Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement: Soviet Reality and Emigré Theories

Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies

by Catherine Andreyev

This book deals with the attempt by Soviet citizens to create an anti-Soviet Liberation Movement during the Second World War. The Movement's ultimate importance lies in its expression of grass-roots opposition to the Soviet regime, the first substantial such efflorescence since 1922. The motivation of its titular leader, Vlasov, is examined in detail, as is its fundamental ideology, analyzed within the context not merely of wartime but of prewar Soviet and Russian emigré society.

Genres: Russia

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 29, 1987

Reviews

[Eric Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lieutenant General Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov rose steadily in the ranks of the Red Army until finally put in charge of one of Stalin's "shock armies" and entrusted with the defence of Kiev during the German invasion. When his army was encircled and destroyed, Vlasov was captured by the Germans and switched sides. He founded and led a "Russian Liberation Movement" which aimed to free Russia from Stalinist rule and negotiate "peace with honour" with the Third Reich. By November 1944, his Russian Liberation Army, armed and equipped by the Germans, was finally allowed to take to the field, but its only really memorable -- and honourable -- act was to join up with Czech insurgents and take on the SS in Prague in the closing days of the war. This final switching of sides did nothing to save Vlasov; he and his officers were arrested, taken back to the Soviet Union, where they were tried and hanged in 1946. The story of Vlasov, his movement and above all his ideas is thoroughly tackled in this detailed academic work. The author goes a step too far, I think, when she writes of the 1921 sailors' revolt in Krontstadt that "many of these attitudes and ideas [of the Kronstadt rebels] are echoed in the programme of the Russian Liberation Movement ... The Kronstadters and the supporters of the Russian Liberation Movement shared a common outlook on the achievements of the Soviet state ... Both ... saw 1917 as the inauguration of a process which could only be brought to fruition by a new 'third' revolution." And so on. I don't think so. Comparing the rebellious Kronstadt sailors, who were Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, anarchists and disillusioned Bolsheviks to Vlasov's "movement", which was part of the Third Reich's military forces, is simply wrong and dishonours the memory of the heroes of Kronstadt. But Andreyev does a service by going into detail about the ideas of the Vlasov movement, even if that movement in the end was little more than an ugly footnote to the history of the second world war.

[Morten Juhl-Johansen Zôlde-Fejér · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the one book I have tagged with five stars.
This is a book adaptation of Catherine Andreyev's doctoral dissertation from Cambridge, and she has sifted through an impressive amount of documentation on the Russian Liberation Movement in Russian, German and English.
The Russian Liberation is a group featuring Soviet soldiers fighting on the German side in World War II - their motives are still being discussed, as I featured in an article I wrote.
What this means is that she has made a book which goes into great detail on the parties involved in this area. What is unusual in this is that it is quite balanced compared to a lot of the sources available, and while some would present the Russian Liberation Movement/Army as a homogenous group, Ms. Andreyev takes a nuanced wiew of the different personalities and groups involved - and the internal and external friction, division inside the movement and with the German officers who are not uniformly pleased with putting former POWs in uniform and giving them a weapon.

[Stephen Crawford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Russian Liberation Army is an incredibly complex subject, yet this book manages to handle it from a very fair and neutral perspective. It's short, fairly readable (if you are interested in the subject) and unfortunately out of print.

A fellow parishioner was kind enough to loan this and several other books to me on the RLA. I feel like I can finally make an educated decision on the RLA. They were not a monolith, but most of them were naive, prone to infighting, and saw the Revolution of 1917 as something to be completed rather than reversed. All the best groups were persecuted by the Nazis and didn't like the more mainstream RLA figures.

Hitler lost an incredible opportunity to destroy Communism because of his untermensch theories; ultimately, he got the defeat he deserved. Millions of Russians were prevented from fighting for Germany because of their Slav genetics.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book seems a little disjointed and there is a lot of speculation as opposed to concrete facts, but I still enjoyed it as there is not a lot of literature on this subject.