During World War II, 5,740,000 Soviet prisoners of war passed through the crucible of German captivity. Moreover, only about 1 million were in concentration camps towards the end of the war. IN German lists The death toll was around 2 million. Of the remaining number, 818,000 collaborated with the Germans, 473,000 were killed in camps in Germany and Poland, 273,000 died and about half a million were killed en route, 67,000 soldiers and officers escaped. According to statistics, in German captivity two out of three Soviet prisoners of war died. The first year of the war was especially terrible in this regard. Of the 3.3 million Soviet prisoners of war captured by the Germans during the first six months of the war, about 2 million were dead or exterminated by January 1942. The mass extermination of Soviet prisoners of war even exceeded the rate of reprisals against Jews during the peak of the anti-Semitic campaign in Germany.
Surprisingly, the architect of the genocide was not a member of the SS or even a representative Nazi Party, but just an elderly general who was on military service since 1905. This is Infantry General Hermann Reinecke, who led the German army prisoner of war casualty department. Even before the start of Operation Barbarossa, Reinecke made a proposal to isolate Jewish prisoners of war and transfer them into the hands of the SS for “special processing.” Later, as a judge of the "people's court", he sentenced hundreds of German Jews to the gallows.
83 (according to other sources - 72) generals of the Red Army were captured by the Germans, mainly in 1941–1942. Among the prisoners of war were several army commanders and dozens of corps and division commanders. The vast majority of them remained faithful to the oath, and only a few agreed to cooperate with the enemy. Of these, 26 (23) people died due to various reasons: shot, killed by camp guards, died from disease. The rest after the Victory were deported to Soviet Union. Of the latter, 32 people were repressed (7 were hanged in the Vlasov case, 17 were shot on the basis of Headquarters order No. 270 of August 16, 1941 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to suppress such actions”) and for “wrong” behavior in captivity 8 generals were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. After more than six months of inspection, the remaining 25 people were acquitted, but then gradually transferred to the reserve.
Many fates of those Soviet generals that they ended up in German captivity are still unknown. Here are just a few examples.
Today, the fate of Major General Bogdanov, who commanded the 48th Infantry Division, which was destroyed in the first days of the war as a result of the Germans advancing from the border to Riga, remains a mystery. In captivity, Bogdanov joined the Gil-Rodinov brigade, which was formed by the Germans from representatives of Eastern European nationalities to carry out anti-partisan tasks. Lieutenant Colonel Gil-Rodinov himself was the chief of staff of the 29th before his capture. rifle division. Bogdanov took the position of chief of counterintelligence. In August 1943, soldiers of the brigade killed everyone German officers and went over to the side of the partisans. Gil-Rodinov was later killed while fighting on the side of the Soviet troops. The fate of Bogdanov, who went over to the side of the partisans, is unknown.
Major General Dobrozerdov headed the 7th Rifle Corps, which in August 1941 was tasked with stopping the advance of the German 1st tank group to the Zhitomir region. The corps' counterattack failed, partially contributing to the German encirclement of the South Western Front near Kyiv. Dobrozerdov survived and was soon appointed chief of staff of the 37th Army. This was the period when on the left bank of the Dnieper Soviet command carried out the regrouping of the scattered forces of the Southwestern Front. In this leapfrog and confusion, Dobrozerdov was captured. The 37th Army itself was disbanded at the end of September and then re-established under the command of Lopatin for the defense of Rostov. Dobrozerdov withstood all the horrors of captivity and returned to his homeland after the war. His further fate is unknown.
Lieutenant General Ershakov was in in every sense one of those lucky enough to survive Stalin's repressions. In the summer of 1938, at the height of the purge process, he became commander of the Ural Military District. In the first days of the war, the district was transformed into the 22nd Army, which became one of three armies sent to the very thick of the battles - to the Western Front. At the beginning of July, the 22nd Army was unable to stop the advance of the German 3rd Panzer Group towards Vitebsk and was completely destroyed in August. However, Ershakov managed to escape. In September 1941, he took command of the 20th Army, which was defeated in the Battle of Smolensk. Then at unknown circumstances Ershakov himself was captured. He returned from captivity, but his further fate is unknown.
The fate of Major General Mishutin is full of secrets and mysteries. He was born in 1900, took part in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, and by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War he commanded a rifle division in Belarus. There he disappeared without a trace during the fighting (a fate shared by thousands Soviet soldiers). In 1954 former allies informed Moscow that Mishutin holds a high position in one of the Western intelligence services and works in Frankfurt. According to the presented version, the general first joined Vlasov, and then last days War was recruited by General Patch, commander of the American 7th Army, and became a Western agent. Another story, presented by the Russian writer Tamaev, seems more realistic, according to which an NKVD officer who investigated the fate of General Mishutin proved that Mishutin was shot by the Germans for refusing to cooperate, and his name was used by a completely different person who was recruiting prisoners of war into the Vlasov army. At the same time, the documents on the Vlasov movement do not contain any information about Mishutin, but Soviet authorities through their agents among prisoners of war, from the interrogations of Vlasov and his accomplices after the war, they would undoubtedly have established the real fate of General Mishutin. In addition, if Mishutin died as a hero, then it is not clear why there is no information about him in Soviet publications on the history of Khalkhin Gol. From all of the above it follows that the fate of this man still remains a mystery.
At the beginning of the war, Lieutenant General Muzychenko commanded the 6th Army of the Southwestern Front. The army included two huge mechanized corps, which the Soviet command entrusted high hopes(they, unfortunately, did not come true). The 6th Army managed to provide strong resistance to the enemy during the defense of Lvov. Subsequently, the 6th Army fought in the area of the cities of Brody and Berdichev, where, as a result of poorly coordinated actions and lack of air support, it was defeated. On July 25, the 6th Army was transferred to the Southern Front and destroyed in the Uman pocket. General Muzychenko was also captured at the same time. He passed through captivity, but was not reinstated. It should be noted that Stalin’s attitude towards the generals who fought on the Southern Front and were captured there was harsher than towards the generals captured on other fronts.
Major General Ogurtsov commanded the 10th tank division, which was part of the 15th Mechanized Corps of the Southwestern Front. The defeat of the division as part of the “Volsky group” south of Kyiv decided the fate of this city. Ogurtsov was captured, but managed to escape while being transported from Zamosc to Hammelsburg. He joined a group of partisans in Poland, led by Manzhevidze. On October 28, 1942 he died in battle on Polish territory.
Major General tank troops Potapov was one of five army commanders captured by the Germans during the war. Potapov distinguished himself in the battles at Khalkhin Gol, where he commanded the Southern Group. At the beginning of the war, he commanded the 5th Army of the Southwestern Front. This association fought, perhaps, better than others until Stalin made the decision to shift the “center of attention” to Kyiv. On September 20, 1941, during fierce battles near Poltava, Potapov was captured. There is information that Hitler himself talked to Potapov, trying to convince him to go over to the side of the Germans, but Soviet general flatly refused. After his release, Potapov was awarded the order Lenin, and later promoted to the rank of Colonel General. Then he was appointed to the post of first deputy commander of the Odessa and Carpathian military districts. His obituary was signed by all representatives of the high command, which included several marshals. The obituary, naturally, said nothing about his capture and stay in German camps.
The last general (and one of two Air Force generals) captured by the Germans was Aviation Major General Polbin, commander of the 6th Guards Bomber Corps, which supported the activities of the 6th Army, which surrounded Breslau in February 1945. He was wounded, captured and killed. Only later did the Germans establish the identity of this man. His fate was completely typical for all those who were captured in recent months war.
Division Commissioner Rykov was one of two high-ranking commissars captured by the Germans. The second person of the same rank captured by the Germans was the commissar of the brigade, Zhilenkov, who managed to hide his identity and who later joined the Vlasov movement. Rykov joined the Red Army in 1928 and by the beginning of the war was commissar of the military district. In July 1941, he was appointed one of two commissars assigned to the Southwestern Front. The second was Burmistenko, a representative communist party Ukraine. During the breakthrough from the Kyiv cauldron, Burmistenko, and with him the front commander Kirponos and the chief of staff Tupikov, were killed, and Rykov was wounded and captured. Hitler's order demanded the immediate destruction of all captured commissars, even if this meant the liquidation of " important sources information." Therefore, the Germans tortured Rykov to death.
Major General Susoev, commander of the 36th rifle corps, was captured by the Germans dressed in the uniform of an ordinary soldier. He managed to escape, after which he joined an armed gang Ukrainian nationalists, and then went over to the side of the pro-Soviet Ukrainian partisans, led by the famous Fedorov. He refused to return to Moscow, preferring to remain with the partisans. After the liberation of Ukraine, Susoev returned to Moscow, where he was rehabilitated.
Air Major General Thor, who commanded the 62nd Air Division, was a first-class military pilot. In September 1941, as division commander long-range aviation, he was shot down and wounded while conducting ground combat. Been through a lot German camps, actively participated in the resistance movement of Soviet prisoners in Hammelsburg. The fact, of course, did not escape the attention of the Gestapo. In December 1942, Thor was transported to Flussenberg, where he was shot in January 1943.
Major General Vishnevsky was captured less than two weeks after he assumed command of the 32nd Army. At the beginning of October 1941, this army was abandoned near Smolensk, where within a few days it was completely destroyed by the enemy. This happened at a time when Stalin was assessing the likelihood of military defeat and planning to move to Kuibyshev, which, however, did not prevent him from issuing an order for the destruction of a number of senior officers who were shot on July 22, 1941. Among them: the commander of the Western Front, Army General Pavlov; Chief of Staff of this front, Major General Klimovskikh; the chief of communications of the same front, Major General Grigoriev; Commander of the 4th Army, Major General Korobkov. Vishnevsky withstood all the horrors of German captivity and returned to his homeland. However, his further fate is unknown.
In general, it is interesting to compare the scale of losses of Soviet and German generals.
416 Soviet generals and admirals died or died during the 46 and a half months of war.
Data on the enemy appeared already in 1957, when a study by Foltmann and Müller-Witten was published in Berlin. Dynamics deaths among the Wehrmacht generals there was one. Only a few people died in 1941–1942. In 1943–1945, 553 generals and admirals were captured, of which over 70 percent were captured Soviet-German front. These same years accounted for the vast majority of deaths among senior officers of the Third Reich.
The total losses of the German generals are twice the number of dead Soviet senior officers: 963 versus 416. Moreover, individual categories the excess was significantly greater. For example, as a result of accidents German generals two and a half times more died, 3.2 times more went missing, and eight times more died in captivity than Soviets. Finally, 110 German generals committed suicide, which is an order of magnitude more than the same cases in the ranks of the Soviet army. What does it mean about a catastrophic fall? morale Hitler's generals towards the end of the war.
The Great Patriotic War brought a lot of grief and suffering to every home in Russia. The only thing worse than death was captivity. After all, the deceased could have been buried with dignity in the ground. The prisoner forever became a “stranger among his own,” even if he managed to escape from the clutches of the enemy. The most unenviable fate awaited the captured generals. And not so much German as Soviet. The fate of some of them will be discussed.
Military historians have repeatedly tried to calculate exactly how many Soviet generals were captured by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War. According to the results of research conducted in the archives of Germany, it was found that of the 35 million captured citizens of the Union, officers made up only 3% of the total number. There were few generals among the prisoners. But it was they who were valued by the Krauts most of all. This is understandable: valuable information could only be obtained from this highest caste of military people. They tried the most modern methods moral and physical pressure. IN total During the four years of the war, 83 generals of the armed forces of the Soviet Union were captured. 26 of them did not return to their homeland. Some were tortured to death in SS camps, those who were intractable and daring were shot on the spot while trying to escape, and several more people died from various diseases. The rest were deported by the allies to their homeland, where an unenviable fate awaited them. Some were given prison terms for “misbehavior” in captivity, others were checked for a long time, then reinstated in rank and hastily transferred to the reserve. 32 people were shot. Most of those whom Stalin cruelly punished were supporters of General Vlasov, and were involved in the case of treason. That case was very high-profile and included in all history books. General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov, commander of the 2nd shock army, did not carry out the orders of Stalin himself, as a result, a group of thousands was surrounded. The Germans systematically and meticulously suppressed all pockets of resistance. General Samsonov, who was in charge of the army along with Vlasov, shot himself, unable to bear the shame. But Andrei Andreevich considered that it was not worth dying in the name of Stalin. And without hesitation he surrendered. Moreover, while in captivity, he decided to collaborate with the Nazis. And he suggested that they create a “Russian Liberation Army,” which was supposed to consist of captured Russian soldiers and act as an example for “stupid Soviet soldiers.” Vlasov was allowed to campaign, but was not given weapons. Only in 1944, when the Wehrmacht had exhausted its last reserves of reservists, the ROA came into action, which was immediately crushed on all fronts by the Russian armadas advancing on Berlin.
Vlasov was captured in Czechoslovakia. He was subjected to a show trial, and in mid-1946 he was hanged in the courtyard of Butyrka prison. General Bunyachenko followed him. Who initially supported Vlasov’s ideas, but when he realized that the song of the Reich was finished, he decided to bargain for his freedom by pretending to be a supporter of the British and raising a riot in Prague against German soldiers. However, traitors were not liked in His Majesty's armed forces either. Therefore, at the end of hostilities, he was also sent to Moscow.
Most of the generals were captured by the Germans in those harsh times when the Red Army suffered one defeat after another, and entire regiments were surrounded. In two years, the Germans were able to capture more than 70 generals. Of these, only 8 people agreed to cooperate with the Wehrmacht, while the rest faced an unenviable fate.
For the most part, the generals fell into the hands of the Germans with severe wounds or in an unconscious state. Many preferred to shoot themselves rather than surrender themselves into the hands of the enemy. But the survivors of captivity behaved more than honorably.
Many of them disappeared behind the barbed wire of the camps. Among them are Major General Bogdanov, commander of the 48th Infantry Division; Major General Dobrozerdov, who headed the 7th Rifle Corps. The fate of Lieutenant General Ershakov, who in September 1941 took command of the 20th Army, which was soon defeated in the battle of Smolensk, is unknown. In Smolensk, three Soviet generals were captured. Generals Ponedelin and Kirillov were tortured to death by the Nazis, categorically refusing to give them important military information. However, they were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union only in 1980.
But not all generals fell into disgrace. Thus, Major General of the Tank Forces Potapov was one of these rare cases. After his release from captivity, his homeland was not only greeted with open arms, but also awarded the Order of Lenin, promoted, and then made commander of a military district. Representatives of the General Staff and even several marshals attended his funeral.
The last captured general was Aviation Major General Polbin, whom the Germans shot down near Berlin in February 1945. Wounded, he was taken to other prisoners. No one began to understand the ranks and titles. Everyone was shot, as was customary in the last months of the war. The Nazis felt the end was near and tried to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
After the end of the war, for many German prisoners of war and their allies, their stay in Soviet and Anglo-American captivity lasted for 10-15 years.
IN Soviet captivity About 4.2 million Wehrmacht troops were captured, and 2 million people died in captivity. Almost 5 million prisoners of war ended up in Anglo-American camps and more than 1.5 million people died.
German troops captured 80 Soviet generals and brigade commanders, of whom 23 died. All 37 Red Army generals who returned from captivity fell into the hands of state security agencies, 11 of them were convicted as traitors to the motherland.
There were 5 times more Wehrmacht generals captured than Soviet ones, many were captured after the German surrender or were captured in the following months.
Official NKVD statistics - 376 German prisoners of war generals and 12 Austrian ones) were declassified and published quite recently. However, these data need to be verified and clarified due to the peculiarities of the registration of prisoners of war carried out by the NKVD Directorate.
Many were executed or imprisoned in NKGB-MGB prisons. Traces of some of them are lost.
A number of generals captured Soviet troops, were transferred for carrying out trials communist governments of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, some were transferred by the Anglo-Americans, 2 generals came from Yugoslavia.
The information published in this directory, identified on the basis of archival data, includes information about 403 generals (including 3 field marshals and 8 admirals) of the Wehrmacht and persons equivalent to them. Among them are 389 Germans, 1 Croatian, 13 Austrians. 105 people died in captivity, 24 of them were executed, 268 generals were sent to long terms of hard labor or imprisonment, 11 people were transferred to Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and executed. The fate of 9 people still needs clarification; 278 generals were released mainly in 1953-1956.
The operational bodies of the NKVD were preparing open demonstration trials. They took place in Mariupol and Krakow, 81 of the 126 generals were sentenced to death and most of them were publicly executed.
The trials were organized, first of all, as political actions, the candidacies of the accused and the penalties were agreed upon at the level of Stalin and Molotov, and a confession obtained after appropriate processing of the defendant was considered evidence of guilt. However, the political response from the public trials was not clear. Fear of the death penalty could deter German soldiers from surrendering. Apparently that is why the show trials were stopped for some time. Mass executions against German prisoners of war officers and generals began much later, mainly after the end of the war.
Millions of prisoners of war from European and Asian countries, among whom were representatives of the highest military circles, scientists, diplomats and even members of the imperial dynasty, princes and other influential persons in their countries, were of significant political and military interest to the Soviet leadership.
In November 1945, the Operations Department began work on conducting open trials of German army soldiers in December 1945 - January 1946 in 7 cities: Smolensk, Leningrad, Nikolaev, Minsk, Kyiv, Riga and Veli kih Lukah. During the trials, 84 Wehrmacht soldiers, 18 of them generals, were sentenced to death and publicly hanged.
The reaction of prisoners of war to such trials was unambiguous. Thus, Major General Helmut Eisenstuck said: “I have given up on my life. If in Smolensk they are trying ordinary soldiers who only followed orders, then the generals will probably find enough material to try them.” He was right; the vast majority of German generals were convicted in the following years.
At the end of 1947, 9 open trials were held in Bobruisk, Stalin, Sevastopol, Chernigov, Poltava, Vitebsk, Chisinau, Novgorod and Gomel. 143 people were put on trial, of which 23 were generals, 138 were convicted. More than 3 thousand German, Hungarian and Romanian prisoners of war were transferred to closed trials, usually in group trials.
All these numerous trials caused shock among a large part of the prisoners of war, since army generals and officers, ordinary soldiers who had been in captivity for several years were brought to trial. Many of them believed that military personnel, even generals, followed orders and should not be judged for this. The processes continued in 1948, but less actively. In particular, a number of cases were organized on charges of sabotage and sabotage at work.
More than 30 thousand German prisoners of war and internees alone were convicted, mostly in the post-war years.
Many prisoners of war, especially generals and officers, expressed dissatisfaction with the way the issue of Germany's borders, reparations, and dismemberment of the country was resolved; delay in repatriation, the policy of the Soviet Union in Europe. This played a decisive role in their future fate. The vast majority of generals were sentenced to long terms during the 1947-1950s.
Of the 357 generals of the German army registered by the NKVD in August 1948, only 7 were repatriated ( former members National Committee of Free Germany and the Union of German Officers), 68 had been convicted by this time, 5 people had been transferred to Poland and Czechoslovakia, 26 had died. In 1949, the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed to repatriate 76 generals, adding to the 23 loyalists the elderly and retired who were arrested in the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany after the war. As a result of long showdowns and discussions, several generals died, several were put under investigation, but 45 were still repatriated. At this time, a number of generals were sent to prison for investigation, which made a depressing impression on those who remained. For example, Lieutenant General Bernhard Medem said, as the agent immediately reported: “It’s just terrible that there is no end to the processes... This is the sword of Damocles that hangs over all the generals.”
In December 1949, in connection with the decision on the issue of repatriation of prisoners of war generals, Deputy Minister I. Serov and A. Kobulov proposed completing the investigation of 116 generals by April 1, 1950, detaining 60 generals in captivity, including General Seidlitz - former president Union of German Officers.
After the publication of the TASS report on the completion of the repatriation of prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, not only those convicted remained in the camps, as was stated, but also a significant number of persons on whom the operational authorities simply had some kind of incriminating evidence, since despite the record number of trials carried out in the previous period, not all cases were completed by the spring of 1950. Interdepartmental commissions and military tribunals continued to operate.
In the summer of 1950, 118 generals were brought to justice German army and 21 generals of the Japanese army 45.
In 1951-1952 after the minister was removed from office and arrested state security Abakumov's prisoners were put on trial long time in MGB prisons without trial or investigation were Field Marshals Kleist and Scherner, German military diplomats and intelligence officers, several generals, witnesses to Hitler's death, and other persons.
In 1950-1952 a series of repeated trials of German prisoners of war took place, tightening the punishment, and in these years it began to be used again death penalty, abolished in 1947. Thus, in 1952, Major General Helmut Becker, who had already been sentenced in 1947 to 25 years, was retried, this time sentenced to to the highest degree punishment, in 1953, Major General Hayo Herman, who had previously been sentenced to 10 years in the labor camp, was re-sentenced to 25 years. In total, 14 German generals were convicted in 1951-1953.
In October 1955, after the visit of Chancellor K. Adenauer to the Soviet Union and his negotiations with Khrushchev and Bulganin, who then held the post of Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, on the establishment diplomatic relations More than 14 thousand German prisoners of war were repatriated from Germany. In 1956 they were released German generals Helmut Nickelmann, Werner Schmidt-Hammer, Otto Rauser, Kurt von Lützow, Paul Klatt and others.
The history of the stay of prisoners of war in the NKVD-MVD camps has not yet been sufficiently studied. Many documents characterizing the policy of the CPSU towards prisoners of war and the working methods of operational agencies still remain inaccessible to researchers.
During the Great Patriotic War, 78 Soviet generals were captured by the Germans. 26 of them died in captivity, six escaped from captivity, the rest were repatriated to the Soviet Union after the end of the war. 32 people were repressed.
Not all of them were traitors. Based on the Headquarters order of August 16, 1941 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to suppress such actions,” 13 people were shot, another eight were sentenced to imprisonment for “improper behavior in captivity.”
But among the senior officers there were also those who, to one degree or another, voluntarily chose to cooperate with the Germans. Five major generals and 25 colonels were hanged in the Vlasov case. There were even Heroes of the Soviet Union in the Vlasov army - senior lieutenant Bronislav Antilevsky and captain Semyon Bychkov.
The case of General Vlasov
They are still arguing about who General Andrei Vlasov was, an ideological traitor or an ideological fighter against the Bolsheviks. He served in the Red Army from Civil War, studied at the Higher Army Command Courses, advanced through career ladder. In the late 30s he served as a military adviser in China. era great terror Vlasov survived without shocks - he was not subjected to repression, and even, according to some information, was a member of the district military tribunal.
Before the war, he received the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Lenin. These high awards he was awarded for creating an exemplary division. Vlasov received under his command an infantry division that was not distinguished by any particular discipline or merit. Focusing on German achievements, Vlasov demanded strict compliance with the charter. His caring attitude to subordinates even became the subject of articles in the press. The division received a challenge Red Banner.
In January 1941, he received command of a mechanized corps, one of the most well-equipped at that time. The corps included new KV and T-34 tanks. They were created for offensive operations, but in defense after the start of the war they were not very effective. Soon Vlasov was appointed commander of the 37th Army defending Kyiv. The connections were broken, and Vlasov himself ended up in the hospital.
He managed to distinguish himself in the battle for Moscow and became one of the most famous commanders. It was popularity that later played against him - in the summer of 1942, Vlasov, being the commander of the 2nd Army in Volkhov Front, was surrounded. When he reached the village, the headman handed him over to the German police, and the arriving patrol identified him from a photo in the newspaper.
In the Vinnitsa military camp, Vlasov accepted the Germans’ offer of cooperation. Initially, he was an agitator and propagandist. Soon he became the head of the Russian liberation army. He campaigned and recruited captured soldiers. Propagandist groups and a training center were created in Dobendorf, and there were also separate Russian battalions that were part of different parts of the German armed forces. The history of the Vlasov Army as a structure began only in October 1944 with the creation of the Central Headquarters. The army received the name “Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia.” The committee itself was also headed by Vlasov.
Fyodor Trukhin - creator of the army
According to some historians, for example, Kirill Alexandrov, Vlasov was more of a propagandist and ideologist, and the organizer and true creator of the Vlasov army was Major General Fyodor Trukhin. He was former boss Operational management Northwestern Front, a professional general staff officer. Surrendered himself along with all the headquarters documents. In 1943 Trukhin was the head training center in Dobendorf, from October 1944 he took the post of chief of staff of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Under his leadership, two divisions were formed, and the formation of a third began. In the last months of the war, Trukhin commanded the Southern Group of the Committee's armed forces located in Austria.
Trukhin and Vlasov hoped that the Germans would transfer all Russian units under their command, but this did not happen. With almost half a million Russians who passed through the Vlasov organizations in April 1945, his army de jure amounted to approximately 124 thousand people.
Vasily Malyshkin – propagandist
Major General Malyshkin was also one of Vlasov’s associates. Finding himself captured from the Vyazemsky cauldron, he began to collaborate with the Germans. In 1942, he taught propaganda courses in Vulgaida, and soon became assistant to the head of training. In 1943, he met Vlasov while working in the propaganda department of the Wehrmacht High Command.
He also worked for Vlasov as a propagandist and was a member of the Presidium of the Committee. In 1945 he was a representative in negotiations with the Americans. After the war I tried to establish cooperation with American intelligence, even wrote a note about preparation command staff Red Army. But in 1946 it was still transferred to the Soviet side.
Major General Alexander Budykho: service in the ROA and escape
In many ways, Budykho’s biography was reminiscent of Vlasov’s: several decades of service in the Red Army, command courses, command of a division, encirclement, detention by a German patrol. In the camp, he accepted the offer of brigade commander Bessonov and joined Political center to fight Bolshevism. Budykho began to identify pro-Soviet prisoners and hand them over to the Germans.
In 1943, Bessonov was arrested, the organization was disbanded, and Budykho expressed a desire to join the ROA and came under the control of General Helmikh. In September he was appointed to the position of staff officer for training and education. eastern troops. But immediately after he arrived at his duty station in Leningrad region, two Russian battalions fled to the partisans, killing the Germans. Having learned about this, Budykho himself fled.
General Richter – sentenced in absentia
This traitor general was not involved in the Vlasov case, but he helped the Germans no less. Having been captured in the first days of the war, he ended up in a prisoner of war camp in Poland. 19 agents testified against him German intelligence, caught in the USSR. According to them, from 1942 Richter headed the Abwehr reconnaissance and sabotage school in Warsaw, and later in Weigelsdorf. While serving with the Germans, he wore the pseudonyms Rudaev and Musin.
The Soviet side sentenced him to capital punishment back in 1943, but many researchers believe that the sentence was never carried out, since Richter went missing in the last days of the war.
The Vlasov generals were executed by the verdict of the Military Collegium Supreme Court. Most- in 1946, Budykho - in 1950.
During the Great Patriotic War 162 Red Army generals died in battle. Here are some examples of the heroic death of senior commanders. Among the high-ranking generals, the commander died at the beginning of the war Southwestern Front Hero of the Soviet Union, Colonel General M. Kirponos. The front troops fought hard defensive battles on Right Bank Ukraine. Defensive actions on important operational-strategic lines and directions were combined with counterattacks. During the Kyiv operation, despite the fact that Kirponos, Vasilevsky, Shaposhnikov and Budyonny insisted on the immediate withdrawal of troops from Kyiv, permission to retreat from the operational pocket around Kyiv was not given by Headquarters. By September 14, 4 were surrounded soviet armies. Kirponos M.P. died while leaving the encirclement. The life of the army generals of the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front and commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front Chernyakhovsky I.D. , two young talented commanders.
At the beginning of 1942, Zhukov G.K. began to attack Vyazma with the forces of P.A. Belov’s cavalry corps. and the 33rd Army of Lieutenant General Efremov M.G. The offensive was not properly prepared, for which Efremov M.G. is to blame. no, only front commander Zhukov. February 4, 1942 “... the enemy, having struck at the base of the breakthrough, cut off the group and restored the defense along the Ugra River,” Zhukov wrote. Until July, having nine armies at his disposal, Zhukov was unable to connect with this part of his front, which was fighting surrounded near Vyazma. But according to the Stavka directive, it was main blow, which the Western Front was supposed to inflict. For two and a half months, without tanks and artillery, units of the 33rd Army of Lieutenant General Efremov fought in a ring, longer than Paulus’s army in the Stalingrad cauldron. Efremov M.G. repeatedly appealed to the command of the Western Front and even twice to Stalin with a request for permission to break through on his own. In April 1942, near Vyazma, Stalin personally sent a plane for General Efremov, which the general refused to board: “I came here with the soldiers, and I will leave with the soldiers.”
Headquarters finally gave permission to leave the encirclement, which was too late - the personnel were exhausted, having eaten all their boiled waist belts and the soles of the boots they found. Ammunition has run out. The snow was already melting. The soldiers were wearing felt boots. During the breakthrough, General Efremov was seriously wounded (received three wounds), lost the ability to move and, not wanting to be captured, shot himself. The Germans were the first to find Efremov’s body. Having deep respect for the courageous general, they buried him with military honors. The Armed Forces have lost a brave warrior and talented commander. Of the 12 thousand people, 889 fighters emerged from the encirclement. On July 18, parts of Belov’s corps broke out of encirclement in a roundabout way.
Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General Shepetov I.M. - commander of the 14th Guards Rifle Division as part of the 57th Army Southern Front, which fought near Kharkov, on May 26, 1942, when leaving the encirclement, he was wounded and captured. For anti-fascist agitation in the Hammelburg prisoner of war camp, I.M. Shepetov, betrayed by a traitor (Major General Naumov), was captured by the Gestapo and thrown into the Flossenburg concentration camp (Germany). Here, for attempting to escape, the courageous general was executed on May 21, 1943. Lieutenant General Ershakov F.A., the former commander of the 20th Army, flatly refused to cooperate with the Nazis and died while being transported from the “special facility” from a broken heart. Major General Ogurtsov S.Ya., former commander 49th Rifle Corps, escaped from the stage and joined the Polish partisan detachment, fought bravely and died in battle with the Nazis.
In total, during the Second World War, 83 Red Army generals were captured in German captivity. The survivors, 57 generals, were deported to the Soviet Union after the Victory. Of these, 32 people were repressed (7 were hanged in the Vlasov case, 17 were shot on the basis of Headquarters order No. 270 of August 16, 1941 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to suppress such actions”) and for “wrong” behavior in captivity 8 generals were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. The last 25 people were acquitted after more than six months of verification, but then gradually transferred to the reserve.
