At the beginning of the war, this man was in the forefront among the best commanders of the Soviet army. He and eight other generals became the heroes of the battle of Moscow. How does the story of General Vlasov's betrayal begin? His personality is just as legendary, so mysterious. Until now, many facts related to his fate remain controversial.
Case from the archives, or The dispute of decades
The criminal case of Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov consists of thirty-two volumes. For sixty years, there was no access to the history of the betrayal of General Vlasov. She was in the archives of the KGB. But now she was born without secrecy. So who was Andrey Andreyevich? A hero, a fighter against the Stalinist regime or a traitor?
Andrei was born in 1901 in a peasant family. The main occupation of his parents was agriculture. First, the future general studied at a rural school, then at a seminary. Passed the Civil War. Then I studied at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. If you trace his entire service, it can be noted that he was a man who was incredibly lucky. The history of the betrayal of General Vlasov in this case, of course, is not meant.
Highlights in a military career
In 1937, Andrei Andreyevich was appointed commander of the 215th infantry regiment, whom he had been commanding for less than a year, since already in April 1937 he was immediately appointed assistant commander of the division. And from there he went to China. And this is another success of Andrei Vlasov. He served there from 1938 to 1939. In China, then there were three groups of military specialists. The first are illegal immigrants, the second are undercover workers, and the third are military specialists in the troops.
They worked both with Mao Zedong and with Chiang Kai-shek in the army. This part of the gigantic Asian continent, for which all the intelligence services of the world fought then, was so important for the USSR that intelligence worked in both warring camps. Andrei Andreyevich was appointed to the post of adviser to the department in the forces of Chiang Kai-shek. Then General Vlasov, whose history of betrayal today causes a huge amount of controversy, again falls into a lucky streak.
Lucky General's Awards
In November 1939, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 99th Division in the Kiev Military District. In September 1940, district observation exercises were held here. They were carried out by the new people's commissar of defense Tymoshenko. The division was declared the best in the Kiev district.
And Andrei Andreyevich became the best division commander, master of training and education. And it was presented in the fall following the academic year to the Order of the Red Star. What happens next cannot be explained. Because, contrary to all orders and rules, he is awarded the Order of Lenin.
Two patrons and a political career
All these events could be explained by another fortunate coincidence. But it is not so. Andrei Andreyevich made great efforts to create his positive image in the eyes of the leadership. The start of the political career of Andrei Vlasov was given by two people. This is the commander of the Kiev military district Tymoshenko and a member of the military council, first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Nikita Khrushchev. It was they who proposed him to the post of commander of the 37th army.
At the end of November 1940, Andrei Vlasov was waiting for another certification. Preparing his next promotion to a higher position. How did the story of General Vlasov's betrayal begin? Why did a person with such a fate become a dark spot in the history of the USSR?
The outbreak of hostilities, or leadership errors
The war has begun. Despite stubborn resistance, the Red Army suffers serious defeats in major battles. Hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers are captured by the Germans. Some of them volunteer to join the German army, either for political reasons or to avoid starvation and death, like millions of prisoners in Nazi camps.
In the Kiev boiler, the Germans destroyed more than six hundred thousand Soviet soldiers. Many front commanders, chiefs of staff of the army were then shot. But Vlasov and Sandalov will remain alive, and fate will bring them together in the battle of Moscow. The archival documents of those years record that on August 23, due to a mistake made by the command of the southwestern front and the commander of the 37th Army, General Vlasov, the Germans managed to force the Dnieper in its area.
The death of the army, or the ability to get captured
Here Andrei Andreevich is surrounded for the first time, gives up his position and hastily tries to get out of it. Than, in fact, destroys his army. Which is amazing. Despite the difficulties of escaping from the encirclement, the general confidently walked behind enemy lines. He could easily be captured. But, apparently, he did not take even the slightest opportunity for this. The story of General Vlasov’s betrayal is yet to come.
In the winter of 1941, German troops came close to Moscow. Stalin declares a state of emergency. He appoints Andrey Andreevich as commander of the 20th army . It was Khrushchev and Tymoshenko who proposed Vlasov to this position. In the winter battle of Moscow, the myth of the invincibility of the German army disappears. The troops of the four Soviet fronts managed to deliver the first crushing blow to the Germans; more than one hundred thousand Wehrmacht soldiers were killed or captured. The 20th army, under the leadership of General Vlasov, also contributed to this victory.
New appointment and captivity
Stalin promotes Andrei Andreyevich in the rank of lieutenant general. So he becomes famous in the army. After the battle of Moscow, he is reaping the fruits of glory. He is lucky all the time. It is his finest hour, but all luck comes to an end. Now General Vlasov will appear before the reader, whose history of betrayal has crossed out all previous achievements.
Andrei Andreyevich becomes deputy commander of the 2nd Shock Army, and then leads it. During heavy bloody battles, a significant part of it dies in the forests. But those who sought to get out of the encirclement, in small groups could break through the front line. However, Vlasov deliberately remained in the village. The next day, when the German patrol began to figure out his identity, he suddenly introduced himself: Lieutenant General Vlasov, commander of the 2nd Shock Army.
The subsequent fate and story of Andrei Vlasov. Anatomy of betrayal
After the capture, Andrei Andreevich finds himself in a special camp in the propaganda department in Vinnitsa, where German specialists work with him. He surprisingly quickly accepted the Nazi proposal to lead the non-existent Russian army of the ROA. In mid-1943, Wehrmacht propaganda spreads the information that the Russian liberation army and the new Russian government were created. This is the so-called Smolensk Appeal, in which Vlasov promises the Russian people democratic rights and freedom in Russia liberated from Stalin and Bolshevism.
Andrey Andreevich spent the spring of 1944 under house arrest at his villa in Dahlem. He was sent there by Hitler for a memorable trip to the occupied territories, where he showed too much independence. But November 14, 1944 was the day of triumph of Andrei Vlasov as the commander of the ROA. At the official ceremony on the occasion of the formation of the committee for the liberation of the peoples of Russia, the whole political elite of the Wehrmacht arrived. The culmination of the event is the proclamation of the political program of this committee.
The last years of the war
What was General Vlasov thinking at that time? The history of betrayal, Russia and the people who will never forgive him for this act, didn’t scare him? Did he really believe in the victory of Germany? The border of 1944 and 1945 is marked by numerous events in Berlin. On them, he chooses Soviet prisoners of war and osterbayters for his political purposes. At the beginning of 1945 Goebbels and Himler met with him.
Then, on January 18, he signs a loan agreement between the German government and Russia. As if the final victory of the Germans is only a matter of time. In the spring of 1945, things were very bad for Germany. The allies attack in the west, in the east the Red Army leaves no chance for the victory of the Wehrmacht, occupying one German city after another. So how could a story of betrayal end for such a person as General Vlasov? The epilogue awaits her reader.
First division or endless defeats
Andrei Andreevich seemed not to notice the events. For him, it seems, everything is going well again. On February 10, he solemnly receives his first division, which is sent to the Eastern Front for verification. The clashes here were short. The Red Army cannot be stopped. The soldiers of the ROA are running, throwing positions. The last attempt at least somehow to rehabilitate themselves in the war, the Vlasovites made in Prague. But there they were defeated.
Fearing capture by the Soviet troops, the Vlasovites together with the Germans hurriedly left Prague. Some groups are surrendered to the Americans. Two days earlier, General Vlasov himself did this. The tank corps of the Fomins and Kryukov was tasked with breaking through to the base where they were holding Andrei Andreevich and his closest associates, to capture them and deliver them to Moscow.
Then, an investigation will take place in Lubyanka during the year. Eleven officers and Vlasov himself, whose history of betrayal has been carefully studied by Lubyanka experts, are sentenced to death by hanging on charges of treason on July 30, 1946.