Path of the traitor. How General Vlasov surrendered. How General Vlasov became a traitor Vlasov went over to the side of the Germans

October 18th, 2015 , 01:40 am

Here he is still a lieutenant colonel. One of many, Stalin does not yet know anything about his future favorite.

"Now hold on to the wall"

Vladimir Bogdanovich Rezun

Lieutenant General Karbyshev is considered a model of heroism and loyalty. Lieutenant General Vlasov is an example of cowardice and betrayal. Everyone, including the liberal public, which is simply too lazy to clarify this issue, even for its own propaganda purposes. No, even these people prefer to stupidly repeat late Soviet inventions. Why "late"? Because under Stalin, this name was never mentioned in any way after the announcement of the execution. Under Stalin, no one shouted about any "coward and traitor". Stalin did not agree with this assessment of his faithful and steadfast soldier. It is likely that even his agent behind enemy lines speaks quite a lot in favor of this unexpected version.

Yes, and everything doesn’t fit at all, completely heroic biography of Andrei Andreevich with concepts "coward" And "traitor".
It doesn't fit at all! Judge for yourself. I will only list the main milestones on his path as a soldier of that war before the advent of the ROA. She never took part in the battles against the USSR. On the contrary, it liberated Prague from the Germans. Until that moment, Hitler’s nerves were mostly frayed. Andrei Andreevich knew how to get on his nerves. But first, a short story about what anyone can double-check for themselves; this is no longer a secret.

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As you know, on June 22, 1941, only a few units offered adequate resistance to the invading Germans. You can list them on your fingers. For example, I can’t name a lot offhand: the 1st Anti-Tank Brigade of General Moskalenko (the future Marshal of the Soviet Union), the 16th Army of General Rokossovsky (the future too), the division of Colonel Dementyev (I won’t say about the future) and the 4th Mechanized Corps of General Vlasov near Lvov. Could the general surrender on the first day, as many did in his place? Could. But for some reason he started to make a fuss. He gave the Germans a happy life, after which he began to lead the mechanized corps out of encirclement. The Germans advanced rapidly, and similar encirclements could barely keep up with them. Specifically, Vlasov also fought with them at every opportunity. By the time the heroic 4th mechanized corps was withdrawn from encirclement (and this happened already near Kiev!), one and a half to two million had already surrendered. But for some reason Vlasov did not give up. Probably out of timidity. "I have enough courage to escape"“, Count Cagliostro’s servant Margadon boasted, but he didn’t have the courage to escape. So, and Vlasov too.

Seeing such resignation and devotion to the Master, Stalin threw himself on his neck: Andrei Andreich, save Kyiv for me! The 37th Army is in charge of this matter. The army completed its task, did not withdraw from the lines, and Vlasov again did not have the courage to succumb to the terrible German onslaught. Then came the all-clear and a general belated order to retreat - the Germans were closing the encirclement east of Kyiv, creating the famous Kiev cauldron - the greatest encirclement in history. Only Vlasov did not leave (he finally wanted to give up!), and therefore did not end up in the general gigantic environment, but ended up in his own, personal one. Now, that’s where he should give up! But no, the courage again left the pathologically cowardly general, and he again, like an infection, led the 37th out of encirclement. Of course, with battles, annoying the Germans in every possible way, but with minimal losses, which was especially noted at the same time. It was from that moment that the soldier’s legend about the new great commander began to take shape.

Stalin, again, was on his neck... But, seeing the condition of the army commander, he put him in the hospital, and ordered the doctors to work a miracle. Otherwise, they say, Lavrenty will deal with the enemies of the people. The forced doctors performed a miracle. But Moscow is not waiting - things are bad near Moscow. Absolutely a nightmare! The undertreated Vlasov received a simple order: save Moscow. “Andrey Andreich, I don’t even shout, I ask you like a brother, dear, save me Maskva!”."Unshot" He first carried out the order - he stopped Model in Krasnaya Polyana (30 km from the Kremlin), and then, during the December counter-offensive, he exceeded it, driving the German farthest beyond the Lama River. It has nothing to do with married lamas, it has nothing to do with the city of Volokolamsk. Look at the map.

Since then it was Vlasov "for some reason" began to bear the title "Savior of Moscow", and this despite the fact that their saviors, even officially, were nine pieces. And the names are increasingly legendary! However, not Lelyushenko, not Govorov, not GRU chief Golikov, not Rokossovsky (!) and not even "myself" Zhukov, and for some reason Vlasov is considered the savior of Moscow, and home-made soldiers’ songs are already being written about him. And the proud term has already gone for a walk: "We are Vlasovites!" An analogue of the then Airborne Forces and Marine Corps combined: “Nobody but us!”, “Where we are, there is victory!”. Elite of the Red Army. Vlasovites. Guard!

Stalin's order to the pest doctors is brief: I have to finish treating the great commander! The pests got scared and managed. After the hospital, Vlasov had a new simple super task - to break the blockade of Leningrad. For this purpose, he is sent as Meretskov’s deputy (an amazing figure!) to the Volkhov Front. Trouble is already brewing there - the 2nd strike force is almost surrounded. A whole group of experts, led by the deputy front commander, is sent to the army to decide what to do. They come to the conclusion that the army is screwed. In this regard, Vlasov sends everyone back, but he himself remains with the doomed army. He is a specialist in getting out of encirclements. And he was always looking for opportunities to surrender gracefully to the enemy.

His latest self-will is immediately approved by Zhukov. He gives Stalin an idea: to save the 2nd Shock, a genius is needed, no less! Stalin has a genius, and he is already in place, Zhukov’s proposal is approved, Vlasov is appointed commander, despite the fact that he remains Meretskov’s deputy. Right now he will withdraw the army cleanly again, and then immediately begin his main responsibilities - liberation "Cities of Lenin".

The Germans are tightly closing the ring. The Second Shock is starting to get into trouble, everyone knows about it. The bark from the trees was gnawed, all the belts and boots were welded. The birds flew in and immediately flew away. Who made it and not a penguin. Even spider beetles are afraid to crawl into Myasnoy Bor - the Red Army soldiers will eat them like the Papuans. At some point, it seemed to Stalin that he was about to lose his brilliant commander, or that he was about to fulfill his cherished dream and surrender with a calm soul. And he’ll sell everyone out like Blotter. Wow, wolf!

Therefore, a U-2 plane urgently sends for him. But at the wheel of that plane was not some lieutenant, but an experienced pilot with "sleepers", with a package, with orders, with powers, "The monster yawns and barks". Let it be Major Bulochkin himself, I’m shielding! He is not married, "he - ha-ha! on his U-2!.." and the archangel flew in for General Vlasov. He pressed and pressed on his throat, but did not squeeze it out. He threatened with authority to immediately shoot the scoundrel general for refusing to carry out the order to evacuate - it did not help. Vlasov really wanted to finally surrender to the enemy. Well, very much! Therefore, instead of himself, he put a wounded captain-military doctor (she is still alive and testifying) on ​​the plane with Major Bulochkin and promised to shoot the fool-flyer, since he, anyway, is not carrying her and there is no use from him. And he wrote a note of apology to Stalin: "True commanders do not abandon their armies". He’s already started to get cocky, the ungrateful rude guy.

This is where the heroic part ends and it’s time for awesome stories!

When they talk about the glorious deeds of the Soviet troops under the walls of Moscow in the winter of 1941-1942, they immediately focus on the fact that at the beginning of the war everything was wrong with the Red Army. And then little by little the commanders and soldiers began to gain their senses. And when the Great Patriotic War rumbled, at lectures at the military academy they began to tell that for the first time military reconnaissance was properly organized in the bloody offensive battles on the Lama River in January 1942.

On the same Lama River in January 1942, engineering support for offensive operations was first properly organized. And again, it was on the Lama River in January 1942 that logistics support for troops during offensive operations was first properly organized. Air defense of the troops was also properly organized for the first time on the Lama River in the same ill-fated January 1942.

Do you know where the planning of troop combat operations and operational camouflage were first properly organized? I can tell you - on the Lama River. And when? In January 1942. If you don’t believe me, then open the Military Historical Journal No. 1, page 13, 1972.

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

But here is the testimony of Marshal of Artillery Peredelsky: “The organization of an artillery offensive in the form provided for by the directive began with the offensive of the 20th Army on the Lama River in January 1942.”

Finally, the army was named. This is the 20th Army of the Western Front. And who commanded her? All names are in the Soviet Military Encyclopedia. Open volume 3, page 104 and look.

In total, 11 generals commanded the army during the war. The first 5 had the rank of lieutenant general: Remezov (June-July 1941), Kurochkin (July-August 1941), Lukin (August-September 1941), Ershakov (September-October 1941), Reiter (March-September 1942). And who commanded the army during the hardest battles for Moscow in the winter of 1941-42 from November to February?

But from the encyclopedia it turns out that during this period of time no one commanded the army? Truly, miracles happened on the Lama River. This turns out to be the essence of military success. Remove the commander, and the troops will immediately become the best. But we all know that there are no miracles in the world. The 20th Army at that time had a commander. His name was General Vlasov Andrey Andreevich (1901-1946).

It was under his leadership that the 20th Army was transferred to the Western Front and concentrated north of Moscow. In December 1941, as part of the troops of the right wing of the front, she took part in the Klin-Solnechnogorsk offensive operation. In cooperation with the 16th, 30th and 1st shock armies, she defeated the enemy’s 3rd and 4th tank groups, throwing them westward 90-100 km, to the line of the Lama and Ruza rivers. At the same time, a large number of settlements were liberated, including Volokolamsk.

In January 1942, the 20th Army, with a strike on Volokolamsk-Shakhovskaya, broke through the enemy defenses at the turn of the Lama River and, pursuing the retreating German troops, by the end of January reached the area northeast of Gzhatsk.

For the battles on the Lama River, Andrei Andreevich received the next rank of lieutenant general and the highest state award, the Order of Lenin. The armies of Rokossovsky and Govorov operated next to him. Both of them later became Marshals of the Soviet Union. However, neither Rokossovsky nor Govorov were used as an example. They fought very well, but they used Vlasov as an example, because he fought well. He was one of the most talented commanders of the Red Army. They even wrote songs about him:

The guns roared loudly
The thunder of war raged
General Comrade Vlasov
He gave the Germans some pepper!

And then fate turned out in such a way that they ordered to forget this name and cross it off from all lists. They crossed it out, and we, opening the official military reference books, are perplexed why the 20th Army did not have a commander during the most difficult and bloody time for the country.

Brief biography of General Vlasov

Before the Great Patriotic War

Andrei Andreevich was born on September 14, 1901 in the village of Lomakino on the Piany River. This is the Nizhny Novgorod province. He was the 13th and youngest child in the family. He studied at the theological seminary in Nizhny Novgorod. After the revolution of 1917, he began to study to become an agronomist. In 1919 he was drafted into the Red Army.

He completed a 4-month commander's course and fought on the Southern Front. Participated in hostilities against Wrangel. In 1920, he took part in the liquidation of the rebel movement of Nestor Makhno. Since 1922, he held staff and command positions. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Command Courses. In 1930 he became a member of the CPSU (b). In 1935 he became a student at the Military Academy. Frunze.

Since 1937 regiment commander. In 1938 he became assistant commander of the 72nd Infantry Division. Since the fall of 1938, he has been working in China as a military adviser. In 1939 he served as chief military adviser.

In January 1940, Andrei Andreevich was awarded the rank of major general. He was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division, stationed in the Kiev Military District. At the end of the same year, she was recognized as the best in the area. For this, the young general was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. In January 1941, Andrei Andreevich was appointed commander of the 4th mechanized corps stationed near Lvov.

First year of the Great Patriotic War

Since June 22, 1941, the major general took part in hostilities in Ukraine. At first he commanded the 4th Mechanized Corps, and then the 37th Army. He took part in the battles for Kyiv. He escaped from encirclement, making his way to the east as part of scattered military formations. During the fighting he was wounded and ended up in the hospital.

In November 1941, he was put in charge of the 20th Army, which became part of the Western Front. In the battles for Moscow he showed the greatest strategic and tactical skill. He made a significant contribution to the defeat of the central group of German troops. At the end of January 1942, he received the military rank of lieutenant general. Became widely popular among the troops. Behind his back he was called the “savior of Moscow.”

Major General Vlasov while fighting for Moscow

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

The position of the army was very difficult. It was deeply wedged into the disposition of German troops advancing on Leningrad. But it did not have the strength for further offensive operations. The army had to be withdrawn urgently, otherwise it could be surrounded.

But the command at first did not want to give the order to retreat, and then, when the Germans cut all communications, it was too late. Officers and soldiers found themselves in a German cauldron. This was blamed on the commander of the Leningrad Front, Khozin, who did not comply with the Headquarters directive on the withdrawal of the army of May 21, 1942. He was removed from his post and transferred to the Western Front with a demotion.

The forces of the Volkhov Front created a narrow corridor through which individual units of the 2nd Army managed to reach their own. But on June 25, the corridor was liquidated by the Germans. A plane was sent for Andrei Andreevich, but he refused to abandon the remnants of his military units, because he believed that he bore full responsibility for the people.

Very soon the ammunition ran out and famine began. The army ceased to exist. They tried to get out of the encirclement in small groups. On July 11, 1942, the commander was arrested in one of the villages where he went to ask for food. At first, Andrei Andreevich tried to pass himself off as a refugee, but the Germans quickly identified him, because portraits of the popular commander were published in all Soviet newspapers.

In German captivity

The captured Russian general was sent to a prisoner of war camp near Vinnitsa. The highest command staff of the Red Army was kept there. The war dragged on, so the Germans offered cooperation to all captured officers and generals. Such an offer was also made to Andrei Andreevich.

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

In principle, the idea was great. In the first 2 weeks of fighting in 1941, the entire personnel of the Red Army was captured. There were 5 million professional soldiers in German camps. If this entire mass of people had been thrown against the Soviet troops, the course of military operations could have changed radically.

With comrades from the ROA

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

Only organizational issues were resolved. In the spring of 1943, an army headquarters was formed, because what would an army be without a headquarters. Fyodor Ivanovich Trukhin (1896-1946) became his boss. He was a professional soldier of the Red Army and was captured on June 27, 1941. Then they recruited staff and appointed commanders of military units. And time passed. Soviet troops defeated the Germans on the Kursk Bulge, and a steady offensive began on all fronts.

Only at the end of November 1944 did military units begin to be formed from volunteers who wanted to fight the Stalinist regime. Propaganda work on this issue was carried out, but not on a scale and not in such a way as to attract millions of prisoners and millions of Russian emigrants to their side. Among these people there was a well-founded opinion that Hitler wanted to enslave Russia, so an alliance with him meant betrayal of the Motherland. The Germans did not convince anyone in this regard, since they did not have such directives from the top leadership of Germany.

In total, the ROA personnel by April 1945 numbered only 130 thousand people. These were fully formed military units, but they were scattered across different sectors of the front, and they fought as part of German units, although they were nominally subordinate to their commander, who was Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. In essence, he was a general without an army and could no longer demonstrate his brilliant military abilities.

In May 1945, the rapid collapse of the fascist regime began. Former Gauleiters began to frantically look for new owners. They all rushed to curry favor with the Americans and the British. Members of the ROA also began to surrender to the Western Allied forces, completely ignoring the Soviet ones.

General Vlasov and his staff also went to the American occupation zone to surrender to the commander of the 3rd US Army. It was located in the Czechoslovakian city of Pilsen. But on the way, the detachment was stopped by soldiers of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The traitor was identified, arrested and sent to front headquarters, and from there transported to Moscow.

On July 30, 1946, a closed trial began in the Vlasov case. Not only Andrei Andreevich was tried, but also his closest associates. On July 31, the verdict was read out. The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR, chaired by Ulrich, sentenced all defendants to death. The traitors were deprived of military ranks and awards, and their property was confiscated. On the night of July 31 to August 1, they were all hanged in the courtyard of Butyrka prison. The corpses of the Vlasovites were cremated. It is unknown where the ashes were distributed. But the punitive authorities had extensive experience in this matter. So it is not possible to find him.

In Soviet captivity

Why did General Vlasov become a traitor?

Why did the famous military leader and Stalin's favorite become a traitor? He could have shot himself to avoid being captured. But apparently Andrei Andreevich was not satisfied with such a simple outcome. He was an intelligent and thinking person. Most likely, he hated the regime he served.

He differed from other commanders of the Red Army in his cordiality and attention to his subordinates, and they loved and respected him. What other Soviet general could boast of this? Maybe Rokossovsky, but no one else comes to mind. So Andrei Andreevich did not look like the commander of the Red Army. His youth was spent in a well-fed, prosperous and humane Tsarist Russia. So there was something to compare the existing regime with.

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

These days, the attitude towards General Vlasov is ambiguous. Some consider him a traitor and a traitor, while others consider him a courageous man who challenged the Stalinist regime. And this regime considered the captured general extremely dangerous. All his merits were erased from people's memory, and the trial was held behind closed doors, although other traitors were tried in public.

This already indirectly indicates that Andrei Andreevich was not a traitor to the Motherland. Ulrich and his henchmen could not prove the guilt of the ROA commander, so they were tried in secret and executed in secret. And the people whom the disgraced red commander served faithfully remained in the dark.

Alexander Semashko

A tall man in round glasses has not been able to sleep for several days. The main traitor, Red Army General Andrei Vlasov, is interrogated by several NKVD investigators, replacing each other day and night for ten days. They are trying to understand how they were able to miss a traitor in their orderly ranks, devoted to the cause of Lenin and Stalin.

He had no children, he never had any emotional attachment to women, his parents died. All he had was his life. And he loved to live. His father, the churchwarden, was proud of his son.

Parental treacherous roots

Andrei Vlasov never dreamed of being a military man, but, as a literate person who graduated from a theological school, he was drafted into the ranks of Soviet commanders. He often came to his father and saw how the new government was destroying his strong family nest.

He's used to betraying

Analyzing archival documents, traces of Vlasov’s military actions on the fronts of the Civil War cannot be found. He was a typical staff “rat” who, by the will of fate, ended up at the top of the country’s command pedestal. One fact speaks about how he moved up the career ladder. Having arrived with an inspection at the 99th Infantry Division and having learned that the commander was engaged in a thorough study of the methods of action of the German troops, he immediately wrote a denunciation against him. The commander of the 99th Rifle Division, which was one of the best in the Red Army, was arrested and shot. Vlasov was appointed in his place. This behavior became the norm for him. This man was not tormented by any remorse.

First environment

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Vlasov’s army was surrounded near Kiev. The general emerges from encirclement not in the ranks of his units, but together with his girlfriend.

But Stalin forgave him for this offense. Vlasov received a new assignment - to lead the main attack near Moscow. But he is in no hurry to join the troops, citing pneumonia and poor health. According to one version, all preparations for the operation near Moscow fell on the shoulders of the most experienced staff officer Leonid Sandalov.

“Star sickness” is the second reason for betrayal

Stalin appoints Vlasov as the main winner of the Battle of Moscow.

The general begins to have “star fever.” According to reviews from his colleagues, he becomes rude, arrogant, and mercilessly curses his subordinates. Constantly boasts of his closeness to the leader. He does not obey the orders of Georgy Zhukov, who is his immediate superior. The transcript of the conversation between the two generals shows a fundamentally different attitude towards the conduct of hostilities. During the offensive near Moscow, Vlasov's units attacked the Germans along the road, where the enemy defenses were extremely strong. Zhukov, in a telephone conversation, orders Vlasov to counterattack, off-road, as Suvorov did. Vlasov refuses, citing high snow - about 60 centimeters. This argument infuriates Zhukov. He orders a new attack. Vlasov again disagrees. These disputes last more than one hour. And in the end, Vlasov finally gives in and gives the order Zhukov needs.

How Vlasov surrendered

The second shock army under the command of General Vlasov was surrounded in the Volkhov swamps and gradually lost its soldiers under the pressure of superior enemy forces. Along a narrow corridor, shot from all sides, scattered units of Soviet soldiers tried to break through to their own.

But General Vlasov did not go down this corridor of death. Through unknown paths, on July 11, 1942, Vlasov deliberately surrendered to the Germans in the village of Tukhovezhi, Leningrad Region, where the Old Believers lived.

For some time he lived in Riga, food was brought by a local policeman. He told the new owners about the strange guest. A passenger car drove up to Riga. Vlasov came out to meet them. He said something to them. The Germans saluted him and left.

The Germans were unable to accurately determine the position of the man wearing a worn jacket. But the fact that he was dressed in breeches with general stripes indicated that this bird was very important.

From the first minutes, he begins to lie to the German investigators: he introduced himself as a certain Zuev.

When German investigators began to interrogate him, he almost immediately admitted who he was. Vlasov stated that in 1937 he became one of the participants in the anti-Stalinist movement. However, at this time Vlasov was a member of the military tribunal of two districts. He always signed the execution lists of Soviet soldiers and officers convicted under various charges.

Betrayed women countless times

The general always surrounded himself with women. Officially he had one wife. Anna Voronina from her native village ruled her weak-willed husband mercilessly. They did not have children due to an unsuccessful abortion. The young military doctor Agnes Podmazenko, his second common-law wife, came out with him from encirclement near Kiev. The third, nurse Maria Voronina, was captured by the Germans while hiding with him in the village of Tukhovezhi.

All three women ended up in prison and suffered the brunt of torture and humiliation. But General Vlasov no longer cared. Agenheld Biedenberg, the widow of an influential SS man, became the general's last wife. She was the sister of Himmler's adjutant and helped her new husband in every possible way. Adolf Hitler attended their wedding on April 13, 1945.

From the editor:

Every year on May 9, our country celebrates Victory Day and pays tribute to the valiant defenders of the Fatherland - living and dead. But it turns out that not everyone who should be remembered with a kind word is remembered and known by us. The lies of totalitarian ideology have given rise to myths for many years. Myths that became truth for several generations of Soviet people. But sooner or later the truth becomes known. People, as a rule, are in no hurry to part with myths. It’s more convenient and familiar this way... Here is one of the stories about how a national hero, a favorite of the authorities, “became a traitor.” This story happened with the combat lieutenant general of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov.

Who are you, General Vlasov?

So, autumn 1941. The Germans attack Kyiv. However, they cannot take the city. The defense has been greatly strengthened. And it is headed by a forty-year-old Major General of the Red Army, commander of the 37th Army, Andrei Vlasov. A legendary figure in the army. Came all the way - from private to general. He went through the civil war, graduated from the Nizhny Novgorod theological seminary, and studied at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Friend of Mikhail Blucher. Just before the war, Andrei Vlasov, then still a colonel, was sent to China as military advisers to Chiang Kai-shek. He received the Order of the Golden Dragon and a gold watch as a reward, which aroused the envy of the entire Red Army generals. However, Vlasov was not happy for long. Upon returning home, at Almaty customs the order itself, as well as other generous gifts from Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, were confiscated by the NKVD...

Returning home, Vlasov quickly received general's stars and an appointment to the 99th Infantry Division, famous for its backwardness. A year later, in 1941, the division was recognized as the best in the Red Army and was the first among the units to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. Immediately after this, Vlasov, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense, took command of one of the four created mechanized corps. Headed by a general, he was stationed in Lvov and was practically one of the very first units of the Red Army to enter hostilities. Even Soviet historians were forced to admit that the Germans “got punched in the face for the first time,” precisely from the mechanized corps of General Vlasov.

However, the forces were unequal, and the Red Army retreated to Kyiv. It was here that Joseph Stalin, shocked by Vlasov’s courage and ability to fight, ordered the general to gather the retreating units in Kyiv, form the 37th Army and defend Kyiv.

So, Kyiv, September-August 1941. Fierce fighting is taking place near Kyiv. German troops are suffering colossal losses. In Kyiv itself... there are trams.

Nevertheless, the well-known Georgy Zhukov insists on the surrender of Kyiv to the attacking Germans. After a small intra-army “showdown,” Joseph Stalin gives the order: “Leave Kyiv.” It is unknown why Vlasov’s headquarters was the last to receive this order. History is silent about this. However, according to some as yet unconfirmed reports, this was revenge on the obstinate general. The revenge of none other than Army General Georgy Zhukov. After all, just recently, a few weeks ago, Zhukov, while inspecting the positions of the 37th Army, came to Vlasov and wanted to stay the night. Vlasov, knowing Zhukov’s character, decided to joke and offered Zhukov the best dugout, warning him about night shelling. According to eyewitnesses, the army general changed his face after these words and hastened to retreat from his position. It’s clear, said the officers present, who wants to expose their heads... On the night of September 19, practically undestroyed Kyiv was abandoned by Soviet troops.

Later, we all learned that 600,000 military personnel ended up in the “Kiev cauldron” through Zhukov’s efforts. The only one who withdrew his army from encirclement with minimal losses was “Andrei Vlasov, who did not receive the order to withdraw.”

Having been out of the Kyiv encirclement for almost a month, Vlasov caught a cold and was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of inflammation of the middle ear. However, after a telephone conversation with Stalin, the general immediately left for Moscow. The role of General Vlasov in the defense of the capital is discussed in the article “The failure of the German plan to encircle and capture Moscow” in the newspapers “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Izvestia” and “Pravda” dated December 13, 1941. Moreover, among the troops the general is called nothing less than “the savior of Moscow.” And in the “Certificate for Army Commander Comrade. Vlasov A.A.,” dated 24.2.1942 and signed by deputy. head HR Department of the NPO Personnel Directorate of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Zhukov and head. The Sector of the Personnel Administration of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) reads: “By working as a regiment commander from 1937 to 1938 and by working as a rifle division commander from 1939 to 1941, Vlasov is certified as comprehensively developed, well prepared in operational and tactical terms commander."

(Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 3, pp. 9-10.). This has never happened in the history of the Red Army: possessing only 15 tanks, General Vlasov stopped Walter Model’s tank army in the Moscow suburb of Solnechegorsk and pushed back the Germans, who were already preparing for a parade on Moscow’s Red Square, 100 kilometers away, liberating three cities... It was from which he received the nickname “the savior of Moscow.” After the battle of Moscow, the general was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.

What remains behind the Sovinformburo reports?

And everything would be just great if, after the completely mediocre operational policy of the Headquarters and the General Staff, Leningrad found itself in a ring akin to Stalingrad. And the Second Shock Army, sent to the rescue of Leningrad, was hopelessly blocked in Myasny Bor. This is where the fun begins. Stalin demanded punishment for those responsible for the current situation. And the highest military officials sitting on the General Staff really did not want to hand over their drinking buddies, the commanders of the Second Shock, to Stalin. One of them wanted to have absolute command of the front, without having any organizational abilities for this. The second, no less “skillful”, wanted to take this power away from him.

The third of these “friends,” who drove the Red Army soldiers of the Second Shock Army in front under German fire, later became the Marshal of the USSR and the Minister of Defense of the USSR. The fourth, who did not give a single clear command to the troops, imitated a nervous attack and left... to serve in the General Staff. Stalin was informed that “the group’s command needs to strengthen its leadership.” Here Stalin was reminded of General Vlasov, who was appointed commander of the Second Shock Army. Andrei Vlasov understood that he was flying to his death. As a person who went through the crucible of this war near Kiev and Moscow, he knew that the army was doomed, and no miracle would save it. Even if he himself is a miracle - General Andrei Vlasov, savior of Moscow.

One can only imagine that the military general changed his mind « Douglas », flinching from the explosions of German anti-aircraft guns, and who knows, if the German anti-aircraft gunners had been luckier, they would have shot down this « Douglas » .

Whatever grimace history would make... And now we would not have the heroically deceased Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. According to existing, I emphasize, information that has not yet been confirmed, there was a proposal against Vlasov on Stalin’s table. And the Supreme Commander-in-Chief even signed it...

Official propaganda presents further events as follows: traitor general A. Vlasov voluntarily surrendered. With all the ensuing consequences...

But few people to this day know that when the fate of the Second Shock became obvious, Stalin sent a plane for Vlasov. Of course, the general was his favorite! But Andrei Andreevich has already made his choice. And he refused to evacuate, sending the wounded on the plane. Eyewitnesses of this incident say that the general threw through his teeth « What kind of commander abandons his army to destruction? »

There are eyewitness accounts that Vlasov refused to abandon the fighters of the 2nd Shock Army who were actually dying of hunger due to the criminal mistakes of the Supreme Command and fly away to save his life. And not the Germans, but the Russians, who went through the horrors of the German and then Stalinist camps and, despite this, did not accuse Vlasov of treason. General Vlasov with a handful of fighters decided to break through to his...

Captivity

On the night of July 12, 1942, Vlasov and a handful of soldiers accompanying him went to the Old Believer village of Tukhovezhi and took refuge in a barn. And at night, the barn where the encirclement found shelter was broken into... no, not the Germans. To this day it is unknown who these people really were. According to one version, these were amateur partisans. According to another - armed local residents, led by the church warden, decided to buy the favor of the Germans at the price of the general's stars. That same night, General Andrei Vlasov and the soldiers accompanying him were handed over to regular German troops. They say that before this the general was severely beaten. Please note, your...

One of the Red Army soldiers who accompanied Vlasov then testified to SMERSHA investigators: “When we were handed over to the Germans, the technical officers, without talking, shot everyone. The general came forward and said: “Don’t shoot!” I am General Vlasov. My people are unarmed!’” That’s the whole story of the “voluntary departure into captivity.” By the way, between June and December 1941, 3.8 million Soviet troops were captured by the Germans, and in 1942, more than a million, for a total of about 5.2 million people.

Then there was a concentration camp near Vinnitsa, where senior officers of interest to the Germans - prominent commissars and generals - were kept. Much was written in the Soviet press that Vlasov, they say, chickened out, lost control of himself, and saved his life. The documents say otherwise.

Here are excerpts from official German and personal documents that ended up in SMERSH after the war. They characterize Vlasov from the point of view of another side. These are documentary evidence of Nazi leaders, whom you certainly would not suspect of sympathizing with the Soviet general, through whose efforts thousands of German soldiers were destroyed near Kiev and Moscow.

Thus, the adviser to the German embassy in Moscow, Hilger, in the protocol of the interrogation of the captured General Vlasov dated August 8, 1942. briefly described him: “He gives the impression of a strong and straightforward personality. His judgments are calm and balanced” (Archive of the Institute of Military History of the Moscow Region, no. 43, l. 57.).

Here is the opinion of General Goebbels. Having met with Vlasov on March 1, 1945, he wrote in his diary: “General Vlasov is a highly intelligent and energetic Russian military leader; he made a very deep impression on me” (Goebbels J. Latest entries. Smolensk, 1993, p. 57).

Vlasov’s attitude seems clear. Maybe the people who surrounded him in the ROA were the last scum and slackers who were just waiting for the start of the war to go over to the side of the Germans. Annette, here the documents give no reason to doubt.

...and the officers who joined him

General Vlasov's closest associates were highly professional military leaders who at various times received high awards from the Soviet government for their professional activities. Thus, Major General V.F. Malyshkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”; Major General F.I. Trukhin - the Order of the Red Banner and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”; Zhilenkov G.N., Secretary of the Rostokinsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Moscow. - Order of the Red Banner of Labor ( Military-historical magazine, 1993, N. 2, p. 9, 12.). Colonel Maltsev M. A. (ROA Major General) - commander Air Force by KONR forces, was at one time pilot-instructor the legendary Valery Chkalov (“Voice of Crimea”, 1944, N. 27. Editorial afterword).

The Chief of Staff of the VSKONR, Colonel A.G. Aldan (Neryanin), received high praise upon graduation from the General Staff Academy in 1939. The then Chief of the General Staff, Army General Shaposhnikov, called him one of the brilliant officers of the course, the only one who graduated from the Academy with excellent marks. It is difficult to imagine that they were all cowards who went to serve the Germans in order to save their own lives. Generals F. I. Trukhin, G. N. Zhilenkov, A. A. Vlasov, V. F. Malyshkin and D. E. Purchase during the signing ceremony of the KONR manifesto. Prague, November 14, 1944.

If Vlasov is innocent, then who?

By the way, if we are talking about documents, then we can remember one more. When General Vlasov ended up with the Germans, the NKVD and SMERSH, on behalf of Stalin, conducted a thorough investigation of the situation with the Second Shock Army. The results were put on the table to Stalin, who came to the conclusion: to admit the inconsistency of the accusations brought against General Vlasov for the death of the 2nd Shock Army and for his military unpreparedness. And what kind of unpreparedness could there be if the artillery did not have enough ammunition for even one salvo... The investigation from SMERSH was headed by a certain Viktor Abakumov (remember this name). Only in 1993, decades later, Soviet propaganda reported this through clenched teeth. (Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 5, pp. 31-34.).

General Vlasov - Hitler is kaput?!

Let's return to Andrey Vlasov. So did the military general calm down in German captivity? The facts speak differently. It was possible, of course, to provoke a guard into firing a burst of automatic fire, it was possible to start an uprising in the camp, kill a couple of dozen guards, flee to your own people and... end up in other camps - this time Stalin’s. It was possible to show unshakable convictions and... turn into a block of ice. But Vlasov did not experience any particular fear of the Germans. One day, the concentration camp guards who “took their breasts” decided to organize a “parade” of captured Red Army soldiers and decided to put Vlasov at the head of the column. The general refused this honor, and several “organizers” of the parade were knocked out by the general. Well, then our camp commandant arrived in time.

The general, who has always been distinguished by his originality and unconventional decisions, decided to act differently. For a whole year (!) he convinced the Germans of his loyalty. Then, in March and April 1943, Vlasov made two trips to the Smolensk and Pskov regions, and criticized ... German politics in front of large audiences, making sure that the liberation movement resonated with the people.

Noza's "shameless" speeches frightened the Nazis send him under house arrest. The first attempt ended in complete failure. The general was eager to fight, sometimes committing reckless acts.

All-seeing eye of the NKVD?

Then something happened. Soviet intelligence came out to the general. In his circle appeared a certain Melenty Zykov, who held the position of divisional commissar in the Red Army. The personality is bright and... mysterious. General, he edited two newspapers...

To this day it is not known for certain whether this man was who he said he was. Only a year ago, circumstances “surfaced” that could turn all ideas about the “case of General Vlasov” upside down. Zykov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, a journalist, worked in Central Asia, then at Izvestia with Bukharin. He married the daughter of Lenin's comrade-in-arms, People's Commissar of Education Andrei Bubnov, and was subsequently arrested in 1937. Shortly before the war he was released (!) and the army was called up to serve as a battalion commissar (!).

He was captured near Bataysk in the summer of 1942, being the commissar of an infantry division, whose numbers he never named. They met Svlasov in the Vinnitsa camp, where they kept Soviet officers of particular interest to the Wehrmacht. From there Zykov was brought to Berlin by order of Goebbels himself.

The stars and commissar insignia of Zykov, delivered to the military propaganda department, remained unbroken on his tunic. Melenty Zykov became the general's closest adviser, although he received only the rank of captain in the ROA.

There is reason to believe that Zykov was a Soviet intelligence officer. And the reasons are very compelling. Melenty Zykov was very actively in contact with senior German officers who, as it turned out, were preparing an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. For this they paid. It remains a mystery what happened on a June day in 1944 when he was called to the telephone in the village of Rasndorf. ROA captain Zykov left home, got into his car and... disappeared.

According to one version, Zykov was kidnapped by the Gestapo, who uncovered the assassination attempt on Hitler, and then shot in Sachsenhausen. A strange circumstance, Vlasov himself was not very concerned about Zykov’s disappearance, which suggests the existence of a plan for Zykov’s transition to an illegal position, that is, to return home. In addition, in 1945-46, after the arrest of Vlasov, SMERSH was very actively looking for traces of Zykov.

Yes, so actively that it seemed like they were deliberately covering their tracks. When in the mid-nineties they tried to find the criminal case of Melenty Zykov from 1937 in the FSB archives, the attempt was unsuccessful. Strange, isn't it? After all, at the same time, all of Zykov’s other documents, including the reader’s form in the library, and the registration card in the military archive, were in place.

General's family

There is one more significant circumstance that indirectly confirms Vlasov’s cooperation with Soviet intelligence. Usually, relatives of “traitors to the Motherland,” especially those occupying a social position at the level of General Vlasov, were subjected to severe repression. As a rule, they were destroyed in the Gulag.

In this situation, everything was exactly the opposite. Over the past decades, neither Soviet nor Western journalists have been able to obtain information that would shed light on the fate of the general’s family. Only recently it became clear that Vlasov’s first wife Anna Mikhailovna, arrested in 1942, after serving 5 years in a Nizhny Novgorod prison, was living and thriving in the city of Balakhna several years ago. The second wife, Agnessa Pavlovna, whom the general married in 1941, lived and worked as a doctor in the Brest regional dermatovenerological dispensary, died two years ago, and her son, who achieved a lot in this life, lives and works in Samara.

The second son, illegitimate, lives and works in St. Petersburg. At the same time, he denies any relationship with the general. He has a son growing up, very similar to his wife... His illegitimate daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren also live there. One of his grandchildren, a promising officer in the Russian Navy, has no idea who his grandfather was. So decide after this whether General Vlasov was a “traitor to the Motherland.”

Open action against Stalin

Six months after Zykov’s disappearance, on November 14, 1944, Vlasov proclaimed the manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia in Prague. Its main provisions: the overthrow of the Stalinist regime and the return to the people of the rights they won in the 1917 revolution, the conclusion of an honorable peace with Germany, the creation of a new free statehood in Russia, “approval national labor building”, “full development of international cooperation”, “elimination of forced labor”, “liquidation of collective farms”, “granting the intelligentsia the right to create freely”. The very familiar demands proclaimed by political leaders of the last two decades are not true.

Why is there treason here? KONR receives hundreds of thousands of applications from Soviet citizens in Germany to join its armed forces.

Star...

On January 28, 1945, General Vlasov took command of the Armed Forces of the KONR, which the Germans authorized at the level of three divisions, one reserve brigade, two squadrons of aviation and an officer school, a total of about 50 thousand people. At that time, these military formations were not yet sufficiently armed.

Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov and representatives of the German command inspect one of the Russian battalions as part of Army Group North, May 1943. In the foreground is a Russian non-commissioned officer (deputy platoon commander) with shoulder straps and buttonholes of the Eastern troops, introduced in August 1942.

The war was ending. The Germans were already under-generalized by Vlasova; they were saving their own skins. February 9 and April 14, 1945 were the only occasions when the Vlasovites took part in battles on the Eastern Front, forced by the Germans. In the first battle, several hundred Red Army soldiers went over to Vlasov’s side. The second one radically changes some ideas about the end of the war.

On May 6, 1945, an anti-Hitler uprising broke out in Prague... Upon the call of the rebel Czechs, Prague entered... The first division of the army of General Vlasov. She enters the battle with units of the SSivermacht armed with teeth, captures the airport, where fresh German units arrive and liberates the city. The Czechs are rejoicing. Very eminent commanders of the Soviet army are beside themselves with fury of wickedness. Of course, again it’s the upstart Vlasov!

Then strange and terrible events began. Those who yesterday begged for help come to KVlasov and ask the general... to leave Prague, since his Russian friends are unhappy. IVlasov gives the command to withdraw. However, this did not save the walkers; they were shot... by the Czechs themselves. By the way, it was not a group of impostors who asked for Vlasov’s help, but people who carried out the decision of the highest body of the Czechoslovak Republic.

...And the death of General Vlasov

But this did not save the general, Colonel General Viktor Abakumov, the head of SMERSH, gave the command to detain Vlasov. The SMERSHists took the show. On May 12, 1945, the troops of General Vlasov were squeezed between the American and Soviet troops of the southwestern Czech Republic. The “Vlasovites,” who fell into the hands of the Red Army, are shot on the spot... According to the official version, the general himself was captured and arrested by a special reconnaissance group that stopped the convoy of the first division of the ROA and SMERSH. However, there are at least four versions of how Vlasov ended up behind the Soviet troops. We already know the first one, but here is another one, compiled on the basis of eyewitness accounts. Indeed, General Vlasov was in that very ROA column.

Only he wasn’t hiding on the carpet on the floor of the Willis, as stated by Captain Yakushov, who allegedly took part in that operation. The general sat calmly in the car. And the car was not a Willys at all. Moreover, this same car was of such a size that the two-meter tall general simply could not fit inside, wrapped in a carpet... And there was no lightning attack by the scouts on the convoy. They (the scouts), dressed in full uniform, calmly waited on the side of the road for Vlasov’s car to catch up with them. When the car slowed down, the leader of the group saluted the general and invited him to get out of the car. Is this how they greet traitors?

And then the fun began. There is evidence from the military prosecutor of the tank division to which Andrei Vlasov was taken. This man was the first to meet the general after his arrival at the location of the Soviet troops. He claims that the general was dressed in... a general's uniform of the Red Army (old style), with insignia and orders. The stunned lawyer could not find anything better than to ask the general to produce documents. This is what he did, showing the prosecutor the pay book of the commanding staff of the Red Army, the identity card of the Red Army general No. 431 dated 02.13.41. and party card of a member of the CPSU (b) No. 2123998 - everything is in the name of Andrey Andreevich Vlasov...

Moreover, the prosecutor claims that the day before Vlasov’s arrival, an unimaginable number of army commanders came to the division, who did not even think of showing any hostility or hostility towards the general. Moreover, a joint lunch was organized.

On the same day, the general was transported to Moscow by transport plane. I wonder if this is how traitors are greeted?

Very little is known further. Vlasov is located in Lefortovo. “Prisoner No. 32” was the name of the general in prison. This prison belongs to SMERSH, and no one, not even Beria and Stalin, has the right to enter there. They didn’t come in - Viktor Abakumov knew his business well. Why then I paid, but that was later. The investigation lasted more than a year. Stalin, or maybe not Stalin at all, thought about what to do as a sleepy general. Elevate the rank of a national hero? It’s impossible: the military general did not sit quietly, he spoke a lot. Retired NKVD officers claim that they bargained with Andrei Vlasov for a long time: repent, they say, before the people and the leader. Admit mistakes. And they will forgive. May be…

They say that it was then that Vlasov met with Melenty Zykov again...

But the general was consistent in his actions, as when he did not leave the soldiers of the Second Shock to die, as when he did not abandon his ROA in the Czech Republic. Lieutenant General The Red Army, holder of the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner of Battle, made his last choice...

August 2, 1946 official TASS message published in all central newspapers: August 1, 1946 lieutenant general The Red Army A. A. Vlasov and his 11 comrades were hanged. Stalin was cruel to the end. After all, there is no death more shameful for officers than the gallows. Here are their names: Major General of the Red Army Malyshkin V. F., Zhilenkov G. N., Major General of the Red Army Trukhin F. I, Major General of the Red Army Zakutny D. E, Major General of the Red Army Blagoveshchensky I. A, Colonel of the Red Army Meandrov M. A, Colonel of the USSR Air Force Maltsev M. A, Colonel of the Red Army Bunyachenko S. K, Colonel of the Red Army Zverev G. A, Major General of the Red Army Korbukov V. D. and Lieutenant Colonel of the Red Army Shatov N. S. It is unknown where the bodies of the officers were buried. SMERSH knew how to keep its secrets.

Forgive us, Andrey Andreevich!

Was Andrei Vlasov a Soviet intelligence officer? There is no direct evidence of this. Moreover, there are no documents indicating this. But there are facts that are very difficult to argue with.

The main one among them is this. It is no longer a big secret that in 1942 Joseph Stalin, despite all the successes of the Red Army near Moscow, wanted to conclude a separate peace with Germany and stop the war. Having given up Ukraine, Moldova, Crimea...

There is even evidence that Lavrenty Beria “ventilated the situation” on this issue.

IVlasov was an excellent candidate to conduct these negotiations. Why? To do this, you need to look at the pre-war career of Andrei Vlasov. You can come to some startling conclusions. Back in 1937, Colonel Vlasov was appointed head of the Second Department of the Leningrad Military District headquarters. Translated into civilian language, this means that the brave Colonel Vlasov was responsible for all the security work of the district. And then repressions broke out. Colonel Vlasov, who received the first pseudonym “Volkov”, was... safely sent as an adviser to the already mentioned Chiang Kai-shek... Further, if you read between the lines of the memoirs of the participants in those events, you come to the conclusion that someone else worked in China as... Colonel Volkov, a Soviet intelligence officer.

It was he, and someone else, who made friends with German diplomats, took them to restaurants, gave them vodka until they fainted, and talked for a long, long time. It is unknown, but how can an ordinary Russian colonel behave this way, knowing what is happening in his country, that people were arrested only because they were explaining to foreigners on the street how to get to the Alexander Garden. Where does Sorge go with his efforts at undercover work in Japan? All of Sorge’s female agents could not supply information comparable to that of Chiang Kai-shek’s wife, with whom the Russian colonel had a very close relationship... The seriousness of Colonel Vlasov’s work is evidenced by his personal translator in China, who claims that Volkov ordered him to shoot him at the slightest danger.

Another argument. I saw the document marked “Top Secret.” Ex. No. 1" dated 1942, in which Vsevolod Merkulov reports to Joseph Stalin on the destruction work traitor general A. Vlasova. So, Vlasov was hunted by more than 42 reconnaissance and sabotage groups with a total number of 1,600 people. Believe that in 1942 such a powerful organization as SMERSH could not “get” one general, even if he was well guarded. I don't believe. The conclusion is more than simple: Stalin, knowing full well the strength of the German intelligence services, tried in every possible way to convince the Germans of the general’s betrayal.

But the Germans turned out to be so simple. Hitler did not accept Vlasov that way. Andrei Vlasov fell in line with the anti-Hitler opposition. It is now unknown what prevented Stalin from completing the job - either the situation at the front, or the too late or unsuccessful attempt by the Naführer. IStalin had to choose between destroying Vlasov or kidnapping him. Apparently, we stopped last. But... This is the most Russian “but”. The whole point is that at the time of the general’s “transition” to the Germans in the USSR, there were already three intelligence agencies operating: the NKGB, SMERSH and the GRU of the General Staff of the Red Army. These organizations competed fiercely with each other (remember this). IVlasov, apparently, worked for the GRU. How else can one explain the fact that the general was brought to the Second Shock by Lavrentiy Beria and Kliment Voroshilov. Interesting, isn't it?

Further, the trial against Vlasov was carried out by SMERSH and did not allow anyone to be involved in this case. Even the trial took place behind closed doors, although logically, the trial of a traitor should be public and open. You need to see photographs of Vlasov in court - eyes expecting something, as if asking: “How long will it take, stop the clownery.” But Vlasov did not know about the secret services. He was executed... People present at the scene claim that the general behaved with dignity.

The scandal began the day after the execution, when Joseph Stalin saw the latest newspapers.

It turns out that SMERSH had to ask for written permission to punish from the Military Prosecutor's Office and the GRU. They asked, and they answered: “The execution will be postponed until further notice.” This letter remains in the archives to this day.

But Abakumov did not see the answer. Why did I pay? In 1946: the year Stalin personally ordered Viktor Abakumov to be arrested. They say that Stalin visited him in prison and reminded him of General Vlasov. However, these are just rumors...

By the way, in the indictment against Andrei Vlasov there is no article incriminating treason against the Motherland. Only terrorism and counter-revolutionary activities.

Later, when it became known that Vlasov had gone over to the side of the Germans, the amazed and dejected Stalin threw the following reproach to N.S. Khrushchev: “And you praised him, nominated him!” Most likely, they were talking about Vlasov’s promotion to the Volkhov Front. This is not the first time that the name Khrushchev appears in connection with Vlasov. It was Khrushchev who recommended that Stalin appoint Vlasov as commander of the 37th Army near Kiev. It was Khrushchev who was the first to meet Vlasov after the general left the encirclement near Kiev. It was Khrushchev who left us memories of Vlasov coming out “in peasant clothes and with a goat tied on a rope.”

So, on March 8, 1942, Stalin summoned Vlasov from the Svatovo station in the Voroshilovgrad region, where the headquarters of the Southwestern Front was located, and appointed him deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. Soon, the front commander, General K. A. Meretskov, sent Vlasov as his representative to the 2nd Shock Army, which was supposed to improve the situation of besieged Leningrad. Meanwhile, the 2nd Shock Army was in a critical situation, and the main responsibility for this lay with Meretskov. As Meretskov himself wrote, “I and the front headquarters overestimated the capabilities of our own troops.” It was Meretskov who drove the 2nd Shock Army into the German “sack”. Without establishing its supply, Meretskov misinformed Headquarters that “the army’s communications have been restored.”

It is Meretskov who advises Stalin to send Vlasov to save the 2nd Shock Army instead of the wounded army commander N.K. Klykov. After all, Vlasov has experience in withdrawing troops from encirclement, Meretskov explained, and no one else but Vlasov will be able to cope with this difficult task. On March 20, Vlasov arrived at the 2nd Shock Army to organize a new offensive. On April 3, near Lyuban, this offensive began and ended in complete failure. This failure led to the encirclement of the 2nd Shock Army and the surrender, under very dark circumstances, of General Vlasov.

What motives guided Vlasov when he surrendered to the Germans? Vlasov’s apologists are trying to assure us that, wandering through the Volkhov forests, seeing all the horror and all the futility of the death of the 2nd Shock Army, Vlasov understood the criminal essence of the Stalinist regime and decided to surrender. Actually, these motives for surrender were given by Vlasov himself in 1943.

Of course, you can’t get into a person’s head and you won’t recognize his thoughts. But it seems that, having written these words in the spring of 1943, already in the service of the Germans, Vlasov, as usual, was lying. In any case, there is no reason to trust these words of the former commander of the 2nd Army, since two months before his capture, before his appointment to the Volkhov Front, he described his second meeting with Stalin in a letter to his wife: “Dear and dear Alik! You still won’t believe how much happiness I have. I was once again hosted by the biggest man in the world. The conversation was conducted in the presence of his closest students. Believe me, the big man praised me in front of everyone. And now I don’t know how I can justify the trust that HE places in me...”

Of course, they will again tell us that Vlasov was “forced to write like that,” that it was a device against Soviet censorship, etc. But even if this is so, then who gave guarantees that in 1943 Vlasov once again did not “disguise himself”, this time from German “censorship”? The arguments of a person who is constantly deceiving cannot inspire any confidence.

The second explanation for the surrender of Vlasov, which his apologists offer us, is the assertion that the army commander was afraid to go out to his own people, because he understood that Stalin would immediately shoot him for the ruined army. Proving this, Vlasov’s apologists do not stop at the most incredible speculations. “His military career,” writes E. Andreeva, “no doubt came to an end, he was the commander of the 2nd Shock Army, which was defeated, and regardless of who was responsible, he will have to pay. Other commanders in similar situations were shot.”

By “other commanders” E. Andreeva means the executed generals in the case of the “Conspiracy of Heroes”, as well as in the case of General D. G. Pavlov. E. Andreeva does not say a word that the real reason for the execution of these people was not their military failures (many of them did not even have time to take part in hostilities), but the treason they were charged with in the form of organizing a conspiracy and deliberate sabotage in the troops of the Western front.

As for Vlasov, he was not guilty of the death of the 2nd Army; the main blame for this lay with Meretskov, or, in extreme cases, with the leadership of Headquarters. Vlasov could not help but know that Stalin was not at all inclined to reprisals against innocent subordinates. The best example of this is Vlasov himself, when he, in civilian clothes, emerged from encirclement near Kiev, having lost most of the army entrusted to him. As we remember, he was not only not shot or tried for this, but on the contrary, he was sent to command the 20th Army. What was the fundamental difference between Vlasov’s Kyiv encirclement and his entourage in the forests of Myasny Bor? Moreover, from the documents we see that Stalin was very worried about the fate of the Soviet generals of the 2nd Shock Army, who were surrounded. The leader ordered everything to be done to save the Soviet generals. It is characteristic that while in captivity, Vlasov boastfully declared that Stalin had sent a plane to rescue him.

Precisely to save, because no reprisals were applied to the survivors. For example, the evacuated communications chief of the 2nd Shock Army, Major General A.V. Afanasyev, not only was not subjected to any repression, but was awarded and continued to serve. In addition, Stalin was skeptical for a very long time about the very fact of Vlasov’s betrayal. The investigation into this fact lasted for a whole year. By order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR dated October 5, 1942, Vlasov was listed as missing in action, and was listed as such until April 13, 1943, when the circumstances of his betrayal were clarified and this order was canceled.

The third reason why Vlasov surrendered could be his cowardice and fear of death. It was this reason that the Soviet authorities propagated in every possible way, it was the one that was highlighted in the investigation materials, and it was cowardice that the defendant Vlasov explained his behavior at the trial. However, it must be admitted that there are no compelling reasons to consider Vlasov a coward. On the contrary, at the front he more than once demonstrated contempt for death, calmly being in the artillery shelling zone.

There is, however, another version by V.I. Filatov, that Vlasov was a secret employee of the GRU and was sent by our military intelligence to the Germans in order to prevent the emergence of a possible anti-Soviet movement. Despite all the visual appeal of this version, it has several major flaws that make it impossible. The main reason why this version is untenable is that, in the event that Vlasov was sent to the Germans to create a controlled anti-Soviet army, Stalin would have planted a time bomb under his power. The situation with Vlasov's army, even if he were a Soviet agent, would initially have been uncontrollable. Who would give guarantees that Vlasov would not play by German rules because of a hopeless situation? In the event of the creation of an anti-Soviet army, Stalin with his own hands would have created a force that threatened to add to the external war - the Civil War. Then Stalin would have become the initiator of a most dangerous adventure. Stalin was never an adventurer and would never have taken an adventure.

Thus, Filatov’s version seems to us completely untenable. We believe that it is very likely that Vlasov was sent to the Germans by Stalin’s enemies from among the Soviet Trotskyist party and military leadership, to conspire with the German generals to overthrow Stalin’s power.

Close ties between the Reichswehr generals and the Red Army existed even before Hitler came to power. The German Field Marshal General, and then the Reich President P. von Hindenburg, openly favored the army commanders I. E. Yakir and I. P. Uborevich. Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky also had the closest ties with German military circles. “Always think about this,” Tukhachevsky told the German military attaché General Koestring in 1933, “you and we, Germany and the USSR, can dictate our terms to the whole world if we are together.”

Moreover, most of the military leaders of the Red Army, who were in a confidential relationship with the German generals, were accused of the 1937 conspiracy. Tukhachevsky, in his suicide letter to Stalin, known as the “Plan for Defeat in the War,” acknowledged the existence of a conspiracy between the Soviet and German military.

German generals, conspiring with the Soviet military in 1935-37, pursued the same goal as them: Tukhachevsky and company wanted to overthrow Stalin, and German generals wanted to overthrow Hitler and the Nazis. In 1941, internal contradictions between Hitler and the German generals did not disappear. Among a large number of German generals, including the Chief of the General Staff F. Halder, there were people who believed that a further war with the USSR would be disastrous for Germany. At the same time, they believed that Hitler and the Nazis were leading the Reich to disaster. To end the war with Russia according to our own scenario, and not according to Hitler’s scenario - that was the plan of part of the German generals. Under these conditions, it was extremely necessary for the Wehrmacht generals to come to terms with part of the Soviet generals, striving for their political goals and the overthrow of Stalin.

For their part, the conspirators from among the generals of the Red Army, coming into contact with the Germans, could pursue their far-reaching goals. The conspirators could hope that the anti-Soviet army of prisoners of war created by German generals, led by their accomplice Vlasov, would be able to radically change the course of the war. Vlasov on the German side, and the conspirators on the Soviet side would have done one thing - opened a front and overthrown the Stalinist government. At the same time, both German and Soviet conspirator generals believed that Hitler would have no reason to wage war against the new outwardly anti-Soviet regime, and he would be forced to make peace with it. This peace, on the one hand, would be honorable and victorious for Germany, on the other, it would be concluded according to the scenario of the German generals and would preserve Russia as a controlled by Germany, but still a “sovereign” state. Such a state, the German General Staff believed, could become an ally of the German military in confronting Hitler.

On the other hand, the Soviet conspirators could believe that by concluding peace with Germany, they would be able, by establishing a so-called “democratic” government that would be recognized by the United States and England, to ensure for themselves full power in the country. Thus, the fifth anti-Stalinist column in the USSR, oriented toward Trotskyist circles in the West, cleared its way to power at the cost of dismembering the territory of the USSR and concluding peace with its worst enemies. What did not work out in the summer of 1937 should have happened in 1942 or 1943. In 1937, Tukhachevsky was a candidate for “dictator”; in 1942, Vlasov was supposed to become him. Vlasov had to establish contacts not only with the Germans, but also with the Western allies.

Of course, there is no direct documentary evidence of this version today. It must be remembered that all archives relating to the processes of the 30-40s are still classified and are known only in fragments. But even from these passages one can judge the scale of conspiratorial activity in the ranks of the Red Army. The version of Vlasov the conspirator is also supported by the fact that Vlasov’s main protégés from among the German military later ended up in the camp of the anti-Hitler opposition.

So, captured under very strange and unclear circumstances, the commander of the 2nd Shock Army, Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov, was taken under strong guard to Siverskaya, to the headquarters of the 18th German Army. He was immediately received by the army commander, Colonel General Georg von Lindemann. Vlasov gave Lindeman a number of important information that constituted state secrets of the USSR.

From Lindeman, Vlasov was sent to the Promenent prison camp in Vinnitsa. When we hear the word Nazi “prisoner of war camp,” we immediately rightly draw a picture of a death camp. But the camp in Vinnitsa was not like that at all. This was a special camp, subordinate directly to the High Command of the Wehrmacht Ground Forces (OKH), in which high-ranking Soviet prisoners of war were kept. By the time Vlasov arrived at the Vinnitsa camp, captured Soviet generals Ponedelin, Potapov, Karbyshev, Kirillov, as well as Stalin’s son Ya. I. Dzhugashvili, were already being held there. And this camp was led by... an American of German origin, Peterson. What a strange thing! Well, the Germans didn’t have enough normal Germans, so they started inviting American fellow tribesmen to serve? Vlasov’s apologist K. Alexandrov gives us amazing information about the camp. He writes that the camp in Vinnitsa “was under the actual control of representatives of the anti-Hitler opposition.”

In August, Vlasov had a meeting with the camp leadership, a representative of the German Foreign Ministry and intelligence representatives. What is noteworthy: Foreign Ministry Advisor Gustav Hilder, at a meeting with Vlasov, discussed the possibility of his participation in the puppet government of Russia, which was supposed to officially transfer the territories of Ukraine and the Baltic states to Germany. Let's note that a high-ranking official of the German Foreign Ministry arrives for a meeting with Vlasov, who conducts a conversation in the presence of a person from the United States! He and Vlasov had very interesting conversations about his inclusion in the Russian government! Why did it happen? Who is Vlasov to negotiate with him on this topic?

But the most interesting thing is that Hilder arrived not only to see Vlasov. At the same time, a regimental commissar, a certain I. Ya. Kernes, was in the Vinnitsa camp. Kernes voluntarily went over to the German side in June 1942 in the Kharkov region. Having been captured, Kernes turned to the German authorities with the message that he had extremely important information.

Kernes said that after the defeat of the Trotskyist-Bukharin bloc and the groups of Tukhachevsky, Egorov and Gamarnik in the USSR, their remnants united into a widely branched organization with branches both in the army and in government institutions. He, Kernes, is a member and envoy of this organization.

The information that Kernes gave the Germans about the conspiratorial organization indicated that in the USSR there was an anti-Stalinist secret organization that stood on the platform of “continuing the true teachings of Lenin, distorted by Stalin.” The organization aims to overthrow Stalin and his government, restore the NEP policy, destroy collective farms and focus its foreign policy on Nazi Germany.

When asked whether there were representatives of the “organization” in the NKVD, Kernes replied that there were even in the central apparatus, but did not name anyone.

It is curious that these provisions, which Kernes spoke about, almost exactly coincide with the “Manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia,” signed by Vlasov in November 1944.

The conditions for contact between the German side and the conspirators were agreed upon with Kernes, and it was also guaranteed that the response from the German side would be conveyed through the same Kernes. Field Marshal von Bock personally met with Kernes even before the Vinnitsa camp.

And although the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hilder, in his official report doubted the seriousness of Kernes’ powers, it is not difficult to guess that this was done with the desire to distract the tenacious eye of the Nazi leadership from the commissar. As we understand, the plans of the German generals did not include Hitler knowing about the negotiations with the Red conspirators.

As is easy to see, the same people met with Vlasov as with Kernes. It is quite possible that both of them were present at the meeting. It is also possible that they knew each other: both fought in Ukraine in 1941. After a meeting with representatives of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Intelligence, Vlasov writes the following note: “The officer corps of the Soviet Army, especially captured officers who can freely exchange thoughts, are faced with the question: in what way can Stalin’s government be overthrown and a new Russia created? All are united by the desire to overthrow Stalin's government and change the form of government. The question is: who exactly should we join - Germany, England or the United States? The main task - the overthrow of the government - suggests that one should join Germany, which has declared the fight against the existing government and regime as the goal of war. However, the question of Russia's future is unclear. This could lead to an alliance with the United States and England if Germany does not clarify this issue."

Amazing document! The Soviet general sits in German captivity, which, as we know, was not a resort, and freely discusses who post-Stalin Russia should join: the USA, England or Germany! In the end, Vlasov graciously agrees to join Germany, but warns that if the latter behaves badly, Russia may join the Western Allies! It is simply impossible to imagine that the Nazis would tolerate such antics from some “Untermensch”, a captured communist. And this is possible only in one case, if Vlasov wrote his note not for the Nazis, but for the generals opposed to the Hitler regime. Vlasov’s note is an appeal, no, not to him personally, but to the leaders of the anti-Stalin conspiracy, to the entire West hostile to the USSR. This is a call for immediate cooperation, this is evidence of readiness to oppose Stalin.

The note from Vinnitsa is the most important and most interesting document issued from the pen of Vlasov. This is not propaganda or a demagogic appeal, which he will write later. This is a proposal for cooperation with the West, a proposal coming from a person who feels strong behind him. Noteworthy are the words Vlasov said to a German officer of Russian origin and career intelligence officer, Captain V. Strik-Strikfeldt: “We decided on a big game.”

The same Strik-Strikfeldt, who supervised Vlasov, gives us an idea of ​​the essence of this “big game”. Vlasov’s curator recalled that the captive general called to follow “Lenin’s path,” that is, to take advantage of the war to “liberate the people and the country from the Bolshevik regime.” After all, during the First World War, Lenin and Trotsky helped the Germans defeat Russia and for this received power in the country. Why not now, in the name of overthrowing Stalin, not enter into an agreement with Hitler and buy peace from Germany, giving it the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine?

“Will they give us,” Vlasov asked Shtrik-Shtrikfeld, “the opportunity to field the Russian army against Stalin? Not an army of mercenaries. She must receive her assignment from the national Russian government. Only a higher idea can justify taking up arms against the government of one's country. This idea is political freedom and human rights. Let's remember the great freedom fighters in the USA - George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. In our case, only if we put universal human values ​​over nationalist values ​​is our consent to your help in the fight against the Bolshevik dictatorship justified.”

Isn’t it true, dear reader, that in our recent history we have already heard these calls for the priority of “universal human values” over “nationalist” ones; we have already been told somewhere about “human rights” and “about freedom fighters” in the USA? If you don’t know that the above words belong to the traitor to the Motherland Vlasov in 1942, then you might think that this is a speech by A. N. Yakovlev, a member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, in 1990. Apparently, in 1942, the German General Staff began a major game to actually overthrow Stalin and replace him with a Trotskyist-liberal regime. But this game was broken by Adolf Hitler.

Hitler did not like all this fuss with the “Russian liberation movement” at all. And the point here is not only Hitler’s zoological Russophobia. Hitler could not help but see that the manipulations with the “new Russian government” were started by his old enemies from the general corps. This alone could not arouse any enthusiasm in the Fuhrer. In addition, the formation of an independent Russian army threatened Nazi Germany with unpredictable consequences. Arm several hundred thousand Soviet prisoners of war with German weapons, so that they would then go over to Stalin and turn the issued weapons against Hitler?! No, Hitler was not a fool. But even if the anti-Stalinist conspiracy won, Hitler gained absolutely nothing. On the contrary, his power was again under threat. After all, then the main pretext for war disappeared - the Bolshevik threat to Europe. With the new “Russian” government, willy-nilly, peace would have to be made. And this would mean the end of all Hitler’s predatory and savage plans regarding Russian territory and the Russian people. At the same time, the new “Russian” government could easily conclude a peace treaty with the West. And then in the name of what did Hitler begin such a difficult campaign in June 1941? Not to mention the fact that such an outcome made the opposition generals a real force capable of carrying out a coup in the Reich, relying on the help of their “Russian allies.” No, Hitler did not smile at this development of events at all. And therefore he categorically refuses to not only see, but even hear about Vlasov. And Reichsführer SS G. Himmler, without hiding, calls him a “Slavic pig.” Vlasov is sent under house arrest, then released, he lives in Berlin, in good conditions, but still he remains in the position of a semi-prisoner. Vlasov was expelled from the big game and did not return to it until the end of 1944.

The plan of the Soviet and German conspirators collapsed before it began to be implemented. This was facilitated first by the successes of the German troops at Stalingrad, when it seemed that the Soviet Union was about to fall, and, starting in 1943, by the successes of the Soviet troops, when the power and authority of I.V. Stalin in the country and in the world, as the main leader of the anti-Hitler coalition , become indisputable.

Abandoned by both his fellow conspirators and the German generals, Vlasov found himself in a terrible situation. In his ambitious plans, he was supposed to become the commander-in-chief of the “new Russian army”, and perhaps even the “dictator” of Russia, but he became a German puppet, dressed in either a Russian or a German uniform. In vain Vlasov continued to rush around with the ideas of the ROA, an independent Russian government - all this, in essence, was no longer needed by anyone. Hitler did not allow the formation of independent Russian military units, allowing the formation of only SS national units with Russian symbols. Like a mannequin, Vlasov at parades raised his hand in a semi-Nazi salute addressed to “Russian” soldiers dressed in Wehrmacht uniform, like a parrot he repeated demagogic slogans about “free Russia without the Bolsheviks.”

Meanwhile, these units began to become increasingly disillusioned with the Nazis. On August 16, 1943, soldiers and officers of the 1st Russian National SS Brigade (“Druzhina”), led by former Red Army lieutenant colonel V.V. Gil-Rodionov, went over to the side of the Soviet partisans. For this transition, during which the newly minted partisans killed many Germans, Gil-Rodionov was reinstated in the army with the assignment of another military rank and, moreover, awarded the Order of the Red Star, and his unit was renamed the 1st anti-fascist partisan brigade.

But it cannot be said that Vlasov did not play any role at all in the Third Reich. According to the recollections of one of the leaders of the Abwehr, W. Schellenberg, “we entered into special agreements with General Vlasov and his headquarters, even giving him the right to create his own intelligence service in Russia.” What kind of service was this? What sources did she use? This question is still waiting for its researcher.

In the second half of 1944, the Germans again needed Vlasov in a big game. Now, however, this game was intra-German. In July 1944, almost all of Vlasov's German patrons (Field Marshal von Bock, Colonel General Lindemann, Colonel Stauffenberg and others) turned out to be indirect or direct participants in the conspiracy against Hitler. As it turns out, Vlasov and his non-existent “army” played an important role in the plans of the conspirators. Here is what Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt writes about this: “Vlasov knew quite well about the independent and active role intended by the ROA conspirators. According to their plan, immediate peace was envisaged in the west, and in the east the continuation of the war, turning it into a civil one. For this, a well-prepared and powerful Vlasov army was needed.”

That is, the German generals were preparing for Vlasov the same role: the role of the leader of a fratricidal war. And Vlasov happily agrees to this plan.

“I know,” he assures the German generals, “that even today I can win the war against Stalin. If I had an army consisting of citizens of my fatherland, I would reach Moscow and end the war by telephone, simply by talking with my comrades.”

Vlasov speaks to his accomplices in the ROA about the need to support the German conspirators.

However, in the case of the anti-Hitler conspiracy, everything is not easy for Vlasov. On July 20, 1944, Vlasov persistently sought a meeting with Reichsführer Himmler. The meeting did not take place then due to the assassination attempt on Hitler and the outbreak of a coup d'etat, which was suppressed by J. Goebbels and the SS apparatus. What did Vlasov want to tell Himmler? It’s difficult to say about this now, but it is known that after the failure of the July 20 plot, Vlasov demonstratively turns away from his yesterday’s allies - the generals who turned out to be conspirators. This unscrupulousness of Vlasov amazed even Shtrik-Shtrikfeld. When the latter, in a conversation with Vlasov, called Stauffenberg and other rebels “our friends,” Vlasov sharply interrupted him: “They don’t talk about such dead people as friends. They are not known."

After the failure of the conspiracy, Vlasov realized that the work of the generals was over and the only real force in Germany was the NSDAP, and more specifically, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, whose power and capabilities increased incredibly after the failure of the putsch. Vlasov again hurries to see “Black Henry” and asks for a meeting. Such a meeting took place on September 16, 1944. It is curious that the meeting between Vlasov and Himmler took place behind closed doors, one on one. The result of this meeting with Himmler was the recognition of Vlasov as an “ally” of the Reich and commander-in-chief of the ROA. On November 14, 1944, the founding meeting of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) was solemnly held in Prague, which addressed the people of Russia with a “manifesto”. Vlasov was elected Chairman of the Committee.

Meanwhile, the agony of Hitler's Germany began. The Thousand-Year Reich collapsed under the blows of the Red Army.

Once again Vlasov is trying to change owners. He betrays the Germans and stabs them in the back in Prague in May 1945. However, he cannot stay there for long - the Red Army is approaching Prague.

Vlasov runs to the Americans, who seem to agree to accept his services. But the Americans do not tell Vlasov that they already had an agreement with the USSR on the extradition of Vlasov and his associates. Having tricked the ROA commander into allegedly going to the American headquarters as part of a tank column, the Americans took Vlasov exactly the opposite - to the SMERSH capture group.

On this, in fact, Vlasov’s life ended. This life was terrible and black. Vlasov betrayed everyone and everything all his life. The Church, to whose service I wanted to devote my life, Stalin, to whom I swore allegiance and “admired”, the Motherland, to which I owed everything, the soldiers and commanders of the 2nd Shock Army, from whom I ran away, my patrons, German generals, new patrons - Himmler and the SS . Vlasov betrayed his wives, betrayed his mistresses, betrayed leaders, generals and soldiers. Betrayal became the norm of life for him, defined by its internal content. The result of such a life could be one - a rope around the neck in the Lefortovo internal prison.

But the investigation and trial of traitors to the Motherland Vlasov and his accomplices were closed. The protocols of these interrogations have not yet been fully declassified. Therefore, it remains a mystery who stood behind Vlasov in the tragic days of 1942?

Concluding our article about Vlasov, let’s say the following. It looks to the present and future rather than to the past. There, in the past, everything was put in its place long ago. Loyalty was called Loyalty, Valor - Valor, cowardice - cowardice, treason - treason. But today there are extremely dangerous tendencies to call treason Valor and cowardice Heroism. The Vlasovs gained hundreds of admirers, apologists who mourned their “martyrdom.” Such people are doing a criminal thing; they insult the Holy Memory of our soldiers, the true martyrs who died during the Great Patriotic War for the Faith and the Fatherland.

Once upon a time, back in 1942, Vlasov enthusiastically read the book “Grozny and Kurbsky”, more than once admiring the words and actions of Andrei Kurbsky. He managed to continue the work of his idol. Well, Vlasov and others like him will find a “worthy” place in the shameful row of traitors and traitors to Russia.