charter of the Imperial Army, then they switched to the charters of the Red Army, as more flexible and adapted for combat in the conditions of modern warfare. Since 1943, the Corps switched to German regulations, which more quickly absorbed combat experience. On January 29, 1943, the personnel of the Russian Corps was sworn in:

“I swear holy before God that I am in the fight against the Bolsheviks. enemies of my Fatherland and the enemies of the German Army fighting on the side of the Bolsheviks, I will render the Supreme Leader of the German Army, Adolf Hitler, everywhere, wherever it may be, unconditional obedience and I will be ready, like a brave warrior, at any time to sacrifice my life for this oath " .

The internal structure of the Corps was as follows:

Five regiments of a three-battalion composition, with the presence of separate platoons: artillery, anti-tank, sapper, cavalry, communications, in the 1st and 4th regiments there were also musical platoons.

The battalions consisted of three rifle companies and a platoon of heavy weapons. Subsequently, artillery companies were formed in the 4th and 5th regiments, and a company of anti-tank guns was also formed in the 5th regiment. Each battalion also had companies of heavy weapons. The companies consisted of three platoons, one platoon of three squads.

At the headquarters of the Corps there was a German communications headquarters, in the combat units of regiments and battalions. German liaison officers and company instructors. All economic divisions of the Corps were in the hands of German officials and non-commissioned officers. The department of family allowances functioned properly, giving out part of the salary of the ranks of the Corps to their families. There was an extensive system of medical and veterinary care.

The command of the Corps also took care of the training of future officers. It was practiced to bring young people into cadet battalions, platoons and companies. The age of the cadets was from 16 to 43 years old, along with everyone else they served and managed to gain knowledge from their teachers, who traveled around the cadet units scattered throughout Serbia. Interestingly, among the cadets of the Corps was the father of the future director general of NTV Boris Yordan, Alexei Yordan, who was promoted to second lieutenant in 1942. There were constant refresher courses for command personnel. Military school courses under the command of Oberst Count Du Moulin prepared five graduates of lieutenants. Under the Corps, there were also courses for air defense, radio telegraph operators, gunsmiths and other military specialists.

In total, during the existence of the Corps, according to emigrant sources, 17 thousand people passed through it.

The armament of the Corps left much to be desired. So, for example, the first German MP submachine guns (colloquially referred to as "Schmeissers") were issued only in the autumn of 1944, in very small quantities, and their number grew due to trophies. During the transition of the 1st Battalion of the 1st Regiment to the 2nd Regiment, the Mauser rifles and Cheshska Zbroevka light machine guns were replaced with heavy and capricious Shoshi with strong recoil. During the formation of the 4th regiment, the soldiers were given Italian carbines with a firing range of only 500 meters and with a spread of bullets on Schneider artillery guns, which were not suitable for fighting in the mountains, did not have tables for firing and instruments, ammunition depots for guns in the Corps did not was in general and their replenishment came at the expense of trophies.

A few words should also be said about the uniform of the Russian Corps. The uniform of the Yugoslav army was taken as the basis for the original version of the uniform, while it was envisaged to wear two insignia. buttonholes on the turn-down collar of the uniform indicating the rank in the Corps (the system was developed specifically for the Corps) and shoulder straps indicating the rank in the White Army. It should be noted that the old ranks of the Imperial and White armies in the Corps did not matter, and the former colonel of the White Army could wear the buttonholes of a sergeant major. The Yugoslav helmet in the frontal part was crowned with a white militia cross. On January 28, 1943, according to the order of the German command, the Corps received Wehrmacht uniforms. Many cherished their old corps uniform for classes and gave it preference over the German one "that says nothing to the mind or heart." On March 16, 1945, by order of the command, all the ranks of the Corps sewed on the sleeve shields-patches "ROA".

Since 1942, the ranks of the Corps received from the German command the right to be awarded the German Order "For Bravery for the Eastern Nations". The first awards were presented on September 12, 1942.

The already mentioned Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Skorodumov became the first commander of the Corps. However, he was soon arrested by the Gestapo for arbitrarily proclaiming the slogan "To Russia!" and spent three weeks in jail. After his release from prison, the general, offended in his best feelings, defiantly began to earn a living as a shoemaker.

After Skorodumov left the post of head of the Russian emigration in Yugoslavia, this position was taken by Major General of the General Staff V.V. von Kreiter, while the Russian Corps was headed by its former chief of staff, Lieutenant General Boris Aleksandrovich Shteifon, a participant in the First World War and the Civil War, who came from a family of baptized Jews.

Among the regimental commanders we can name the following emigrants: Major General Viktor Erastovich Zborovsky, Kuban Cossack, commanded the 1st Regiment until September 26, 1944, until he was seriously wounded, on October 9 he died of wounds. In his honor, the regiment was named after him; lieutenant colonel, then major general of the General Staff Boris Viktorovich Gontarev, one of the founders of the Russian Corps, chief of staff, commander of the 3rd regiment. Awarded with the Iron Cross, 2nd class. In 1945, the representative of the Corps under General Vlasov;. the commander of the 4th regiment, Colonel Gesket Boris Sergeevich, was killed on October 23, 1944 in the battle near Chachak by a shell explosion at an observation post; Colonel Anatoly Ivanovich Rogozhin, Terek Cossack, former commander of His Imperial Majesty's Convoy Division. In 1941, together with his veteran convoys, he arrived in the Corps. Commander of the 5th Regiment. For military merit, he was awarded the Iron Crosses of both degrees. On April 30, 1945, after the death of General Shteifon, he headed the Corps.

The entire combat path of the Russian Corps can be divided into three stages:

1. From autumn 1941 to spring 1944. protection of communication lines, industrial facilities.

3. From September 1944 until the end of the war. the period of front-line service, when, after the surrender of Romania and Bulgaria, the Corps repelled the attacks of the Soviet and Bulgarian troops, Tito's regular army.

Already in September 1941, the units of the Corps began the first punitive operations. So, his 1st regiment, even at the stage of its formation, took part in the liquidation of the partisan "Soviet Uzhitsky Republic".

One of the leaders of the post-war NTS, Ya.A., tells about the first battles of the Corps in his memoirs. Trushnovich:

“... A battalion of Titov partisans was advancing, and ours were sitting in some kind of ravine and had lunch. German liaison officers, who were with each battalion, began to run, shouting: Fire! Fire!., and our people quietly continue to dine. Then they calmly dismantled the rifles and began to wait. The Germans already thought that this was a betrayal, because ours still did not shoot. In the end, the corpsmen allowed the Titoites to 50.100 meters and destroyed the entire battalion with two or three volleys.

The second battle was in the basin, which was conducted by the cadet company.

They were placed in shelled barracks, because the partisans had just destroyed a German unit there. The junkers were commanded by Colonel Gordeev-Zaretsky. When shooting began during the next partisan attack, the cadets screamed. Hurray!., jumped out of the barracks and rushed to the attack uphill for 600 meters and defeated this battalion ... ... when the partisans heard Russian. Hurrah!., they said to the commander: “Well, now we are gone, these are Russians.”

What was the role and place of the Russian Corps, as well as other collaborationist formations, in relations with the Germans, can be judged from a very eloquent excerpt from the memoirs of the headquarters captain of the Corps Sergei Vakar:

“Once upon a time, a German non-commissioned officer who arrived in Bor from the economic part of the corps headquarters entered the cavalry platoon. Werner. To meet him, Colonel Popov lined up a platoon and ordered: Platoon. humbly, equality. right!.

When I asked him why, being a lieutenant of the Wehrmacht, he meets a non-commissioned officer like that, he answered me: “Well, how could it be otherwise, because he is still a German!”

Gradually, towards the end of the war, a paradoxical situation developed: there was an overabundance of officers in the Corps, and there was a shortage of them in the ROA. As a result, the merger of the two principles took place, but only on paper, and the resistance of the Germans, who did not want to unite, had to be overcome. The fact that Vlasov was a Soviet general in the past did not bother the corpsmen, because the hope of creating a Russian army had excited the minds of emigrants since 1941.

In December 1944, General Shteifon left for Germany and, having come to General Vlasov, placed the Corps at his disposal. This was the first general of the collaborators with his "army", who submitted to Vlasov without any preconditions.

A few words should also be said about the local allies of the Corps. First of all, they were the Serbs-Chetniks of General Drazhi Mikhailovich and the military-political organization "ZBOR" Dumitar Ljotić (Letić).

The Chetniks were a very difficult to manage semi-partisan army, with an anti-communist spirit.

Their enemies were Tito's partisans and Ustashi-Croats, who massacred entire Serbian villages. The former officer of the Varyag regiment N. Chukhnov recalls the cruelty of the Croats:

“During the entire four-year occupation of Yugoslavia by German troops, the puppet Croatian government of Pavelić, the murderer of King Alexander, supported by the Catholic clergy, was engaged. To the glory of the Lord. the extermination of Orthodox Serbs, who at that time turned out to be over a million people on the territory of Croatia. Thousands of corpses of the executed Serbs, tied one to another, sailed along the Sava to Belgrade. The stench of decomposition poisoned the air ten kilometers from the river.”

Initially, the Chetniks collaborated with Tito, but his pro-communist stance contributed to a breakdown in relations. The Chetniks themselves considered themselves the army of the Yugoslav government in exile and received the status of the "Royal Army in the Homeland". The lower-ranking commanders had great power among the Chetniks, who concluded agreements with their numerous enemies, as the situation in this or that area demanded. Each battalion had its own executioner.

Britain's widespread support for the Chetniks ended in 1943, and a flood of military aid was channeled to Tito. In 1945, the Chetniks switched to waging a guerrilla war against the communist authorities.

Dumitr Ljotić had at his disposal three complete infantry regiments with good discipline and organization. In 1945, ZBOR declared its readiness to join the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and submit to General Vlasov. After the war, the Zborovites went into exile and partly went underground.

It was Ljotić who was the author of the plan proposed to General Vlasov to save all Russian volunteer units of the Wehrmacht and the ROA by uniting them into a powerful fist on the territory of Serbia. D. Ljotich himself died under unclear circumstances, and his brother after the war was strangled in Munich by agents of the Titov state security.

It should also be borne in mind that by the very end of the war, cases of outright betrayal of Russian units by the Chetniks became more frequent. Trying to curry favor with Tito, many Chetnik field commanders lured Corps units into ambushes, where they surrounded and disarmed them. In a number of cases, they betrayed in open battle, suddenly shooting the corpsmen.

In 1944, the Corps fought the most difficult battles with the advanced Soviet units of the 57th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and the Bulgarian army, advancing together with the partisans. On October 22, 1944, the commander-in-chief of Army Group E, General von Lehr, issued an order to form from all those available in the area of ​​​​the river. Ibr of the Russian units of the combat group under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) B.V. Gontareva. The group was instructed to clear the Ramka-Sarajevo route of partisans, thereby ensuring the withdrawal of German troops from Greece through southern Serbia and Bosnia. On October 26, 1944, a Consolidated Regiment was created from all Russian units in the region of Chachak and Donja Milonovets under the command of Colonel A.I. Rogozhin. The regiment consisted of three infantry and one reserve battalion. On November 27, this regiment was placed at the disposal of the commander of the 5th SS Mountain Corps, General Krieger.

In the autumn of 1944, the 3rd battalion of the 3rd regiment of the Corps, under the command of Major General N.A. Petrovsky was surrounded by Soviet tanks. The corpsmen failed to break through, and the entire personnel of the battalion fell in battle with superior enemy forces.

The capitulation of Germany found the Russian Corps on the territory of Slovenia. The day before, on April 30, 1945, the commander of the B.A. Corps died. Shtefon. He was replaced by Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Rogozhin. The new commander announced that the Corps would not hand over its weapons to either the Soviets or the Titoites and would go for a breakthrough into the British occupation zone. Fulfilling the order of the commander, the units of the Corps began to make their way to Austria, to the area of ​​​​the city of Klagenfurt, where they capitulated to the British army. By this time, there were only 4.5 thousand people in the ranks of the greatly thinned Corps.

Initially, the former servicemen of the corps were placed in a tent camp near Klagenfurt. After some time, the Corps was transferred to the Kellerberg camp, which later received the name "White Russian Camp".

The hands of the corpsmen built a temple and educational institutions there. The camp was given a long life. it existed for six years, until all its inhabitants received the status of "displaced persons". All these six years, the threat of deportation to the USSR hung over the corpsmen. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union V.M. Molotov from the UN rostrum demanded the immediate extradition of all the ranks of the Corps.

It should be said that the new commander of the Corps made a lot of efforts to save many Vlasovites, Cossacks and representatives of other collaborationist units and subunits from extradition to the USSR. All of them were uniformed and put on allowance as military personnel of the "Russian Corps". The Corps also included the remains of a separate Russian regiment "Varangian" under the command of Colonel Semenov.

After receiving the status of “displaced persons”, many left the camp that had already become their home and went to the USA, Australia and other countries. To maintain ties between the corpsmen, on the initiative of Colonel A.I. Rogozhin, the “Union of Officials of the Russian Corps” was created, the permanent leader of which he was until his death. The headquarters of the Union of Corpsmen was located in the USA. Until now, the print organ of the Union of Officials, the magazine Nashi Vesti, has been published. Recently, the magazine has been published in Russia as well.

Another Russian military unit in the Balkans was the Varyag Special Regiment.

The basis of the regiment was a volunteer battalion, formed in March 1942 from young emigrants. former cadets of the Russian cadet corps in Yugoslavia. In accordance with the order of the commander of the Balkan front, young people were recruited to participate in the landing operation near Novorossiysk. The creator of the unit and its permanent commander was the former guard captain of the Imperial Army M.A. Semenov.

The first group of young people (36 people) left for the Breitenmark camp (Upper Silesia) to undergo a military training course and became subordinate to the Imperial Security Main Office (RSHA) in Berlin. In Breitenmark, the 1st battalion was created under the command of senior sergeant major A. Orlov. The supply of the battalion was in charge of the SS-Hauptamt, the unit was directly subordinate to the commander of the army groups, who had the battalion at their disposal. In order to avoid pressure from the German authorities, five officers of the battalion, led by the commander, took German citizenship, after which the regiment commander M.A. Semenov became known as "von Semenoff".

In 1944, in the camp "Zeppelin Enterprises" in Samberg, the battalion was deployed into a regiment called "Varyag" (SS-Sonderregiment "Waraeger"). The personnel were recruited from

volunteers from the occupied southern regions of Russia and Ukraine, the basis of the regiment was still emigre youth and only a small part came from prisoner of war camps. By the end of 1944, despite the prohibition of the German authorities, the regiment actually consisted entirely of former prisoners of war. Most command positions were also held by former Soviet officers.

According to the headquarters officer of the regiment N. Chukhnov, one of the semi-companies under the command of his brother senior non-commissioned officer Yu. Chukhnov was sent to the Eastern Front to conduct propaganda activities in the Pskov region. Another platoon was undergoing airborne training in Riga, "... and several people even flew to Magnitogorsk (Southern Urals) ...", apparently performing the task of the German intelligence agencies.

By the beginning of 1945, the Varyag included three battalions (three companies each), mortar, guard and reconnaissance companies, an artillery battery, a commandant's platoon, anti-tank gun platoons, sapper, medical and economic services.

Like the Russian Corps, the regiment collaborated with local nationalist organizations, such as the Slovenian housebrands of General Rupnik and Colonel Pregel, the Ljotichevites and the Dalmatian Chetniks. At the end of the war, all these anti-Soviet formations wished to come under the command of General A.A. Vlasov.

In May 1945, the regiment fought its way to the border of Yugoslavia and Austria and laid down its arms in front of the British army, sharing the refugee camp life along with the ranks of the "Russian Corps".

A small number of Russian volunteers served in the SS Legion "Wallonia" (later the 28th SS Division "Wallonia"). Initially, 20 Russian white émigrés from Liege and Brussels became Russian soldiers of this Belgian formation. Judging by the memoirs of a colleague of the Russian Imperial Union-Order (RISO) N.I. Sakhnovsky, one of them, with the rank of major, at one time commanded a legion, and then his reserve battalion, the other. in the rank of captain. was a company commander.

N.I. Sakhnovsky also commanded a company, some emigrants were lieutenants and non-commissioned officers. The position of the Russian émigré soldiers was equated in everything with the position of the Belgians.

Arriving at the front in the legion, N.I. Sakhnovsky saw the horrific condition of the Russian prisoners of war and submitted a report to his superiors with a proposal to use them as legion volunteers. Soon a Russian auxiliary detachment was formed under the legion.

After N.I. Sakhnovsky returned to Brussels, but the thought of creating a Russian volunteer unit did not leave him, and he turned for support to the head of the Belgian department of the RISO N.N. Voeikov. The latter ardently supported the idea of ​​a comrade-in-arms, and the department organized a collection of emigrant literature and Orthodox crosses with the inscription "Conquer this!", allocated for this by the priest Fr. A. Shabashev. Crosses were supposed to be used as a distinctive sign on the uniform of Russian volunteers. These plans turned out to be unrealistic, because the legion itself had already been evacuated by planes from the North Caucasus, along with a hundred Russians from the local population. After the evacuation, the legion was reassigned to the SS, received the name “5th Sturmbrigade. Wallonia." and placed in the SS-camp "Wildflecken". The SS command did not want to transfer all the Russians, and out of a hundred people, only 40 people were selected, taking into account their physical data.

Autumn 1943 "Wallonia" met at the front near the Dnieper in the Korsun region as part of the SS division "Viking". N.I. Sakhnovsky was appointed commandant of the village of Baibuzy and tried to make life as easy as possible for the locals. At a meeting with the brigade commander, Sturmbannführer L. Lippert, Sakhnovsky again asked for permission to form a Russian volunteer unit, but Lippert referred to his lack of such authority. The next day, the emigrant was already summoned to the headquarters of the Viking division, where he reported to the command about the possibilities of forming a Russian division, having previously set his own conditions: the formation of the division is carried out under the Viking and subsequently is subordinate to this division - armament, due to trophies, officer the composition is recruited from volunteer emigrants from Belgium and France through the "Wallonia", some are transferred from the "Russian Corps" to the Belgian brigade, then transferred to the Russian division.

The proposal was accepted, and N.I. Sakhnovsky was sent on a business trip to Berlin to select command personnel for the future formation. Judging by his memoirs, the Berlin emigrant "swamp" could not give a single officer, and those that were had the leaven of the ROVS and were not suitable for the new business.

Upon returning to the division N.I. Sakhnovsky reported to L. Lippert that the officers had been found by him, and proceeded to form. The first recruitment into the company was made at a general meeting of the peasants of the village of Baibuza, where the emigrant made a speech filled with monarchist slogans. By Christmas 1943, through the efforts of N.I. Sakhnovsky "Wallonia" received 200 volunteers. The company was proudly called the "Russian People's Militia". The already mentioned cross was located on the uniform (civilian clothes) of the volunteers. Propaganda was launched under the slogan of the restoration of the monarchy in Russia, whose emperor was supposed to be Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov.

The reality of the military situation did not correspond to these rosy plans. "Wallonia" was surrounded, which was facilitated by the capture of Cherkassy by the Red Army. In the cauldron, along with the Belgians, there were five divisions and militias. During the January thaw of 1944, the encircled men made a breakthrough. The militias, armed only with Soviet rifles, machine guns and grenades, in civilian clothes with crosses "You win!" met in hand-to-hand combat with the Soviet units, supported by artillery. After such a breakthrough, the "Militia" actually ceased to exist.

Those who were lucky enough to survive this battle were withdrawn from the front and sent to Europe together with the Wallonia. The Russian company was disbanded, and its soldiers were released to all four sides. Some of them remained in the division, others preferred demobilization to service.

In January 1945, Nikolai Sakhnovsky led the recruitment of Russian volunteers in the "Fighter Connection of the SS Troops". Recruitment was carried out in prisoner of war camps in Luben, Altenburg, Bad Wauben, Vienna, Prague and Berlin. By February 12, 1945, he recruited 20 people, who subsequently arrived at Friedenthal Castle "under the wing" of Otto Skorzeny.

The meager information at the disposal of the author gives grounds to assume the presence of a certain number of Russian military personnel in other foreign SS divisions. On July 12, 1941, by order of von Lampe, the formation of the Russian Druzhina for military operations on the Eastern Front was announced. The personnel was represented by the former ranks of the 3rd Russian Army, gen. P.N. Wrangel, who fought on the side of the Polish army in 1920 and remained in Poland.

The rest of the combatants served earlier in the Imperial, Don and Volunteer armies. There is no information about the fate of this formation, which may indicate another unsuccessful attempt to form a combat Russian unit or its subordination to the German special services.

In addition to European volunteer units, representatives of the Russian white emigration served in the police, front-line and engineering battalions of the Baltic countries.

The paramilitary organizations of the NSKK (National-Socialistische Kraft Korps, NSKK) that existed in the Third Reich,

"Organization Todt" (OT) and the "Speer" legion also included Russian employees. The purpose of these organizations during the war was transport and other support for the needs of the Eastern Front, professional training of personnel of the transport units of the army. With a large number of training units, military training grounds and training centers, they themselves soon began to need a trained cadre of instructors and technical staff. From June 22, 1942, battalions and companies were created from Russian emigrants who lived in France and former Soviet prisoners of war in the Speer Legion, which were soon transferred to the disposal of the territorial corps OT West, which provides for the needs of the German-Soviet front. The recruitment of emigrants in France was carried out by the former commander of the Life Guards of the Cossack Regiment, Major General V.A. Dyakov.

In 1943, two such battalions (seven companies each) were transferred to the NSKK, receiving the name "Transportstaffeln 67.69". Initially, all foreign employees of the NJKK wore the black uniform of the Corps, in 1942 this was changed to gray and blue blouses with standard insignia. On the left sleeve, instead of an eagle, there were shield-shaped stripes repeating the colors of the national flags of the countries whose citizens were his employees.

"Legion Speer West" united the Baltic, Russian, Ukrainian employees. Five legion recruiting stations were organized in their reserve battalion, in Kyiv the legion had a regiment in which foreigners served as mechanics and drivers on short-term contracts.

In addition to the aforementioned organizations, the eastern divisions included the Reich Workers' Service (RAD).

Russian Corps
On the boss roads
Walked in battles and anxieties
Forty-fifth decisive year.
From the Moravian Valley
To the Danube and Drina
All regiments went on a campaign.
Among the heat and dust
The battalions went
On the enemy, on big things.
Along the humped spurs,
Along the riverbanks
Our resounding glory has passed.
On the Bosan bridge
Smoldering white bones
Winds rustle over the bones.
Remember partisan dogs
Ustasha, housebrands
About our shock regiments.
Soon to our free land
New waves are coming
The Russian Corps will come to the Fatherland.
Through native spaces,
Through the villages and villages
Peaceful life will bloom again.

("Three Lieutenants")

Russian Corps- armed a formation that acted on the side of Germany during the 2nd world. war. Formed 12 Sept. 1945 in Serbia from Russian. ex-military emigrants, students, citizens. employees who dreamed of continuing the so-called. White business. However, the use of R.K. on ... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

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