The ROA did not
officially exist until autumn of 1944, after Heinrich Himmler persuaded
a very reluctant Hitler to permit the formation of 10 Russian
Liberation Army divisions. There was no united
center for the Russian liberation movement until on 14 November in
Prague, Vlasov read aloud the Prague Manifesto before the newly created
Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. This document
stated the purposes of the battle against Stalin, and spelled out 14
democratic points which the army was fighting for. This movement, led
by General
Vlasov, received a surprising groundswell of support amidst white
emigres, Soviet Eastern workers, and POW's, despite the apparent
futility of the situation (Nazi Germany was already fighting on its own
soil when the first Russian liberation units were ready for
deployment).
Several armed groups who had been fighting already, such as the Russian
Corps of General Boris Shteifon, the "Battle Group" of white General
Tourkoul, and the Cossacks of Ataman Helmuth von Pannwitz submitted
themselves to the committee's command, although the turn of events
prevented them from ever being de facto incorporated into the Russian
Liberation Army. Others, such as General Pyotr Krasnov and several
Ukrainian armed groups refused to submit to Vlasov and denounced him
publicly.
While the Committee was formed with a considerable amount of gusto and
enthusiasm, the end of the war was imminent and the Allies were now the
movement's only hope for salvation.
Vlasov's only combat against the Red Army took place on February 11,
1945, on the river Oder. After three days of battle against
overwhelming forces, the First Division of the ROA was forced to
retreat and marched southward to Prague, in German-controlled Bohemia.
On May 6, 1945, Vlasov received a request from the commander of the
first ROA division, General Sergei Bunyachenko, for permission to turn
his weapons against the Nazi SS forces and aid Czech resistance
fighters in the Prague uprising. Vlasov at first disapproved, then
reluctantly allowed Bunyachenko to proceed. Some historians maintain it
was the bitterness of the ROA against the Germans which caused them to
switch sides once again, while other historians believe the sole
purpose of this action was to win favor from the western Allies and
possibly even the Soviet side, in the light of the nearly completed
military annihilation of the German Reich.
Two days later, the first division was forced to leave Prague as
communist Czech partisans began arresting ROA soldiers in order to hand
them over to the Soviets for execution.
Vlasov and the rest of his forces, trying to evade the overpowering Red
Army and wishing to preserve their ranks for a future war of
liberation, attempted to head west to surrender to the Allies in the
closing days of the war in Europe. On May 10, 1945, Vlasov and his men
reached western Allied forces and surrendered to them.
Final days
Vlasov was taken into American captivity and held in a city in Tirol.
He and his generals continued talks with the British and the Americans,
explaining the principles of their liberation movement and trying to
persuade the western Allies to grant asylum to its participants.
However, Vlasov–along with many of his men and other Nazi
collaborators–was forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org
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