Russian Liberation Army

The Russian Liberation Army (Russian: Russkaya

osvoboditel'naya armiya, , abbreviated in Cyrillic as , in Latin as ROA,
also known as the Vlasov army) was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German
high command during World War II.

Army's strength were Soviet citizens. Soon, several German commanders began forming small armed units out
of them for various tasks, including combat against Soviet
partisans, driving vehicles, carrying wounded, and delivering supplies.[2]
Adolf Hitler allowed the idea of the Russian Liberation
Army to circulate in propaganda literature so long as
no real formations of the sort were permitted. As a result, some Red Army soldiers surrendered or defected in
hopes of joining an army that did not yet exist. Many Soviet prisoners of war volunteered to serve under the German command just in order to get out from Nazi POW
camps which were notorious for starving Soviet prisoners
to death.

The ROA was organized by former Red Army general

Andrey Vlasov, who tried to unite anti-communist Russians opposed to the communist regime in the Soviet
Union. The volunteers were mostly Soviet prisoners of
war but also included White Russian migrs (some of
whom were veterans of the anticommunist White Army
during the Russian Civil War). On 14 November 1944 it
was ocially renamed the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia
(VS-KONR). On 28 January 1945, it was ocially declared that the Russian divisions no longer formed part
of the German Army, but would directly be under the
command of KONR.[1]

Meanwhile the newly captured Soviet general Andrei Andreevich Vlasov, along with his German and Russian
allies, was desperately lobbying the German high command, hoping that a green light would be given for the
formation of a real armed force that would be exclusively
under Russian control.
Hitlers sta repeatedly rejected these appeals with hostility, refusing to even consider them. Still, Vlasov and his
allies reasoned that Hitler would eventually come to realize the futility of a war against the USSR with the hostility
of the Russian people and respond to Vlasovs demands.

Origins

Irrespective of the political wrangling over Vlasov and the

status of the ROA, the reality by mid-1943 was several
hundred thousand ex-Soviet volunteers were serving in
the German forces, either as Hiwis or in Eastern volunteer units (referred to as Osteinheiten or landeseigene Verbnde). These latter were generally deployed in a security role in the rear areas of the armies and army groups
in the East, where they constituted a major part of the
German capacity to counter the activity of Soviet partisan forces, dating as far back as early 1942. The Germans
were, however, always concerned about their reliability,
and with the German setbacks in the summer of 1943 this
situation took a turn for the worse. On 12 September for
example, 2nd Army had to withdraw Sturm-Btl. AOK 2
in order to deal with what is described as several mutinies and desertions of Eastern units. A 14 September
communication from the army states that in the recent
period, Hiwi absenteeism had risen strongly.[3] Following
a series of mutinies attempted or successful and a surge
in desertions,[4] they decided in September 1942 that the
reliability of these units had fallen to levels where they
were more a liability than an asset. In an October 1943
report, 8th Army concluded grimly: All local volunteers

Recruiting, 1944.

Russian volunteers who enlisted into the German Army

(Wehrmacht Heer) wore the patch of the Russian Liberation Army, an army which did not yet exist but was presented as a reality by Nazi propaganda. These volunteers
(called Hiwi, an acronym for Hilfswilliger, roughly meaning volunteers) were not under any Russian command
or control; they were exclusively under German command
carrying out various noncombat duties. A number of
them were employed at the Battle of Stalingrad, where
it was estimated that as much as one quarter of the 6th
1

FORMATION OF ROA AND THE FIGHT AGAINST RED ARMY

are unreliable during enemy contact. Principal reason of

unreliability is the employment of these volunteers in the
East.[5] Two days previously, army had recorded in the
KTB stern measures to be taken in the event of further
cases of rebellion or unreliability, investing in regimental
commanders far-reaching powers to perform summary
courts and execute the verdicts.
Since it was considered that it would improve their reliability if they were removed from contact with the local
population, it was decided to send them to the West,[6]
which the majority of them were in late 1943 and early
1944.[7]
A large number of these battalions were hence integrated
into the Divisions in the West. A number of such soldiers were on guard in Normandy on D-Day, and without the equipment or the motivation to ght the Allies,
most promptly surrendered. There were instances of bitter ghting to the very end, triggered by mishandled propaganda from the Allies that accurately told of the quick
repatriation of soldiers back to the Soviet Union after they
gave up.

ROA troops with shoulder patches visible, 1944.

divisions.

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 ghting for.
A total of 71 Eastern battalions served on the Eastern German insistence that the document carry anti-Semitic
Front, while 42 battalions served in Belgium, Finland, rhetoric was successfully parried by Vlasovs committee;
France, and Italy.
however, they were obliged to include a statement critiAn aerial component from Russian volunteers was cising the Western Allies, labelling them "plutocracies"
formed as Ostiegerstael (russische) in December 1943, that were allies of Stalin in his conquest of Europe.
only to be disbanded before seeing combat in July 1944. By February 1945, only one division, the 1st Infantry
The Russian airmen were regrouped into the Night Ha- (600th Infantry) was fully formed, under the command
rassment Squadron 8, whose rst and only mission took of General Sergei Bunyachenko. Formed at Mnsingen,
place on 13 April 1945, when they attacked a Soviet it fought briey on the Oder Front before switching sides
bridgehead at Erlenhof, on the Oder River.
and helping the Czechs liberate Prague.

Formation of ROA and the ght

against Red Army

A second division, the 2nd Infantry (650th Infantry),

was incomplete when it left Lager Heuberg but was put
into action under the command of General Mikhail Meandrov. This division was joined in large numbers by
eastern workers which caused it to nearly double in size
as it headed on its march south. A third, the 3rd Infantry
(700th German Infantry), only began formation.
Several other Russian units, such as the Russian Corps,
XVth SS Cossack Cavalry Corps of General Helmuth von
Pannwitz, the Cossack Camp of Ataman Domanov, and
other primarily White migr formations had agreed to
become a part of Vlasovs army. However, their membership remained de jure as the turn of events did not
permit Vlasov to use these men in any operation (even
reliable communications were often impossible).

A small group of ROA volunteers fought against the Red

Army on 9 February 1945. Their ghting vigor gained
them the praise of Heinrich Himmler.[8] The only active
combat the Russian Liberation Army undertook against
Vlasov speaking to Russian ROA volunteers near Dabendorf, Au- the Red Army was by the Oder on 11 April 1945, done
tumn 1944.
largely at the insistence of Himmler as a test of the armys
The ROA did not ocially exist until autumn of 1944, reliability. After three days, the outnumbered 1st Diviafter Heinrich Himmler persuaded a very reluctant Hitler sion had to retreat.
to permit the formation of 10 Russian Liberation Army Vlasov then ordered the rst division to march south

3
Prague uprising which started on May 5, 1945, against the
German occupation. Vlasov was initially reluctant, but
ultimately did not resist General Bunyachenkos decision
to ght against the Germans.[9]
The rst division engaged in battle with Waen-SS units
that had been sent to level the city. The ROA units armed
with heavy weaponry fended o the relentless SS assault,
and together with the Czech insurgents succeeded in preserving most of Prague from destruction. Due to the
predominance of communists in the new Czech Rada
(council), the rst division had to leave the city the very
next day and tried to surrender to US Third Army of GenVlasov and Gen. Shilenkov (center) meeting Joseph Goebbels eral Patton. The Allies, however, had little interest in aid(February 1945)
ing or sheltering the ROA, fearing such aid would severely
harm relations with the USSR. Soon after the failed attempt to surrender to the Americans, Vlasov and many
to concentrate all Russian anticommunist forces loyal to
of his men were caught by the Soviets.[9]
him. As the army, he reasoned, they could all surrender to
the Allies on favorable (no repatriation) terms. Vlasov Some soldiers were initially taken into allied custody then
sent several secret delegations to begin negotiating a sur- forcefully extradited to the Soviets by the Allies. Howrender to the Allies, hoping they would sympathise with ever, some allied ocers who were sympathetic to the
the goals of ROA and potentially use it in an inevitable ROA soldiers permitted them to escape in small groups
into the American controlled zones.
future war with the USSR.

Fight against the Germans and

capture by the Soviets

The Soviet government labelled all ROA soldiers

(vlasovtsy) as traitors. The ROA soldiers who were repatriated were tried and sentenced to detention in prison
camps. Vlasov and several other leaders of the ROA were
tried and hanged in Moscow on August 1, 1946.

4 Order of battle
The composition of the VS-KONR forces were as
follows:[1][8]
Air elements
I. Ostiegerstael (russische) (1st Eastern
Squadron-Russian) (1943-1944)
II. Strkampfstael
Squadron) 8 (1945)

(Night

Harassment

KONR Air Force

Two former Soviet Air Force ace pilots, Semyon Tromovich Bychkov and Bronislav Romanovich Antilevsky,
defected and became part of the ROA Air Force. The air
force was later disbanded in the July of 1944.[9]

5 See also
Ukrainian Liberation Army
Mass grave of two generals and 187 unknown ROA soldiers,
Olansk hbitovy cemetery in Prague

During the march south, the rst division of the ROA

came to the help of the Czech insurgents to support the

Ukrainian National Army

Ostlegionen (mainly Caucasian units)
Russian Liberation Movement

8
Kaminski Brigade
Lokot Republic
Operation Keelhaul
Russian Corps
Pyotr Krasnov
Andrei Shkuro
Russian All National Popular State Movement
Ost battalion
Collaboration during World War II
Russian Monument (Liechtenstein)
Victims of Yalta, a 1977 book by Nikolai Tolstoy detailing the forced repatriation of Soviet people after
WWII
Repatriation of Cossacks after World War II
Wehrmacht foreign volunteers and conscripts

EXTERNAL LINKS

[7] A 4 November 2nd Army report names just 9 units (it

had more than 60 in September) who were to remain
with the Army, the rest having been or being in the process of transfer West, or disbandment. (See RH20-2/558
Auskmmaktion unzuverlssiger Ostverbnde AOK 2
Ia 4454/43, 4.11.43). An Army Group Center report (
RH20-2/558 Zusammenstellung ber Osttruppen, HG
Mitte Ia 12303/43, 25.10.43) identies 16 battalions and
several companies who had already departed for the West
by late October, with an additional 20 (again, plus several
companies) designated for transfer and a further 12 being
prepared.
[8] Mller, Rolf-Dieter. The Unknown Eastern Front: The
Wehrmacht and Hitlers Foreign Soldiers. London: I.B.
Tauris, 2012. Print.
[9] Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army. Posted 22 June
2010. Retrieved 19 July 2015.

7 Sources
The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956 by Aleksandr I.
Solzhenitsyn
Army of the Damned: on Twentieth Century CBS Documentary Documentary Series - December 1962

References
8 External links

[1] Jurado, Carlos (1983). Foreign Volunteers of the Wehrmacht 1941-45. Osprey Publishing. p. 28. ISBN 0-85045524-3.
[2] Ellis, Frank. The Stalingrad Cauldron: Inside the Encirclement and Destruction of 6th Army. N.p.: U of Kansas,
2013. Print.
[3] Bundesarchiv-Militrarchiv (BA-MA) RH20-2/558 Entweichen von HiWi, AOK 2 Ia 3385/43, 14.9.43
[4] There are many reports of such incidents in the reporting of the army commands in the East. See f.e. BAMA RH20-2/636. AOK 2 Ia 2749/43, 9.8.43, RH202/558 (lazy non translation probably saying (concern over
the night mutinies)(Bericht ber die Meutereien in der
Nacht vom 12. zum 13.9.43, 16.9.43, RH20-2/558
Bericht ber die geplante Meuterei in der Nacht vom 19.
zum 20.9.1943, 23.9.43, RH20-2/558 Komm.d.rckw.
Armee-gebiet 580 3666/43, 30.9.43, RH20-2/558 Zuverlssigkeit der Ostverbnden, Komm. Der Osttruppen z.b.v. 720 beim Aok 2 1042/43, 7.10.43
[5] RH20-8/979 >Zuverlssigkeit landeseigener Verbnde,
AOK 8 Ia 4844/3, 1.10.43 "Alle landeseigenen Verbnde
sind bei Feindberhrung unzuverlssig. Hauptgrunde der
Unzuverlssigkeit sind der Einsatz der Verbnde im Osten.
[6] Recorded for instance in RH20-2/558 Verlegung von
Landeseigenen Verbnden AOK 2 Ia 989/43, 30.9.43

Articles
Its Too Early To Forgive Vlasov, The St. Petersburg
Times, November 6, 2001
Vlasovs forgotten army, The Prague Post, November 11, 2004
Other
Russian Liberation Army information page by veteran Alexander Dubov
Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in
World War II by Lt. Gen Wladyslaw Anders and
Antonio Munoz
Russian Liberation Army, rare footage (video)

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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