Three times loyal general. The last secret of Andrei Vlasov. Vlasov. The story of betrayal What happened to General Vlasov

The lies of totalitarian ideology gave rise to myths. Myths that became truth for several generations of Soviet people. Some of the characters in these myths were frightened, others were elevated to the rank of heroes, and some, especially fast myth-makers, managed to earn titles, ranks and quite good social benefits from their work.

But history is a terrible thing, and sooner or later the truth, no matter how unsightly, becomes known. People, as a rule, are in no hurry to part with myths. It is more comfortable...

From a yellowed photograph, and smart, slightly ironic eyes are looking at me. And old-fashioned saucer glasses, touchingly held together with duct tape, give them an academic expression. If it weren’t for the uniform and the general’s stars in the buttonholes, one could assume that the person in the photo is a school teacher.

This photo is over fifty years old. It was made in the summer of 1941 in besieged Kyiv, and only recently declassified from archival special storage facilities. Personally, I will never forget when I received it in my hands and read on the back the bold ink stamp “DECLASSIFIED.”

And all these years, the person depicted in the photo had one - only one title-stamp in the Soviet Union - “traitor general”....

It got to the tragic-comic level, some fairly well-known Soviet journalists - namesakes of the general - hastening to prove their innocence - signed - “.... - not a relative of the traitor general.

Everything in this world is changeable - in the morning you are a national hero, a favorite of the authorities, and by the evening, you see, you have become a traitor. This is exactly the story that happened to the combat lieutenant general of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov. A story that has lasted for more than half a century. Maybe it's time to finally tell the truth. A truth that not everyone will accept...

WHO ARE YOU, GENERAL VLASOV?

So - autumn 1941. The Germans attack Kyiv. However, they cannot take the city. The defense has been greatly strengthened. And the Kiev Special Fortified Area is headed by a forty-year-old Major General of the Red Army, commander of the 37th Army, Andrei Vlasov. A legendary figure in the army. He has gone all the way - from private to general.

He went through the civil war, completed two courses at the Nizhny Novgorod Theological Seminary, and studied at the Academy of the General Staff of the Red Army. Personal friend of Vasily Blucher. Konstantin Rokossovsky, and...Chan-kan-shi....

Just before the war, Andrei Vlasov, then still a colonel, was sent to China as military advisers to Chai-kan-shi. He received the Order of the Golden Dragon (according to other information from the White Moon) and a gold watch as a reward, which aroused the envy of the entire generals of the Red Army. However, Vlasov was not happy for long. Upon returning home, at the Alma-Ata customs, the order itself, as well as other generous gifts from Generalissimo Chai-kan-shi, were confiscated by the NKVD...

Returning home, Vlasov quickly received general's stars and an appointment to the 99th Infantry Division, famous for its backwardness. A year later, in 1940, the division was recognized as the best in the Red Army and was the first among the units to be awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Battle. Immediately after this, Vlasov, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense, took command of one of the four created fur corps. Headed by a general, he was stationed in Lvov, and was practically one of the very first units of the Red Army to enter hostilities. Even Soviet historians were forced to admit that the Germans “got punched in the face for the first time,” precisely from the mechanized corps of General Vlasov. However, the forces were unequal, the corps was practically destroyed and the Red Army retreated to Kyiv.

It was here that Joseph Stalin, shocked by Vlasov’s courage and ability to fight (and on the personal recommendation of Nikita Khrushchev), ordered the general to gather the retreating units in Kyiv, form the 37th Army and defend Kyiv.

So, Kyiv, August-September 1941. Fierce fighting is taking place near Kyiv. German troops are suffering colossal losses. In Kyiv itself... there are trams. People who remember those days claim that during the defense only a few shells exploded on the city streets.

However, the well-known Georgy Zhukov insists on the surrender of Kyiv to the attacking Germans. After a small intra-army “showdown,” Joseph Stalin gives the order: “Leave Kyiv.” It is unknown why Vlasov’s headquarters was the last to receive this order. History is silent about this. However, according to some as yet unconfirmed data, this was revenge on the obstinate general. The revenge of none other than Army General Georgy Zhukov. After all, just recently, a few weeks ago, Zhukov, while inspecting the positions of the 37th Army, came to Vlasov and wanted to stay the night. Vlasov, knowing Zhukov’s character, decided to joke and offered Zhukov the best dugout, warning him about night shelling. According to eyewitnesses, the army general, whose face changed after these words, hastened to retreat from his position. Well, in the evening, at dinner, the officers discussed Zhukov’s “district” in every detail. It’s clear, said the officers present at the time, who wants to expose their head... And knowing the “knock system of those years,” one can only assume how quickly Zhukov learned about the officers’ conversation...

On the night of September 19, practically undestroyed Kyiv was abandoned by Soviet troops. Later, we all learned that 600,000 military personnel ended up in the “Kiev cauldron” through Zhukov’s efforts. The only one who withdrew his army from encirclement with minimal losses was “Andrei Vlasov, who did not receive the order to withdraw.”

Having been out of the Kyiv encirclement for almost a month, Vlasov caught a cold and was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of inflammation of the middle ear. However, after a telephone conversation with Stalin, the general immediately left for Moscow. The role of General Vlasov in the defense of the capital is discussed in the article “The failure of the German plan to encircle and capture Moscow” in the newspapers “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “Izvestia” and “Pravda” dated December 13, 1941. Moreover, among the troops the general is called nothing less than “the savior of Moscow.” And in the “Certificate for the Army Commander Comrade. Vlasov A.A.”, dated 24.2.1942 and signed by Deputy. Head Personnel Department of NPOs of the Personnel Directorate of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Zhukov and Head. The Sector of the Personnel Administration of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) reads: “By working as a regiment commander from 1937 to 1938 and by working as a rifle division commander from 1939 to 1941, Vlasov is certified as comprehensively developed, well prepared in operational-tactical attitude by the commander.” (Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 3, pp. 9-10.).

This has never happened in the history of the Red Army, possessing only 15 tanks, General Vlasov’s units stopped Walter Model’s tank army in the Moscow suburb of Solnechegorsk, and pushed back the Germans, who were already preparing for the parade on Moscow’s Red Square, 100 kilometers away, liberating three cities. .. There was something to get the nickname “Savior of Moscow” from.

After the battle of Moscow, the general was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.

WHAT IS LEFT BEHIND THE SOVINFORMBURO REPORTS?

And everything would be just great if, after the completely mediocre operational policy of the Headquarters and the General Staff, Leningrad found itself in a ring akin to Stalingrad. And the Second Shock Army, sent to the rescue of Leningrad, was hopelessly blocked in Myasny Bor. This is where the fun begins. Stalin demanded punishment for those responsible for the current situation. And the highest military officials sitting on the General Staff really did not want to “give” their friends and drinking buddies, the commanders of the Second Shock, to Stalin. One of them wanted to have absolute command of the front, without having any organizational abilities for this. The second, no less “skillful,” wanted to take this power away from him. The third of these “friends,” who drove the Red Army soldiers of the Second Shock Army in parade step under German fire, later became the Marshal of the USSR and the Minister of Defense of the USSR. The fourth, who did not give a single clear command to the troops, imitated a nervous attack and left... to serve in the General Staff. Stalin was informed that “the group’s command needs to strengthen its leadership.” It was here that Stalin was reminded of General Vlasov, who was appointed commander of the Second Shock Army. Andrei Vlasov understood that he was flying to his death. As a person who had gone through the crucible of this war in Kiev and Moscow, he knew that the army was doomed, and no miracle would save it. Even if this miracle is himself - General Andrei Vlasov, the savior of Moscow.

One can only imagine what the military general in the Douglas, flinching from the explosions of German anti-aircraft guns, changed his mind, and who knows,

The German anti-aircraft gunners were luckier, and they would shoot down this Douglas. No matter what grimace history makes. And now we would not have the heroically deceased Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov. According to existing, I emphasize, information that has not yet been confirmed, there was a proposal for Vlasov on Stalin’s table. And the Supreme Commander-in-Chief even signed it...

Official propaganda presents further events as follows: traitor general A. Vlasov voluntarily surrendered. With all the ensuing consequences...

But few people to this day know that when the fate of the Second Shock became obvious, Stalin sent a plane for Vlasov. Of course, the general was his favorite. But Andrei Andreevich has already made his choice. And he refused to evacuate, sending a wounded military doctor on the plane. They say that this woman is still alive today.

Eyewitnesses of this incident say that the general said through gritted teeth, “What kind of commander abandons his army to destruction.”

There are eyewitness accounts that Vlasov refused to abandon the fighters of the 2nd Shock Army who were actually dying of hunger due to the criminal mistakes of the Supreme Command and fly away to save his life. And not Germans, but Russians, who went through the horrors of the German and then Stalinist camps and, despite this, did not accuse Vlasov of treason. General Vlasov with a handful of fighters decided to break through to his...

Soviet propaganda knew its job very well. When the “scandal” around Vlasov began, what was the main thing? Far from it being that he “betrayed”. They were targeting mass participation and morality - endless stories began in the press that “Vlasov had women. A lot of women...”. Interestingly, at the same time, and in the same years, national heroes Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky had exactly the same number of women. Moreover, order in the personal lives of these “non-traitors” was personally restored by.... Joseph Stalin. But the press and propaganda preferred to remain silent about this. They chose to make General Vlasov with his two OFFICIAL and LEGAL wives the main libertine of the Red Army.

CAPTIVITY

On the night of July 12, 1942, Vlasov and a handful of soldiers accompanying him went to the Old Believer village of Tukhovezhi and took refuge in a barn. And at night, the barn where the encirclement found shelter was broken into... no, not the Germans. To this day it is unknown who these people really were. According to one version, these were amateur partisans. According to another, armed local residents, led by a church warden, decided to buy the favor of the Germans at the cost of the general’s stars. That same night, General Andrei Vlasov and the soldiers accompanying him were handed over to regular German troops. They say that before this the general was severely beaten. Please note - your...

One of the Red Army soldiers who accompanied Vlasov then testified to SMERSH investigators: “When we were handed over to the Germans, they wanted to shoot everyone without talking. The general came forward and said, “Don’t shoot! I am General Vlasov. My people are unarmed!” That’s the whole story of “voluntary capture.” By the way, between June and December 1941, 3.8 million Soviet military personnel were captured by Germans, in 1942 more than a million, for a total of about 5.2 million people during the war.

And then there was a concentration camp near Vinnitsa, where senior officers of interest to the Germans - prominent commissars and generals - were kept. Much was written in the Soviet press about how Vlasov allegedly became cowardly, lost control of himself, and saved his life. The documents state the opposite: Here are excerpts from official German and personal documents that ended up in SMERSH after the war. They characterize Vlasov from the point of view of another side. This is documentary evidence of Nazi leaders, who certainly cannot be suspected of sympathizing with the Soviet general, through whose efforts thousands of German soldiers were destroyed near Kiev and Moscow.

Thus, the adviser to the German embassy in Moscow, Hilger, in the protocol of the interrogation of the captured General Vlasov on August 8, 1942, briefly described him: “he gives the impression of a strong and direct personality. His judgments are calm and balanced” (Archive of the Institute of Military History of the Moscow Region, d. 43, l. 57..). And here is the opinion about General Goebbels. Having met with Vlasov on March 1, 1945, he wrote in his diary: “General Vlasov is a highly intelligent and energetic Russian military leader; he made a very deep impression on me" (Goebbels J. Latest entries. Smolensk, 1993, p. 57).

Regarding Vlasov, it seems clear. Maybe the people who surrounded him in the ROA were the last scum and slackers who were just waiting for the start of the war to go over to the side of the Germans. But no, and here the documents give no reason to doubt.

...AND THE OFFICERS WHO JOINED WITH HIM

General Vlasov's closest associates were highly professional military leaders who at various times received high awards from the Soviet government for their professional activities. So, Major General V.F. Malyshkin was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”; Major General F.I. Trukhin - the Order of the Red Banner and the medal “XX Years of the Red Army”; Zhilenkov G.N., Secretary of the Rostokinsky District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Moscow. - Order of the Red Banner of Labor (Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 2, pp. 9, 12.). Colonel Maltsev M.A. (Major General of the ROA) - commander of the Air Force of the KONR, was at one time an instructor pilot of the legendary Valery Chkalov (“Voice of Crimea”, 1944, N. 27. Editorial afterword). And the Chief of Staff of the KONR Armed Forces, Colonel Aldan A.G. (Neryanin) received high praise upon graduation from the Academy of the General Staff in 1939. The then Chief of the General Staff, Army General Shaposhnikov called him one of the brilliant officers of the course, the only one who graduated from the Academy with “excellent” " It’s hard to imagine that they were all cowards who went into service to the Germans to save their own lives

IF VLASOV IS INNOCENT - WHO THEN?

By the way, if we are talking about documents, then we can remember one more. When General Vlasov ended up with the Germans, the NKVD and SMERSH, on behalf of Stalin, conducted a thorough investigation of the situation with the Second Shock Army. The results were put on the table to Stalin, who came to the conclusion that the accusations brought against General Vlasov in the death of the 2nd Shock Army and in his military unpreparedness were unfounded. And what kind of unpreparedness could there be if the artillery did not have enough ammunition for even one salvo... The investigation from SMERSH was headed by a certain Viktor Abakumov (remember this name).

Only in 1993, decades later, Soviet propaganda reported this through clenched teeth. (Military Historical Journal, 1993, N. 5, pp. 31-34.).

GENERAL VLASOV - HITLER KAPUTT?!

Let's return to Andrei Vlasov. So did the military general calm down in German captivity? The facts tell a different story. It was possible, of course, to provoke a guard into firing a machine gun at point-blank range, it was possible to start an uprising in the camp, kill a couple of dozen guards, run to your own people and... end up in other camps - this time Stalin’s. It was possible to show unshakable convictions and... turn into a block of ice. But Vlasov did not feel any particular fear of the Germans. One day, the concentration camp guards who “took to their chests” decided to organize a “parade” of captured Red Army soldiers and decided to put Vlasov at the head of the column. The general refused such an honor, and several “organizers” of the parade were knocked out by the general. Well, then the camp commandant arrived in time to hear the noise.

The general, who was always distinguished by his originality and non-standard decisions, decided to act differently. For a whole year(!) he convinced the Germans of his loyalty. And then in March and April 1943, Vlasov makes two trips to the Smolensk and Pskov regions, and criticizes... German policies in front of large audiences, making sure that the liberation movement finds a response among the people.

But for his “shameless” speeches, the frightened Nazis send him under house arrest. The first attempt ended in complete failure. The general was eager to fight, sometimes committing reckless acts.

THE ALL-SEEING EYE OF THE NKVD?

And then something happened. Soviet intelligence contacted the general. In his circle appeared a certain Milenty Aleksandrovich Zykov, who held the position of divisional commissar in the Red Army. The personality is bright and... mysterious. At the general's he edited two newspapers

To this day it is not known for certain whether this man was who he said he was. Only a year ago, circumstances “surfaced” that could turn all ideas about the “case of General Vlasov” upside down. Zykov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, a journalist, worked in Central Asia, then at Izvestia with Bukharin. He was married to the daughter of Lenin's comrade-in-arms, People's Commissar of Education Andrei Bubnov, and was arrested after him in 1937. Shortly before the war, he was released (!) and drafted into the army as a battalion commissar (!).

He was captured near Bataysk in the summer of 1942, while he was a commissar in a rifle division whose numbers he never gave. They met Vlasov in the Vinnitsa camp, where they kept Soviet officers of particular interest to the Wehrmacht. From there Zykov was brought to Berlin by order of Goebbels himself.

On the tunic of Zykov, who was brought to the military propaganda department, the stars and commissar insignia remained intact. Milenty Zykov became the general's closest adviser, although he received only the rank of captain in the ROA. (Some researchers suggest that the Leningrad literary critic Volpe, who disappeared without a trace during the Leningrad blockade winter, was hiding under the name Zykov).

There is reason to believe that Zykov was a Soviet intelligence officer. And the reasons are very strong. Milenty Zykov was very actively in contact with senior German officers who, as it turned out, were preparing an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. He paid for this. It remains a mystery what happened on a June day in 1944 when he was called to the telephone in the village of Rasndorf. ROA captain Zykov left the house, got into the car and... disappeared.

According to one version, Zykov was kidnapped by the Gestapo, who uncovered the assassination attempt on Hitler, and then shot in Sachsenhausen. A strange circumstance, Vlasov himself was not very concerned about Zykov’s disappearance, which suggests the existence of a plan for Zykov’s transition to an illegal position, that is, to return home. In addition, in 1945-46. - after Vlasov’s arrest, SMERSH was very actively looking for traces of Zykov.

Yes, so actively that it seemed like they were deliberately covering their tracks. When in the mid-nineties they tried to find the criminal case of Milentiy Zykov from 1937 in the FSB archives, the attempt was unsuccessful. Strange, isn't it?

After all, at the same time, all of Zykov’s other documents, including the reader’s form in the library, and the registration card in the military archive, were in place.

THE GENERAL'S FAMILY

And one more significant circumstance that indirectly confirms Vlasov’s cooperation with Soviet intelligence. Usually, relatives of “traitors to the Motherland,” especially people occupying a social position at the level of General Vlasov, were subjected to severe repression. As a rule, they were destroyed in the Gulag.

In this situation, everything was exactly the opposite. In recent decades, neither Soviet nor Western journalists have been able to obtain information shedding light on the fate of the general’s family. Only recently it became clear that Vlasov’s first wife, Anna Mikhailovna, who was arrested in 1942 after serving 5 years in a Nizhny Novgorod prison, lived and lived in Balakhna a few years ago. The second wife, Agnessa Pavlovna, whom the general married in 1941, lived and worked as a doctor at the Brest Regional Dermatovenerologic Dispensary. She died two years ago, and her son, who has achieved a lot in this life, lives and works in Samara. By the way, the death of Dr. Podmazenko is also not accidental. In recent years, she actively wrote letters with requests to rehabilitate her front-line husband. To no avail. And then one day, when she felt bad (she was seriously ill), an ambulance arrived, whose doctors “dropped” the patient from the stretcher...

The second son is illegitimate, lives and works in St. Petersburg. At the same time, he denies any relationship with the general. He has a son growing up, very similar to his grandfather... His illegitimate daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren also live there. One of the grandchildren, a promising officer of the Russian Navy, has no idea who his grandfather was

So decide after this whether General Vlasov was a “traitor to the Motherland.”

OPEN ACTION AGAINST STALIN

Six months after Zykov’s “disappearance,” on November 14, 1944, Vlasov proclaimed the manifesto of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia in Prague. Its main provisions: the overthrow of the Stalinist regime and the return to the people of the rights won by them in the revolution of 1917, the conclusion of an honorable peace with Germany, the creation of a new free statehood in Russia, “the establishment of the national labor system,” “the comprehensive development of international cooperation,” “the elimination of forced labor", "liquidation of collective farms", "granting the intelligentsia the right to create freely." Are these not very familiar demands proclaimed by political leaders of the last two decades? And what is “betrayal of the Motherland” here? KONR receives hundreds of thousands of applications from Soviet citizens in Germany to join its armed forces.

STAR....

On January 28, 1945, General Vlasov took command of the Armed Forces of the KONR, which the Germans resolved at the level of three divisions, one reserve brigade, two aviation squadrons and an officer school, a total of about 50 thousand people. At that time, these military formations were not yet sufficiently armed. The war was ending. The Germans no longer cared about General Vlasov - they were saving their own skins. February 9 and April 14, 1945 were the only occasions when the Vlasovites took part in battles on the Eastern Front, forced by the Germans. In the very first battle, several hundred Red Army soldiers went over to Vlasov’s side. The second one radically changes some ideas about the end of the war. As you know, on May 6, 1945, an anti-Hitler uprising broke out in Prague... At the call of the rebel Czechs, Prague includes... The first division of General Vlasov's army. She enters into battle with heavily armed SS and Wehrmacht units, captures the airport, where fresh German units arrive, and liberates the city. The Czechs are rejoicing. And very eminent commanders of the Soviet army are beside themselves with rage and anger. Of course, again it’s the upstart Vlasov.

And then strange and terrible events began. Those who just yesterday begged for help come to Vlasov and ask the general... to leave Prague, since his Russian friends are unhappy. And Vlasov gives the command to withdraw. However, this did not save the walkers; they were shot... by the Czechs themselves. By the way, it was not a group of impostors who asked Vlasov for help, but people who carried out the decision of the highest body of the Czechoslovak Republic.

...AND THE DEATH OF GENERAL VLASOV

But this did not save the general, Colonel General. Viktor Abakumov, the head of SMERSH, gave the command to detain Vlasov. The SMERSHists took the show. On May 12, 1945, General Vlasov's troops are squeezed between American and Soviet troops in southwestern Bohemia. Vlasovites who fell into the hands of the Red Army were shot on the spot... According to the official version, the general himself was captured and arrested by a special reconnaissance group that stopped the convoy of the first division of the ROA and SMERSH. However, there are at least four versions of how Vlasov ended up in the rear of the Soviet troops. We already know about the first one, but here is another one, compiled on the basis of eyewitness accounts. Indeed, General Vlasov was in that same ROA column. Only he was not hiding in the carpet on the floor of the Willis, as Captain Yakushov, who allegedly took part in that operation, claims. The general sat calmly in the car. And the car was not a Willys at all. Moreover, this same car was of such a size that a two-meter-tall general simply wouldn’t fit in it wrapped in a carpet... And there was no lightning attack by the scouts on the convoy. They (the scouts), dressed in full dress uniforms with medals, calmly waited on the side of the road for Vlasov’s car to catch up with them. When the car slowed down, the leader of the group saluted the general and invited him to get out of the car. Is this how they greet traitors?

And then the fun began. There is evidence from a military lawyer of the tank division to which Andrei Vlasov was taken. This man was the first to meet the general after his arrival at the location of the Soviet troops. He claims that the general was dressed in ... a general's uniform of the Red Army (old model), with insignia and orders. The stunned lawyer could not find anything better than to ask the general to produce documents. Which he did, showing the prosecutor his hand

personal book of the commanding staff of the Red Army, identity card of the Red Army general No. 431 dated 02/13/41, and party card of a member of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) No. 2123998 - all in the name of Andrei Andreevich Vlasov...

Moreover, he claims that the day before Vlasov’s arrival, an unimaginable number of army commanders came to the division, who did not even think of showing any hostility or hostility towards the general. Moreover, a joint lunch was organized.

On the same day, the general was transported to Moscow by transport plane. I wonder - is this how traitors are greeted?

Very little is known further. Vlasov is located in Lefortovo. “Prisoner No. 32” was the name of the general in prison. This prison belongs to SMERSH, and no one, not even Beria and Stalin, has the right to enter there. And they didn’t enter - Viktor Abakumov knew his business well. For which he later paid, but more on that later. The investigation lasted more than a year. Stalin, or maybe not Stalin at all, thought about what to do with the disgraced general. Elevate him to the rank of a national hero? It’s impossible - the military general did not sit quietly - he spoke a lot. Retired NKVD officers claim that they bargained with Andrei Vlasov for a long time - repent, they say, before the people and the leader. Admit mistakes. And they will forgive. May be...

They say that it was then that Vlasov met again with Melenty Zykov...

But the general was consistent in his actions, as when he did not leave the Second Shock fighters to die, as when he did not abandon his ROA in the Czech Republic. The Lieutenant General of the Red Army, holder of the Order of Lenin and the Red Banner of Battle, made his last choice...

On August 2, 1946, an official TASS message published in all central newspapers - on August 1, 1946, Lieutenant General of the Red Army A. A. Vlasov and his 11 comrades were hanged. Stalin was cruel to the end. After all, there is no death more shameful for officers than the gallows. Here are their names: Major General of the Red Army Malyshkin V.F., Zhilenkov G.N., Major General of the Red Army Trukhin F.I., Major General of the Red Army Zakutny D.E., Major General of the Red Army Blagoveshchensky I.A, Colonel of the Red Army Meandrov M . A, Colonel of the USSR Air Force Maltsev M.A., Colonel of the Red Army Bunyachenko S.K., Colonel of the Red Army Zverev G. A, Major General of the Red Army Korbukov V.D. and Lieutenant Colonel of the Red Army N.S. Shatov. It is unknown where the bodies of the officers were buried. SMERSH knew how to keep its secrets.

Forgive us, Andrey Andreevich!

Was Andrei Vlasov a Soviet intelligence officer? There is no direct evidence of this. Moreover, there is no document proving this. But there are facts that are very difficult to argue with.

The main one among them is this. It is no longer a big secret that in 1942 Joseph Stalin, despite all the successes of the Red Army near Moscow, wanted to conclude a separate peace with Germany and stop the war. Having given up Ukraine, Moldova, Crimea...

There is even evidence that Lavrenty Beria “ventilated the situation” on this issue.

And Vlasov was an excellent candidate to conduct these negotiations. Why? To do this, you need to look at the pre-war career of Andrei Vlasov. You can come to stunning conclusions. Back in 1937, Colonel Vlasov was appointed one of the leaders of the second department of the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District. Translated into civilian language, this means that the brave Colonel Vlasov was responsible for all the KGB work in the district. And then the repressions broke out. And Colonel Vlasov, who received the first pseudonym "Volkov", was... safely sent as an adviser to the already mentioned Chai-kan-shi... And then, if you read between the lines of the memoirs of the participants in those events, you come to the conclusion that he did not work in China who other than... Soviet Colonel Volkov... intelligence officer. It was he, and no one else, who made friends with German diplomats, took them to restaurants, gave them vodka until they fainted, and talked for a long, long time. About what is unknown, but how can an ordinary Russian colonel behave this way, knowing what is happening in his country, that people were arrested only for explaining to foreigners on the street how to get to the Alexander Garden. Where is Sorge with his attempts at undercover work in Japan? All of Sorge’s female agents could not provide information comparable to that of Chai-kan-shi’s wife, with whom the Russian colonel had a “very close” relationship... The seriousness of Colonel Vlasov’s work is evidenced by his personal translator in China, who claims that Volkov ordered him to shoot him at the slightest danger.

And another argument. I saw a document marked “Top Secret. Ex.. No. 1” dated 1942, in which Vsevolod Merkulov reports to Joseph Stalin about the work to destroy the traitor general A. Vlasov. So, Vlasov was hunted by more than 42 reconnaissance and sabotage groups with a total number of 1,600 people. Do you believe that in 1942 such a powerful organization as SMERSH could not “get” one general, even if he was well guarded. I don't believe. The conclusion is more than simple: Stalin, knowing full well the strength of the German intelligence services, tried his best to convince the Germans of the general’s betrayal.

But the Germans turned out to be not so simple. Hitler never accepted Vlasov. But Andrei Vlasov suited the anti-Hitler opposition. It is now unknown what prevented Stalin from completing the job, either the situation at the front, or a too late and, moreover, unsuccessful attempt on the Fuhrer’s life. And Stalin had to choose between destroying Vlasov or kidnapping him. Apparently, they settled on the latter. But... This is the most Russian “but”. The whole point is that at the time of the general’s “transition” to the Germans, there were already three intelligence services operating in the USSR: the NKGB, SMERSH and the GRU of the General Staff of the Red Army. And these organizations competed fiercely with each other (remember this). And Vlasov, apparently, worked for the GRU. How else can one explain the fact that the general was brought to the Second Shock by Lavrentiy Beria and Kliment Voroshilov. Interesting, isn't it? Is every general “delivered” to the army by the first people of the country?

Further, the investigation of Vlasov was carried out by SMERSH and did not allow anyone into this case. Even the trial was held behind closed doors, although, logically, the trial of a traitor should be public and open. And you need to see photographs of Vlasov in court - eyes expecting something, as if asking, “Well, it’s a long time, stop clowning.” But Vlasov did not know about the quarrel between the special services. And he was executed... People present claim that the general behaved with dignity.

The scandal began the day after the execution, when Joseph Stalin saw the latest newspapers. It turns out that SMERSH had to ask for written permission for the execution from the Military Prosecutor's Office and the GRU. He asked, and they answered him - “The execution will be postponed until further notice.” This letter remains in the archives to this day.

But Abakumov “did not see the answer.” For which he paid. When Viktor Abakumov was arrested on Stalin's personal orders, it is said that Stalin visited him in prison and reminded him of General Vlasov. However, these are just rumors...

By the way... according to some sources, Andrei Vlasov’s operational pseudonym in the GRU was the nickname “Raven”. It is known that the GRU, when appropriating pseudo, was always distinguished by allegory. And who knows, maybe

the operative who led Vlasov, and who was shot in the mid-1940s, knew that “Raven,” like the raven bird, would live another hundred and twenty years.

Why don't they tell the truth about Vlasov? The situation is “a la Kafka”. It is not beneficial for the current Russian authorities for two reasons - there are still a lot of living veterans who went through the war and are intoxicated by propaganda. This is in the sense of another scandal. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. In the event of the official rehabilitation of “traitor general” Vlasov, the Russian Federation, according to current legislation, will be forced to pay multi-billion dollar compensation to the still living soldiers of General Vlasov’s army who served their time in the camps. And it is also unprofitable for the West to admit its short-sightedness and “purchase” by the Soviet intelligence services. cause? The amount of money pumped into the NTS and other “anti-Soviet” organizations. There are no words... Just swear words...

By the way, in the indictment against Andrei Vlasov there is no article incriminating “Treason of the Motherland.” Only terrorism and counter-revolutionary activities. And the main evidence at the trial were leaflets and a film about the Prague Manifesto... The most interesting thing is that when mass rehabilitation of those in prisons and camps began after the war, the “Vlasovites” were the first to be pardoned. And then the policemen and other “traitors to the Motherland”...

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, General Vlasov stood on a par with the best commanders-in-chief of the Red Army. General Vlasov distinguished himself in the Battle of Moscow in the fall of 1941. By mid-summer 1942, when Vlasov surrendered to the Germans, the Germans held a large number of soldiers and officers of the Red Army captive. A large number of the population of Ukraine, Russia, the Baltic states and the Cossack formations of the Don Cossacks went over to the side of the Germans. After Vlasov was interrogated by German Field Marshal Theodore von Bock, the Russian Liberation Army, or ROA, began its life. Andrei Vlasov, together with like-minded people (naturally also with the Germans), wanted to start a new civil war on the territory of the USSR.
Meanwhile, the general was one of Joseph Stalin's favorites. Vlasov first distinguished himself in the Battle of Moscow, when the Red Army created a layered defense on the approaches to the capital, and then repelled the German attacks with counterattacks.

General Andrei Vlasov

On December 31, 1941, a photograph of General Andrei Vlasov was placed on the front page of the Izvestia newspaper, along with other military leaders (Zhukov, Voroshilov, etc.). The very next year, Vlasov was awarded the Order, and later he was awarded the rank of lieutenant general. Joseph Stalin gives the task to Soviet writers to write a book about General Vlasov, “Stalin’s Commander.” After this promotion by Stalin, Vlasov became very popular in the country. People send him greeting cards and letters from all over the country. Vlasov often gets caught on camera.

General Andrei Vlasov

Andrei Vlasov was drafted into the armed forces of the Red Army in 1920. In 1936, Vlasov was awarded the rank of major. The following year, the rapid growth of Andrei Vlasov’s career began. In 1937 and 1938, Vlasov served in the military tribunal of the Kyiv Military District. He was a member of the military tribunal and signed death sentences.
Vlasov's excellent career was the result of the massive repressions carried out by Stalin in the Red Army command staff in the mid-30s. Against the backdrop of these events in the country, the careers of many military men were very rapid. Vlasov was also no exception. At the age of 40 he becomes a lieutenant general.
According to many historians, General Andrei Vlasov was an excellent and strong-willed commander, at the same time he was a diplomat and had an excellent understanding of people. Vlasov gave the impression of a strong and demanding personality in the Red Army. Thanks to the good qualities of a commander, Joseph Stalin was loyal to Vlasov, and always tried to promote him up the career ladder.

General Andrei Vlasov

When the Great Patriotic War began, it found Vlasov while he was serving in the Kiev Military District. He and many commanders and soldiers of the Red Army retreated to the east. In September 1941, Vlasov emerged from encirclement in the Kiev cauldron. Vlasov escaped from encirclement for two months, and he retreated not with Red Army soldiers, but with a female military doctor. In those days of the difficult retreat of the Red Army, General Vlasov sought to break through to his own people as quickly as possible. Having changed into civilian clothes with a military doctor in one of the settlements, Andrei Vlasov left the encirclement near the city of Kursk by the beginning of November 1941. After leaving the encirclement, Vlasov fell ill and was admitted to the hospital. Unlike other officers and soldiers of the Red Army who emerged from encirclement, Vlasov was not interrogated. He still enjoyed Stalin's loyalty. Joseph Stalin remarked on this matter: “Why bother a sick general.”

General Andrei Vlasov

With the onset of winter 1941, Guderian's German units rapidly advanced towards the capital of the USSR. The Red Army, in layered defense, has difficulty resisting the Germans. A critical situation for the Soviet Union is about to begin. At that time, the defense of Moscow in the “Battle of Moscow” was commanded by Georgy Zhukov. To carry out the combat mission, Zhukov specially selected, in his opinion, the best army commanders. At the time when these events took place, General Vlasov was in the hospital. Vlasov, like other army commanders, was appointed to the lists of commanders in the Battle of Moscow without his knowledge. General Sandalov developed the operation to counter-offensive the Red Army near Moscow. The counteroffensive operation of the Red Army, when Vlasov arrived at headquarters, was fully developed and approved. Therefore, Andrei Vlasov did not take part in it. On December 5, 1941, the 20th Shock Army delivered a counterattack to the Germans, which drove them back from Moscow. Many people mistakenly believe that this army was commanded by General Andrei Vlasov. But Vlasov returned to headquarters only on December 19. Only two days later he took command of the army. By the way, Zhukov more than once expressed his dissatisfaction due to Vlasov’s passive command of the army. After this, the Red Army successfully counterattacked the Germans and Vlasov was promoted to rank. But Vlasov made almost no effort to implement these events.

General Andrei Vlasov

Many historians seriously argue that Vlasov, even before the start of the war with Germany, was an ardent anti-Stalinist. Despite this, in February 1942 he attended a meeting with Joseph Stalin and was very impressed by his strong personality. Vlasov was always in good standing with Stalin. Vlasov's army always fought successfully. Already in April 1942, Stalin appointed Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov as commander of the 2nd Shock Army.

General Andrei Vlasov

On April 19, 1942, Vlasov first appeared before the 2nd Shock Army with a speech: “I will start with discipline and order. No one will leave my army simply because he wanted to leave. The people of my army will either leave with orders for promotion or to be shot... Regarding the latter, I was of course joking.”

General Andrei Vlasov

At that moment, this army was surrounded and something urgently needed to be done to get it out of the cauldron. The army was cut off by the Germans in the Novgorod swamps. The army's situation became critical: there was not enough ammunition and food. Meanwhile, the Germans systematically and cold-bloodedly destroyed Vlasov’s encircled army. Vlasov asked for support and help. At the beginning of the summer of 1942, the Germans blocked the only road (it was also called the “Road of Life”), along which the 2nd Shock Army was supplied with food and ammunition. The Red Army soldiers were leaving the encirclement along this same road. Vlasov gave his last order: everyone should break through to their own people on their own. Together with the breakthrough group, Lieutenant General Vlasov headed north in the hope of breaking out of the encirclement. During the retreat, Vlasov lost his composure and was absolutely indifferent to the events taking place. Many surrounded officers of the 2nd Shock Army shot themselves when the Germans tried to take them prisoner. Systematically, soldiers from Vlasov’s 2nd Shock Army came out of the encirclement to their own small groups. The 2nd Shock Army consisted of several hundred thousand soldiers, of which no more than 8 thousand people escaped. The rest were killed or captured.

General Andrei Vlasov

Against the backdrop of the encirclement of the 2nd Shock Army, General Vlasov’s anti-Soviet sentiments worsened. On July 13, 1942, Vlasov voluntarily surrendered. Early in the morning a German patrol passed through the village. Local residents told the Germans that a Russian military man was hiding with them. A German patrol captured Vlasov and his companion. This happened in the village of Tukhovezhi, Leningrad region. Before surrendering, Vlasov communicated with local residents who were in contact with Russian partisans. One of the residents of this village wanted to hand over Vlasov to the Germans, but did not have time to do so. According to local residents, Vlasov had the opportunity to go to the partisans and then return to his own. But for unknown reasons he did not do this.

General Andrei Vlasov

On July 13, a secret note was brought to the NKVD headquarters, which mentioned that the commanders of the 2nd Shock Army Vlasov, Vinogradov and Afanasyev went to the partisans and were safe with them. On July 16, they found out that there was a mistake in the message and Vlasov and the surviving commanders were not there. And Army Commander Vinogradov did not escape the encirclement. To search for Vlasov and other army commanders, on Stalin’s instructions, sabotage detachments were sent to the German rear. Almost all search groups died.

General Andrei Vlasov

Vlasov decided to surrender to the enemy for many reasons. Firstly, he assumed that the Soviet Union was not able to destroy the German army, against the backdrop of the events that took place on the Volkhov front in Myasny Bor. He decided that it would be better for him that he surrender to the Germans. Vlasov planned that after the defeat of the Soviets, he would become the head of the leadership of the conquered country.
General Vlasov was transported to Germany, to Berlin. Vlasov’s headquarters was located in one of the houses on the outskirts of Berlin. The Germans needed this kind of figure from the Red Army. Vlasov was offered to lead the army in the liberation from Bolshevism in Russia. Vlasov begins to travel to concentration camps in which Soviet military personnel are imprisoned. He begins to create the backbone of the ROA (Russian Liberation Army) from captured Russian officers and soldiers. But not many join this army. Later, in the occupied city of Pskov, a parade of several ROA battalions takes place, at which Vlasov takes part in the parade. At this parade, Andrei Vlasov declares that there are already half a million soldiers in the ranks of the ROA, who will soon fight against the Bolsheviks. But in reality this army did not exist.
Throughout the existence of the ROA, German officers, and even Hitler himself, treated this formation with disdain and distrust.

General Andrei Vlasov

After the defeat of the Wehrmacht at the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, General Vlasov decides to act actively and decides to offer the Germans to lead a five hundred thousandth army of Russian prisoners of war who will take up arms and rise up against the USSR. After a meeting between Hitler and the senior command of the Wehrmacht, it was decided not to create a combat-ready Russian ROA army. Hitler categorically prohibited the formation of military units from Russian volunteers, due to distrust of them.
After Vlasov was refused the creation of his army, he was placed under house arrest. During a period of idleness, Vlasov often indulged in drinking and other entertainment at his residence. But at the same time, with the leaders of the ROA, Vlasov planned an action plan for various scenarios. Realizing that nothing could be expected from the Germans in terms of helping to create an army, the leaders of the ROA planned to take refuge in the Alps and hold out there until the Allies arrived. And then surrender to them. This was their only hope at that time. Moreover, Vlasov has already contacted MI6 (British military intelligence). Vlasov believed that by going over to England, he and his army would fight the USSR when England entered Europe and started a war with Russia. But the British did not negotiate with Vlasov, considering him a war criminal who was acting contrary to the interests of the allies.
In the summer of 1944, Andrei Vlasov married the widow of a murdered SS man, Adella Billingberg. Thus, he wanted to gain the loyalty of the Germans towards himself. Moreover, by this act he wanted to reach Himmler, who received Vlasov in the summer of 1944. Hoping for help from Vlasov's formations, Himmler allows the creation of the Vlasov army. As a result, General Vlasov achieves his goal: the first ROA division is formed under his leadership. The preparation of sabotage detachments to overthrow the government in Russia begins immediately. It was planned to carry out terrorist acts on the territory of Moscow against the Soviet government. Vlasov also wanted to create underground organizations in large Russian cities with the aim of counteracting Soviet power.

General Andrei Vlasov

After creating his army, General Vlasov moved to the Czech Republic. In November 1944, the first congress of the Committee for the Liberation Peoples of Russia took place in Prague. The Germans, and Vlasov himself, seriously planned that if they won the war, Vlasov would become the head of the government governing Russia.
But events unfold differently. The Red Army moves west and systematically destroys the scattered German army. Soviet troops are approaching the borders of Czechoslovakia. Vlasov understood that the only chance for his salvation was to surrender to the Americans.

It was about how Andrey Vlasov was considered a talented and promising general of the Red Army. After commanding (often successfully) a number of units, on April 20, 1942, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 2nd Shock Army. This army, intended to break the blockade of Leningrad, found itself in a difficult situation by the end of spring. In June, the Germans closed the “corridor” connecting army units with the main front line. About 20 thousand people remained surrounded, along with the commander, General Vlasov.

Rescue of General Afanasyev

Both the Germans and ours, knowing that the command of the 2nd Shock Army remained surrounded, tried at all costs to find him.

Vlasov's headquarters, meanwhile, tried to get out. The few surviving witnesses claimed that after the failed breakthrough, a breakdown occurred in the general. He looked indifferent and did not hide from the shelling. Took command of the detachment Chief of Staff of the 2nd Shock Army Colonel Vinogradov.

The group, wandering around the rear, tried to reach their own. It entered into skirmishes with the Germans, suffered losses, and gradually dwindled.

The key moment occurred on the night of July 11. Chief of Staff Vinogradov suggested dividing into groups of several people and going out to their own people on their own. He objected Chief of Army Communications Major General Afanasyev. He suggested that everyone should go together to the Oredezh River and Lake Chernoe, where they could feed themselves by fishing, and where the partisan detachments should be located. Afanasyev’s plan was rejected, but no one stopped him from moving on his route. 4 people left with Afanasyev.

Literally a day later, Afanasyev’s group met with the partisans, who contacted the “Big Land”. A plane arrived for the general and took him to the rear.

Alexey Vasilyevich Afanasyev turned out to be the only representative of the senior command staff of the 2nd Shock Army who managed to escape from the encirclement. After the hospital, he returned to duty and continued his service, finishing his career as the chief of communications for the artillery of the Soviet Army.

“Don’t shoot, I’m General Vlasov!”

Vlasov's group was reduced to four people. He broke up with Vinogradov, who was ill, which is why the general gave him his overcoat.

On July 12, Vlasov's group split up to go to two villages in search of food. I stayed with the general cook of the canteen of the military council of the army Maria Voronova.

They entered the village of Tuchovezy, introducing themselves as refugees. Vlasov, who identified himself as a school teacher, asked for food. They were fed, after which they suddenly pointed weapons and locked them in a barn. The “hospitable host” turned out to be the local elder, who called local residents from among the auxiliary police for help.

It is known that Vlasov had a pistol with him, but he did not resist.

The headman did not identify the general, but considered those who came to be partisans.

The next morning, a German special group arrived in the village and was asked by the headman to pick up the prisoners. The Germans waved it off because they were coming for... General Vlasov.

The day before, the German command received information that General Vlasov had been killed in a skirmish with a German patrol. The corpse in the general's overcoat, which was examined by members of the group upon arriving at the scene, was identified as the body of the commander of the 2nd Shock Army. In fact, Colonel Vinogradov was killed.

On the way back, having already passed Tuchowiezy, the Germans remembered their promise and returned for the unknown.

When the barn door opened, a phrase in German sounded from the darkness:

- Don’t shoot, I’m General Vlasov!

Two destinies: Andrey Vlasov vs. Ivan Antyufeev

At the very first interrogations, the general began to give detailed testimony, reporting on the state of the Soviet troops and giving characteristics to Soviet military leaders. And just a few weeks later, while in a special camp in Vinnitsa, Andrei Vlasov himself will offer the Germans his services in the fight against the Red Army and Stalin’s regime.

What made him do this? Vlasov’s biography shows that not only did he not suffer from the Soviet system and from Stalin, but he received everything he had. The story about the abandoned 2nd Shock Army, as shown above, is also a myth.

For comparison, we can cite the fate of another general who survived the Myasny Bor disaster.

Ivan Mikhailovich Antyufeev, commander of the 327th Infantry Division, took part in the Battle of Moscow, and then with his unit was transferred to break the siege of Leningrad. The 327th Division achieved the greatest success in the Lyuban operation. Just as the 316th Rifle Division was unofficially called "Panfilovskaya", the 327th Rifle Division received the name "Antyufeevskaya".

Antyufeyev received the rank of major general at the height of the battles near Lyuban, and did not even have time to change his shoulder straps from a colonel to a general, which played a role in his future fate. The division commander also remained in the “cauldron” and was wounded on July 5 while trying to escape.

The Nazis, having captured the officer, tried to persuade him to cooperate, but were refused. At first he was kept in a camp in the Baltic states, but then someone reported that Antyufeyev was actually a general. He was immediately transferred to a special camp.

When it became known that he was the commander of the best division of Vlasov’s army, the Germans began to rub their hands. It seemed to them self-evident that Antyufeyev would follow the path of his boss. But even having met Vlasov face to face, the general refused the offer to cooperate with the Germans.

Antyufeyev was presented with a fabricated interview in which he declared his readiness to work for Germany. They explained to him that now for the Soviet leadership he is an undoubted traitor. But here, too, the general answered “no.”

General Antyufeyev stayed in the concentration camp until April 1945, when he was liberated by American troops. He returned to his homeland and was reinstated in the Soviet Army. In 1946, General Antyufeev was awarded the Order of Lenin. He retired from the army in 1955 due to illness.

But it’s a strange thing - the name of General Antyufeyev, who remained faithful to the oath, is known only to fans of military history, while everyone knows about General Vlasov.

“He had no convictions - he had ambition”

So why did Vlasov make the choice that he did? Maybe because what he loved most in life was fame and career growth. Suffering in captivity did not promise lifetime glory, not to mention comfort. And Vlasov stood, as he thought, on the side of the strong.

Let us turn to the opinion of a person who knew Andrei Vlasov. Writer and journalist Ilya Erenburg met with the general at the peak of his career, in the midst of his successful battle near Moscow. Here is what Ehrenburg wrote about Vlasov years later: “Of course, someone else’s soul is dark; nevertheless, I dare to state my guesses. Vlasov is not Brutus or Prince Kurbsky, it seems to me that everything was much simpler. Vlasov wanted to complete the task assigned to him; he knew that Stalin would congratulate him again, he would receive another order, rise to prominence, and amaze everyone with his art of interrupting quotes from Marx with Suvorov’s jokes. It turned out differently: the Germans were stronger, the army was again surrounded. Vlasov, wanting to save himself, changed his clothes. When he saw the Germans, he was afraid: a simple soldier could be killed on the spot. Once captured, he began to think about what to do. He knew political literacy well, admired Stalin, but he had no convictions - he had ambition. He understood that his military career was over. If the Soviet Union wins, at best he will be demoted. So, there is only one thing left: accept the Germans’ offer and do everything so that Germany wins. Then he will be the commander-in-chief or minister of war of a ripped-off Russia under the auspices of the victorious Hitler. Of course, Vlasov never said that to anyone, he declared on the radio that he had long hated the Soviet system, that he longed to “liberate Russia from the Bolsheviks,” but he himself gave me a proverb: “Every Fedorka has his own excuses.”... Bad people exists everywhere, it does not depend either on the political system or on upbringing.”

General Vlasov was mistaken - betrayal did not bring him back to the top. On August 1, 1946, in the courtyard of Butyrka prison, Andrei Vlasov, stripped of his rank and awards, was hanged for treason.

A tall man in round glasses has not been able to sleep for several days. The main traitor, Red Army General Andrei Vlasov, is interrogated by several NKVD investigators, replacing each other day and night for ten days. They are trying to understand how they were able to miss a traitor in their orderly ranks, devoted to the cause of Lenin and Stalin.

He had no children, he never had any emotional attachment to women, his parents died. All he had was his life. And he loved to live. His father, the churchwarden, was proud of his son.

Parental treacherous roots

Andrei Vlasov never dreamed of being a military man, but, as a literate person who graduated from a religious school, he was drafted into the ranks of Soviet commanders. He often came to his father and saw how the new government was destroying his strong family nest.

He's used to betraying

Analyzing archival documents, traces of Vlasov’s military actions on the fronts of the Civil War cannot be found. He was a typical staff “rat” who, by the will of fate, ended up at the top of the country’s command pedestal. One fact speaks about how he moved up the career ladder. Having arrived with an inspection at the 99th Infantry Division and having learned that the commander was engaged in a thorough study of the methods of action of the German troops, he immediately wrote a denunciation against him. The commander of the 99th Rifle Division, which was one of the best in the Red Army, was arrested and shot. Vlasov was appointed in his place. This behavior became the norm for him. This man was not tormented by any remorse.

First environment

In the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Vlasov’s army was surrounded near Kiev. The general emerges from encirclement not in the ranks of his units, but together with his girlfriend.

But Stalin forgave him for this offense. Vlasov received a new assignment - to lead the main attack near Moscow. But he is in no hurry to join the troops, citing pneumonia and poor health. According to one version, all preparations for the operation near Moscow fell on the shoulders of the most experienced staff officer Leonid Sandalov.

“Star sickness” is the second reason for betrayal

Stalin appoints Vlasov as the main winner of the Battle of Moscow.

The general begins to suffer from star fever. According to reviews from his colleagues, he becomes rude, arrogant, and mercilessly curses his subordinates. Constantly boasts of his closeness to the leader. He does not obey the orders of Georgy Zhukov, who is his immediate superior. The transcript of the conversation between the two generals shows a fundamentally different attitude towards the conduct of hostilities. During the offensive near Moscow, Vlasov's units attacked the Germans along the road, where the enemy defenses were extremely strong. Zhukov, in a telephone conversation, orders Vlasov to counterattack, off-road, as Suvorov did. Vlasov refuses, citing high snow - about 60 centimeters. This argument infuriates Zhukov. He orders a new attack. Vlasov again disagrees. These disputes last more than one hour. And in the end, Vlasov finally gives in and gives the order Zhukov needs.

How Vlasov surrendered

The second shock army under the command of General Vlasov was surrounded in the Volkhov swamps and gradually lost its soldiers under the pressure of superior enemy forces. Along a narrow corridor, shot from all sides, scattered units of Soviet soldiers tried to break through to their own.

But General Vlasov did not go down this corridor of death. Through unknown paths, on July 11, 1942, Vlasov deliberately surrendered to the Germans in the village of Tukhovezhi, Leningrad Region, where the Old Believers lived.

For some time he lived in Riga, food was brought by a local policeman. He told the new owners about the strange guest. A passenger car drove up to Riga. Vlasov came out to meet them. He said something to them. The Germans saluted him and left.

The Germans were unable to accurately determine the position of the man wearing a worn jacket. But the fact that he was dressed in breeches with general stripes indicated that this bird was very important.

From the first minutes, he begins to lie to the German investigators: he introduced himself as a certain Zuev.

When German investigators began to interrogate him, he almost immediately admitted who he was. Vlasov stated that in 1937 he became one of the participants in the anti-Stalinist movement. However, at this time Vlasov was a member of the military tribunal of two districts. He always signed the execution lists of Soviet soldiers and officers convicted under various charges.

Betrayed women countless times

The general always surrounded himself with women. Officially he had one wife. Anna Voronina from her native village ruled her weak-willed husband mercilessly. They did not have children due to an unsuccessful abortion. The young military doctor Agnessa Podmazenko, his second common-law wife, came out with him from encirclement near Kiev. The third, nurse Maria Voronina, was captured by the Germans while hiding with him in the village of Tukhovezhi.

All three women ended up in prison and suffered the brunt of torture and humiliation. But General Vlasov no longer cared. Agenheld Biedenberg, the widow of an influential SS man, became the general's last wife. She was the sister of Himmler's adjutant and helped her new husband in every possible way. Adolf Hitler attended their wedding on April 13, 1945.

Our country's traitor is Andrei Vlasov. It would seem that the negative image of this historical figure is quite clear. But Andrei Vlasov still meets with different assessments even from domestic historians and public figures. Someone is trying to present him not as a traitor to the Motherland, but as a fighter against Bolshevism and “Stalinist totalitarianism.” The fact that Andrei Vlasov created an army that fought on the side of our country’s most fierce enemy, who committed genocide against the peoples of the USSR and destroyed millions of ordinary Soviet people, is for some reason not taken into account.

Andrei Vlasov, in a matter of four years, went from one of the most promising and respected Soviet generals to the hanged man - “traitor number one” of the Soviet Union. Having joined the Red Army at the age of 18, during the Civil War, Andrei Vlasov already held staff and command positions from the age of 21. At the age of 39, he was already a major general, commanding the 99th Infantry Division. Under his command, the division became the best in the Kiev Military District, Vlasov himself received the Order of the Red Banner. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Vlasov commanded the 4th mechanized corps, stationed near Lvov. Then Joseph Stalin personally summoned him and ordered him to form the 20th Army, which then operated under the command of Vlasov. Vlasov’s fighters especially distinguished themselves in the battles near Moscow, after which, on a special assignment from the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, they even wrote a book about Vlasov, “Stalin’s Commander.” On March 8, 1942, Lieutenant General Vlasov was appointed deputy commander of the Volkhov Front, and a little later, retaining this position, became commander of the 2nd Shock Army. Thus, in the first year of the war, Andrei Vlasov was considered one of the most capable Soviet military leaders, benefiting from the personal favor of Joseph Stalin. Who knows, if Vlasov had not been surrounded, maybe he would have risen to the rank of marshal and would have become a hero, not a traitor.

But, having been captured, Vlasov eventually agreed to cooperate with Nazi Germany. For the Nazis it was a huge achievement - to win over to their side an entire lieutenant general, the commander of the army, and even one of the most capable Soviet military leaders, the recent “Stalinist commander”, who enjoyed the favor of the Soviet leader. On December 27, 1942, Vlasov proposed to the Nazi command to organize the “Russian Liberation Army” from among former Soviet prisoners of war who agreed to go over to the side of Nazi Germany, as well as other elements dissatisfied with the Soviet regime. The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was created for the political leadership of the ROA. Not only high-ranking defectors from the Red Army, who went over to the side of Nazi Germany after being captured, but also many White emigrants, including Major General Andrei Shkuro, Ataman Pyotr Krasnov, General Anton Turkul and many others, who became famous during the Civil War, were invited to work in KONR. In fact, it was KONR that became the main coordinating body of the traitors who went over to the side of Hitler’s Germany, and the nationalists who joined them, who were already in Germany and other European countries before the war.

Vlasov’s closest ally and chief of staff was former Soviet Major General Fyodor Trukhin, another traitor who, before his capture, was the deputy chief of staff of the Northwestern Front, and after his capture agreed to cooperate with the German authorities. By April 22, 1945, the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia included a whole motley conglomerate of formations and units, including infantry divisions, a Cossack corps, and even its own air force.

The defeat of Nazi Germany put former Soviet Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov and his supporters in a very difficult position. As a traitor, especially of such a rank, Vlasov could not count on leniency from the Soviet authorities and understood this perfectly well. However, for some reason he refused several times the asylum options offered to him.
One of the first to offer Vlasov refuge was the Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco. Franco's proposal came at the end of April 1945, when only a few days remained before Germany's defeat. Caudillo was going to send a special plane for Vlasov, which would take him to the Iberian Peninsula. Although Spain did not actively participate (with the exception of sending volunteers from the Blue Division) in World War II, Franco was positive towards Vlasov, as he saw him as a comrade-in-arms in the anti-communist struggle. It is possible that if Vlasov had accepted Franco’s offer then, he would have lived safely in Spain to a ripe old age - Franco hid many Nazi war criminals, much more bloody than Vlasov. But the commander of the ROA refused Spanish refuge, because he did not want to abandon his subordinates to the mercy of fate.

The next proposal came from the opposite side. After the victory over Germany, Andrei Vlasov found himself in the occupation zone of American troops. On May 12, 1945, Captain Donahue, who held the position of commandant of the zone where Vlasov was located, invited the former commander of the ROA to secretly travel deep into the American zone. He was ready to provide Vlasov with asylum on American territory, but Vlasov also refused this offer. He wanted asylum not only for himself, but also for all the soldiers and officers of the ROA, which he was going to ask the American command for.

On the same day, May 12, 1945, Vlasov headed deep into the American zone of occupation, intending to achieve a meeting with the American command at the headquarters of the 3rd US Army in Pilsen. However, along the way, the car in which Vlasov was located was stopped by soldiers of the 25th Tank Corps of the 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The former commander of the ROA was detained. As it turned out, former ROA captain P. Kuchinsky informed the Soviet officers about the possible whereabouts of the commander. Andrei Vlasov was taken to the headquarters of the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Ivan Konev. From Konev's headquarters, Vlasov was transported to Moscow.

As for Vlasov’s closest associates in the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and the command of the Russian Liberation Army, generals Zhilenkov, Malyshkin, Bunyachenko and Maltsev were able to reach the American occupation zone. However, this did not help them. The Americans successfully handed over the Vlasov generals to Soviet counterintelligence, after which they were all also transferred to Moscow. After the detention of Vlasov and his closest henchmen, KONR was headed by ROA Major General Mikhail Meandrov, also a former Soviet officer, a colonel who was captured while serving as deputy chief of staff of the 6th Army. However, Meandrov did not manage to walk free for long. He was interned in an American prisoner of war camp and remained there for a long time, until on February 14, 1946, almost a year after the end of the war, he was handed over to the Soviet authorities by the American command. Having learned that he was going to be extradited to the Soviet Union, Meandrov tried to commit suicide, but the guards of the high-ranking prisoner managed to stop this attempt. Meandrov was transported to Moscow, to the Lubyanka, where he joined the rest of the defendants in the Andrei Vlasov case. Vladimir Baersky, also a general of the ROA and deputy chief of staff of the ROA, who, together with Vlasov, stood at the origins of the Russian Liberation Army, was even less fortunate. On May 5, 1945, he tried to travel to Prague, but on the way, in Pribram, he was captured by Czech partisans. The Czech partisan detachment was commanded by a Soviet officer, Captain Smirnov. The detained Baersky began to quarrel with Smirnov and managed to slap the commander of the partisan detachment in the face. After this, the Vlasov general was immediately captured and hanged without trial.

All this time, the media did not report the detention of “traitor number one.” The investigation into the Vlasov case was of enormous national importance. In the hands of the Soviet government was a man who was not just a general who went over to the Nazis after being captured, but led the anti-Soviet struggle and tried to fill it with ideological content.

After arriving in Moscow, he was personally interrogated by the head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence SMERSH, Colonel General Viktor Abakumov. Immediately after the first interrogation by Abakumov, Andrei Vlasov was placed as secret prisoner number 31 in the internal prison at Lubyanka. The main interrogations of the traitor general began on May 16, 1945. Vlasov was “put on the conveyor belt,” that is, interrogated continuously. Only the investigators who carried out the interrogation and the guards guarding Vlasov changed. After ten days of conveyor interrogation, Andrei Vlasov fully admitted his guilt. But the investigation into his case continued for another 8 months.

Only in December 1945 was the investigation completed, and on January 4, 1946, Colonel General Abakumov reported to Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin that the top leaders of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia Andrei Vlasov and his other associates were being held in custody at the SMERSH Main Directorate of Counterintelligence. Abakumov proposed to sentence all those detained for treason to the Motherland to death by hanging. Of course, the fate of Vlasov and his closest associates was predetermined, and yet the sentence to the former Soviet general was discussed in great detail. This is about the question of how Stalinist justice was administered. Even in this case, the decision was not made immediately and not individually by any senior person in the structure of the state security agencies or the military tribunal.

Another seven months passed after Abakumov reported to Stalin about the completion of the investigation into the case of Andrei Vlasov and the top management of KONR. On July 23, 1946, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided that the leaders of the KONR Vlasov, Zhilenkov, Malyshkina, Trukhin and a number of their other associates would be tried by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR at a closed court session chaired by Colonel-General of Justice Ulrich without participation parties, i.e. lawyer and prosecutor. Also, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks gave the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR an order to sentence them to death by hanging, and to carry out the sentence in prison. It was decided not to cover the details of the trial in the Soviet press, but after the end of the trial to report on the court verdict and its execution.

The trial of the Vlasovites began on July 30, 1946. The meeting lasted two days, and immediately before sentencing Vlasov and his associates, members of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR deliberated for seven hours. Andrei Vlasov was sentenced on August 1, 1946. Reports of the sentence and its execution appeared in the central newspapers of the Soviet Union the next day, August 2, 1946. Andrei Vlasov and all other defendants pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them, after which, in accordance with paragraph 1 of the Decree of the PVS of the USSR of April 19, 1943, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced the defendants to death by hanging, the sentence was carried out. The bodies of the hanged Vlasovites were cremated in a special crematorium, after which the ashes were poured into an unnamed ditch near the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow. This is how the man who called himself the Chairman of the Presidium of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Liberation Army ended his life.

Many decades after the execution of Vlasov and his assistants, voices began to be heard from some of the Russian right-wing conservative circles about the need to rehabilitate the general. He was proclaimed a fighter against “Bolshevism, atheism and totalitarianism,” who supposedly did not betray Russia, but simply had his own view of its future fate. They talked about the “tragedy” of General Vlasov and his supporters.

However, we should not forget that Vlasov and the structures he created fought until the last on the side of Hitler’s Germany, the terrible enemy of our state. Attempts to justify the behavior of General Vlasov are very dangerous. And the point is not so much in the personality of the general himself, which can and can be called tragic, but in the deeper consequences of such a justification for betrayal. Firstly, attempts to justify Vlasov are another step towards revising the results of World War II. Secondly, Vlasov’s acquittal breaks the value system of society, since it asserts that betrayal can be justified by some lofty ideas. Such an excuse can be found for all traitors in this case, including ordinary policemen who took part in the robbery and terror of civilians, in the genocide of the Soviet people.