Cossacks in the Wehrmacht under the Swastika flag, 1942, southwestern Russia

A large number of Soviet citizens of various ethnicities collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II. It is estimated that the number of Soviet collaborators with the Nazi German military was around 1 million.

Aftermath of the German invasion

The St. Andrew's Flag, used by Russian Liberation Army and the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia

Mass collaboration ensued after the German invasion of the Soviet Union of 1941, Operation Barbarossa.[1] The two main forms of mass collaboration in the Nazi-occupied territories were both military in nature. It is estimated that anywhere between 600,000 and 1,400,000 Soviets (Russians and non-Russians) joined the Wehrmacht forces as Hiwis (or Hilfswillige) in the initial stages of Barbarossa, including 275,000 to 350,000 "Muslim and Caucasian" volunteers and conscripts,[2] ahead of the subsequent implementation of the more oppressive administrative methods by the SS. As much as 20% of the German manpower in Soviet Russia was composed of former Soviet citizens, about half of whom were ethnic Russians.[3][better source needed] The Ukrainian collaborationist forces comprised an estimated 180,000 volunteers serving with units scattered all over Europe.[4] The second type of mass collaboration was the formation of indigenous security formations (majority ethnic Russian) running into hundreds of thousands and possibly more than 1 million (250,000 volunteers in the East Legions alone). Military collaboration – wrote Alex Alexiev – took place in truly unprecedented numbers suggesting that, more often than not, the Germans were perceived at first as the lesser of two evils compared to the USSR by the non-Russian citizens of the Soviet Union.[5]

In the autumn of 1941, Field Marshal von Bock had sent to Hitler's Headquarters a detailed project for the organization of a Liberation Army of some 200,000 Russian volunteers, and for the formation of a local government in the province of Smolensk. It was returned in November 1941 with the notation that "such thoughts cannot be discussed with the Führer," and that "politics are not the prerogatives of Army Group Commanders." Of course, Field-Marshal Keitel, who wrote this notation, did not show the project to Hitler.[6]

Russian collaborationism

Russian collaborationist groups

RONA and Lokot Autonomy

Flag of RONA, Lokot Republic and National Socialist Party of Russia [pl; ru; uk]

Main articles: Kaminski Brigade and Lokot Autonomy

The Russian Liberation People's Army (Русская освободительная национальная армия, РОНА; in Latin, RONA), later reformed as SS Sturmbrigade "RONA" and nicknamed the "Kaminski Brigade" after its commander, SS-Brigadefuhrer Bronislav Kaminski, was a collaborationist force originally formed from a Nazi-led militia unit in the "Lokot Republic" (Lokot Autonomy), a small puppet regime set up by the Germans to see if a Russian puppet government would be reliable. Kaminski and the leader of the government and the founder of "National Socialist Party of Russia [pl; ru; uk]", Konstantin Voskoboinik, killed by partisans in 1942, formed a unit that had a strength of 10,000—15,000. As the Red Army advanced, the Kaminski troops were forced to retreat into Belarus, and then into Poland in 1944. There, the RONA was reorganized into an SS brigade, the majority of whom were Russians, with the rest comprising other Soviet ethnicities including Ukrainians, Belarusians and Azerbaijanis.[8] In August, 1,700 brigade troops under Major Yuri Frolov were sent to Warsaw to quell an uprising. During it, the RONA troops became infamous for their atrocities, committing murder, rape, and theft. Some were reported to have left the combat zone with carts full of stolen goods. About 400 soldiers were lost in combat, including Frolov.

At the end of August, Bronislav Kaminski was killed. His death was surrounded with mystery as, while official records state that he was killed by Polish partisans, it is believed that Kaminski was executed by the SS. The reasons are thought to be his unit's war crimes and/or now that Heinrich Himmler supported the Russian Liberation Army of General Andrey Vlasov, he wanted to eliminate a potential rival. The rest of the brigade was reformed into the 29th SS Waffen Grenadier Division "RONA", which was disbanded in November 1944. Its remaining 3,000–4,000 members were sent to join Vlasov's army.[9]

Ukrainian collaborationism

Main article: Ukrainian collaboration with Nazi Germany
Ukrainian Liberation Army oath to Adolf Hitler

Political formations

Ukrainian police and military formations

German-Ukrainian parade in Stanislaviv, 1941

Belarusian collaborationism

Main article: Byelorussian collaboration with Nazi Germany

Generalbezirk Weißruthenien

Other

Main article: Ostlegionen

Cossacks

Eastern Europe and Asia

See also

References

  1. ^ Edele, Mark (2017). Stalin's Defectors: How Red Army Soldiers Became Hitler's Collaborators, 1941-1945. Oxford University Press. p. 126. ISBN 978-0198798156.
  2. ^ Audrey L. Alstadt (2013). "The Azerbaijani Turks: Power and Identity under Russian Rule". p. 187. ISBN 9780817991838
  3. ^ "Operation 'Barbarossa' And Germany's Failure In The Soviet Union". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved 2022-09-14.
  4. ^ Carlos Caballero Jurado (1983). Foreign Volunteers of the Wehrmacht 1941-45. Translated by Alfredo Campello, David List. Osprey. p. 29. ISBN 0850455243.
  5. ^ Director of the Net Assessment, Office of the Secretary of Defense (1982). Soviet Nationalities in German Wartime Strategy, 1941–1945 (PDF file, direct download). The Rand Publications Series. pp. vi, 26–27, 34. ISBN 0833004247. Retrieved 15 July 2014. ((cite book)): |work= ignored (help)
  6. ^ Lt. Gen Wladyslaw Anders and Antonio Munoz. "Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII". Feldgrau.com. Retrieved 15 July 2014. Source: Wen Sie Verderben Wollen [Gebundene Ausgabe] by Jürgen Thorwald, pp. 82-83. ASIN: B0000BOL08.
  7. ^ Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement. Cambridge University Press, 1987, 370 pp., 1-87012871
  8. ^ Drobyazko, S.; Karashchuk, A. (2001). Восточные легионы и казачьи части в Вермахте [Eastern legions and Cossack units in the Wehrmacht] (in Russian). Moscow. pp. 3–4.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ "RONA Brigade, Warsaw Uprising". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2014-06-14.
  10. ^ "The OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists)" (PDF). CIA. p. 2.
  11. ^ "10 myths about the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA): who and why stigmatized UPA members as "the Nazi henchmen"". uacrisis.org. 10 May 2017.

Further reading

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