The capture of General Vlasov. Thrice Faithful General
Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was born in 1900. He studied at the theological school and seminary. This was followed by a revolution, conscription into the Red Army and battles on the fronts. civil war. Vlasov participated in campaigns and battles with Wrangel and against the gangs of Makhno, Maslak, Kamenyuk, Popov and others. He completed courses for command staff, quickly advanced to the ranks of officers, commanders of a battalion, regiment ... In his autobiography, he wrote: “From July 1937. commanded the 215th Infantry Regiment, from November
1937 commanded the 133rd Infantry Regiment until May 1938, from May
1938 - Head of the 2nd department of the headquarters of the Kyiv Special Military District until September 1938. From September 1938 he was appointed commander of the 72nd rifle division Kyiv Special Military District and was sent on a government mission on the instructions of the party and government, which he completed in December 1939. Since January 1940, I have commanded the 99th Infantry Division of the KOVO.
A secret government mission was to China, to help the government of Chiang Kai-shek.
In November 1941 A.A. Vlasov was appointed commander of the 20th Army Western Front. It was a critical time in the fighting near Moscow - the enemy approached the capital at a distance of about 25 km. According to the results of military operations near Moscow, A.A. Vlasov Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 22, 1942 was awarded the order Lenin; even earlier, in January, he was awarded military rank lieutenant general, and on January 14, 1942, his photo was published in all the central newspapers among the most distinguished military leaders in the defense of Moscow.
On March 9, 1942, Lieutenant General A.A. Vlasov arrived at the disposal of the commander of the Volkhov Front for the post of deputy. 2nd shock army separated from the main forces Soviet troops and went deep into the Simovskie swamps. The Germans surrounded her with a ring.
The commander fought to the end and shared all the hardships with his soldiers. But he could not prevent the collapse of the 2nd Shock Army.
When there was no doubt about the hopelessness of the situation, several planes landed at the headquarters of the 2nd Shock Army to take the general and his staff out. Vlasov refused to fly: he wanted to stay with his soldiers to the end, fight with them and die. The thought of suicide was alien to him.
But fate decreed otherwise. He survived.
When almost all parts of his army were destroyed, Vlasov with a small combat group withdrew into the wilds of swampy forests. But soon this group also died, with the exception of a few people. A few more weeks of Vlasov, without insignia on uniform, was hiding in the Volkhov forests, entering the villages at night and receiving some bread from the peasants.
At the same time, it was obvious that the decision had ripened in him to try his luck once again. Neither he nor anyone else doubted that Stalin's henchmen had already prepared a death sentence. In those years, the Soviet military doctrine denied the very idea that a Soviet soldier could be captured. Anyone who did this in a conscious or unconscious state was a priori considered a traitor and traitor to the Motherland. Soldiers were persistently inspired with the idea of the legitimacy and even the necessity of suicide in case of injury or capture.
During interrogation, Vlasov explained to the Germans that he had surrendered due to the incompetence of the leadership of the USSR Armed Forces, the overwriting of his abilities, his disagreement with the methods of governing the country and the established political system in the Union. According to Vlasov, in order to achieve victory over Stalin, it was necessary to use Russian prisoners of war in the fight against the Red Army. On the ruins of the Soviet Union, a new Russian statehood could then arise, which, in close alliance with Germany and under its leadership, would participate in the transformation of Europe.
Vlasov offered to establish contact with high-ranking military leaders of the Red Army and major figures in the Soviet government, whom he considered his like-minded people. Creation of Russian liberation army in the Wehrmacht troops during the Great Patriotic War was not unexpected for representatives of the Russian emigration and many foreign countries.
With the outbreak of war, the German command did not object to the creation of Russian volunteer units and formations, but as part of German units and formations.
Being a prisoner of the Germans, Vlasov quickly figured out the situation and began to persistently offer the Germans to create the Russian Liberation Army on the basis of the already existing volunteer formations. After some time, he received an agreement in principle.
For the selection of officers and soldiers in the prisoner of war camps, 10 special commissions were created, which began to actively engage in recruitment. Vlasov managed to form two divisions.
At the end of the winter of 1944-1945, the ROA numbered approximately 50 thousand people.
In 1945, parts of the ROA defended Prague. In fact, Vlasov was desperately trying to contact the allies and transfer power over the city to them. The Allied command was aware of the need to occupy the city before the Soviet troops. On May 5, leaflets were scattered over Prague that power was passing to the Americans, who would be in the city during the day. This was the signal for the beginning of the Prague Uprising. By the evening of May 7, the Vlasovites really took control of all transport communications, bridges leading to the West, and railways.
A message was also broadcast on the radio that the delegates of the Czech National Council had been summoned to the Vlasov headquarters for negotiations. However, this was not true. The Council, strongly opposed to any negotiations with the ROA, made a special statement that "it has no relationship with the Vlasovites." In the middle of the day on May 7, the Nazis broke into the city center. In Prague, the massacre of the rebels began. Vlasov sent a telegram to the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Konev: “I can hit the rear of the Germans,” but received no answer. Alarmed by the events, Churchill insisted on the speedy entry of the Americans into Prague. But Eisenhower made no decision.
On the evening of May 7, the Vlasovites did not have the slightest doubt that the city would be occupied by Soviet troops. At 11 p.m., Vlasov's deputy, General Bunyachenko, ordered the withdrawal of the first division of the ROA from Prague.
On the night of May 9, after an eighty-kilometer tank throw from the north, Soviet troops reached the city. By 10 o'clock in the morning Prague was liberated. On May 10, the Czech National Council transferred power to the government of the National Front.
The columns of the Vlasov army went to the West. However, many of them (including Vlasov himself and several people from his headquarters) were handed over to the Soviet command.
The trial was held secretly under the chairmanship of the notorious Colonel-General of Justice V.V. Ulrich (Chairman of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR).
On August 26, 1946, a message from the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR was published in the central newspapers:
“Recently, the USSR All-Union Military Commission examined the case on charges of Vlasov A.A., Malyshkin V.F., Zhilenkov G.N., Trukhin F.I., Zakutny D.E., Blagoveshchensky I.A., Meandrov M.A. , Maltseva V.I., Bunyachenko S.K., Zvereva G.A., Korbukova V.D. and Shatova N.S. in treason and in the fact that they, being agents of German intelligence, carried out active espionage, sabotage and terrorist activities against the Soviet Union, i.e. in crimes under Art. Art. 58-1 "b", 58-8, 58-9, 58-10 and 58-N of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR.
All the defendants pleaded guilty to the charges against them.
In accordance with paragraph 1 of the Decree of the USSR OGVS of April 19, 1943, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced the accused ... to death by hanging.
The sentence has been carried out."
General Vlasov went over to the side of the Germans to save his soldiers from death? Photo from aif.ru
You can still hear conflicting opinions about who to consider General Vlasov. Savior of Russian soldiers from death during the war or a coward? A martyr hero, as the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, or twice as a traitor, as the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia insists? Is it any wonder then that even many years after the execution of Vlasov, in November 2001, the military collegium of the Supreme Court of Russia considered the claim for the rehabilitation of Vlasov and his 11 accomplices ...
The lawsuit was filed by Hieromonk Nikon (Sergey Belavenets), the founder of the movement "For Faith and Fatherland". He asked to rehabilitate General Vlasov and his accomplices. Say, they are not traitors, although in the midst of fascist aggression against our country they went over to the side of the enemy, but adherents of a different ideology, fighters against the Stalinist regime and zealous atheism. But the court as a whole refused the hieromonk, satisfying only a small part of the claim - it excluded the article on counter-revolutionary propaganda and agitation from the general's charge. For all other points, the verdict of the military collegium of the Supreme Court of August 1, 1946 was left unchanged, the guilt of Vlasov and other 11 generals of the Russian Liberation Army is considered to be fully proven.
How Vlasov was arrested and investigated
The general was arrested by the reconnaissance group of Captain Yakushev on May 12, 1945. Three days later, Vlasov was taken to Moscow to the Lubyanka.
There is not much information about what happened next with Vlasov. At the Lubyanka, he was immediately interrogated by Abakumov, head of the SMERSH Main Directorate of Counterintelligence. After that, Vlasov was assigned No. 31, under which he was placed in an inner prison as a secret prisoner. On May 16, Vlasov was put on the "conveyor line": the general was interrogated by constantly changing investigators and guards. Vlasov was kept on this "conveyor line" for ten days.
After 8 months, in December 1945, the investigation was completed. On January 4, 1946, Abakumov sent a message to Stalin that the leaders of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) Vlasov and other generals were being held in the SMERSH Main Directorate. The head of the main department of counterintelligence "SMERSH" proposed to sentence all the accused to death by hanging, to carry out the sentence in prison in accordance with paragraph 1 of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of April 19, 1943.
On July 23, 1946, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks decided: "1. To judge by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR the leaders of the "Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia" created by the Germans: Vlasov, Malyshkin, Trukhin, Zhilenkov and other active Vlasovites in the amount of 12 people. 2. The case of the Vlasovites should be heard in a closed court session chaired by Colonel-General of Justice Ulrich, without the participation of the parties (prosecutor and lawyer). 4. Do not cover the progress of the trial in the press After the trial is over, publish in the newspapers in the "Chronicle" section a message about the trial, the court verdict and its execution. . G.".
The trial lasted two days. The judges deliberated for seven hours before reaching their verdict.
On August 1, 1946, the verdict was passed. The next day, a message was published in the central newspapers by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR: “The other day, the VKVS of the USSR considered the case on charges of Vlasov A.A., ... of treason and that they, being agents of German intelligence, carried out active espionage sabotage and terrorist activities against the Soviet Union, i.e. in crimes under Articles 58-1 b, 58-8, 58-9, 58-10 hours 11 and 58-11 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. guilty of the charges brought against them. In accordance with paragraph 1 of the Decree of the Supreme Military Council of the USSR of April 19, 1943, the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced the accused to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out." Where the bodies of General Vlasov and his associates are buried is unknown.
The beginning of the wrong path
It all started on July 11, 1942, when the second shock army under the command of Lieutenant General Vlasov was surrounded by German troops. With part of the fighters, the general went to the village of Tukhovezhi Leningrad region. What happened next is hard to say for sure. According to one version, the Germans learned that Red Army soldiers were hiding in the village and threatened the locals with reprisals if they did not extradite their compatriot soldiers. Local residents allegedly gave it away. According to another version, General Vlasov himself surrendered to the patrol on the 28th infantry regiment 18th Army of the Wehrmacht. One way or another, Andrei Vlasov ended up in a concentration camp organized by the Nazis for senior officers of the Red Army, located in the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa.
It became clear that the general went over to the side of the enemy
An officer worked closely with Vlasov in a concentration camp German army Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt. As a result, Vlasov's "memorandum" to the German Supreme Command was born. Its content is:
"officer corps" Soviet army, especially captured officers who can freely exchange thoughts, are faced with the question: in what way can the Stalin government be overthrown and the new Russia? All are united by the desire to overthrow Stalin's government and change the state form. There is a question: to whom exactly to join - to Germany, England or the United States? the main task- the overthrow of the government - speaks for joining Germany, which declared the fight against the existing government and regime the goal of the war. "On September 10, 1942, Vlasov signed another document - a leaflet that was scattered from aircraft at the forefront of the Soviet troops and distributed among "Where is the way out of the impasse into which the Stalinist clique has led our country? - Vlasov asked clearly from someone else's voice. - There is only one way out ... History does not give another. Whoever loves his homeland, who wants happiness for his people - he must by all means and by all means join in the overthrow of the hated Stalinist regime, he must contribute to the creation of a new anti-Stalinist government, he must fight to end the criminal war waged in the interests of England and America, for an honest peace with Germany."
From this leaflet it can be seen that Vlasov is trying not to look like a traitor, but a fighter against the Soviet regime and the Stalinist regime, who deliberately embarked on this path. The general directly stated this in his open letter dated March 3, 1943 "Why did I take the path of fighting Bolshevism" (). In it, he writes: “I remained with the fighters and army commanders until the last minute. We remained a handful, and we completely fulfilled our duty as soldiers. I made my way through the encirclement into the forest and hid in the forest and swamps for about a month. the question arose: should the blood of the Russian people be shed further? Is it in the interests of the Russian people to continue the war? What is the Russian people fighting for? I clearly realized that the Russian people would be drawn by Bolshevism into a war for the alien interests of the Anglo-American capitalists ... So wouldn’t it be a crime and continue to shed blood? Isn't Bolshevism and, in particular, Stalin, the main enemy of the Russian people? Isn't it the first and sacred duty of every honest Russian person to take up arms against Stalin and his clique?"
The Germans supported Vlasov and let him turn around. But Himmler called the general a "Russian pig"
The fascist authorities, of course, could not resist the temptation to use General Vlasov for their own purposes. Speaking about the role he can play in the war with Russia, the chief of the SS troops spoke disapprovingly of the Russian general: "... we told this general about the following: it’s clear to you that there is no way back for you. But you are a significant person and we guarantee you that when the war is over, you will receive a lieutenant general's pension, and in the near future - here's schnapps, cigarettes and women. That's how cheap you can buy such a general! Very cheap. You see, in such things you need to have a damn accurate calculation. Such a person costs 20 thousand marks a year. Let him live 10 or 15 years, that's 300 thousand marks. If one battery fires well for two days, this also costs 300 thousand marks ... And then the ideas of Mr. Vlasov arrived : Russia has never been defeated by Germany; Russia can only be defeated by the Russians themselves. And this Russian pig (diese russische Schweine) Mr. Vlasov offers his services for this. "
The Russian liberation army created by Vlasov was quite numerous
In some publications of the Russian media, it was reported that the number of ROA reached a million and even one and a half million military personnel. German documents, meanwhile, indicate that the Vlasov army, including aviation and security units, amounted to only about 50 thousand people, with Russians -37 thousand (5). At the end of April 1945, Vlasov was subordinate to: 1st Division, Major General S.K. Bunyachenko (22 thousand people), 2nd Division Major General G.A. Zverev (13 thousand people) and the 3rd division of Major General M.M. Shapovalov (about 10 thousand unarmed volunteers).
Why did Vlasov's army enter the battle only a few months before the end of the war?
The formations and units of the ROA entered the battle with the Soviet troops on April 13, 1945. Almost three years have passed since the capture of General Vlasov by the Germans. Why did the Hitler regime not use the "fighter against Bolshevism" for so long? The thing is that the all-powerful Reichsführer of the SS troops, Heinrich Himmler, opposed the decision to create the ROA. However, before the threat of defeat in the war, he finally gave his consent to the creation of armed formations under the leadership of Vlasov.
In April 1945, Vlasov showed himself a traitor for the second time. Now for the Germans
The 1st division under the command of Vlasov's ally, Major General S.K. Bunyachenko stormed the Soviet positions on the Oder, but was defeated. On April 15, the Vlasovites, contrary to the orders of the German command, moved south - to surrender to the Allied forces. On May 1, the division approached Prague, and on May 4 an uprising broke out in this city. The SS troops were ordered to destroy the city, and then the Czechs turned to the Russian liberation army. The Germans did not expect a stab in the back, and were forced to leave the city. The newly created government of the Czech Republic unexpectedly announced to the Vlasovites that it did not ask them for help - the people who called themselves representatives of the headquarters of the Prague uprising had nothing to do with it. The Vlasovites were advised to surrender to the advancing Soviet army. Nevertheless, it was this episode in Vlasov’s life that later allowed him and all sympathizers to talk about how the general supposedly invented everything cunningly: in order to save the life of a soldier at the beginning of the war, he surrendered to the Germans, and then at the first opportunity dealt them a crushing blow in the back …
Inglourious End combat way
On May 7, Bunyachenko's division left Prague and stubbornly continued its movement to the south. On May 9, she met with a tank unit of the American army, and on May 11 she handed over her weapons to the USSR allies and settled in the Shlisselburg area. On the same day, the headquarters of the Russian liberation army surrendered to the Americans, the remnants of the 2nd division. And on May 12, the Americans reported that Shlisselburg would be handed over to their Soviet allies. Thus, 10 thousand Vlasovites ended up in the hands of the Soviet army, about the same number managed to infiltrate in groups and individually into the zone of American occupation, but were extradited to the USSR. Among them was Bunyachenko. Several hundred people were detained by Czech partisans, who executed several high-ranking Vlasovites, and Major General Trukhin was handed over to representatives of the Soviet troops.
On April 18, representatives of General Vlasov entered into unsuccessful negotiations with the commander of the 7th American army Patch about moving under Allied protection. Then the general was denied political asylum by neutral Switzerland. On May 11, Vlasov arrived at the location of the Bunyachenko division. On May 12, 1945, the reconnaissance group of Captain Yakushev, with the tacit consent of the Americans, arrested Vlasov in front of Bunyachenko and his disarmed division. What happened next, you already know.
On July 12, 1942, Lieutenant General of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov was captured by the Nazis. He was not the first Soviet general in the hands of the Germans. But Vlasov, unlike others, went to active cooperation, agreeing to take the side of Hitler.
From the beginning of the war, the Nazis were looking for collaborators among the captured Soviet military leaders. First of all, they bet on those who are older, in the hope of playing on nostalgic feelings for Imperial Russia. This calculation, however, was not justified.
Vlasov, for the Germans, was a real surprise. A man agreed to cooperate with them, who owed his entire career to the Soviet system, a general who was considered Stalin's favorite.
How did General Vlasov end up in captivity, and why did he embark on the path of betrayal?
"I always stood firmly on the general line of the party"
The thirteenth child in a peasant family, Andrei Vlasov was preparing for a career as a priest. The revolution changed priorities - in 1919, an 18-year-old guy was drafted into the army, with which he connected his life. Having shown himself well in the final part of the Civil War, Vlasov continued his military career. In 1929 he graduated from the Higher Army Command Courses "Shot". In 1930 he joined the CPSU (b). In 1935 he became a student of the MV Frunze Military Academy.
The repressions of 1937-1938 not only did not hurt Vlasov, but also helped his career growth. In 1938, assistant commander of the 72nd Infantry Division. In the fall of 1938, Vlasov was seconded to China as a military adviser, and in 1939 he became acting chief military adviser to the USSR under the government of Chiang Kai-shek.
After returning to the USSR in January 1940, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 99th Infantry Division. Soon the division becomes the best in the Kiev military district, and one of the best in the Red Army.
Hero of the first months of the war.
In January 1941, Vlasov was appointed commander of the 4th mechanized corps of the Kyiv Special Military District, and a month later he was awarded the Order of Lenin. War can be a difficult test for those officers who make a career not thanks to knowledge and skills, but with the help of intrigues and groveling before their superiors.
However, this does not apply to Vlasov. His corps fought with dignity in the first weeks near Lvov, holding back the onslaught of the Germans. Major General Vlasov deserved his actions appreciated, and was appointed commander of the 37th Army.
During the defense of Kyiv, Vlasov's army was surrounded, from which hundreds of thousands did not leave Soviet soldiers and officers. Vlasov was among the lucky ones who managed to escape from the "boiler".
In November 1941, Andrei Vlasov received a new appointment. He is ordered to form and lead the 20th Army, which will take part in the counteroffensive near Moscow. The 20th Army took part in the Klinsko-Solnechnogorsk offensive operation, the troops defeated the main forces of the 3rd and 4th tank groups of the enemy, threw them back to the line of the Lama River - the Ruza River and liberated several settlements, including Volokolamsk.
Andrei Vlasov was included in the official Soviet propaganda among the heroes of the battle for Moscow. On January 4, 1942, for these battles, Vlasov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and promoted to lieutenant general.
Appointment to the Volkhov Front.
Leading Soviet and foreign correspondents are interviewing Vlasov, and a book about him is planned. Everything indicates that Vlasov was considered by the top Soviet leadership as one of the most promising military leaders.
That is why in early March 1942 he was assigned to one of the most important sectors of the Soviet-German front - Vlasov became deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.
Since January 1942, the troops of the front, in cooperation with units of the Leningrad Front, have been carrying out offensive operation, the purpose of which is to break the blockade of Leningrad. At the forefront of the Soviet offensive is the 2nd shock army, which managed to break through the enemy's defenses and move forward significantly. However, the troops had to advance through forest and swampy terrain, which seriously hampered operations. In addition, the breakthrough has not been able to expand. At the most successful moment, the width of its neck did not exceed 12 kilometers, which created the danger of a German counterattack and the encirclement of Soviet units.
In February 1942, the pace of the offensive dropped sharply. The task set by Moscow to take by March 1 locality Luban was not fulfilled.
Break the blockade at any cost.
Things were getting worse. On March 15, 1942, the German counteroffensive began, and a direct threat of encirclement loomed over the 2nd shock army. They did not stop the offensive and withdraw the divisions. This is usually interpreted as a whim and stupidity of the Soviet leadership. But we must not forget that the offensive was carried out for the sake of breaking the blockade of Leningrad. Famine in the besieged city continued to methodically kill people. Refusal to advance meant a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of people. Furious battles were going on behind the supply corridor of the 2nd shock army. It then closed completely, then again made its way, however, with a much smaller width.
On March 20, a commission headed by Lieutenant General Vlasov was sent to the 2nd shock army with a check. The commission returned back without him - he was left to control and help the commander Nikolai Klykov.
In early April, Klykov fell seriously ill. On April 20, Vlasov was approved as commander of the army, with the post of deputy front commander retained. Vlasov was not happy with the appointment - he got not fresh, but badly battered troops, who were in a difficult situation. Meanwhile, the Volkhov Front was united with the Leningrad Front under the general command of Colonel General Mikhail Khozin. He received an order to release the army.
General Khozin thought about the plans promised to the Headquarters for three weeks, and then suddenly reported that the 2nd shock army should be taken to the neck of the breakthrough, expanded, and then consolidated at this line, and the offensive should be moved to another sector. In fact, Khozin repeated what Meretskov had insisted on earlier, but three weeks were wasted senselessly. All this time, the troops of the 2nd shock army, eating breadcrumbs and horsemeat, suffering heavy losses, continued to hold their positions.
On May 14, the Stavka issues a directive on the withdrawal of the 2nd shock army from the Luban salient. General Khozin himself received a similar order verbally two days earlier.
But what about Vlasov himself? He carried out the duties assigned to him, but did not show any large-scale initiative. The fate of his army was determined by others. Despite everything, the first stage of the withdrawal of the 2nd shock army was successful. But the Nazis, realizing that prey was escaping, stepped up the pressure.
The disaster began on May 30. Taking advantage of the overwhelming advantage in aviation, the enemy launched a decisive offensive. On May 31, the corridor through which the 2nd shock army exited slammed shut, and this time the Germans managed to strengthen their positions in the area. More than 40 thousand people ended up in the "cauldron" Soviet soldiers. Exhausted by hunger, people under continuous attacks by German aircraft and artillery continued to fight, breaking out of the encirclement.
The path to salvation through the "Valley of Death".
Later, Vlasov and his supporters would say that the Soviet command "left the 2nd shock army to its fate." This is not true, attempts to deblockade did not stop, units tried to break through a new corridor to the encircled.
On June 8, 1942, General Khozin was removed from his post, the Volkhov Front again became a separate unit, and General Meretskov was sent to save the situation. Personally, Stalin set him the task of withdrawing the 2nd shock army from the "cauldron", even if without heavy weapons. Meretskov gathered all the reserves of the front into a fist in order to break through to Vlasov's army. But on the other hand, the Nazis were transferring more and more new forces.
On June 16, a radiogram arrives from Vlasov: “The personnel of the troops are exhausted to the limit, the number of deaths is increasing, and the incidence of exhaustion is increasing every day. As a result of the cross-fire of the army area, the troops suffer heavy losses from artillery mortar fire and enemy aircraft ... The combat strength of the formations has sharply decreased. It is no longer possible to replenish it at the expense of rears and special units. Everything that was taken. On the sixteenth of June in battalions, brigades and rifle regiments Only a few dozen people remained on average.
On June 19, 1942, a corridor was broken through which several thousand Soviet soldiers were able to get out. But the next day, under air strikes, the saving path from the encirclement was again blocked.
On June 21, a corridor with a width of 250 to 400 meters was opened. It was shot through, hundreds of people died, but still several thousand people were able to go out to their own.
On the same day, a new radiogram came from Vlasov: “Army troops have been receiving fifty grams of crackers for three weeks. Last days there was absolutely no food. We eat the last horses. People are extremely exhausted. Group mortality from starvation is observed. There is no ammunition ... ".
The corridor for the exit of fighters at the cost of heavy losses was held until June 23. The agony of the 2nd shock army was coming. The territory she controlled was now being shot through by the enemy.
On the evening of June 23, the soldiers of the 2nd shock army went to a new breakthrough. It was possible to open a corridor about 800 meters wide. The space, which was narrowing all the time, was called the "Valley of Death". Those who went through it said that it was a real hell. Only the luckiest managed to break through.
last hours 2nd shock.
On the same day, the Germans attacked Vlasov's command post. The fighters of the company of the special department managed to repulse the attack, which allowed the staff workers to retreat, but the leadership of the troops was lost.
In one of the last radiograms, Meretskov warned Vlasov that on June 24 the troops outside the “cauldron” would make a last decisive attempt to save the 2nd Shock Army. Vlasov appointed for this day the exit from the encirclement of the headquarters and rear services.
On the evening of June 24, the corridor was opened again, but now its width did not exceed 250 meters.
The headquarters column, however, having gone astray, ran into German bunkers. Enemy fire fell on her, Vlasov himself was slightly wounded in the leg. Of those who were next to Vlasov, only the head of the intelligence department of the army Rogov managed to break through to his night, who alone found a saving corridor.
Around 9:30 am on June 25, 1942, the ring around the 2nd shock army slammed shut completely. More than 20 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers remained surrounded. In the following weeks, singly and in small groups, several hundred more people managed to escape.
But what is important is that German sources record that there were no facts of mass surrender. The Nazis noted that the Russians in Myasny Bor preferred to die with weapons in their hands.
The 2nd shock army died heroically, not knowing what a black shadow would fall on it because of the commander.
Rescue of General Afanasiev.
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, was trying to get out. The few surviving witnesses claimed that a breakdown occurred in the general after the failed breakthrough. He looked indifferent, did not hide from the shelling. The command of the detachment was taken over by the chief of staff of the 2nd shock army, Colonel Vinogradov.
The group, wandering around the rear, tried to get to their own. She entered into skirmishes with the Germans, suffered losses, gradually decreasing.
The key moment occurred on the night of 11 July. Vinogradov, the chief of staff, suggested that we divide into groups of several people and go out to our own. He was objected to by the chief of communications of the army, Major General Afanasyev. He suggested that everyone go together to the Oredezh River and Lake Chernoye, where they could feed themselves by fishing, and where partisan detachments should be located. Afanasiev's plan was rejected, but no one began to prevent him from moving along his route. 4 people left with Afanasiev.
Literally a day later, Afanasiev's group met with partisans who contacted the "Great Land". A plane arrived for the general, which took him to the rear.
Aleksey Vasilyevich Afanasyev turned out to be the only representative of the senior command staff of the 2nd shock army who managed to get out of the encirclement. After the hospital, he returned to duty, and continued his service, ending his career as the chief of artillery communications 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, because of which the general gave him his overcoat. On July 12, Vlasov's group split up to go to two villages in search of food. The cook of the canteen of the military council of the army, Maria Voronova, remained with the general.
They entered the village of Tukhovezhi, introducing themselves as refugees. Vlasov, who introduced himself as a school teacher, asked for food. They were fed, after which they unexpectedly pointed their weapons and locked them in a barn. The “hospitable host” turned out to be the local headman, who called for help local residents from the Auxiliary Police.
It is known that Vlasov had a pistol with him, but he did not resist.
The headman did not recognize the general, but considered the newcomers to be partisans. On the morning of the next day, a German special group, which the headman asked to pick up the captives. The Germans waved it off because they were following ... 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 the members of the group upon arrival, was identified as the body of the commander of the 2nd shock army. In fact, it was Colonel Vinogradov who was killed.
On the way back, having already passed Tukhovezhi, the Germans remembered their promise and returned for the unknown. When the barn door opened, a phrase in German sounded out of the darkness:
- Do not shoot, I am General Vlasov!
Two Fates: 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 Soviet military leaders. And a few weeks later, while in a special camp in Vinnitsa, Andrei Vlasov himself would 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 from the Soviet system and from Stalin, he not only did not suffer, but 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 Rifle Division, took part in the battle for Moscow, and then with his unit was transferred to break the blockade of Leningrad. The 327th division achieved the greatest success in the Luban operation. Just as the 316th Rifle Division was unofficially called "Panfilovskaya", the 327th Rifle Division received the name "Antyufeevskaya".
Antyufeev received the rank of major general at the height of the fighting near Lyuban, and did not even have time to change the colonel's shoulder straps to general's, which played a role in his future fate. The divisional commander also remained in the "boiler", and was wounded on July 5 while trying to escape.
The Nazis, having taken the officer prisoner, 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 Antyufeev was in fact 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 Antyufeev would follow the path of his boss. But even having met with Vlasov face to face, the general refused the offer of cooperation with the Germans.
Antyufeev was shown a fabricated interview in which he declared his readiness to work for Germany. They explained to him - now for the Soviet leadership he is an undoubted traitor. But even here the general answered "no."
General Antyufeev stayed in the concentration camp until April 1945, when he was liberated by German troops. He returned to his homeland, was reinstated in the cadres of the Soviet Army. In 1946, General Antyufeev was awarded the Order of Lenin. He retired from the army in 1955 due to illness.
But here's a strange thing - the name of General Antyufeev, who remained faithful to the oath, is known only to lovers military history, while everyone knows about General Vlasov.
"He had no convictions - he had ambition"
So why did Vlasov make the choice he made? Maybe because in life he loved fame and career growth more than anything. Suffering in the captivity of lifetime glory did not promise, 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. The writer and journalist Ilya Ehrenburg met the general at the peak of his career, in the midst of a successful battle for him near Moscow. Here is what Ehrenburg wrote about Vlasov years later:
“Of course, the alien soul is dark; yet I dare to state my conjectures. Vlasov is not Brutus and not Prince Kurbsky, it seems to me that everything was much simpler. Vlasov wanted to complete the task entrusted to him; he knew that Stalin would congratulate him again, he would receive another order, he would exalt himself, he would amaze everyone with his art of interrupting quotations from Marx with Suvorov jokes. It turned out differently: the Germans were stronger, the army was again surrounded. Vlasov, wanting to save himself, changed his clothes. Seeing the Germans, he was frightened: a simple soldier could be killed on the spot. Once in captivity, 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 finished. If wins Soviet Union, at best, he will be demoted. So, there is only one thing left: to accept the offer of the Germans and do everything so that Germany wins. Then he will be the commander-in-chief or the minister of war of a ripped Russia under the auspices of the victorious Hitler. Of course, Vlasov never told anyone like that, 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 is everywhere, it does not depend on the political system, nor on education.
General Vlasov was mistaken - betrayal did not bring him back to the top. August 1, 1946 courtyard Andrey Vlasov, deprived of his title and awards, was hanged in the Butyrka prison for treason.
The capture of General Vlasov
or the detective who wasn't there...
Much has been written about General Vlasov. A great many authors, trying to understand the motives that prompted yesterday a very successful Soviet general to go to the service of the Germans, one way or another, relate to the circumstances of the capture of the commander of the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front. What versions have I not read for many years of studying the tragic and heroic history army, almost completely lost in the swamps between Volkhov and Kerest. The latest and most fantastic is the version heard recently: Lieutenant General Vlasov was captured by the Germans near Vinnitsa. Andrey Andreevich really was near Vinnitsa, but after he was taken prisoner in a completely different place. The Germans in this city had one of the prison camps for Soviet officers.
One of the most closely investigating the path of Vlasov is a historian, researcher memorial complex"Brest Fortress" Leonid Reshin. He wrote a lot about the general, and it is with him that you can find the largest number of versions of Vlasov's capture. The village of Mostki, where Vlasov allegedly hid in a bathhouse, and the village of Sennaya Kerest, where the general was taken prisoner in a house where he went to look for food, are called. You can find other names of settlements where, according to various sources, Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was captured by the Germans. The dates of captivity will also be different for different authors: from the third to the twelfth of July. In short, a solid detective!
In fact, there is no detective, and never was. The area of captivity and the circumstances preceding this event, which dramatically changed the fate of the commander of the 2nd Shock Army, could have been established long ago. For this, it was only necessary to carefully study the memorandum of the former chief of communications of the army, Major General A.V. Afanasiev, who left the encirclement with Vlasov, and broke up with him just a day before his capture. Unlike his commander, Afanasyev managed to get out to his own, and he told in detail about the many days of wanderings of a large group of encircled, which included Lieutenant General Vlasov. This note was compiled on July 26, 1942, and for a long time has been gathering dust in the funds of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense in the city of Podolsk. It was quite often quoted by various researchers, touching on certain aspects of the history of the 2nd Shock Army. This document fell into my hands about fifteen years ago, but I had to find the last link that would help unwind the entire chain. This link was the book of the Czech author Karel Richter "The Case of General Vlasov", which was presented to me in 1995 by my Czech journalist friend Zdenek Shamal. He, like me, was interested in the whole story. When I read this very interesting book, Major General Afanasiev's memorandum spoke in a completely different way. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The laws of the genre call us to gradualness and consistency...
So, the early morning of June 25, 1942. The boundary of the river Polist - the northern road is a narrow-gauge railway of the 2nd Shock Army. The strongest artillery shelling from all sides. At 4 am, with the first rays of the sun, German aircraft appeared, bombing and machine-gunning everything that was still moving towards Myasny Bor. “The Military Council of the Army at dawn on 25.6. was located 500 meters west of the Polist River, near the narrow gauge railway. Further fate The Armed Forces are not known, ”the head of the army intelligence department, Colonel V.S. Rogov, writes in his report to the command of the Volkhov Front on the operation to withdraw the 2nd Shock Army from encirclement. Colonel Rogov was also lucky, and he survived. The report was written by him after going to his own.
Major General Afanasiev describes the same thing in somewhat more detail: “Everyone left at night from June 24 to June 25 at KP 46 sd, and at the moment of transition at 2 a.m. the whole group falls under artillery-mortar barrage fire. Groups in the smoke are lost. One group led by Zuev and the head of a special department with a detachment of machine gunners of 70 people from a special department somehow hid from us near the Polist River in the direction of a height of 40.5 (according to Comrade Vinogradov), that is, they left us to the right, and Together with a group of Vlasov Vinogradov, Belishev, Afanasiev and others, we went through the smoke of artillery-mortar explosions to the left, organized a search for Zuev and Shashkov, but had no success. Couldn't get ahead."
Lost in the smoke of explosions, Commissar Zuev and the head of the special department, Shashkov, could not go to their own either then or later. A.G. Shashkov was seriously wounded and shot himself, not wanting to burden his comrades with himself in a practically hopeless situation, and Zuev, having traveled many kilometers through forests and swamps, died in a shootout with the Germans on the railway between the settlements of Torfyanoe and Babino. It was handed over to the Nazis by two traitors Seits and Kovrigin, but that's another story...
The group, which by chance included Afanasiev, who had left the encirclement and Vlasov, who never left, rolls back towards the command post of the 46th rifle division of Colonel Cherny. The headquarters of the 46th Rifle Division also returned there. This area was located in the middle of the way between two small swampy rivers - Polista and Glushitsa. These rivers were destined to become bloody frontiers in the history of the 2nd Shock Army. Here is what General Afanasyev writes further in his note: “We were waiting for a moment of calm, but, alas, at that time the enemy broke through the front from the west and moved towards us along the clearing in platoon columns and shouted: “Rus, surrender!”
Afanasiev was instructed to organize the defense, but it was not successful, the Germans pressed the defenders. “It should be noted that Com. Vlasov, despite the shelling, continued to stand still without being applied to the terrain. There was some confusion or forgetfulness. When I began to warn: it is necessary to take cover, he continued to remain in place. The shock of feelings was noticeable.
In my opinion, there was something to be in a shock of feelings. Vlasov, assuming the post of army commander in April 1942, was well aware of the situation in the army, as yesterday's deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. He repeatedly tried to draw the attention of the high command to her plight. The same was done in April 1942 by the front commander, Kirill Afanasyevich Meretskov, telling Stalin that in such a position, the 2nd Shock would not only be unable to attack, but also unable to defend. These words were not heard...
We read Afanasiev further: “Vinogradov (chief of staff of the 2nd Shock Army - A.O.) set about organizing a withdrawal to the rear of the enemy with access through the front to his own. It must be frankly admitted that the special invitations of Comrade. The vineyard officers did not have a headquarters. Everything was done constructively. But, despite these conditions, voluntarily or unwittingly, the group itself voluntarily joined a single group of up to 45 people. It was clear that this did not suit him. But it was too late to stop this flow. Plus, a group of Colonel Chernoy in the amount of 40 people was added to this. It turned out pretty large group. Comrade Vlasov was indifferent.
At this point, I want to particularly focus on, since the historian Leonid Reshin writes literally the following: “Major Zubov, a participant in the exit from the encirclement of a group of officers of the 2nd Shock Army, recalled that Vlasov, under all sorts of pretexts, tried to reduce the size of the group. Extra witnesses were not needed ... "Who's lying? Historian Reshin or Major Zubov in hindsight? As can be seen from what General Afanasyev wrote, Vlasov did not show any initiative at all from the moment he left the border of the Polist River. I had to meet even cooler pearls. Reading in the archives of the USSR Ministry of Defense the history of the 59th Army of the Volkhov Front, which fought side by side with the 2nd Shock, I was surprised to read in this scripture that it turns out that all the failures of this army are to blame ... General Vlasov, who had sold out to the Germans in advance and reported them in advance all the strategic plans of the Soviet command. With full responsibility, I want to say that this is complete nonsense. Until July 12, 1942, Lieutenant General Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov was a completely trustworthy Soviet general, nothing more ...
Along the way, with a large group, which included Lieutenant General Vlasov, there were all sorts of collisions. The Germans were all around. Couldn't get through. They ran into mines. Ghibli. Sent forward reconnaissance groups. They didn't return. Some of the people scattered, went their own way. The Germans blocked all directions reliably. The wanderings continued for more than one day. Finally, at the Olkhovsky farms on the Kerest River (now a non-existent settlement - A.O.) they managed to cross to the western bank.
“By this time, we were all already tired, exhausted, ate only grass, cooked mushroom soups that were fresh without salt. A decision was made: on the road to Vditsko, from the south and north, the fighter squad should raid a car with food, pick up the food and deliver it to us in the forest. 15 people performed." The speech ended in failure. Headquarters commissar Sviridov was wounded in the chest by a bullet through and through, and one person was killed. Food was not obtained. It was decided to go to the site of the former command post in the Shchelkovka tract. There again failure. Another person died.
A decision is made to move west in the direction of the village of Podberezye (I did not find this village on the map in the area in question - A.O.)
“It was July 10-11, 1942. Railway already changed to the German gauge, guards were found, but we quietly passed it. We went out on a narrow-gauge wooden road, which is 2 kilometers east of Podberezye. Here we made a long stop.
Vinogradov agreed with Vlasov to split the group into small groups, which had to choose their own route of movement and plan of their actions (this moment is also interesting, since many historians attribute such a decision to Vlasov, and not to Vinogradov - A.O.)
I personally objected to this event, proposed my plan - to move everyone to the Oredezh River, to fish on the spot on Lake Chernoye and, if possible, on the river, and the rest of the group, which I agreed to lead, would go to look for partisans, from whom we would find radio station, we will contact our units in the east, and we will be assisted.
My offer was not accepted. I then invited those who wished to come with me. One political instructor wanted to go with me, who, according to the lists, was part of Vlasov's group. Then Vinogradov accused me of allegedly luring me over... Before leaving, I asked where the other groups were going to go, but no one had yet made a decision. I asked Vlasov and Vinogradov about this, they said that they had not made a decision either, and that they would go after everyone else.
General Afanasiev and three other people left along their route. They were lucky, very soon they came across Luga partisans from the Sazonov detachment. Vlasov, Vinogradov, his orderly and the cook Vlasova Maria Voronova went their own way. From the place where they parted with the group of General Afanasiev, this path ran south towards the villages of Tukhovezhi - Yam-Tesovo. The distance between these villages is 6-8 kilometers. Judging by the direction of movement, Colonel Vinogradov wanted to reach the positions of the Soviet troops in the Luga area. This wasn't meant to happen...
We read Karel Richter: “July 12, at dawn, intelligence officer XXXVIII army corps Captain Schwerdtner came to wake up Sonderführer Karl Poelhan's interpreter:
-Get up, we're going to Yam-Tesovo.
-What happened?
- Last night, the patrol shot a certain man there. It looks like General Vlasov. Need to be identified.
The headquarters of the 38th German army corps was at that time in the village of Raglitsy. Many spearfishers are now well aware of the clean quarries available there. It was from here that Captain Schwerdtner and his translator left to identify allegedly General Vlasov. On the way, they stopped at the village of Tukhovezhi, where they were supposed to take escort submachine gunners. In the village, they were approached by a headman who stated that he had detained two suspicious persons: a man and a woman who asked him for food and lodging for the night, offering a silver watch in exchange. The headman showed the Germans the watch. Captain Schwerdtner did not understand a word of Russian, and besides, he was in a hurry to identify the corpse of General Vlasov. He simply waved away the importunate headman. True, Poelkhan ordered that the detainees be guarded by the headman so that they would not run away while the Germans were driving to Yam-Tesovo.
In the village of Yam-Tesovo, the Germans were shown a wounded Russian soldier with his arm in a sling, who was shot while trying to escape, when the patrol shouted to two people in military uniform: “Stop!” The second of those who escaped was shot dead. The body was placed in a barn. Captain Schwerdtner was taken there.
“The dead man was lying on the straw, tall, stooped, dressed in a cloak. The waxy pallor of her cheeks was covered with thick black stubble.
-Is this your commander? Poelhan translated Captain Schwerdtner's question.
- Yes - led the soldiers downcast shoulders.
- General Vlasov?
-Yes
Schwerdtner waved his hand.
- You can take the prisoner away.
He bent over the dead man, looked at him for a minute. Everything corresponded to Vlasov's description: tall, stately, dark hair, high forehead, wide nose, protruding cheekbones. There were no points, but they can be lost. Without a doubt, this is Vlasov. His orderly confirmed this. Yes, and a cloak. It had three stars, which corresponded to the rank of lieutenant general of the Red Army.
Absolutely certain that it was Vlasov who had been shot by the patrol in the village of Yam-Tesovo, Schwerdtner ordered the dead man to be buried, drawing up an identification protocol. By radio, he informed the corps command that the body of General Vlasov had been successfully identified. The way back again lay through Tukhovezhi. And again the annoying Russian approached them. He led the Germans to the door of the fire shed, which was padlocked. Schwerdtner took two submachine gunners and placed them at the door. The village headman removed the lock. The translator shouted:
-Get out! You are surrounded!
It was quiet for a couple of minutes. Then a deep voice called out:
-Nicht schiessen, general Vlasov!
This is how Karel Richter describes the details of the capture of General Vlasov. I have no reason not to believe him. The path of the group, in which the commander of the 2nd Shock Army, Lieutenant General Vlasov, walked, I traced on the map. The group passed from the border of the Polist River until the moment of parting with General Afanasyev almost 70 kilometers. The place where they said goodbye forever (“it was July 10-11” - Gen. Afanasiev) is ten kilometers away from the villages of Tukhovezhi and Yam-Tesovo. Exactly so much that exhausted and hungry people could walk in a day, no more. Everything came together. There is no doubt. Vlasov was captured in the village of Tukhovezhi, Leningrad Region, not far from the border of the current Novgorod Region. To the west of Myasny Bor, where he was not destined to go along with the remnants of his exhausted army. The headman of the village of Tukhovezhi locked him and Maria Voronova in a barn on July 11, and handed them over to the Germans on July 12. From the village of Tukhovezhi, Vlasov's path turned in a different direction, but this is the topic of another detective story, and this can be put an end to.
It remains only to explain to the reader, who was shot by the Germans in the village of Yam-Tesovo, and why was the cloak with the general's stars on the dead man? The German patrol shot Colonel Vinogradov, chief of staff of the 2nd Shock Army, and wounded his orderly. The cloak on Vinogradov was a general's because, shortly before parting, Vlasov gave it to the colonel, who was very shivering. So they went to the villages to look for food: the general - in a tunic without insignia, the colonel - in a general's raincoat. Outwardly, Vinogradov was slightly similar to his commander, and half a month of hunger strike and forest wanderings further strengthened this resemblance. By the way, the relatives of Colonel Vinogradov still do not know where he is buried.
Alexander ORLOV
In the photo: General A.A. Vlasov at the front
A tall man in round glasses has not been able to sleep for several days now. The main traitor, General of the Red Army Andrei Vlasov, is interrogated by several NKVD investigators, replacing each other day and night for ten days. They are trying to understand how they could miss the traitor in their orderly ranks, devoted to the cause of Lenin and Stalin.
He had no children, he never had a spiritual attachment to women, his parents died. All he had was his life. And he loved to live. His father, a church elder, was proud of his son.
Parental traitorous 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 family strong nest.
He used to betray
Parsing archival documents, traces of Vlasov's military operations on the fronts of the Civil War cannot be found. He was a typical staff "rat", which, by the will of fate, ended up at the top of the country's command podium. One fact speaks about how he moved up the career ladder. Arriving with an inspection to the 99th Infantry Division and learning that the commander was engaged in a thorough study of the methods of action of the German troops, he immediately wrote a denunciation of 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 to his place. This behavior has become the norm for him. No remorse of conscience of this man was tormented.
First environment
In the early days of the Great Patriotic War, Vlasov's army was surrounded near Kyiv. The general leaves the encirclement not in the ranks of his units, but together with his fighting girlfriend.
But Stalin forgave him this offense. Vlasov received a new appointment - to head main blow under Moscow. But he is in no hurry to go to the troops, referring to pneumonia and poor health. According to one version, the entire preparation of the operation near Moscow fell on the shoulders of the most experienced staff officer Leonid Sandalov.
"Star disease" - the second reason for betrayal
Stalin appoints Vlasov as the main winner of the battle near Moscow.
The general begins "star fever". According to the reviews of his colleagues, he becomes rude, arrogant, mercilessly curses his subordinates. Constantly trumps his proximity to the leader. 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 to the conduct of hostilities. During the offensive near Moscow, Vlasov's units attacked the Germans along the road, where the enemy's defense was 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 disagrees again. These disputes last for more than one hour. And in the end, Vlasov still gives up 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 through from all sides, scattered units of Soviet soldiers tried to break through to their own.
But General Vlasov did not go along this corridor of death. Through unknown ways, 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 car drove up to Riga. Vlasov came out to meet them. He said something to them. The Germans saluted him and left.
The Germans could not accurately determine the position of a man dressed in a worn jacket. But the fact that he was dressed in riding breeches with the stripes of a general said 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 the German investigators began to interrogate him, he confessed almost immediately who he was. Vlasov stated that in 1937 he became one of the participants in the anti-Stalinist movement. However, at that 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 articles.
Women betrayed countless times
The general always surrounded himself with women. Officially, he had one wife. Anna Voronina from her native village led her weak-willed husband mercilessly. They had no children due to an unsuccessful abortion. The young military doctor Agnessa Podmazenko, his second common-law wife, left the encirclement near Kyiv with him. The third, nurse Maria Voronina, was captured by the Germans when she was hiding with him in the village of Tukhovezhi.
All three women ended up in prison, suffered the brunt of torture and humiliation. But General Vlasov was no longer worried. Agenheld Bidenberg, 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.