The Germans in the Second World War are on the side of the USSR. How many Cossacks fought on the side of Nazi Germany
What did the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact give the USSR and Europe?
First of all, we note that I.V. With this pact, Stalin ingeniously won two strategically important battles at the diplomatic level: the battle for Space and the battle for Time. The only question is what it meant for the USSR, on the one hand, and for Hitler's inspirers and allies, on the other. It is here that the iconic differences and illegal interests of the parties: the peoples of the USSR and the West, which have not changed their essence even today, after the collapse of the USSR.
And then it becomes obvious that Stalin, by the pact itself, clearly drew a “red line” in front of Hitler, which the brown jackal could no longer violate with impunity. Thus, putting a barrier to Hitler's aggression against the peoples of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. In the language of the military, this is also called the gain of strategic SPACE in the theater of possible military operations.
But with this pact, the USSR expanded not so much their borders, which they very diligently hint at to us, as a “seizure of foreign territories”, but they postponed the TIME TO START ... the war. Which was something destructive for the West, hence tragic in their plans.
"Time", and this must be said today clearly and loudly, assigned to Hitler by Great Britain, France and the USA, i.e. West, to attack the USSR! And Stalin, it turns out, with this pact simply outplayed the West and set them against each other like a pack of dogs?!
And here, again, in close connection with the “canvas”, another important question arises: when, in fact, did the Second World War begin? It is generally accepted that the date of its beginning is September 1, 1939! Wait, why is that?
Here is a dry chronicle of those years: in 1935, Italy attacked Abyssinia and occupied it. In the summer of 1935, Germany and Italy organized a military intervention in Spain. In 1937, Japan invaded Northern and Central China, occupied Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. At the beginning of 1938, Germany captured Austria, and in the fall, the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. At the end of 1938, Japan captured Canton, and at the beginning of 1939, Hainan Island. Germany in March 1939 occupied the remnants of Czechoslovakia and the Memel region of Lithuania. Isn't too much blood shed for "peacetime"?
Is the impression created or artificially created that the date of the attack on Poland was chosen in order to link the Second World War with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact?
Who did it and most importantly why, now it becomes clearer. Given that such ideological battles London - the author and inspirer of this baseness, always plans ahead of time ... decades.
This is the "bleeding wound-resentment" of the West. That is why they are in a hurry to rewrite history today, equating Stalinism with Nazism. In order to shift the responsibility for their historical crime against humanity to the USSR and its leader I.V. Stalin.
And last but not least, stop talking about 27 million dead here.
http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/2503040/post125482273/
Anatoly Lemysh 22.02.2011 2017
Russian corps and divisions of the SS
Russian corps and divisions of the SS
15th (Cossack) SS Cavalry Corps
29th SS Grenadier Division
30th SS Grenadier Division
1001st Abwehr Grenadier Regiment
Even the Nazis were shocked by the "exploits" of the Russian SS men from the 29th division during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising - at the very time when other Russian soldiers, in Red Army uniforms, indifferently watched from the opposite bank of the Vistula for two months the agony of the doomed city. The 29th Russian SS division earned such an odious reputation that the Germans were forced to disband it.
Soviet propaganda resorted to any lie in order to disown the outrageous fact: more than a million Soviet citizens participated in the hostilities on the side of Germany. This corresponded to the staff strength of approximately 100 rifle divisions.
So, in Russia, with its traditional cult of patriotism, after twenty years of Bolshevik rule, several times more citizens fought on the side of the external aggressor than in all the White Guard armies combined. The centuries-old history of the country, and indeed the history of wars in general, has not yet known this. There was nothing even remotely similar in any other country participating in the Second World War.
This is what politicians and journalists who are trying to present Stalinism as almost a legitimate form of existence of the Russian state need to be reminded of more often.
By the end of 1942, Russian battalions with numbers were fighting in the German army:
207,263,268,281,285,308,406,412,427,432,439,441,446,447,448,449,456,510,516,517,561,581,582,601,602,603,604,605,606,607,608,609,610,611,612,613,614,615,616,617,618,619,620,621,626,627,628,629,630,632,633,634,635,636,637,638,639,640,641,642,643,644,645,646,647,648,649,650,653,654,656,661,662,663,664,665,666,667,668,669,674,675,681.
Only after the defeat at Stalingrad did the German leadership begin the formation of SS volunteer divisions, and by the beginning of 1944, the Ukrainian, Lithuanian and two Estonian Waffen SS divisions were formed.
Maybe it's enough to talk about the division "Galicia" in the 44th, when back in the 42nd Russian SS battalions fought against us?
Stalin's telegram after the end of the Polish campaign read: "The friendship between Germany and the Soviet Union, based on the blood shed together, has the prospect of being long and strong"
Before that, in Russia, a new monument to Joseph Vissarionovich was recently erected (although it is still in Yakutia), I think it’s “people shove” then it’s closer to the Chervonozoryanoi ...
And even then they rarely guess that the very beginning of the BBB itself of the SRSR "ticely spivdiyati z National-Socialist Great-Mechchinoy, scho under the wire of Adolf Hitler"
From a speech by V. Molotov in the Kremlin, April 1940. We convey the most heartfelt congratulations from the Soviet government on the magnificent success of the German Wehrmacht. Guderian's tanks broke through to the sea at Aberville on Soviet fuel, the German bombs that razed Rotterdam to the ground were filled with Soviet pyroxylin, and the shells of the bullets that hit the British soldiers retreating to the boats at Dunkirk were cast from Soviet copper-nickel alloy .. .
Deyakі nіyak can't come back from the war. 60 (sixty) years as VVV ended. Ukraine has only been an independent state for 14 (fourteen) years. Warriors in 40-45 years "braided" Yaku krainu? Chi can stinks all the same fought for it?
The Vlasovites should not be perceived as a national movement, they are rather an internal opposition to the Stalinist regime. We should look for analogies in the Baltics and Western Belarus. There, as in ZU, opposition to totalitarianism was strengthened by the goals of national self-determination, especially in the Baltics.
COSSACK PARTS 1941-1943
The appearance of the Cossack units in the Wehrmacht was most facilitated by the reputation of the Cossacks as irreconcilable fighters against Bolshevism, won by them during the Civil War. In the early autumn of 1941, from the headquarters of the 18th Army, the General Staff of the Ground Forces received a proposal to form special units from the Cossacks to fight the Soviet partisans, initiated by the army counterintelligence officer Baron von Kleist. The proposal received support, and on October 6, the Quartermaster General of the General Staff, Lieutenant General E. Wagner, allowed the commanders of the rear areas of Army Groups North, Center and South to form by November 1, 1941, with the consent of the respective SS and police chiefs , - as an experiment - Cossack units from prisoners of war to use them in the fight against partisans.
The first of these units was organized in accordance with the order of General von Schenckendorff, commander of the rear area of Army Group Center, dated October 28, 1941. It was a Cossack squadron under the command of Major I.N. Kononov. During the year, another 4 squadrons were formed by the command of the rear area, and by September 1942, under the command of Kononov, there was the 102nd (from October - the 600th) Cossack division (1, 2, 3rd cavalry squadrons, 4, 5, 6th plastun companies, machine gun company, mortar and artillery batteries). The total strength of the division was 1799 people, including 77 officers; in service there were 6 field guns (76.2 mm), 6 anti-tank guns (45 mm), 12 mortars (82 mm), 16 heavy machine guns and a large number of light machine guns, rifles and machine guns (mostly Soviet-made) . During 1942-1943. division divisions waged a tense struggle with the partisans in the areas of Bobruisk, Mogilev, Smolensk, Nevel and Polotsk.
From the Cossack hundreds formed at the army and corps headquarters of the German 17th Army, by order of June 13, 1942, the Platov Cossack cavalry regiment was formed. It consisted of 5 cavalry squadrons, a squadron of heavy weapons, an artillery battery and a spare squadron. Wehrmacht major E. Thomsen was appointed commander of the regiment. From September 1942, the regiment was used to protect the work on the restoration of the Maykop oil fields, and at the end of January 1943 it was transferred to the Novorossiysk region, where it guarded the sea coast and simultaneously participated in the operations of German and Romanian troops against partisans. In the spring of 1943, he defended the “Kuban bridgehead”, repulsing Soviet naval assaults northeast of Temryuk, until at the end of May he was removed from the front and withdrawn to the Crimea.
The Cossack Cavalry Regiment “Jungshults”, formed in the summer of 1942 as part of the 1st Wehrmacht Panzer Army, bore the name of its commander, Lieutenant Colonel I. von Jungshultz. Initially, the regiment had only two squadrons, one of which was purely German, and the second consisted of defector Cossacks. Already at the front, the regiment included two Cossack hundreds from local residents, as well as a Cossack squadron formed in Simferopol and then transferred to the Caucasus. As of December 25, 1942, the regiment consisted of 1530 people, including 30 officers, 150 non-commissioned officers and 1350 privates, and was armed with 6 light and heavy machine guns, 6 mortars, 42 anti-tank rifles, rifles and machine guns. Beginning in September 1942, the "Jungshults" regiment operated on the left flank of the 1st Panzer Army in the Achikulak-Budennovsk area, taking an active part in the battles against the Soviet cavalry. After the order of January 2, 1943 on a general retreat, the regiment retreated to the north-west in the direction of the village of Yegorlykskaya, until it connected with units of the 4th tank army of the Wehrmacht. Subsequently, he was subordinated to the 454th Security Division and transferred to the rear area of the Don Army Group.
In accordance with the order of June 18, 1942, all prisoners of war, who were Cossacks by origin and considered themselves as such, were to be sent to the city of Slavuta. By the end of the month, 5,826 people were already concentrated here, and a decision was made to form a Cossack corps and organize an appropriate headquarters. Since there was an acute shortage of senior and middle command personnel among the Cossacks, former Red Army commanders who were not Cossacks began to be recruited into the Cossack units. Subsequently, at the headquarters of the formation, the 1st Cossack named after Ataman Count Platov, the cadet school, as well as a non-commissioned officer school, was opened.
From the available composition of the Cossacks, in the first place, the 1st Ataman Regiment was formed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Baron von Wolf and a special fifty, designed to perform special tasks in the Soviet rear. After checking the incoming replenishment, the formation of the 2nd Life Cossack and 3rd Don regiments began, and after them - the 4th and 5th Kuban, 6th and 7th Consolidated Cossack regiments. On August 6, 1942, the formed Cossack units were transferred from the Slavutinsky camp to Shepetovka to barracks specially designated for them.
Over time, work on the organization of Cossack units in Ukraine acquired a systematic character. The Cossacks who found themselves in German captivity were concentrated in one camp, from which, after appropriate processing, they were sent to reserve units, and from there they were transferred to regiments, divisions, detachments and hundreds. Cossack units were initially used exclusively as auxiliary troops to guard the prisoner of war camps. However, after they proved their suitability for a wide variety of tasks, their use took on a different character. Most of the Cossack regiments formed in Ukraine were involved in the protection of roads and railways, other military facilities, as well as in the fight against the partisan movement on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus.
Many Cossacks joined the German army when the advancing units of the Wehrmacht entered the territories of the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban and Terek. On July 25, 1942, immediately after the occupation of Novocherkassk by the Germans, a group of Cossack officers came to the representatives of the German command and expressed their readiness "to help the valiant German troops with all their strength and knowledge in the final defeat of Stalin's henchmen", and in September in Novocherkassk, with the sanction of the occupying authorities, gathered the Cossack gathering, at which the headquarters of the Don Cossacks was elected (since November 1942 it was called the headquarters of the Marching Ataman) headed by Colonel S.V. Pavlov, who began organizing Cossack units to fight against the Red Army.
According to the order of the headquarters, all Cossacks capable of bearing weapons were to appear at the collection points and register. The stanitsa atamans were obliged to register Cossack officers and Cossacks within three days and to select volunteers for organized units. Each volunteer could write down his last rank in the Russian Imperial Army or in the White armies. At the same time, chieftains had to provide volunteers with combat horses, saddles, sabers and uniforms. Armament for the formed units was allocated in agreement with the German headquarters and commandant's offices.
In November 1942, shortly before the start of the Soviet counter-offensive near Stalingrad, the German command authorized the formation of Cossack regiments in the Don, Kuban and Terek regions. So, from the volunteers of the Don villages in Novocherkassk, the 1st Don Regiment was organized under the command of Yesaul A.V. Pavlova. The 1st Sinegorsk Regiment was also formed on the Don, consisting of 1260 officers and Cossacks under the command of a military foreman (former sergeant major) Zhuravlev. From the Cossack hundreds formed in the villages of the Uman department of the Kuban, under the leadership of the military foreman I.I. Kulakov - 1st Volga regiment of the Terek Cossack army. The Cossack regiments organized on the Don in January-February 1943 took part in heavy battles against the advancing Soviet troops on the Seversky Donets, near Bataysk, Novocherkassk and Rostov. Covering the retreat to the west of the main forces of the German army, these units steadfastly repulsed the onslaught of a superior enemy and suffered heavy losses, and some of them were completely destroyed.
Cossack units were formed by the command of the army rear areas (2nd and 4th field armies), corps (43rd and 59th) and divisions (57th and 137th infantry, 203, 213, 403, 444 and 454 th security). In tank corps, such as in the 3rd (Cossack motorized company) and 40th (1st and 2nd / 82nd Cossack squadrons under the command of M. Zagorodny's squadron), they were used as auxiliary reconnaissance detachments. In the 444th and 454th security divisions, two Cossack divisions of 700 sabers each were formed. 650 Cossacks served in the 5,000-strong German cavalry formation "Boselager", created for security service in the rear area of Army Group Center, 650 Cossacks served, and some of them were a squadron of heavy weapons. Cossack units were also created as part of the German satellite armies operating on the Eastern Front. At least, it is known that the Cossack detachment of two squadrons was formed under the cavalry group "Savoy" of the Italian 8th Army. In order to achieve proper operational interaction, it was practiced to reduce individual parts into larger formations. So, in November 1942, four Cossack battalions (622, 623, 624 and 625th, which previously constituted the 6th, 7th and 8th regiments), operating against partisans in the Dorogobuzh and Vyazma region), a separate motorized company (638th) and two artillery batteries were merged into the 360th Cossack regiment led by the Baltic German Major E.V. von Rentelnom.
By April 1943, the Wehrmacht operated about 20 Cossack regiments numbering from 400 to 1000 people each and a large number of small units, totaling up to 25 thousand soldiers and officers. The most reliable of them were formed from volunteers in the villages of the Don, Kuban and Terek, or from defectors in German field formations. The personnel of such units were mainly represented by natives of the Cossack regions, many of whom fought against the Bolsheviks during the Civil War or were repressed by the Soviet authorities in the 1920s and 30s, and therefore were vitally interested in the fight against the Soviet regime. At the same time, in the ranks of the units formed in Slavuta and Shepetovka, there were many random people who called themselves Cossacks only in order to escape from the prisoner of war camps and thereby save their lives. The reliability of this contingent has always been a big question, and the slightest difficulties seriously affected its morale and could provoke a transition to the side of the enemy.
In the autumn of 1943, some Cossack units were transferred to France, where they were used to protect the Atlantic Wall and in the fight against local partisans. Their fate was different. Thus, the 360th regiment of von Renteln, deployed battalion-by-battalion along the coast of the Bay of Biscay (by this time it was renamed the Cossack Fortress Grenadier Regiment), in August 1944 was forced to fight a long way to the German border along the territory occupied by partisans. The 570th Cossack battalion was sent against the Anglo-Americans who landed in Normandy and surrendered on the first day in full strength. The 454th Cossack cavalry regiment, blocked by units of French regular troops and partisans in the town of Pontalier, refused to capitulate and was almost completely destroyed. The same fate befell the 82nd Cossack division of M. Zagorodny in Normandy.
At the same time, most of those formed in 1942-1943. in the cities of Slavuta and Shepetovka, the Cossack regiments continued to act against partisans on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus. Some of them were reorganized into police battalions, bearing the numbers 68, 72, 73 and 74th. Others were defeated in the winter battles of 1943/44 in Ukraine, and their remnants joined the various units. In particular, the remnants of the 14th Consolidated Cossack Regiment, defeated in February 1944 near Tsuman, were included in the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Wehrmacht, and the 68th Cossack police battalion in the fall of 1944 was part of the 30th Grenadier Division of the SS troops (1st Belarusian), sent to the Western Front.
After the experience of using Cossack units at the front proved their practical value, the German command decided to create a large Cossack cavalry unit as part of the Wehrmacht. On November 8, 1942, Colonel G. von Pannwitz, a brilliant cavalry commander, who was also fluent in Russian, was appointed at the head of the formation, which was still to be formed. The Soviet offensive near Stalingrad prevented the plan to form a formation from being carried out already in November, and it was possible to start implementing it only in the spring of 1943 - after the withdrawal of German troops to the line of the Mius River and the Taman Peninsula and the relative stabilization of the front. The Cossack units that retreated together with the German army from the Don and the North Caucasus were gathered in the Kherson region and replenished at the expense of Cossack refugees. The next step was the reduction of these “irregular” units into a separate military unit. Initially, four regiments were formed: the 1st Don, 2nd Terek, 3rd Consolidated Cossack and 4th Kuban with a total strength of up to 6,000 people.
On April 21, 1943, the German command ordered the organization of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, in connection with which the formed regiments were transferred to the Milau (Mlawa) training ground, where the Polish cavalry equipment depots had been located since pre-war times. The best of the front-line Cossack units, such as the Platov and Yungshults regiments, Wolf's 1st Ataman Regiment and Kononov's 600th division, also arrived here. Created without taking into account the military principle, these units were disbanded, and their personnel were reduced to regiments according to their belonging to the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossack troops. The exception was Kononov's division, which was included in the division as a separate regiment. The creation of the division was completed on July 1, 1943, when von Pannwitz, promoted to the rank of Major General, was approved as its commander.
The finally formed division included a headquarters with a hundred escorts, a field gendarmerie group, a motorcycle communications platoon, a propaganda platoon and a brass band, two Cossack cavalry brigades - the 1st Don (1st Don, 2nd Siberian and 4th Kuban regiments) and the 2nd Caucasian (3rd Kuban, 5th Don and 6th Terek regiments), two cavalry artillery battalions (Don and Kuban), reconnaissance detachment, sapper battalion, communications department, logistics service units (all divisional units were numbered 55).
Each of the regiments consisted of two cavalry battalions (in the 2nd Siberian regiment, the 2nd battalion was scooter, and in the 5th Donskoy - plastun) of three squadrons, machine-gun, mortar and anti-tank squadrons. According to the staff, the regiment had 2,000 people, including 150 people of the German cadre. It was armed with 5 anti-tank guns (50 mm), 14 battalion (81 mm) and 54 company (50 mm) mortars, 8 machine guns and 60 MG-42 light machine guns, German carbines and machine guns. In addition to the staff, the regiments were given batteries of 4 field guns (76.2 mm). Horse artillery battalions had 3 batteries of 75-mm cannons (200 people and 4 guns each), a reconnaissance detachment - 3 scooter squadrons from among the German personnel, a squadron of young Cossacks and a penal squadron, a sapper battalion - 3 sapper and sapper-construction squadrons , and the communications division - 2 squadrons of telephone operators and 1 radio communications.
On November 1, 1943, the strength of the division was 18,555 people, including 3,827 German lower ranks and 222 officers, 14,315 Cossacks and 191 Cossack officers. All headquarters, special and rear units were equipped with German personnel. All commanders of regiments (except for I.N. Kononov) and divisions (except for two) were also Germans, and each squadron included 12-14 German soldiers and non-commissioned officers in economic positions. At the same time, the division was considered the most "Russified" of the Wehrmacht's regular formations: the commanders of combat cavalry units - squadrons and platoons - were Cossacks, and all commands were given in Russian. In Mokovo, not far from the Milau training ground, a Cossack reserve training regiment was formed under the command of Colonel von Bosse, bearing the number 5 according to the general numbering of spare parts of the eastern troops. The regiment did not have a permanent composition and consisted at different times from 10 to 15 thousand Cossacks, who constantly arrived from the Eastern Front and the occupied territories and, after appropriate training, were distributed among the regiments of the division. A non-commissioned officer school operated at the reserve training regiment, which trained personnel for combat units. The School of Young Cossacks was also organized here - a kind of cadet corps, where several hundred teenagers who had lost their parents underwent military training.
In the autumn of 1943, the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division was sent to Yugoslavia, where by that time communist partisans under the leadership of I. Broz Tito had noticeably intensified their activities. Due to their great mobility and maneuverability, the Cossack units turned out to be better adapted to the mountainous conditions of the Balkans and acted more effectively here than the clumsy German landwehr divisions that carried security services here. During the summer of 1944, units of the division undertook at least five independent operations in the mountainous regions of Croatia and Bosnia, during which they destroyed many partisan strongholds and seized the initiative for offensive operations. Among the local population, the Cossacks earned themselves a bad name. In accordance with the orders of the command for self-sufficiency, they resorted to requisitioning horses, food and fodder from the peasants, which often resulted in massive robberies and violence. The villages, whose population was suspected of complicity with the partisans, were compared by the Cossacks to the ground with fire and sword.
At the very end of 1944, the 1st Cossack division had to face units of the Red Army that were trying to connect on the river. Drava with Tito's partisans. During fierce battles, the Cossacks managed to inflict a heavy defeat on one of the regiments of the 233rd Soviet Rifle Division and force the enemy to leave the previously captured bridgehead on the right bank of the Drava. In March 1945, units of the 1st Cossack division (by that time already deployed in the corps) participated in the last major offensive operation of the Wehrmacht during World War II, when the Cossacks successfully operated against the Bulgarian units on the southern face of the Balaton ledge.
The transfer in August 1944 of foreign national formations of the Wehrmacht to the jurisdiction of the SS was also reflected in the fate of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. At a meeting held in early September at Himmler's headquarters with the participation of von Pannwitz and other commanders of the Cossack formations, it was decided to deploy a division, replenished from units transferred from other fronts, to the corps. At the same time, it was supposed to mobilize among the Cossacks who found themselves on the territory of the Reich, for which a special body was formed at the General Staff of the SS - the Reserve of Cossack troops, headed by Lieutenant General A.G. Shkuro. General P.N. Krasnov, who since March 1944 headed the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops, created under the auspices of the Eastern Ministry, appealed to the Cossacks with an appeal to rise to fight against Bolshevism.
Soon large and small groups of Cossacks and entire military units began to arrive in the von Pannwitz division. Among them were two Cossack battalions from Krakow, the 69th police battalion from Warsaw, a factory guard battalion from Hanover, and finally the 360th von Renteln regiment from the Western Front. The 5th Cossack Training and Reserve Regiment, stationed until recently in France, was transferred to Austria (Zvetle) - closer to the division's area of operations. Through the efforts of the recruiting headquarters created by the Reserve of the Cossack troops, it was possible to gather more than 2000 Cossacks from among the emigrants, prisoners of war and eastern workers, who were also sent to the 1st Cossack division. As a result, within two months the strength of the division (not counting the German personnel) almost doubled.
A group of Cossack signalmen of the 2nd Siberian regiment of the 1st Cossack cavalry division. 1943-1944
By order of November 4, 1944, the 1st Cossack division was transferred for the duration of the war to the command of the SS General Staff. This transfer concerned, first of all, the sphere of logistics, which made it possible to improve the provision of the division with weapons, military equipment and vehicles. So. for example, the artillery regiment of the division received a battery of 105-mm howitzers, the engineer battalion received several six-barreled mortars, and the reconnaissance detachment received StG-44 assault rifles. In addition, according to some reports, the division was given 12 armored vehicles, including tanks and assault guns.
By order of February 25, 1945, the division was transformed into the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the Waffen-SS. The 1st and 2nd brigades were renamed into divisions without changing their numbers and organizational structure. On the basis of the 5th Don Regiment of Kononov, the formation of the Plastunskaya brigade of a two-regiment structure began with the prospect of deployment to the 3rd Cossack division. Cavalry artillery battalions in divisions were reorganized into regiments. The total strength of the corps reached 25,000 soldiers and officers, including from 3,000 to 5,000 Germans. In addition, at the final stage of the war, together with the 15th Cossack Corps, such formations as the Kalmyk regiment (up to 5000 people), the Caucasian cavalry division, the Ukrainian SS battalion and the group of ROA tankers acted, taking into account which, under the command of the Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the troops SS (since February 1, 1945) G. von Pannwitz had 30-35 thousand people.
After the units assembled in the Kherson region were sent to Poland to form the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, the main center of concentration of Cossack refugees who left their lands along with the retreating German troops became the headquarters of the Camping Ataman of the Don Army S. V. Pavlov, who settled in Kirovograd . By July 1943, up to 3,000 Donets had gathered here, of which two new regiments were formed - the 8th and 9th, which probably had a common numbering with the regiments of the 1st division. For the training of command personnel, it was planned to open an officer school, as well as a school for tankers, but these projects could not be implemented due to the new Soviet offensive.
In the late autumn of 1943, Pavlov already had 18,000 Cossacks under his command, including women and children, who formed the so-called Cossack Camp. The German authorities recognized Pavlov as the Marching ataman of all Cossack troops and pledged to provide him with all possible support. After a short stay in Podolia, Kazachiy Stan in March 1944, due to the danger of the Soviet encirclement, began to move west - to Sandomierz, and then was transported by rail to Belarus. Here, the command of the Wehrmacht provided 180 thousand hectares of land for the placement of the Cossacks in the area of the cities of Baranovichi, Slonim, Novogrudok, Yelnya, Capitals. The refugees settled in the new place were grouped by belonging to different troops, by districts and departments, which outwardly reproduced the traditional system of Cossack settlements.
At the same time, a broad reorganization of the Cossack combat units was undertaken, united in 10 foot regiments of 1200 bayonets each. The 1st and 2nd Don regiments made up the 1st brigade of Colonel Silkin; 3rd Donskoy, 4th Consolidated Cossack, 5th and 6th Kuban and 7th Tersky - the 2nd brigade of Colonel Vertepov; 8th Donskoy, 9th Kuban and 10th Terek-Stavropol - 3rd brigade of Colonel Medynsky (later the composition of the brigades changed several times). Each regiment had 3 plastun battalions, mortar and anti-tank batteries. For their armament, Soviet captured weapons provided by the German field arsenals were used.
The main task assigned to the Cossacks by the German command was the fight against partisans and ensuring the security of the rear communications of Army Group Center. On June 17, 1944, during one of the anti-partisan operations, the Marching Ataman of the Cossack Camp S.V. was killed. Pavlov. His successor was the military foreman (later - colonel and major general) T.I. Domanov. In July 1944, in connection with the threat of a new Soviet offensive, Kazachiy Stan was withdrawn from Belarus and concentrated in the area of the town of Zdunskaya Wola in northern Poland. From here began its transfer to Northern Italy, where the territory adjacent to the Carnic Alps with the cities of Tolmezzo, Gemona and Ozoppo was allocated for the placement of the Cossacks. Here, Cossack Stan became subordinate to the commander of the SS troops and the police of the coastal zone of the Adriatic Sea, Ober-Gruppenführer SS O. Globochnik, who instructed the Cossacks to ensure security on the lands provided to them.
On the territory of Northern Italy, the combat units of the Cossack Camp underwent another reorganization and formed the Marching Ataman Group (also called the corps) consisting of two divisions. The 1st Cossack foot division (Cossacks from 19 to 40 years old) included the 1st and 2nd Don, 3rd Kuban and 4th Terek-Stavropol regiments, consolidated into the 1st Don and 2nd Consolidated plastun brigades, as well as headquarters and transport companies, cavalry and gendarmerie squadrons, a communications company and an armored detachment. The 2nd Cossack Foot Division (Cossacks from 40 to 52 years old) consisted of the 3rd Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which included the 5th Consolidated Cossack and 6th Don Regiments, and the 4th Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which included the 3rd Spare regiment, three stanitsa self-defense battalions (Donskoy, Kuban and Consolidated Cossacks) and the Special Detachment of Colonel Grekov. In addition, the Group included the following units: 1st Cossack cavalry regiment (6 squadrons: 1st, 2nd and 4th Don, 2nd Terek-Don, 6th Kuban and 5th officers), Ataman escort cavalry regiment (5 squadrons), the 1st Cossack cadet school (2 plastun companies, a company of heavy weapons, an artillery battery), separate divisions - officer, gendarme and commandant foot, as well as a Special Cossack parachute-sniper school disguised as a motor-motor school (Special group "Ataman" ). According to some reports, a separate Cossack group "Savoy" was attached to the combat units of the Cossack Camp, which was withdrawn to Italy from the Eastern Front along with the remnants of the Italian 8th Army back in 1943.
Cossack refugees. 1943-1945
The units of the Marching Ataman Group were armed with over 900 light and heavy machine guns of various systems (Soviet “Maxim”, DP (“Degtyarev infantry”) and DT (“Degtyarev tank”), German MG-34 and “Schwarzlose”, Czech “Zbroevka” Italian "Breda" and "Fiat", French "Hotchkiss" and "Shosh", English "Vickers" and "Lewis", American "Colt"), 95 company and battalion mortars (mainly Soviet and German production), more than 30 Soviet 45-mm anti-tank guns and 4 field guns (76.2 mm), as well as 2 light armored vehicles recaptured from partisans and named "Don Cossack" and "Ataman Yermak". As small arms, Soviet-made magazine and automatic rifles and carbines, a certain number of German and Italian carbines, Soviet, German and Italian machine guns were used. The Cossacks also had a large number of German faustpatrons and English grenade launchers captured from partisans.
As of April 27, 1945, the total number of Cossack Stan was 31,463 people, including 1,575 officers, 592 officials, 16,485 non-commissioned officers and privates, 6,304 non-combatants (unfit for service due to age and health), 4,222 women, 2,094 children under the age of 14 and 358 adolescents aged 14 to 17. Of the total number of Stan, 1430 Cossacks belonged to the emigrants of the first wave, and the rest were Soviet citizens.
In the last days of the war, due to the approach of the advancing Allied troops and the intensification of partisan actions, Cossack Stan was forced to leave Italy. In the period April 30 - May 7, 1945, having overcome the high Alpine passes, the Cossacks crossed the Italian-Austrian border and settled in the valley of the river. Drava between the cities of Lienz and Oberdrauburg, where the surrender to the British troops was announced. Already after the official cessation of hostilities from Croatia to Austria, units of the 15th Cossack cavalry corps von Pannwitz broke through, also laying down their arms in front of the British. And less than a month later, on the banks of the Drava, the tragedy of the forced extradition to the Soviet Union of tens of thousands of Cossacks, Kalmyks and Caucasians, who were waiting for all the horrors of Stalin's camps and special settlements, broke out. Together with the Cossacks, their leaders, Generals P.N. Krasnov, his nephew S.N. Krasnov, who headed the headquarters of the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops, A.G. Shkuro, T.I. Domanov and G. von Pannwitz, as well as the leader of the Caucasians, Sultan Kelech-Girey. All of them were convicted in Moscow at a closed trial on January 16, 1947, and sentenced to death by hanging.
All of Europe fought against us
The very first strategic counter-offensive of the Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War revealed a very unpleasant circumstance for the USSR. Among the captured enemy troops near Moscow there were many military units France, Poland, Holland, Finland, Austria, Norway and other countries. The imprint of almost all major European firms was found on captured military equipment and shells. In general, as one could assume and as they thought in the Soviet Union, that the European proletarians would never go up in arms against the state of workers and peasants, that they would sabotage the production of weapons for Hitler.
But exactly the opposite happened. A very characteristic find was made by our soldiers after the liberation of the Moscow region in the area of the historical Borodino field - next to the French cemetery of 1812, they discovered fresh graves of Napoleon's descendants. The Soviet 32nd Rifle Division of the Red Banner, Colonel V.I. fought here. Polosukhin, whose fighters could not even imagine that they were being opposed "French allies".
A more or less complete picture of this battle was revealed only after the Victory. Chief of Staff of the 4th German Army G. Blumentritt published a memoir in which he wrote:
“The four battalions of French volunteers operating as part of the 4th Army turned out to be less persistent. At Borodin, Field Marshal von Kluge addressed them with a speech, recalling how, during the time of Napoleon, the French and Germans fought here side by side against a common enemy - Russia. The next day, the French boldly went into battle, but, unfortunately, they could not withstand either the powerful attack of the enemy, or the severe frost and snowstorm. They had never had to endure such trials before. The French legion was defeated, having suffered heavy losses from enemy fire. A few days later he was taken to the rear and sent to the West ... "
Here is an interesting archival document - a list of prisoners of war who surrendered to Soviet troops during the war years. Recall that a prisoner of war is one who fights in uniform with a weapon in his hands.
Hitler takes the parade of the Wehrmacht, 1940 (megabook.ru)
So, Germans – 2 389 560, Hungarians – 513 767, Romanians – 187 370, Austrians – 156 682, Czechs and Slovaks – 69 977, Poles – 60 280, Italians – 48 957, French people – 23 136, Croats – 21 822, Moldovans – 14 129, Jews – 10 173, Dutch – 4 729, Finns – 2 377, Belgians – 2 010, Luxembourgers – 1652, Danes – 457, Spaniards – 452, gypsies – 383, Norse – 101, Swedes – 72.
And these are only those who survived and were captured. In reality, much more Europeans fought against us.
The ancient Roman senator Cato the Elder went down in history by the fact that he always ended any public speech on any topic with the words: "Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam", which literally means: "Otherwise, I believe that Carthage must be destroyed." (Carthage is a city-state hostile to Rome.) I am not ready to completely become like Senator Cato, but I will use any excuse to mention once again: in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, the USSR, with an initial strength 190 million. people, fought not with 80 million of the then Germans. The Soviet Union fought practically with all Europe, the number of which (with the exception of England allied to us and partisan Serbia not surrendering to the Germans) was about 400 million. human.
During the Great Patriotic War, overcoats in the USSR were put on by 34,476.7 thousand people, i.e. 17,8% population. And Germany mobilized into its armed forces already 21% from the population. It would seem that the Germans in their military efforts strained more than the USSR. But women served in the Red Army in large numbers, both voluntarily and by conscription. There were a lot of purely female units and divisions (anti-aircraft, aviation, etc.). During a period of desperate situation, the State Defense Committee decided (remaining, however, on paper) to create women's rifle formations, in which men would be only those who load heavy artillery pieces.
And among the Germans, even at the moment of their agony, women not only did not serve in the army, but there were very few of them in production. Why is that? Because in the USSR one man accounted for three women, and in Germany - on the contrary? No, that's not the point. In order to fight, you need not only soldiers, but also weapons with food. And for their production, men are also needed, who cannot be replaced by women or teenagers. Therefore, the USSR was forced send women to the front instead of men.
The Germans did not have such a problem: they were provided with weapons and food by all of Europe. The French not only handed over all their tanks to the Germans, but also produced a huge amount of military equipment for them - from cars to optical rangefinders.
Czechs with only one firm "Skoda" produced more weapons than all of pre-war Great Britain, built the entire fleet of German armored personnel carriers, a huge number of tanks, aircraft, small arms, artillery and ammunition.
The Poles built airplanes, Polish Jews explosives, synthetic gasoline and rubber were produced in Auschwitz to kill Soviet citizens; the Swedes mined ore and supplied the Germans with components for military equipment (for example, bearings), the Norwegians supplied the Nazis with seafood, the Danes with oil ... In short, all of Europe tried its best.
And she tried not only on the labor front. Only the elite troops of Nazi Germany - the SS troops - accepted into their ranks 400 thousand. "blonde beasts" from other countries, and in total they joined the Nazi army from all over Europe 1800 thousand. volunteers, forming 59 divisions, 23 brigades and several national regiments and legions.
The most elite of these divisions did not have numbers, but their own names indicating their national origin: Wallonia, Galicia, Bohemia and Moravia, Viking, Denemark, Gembez, Langemark, Nordland ”, “Netherlands”, “Charlemagne”, etc.
Europeans served as volunteers not only in the national, but also in the German divisions. So let's say an elite German division "Greater Germany". It would seem that, if only because of the name, it should have been completed only by the Germans. However, the Frenchman who served in it Guy Sayer recalls that on the eve of the Battle of Kursk, there were 9 Germans out of 11 in his infantry unit, and besides him, the Czech also did not understand German well. And all this in addition to the official allies of Germany, whose armies shoulder to shoulder burned and plundered the Soviet Union - Italians, Romanian, Hungarians, Finns, Croats, Slovaks, besides Bulgarians who at that time burned and plundered partisan Serbia. Even officially neutral Spaniards sent their "Blue Division" near Leningrad!
In order to evaluate the national composition of all the European bastards who, hoping for easy prey, climbed up to us to kill Soviet and Russian people, I will give a table of that part of the foreign volunteers who guessed to surrender to us in time:
Germans – 2 389 560, Hungarians – 513 767, Romanians – 187 370, Austrians – 156 682, Czechs and Slovaks – 69 977, Poles – 60 280, Italians – 48 957, French people – 23 136, Croats – 21 822, Moldovans – 14 129, Jews – 10 173, Dutch – 4 729, Finns – 2 377, Belgians – 2 010, Luxembourgers – 1652, Danes – 457, Spaniards – 452, gypsies – 383, Norse – 101, Swedes – 72.
This table, first published at the end of 1990, should be repeated again and for these reasons. After the accession of “democracy” on the territory of the USSR, the table is continuously “improved” in terms of “enlarging lines”. As a result, in “serious” books by “professional historians” on the topic of war, say, in the statistical collection “Russia and the USSR in the Wars of the 20th Century” or in the reference book “The World of Russian History”, the data in this table are distorted. Some nationalities have disappeared from it.
Jews disappeared first., which, as you can see from the original table, served Hitler as many as the Finns and the Dutch combined. And I, for example, do not see why we should throw out Jewish verses from this Hitler song.
By the way, the Poles today are trying to push the Jews away from the position of “the main sufferers of the Second World War”, and there are more of them on the lists of prisoners than the Italians who officially and actually fought with us.
Why, and the presented table does not reflect the true quantitative and national composition of the prisoners. First of all, it does not represent at all our domestic scum, who, either due to acquired idiocy, or because of cowardice and cowardice, served the Germans - from Bandera to Vlasov.
By the way, they were punished to insultingly easily. It’s good if a Vlasovite fell into the hands of front-line soldiers as prisoners. Then he most often got what he deserved. But after all, traitors contrived to surrender to the rear units, dressed in civilian clothes, pretended to be Germans when they surrendered, etc. In this case, the Soviet court literally patted them on the head.
At one time, domestic anti-Sovietists published collections of their memoirs abroad. One of them describes the judicial “sufferings” of a Vlasovite who defended Berlin: he changed clothes ... to the Soviet soldiers who captured him ... introduced himself as a Frenchman and thus got to the military tribunal. And then reading his boasting is insulting: “They gave me five years of distant camps - and that was lucky. In a hurry, they considered it for the worker-peasant petty. Soldiers captured with weapons and officers were sculpted ten. When escorted to the camp, he fled to the West.
Five years for the murder of Soviet people and treason! What kind of punishment is this?! Well, at least 20, so that the spiritual wounds of widows and orphans heal and it would not be so insulting to look at these vile hari ...
For the same reason, they are not listed as prisoners of war. Crimean Tatars who stormed Sevastopol for Manstein, Kalmyks etc.
Not listed Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, who had their own national divisions as part of the Nazi troops, but were considered Soviet citizens and, therefore, served their meager terms in the GULAG camps, and not in the GUPVI camps. (GULAG - the main department of the camps - was engaged in keeping criminals, and GUPVI - the main department for prisoners of war and internees - prisoners.) Meanwhile, not all prisoners even got into the GUPVI, since this department counted only those who got into its rear camps from frontline transit points.
Estonian legionnaires of the Wehrmacht fought against the USSR with particular fury (ookaboo.com)
But since 1943, national divisions of Poles, Czechs, and Romanians began to form in the USSR to fight the Germans. And the prisoners of these nationalities were not sent to the GUPVI, but immediately to the recruitment points for such formations - they fought together with the Germans, let them fight against them! By the way, there were 600 thousand. Even de Gaulle was sent to his army 1500 French.
Before the start of the war with the USSR Hitler appealed to the Europeans to crusade against Bolshevism. Here is how they responded to it (data for June - October 1941, which do not take into account the huge military contingents Italy, Hungary, Romania and other allies of Hitler). From Spanish volunteers ( 18000 people) in the Wehrmacht, the 250th Infantry Division was formed. In July, the personnel took the oath to Hitler and departed for the Soviet-German front. During September-October 1941, from French volunteers (approx. 3000 people) the 638th Infantry Regiment was formed. In October, the regiment was sent to Smolensk, and then to Moscow. From Belgians in July 1941, the 373rd Walloon Battalion was formed (approximately 850 people), transferred to the 97th Infantry Division of the 17th Army of the Wehrmacht.
From Croatian Volunteers were formed by the 369th Infantry Regiment of the Wehrmacht and the Croatian Legion as part of the Italian troops. About 2000 Swedes signed up as a volunteer in Finland. Of these, approximately 850 people participated in the fighting near Hanko, as part of the Swedish volunteer battalion.
By the end of June 1941 294 Norwegians already served in the SS regiment "Nordland". After the start of the war with the USSR in Norway, the volunteer legion "Norway" was created ( 1200 human). After taking the oath to Hitler, he was sent to Leningrad. By the end of June 1941, the SS division "Viking" had 216 Danes. After the start of the war with the USSR, the Danish "Volunteer Corps" began to form.
Stand apart in aiding fascism are our Polish comrades. Immediately after the end of the German-Polish war, the idea of creating a Polish army fighting on the side of Germany came up with the Polish nationalist Wladislav Gizbert-Studnitsky. He developed a project to build a Polish 12-15 million pro-German state. Gizbert-Studnitsky proposed a plan to send Polish troops to the eastern front. Later the idea of a Polish-German alliance and 35 thousandth Polish army supported by the Sword and Plow organization associated with the Home Army.
In the first months of the war against the USSR, Polish soldiers in the fascist army had the so-called status hi-wi (volunteers). Later, Hitler gave special permission for the Poles to serve in the Wehrmacht. After that, in relation to the Poles, it was categorically forbidden to use the name hi-wi, because the Nazis treated them as full-fledged soldiers. Every Pole aged 16 to 50 could become a volunteer, it was only necessary to pass a preliminary medical examination.
The Poles, along with other European nations, were urged to stand "in defense of Western civilization from Soviet barbarism." Here is a quote from a Nazi leaflet in Polish: “The German armed forces are leading the decisive struggle to defend Europe from Bolshevism. Any honest assistant in this struggle will be welcomed as a comrade-in-arms ... "
The text of the oath of the Polish soldiers read: “I swear before God this sacred oath that in the fight for the future of Europe in the ranks of the German Wehrmacht I will be absolutely obedient to the Supreme Commander Adolf Hitler, and as a brave soldier I am ready at any time to devote my strength to fulfill this oath ... "
It is amazing that even the strictest guardian of the Aryan gene pool Himmler allowed to form units from the Poles SS. The first sign was the Goral Legion of the Waffen-SS. Gorals are an ethnic group within the Polish nation. In 1942, the Nazis convened a Goral Committee in Zakopane. Was appointed "Goralenführer" Vaclav Krzheptovsky.
He and his inner circle made a number of trips to cities and villages, calling them to fight against the worst enemy of civilization - Judeo-Bolshevism. It was decided to create a Goral volunteer legion of the Waffen-SS, adapted for operations in mountainous areas. Krzheptovsky managed to collect 410 highlanders. But after a medical examination in the SS bodies, it remained 300 human.
Another Polish Legion of the SS was formed in mid-July 1944. It was entered 1500 Polish volunteers. In October, the legion was based in Rzechow, in December near Tomaszow. In January 1945, the legion was divided into two groups (1st Lieutenant Macnik, 2nd Lieutenant Errling) and sent to participate in anti-partisan operations in the Tuchol forests. In February, both groups were destroyed by the Soviet army.
President of the Academy of Military Sciences, General of the Army Mahmut Gareev gave such an assessment of the participation of a number of European countries in the fight against fascism: During the war, all of Europe fought against us. Three hundred and fifty million people, regardless of whether they fought with weapons in their hands, or stood at the machine, producing weapons for the Wehrmacht, did one thing.
During World War II, 20,000 members of the French Resistance died. And 200,000 French fought against us. We also captured 60,000 Poles. 2 million European volunteers fought for Hitler against the USSR.
In this regard, it looks at least strange to invite military personnel from a number of countries NATO take part in the parade on Red Square in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory, - says a member of the International Association of Historians of the Second World War, Professor of the Military Humanitarian Academy, Colonel Yuri Rubtsov. - This insults the memory of our defenders of the Fatherland, who died at the hands of numerous "European friends of Hitler".
Helpful Conclusion
During the Second World War against the Soviet Union, which had an initial population of just over 190 million. people fought a European coalition of more than 400 million. people, and when we were not Russians, but Soviet citizens, we defeated this coalition.
All of Europe fought against us a
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According to some, during the Great Patriotic War, a million Soviet citizens went to fight under the tricolor flag. Sometimes they even talk about two million Russians who fought against the Bolshevik regime, but here they probably also count 700,000 emigrants. These figures are given for a reason - they are an argument for the assertion that the Great Patriotic War is the essence of the Second Civil War of the Russian people against the hated Stalin. What can be said here?
If it really happened that a million Russians stood up under the tricolor banners and fought to the death against the Red Army for a free Russia, shoulder to shoulder with their German allies, then we would have no choice but to admit that yes, The Great Patriotic War really became the Second Civil War for the Russian people. But was it so?
To figure it out, one way or another, you should answer a few questions: how many were there, who were they, how did they get into the service, how and with whom did they fight, and what motivated them?
The cooperation of Soviet citizens with the occupiers took place in various forms, both in terms of the degree of voluntariness and the degree of involvement in the armed struggle - from the Baltic SS volunteers who fought fiercely near Narva to the "Ostarbeiters" forcibly driven to Germany. I believe that even the most stubborn anti-Stalinists will not be able to enroll the latter in the ranks of the fighters against the Bolshevik regime without prevarication. Usually, these ranks include those who received rations from the German military or police department, or held in their hands received from the hands of the Germans or pro-German local government.
That is, to the maximum, potential fighters with the Bolsheviks fall into:
foreign military units of the Wehrmacht and the SS;
eastern security battalions;
building parts of the Wehrmacht;
auxiliary personnel of the Wehrmacht, they are also "our Ivans" or Hiwi (Hilfswilliger: "voluntary helpers");
auxiliary police units ("noise" - Schutzmannshaften);
border guard;
"air defense assistants" mobilized to Germany through youth organizations;
HOW MANY WAS THEM?
We will probably never know the exact numbers, since no one really considered them, but some estimates are available to us. A lower estimate can be obtained from the archives of the former NKVD - until March 1946, 283,000 "Vlasov" and other uniformed collaborators were transferred to the authorities. The estimate from above can probably be taken from the works of Drobyazko, which serve as the main source of figures for the proponents of the "Second Civil" version. According to his calculations (the method of which, unfortunately, he does not disclose), the following passed through the Wehrmacht, the SS and various pro-German paramilitaries and police forces during the war years:
250,000 Ukrainians
70,000 Belarusians
70,000 Cossacks
150,000 Latvians
90,000 Estonians
50,000 Lithuanians
70,000 Central Asians
12,000 Volga Tatars
10,000 Crimean Tatars
7,000 Kalmyks
40,000 Azerbaijanis
25,000 Georgians
20,000 Armenians
30,000 North Caucasian peoples
Since the total number of all former Soviet citizens wearing German and pro-German uniforms is estimated at 1.2 million, the Russians (excluding Cossacks) are left with about 310,000 people. There are, of course, other calculations that give a smaller total number, but let's not waste time on trifles, let's take Drobyazko's estimate from above as the basis for further reasoning.
WHO WERE THEY?
Hiwi and soldiers of the construction battalions can hardly be considered civil war fighters. Of course, their work freed German soldiers for the front, but exactly the same applies to the "Ostarbeiters". Occasionally, the hiwi were given weapons and fought alongside the Germans, but such occurrences are described in the unit's combat logs more as a curiosity than as a mass phenomenon. It is interesting to calculate how many were those who actually held weapons in their hands.
The number of hiwis at the end of the war by Drobiazko is about 675,000, if you add construction units and take into account the losses during the war, then I think we are not very wrong in assuming that this category covers about 700-750,000 people out of a total of 1.2 million. This is consistent with with a share of non-combat among the Caucasian peoples, in the calculation presented by the headquarters of the eastern troops at the end of the war. According to him, out of a total of 102,000 Caucasians who passed through the Wehrmacht and the SS, 55,000 served in the legions, Luftwaffe and SS and 47,000 in hiwi and construction units. It must be taken into account that the proportion of Caucasians enrolled in combat units was higher than the proportion of Slavs.
So, out of 1.2 million who wore German uniforms, only 450-500 thousand did this, holding weapons in their hands. Let's now try to calculate the layout of the really combat units of the Eastern peoples.
Asian battalions (Caucasians, Turks and Tatars) were formed 75 pieces (80,000 people). Including 10 Crimean police battalions (8,700), Kalmyks and special units, there are approximately 110,000 "combat" Asians out of a total of 215,000. It quite beats with the layout separately for Caucasians.
The Baltics endowed the Germans with 93 police battalions (later partly reduced to regiments), with a total number of 33,000 people. In addition, 12 border regiments (30,000) were formed, partly staffed by police battalions, then three SS divisions (15, 19 and 20) and two volunteer regiments were created, through which about 70,000 people probably passed. Police and border regiments and battalions were partly directed to their formation. Taking into account the absorption of some units by others, in total, about 100,000 Balts passed through the combat units.
In Belarus, 20 police battalions (5,000) were formed, of which 9 were considered Ukrainian. After the introduction of mobilization in March 1944, police battalions became part of the army of the Belarusian Central Rada. In total, the Belarusian Regional Defense (BKA) had 34 battalions, 20,000 people. Having retreated in 1944 together with the German troops, these battalions were consolidated into the Siegling SS Brigade. Then, on the basis of the brigade, with the addition of Ukrainian "policemen", the remnants of the Kaminsky brigade and even the Cossacks, the 30th SS division was deployed, which was subsequently used to staff the 1st Vlasov division.
Galicia was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was seen as a potential German territory. It was separated from Ukraine, included in the Reich, as part of the General Government of Warsaw and put in line for Germanization. On the territory of Galicia, 10 police battalions (5,000) were formed, and subsequently the recruitment of volunteers for the SS troops was announced. It is believed that 70,000 volunteers turned up at the recruiting sites, but that many were not needed. As a result, one SS division (14th) and five police regiments were formed. Police regiments were disbanded as needed and sent to replenish the division. The total contribution of Galicia to the victory over Stalinism can be estimated at 30,000 people.
In the rest of Ukraine, 53 police battalions (25,000) were formed. It is known that a small part of them became part of the 30th SS division, the fate of the rest is unknown to me. After the formation in March 1945 of the Ukrainian analogue of the KONR - the Ukrainian National Committee - the Galician 14th SS division was renamed the 1st Ukrainian and the formation of the 2nd began. It was formed from volunteers of Ukrainian nationality recruited from various auxiliary formations, they recruited about 2,000 people.
Of the Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians, about 90 security "Ostbattalions" were formed, through which approximately 80,000 people passed, including the "Russian National People's Army" reorganized into five security battalions. Other Russian combat units include the 3,000-strong 1st Russian National SS Brigade Gil (Rodionov), which went over to the side of the partisans, the approximately 6,000-strong "Russian National Army" of Smyslovsky, and the army of Kaminsky ("Russian Liberation People's Army"), which arose as the self-defense forces of the so-called. Lokot Republic. Maximum estimates of the number of people who passed through Kaminsky's army reach 20,000. After 1943, Kaminsky's troops retreated along with the German army and in 1944 an attempt was made to reorganize them into the 29th SS division. For a number of reasons, the reorganization was canceled, and the personnel were transferred to the understaffing of the 30th SS division. At the beginning of 1945, the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (the Vlasov army) were created. The first division of the army is formed from the "ost battalions" and the remnants of the 30th SS division. The second division is formed from the "Ostbattalions", and partly from volunteer prisoners of war. The number of Vlasovites before the end of the war is estimated at 40,000 people, of which about 30,000 were former SS and Ostbattalions. In total, about 120,000 Russians fought in the Wehrmacht and the SS with weapons in their hands at different times.
The Cossacks, according to Drobyazko's calculations, put up 70,000 people, let's accept this figure.
HOW DID THEY GET INTO THE SERVICE?
Initially, the eastern parts were staffed with volunteers from among the prisoners of war and the local population. Since the summer of 1942, the principle of recruiting the local population has changed from voluntary to voluntary-compulsory - an alternative to voluntary entry into the police is forced deportation to Germany, "ostarbeiter". By the autumn of 1942, the undisguised coercion begins. Drobyazko, in his dissertation, talks about raids on peasants in the Shepetovka region: those caught were offered a choice between joining the police or being sent to a camp. Since 1943, compulsory military service has been introduced in various "self-defenses" of the Reichskommissariat "Ostland". In the Baltic States, through mobilization, since 1943, SS units and border guards were recruited.
HOW AND WITH WHOM DID THEY FIGHT?
Initially, the Slavic eastern parts were created to carry out security services. In this capacity, they were supposed to replace the security battalions of the Wehrmacht, which, like a vacuum cleaner, were sucked out of the rear zone by the needs of the front. At first, the soldiers of the Ostbattalions guarded warehouses and railways, but as the situation became more complicated, they began to be involved in anti-partisan operations. The involvement of the Ostbattalions in the fight against the partisans contributed to their disintegration. If in 1942 the number of “Ostbattalion” soldiers who went over to the side of the partisans was relatively small (although this year the Germans were forced to disband the RNNA due to massive defections), then in 1943 14 thousand fled to the partisans (and this is very, very quite a few, with an average number of eastern units in 1943 of about 65,000 people). The Germans had no strength to observe the further decomposition of the Ostbattalions, and in October 1943 the remaining eastern units were sent to France and Denmark (while disarming 5-6 thousand volunteers as unreliable). There they were included as 3rd or 4th battalions in the regiments of the German divisions.
Slavic eastern battalions, with rare exceptions, were not used in battles on the eastern front. In contrast, a significant number of Asian Ostbattalions were involved in the first line of the advancing German troops during the battle for the Caucasus. The results of the battles were contradictory - some showed themselves well, others - on the contrary, turned out to be infected with deserter moods and gave a large percentage of defectors. By the beginning of 1944, most of the Asian battalions also ended up on the Western Wall. Those who remained in the East were consolidated into the Eastern Turkic and Caucasian SS formations and were involved in the suppression of the Warsaw and Slovak uprisings.
In total, by the time of the Allied invasion in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, 72 Slavic, Asian and Cossack battalions with a total strength of about 70 thousand were assembled. In general, and in general, the Ostbattalions in battles with the allies showed themselves poorly (with some exceptions). Of the almost 8.5 thousand irretrievable losses, 8 thousand were missing, that is, most of them were deserters and defectors. After that, the remaining battalions were disarmed and involved in fortification work on the Siegfried Line. Subsequently, they were used to form parts of the Vlasov army.
In 1943, Cossack units were also withdrawn from the east. The most combat-ready unit of the German Cossack troops, formed in the summer of 1943, the 1st Cossack division von Panwitz went to Yugoslavia to deal with Tito's partisans. There, they gradually gathered all the Cossacks, deploying the division into a corps. The division took part in the battles on the Eastern Front in 1945, fighting mainly against the Bulgarians.
The Baltic States gave the largest number of troops to the front - in addition to three SS divisions, separate police regiments and battalions took part in the battles. The 20th Estonian SS division was defeated near Narva, but subsequently restored and managed to take part in the last battles of the war. The Latvian 15th and 19th SS divisions in the summer of 1944 came under attack by the Red Army and could not withstand the blow. Large scale desertion and loss of combat capability are reported. As a result, the 15th division, having transferred its most reliable composition to the 19th, was assigned to the rear for use in the construction of fortifications. The second time it was used in combat in January 1945, in East Prussia, after which it was again withdrawn to the rear. She managed to surrender to the Americans. The 19th remained until the end of the war in Courland.
Belarusian policemen and those freshly mobilized in the BKA in 1944 were assembled in the 30th SS division. After the formation, the division in September 1944 was transferred to France, where it took part in battles with the allies. Suffered heavy losses mainly from desertion. Belarusians ran across to the allies in batches and continued the war in the Polish units. In December, the division was disbanded, and the remaining personnel were transferred to staff the 1st Vlasov division.
The Galician 14th SS division, barely smelling gunpowder, was surrounded near Brody and almost completely destroyed. Although she was quickly restored, she no longer took part in the battles at the front. One of her regiments was involved in the suppression of the Slovak uprising, after which she went to Yugoslavia to fight Tito's pratizans. Since it was not far from Yugoslavia to Austria, the division managed to surrender to the British.
The armed forces of the KONR were formed in early 1945. Although the 1st division of the Vlasovites was staffed almost entirely by punitive veterans, many of whom had already been at the front, Vlasov soared Hitler's brains by demanding more time to prepare. In the end, the division still managed to get to the Oder front, where it took part in one attack against the Soviet troops on April 13. The very next day, the division commander, Major General Bunyachenko, ignoring the protests of his German immediate superior, took the division from the front and went to join the rest of Vlasov's army in the Czech Republic. The Vlasov army fought the second battle already against its ally, attacking German troops in Prague on May 5.
WHAT MOVED THEM?
The driving motives were completely different.
First, among the eastern troops, one can single out the national separatists who fought for the creation of their own nation state, or at least a privileged province of the Reich. This includes the Balts, Asian legionnaires and Galicians. The creation of units of this kind has a long tradition - to recall at least the Czechoslovak Corps or the Polish Legion in the First World War. These would fight against the central government, no matter who sits in Moscow - the tsar, the secretary general or the popularly elected president.
Secondly, there were ideological and stubborn opponents of the regime. These include the Cossacks (although partly their motives were national separatist), part of the personnel of the Ostbattalions, a significant part of the officer corps of the KONR troops.
Thirdly, we can name the opportunists who bet on the winner, those who joined the Reich during the victories of the Wehrmacht, but fled to the partisans after the defeat at Kursk and continued to flee at the first opportunity. These probably made up a significant part of the Ostbattalions and the local police. There were also those from the other side of the front, as can be seen from the change in the number of defectors to the Germans in 1942-44:
1942 79,769
1943 26,108
1944 9,207
Fourthly, these were people who hoped to break out of the camp and, at a convenient opportunity, go to their own. It is difficult to say how many of these there were, but sometimes they were recruited for a whole battalion.
AND WHAT IS THE RESULT?
And the result is a picture that is not at all similar to those that are drawn by ardent anti-communists. Instead of one (or even two) million Russians rallying under the tricolor flag in the fight against the hateful Stalinist regime, there is a very motley (and obviously not reaching a million) company of Balts, Asians, Galicians and Slavs who fought each for their own. And mostly not with the Stalinist regime, but with partisans (and not only Russians, but also with Yugoslav, Slovak, French, Polish), Western allies, and even with the Germans in general. Doesn't look much like a civil war, does it? Well, except to call these words the struggle of partisans with policemen, but the policemen fought by no means under the tricolor flag, but with a swastika on their sleeves.
For the sake of justice, it should be noted that until the end of 1944, until the formation of the KONR and its armed forces, the Germans did not provide an opportunity for Russian anti-communists to fight for the national idea, for Russia without the communists. It can be assumed that if they had allowed this earlier, more people would have rallied “under the tricolor flag”, especially since there were still plenty of opponents of the Bolsheviks in the country. But this is “would” and besides, my grandmother said in two. But in real life, there were no “millions under the tricolor flag”.
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30.04.2018, 11:25
Russian fascism / General Vlasov conducts a review of troops
On the eve of the escalation of victory in Russia, the author Bez Taboo debunks the myth of Russians as the main anti-fascists and recalls how many Russians were loyal followers of Hitler during World War II.
The closer the next anniversary of the victory over Hitler and his allies in World War II, the more obscurantism in the Russian information space. Initially, the false propaganda theses of Soviet propaganda are periodically brought to neighboring states, where the Russian-speaking population has always been enough. And okay, downplaying the role of the Americans and the British - everyone has long been accustomed to this. But the labeling of enemies and non-humans on representatives of individual nations is already quite fed up with the order.
In Lvov, the other day, the 75th anniversary of the SS division "Galicia" was very solemnly celebrated, which, according to false Kremlin reports, destroyed "millions of Russians, Poles and Ukrainians" during the war. In fact, the scale of the division's misdeeds, which nevertheless took place, is measured by much smaller values. And the purpose of such interaction with the Nazis was quite good - the acquisition of state sovereignty. The enemy was terrible - it was the communists who carried out a bloody massacre in Ukraine during the so-called “civil war”, later killed millions of Ukrainians during artificial famine and repression, and for their short reign in Western Ukraine in 1939-1941 they physically destroyed hundreds of thousands of people and more more were taken to Siberia to certain death.
Mass media behind the curb reacted to this already everyday event for us in the usual style. They remembered that the “bloody junta” is still sitting in Kyiv. Do not forget that even Yushchenko once awarded the title of Heroes of Ukraine to Bandera and Shukhevych. Some even remembered the oppression of the Russian-speaking population through Ukrainization and decommunization. However, everyone kept silent about the main thing, because the command came from the very top to ignore the obvious facts.
On the issue of St. George ribbons
The fact is that the scale of Russian cooperation with the occupiers is much more impressive than the total number of Ukrainian real and imaginary collaborators. Precedents like the Russian Liberation Army led by General Vlasov are known to everyone, since the deeds of the Vlasovites were captured at least in popular culture and literature. But a hundred thousand "fighters against communism" who minted a step under the cheerful march "We are walking in wide fields" turn out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Moreover, some modern historians generally treat the ROA somewhat favorably because of the change in priorities at the end of the war, when it suddenly began hostilities against the "feeding hand" in the face of agonizing Germany.
But there are also less known pages of shameful history. For example, the participation of individual citizens of the USSR in the activities of the 36th SS Grenadier Division under the command of Oscar Dirlenwanger, a surprisingly cruel and bloodthirsty man. It was this "death brigade" that burned down Khatyn, Borki and other lesser-known villages. It was they who, without the slightest pity, dealt with partisans on the territory of present-day Russia and Belarus. It was they who brutally suppressed the uprising in Warsaw in 1944. And the Russian battalion, formed mainly of criminals, shed blood hand in hand with the Germans. Although especially compassionate fasteners, in response to claims, may notice that Dirlenwanger allegedly needed the Russians only in the status of cannon fodder (like Assad, like Putin).
The Nazis also actively recruited numerous Cossack units under their wing. The 15th SS Cossack Corps, for example, consisted of 3 divisions and 16 regiments. And they fought against the Soviet regime selflessly. This fact is mentioned in passing even in one of the films about agent 007, but the authorities seem to have taken water in their mouths. But everything turned out really inconsistently: the Crimean Tatars, Chechens and other ethnic groups fell under repression allegedly because of mass cooperation with the enemy, and the punitive right hand of the Kremlin passed the Don and Kuban villages. One can, of course, recall how the Allies handed over the Cossacks to Moscow after the war. But if we raise the statistics, then there will be just a few Cossacks there - mainly emigrants of the first wave, who left for the West even before the official creation of the USSR, were hit.
Russian fascists receive a blessing to fight the Red Army
However, if you dig deeper, it turns out that yesterday's white officers also did not deny themselves the pleasure of fighting against former fellow citizens (and not only). What is worth only one Russian security corps in Serbia, headed by a prominent monarchist, Lieutenant General Boris Shteifon. "White bone", unlike the peasants, was excellently trained in military affairs, and the Yugoslav partisans from units totaling 12 thousand people suffered a lot in four years. Similar combat units at different times also lit up in Central Europe and the Baltic countries. It would be possible to recall the South American affairs, but they just do not touch on this topic.
This puts Kremlin propaganda in an extremely awkward position. If you call a spade a spade, it turns out that mass culture sang of the wrong people. And the St. George ribbons - a symbol of the Vlasovites, and the peppy Cossack tunes of Rosenbaum will become an ode to unreliable renegade double-dealers. And the romance "Russian Field" will be perceived, among other things, as an anthem for unprincipled "wild geese". And most importantly, the myth about the Russians as the main anti-fascists in world history will be immediately dispelled.
Even if we recall the battalions "Nachtigal", "Roland" and other few units on the side of the Germans, then there will still not be fifty thousand Ukrainians there. And there are at least a million Russians, and this despite the fact that some sources are clearly sinning with inaccuracies. And who are the true fascists here, can you tell me?
Vitaly Mogilevsky, No Taboo
As a postscript - a list of Russian combat units that served Hitler:
- The Russian Liberation People's Army of the Wehrmacht (ROA), by the way, performed under the Russian tricolor, which became the banner of modern Russia. The ROA included 12 security corps, 13 divisions, 30 brigades;
- Fighting Union of Russian Nationalists (BSRN);
- RONA (Russian Liberation People's Army) - 5 regiments, 18 battalions;
- 1st Russian National Army (RNNA) - 3 regiments, 12 battalions.
- Russian National Army - 2 regiments, 12 battalions;
- Division "Russland";
- Cossack Stan;
- Congress for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR);
- Russian Liberation Army of the Congress for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (3 divisions, 2 brigades).
- Air Force KONR (KONR Aviation Corps) - 87 aircraft, 1 air group, 1 regiment;
- Lokot Republic;
- Detachment Zueva;
- Eastern battalions and companies;
- 15th Cossack Russian Corps of SS troops - 3 divisions, 16 regiments;
- 1st Sinegorsk Ataman Cossack Regiment;
- 1st Cossack division (Germany);
- 7th Volunteer Cossack Division;
- Military Cossack unit "Free Kuban";
- 448 Cossack detachment;
- 30th SS Grenadier Division (Second Russian);
- Brigade of General A.V.Turkul;
- 1st Russian National SS Brigade "Druzhina" (1st Russian National SS Detachment);
- Regiment "Varangian" Colonel M.A. Semenov;
- Higher German school for Russian officers;
- Dabendorf school ROA;
- Russian detachment of the 9th army of the Wehrmacht;
- SS Volunteer Regiment "Varyag";
- SS Volunteer Regiment "Desna";
- 1st Eastern Volunteer Regiment, consisting of two battalions - "Berezina" and "Dnepr" (from September -601 and 602nd Eastern battalions);
- Eastern battalion "Pripyat" (604th);
- 645th battalion;
- Separate regiment of Colonel Krzhizhanovsky;
- Volunteer Belgian Walloon Legion of the Wehrmacht;
- 5th assault brigade of the SS troops "Wallonia" with the SS Panzer Division "Viking";
- Brotherhood of "Russian Truth";
- Battalion Muraviev;
- Detachment of Nikolai Kozin;
- Russian volunteers in the Luftwaffe;
- Guards of the Russian fascist party;
- Corps of the Russian monarchist party;
- Russian Fascist Party;
- Russian National Labor Party;
- People's Socialist Party;
- Fighting union of Russian nationalists;
- Russian People's Labor Party;
- The political center of the fight against the Bolsheviks;
- Union of Russian activists;
- Russian People's Party of Realists;
- Organization Zeppelin;
- Hivi ("hilfsvillige" - "voluntary helpers").
- Russian personnel of the SS division "Charlemagne";
- Russian personnel of the SS division "Dirlewanger".
In addition, the 12th Reserve Corps of the Wehrmacht at various times included large formations of the Eastern troops, such as:
- Cossack (Russian) security corps of 15 regiments;
- 162nd Ostlegion Training Division of 6 regiments;
- 740th Cossack (Russian) reserve brigade of 6 battalions;
- Cossack (Russian) Group of the Marching Ataman of 4 regiments;
- Cossack group of Colonel von Panwitz from 6 regiments;
- Consolidated Cossack (Russian) field police division "Von Schulenburg".
Combat emblems of Russian collaborators
In total, about 200 red and white Russian generals served the Nazis:
- 20 Soviet citizens became Russian fascist generals;
- 3 Lieutenant General Vlasov A.A., Trukhin F.N., Malyshkin V.F.;
- 1 divisional commissioner Zhilenkov G.N.;
- 6 Major Generals Zakutny D.E., Blagoveshchensky I.A., Bogdanov P.V., Budykhto A.E., Naumov A.Z., Salikhov B.B.;
- 3 brigade commander: Bessonov I.G., Bogdanov M.V.; Sevostyanov A.I;
Major General Bunyachenko - commander of the 600th division of the Wehrmacht (it is also the 1st division of the ROA SV KONR), former colonel, commander of the Red Army division.
Major General Maltsev - commander of the Air Force KONR, former director of the sanatorium "Aviator", formerly commander of the Air Force of the Siberian Military District, colonel in the reserve of the Red Army.
Major General Kononov - commander of the 3rd Consolidated Cossack Plastun Brigade of the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS troops of the Main Operational Directorate of the SS (FHA-SS), former major, commander of the Red Army regiment.
Major General Zverev - commander of the 650th division of the Wehrmacht (it is also the 2nd division of the ROA Armed Forces of the KONR), a former colonel, commander of the Red Army division.
Major General Domanov - commander of the Cossack Security Corps of the Cossack Camp of the Main Directorate of the Cossack Troops of the Main Directorate of the SS (FA-SS), a former secret officer of the NKVD.
Major General Pavlov - marching ataman, commander of the Group of the Marching ataman of the GUKV.
Waffenbrigadenführer - Major General of the SS Troops Kaminsky B.S. - Commander of the 29th Grenadier Division of the SS "RONA" of the Main Operational Directorate of the SS, a former engineer.
The data on Russian collaborationists was collected by the Russian historian Igor Garin, all of them are easily confirmed in just two clicks.
