Left to right: Wehrmacht General Rudolf Toussaint, SS General Werner Lorenz and Soviet General Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov in Prague Castle's Spanish Hall Nov. 14, 1944.
Posted on 05/05/2005 11:24:35 AM PDT by sergey1973
Communists buried legacy of Soviet General Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov and his battalion of POWs that helped free Prague from the Nazis
Some six decades ago, Prague Castle hosted one of the most extraordinary events in the city's long history. A conference held Nov. 14, 1944, in the Castle's Spanish Hall brought together Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov, a Soviet General (indeed the "Savior of Moscow," who had stopped the Nazi armies from taking that city three years earlier) and much of the Nazi upper echelon. Vlasov would convince the Nazis to back a plan he had devised -- a last-ditch effort to arm prisoners of war to battle Stalin's forces.
Amidst a hall packed with high-ranking SS and Wehrmacht officers (including SS General Werner Lorenz and General Rudolf Toussaint), sat representatives from all of the Slavic countries overrun by the Nazis and other figures of the Nazi State. Vlasov looked more like a school master than a general. In his youth he thought of becoming a priest.
SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler had sent along his apologies and a message. Adolf Hitler, however, couldn't quite bring himself to do either. Hitler was, in fact, not certain that Vlasov's plan -- to arm a million and a half Russian POWs, mainly Ukrainians, to bring down Stalin and communism -- was such a good idea. He had rejected it outright in 1943, but now Germany had its back to the wall. The Nazis were in full retreat over Eastern Europe and any help the Fuhrer could get from any quarter might salvage part of his wild dreams or simply help to save mainland Germany -- even if these helpers were Untermenschen, or sub-humans. The war was only six months from its end; the noose was gradually tightening.
When Vlasov took the podium he launched into an extraordinary manifesto of his own: of equality and democracy in the new Russia which would be liberated by his army. This must have made some of the SS and others in the hall that day feel rather uncomfortable; the manifesto included the abolition of forced labor and the release of all political prisoners. Most significantly, Vlasov had refused Himmler's demand to include "an unequivocal stand on the Jewish question." In fact not a single word in Vlasov's speech had referred to Hitler or to National Socialism.
After the conference, Vlasov -- who was still a Nazi prisoner -- was taken to the Lucerna Film Club, just off Wenceslas Square, where he partied with Prague film stars, producers and directors. After more than two years in captivity and trying to push his cause, he deserved a little relaxation. At 2 o'clock on the morning of Nov. 15 his special train whisked him to Berlin.
When news that Vlasov had a green light to form this new army circulated via Russian POWs' own newspaper, by the end of the month new recruits were signing up at a rate of up to 60,000 per day.
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"Stalin saw to it that Vlasov's army would never make the history books." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'We will defeat Stalin'
Vlasov had been captured by the Germans in July 1942. After six months in captivity he confessed to his captors that he did in fact hate Stalin and the whole Bolshevik state. "Give me your prisoners," Vlasov told them, "and together we will defeat Stalin." How he figured he could then wriggle out of his new commitment to a dictatorship just as evil is not known. But the idea was sound: it would have got 1.5 million POWs in appalling conditions fighting fit again -- and no doubt they would eventually have turned on their new masters. Had the Nazis embraced this idea then, in early 1943, then indeed there would have been a real prospect of success, despite their defeat at Stalingrad.
Vlasov didn't get to meet Himmler until September 1944 -- and despite winning him over, it was still impossible for Hitler to understand the necessity, not until November of that year, by which time the war was well and truly lost.
Between that November and April of 1945, two divisions of "Vlasov's Army," more than 50,000 men, were formed, equipped and trained. Nine officers were Jews, concealed by Vlasov personally. Germany could not afford to equip and provide munitions for more men. This army had its own hospitals, training schools for officers, supply systems and air force. And on April 14, 1945, it was sent not to liberate Russia but to try to halt the Soviet advance across the Oder, only a few hours' drive from Berlin.
Seeing how hopeless, as well as pointless, the situation was for his force, Vlasov turned his men back and decided to march across Bohemia to get to Pilsen -- where he would deliver them as prisoners to the Americans, who were halted there. Stalin had already made it known that if any of Vlasov's men fell into his hands they would receive long and painful deaths.
The army stopped to regroup near Beroun, just a half-hour drive southwest of Prague. By now it was early May. Hitler had already committed suicide. On May 5, members of the Czech National Committee came out from Prague to see Vlasov. Their uprising against the Nazis had begun but the planned British weapons drop had not come. They did not know then that Stalin had stopped Churchill. Stalin's plan, as at Warsaw, was to wait and watch the patriots and the Nazis kill each other and destroy the city.
Erased from history
Eventually Vlasov was persuaded and by May 6 the First Division, 25,000 men with armor, set off in three columns to save the uprising -- and Prague. In 36 hours the Nazis had surrendered and the uprising had succeeded. What followed then was a betrayal by the Czech National Committee of the army that had rescued them, more betrayals by the Americans and the British and then the Soviet Army's arrival in Prague being heralded as the liberators of the city. Stalin saw to it that Vlasov's Army would never make the history books and few Czechs even today really know of its contribution. Even the little street plaques which list those patriots who fell at that spot during the Prague Uprising do not list Vlasov's men. Sometimes the plaques simply say "... and others." That's them.
The dramatic story of Vlasov's Army in the liberation of Prague and their subsequent march to Plzen and the tragic events that unfolded there will be told on their 60th anniversary, next year. For now, the Prague "Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia" conference is an interesting footnote of history. However, it was too little, too late. If only Himmler and his equally satanic master had woken up to the opportunity earlier, the whole postwar story of Czechoslovakia might have been very different indeed.
PING ! Another incredible WWII story.
"Soviet Propaganda said that Vlasov was a traitor, turncoat, deserter turned Nazi ally."
He was.
"In fact he tried to arm Soviet POW's to take on both Stalin and Hitler at the final months of WWII and he took Nazis on in Prague."
Yup. He flipped when it looked like Germany was winning, then tried to flip back when it became obvious that Germany was losing.
"Operation Keelhaul", there is more to the story.
" He flipped when it looked like Germany was winning, then tried to flip back when it became obvious that Germany was losing."
Sounds like the Russian John Kerry...
Can anyone recommend a good book on this story?
There are plenty of blind spots of WWII we are not aware pr have no full knowledge about. Playing between Hitler and Stalin--two mass murderers--was not unusual for political figures to save themselves and their people. France and Britain declared the war on Germany after it attacked Poland in September 1939, but they did not come actually to aid Poland. One of the theories is that because they hoped that Hitler will attack Stalin afterwards and two tyrannies clash and destroy each other.
Finnish leader general Mannerheim joined Hitler in 1941 to attack Soviet Union because he wanted to recover territories lost to USSR in 1939-1940 Soviet-Finnish war. However, he made a separate peace with USSR when Hitler was loosing in 1944. His clever maneuvers between Hitler and Stalin, saved Finland from coming under occupation of either.
General Franko also carefully played with Hitler. He used his aid in 1936-1939 to crush pro-Stalin Spanish "Republicans", but he did not allow Hitler to cross Spain and take Hibraltar straits during WWII.
At this point, I'm not aware on a good book about Vlasov.
"Vlasov's Army" and its leader, were, by any yardstick, all traitors. What is not revealed in this article is that these men were fairly undisciplined, committed awful atrocities on the civilians wherever they went, and were totally unreliable the brief time they fought against the Reds.
The pity is that the Soviets treated all "liberated" POW's as though they were "Vlassovites." It wasn't much of a liberation.
Left to right: Wehrmacht General Rudolf Toussaint, SS General Werner Lorenz and Soviet General Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov in Prague Castle's Spanish Hall Nov. 14, 1944.
Try Googling for "russian army of liberation" as well as "the Vlasov Army." There is some info as well on Jason Pipes' site Feldgrau.com. As for books, there are references in several of Solzhenitzyn's works, notably One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and the Gulag Archipelago. Unfortunately, as the article indicates, there just ain't a bunch out there in print. I researched this many moons ago as an MI guy after learning that several Russians captured by Afghan mujahideen were actually deserters who had heard of a Vlasov-type organization in Afghnaistan.
Vlasov's army never fought the Red Army, but they did have some skirmishes with the Germans during the last days of WW2. However, about a million ex-Red Army soldiers did serve both officially and un-officially in the German Army during WW2, many of them in combat against both the Soviets and the Allies.
Gen. Vlasov in Soviet uniform
General Andrei Vlasov and writer Ilya Ehrenburg, 1942
Read about an attempt to create a "Vlasov's army" during the soviet invasion of Afghsnistan in "Charlie Wilson's war".
The lie of totalitarian ideology generated myths. Myths that became the truth for several generations of soviet people. Some of the myth's protagonists were used to intimidate, others were elevated to heroes' ranks, and some, particularly spright mythmakers contrived to earn, with their labors, titles, rank, and quite comfortable social goods.
But history is a scary thing, and sooner or later the truth, no matter how ugly, becomes known. Men, however, do not hurry to part company with myths. It is easier that way...
From the yellowed photograph intelligent, slightly ironic eyes look at me. The oldfashioned platter-glasses, poignantly repaired with electrician's tape, add an impression that they belong to an academician. If not for the unifrom and the general's stars in the buttonholes, one would assume tha tthe man on the photograph is a school teacher.
[...]
Thanks annalex--very interesting site and posts about Vlasov. Hopefully we'll learn all the truth (or as much as possible) about him and other previously unknown or undiscussed aspects of WWII.
Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII
by Lt. Gen Wladyslaw Anders and Antonio Munoz
http://www.feldgrau.com/rvol.html
Read the Russian article. The thrust of it is that Vlasov was, and remained, an operative of the Kremlin tasked to organize the Soviet POWs in German detention. He was declared traitor and executed following his voluntary reunion with the Red Army, because the story of his exploits fooling the Nazis was inconvenient to disclose. The article advances this as a plausible hypothesis, pointing out some holes in the official version of events.
The article also gives some background on him as a capable general who distinguished himself defending Kiev and Moscow.
The idea of Vlasov as Soviet Agent made to fool Nazis to organize Soviet POW's and then turn weapons against them is just a theory and I doubt its validity. There are plenty of wild theories in this World. Anyway, I think Vlasov played own game trying to save abandoned Soviet POW's in a way he could. I'm not idealizing him, but at least we deserve to know more about him.
"At this point, I'm not aware on a good book about Vlasov"
"Marching Toward Doom", which came out around 1970 (?) was the Vlasov story, IIRC.
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