Russian armies fought on the side of the Nazis. How many generals of the Red Army went over to the side of the enemy in the Great Patriotic War. Who were they

In the previous article "Cossacks in the Great Patriotic War" it was shown that, despite all the grievances and atrocities of the Bolsheviks against the Cossacks, the vast majority of Soviet Cossacks held out on patriotic positions and took part in the war on the side of the Red Army in hard times. Most of the Cossacks who ended up in exile also turned out to be opponents of fascism, many emigrant Cossacks fought in the allied forces and participated in the resistance movements of various countries. Many Cossacks who ended up in exile, soldiers and officers of the White armies really hated the Bolsheviks. However, they understood that when an external enemy invades the land of your ancestors, political differences lose their meaning. To the German offer of cooperation, General Denikin replied: "I fought with the Bolsheviks, but never with the Russian people. If I could become a general in the Red Army, I would show the Germans!" Ataman Krasnov adhered to the opposite position: "Though with the devil, but against the Bolsheviks." And he really collaborated with the devil, with the Nazis, whose goal was to destroy our country and our people. Moreover, as is usually the case, from calls to fight Bolshevism, General Krasnov soon moved on to calls to fight the Russian people. Two years after the start of the war, he declared: "Cossacks! Remember, you are not Russians, you are Cossacks, an independent people. Russians are hostile to you. Moscow has always been an enemy of the Cossacks, crushed them and exploited. Now the hour has come when we, the Cossacks, can his independent life from Moscow. Collaborating with the Nazis who destroyed Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, Krasnov betrayed our people. Having sworn allegiance to Nazi Germany, he betrayed our country. Therefore, the death sentence handed down to him in January 1947 was quite fair. The statement about the massive nature of the transfer of emigrant Cossacks to the side of the German army in World War II is a vile lie! In reality, only a few atamans and a certain number of Cossacks and officers went over to the side of the enemy along with Krasnov.

Rice. 1. If the Germans won, we would all drive these Mercedes

The Great Patriotic War became an ordeal for all Soviet peoples. For many of them, the war confronted them with a difficult choice. And the Nazi regime made quite successful attempts to use some of these peoples (including the Cossacks) in the interests of fascism. Forming military units from foreign volunteers, Hitler always protested against the creation of Russian units in the structure of the Wehrmacht. He did not trust the Russians. Looking ahead, we can say that he was right: in 1945, the 1st division of the KONR (Vlasovites) arbitrarily withdrew from their positions and went west to surrender to the Anglo-Americans, exposing the German front. But many Wehrmacht generals did not share the Fuhrer's position. The German army, moving through the territory of the USSR, suffered huge losses. Against the backdrop of the Russian campaign of 1941, the Western campaigns were a cakewalk. The German divisions were losing weight. Their quality has changed. On the endless expanses of the East European plain, landsknechts lay down in the ground, having known the hops of victories and the sweetness of European triumph. The killed seasoned militants were replaced by replenishment, which no longer had a gleam in its eyes. The field generals, unlike the "parquet" ones, did not disdain the Russians. Many of them, by hook or by crook, contributed to the formation of "native units" in their rear areas. They preferred to keep collaborators away from the front line, entrusting them with the protection of facilities, communications and "dirty work" - the fight against partisans, saboteurs, encirclement and carrying out punitive actions against the civilian population. They were called "hivi" (from the German word Hilfswilliger, wishing to help). Appeared in the Wehrmacht and units formed from the Cossacks.

The first Cossack units appeared already in 1941. There were several reasons for this. The vast expanses of Russia, the lack of roads, the decline in vehicles, problems with the supply of fuel and lubricants simply pushed the Germans to the massive use of horses. In the German chronicle, you rarely see a German soldier on a horse or a horse-drawn gun: for propaganda purposes, operators were ordered to remove motorized parts. In fact, the Nazis massively used horses both in 1941 and in 1945. Cavalry units were simply indispensable in the fight against partisans. In forest thickets, in swamps, they outperformed cars and armored personnel carriers in terms of cross-country ability, moreover, they did not need gasoline. Therefore, the appearance of "Khivi" detachments from Cossacks who knew how to handle horses did not meet with obstacles. In addition, Hitler did not classify the Cossacks as Russians, he considered them a separate people, descendants of the Ostrogoths, so the formation of the Cossack units did not meet with opposition from the NSDAP functionaries. Yes, and there were many dissatisfied with the Bolsheviks among the Cossacks, the policy of decossackization pursued by the Soviet government for a long time made itself felt. One of the first in the Wehrmacht was the Cossack unit under the command of Ivan Kononov. On August 22, 1941, the commander of the 436th regiment of the 155th rifle division, Major of the Red Army Kononov I.N. built personnel, announced his decision to go over to the enemy and invited everyone to join him. So Kononov, the officers of his headquarters and several dozen Red Army soldiers of the regiment were captured. There, Kononov "remembered" that he was the son of a Cossack captain who was hanged by the Bolsheviks, that his three older brothers died in the fight against Soviet power, and yesterday's member of the CPSU (b) and combat officer-order bearer became a staunch anti-communist. He declared himself a Cossack, an opponent of the Bolsheviks, and offered the Germans his services in the formation of a military unit of Cossacks, ready to fight the communist regime. In the fall of 1941, the counterintelligence officer of the 18th Reich Army, Baron von Kleist, proposed to form Cossack units that would fight the Red partisans. On October 6, the Quartermaster General of the General Staff, Lieutenant General E. Wagner, having studied his proposal, allowed the commanders of the rear areas of Army Groups "North", "Center" and "South" to form Cossack units from prisoners of war to use them in the fight against partisans. The first of these units was organized in accordance with the order of the commander of the rear area of ​​Army Group Center, General von Schenckendorff, dated October 28, 1941. Initially, a squadron was formed, the basis of which was the soldiers of the 436th regiment. The squadron commander Kononov made a voyage to nearby prison camps for the purpose of recruiting. The squadron, which received replenishment, was later transformed into a Cossack division (1, 2, 3 cavalry squadrons, 4, 5, 6 plastun companies, mortar and artillery batteries). The number of the division was 1799 people. The armament consisted of 6 field guns (76.2 mm), 6 anti-tank guns (45 mm), 12 mortars (82 mm), 16 easel and a large number of light machine guns, rifles and machine guns. Not all captured Red Army soldiers who declared themselves Cossacks were such, but the Germans tried not to delve into such subtleties. Kononov himself admitted that in addition to the Cossacks, who made up 60% of the personnel, under his command there were representatives of all nationalities, up to the Greeks and the French. During 1941-1943, the division fought against partisans and encirclement in the areas of Bobruisk, Mogilev, Smolensk, Nevel and Polotsk. The division was assigned the designation Kosacken Abteilung 102, then it was changed to Ost.Kos.Abt.600. General von Schenkendorf was pleased with the "Kononovites", in his diary he characterized them as follows: "The mood of the Cossacks is good. The combat readiness is excellent ... The behavior of the Cossacks in relation to the local population is merciless."

Rice. 2. Cossack collaborator Kononov I.N.

Active conductors among the Cossacks of the idea of ​​creating Cossack units in the Wehrmacht were the former Don ataman General Krasnov and the Kuban Cossack General Shkuro. In the summer of 1942, Krasnov published an appeal to the Cossacks of the Don, Kuban and Terek, in which he called on them to fight the Soviet regime on the side of Germany. Krasnov declared that the Cossacks would not fight against Russia, but against the Communists for the liberation of the Cossacks from the "Soviet yoke". A significant number of Cossacks joined the German army when the advancing units of the Wehrmacht entered the territories of the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban and Terek. On July 25, 1942, immediately after the occupation of Novocherkassk by the Germans, a group of collaborator Cossack officers came to the representatives of the German command and expressed their readiness "to help the valiant German troops with all their strength and knowledge in the final defeat of Stalin's henchmen." In September, in Novocherkassk, with the sanction of the occupying authorities, a Cossack gathering gathered, at which the headquarters of the Don Cossacks was elected (since November 1942 it was called the headquarters of the Marching ataman), headed by Colonel S.V. Pavlov, who began organizing Cossack units to fight against the Red Army. From the volunteers of the Don villages in Novocherkassk, the 1st Don Regiment was organized under the command of Yesaul A.V. Shumkova and the plastun battalion, which made up the Cossack group of the Marching chieftain Colonel S.V. Pavlova. The 1st Sinegorsky Regiment was also formed on the Don, consisting of 1260 Cossacks and officers under the command of a military foreman (former sergeant major) Zhuravlev. Thus, despite active propaganda and promises, by the beginning of 1943 Krasnov managed to assemble only two small regiments on the Don. Of the Cossack hundreds formed in the villages of the Uman department of the Kuban, under the leadership of the military foreman I.I. Salomakha, the formation of the 1st Kuban Cossack cavalry regiment began, and on the Terek, on the initiative of military foreman N.L. Kulakov of the 1st Volga Regiment of the Terek Cossack Army. Cossack regiments organized on the Don and Kuban in January-February 1943 participated in the battles against the advancing Soviet troops on the Seversky Donets, near Bataysk, Novocherkassk and Rostov. In 1942, Cossack units began to appear as part of the Nazi troops on other fronts.

The Cossack Cavalry Regiment "Jungschulz" (Regiment von Jungschulz) was formed in the summer of 1942 as part of the 1st Tank Army in the Achikulak area. The regiment consisted of two squadrons (German and Cossack). The regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel I. von Jungshults. By the time it was sent to the front, the regiment was replenished with two Cossack hundreds and a Cossack squadron formed in Simferopol. On December 25, 1942, the regiment consisted of 1,530 people, including 30 officers, 150 non-commissioned officers and 1,350 privates, and was armed with 56 light and heavy machine guns, 6 mortars, 42 anti-tank rifles, rifles and machine guns. From September 1942, the "Jungshults" regiment was on the left flank of the 1st Panzer Army in the Achikulak-Budyonnovsk area, fighting against the Soviet cavalry. In early January 1943, the regiment withdrew to the northwest in the direction of the village of Yegorlykskaya, where it joined with units of the 4th Panzer Army. Subsequently, the regiment "Jungshults" was subordinated to the 454th Security Division and transferred to the rear of the Army Group "Don".

On June 13, 1942, the Platov Cossack Cavalry Regiment was formed from the Cossack hundreds of the 17th German Army. It consisted of 5 cavalry squadrons, a heavy squadron, an artillery battery and a reserve squadron. Wehrmacht major E. Thomsen was appointed commander of the regiment. In September 1942, the regiment guarded the Maikop oil fields, and in January 1943 was transferred to Novorossiysk. There, together with German and Romanian troops, he carried out counter-guerrilla operations. In the spring of 1943, the regiment fought defensive battles on the "Kuban bridgehead", repelling the attacks of the Soviet amphibious assault northeast of Temryuk. At the end of May 1943, the regiment was withdrawn from the front and assigned to the Crimea.

In accordance with the order of the German command of June 18, 1942, all prisoners of war who were Cossacks by origin and considered themselves as such, the Germans were to be sent to a camp in the city of Slavuta. By the end of the month, 5826 people of such a contingent were already concentrated here, and a decision was made to form a Cossack corps and organize an appropriate headquarters. Since there was an acute shortage of senior and middle command personnel among the Cossacks, former Red Army commanders who were not Cossacks began to be recruited into the Cossack units. Subsequently, at the headquarters of the formation, the 1st Cossack named after Ataman Count Platov, the cadet school, as well as a non-commissioned officer school, was opened. From the available composition of the Cossacks, in the first place, the 1st Ataman Regiment was formed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Baron von Wolf and a special fifty, designed to perform special tasks in the Soviet rear. It selected Cossacks who fought during the years of the Civil War in the detachments of Generals Shkuro, Mamantov and in other White Guard formations. After checking and filtering the incoming replenishment, the formation of the 2nd Life Cossack and 3rd Don regiments began, followed by the 4th and 5th Kuban, 6th and 7th consolidated Cossack regiments. On August 6, 1942, the Cossack units were transferred from the Slavutinsky camp to Shepetovka to the barracks specially designated for them. By the autumn of 1942, 7 Cossack regiments were formed as the center for the formation of Cossack units in Shepetovka. The last two of them - the 6th and 7th consolidated Cossack regiments were sent to fight the partisans in the rear area of ​​the 3rd tank army. In mid-November, the I and II divisions of the 6th regiment received designations - 622 and 623 Cossack battalions, and the I and II divisions of the 7th - 624 and 625 Cossack battalions. From January 1943, all four battalions were subordinated to the headquarters of the Eastern Special Forces Regiment 703, and later consolidated into the 750th Eastern Special Forces Regiment under the command of Major Evert Voldemar von Renteln (von Renteln). A former officer of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment of the Russian Imperial Army, an Estonian citizen, he joined the Wehrmacht in 1939 as a volunteer. From the beginning of the war, he was an interpreter at the headquarters of the 5th Panzer Division, where he formed a company of Russian volunteers. After the appointment of Renteln at the head of four Cossack battalions, this company under the designation "638th Cossack" remained at his personal disposal. The tank emblems worn by some officers and soldiers of Renteln just indicated their belonging to the 638th company and were worn in memory of their service in the tank division. Some of its ranks participated in the battles at the front as part of tank crews, as evidenced by the signs found in the photographs for participation in tank attacks. In December 1942 - January 1943, battalions 622-625 participated in counter-partisan operations in the Dorogobuzh region; in February-June 1943 in the Vitebsk-Polotsk-Lepel area. In the autumn of 1943, the 750th regiment was transferred to France and divided into two parts: 622nd and 623rd battalions with 638th company under the command of Renteln were included in the 708th Wehrmacht Infantry Division as the 750th Cossack Grenadier Regiment (since April 1944 - 360th), and the 624th and 625th battalions - into the 344th Infantry Division as the third battalions of the 854th and 855th Grenadier Regiments. Together with the German troops, the battalions were involved in the protection of the French coast from Bordeaux to Royon. In January 1944, the 344th division, together with the Cossack battalions, was transferred to the area of ​​the mouth of the Somme. In August-September 1944, the 360th Cossack Regiment retreated to the German border. In the autumn of 1944, in the winter of 1945, the regiment acted against the Americans in the Black Forest region. At the end of January 1945, together with the 5th Cossack training and reserve regiment, he arrived in the city of Zvetle (Austria). In March, he was included in the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps to form the 3rd Plastun Cossack Division, which was not created until the end of the war.

By the middle of 1943, the Wehrmacht already had up to 20 Cossack regiments of various sizes and a solid number of small units, the total number of which was up to 25 thousand people. In total, according to experts, about 70,000 Cossacks served in the Wehrmacht, parts of the Waffen-SS and in the auxiliary police during the Great Patriotic War, most of whom were former Soviet citizens who defected to Germany during the occupation. Military units were formed from the Cossacks, who later fought both on the Soviet-German front and against the Western allies - in France, in Italy, and especially against partisans in the Balkans. Most of these units carried out security and escort service, participated in the suppression of the resistance movement against the Wehrmacht units in the rear, in the destruction of partisan detachments and representatives of the civilian population "disloyal" to the Third Reich, but there were also Cossack units that the Nazis tried to use against the Red Cossacks with the aim of so that the latter also go over to the side of the Reich. But it was a counterproductive idea. According to numerous testimonies, the Cossacks in the Wehrmacht tried to avoid direct clashes with their blood brothers, and they also went over to the side of the Red Army.

Yielding to the pressure of the generals, Hitler in November 1942 finally agreed to the formation of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. The German cavalry colonel von Pannwitz was instructed to form it from the Kuban and Terek Cossacks to protect the communications of the German army and fight the partisans. Initially, the division was formed from captured Red Army Cossacks, mainly from camps located in the Kuban. In connection with the Soviet offensive near Stalingrad, the formation of the division was suspended and continued only in the spring of 1943, after the withdrawal of German troops to the Taman Peninsula. Four regiments were formed: 1st Donskoy, 2nd Terek, 3rd Consolidated Cossack and 4th Kuban, with a total strength of up to 6,000 people. At the end of April 1943, the regiments were sent to Poland to the Milau training ground in the city of Mława, where large warehouses of Polish cavalry equipment had been located since pre-war times. Cossack regiments and police battalions, volunteers from the Cossack regions occupied by the Nazis began to arrive there. The best of the front-line Cossack units arrived, such as the Platov and Yungshults regiments, Wolf's 1st Ataman Regiment and Kononov's 600th division. All arriving units were disbanded, and their personnel were reduced to regiments according to their belonging to the Don, Kuban, Siberian and Terek Cossack troops. The regimental commanders and chiefs of staff were Germans. All senior command and economic positions were also occupied by the Germans (222 officers, 3,827 soldiers and non-commissioned officers). The exception was the division of Kononov. Under the threat of a rebellion, the 600th division retained its composition and was transformed into the 5th Don Cossack Regiment. Kononov was appointed commander, all officers remained in their positions. The division was the most "Russified" part among the collaborationist formations of the Wehrmacht. Junior officers, commanders of combat cavalry units - squadrons and platoons - were Cossacks, commands were given in Russian. After the completion of the formation on July 1, 1943, Major General von Pannwitz was appointed commander of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. The language does not dare to call Helmut von Pannwitz a "Cossack". A natural German, moreover, a 100% Prussian, coming from a professional military family. During the First World War he fought for the Kaiser on the Western Front. Member of the Polish campaign of 1939. Participated in the storming of Brest, for which he received the Knight's Cross. He was a supporter of attracting Cossacks to the service of the Reich. Having become a Cossack general, he defiantly wore a Cossack uniform: a hat and a Circassian coat with gazyrs, adopted the son of a regiment, Boris Nabokov, and learned Russian.

Rice. 3. Helmut von Pannwitz

At the same time, the 5th Cossack Training and Reserve Regiment was formed near the Milau training ground under the command of Colonel von Bosse. The regiment did not have a permanent staff, consisted of Cossacks who arrived from the Eastern Front and the occupied territories and, after training, were distributed among the regiments of the division. A non-commissioned officer school was created at the 5th reserve training regiment, which trained personnel for combat units. The School of Young Cossacks was also organized - a cadet corps for teenagers who had lost their parents (several hundred cadets).

The finally formed division included: a headquarters with a hundred escorts, a field gendarmerie unit, a motorcycle communications platoon, a propaganda platoon and a brass band. Two Cossack cavalry brigades: 1st Don (1st Don, 2nd Siberian and 4th Kuban regiments) and 2nd Caucasian (3rd Kuban, 5th Don and 6th Terek regiments). Two cavalry artillery divisions (Don and Kuban), a reconnaissance detachment, a sapper battalion, a communications battalion, divisional units of the medical service, veterinary service and supply. The regiments consisted of two cavalry battalions of three squadrons (in the 2nd Siberian regiment, the 2nd division was scooter, and in the 5th Don regiment, plastun), machine-gun, mortar and anti-tank squadrons. The regiment was armed with 5 anti-tank guns (50 mm), 14 battalion (81 mm) and 54 company (50 mm) mortars, 8 machine guns and 60 MG-42 light machine guns, German carbines and machine guns. The division numbered 18,555 people, including 4,049 Germans, 14,315 Cossacks of the lower ranks and 191 Cossack officers.

The Germans allowed the Cossacks to wear the traditional uniform. As headdresses, the Cossacks used hats and cubans. Papakha was a high fur hat made of black fur with a red bottom (for the Don Cossacks) or white fur with a yellow bottom (for the Siberian Cossacks). Kubanka, introduced in 1936 in the Red Army, was lower than the hat and was used by the Kuban (red bottom) and Terek (light blue bottom) Cossacks. The bottom of papakhas and cubans was additionally trimmed with silver or white galloon, located crosswise. In addition to papakhas and cubans, the Cossacks wore German-style headdresses. Among the traditional clothes of the Cossacks, one can name a burka, a hood and a Circassian coat. Burka - a fur cape made of black camel or goat hair. The hood is a deep hood with two long panels wound like a scarf. Cherkeska - outerwear decorated with gazyrs on the chest. The Cossacks wore German gray breeches or traditional dark blue breeches. The color of the stripes determined belonging to a particular regiment. Don Cossacks wore red stripes 5 cm wide, Kuban Cossacks - red stripes 2.5 cm wide, Siberian Cossacks - yellow stripes 5 cm wide, Terek Cossacks - black stripes 5 cm wide with a narrow blue edging. At first, the Cossacks wore round cockades with two crossed white peaks on a red background. Later, large and small oval cockades appeared (for officers and soldiers, respectively), painted in military colors.

Several variants of sleeve patches are known. At first, patches in the form of a shield were used. Along the upper edge of the shield there was an inscription (Terek, Kuban, Don), and under the inscription there were horizontal colored stripes: black, green and red; yellow and green; yellow light blue and red; respectively. Later, simplified patches appeared. On them, belonging to one or another Cossack army was indicated by two Russian letters, and below, instead of stripes, there was a square divided by two diagonals into four parts. The color of the top and bottom as well as the left and right parts matched. The Don Cossacks had units in red and blue, the Tereks had blue and black, and the Kubans had red and black. The patch of the Siberian Cossack army appeared later. The Siberian Cossacks had yellow and blue segments. Many Cossacks used German cockades. Cossacks who served in tank units wore "dead heads". Standard German buttonholes, Cossack buttonholes, as well as buttonholes of the eastern legions were used. Shoulder straps also differed in variety. Elements of the Soviet uniform were widely used.

Rice. 4. Cossacks of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division of the Wehrmacht

At the end of the formation of the division, the Germans faced the question: "What to do with it next?" Contrary to the repeatedly expressed wishes of the personnel to get to the front as soon as possible, the Nazis did not strive for this. Even in the exemplary Kononov regiment, there were cases of Cossacks going over to the Soviet side. And in other collaborationist units, they crossed not only alone, but also in whole groups, having previously killed the German and their officers. In August 1943, in Belarus, the multinational team of collaborators Gil-Rodionov (2 thousand people) passed to the partisans in full force. It was an emergency with big organizational conclusions. If the Cossack division rises and goes over to the side of the enemy, there will be much more problems. In addition, already in the first days of the formation of the division, the Germans recognized the violent temper of the Cossacks. In the 3rd Kuban Regiment, one of the cavalry officers sent from the Wehrmacht, making a review of "his" hundred, called out a Cossack he did not like. First, he scolded him severely, and then hit him in the face. He struck purely symbolically, in German, with a glove pulled off his hand. The offended Cossack silently took out his saber ... and there was one less German officer in the division. The rushing German authorities built a hundred: "Russisch Schwein! Whoever did this, step forward!" A hundred walked. The Germans scratched their heads and ... the officer was "written off" to the partisans. And send these to the Eastern Front?! The case with the Gil-Rodionov brigade finally dotted the "i". In September 1943, instead of the Eastern Front, the division was sent to Yugoslavia to fight Tito's partisan army. There, on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia, the Cossacks fought against the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. The German command in Croatia quickly became convinced that the Cossack cavalry units in the fight against partisans were much more effective than their motorized police battalions and Ustashe detachments. The division carried out five independent operations in the mountainous regions of Croatia and Bosnia, during which it destroyed many partisan strongholds and seized the initiative for offensive operations. Among the local population, the Cossacks earned themselves a bad name. In accordance with the orders of the command for self-sufficiency, they resorted to requisitioning horses, food and fodder from the peasants, which often resulted in massive robberies and violence. The villages, the population of which was suspected of complicity with the partisans, were compared by the Cossacks to the ground. The fight against the partisans in the Balkans, as in all the occupied territories, was carried out with great cruelty - and on both sides. The partisan movement in the areas of responsibility of the von Pannwitz division quickly faded and disappeared. This was achieved by a combination of well-conducted anti-partisan operations and brutality against partisans and the local population. Serbs, Bosnians and Croats hated and feared the Cossacks.

Rice. 5. Cossack officer in the forests of Croatia

In March 1944, as a special administrative and political body to attract the Cossacks to their side and control the Cossack units, the Germans formed the "Main Directorate of the Cossack Troops" headed by Krasnov. In August 1944, SS Reichsführer Himmler, who was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Reserve Army after the assassination attempt on Hitler, achieved the transfer of all foreign military formations to the jurisdiction of the SS. A reserve of Cossack troops was created, which recruited volunteers for Cossack units among prisoners of war and eastern workers, General Shkuro was at the head of this structure. It was decided to deploy a very effective Cossack division into a corps. This is how the 15th SS Cossack Cavalry Corps arose. The corps was completed on the basis of the already existing 1st Cossack Cavalry Division with the addition of Cossack units sent from other fronts. Two Cossack battalions arrived from Krakow, the 69th police battalion from Warsaw, which took an active part in the suppression of the Warsaw uprising in August 1944, a factory guard battalion from Hannover, the 360th von Renteln Cossack regiment from the Western Front. Through the efforts of the recruiting headquarters created by the Reserve of the Cossack troops, it was possible to gather more than 2,000 Cossacks from among the emigrants, prisoners of war and eastern workers, who were sent to complete the 1st Cossack division. After the unification of most of the Cossack detachments, the total number of the corps reached up to 25,000 soldiers and officers, including up to 5,000 Germans. General Krasnov took the most active part in the formation of the corps. The "oath" developed by Krasnov for the 15th SS Cossack Cavalry Corps almost verbatim reproduced the text of the pre-revolutionary military oath, only "His Imperial Majesty" was replaced by "Fuhrer of the German people Adolf Hitler", and "Russia" - by "New Europe". General Krasnov himself took the military oath of the Russian Empire, but in 1941 he changed this oath and encouraged many thousands of Cossacks to do so. Thus, the oath of allegiance to the Russian Empire was replaced by Krasnov's oath of allegiance to the Third Reich. This is a direct and undoubted betrayal of the Motherland.

All this time, the corps continued to conduct combat operations with the Yugoslav partisans, and in December 1944 came into direct contact with the Red Army units on the Drava River. Contrary to the fears of the Germans, the Cossacks did not run away, they fought stubbornly and fiercely. During these battles, the Cossacks completely destroyed the 703rd rifle regiment of the 233rd Soviet rifle division, and the division itself was severely defeated. In March 1945, the 1st Cossack Division, as part of the 15th Corps, took part in heavy battles near Lake Balaton, successfully operating against the Bulgarian units. By order of February 25, 1945, the division was already officially transformed into the XV Cossack SS Cavalry Corps. This had little effect on the division itself, practically nothing. The uniform remained the same, the skull with bones did not appear on the hats, the Cossacks continued to wear their old buttonholes, the soldiers' books did not even change. But organizationally, the corps was part of the structure of the troops of the "black order", SS liaison officers appeared in the units. However, the Cossacks were Himmler's fighters for a short time. On April 20, the corps was transferred to the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) to General Vlasov. In addition to all their previous sins and labels: "enemies of the people", "traitors to the Motherland", "punishers" and "SS men", the Cossacks of the corps received "Vlasovites" in addition.

Rice. 6. Cossacks of the XV SS Cavalry Corps

At the final stage of the war, the following formations also operated as part of the 15th Cossack Corps of the KONR: the Kalmyk regiment (up to 5000 people), the Caucasian cavalry division, the Ukrainian SS battalion and a group of ROA tankers. Taking into account these formations, under the command of a lieutenant general, and from February 1, 1945, the Gruppenfuehrer of the SS troops, G. von Panwitz, there were 30-35 thousand people.

Of the other Cossack formations of the Wehrmacht, no less dubious fame went to the Cossacks, united in the so-called Cossack Camp under the command of the field chieftain Colonel S.V. Pavlova. After the retreat of the Germans from the Don, Kuban and Terek, along with the Cossack detachments, a part of the civilian local population who believed in fascist propaganda and feared reprisals from the Soviet government left. Cossack Stan consisted of up to 11 Cossack foot regiments, in total, up to 18,000 Cossacks were subordinate to the Camping ataman Pavlov. After some Cossack units were sent to Poland to form the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, the headquarters of the Marching Ataman of the Don Army S.V. Pavlova. By the autumn of 1943, two new regiments, the 8th and 9th, were formed here. For the training of command personnel, it was planned to open an officer school, as well as a school for tankers, but these projects could not be implemented due to the new Soviet offensive. Due to the danger of the Soviet encirclement, in March 1944, Kazachy Stan (including women and children) began to retreat west to Sandomierz, and then was transferred to Belarus. Here, the Wehrmacht command provided 180,000 hectares of land for the placement of the Cossacks in the area of ​​​​the cities of Baranovichi, Slonim, Novogrudok, Yelnya, Capitals. The refugees settled in the new place were grouped by belonging to different troops, by districts and departments, which outwardly reproduced the traditional system of Cossack settlements. At the same time, a broad reorganization of the Cossack combat units was undertaken, united in 10 foot regiments of 1200 bayonets each. The 1st and 2nd Don regiments made up the 1st brigade of Colonel Silkin; 3rd Donskoy, 4th Consolidated Cossack, 5th and 6th Kuban and 7th Tersky - the 2nd brigade of Colonel Vertepov; 8th Donskoy, 9th Kuban and 10th Terek-Stavropol - 3rd brigade of Colonel Medynsky (later the composition of the brigades changed several times). Each regiment had 3 plastun battalions, mortar and anti-tank batteries. For their armament, Soviet captured weapons provided by the German field arsenals were used.

In Belarus, the group of the Marching Ataman ensured the security of the rear areas of Army Group Center and fought against the partisans. On June 17, 1944, during one of the anti-partisan operations, the Marching Ataman of the Cossack Camp S.V. was killed. Pavlov (according to other sources, due to poor coordination of actions, he came under "friendly" fire from the police). In his place was appointed military foreman T.I. Domanov. In July 1944, in connection with the threat of a new Soviet offensive, Cossack Stan was withdrawn from Belarus and concentrated in the area of ​​the town of Zdunskaya Wola in northern Poland. From here began its transfer to Northern Italy, where the territory adjacent to the Carnic Alps with the cities of Tolmezzo, Gemona and Ozoppo was allocated for the placement of the Cossacks. Here, the Cossacks formed a special settlement "Cossack Stan", which became subordinate to the commander of the SS troops and the police of the coastal zone of the Adriatic Sea, SS Ober-Gruppenführer O. Globochnik, who instructed the Cossacks to ensure security on the lands provided to them. On the territory of Northern Italy, the combat units of the Cossack Camp underwent another reorganization and formed the Marching Ataman Group (also called the corps) consisting of two divisions. The 1st Cossack foot division (Cossacks from 19 to 40 years old) included the 1st and 2nd Don, 3rd Kuban and 4th Terek-Stavropol regiments, consolidated into the 1st Don and 2nd Consolidated plastun brigades, as well as headquarters and transport companies, cavalry and gendarmerie squadrons, a communications company and an armored detachment. The 2nd Cossack Foot Division (Cossacks from 40 to 52 years old) consisted of the 3rd Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which included the 5th Consolidated Cossack and 6th Don Regiments, and the 4th Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which included the 3rd Spare regiment, three stanitsa self-defense battalions (Donskoy, Kuban and Consolidated Cossacks) and the Special Detachment of Colonel Grekov. In addition, the Group included the following units: 1st Cossack cavalry regiment (6 squadrons: 1st, 2nd and 4th Don, 2nd Terek-Don, 6th Kuban and 5th officers), Ataman escort cavalry regiment (5 squadrons), the 1st Cossack cadet school (2 plastun companies, a company of heavy weapons, an artillery battery), separate divisions - officer, gendarme and commandant foot, as well as a Special Cossack parachute-sniper school disguised as a motor-motor school (special group "Ataman" ). According to some reports, a separate Cossack group "Savoy" was attached to the combat units of the Cossack Camp, which was withdrawn to Italy from the Eastern Front along with the remnants of the Italian 8th Army back in 1943. The units of the Marching Ataman Group were armed with over 900 light and heavy machine guns of various systems (Soviet Maxim, DP (Degtyarev infantry) and DT (Degtyarev tank), German MG-34 and Schwarzlose, Czech Zbroevka, Italian Breda " and "Fiat", French "Hotchkiss" and "Shosh", English "Vickers" and "Lewis", American "Colt"), 95 company and battalion mortars (mainly Soviet and German production), more than 30 Soviet 45-mm anti-tank guns and 4 field guns (76.2 mm), as well as 2 light armored vehicles recaptured from the partisans. On April 27, 1945, the number of Cossack Camp was 31,463 people. Realizing that the war was lost, the Cossacks developed a rescue plan. They decided to get away from retribution on the territory of the British occupation zone in East Tyrol with the aim of "honorable" surrender to the British. In May 1945, "Kazachiy Stan" moved to Austria, to the area of ​​the city of Linz. Later, all its inhabitants were arrested by the British and handed over to Soviet counterintelligence agencies. The "Cossack administration" headed by Krasnov and his military units were also arrested in the area of ​​the city of Judenburg, and then also handed over by the British to the Soviet authorities. No one was going to hide punishers and obvious traitors. In the first days of May, the Marching Ataman von Pannwitz also led his corps to Austria. With a fight through the mountains, the corps went to Carinthia (Southern Austria), where on May 11-12 they laid down their arms in front of the British. The Cossacks were distributed to several POW camps in the vicinity of Linz. Pannwitz and other Cossack leaders did not know that these maneuvers did not solve anything. At the Yalta conference, Great Britain and the United States signed an agreement with the USSR, according to which they pledged to extradite Soviet citizens who found themselves in their zones of occupation. Now it's time to keep your promises. Neither the British nor the American command had any illusions about what awaits the deportees. But if the Americans treated this matter carelessly and as a result a huge number of former Soviet citizens avoided returning to their Soviet homeland, then His Majesty's subjects exactly fulfilled their obligations. Moreover, the British did even more than the Yalta agreements demanded of them, one and a half thousand emigrant Cossacks, who had never been citizens of the USSR and left their homeland after the defeat in the civil war, were also given into the hands of SMERSH. And just a few weeks after the surrender, in June 1945, over 40 thousand Cossacks, including Cossack commanders, Generals P. N. and S.N. Krasnovs, T.I. Domanov, Lieutenant General Helmut von Pannwitz, Lieutenant General A.G. Skins were issued to the Soviet Union. In the morning, when the Cossacks gathered to build, the British suddenly appeared. The soldiers began to grab unarmed people and herd them into the delivered trucks. Those who tried to resist were shot on the spot. The rest were loaded and taken away in an unknown direction.

Rice. 7. Internment by the British of the Cossacks near Linz

A few hours later, a convoy of trucks with traitors crossed a checkpoint on the border of the Soviet zone of occupation. The Soviet court measured the punishment of the Cossacks according to the severity of their sins. They did not shoot, but the terms were given "not for children". Most of the extradited Cossacks received long terms in the Gulag, and the Cossack elite, who sided with Nazi Germany, were sentenced to death by hanging by the Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court. The verdict began as follows: on the basis of Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 39 of April 19, 1943 "On the penalties for the Nazi villains guilty of killing and torturing the Soviet civilian population and captured Red Army soldiers, for spies, traitors to the motherland from among Soviet citizens and for their accomplices" ... etc. Simultaneously with the USSR, Yugoslavia urgently demanded the extradition of the Cossacks. The servicemen of the 15th corps were accused of numerous crimes against the civilian population. If the Cossacks were handed over to the government of Tito, their fate would have been much sadder. Helmut von Pannwitz was never a Soviet citizen and therefore was not subject to extradition to the Soviet authorities. But when representatives of the USSR arrived at the English prisoner of war camp, Pannwitz appeared before the camp commandant and demanded that he be included in the number of repatriates. He said: "I sent the Cossacks to their death - and they went. They chose me as chieftain. Now we have a common fate." Perhaps this is only a legend, and Pannwitz was simply taken along with the others. But this story about "daddy Pannwitz" lives in certain Cossack circles.

The trial of the Cossack generals of the Wehrmacht took place within the walls of the Lefortovo prison in a closed regime from January 15 to 16, 1947. On January 16, at 15:15, the judges retired to deliver the verdict. At 19:39, the verdict was announced: "The Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Generals Krasnov P.N., Krasnov S.N., Shkuro S.G., von Pannwitz G., as well as the leader of the Caucasians Sultan Kelech-Girey to death for conducting armed struggle against the Soviet Union through the detachments formed by them. At 20:45 the same day, the sentence was carried out.

The last thing I would like is for the Cossacks of the Wehrmacht and the SS to be perceived as heroes. No, they are not heroes. And it is not necessary to judge the Cossacks as a whole by them. In that difficult time, the Cossacks made a completely different choice. While one Cossack division and several other small formations fought in the Wehrmacht, more than seventy Cossack corps, divisions and other formations fought in the Red Army on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, and the Soviet command was not tormented by the questions: “Are these units reliable?”, “Not Is it dangerous to send them to the front?" It was quite the opposite. Hundreds of thousands of Cossacks selflessly and heroically defended, if not the regime, but their homeland. Regimes come and go, but the Motherland remains. These are the real heroes.

But life is a striped thing, a white stripe, a black stripe, a colored stripe. And for state patriotism and heroism there are also black stripes, which is not surprising for Russia. In this respect, three centuries ago, Field Marshal Saltykov said at a reception with Empress Elizabeth Petrovna about Russian society the classic phrase: “Patriotism in Russia has always been bad. Every fifth ready patriot, every fifth ready traitor, and three out of five, like something in an ice hole depending on what kind of tsar. If the tsar is a patriot, then they are like patriots, if the tsar is a traitor, then they are always ready. Therefore, the main thing, empress, is that you be for Russia, and then we will manage." Nothing has changed in three centuries, and it is the same today. Following the traitor tsar Gorbachev came the collaborator tsar Yeltsin. And in 1996, many executed Cossack generals of the Wehrmacht were rehabilitated by the collaborationist authorities of Russia according to the decision of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office with the tacit consent of the masses, and some also clapped their hands. However, the patriotic part of society was outraged by this, and soon the decision to rehabilitate was canceled as unreasonable, and in 2001, under a different government, the same Chief Military Prosecutor's Office decided that the Cossack commanders of the Wehrmacht were not subject to rehabilitation. But the collaborators did not let up. In 1998, a memorial plaque to A.G. was installed in Moscow near the Sokol metro station. Shkuro, G. von Pannwitz and other Cossack generals of the Third Reich. The liquidation of this monument was undertaken on legal terms, but the neo-Nazi and collaborationist lobby in every possible way prevented the destruction of this monument. Then, on the eve of Victory Day 2007, a plate with the names of collaborators from the times of the Great Patriotic War carved on it was simply smashed by unidentified persons. A criminal case was initiated, which did not reach completion. Today in Russia there is a monument to the same Cossack units that were part of the army of the Third Reich. The memorial was opened in 2007 in the village of Yelanskaya, Rostov region.

Diagnostics and preparation of causes, consequences, sources, origins and Russian collaborationism is not only of theoretical, but also of great practical interest. Not a single significant event in Russian history took place without the pernicious influence and active participation of defectors, traitors, defeatists, capitulators and collaborators. The position cited above, formulated by Field Marshal Saltykov regarding the peculiarities of Russian patriotism, provides the key to explaining many mysterious and incredible events in Russian history and life. Moreover, it is easily extrapolated and extended to other key areas of our social consciousness: politics, ideology, state idea, morality, morality, religion, etc. There are no spheres in our social, cultural and political life where militant activists of various extreme currents and points of view would not be represented, but it is not they who give stability to society and the situation, but those very "three out of five" who are oriented towards power, and above all to the royal. And in this regard, Saltykov's words highlight the colossal role of the Russian tsar (general secretary, president, leader - no matter what his name is) in all spheres and events of our life. Some of the articles in this series have shown many of these seemingly incredible events in our history. In them, our people, led by the "correct" tsars, were capable of an incredible rise, exploits and sacrifices for the sake of the Motherland in 1812 and in 1941-1945. But under the useless, worthless and corrupt kings, the same people turned out to be able to overturn and rape their own country and plunge it into the bloody bacchanalia of the Time of Troubles of 1594-1613 or the revolution and subsequent civil war of 1917-1921. Moreover, the god-bearing people under satanic power was able to crush the thousand-year-old religion and outrage the temples and their own spirit. The monstrous triad of our time: perestroika - shootout - restoration of the national economy - also fits into this vile series. Adherents of evil and good principles are always present in our lives, these same "every fifth" who make up the active lobby of patriotism and collaborationism, religion and atheism, morality and debauchery, order and anarchy, law and crime, etc. But even in these conditions, only an unlucky tsar can lead the people and the country to outrages and bacchanalia, under whose influence these same "three out of five" join the adherents of disorder, debauchery, anarchy and devastation. A completely different result is achieved with a “traveling” king who will show the right Path, and then, in addition to the adherents of order and creation, the same “three out of five” will also join them. Our current president has for a long time been showing an enviable example of political dexterity and agility in countering the various challenges of the contemporary world. He managed to curb the entropy and orgy of the collaborationist rule of the 80-90s, successfully intercept and saddle the social and national-patriotic part of the rhetoric and ideology of the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, attract the electorate and achieve stability and high ratings. But under other circumstances, these very "three out of five" will easily go over to another "king", even if he is a devil with horns, which has happened more than once in our history. In these seemingly clear conditions, the most important of the issues of our modern life is the question of the succession of "royal" power, or rather the power of the first person, in order to continue the course towards sustainable development. At the same time, for all the archival importance of this issue, one of the biggest mysteries of Russian history is that it has not yet been resolved positively and constructively in relation to our conditions. Moreover, the desire to resolve it is not even observed now.

In previous centuries, the country was a hostage to the feudal system of succession with its unpredictable dynastic and gerontological frills. The monstrous and tragic examples of genealogical and genetic mutations of royal families and senile schizophrenia of aged monarchs finally pronounced the death sentence on the feudal system of power. The situation was aggravated by sharp interpersonal and group contradictions. As the historian Karamzin noted, in Russia, with the rarest exception, each subsequent tsar began his reign by pouring mud on the previous one, although he was his father or brother. The next bourgeois-democratic system of change and succession of power was built on the laws of political Darwinism. But the centuries-old history of multi-party democracy has shown that it is far from being productive for all populations of people. In Russia, it lasted only a few months after the February revolution and led to a complete paralysis of power and the collapse of the country. After the overthrow of the autocracy and the February democracy, neither Lenin, nor Stalin, nor the CPSU solved the problem of the succession of "tsarist" power. The monstrous fights for power between the heirs after Lenin and Stalin are a disgrace to the system they created. A repeated attempt to introduce bourgeois democracy in the USSR during the perestroika period again led to a paralysis of power and the disintegration of the country. Moreover, such a phenomenon, which the CPSU gave rise to in the form of Gorbachev and his clique, perhaps has no analogues in world history. The system itself has degenerated gravediggers for itself and the country, and they did their atrocity almost out of the blue. Legend has it that Socrates drunkenly bet with a drinking buddy for a liter of white that he would destroy Athens with his tongue alone. And won. I don’t know with whom and what Gorbachev was arguing with, but he did it even “cooler”. He destroyed everything and everything with his own language and created a “catastrophe”, and without any repression, with his own language, he achieved tacit consent to the surrender of 18 million members of the CPSU, several million employees, officers and employees of the KGB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Soviet Army, and about so many or non-partisan activists. Moreover, millions of people not only silently agreed, but also clapped their hands. In this army of many millions, there was not a single real guardsman who, according to the experience of the past, even tried to strangle the traitors with his officer's scarf, although several million of these scarves hung in wardrobes. But this is not so bad, this is history. The trouble is that the problem has not been solved so far. The story of Medvedev's regency is a vivid confirmation of this. But as the experience of many countries shows, to create a stable and productive system of succession of power of the first person in order to continue the course towards sustainable development, democracy is not at all necessary, although it is desirable. What is needed is responsibility and political will. There is no democracy in China, and every 10 years there is a planned change of supreme power, they do not expect the death of the "king" there.

All in all, I'm very worried about the future. Typical bourgeois democracy in our conditions does not inspire confidence and optimism. After all, the mental characteristics of our people and their leaders do not differ much from the mentality of the people and leaders of Ukraine, and if they differ, then for the worse. The unresolved issue of the continuity of power and the course will lead the country to a catastrophe, in comparison with which perestroika is just flowers.

Issues of economic and social injustice have recently begun to be heavily superimposed on the unsettledness of political processes. At present, the working people are beginning to be acutely aware of this problem. Even in non-core for this topic "VO" recently began to appear harsh articles about social injustice ("Salaries of the masters", "Letter of the Ural worker", etc.). Their ratings go off scale, and comments on them clearly and unequivocally testify to the beginning of the process of accumulation of social entropy in the working class. Reading these articles and comments to them, one involuntarily recalls the words uttered in the State Duma by P.A. Stolypin, that there is no more greedy and unscrupulous gentleman and bourgeois in the world than in Russia, and that it was not for nothing that the expressions “fist-world-eater” and “bourgeois-world-eater” appeared in the Russian language. Stolypin then unsuccessfully called on the masters and the bourgeoisie to moderate their greed and change the type of social behavior, otherwise he predicted a catastrophe. They did not change the type of behavior, they did not moderate their greed, the catastrophe took place, the people slaughtered them like pigs for their greed. Now it's even more interesting. In the 80-90s, the decomposed and degenerated party nomenklatura, in addition to unlimited power, also wanted to become the bourgeoisie, i.e. Factories, plants, houses, steamboats subject to her during her lifetime should be made hereditary property. A powerful propaganda campaign was launched to criticize socialism and praise capitalism. Our gullible and naive people believed, and suddenly, with some kind of fright, decided that they could not live without the bourgeoisie. After that, he issued, moreover, in a completely democratic way, to the nomenklatura, liberals and cooperators free tickets to the bourgeoisie and an unprecedented credit of social and political trust, which they mediocrely squandered and continue to squander. Something similar has already happened in Russian history and is described in more detail in the article "The Last Great Cossack Revolt. Emelyan Pugachev's Rebellion".

It seems that the case will again end with the massacre of the gentlemen. But God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless. And the blame for everything will again be the master's and bourgeois greed, the same senseless and merciless. It would be best if Putin would deal with this most odious part of the comprador and criminal bourgeoisie and the nomenklatura in a planned manner. But, apparently, it’s not fate, he YET has some kind of agreement with them. Such consent gives rise to permissiveness and impunity, corrupts the masters and the bourgeoisie even more, and all this abundantly feeds and stimulates corruption. This situation simply infuriates honest people, regardless of social status, standard of living and education. What the working class says and thinks about it in the kitchens and over a "glass of tea" is simply impossible to convey in the language of normative vocabulary. But mankind has accumulated in its history a colossal experience in the fight against corruption and presumptuous oligarchy.

At the end of the 20th century, the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, who was permanent from 1959 to 1990, especially distinguished himself and succeeded in this matter. People say that in the last years of his life he was listed as an adviser to our president. Although the East is a delicate matter, Lee Kuan Yew's recipes are outrageously simple and obvious. He said: “Fighting corruption is easy. It is necessary that there be a person at the top who is not afraid to seat his friends and relatives. Start by planting three of your friends. You know exactly why, and they know exactly why.”

It was precisely in such a difficult period of our history - Gorbachev's perestroika, Yeltsin's "reforms" and Putin's "managed democracy" - that an attempt was made to resurrect the Cossacks. But, like all events of this period and our time, this revival is very ambiguous against the background of economic and political turmoil, often causing more questions than answers. But that's a completely different story.

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According to some, during the Great Patriotic War, a million Soviet citizens went to fight under the tricolor flag. Sometimes they even talk about two million Russians who fought against the Bolshevik regime, but here they probably also count 700,000 emigrants. These figures are given for a reason - they are an argument for the assertion that the Great Patriotic War is the essence of the Second Civil War of the Russian people against the hated Stalin. What can be said here?

If it really happened that a million Russians stood up under the tricolor banners and fought to the death against the Red Army for a free Russia, shoulder to shoulder with their German allies, then we would have no choice but to admit that yes, The Great Patriotic War really became the Second Civil War for the Russian people. But was it so?

To understand this or not, you should answer a few questions: how many were there? who were they? how did they get into service? how and with whom did they fight? and what motivated them?

The cooperation of Soviet citizens with the occupiers took place in various forms, both in terms of the degree of voluntariness and the degree of involvement in the armed struggle - from the Baltic SS volunteers who fought fiercely near Narva to the "Ostarbeiters" forcibly driven to Germany. I believe that even the most stubborn anti-Stalinists will not be able to enroll the latter in the ranks of fighters against the Bolshevik regime without trembling. Usually, these ranks include those who received rations from the German military or police department, or who held weapons received from the hands of the Germans or pro-German local government.

That is, to the maximum, potential fighters with the Bolsheviks fall into:

foreign military units of the Wehrmacht and the SS;

eastern security battalions;

building parts of the Wehrmacht;

auxiliary personnel of the Wehrmacht, they are also "our Ivans" or Hiwi (Hilfswilliger: "voluntary helpers");

auxiliary police units ("noise" - Schutzmannshaften);

border guard;

"air defense assistants" mobilized to Germany through youth organizations;

HOW MANY WAS THEM?

We will probably never know the exact numbers, since no one really considered them, but some estimates are available to us. A lower estimate can be obtained from the archives of the former NKVD - until March 1946, 283,000 "Vlasov" and other uniformed collaborators were transferred to the authorities. The estimate from above can probably be taken from the works of Drobyazko, which serve as the main source of figures for the proponents of the "Second Civil" version. According to his calculations (whose method he unfortunately does not disclose), the following passed through the Wehrmacht, the SS and various pro-German paramilitaries and police forces during the war years:

250,000 Ukrainians

70,000 Belarusians

70,000 Cossacks

150,000 Latvians

90,000 Estonians

50,000 Lithuanians

70,000 Central Asians

12,000 Volga Tatars

10,000 Crimean Tatars

7,000 Kalmyks

40,000 Azerbaijanis

25,000 Georgians

20,000 Armenians

30,000 North Caucasian peoples

Since the total number of all former Soviet citizens wearing German and pro-German uniforms is estimated at 1.2 million, the Russians (excluding Cossacks) are left with about 310,000 people. There are, of course, other calculations that give a smaller total number, but let's not waste time on trifles, let's take Drobyazko's estimate from above as the basis for further reasoning.

WHO WERE THEY?

Hiwi and soldiers of the construction battalions can hardly be considered civil war fighters. Of course, their work freed German soldiers for the front, but exactly the same applies to the "Ostarbeiters". Occasionally, the hiwi were given weapons and fought alongside the Germans, but such occurrences are described in the unit's combat logs more as a curiosity than as a mass phenomenon. It is interesting to calculate how many were those who actually held weapons in their hands.

The number of hiwis at the end of the war by Drobiazko is about 675,000, if you add construction units and take into account the losses during the war, then I think we are not very wrong in assuming that this category covers about 700-750,000 people out of a total of 1.2 million. This is consistent with with a share of non-combat among the Caucasian peoples, in the calculation presented by the headquarters of the eastern troops at the end of the war. According to him, out of a total of 102,000 Caucasians who passed through the Wehrmacht and the SS, 55,000 served in the legions, Luftwaffe and SS and 47,000 in hiwi and construction units. It should be noted that the proportion of Caucasians enlisted in combat units was higher than the proportion of Slavs.

So, out of 1.2 million who wore German uniforms, only 450-500 thousand did so while holding weapons. Let's now try to calculate the layout of the really combat units of the Eastern peoples.

Asian battalions (Caucasians, Turks and Tatars) were formed 75 pieces (80,000 people). Including 10 Crimean police battalions (8,700), Kalmyks and special units, there are approximately 110,000 "combat" Asians out of a total of 215,000. It quite beats with the layout separately for Caucasians.

The Baltics endowed the Germans with 93 police battalions (later partly reduced to regiments), with a total number of 33,000 people. In addition, 12 border regiments (30,000) were formed, partly staffed by police battalions, then three SS divisions (15, 19 and 20) and two volunteer regiments were created, through which about 70,000 people probably passed. Police and border regiments and battalions were partly directed to their formation. Taking into account the absorption of some parts by others, about 100,000 Balts passed through the combat units.

In Belarus, 20 police battalions (5,000) were formed, of which 9 were considered Ukrainian. After the introduction of mobilization in March 1944, police battalions became part of the army of the Belarusian Central Rada. In total, the Belarusian Regional Defense (BKA) had 34 battalions, 20,000 people. Having retreated in 1944 together with the German troops, these battalions were consolidated into the Siegling SS Brigade. Then, on the basis of the brigade, with the addition of Ukrainian "policemen", the remnants of the Kaminsky brigade and even the Cossacks, the 30th SS division was deployed, which was subsequently used to staff the 1st Vlasov division.

Galicia was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was seen as a potential German territory. It was separated from Ukraine, included in the Reich, as part of the General Government of Warsaw and put in line for Germanization. On the territory of Galicia, 10 police battalions (5,000) were formed, and subsequently the recruitment of volunteers for the SS troops was announced. It is believed that 70,000 volunteers turned up at the recruiting sites, but that many were not needed. As a result, one SS division (14th) and five police regiments were formed. Police regiments were disbanded as needed and sent to replenish the division. The total contribution of Galicia to the victory over Stalinism can be estimated at 30,000 people.

In the rest of Ukraine, 53 police battalions (25,000) were formed. It is known that a small part of them became part of the 30th SS division, the fate of the rest is unknown to me. After the formation in March 1945 of the Ukrainian analogue of the KONR - the Ukrainian National Committee - the Galician 14th SS division was renamed the 1st Ukrainian and the formation of the 2nd began. It was formed from volunteers of Ukrainian nationality recruited from various auxiliary formations, they recruited about 2,000 people.

Of the Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians, about 90 security "Ostbattalions" were formed, through which approximately 80,000 people passed, including the "Russian National People's Army" reorganized into five security battalions. Other Russian combat formations include the 3,000-strong 1st Russian national SS brigade Gil (Rodionov), which went over to the side of the partisans, the approximately 6,000-strong "Russian National Army" of Smyslovsky and the army of Kaminsky ("Russian Liberation People's Army"), which arose as the self-defense forces of the so-called. Lokot Republic. Maximum estimates of the number of people who passed through Kaminsky's army reach 20,000. After 1943, Kaminsky's troops retreated along with the German army and in 1944 an attempt was made to reorganize them into the 29th SS division. For a number of reasons, the reorganization was canceled, and the personnel were transferred to the understaffing of the 30th SS division. At the beginning of 1945, the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (the Vlasov army) were created. The first division of the army is formed from the "ost battalions" and the remnants of the 30th SS division. The second division is formed from the "Ostbattalions", and partly from volunteer prisoners of war. The number of Vlasovites before the end of the war is estimated at 40,000 people, of which about 30,000 were former SS and Ostbattalions. In total, about 120,000 Russians fought in the Wehrmacht and the SS with weapons in their hands at different times.

The Cossacks, according to Drobyazko's calculations, put up 70,000 people, let's accept this figure.

HOW DID THEY GET INTO THE SERVICE?

Initially, the eastern parts were staffed with volunteers from among the prisoners of war and the local population. Since the summer of 1942, the principle of recruiting the local population has changed from voluntary to voluntary-compulsory - an alternative to voluntary entry into the police is forced deportation to Germany, "ostarbeiter". By the autumn of 1942, the undisguised coercion begins. Drobyazko, in his dissertation, talks about raids on peasants in the Shepetovka region: those caught were offered a choice between joining the police or being sent to a camp. Since 1943, compulsory military service has been introduced in various "self-defenses" of the Reichskommissariat "Ostland". In the Baltic States, through mobilization, since 1943, SS units and border guards were recruited.

HOW AND WITH WHOM DID THEY FIGHT?

Initially, the Slavic eastern parts were created to carry out security services. In this capacity, they were supposed to replace the security battalions of the Wehrmacht, which, like a vacuum cleaner, were sucked out of the rear zone by the needs of the front. At first, the soldiers of the Ostbattalions guarded warehouses and railways, but as the situation became more complicated, they began to be involved in anti-partisan operations. The involvement of the Ostbattalions in the fight against the partisans contributed to their disintegration. If in 1942 the number of “Ostbattalion” soldiers who went over to the side of the partisans was relatively small (although this year the Germans were forced to disband the RNNA due to massive defections), then in 1943 14 thousand fled to the partisans (and this is very, very quite a few, with an average number of eastern units in 1943 of about 65,000 people). The Germans had no strength to observe the further decomposition of the Ostbattalions, and in October 1943 the remaining eastern units were sent to France and Denmark (while disarming 5-6 thousand volunteers as unreliable). There they were included as 3rd or 4th battalions in the regiments of the German divisions.

Slavic eastern battalions, with rare exceptions, were not used in battles on the eastern front. In contrast, a significant number of Asian Ostbattalions were involved in the first line of the advancing German troops during the battle for the Caucasus. The results of the battles were contradictory - some showed themselves well, others - on the contrary, turned out to be infected with deserter moods and gave a large percentage of defectors. By the beginning of 1944, most of the Asian battalions also ended up on the Western Wall. Those who remained in the East were consolidated into the Eastern Turkic and Caucasian SS formations and were involved in the suppression of the Warsaw and Slovak uprisings.

In total, by the time of the Allied invasion in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, 72 Slavic, Asian and Cossack battalions were assembled, with a total number of about 70 thousand. In general, and in general, the Ostbattalions in battles with the allies showed themselves poorly (with some exceptions). Of the almost 8.5 thousand irretrievable losses, 8 thousand were missing, that is, most of them were deserters and defectors. After that, the remaining battalions were disarmed and involved in fortification work on the Siegfried Line. Subsequently, they were used to form parts of the Vlasov army.

In 1943, Cossack units were also withdrawn from the east. The most combat-ready unit of the German Cossack troops, formed in the summer of 1943, the 1st Cossack division von Panwitz went to Yugoslavia to deal with Tito's partisans. There, they gradually gathered all the Cossacks, deploying the division into a corps. The division took part in the battles on the Eastern Front in 1945, fighting mainly against the Bulgarians.

The Baltic States gave the largest number of troops to the front - in addition to three SS divisions, separate police regiments and battalions took part in the battles. The 20th Estonian SS division was defeated near Narva, but subsequently restored and managed to take part in the last battles of the war. The Latvian 15th and 19th SS divisions in the summer of 1944 came under attack by the Red Army and could not withstand the blow. Large scale desertion and loss of combat capability are reported. As a result, the 15th division, having transferred its most reliable composition to the 19th, was assigned to the rear for use in the construction of fortifications. The second time it was used in combat in January 1945, in East Prussia, after which it was again withdrawn to the rear. She managed to surrender to the Americans. The 19th remained until the end of the war in Courland.

Belarusian policemen and those freshly mobilized in the BKA in 1944 were assembled in the 30th SS division. After the formation, the division in September 1944 was transferred to France, where it took part in battles with the allies. Suffered heavy losses, mainly from desertion. Belarusians ran across to the allies in batches and continued the war in the Polish units. In December, the division was disbanded, and the remaining personnel were transferred to staff the 1st Vlasov division.

The Galician 14th SS division, barely smelling gunpowder, was surrounded near Brody and almost completely destroyed. Although she was quickly restored, she no longer took part in the battles at the front. One of her regiments was involved in the suppression of the Slovak uprising, after which she went to Yugoslavia to fight Tito's pratizans. Since it was not far from Yugoslavia to Austria, the division managed to surrender to the British.

The armed forces of the KONR were formed in early 1945. Although the 1st division of the Vlasovites was equipped almost entirely with punitive veterans, many of whom had already been at the front, Vlasov soared Hitler's brains by demanding more time to prepare. In the end, the division still managed to get to the Oder front, where it took part in one attack against the Soviet troops on April 13. The very next day, the division commander, Major General Bunyachenko, ignoring the protests of his German immediate superior, took the division from the front and went to join the rest of Vlasov's army in the Czech Republic. The Vlasov army fought the second battle already against its ally, attacking German troops in Prague on May 5.

WHAT MOVED THEM?

The driving motives were completely different.

First, among the eastern troops, one can single out the national separatists who fought for the creation of their own nation state, or at least a privileged province of the Reich. This includes the Balts, Asian legionnaires and Galicians. The creation of units of this kind has a long tradition - to recall at least the Czechoslovak Corps or the Polish Legion in the First World War. These would fight against the central government, no matter who sits in Moscow - the tsar, the secretary general or the popularly elected president.

Secondly, there were ideological and stubborn opponents of the regime. These include the Cossacks (although partly their motives were national separatist), part of the personnel of the Ostbattalions, a significant part of the officer corps of the KONR troops.

Thirdly, we can name the opportunists who bet on the winner, those who joined the Reich during the victories of the Wehrmacht, but fled to the partisans after the defeat at Kursk and continued to flee at the first opportunity. These probably made up a significant part of the Ostbattalions and the local police. There were also those from the other side of the front, as can be seen from the change in the number of defectors to the Germans in 1942-44:

1942	79,769
1943	26,108
1944	9,207

Fourthly, these were people who hoped to break out of the camp and, at a convenient opportunity, go to their own. It is difficult to say how many of these there were, but sometimes they were recruited for a whole battalion.

AND WHAT IS THE RESULT?

And the result is a picture completely different from what is drawn by ardent anti-communists. Instead of one (or even two) million Russians rallied under the tricolor flag in the fight against the hateful Stalinist regime, there is a very motley (and obviously not reaching a million) company of Balts, Asians, Galicians and Slavs who fought each for their own. And mostly not with the Stalinist regime, but with partisans (and not only Russians, but also with Yugoslav, Slovak, French, Polish), Western allies, and even with the Germans in general. Doesn't look much like a civil war, does it? Well, except to call these words the struggle of partisans with policemen, but the policemen fought by no means under the tricolor flag, but with a swastika on their sleeves.

For the sake of justice, it should be noted that until the end of 1944, until the formation of the KONR and its armed forces, the Germans did not provide an opportunity for Russian anti-communists to fight for the national idea, for Russia without the communists. It can be assumed that if they had allowed this earlier, more people would have rallied under the tricolor flag, especially since there were still plenty of opponents of the Bolsheviks in the country. But this is “would” and besides, my grandmother also said for two. And in real history, there were no “millions under the tricolor flag”.

During the years of the Great Patriotic War, 78 Soviet generals fell into German captivity. 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 order of the Headquarters of August 16, 1941 “On cases of cowardice and surrender and measures to prevent such actions”, 13 people were shot, eight more were sentenced to imprisonment for “wrong 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. In the Vlasov army there were even Heroes of the Soviet Union - Senior Lieutenant Bronislav Antilevsky and Captain Semyon Bychkov.

The case of General Vlasov

About who General Andrei Vlasov was, an ideological traitor or an ideological fighter against the Bolsheviks, they still argue. He served in the Red Army from the Civil War, studied at the Higher Army Command Courses, and moved up the career ladder. In the late 1930s, he served as a military adviser in China. Vlasov survived the era of great terror without shocks - he was not subjected to repression, even, according to some information, he was a member of the military tribunal of the district.

Before the war, he received the Order of the Red Banner and the Order of Lenin. He was awarded these high awards for creating an exemplary division. Vlasov received under his command a rifle division, which did not differ in special discipline and merit. Focusing on German achievements, Vlasov demanded strict observance of the charter. His caring attitude towards subordinates even became the subject of articles in the press. The division received the challenge Red Banner.

In January 1941, he received command of a mechanized corps, one of the best equipped at that time. The corps included new KV and T-34 tanks. They were created for offensive operations, and in defense after the start of the war they were not very effective. Soon Vlasov was appointed commander of the 37th Army, which defended 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 on the Volkhov Front, was surrounded. When he went to the village, he was given to the German police by the headman, 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, recruited captured soldiers. Propaganda groups and a training center in Dobendorf were created, and there were also separate Russian battalions that were part of various 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 was named "Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia". The committee itself was also headed by Vlasov.

Fedor Trukhin - the creator of the army

According to some historians, for example, Kirill Alexandrov, Vlasov was more of a propagandist and ideologist, and Major General Fyodor Trukhin was the organizer and true creator of the Vlasov army. He was the former head of the Operational Directorate of the North-Western Front, a professional General Staff officer. He surrendered, along with all the documents of the headquarters. In 1943, Trukhin was the head of the training center in Dobendorf, from October 1944 he took over as chief of staff of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. Under his leadership, two divisions were formed, the formation of the third began. In the last months of the war, Trukhin commanded the Southern Group of the Armed Forces of the Committee, located on the territory of 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, by April 1945 his army de jure was about 124 thousand people.

Vasily Malyshkin - propagandist

Major General Malyshkin was also one of Vlasov's associates. Having been captured from the Vyazemsky boiler, he began to cooperate with the Germans. In 1942, he taught at the Vulgaide courses for propagandists, and soon became assistant head of the educational department. In 1943, he met Vlasov while working in the propaganda department of the Wehrmacht High Command.

For Vlasov, he also worked as a propagandist, was a member of the Committee's presidium. In 1945 he was authorized to negotiate with the Americans. After the war, he tried to establish cooperation with American intelligence, even wrote a note on the training of the Red Army command staff. But in 1946 it was handed over to the Soviet side anyway.

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 the Political Center for the Fight against 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 was taken over by General Gelmikh. In September, he was appointed to the post of staff officer for the training and education of the Eastern troops. But immediately after he arrived at his duty station in the Leningrad region, two Russian battalions fled to the partisans, killing the Germans. Upon learning of this, Budykho himself fled.

General Richter - sentenced in absentia

This traitor general did not pass in the Vlasov case, but he helped the Germans no less. Having been taken prisoner in the first days of the war, he ended up in a prisoner of war camp in Poland. 19 German intelligence agents caught in the USSR testified against him. According to them, since 1942, Richter headed the Abwehr reconnaissance and sabotage school in Warsaw, and later in Weigelsdorf. During his service with the Germans, he bore the pseudonyms Rudaev and Musin.

The Soviet side was sentenced 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 of the Supreme Court. Most - in 1946, Budykho - in 1950.

Anatoly Lemysh 22.02.2011 2017

Russian corps and divisions of the SS

Russian corps and divisions of the SS

15th (Cossack) SS Cavalry Corps
29th SS Grenadier Division
30th SS Grenadier Division
1001st Abwehr Grenadier Regiment

Even the Nazis were shocked by the "exploits" of the Russian SS men from the 29th division during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising - at the very time when other Russian soldiers, in Red Army uniforms, indifferently watched from the opposite bank of the Vistula for two months the agony of the doomed city. The 29th Russian SS division earned such an odious reputation that the Germans were forced to disband it.

Soviet propaganda resorted to any lie in order to disown the outrageous fact: more than a million Soviet citizens participated in the hostilities on the side of Germany. This corresponded to the staff strength of approximately 100 rifle divisions.

So, in Russia, with its traditional cult of patriotism, after twenty years of Bolshevik rule, several times more citizens fought on the side of the external aggressor than in all the White Guard armies combined. The centuries-old history of the country, and indeed the history of wars in general, has not yet known this. There was nothing even remotely similar in any other country participating in the Second World War.
This is what politicians and journalists who are trying to present Stalinism as almost a legitimate form of existence of the Russian state need to be reminded of more often.

By the end of 1942, Russian battalions with numbers were fighting in the German army:
207,263,268,281,285,308,406,412,427,432,439,441,446,447,448,449,456,510,516,517,561,581,582,601,602,603,604,605,606,607,608,609,610,611,612,613,614,615,616,617,618,619,620,621,626,627,628,629,630,632,633,634,635,636,637,638,639,640,641,642,643,644,645,646,647,648,649,650,653,654,656,661,662,663,664,665,666,667,668,669,674,675,681.

Only after the defeat at Stalingrad did the German leadership begin the formation of SS volunteer divisions, and by the beginning of 1944, the Ukrainian, Lithuanian and two Estonian Waffen SS divisions were formed.

Maybe it's enough to talk about the division "Galicia" in the 44th, when back in the 42nd Russian SS battalions fought against us?
Stalin's telegram after the end of the Polish campaign read: "The friendship between Germany and the Soviet Union, based on the blood shed together, has the prospect of being long and strong"
Before that, in Russia, a monument to Joseph Vissarionovich was recently erected (although it’s still in Yakutia), I think it’s “people shove” that’s closer to the Chervonozoryanoy zbuduyuyut ...
And even then they rarely guess that the very beginning of the BBB itself of the SRSR "ticely spivdiyati z National-Socialist Great-Mechchinoy, scho under the wire of Adolf Hitler"

From a speech by V. Molotov in the Kremlin, April 1940. We convey the most heartfelt congratulations from the Soviet government on the magnificent success of the German Wehrmacht. Guderian's tanks broke through to the sea at Aberville on Soviet fuel, the German bombs that razed Rotterdam to the ground were filled with Soviet pyroxylin, and the shells of the bullets that hit the British soldiers retreating to the boats at Dunkirk were cast from Soviet copper-nickel alloy .. .

Deyakі nіyak can't come back from the war. 60 (sixty) years as VVV ended. Ukraine has only been an independent state for 14 (fourteen) years. Warriors in 40-45 years "braided" Yaku krainu? Chi can stinks all the same fought for it?

The Vlasovites should not be perceived as a national movement, they are rather an internal opposition to the Stalinist regime. We should look for analogies in the Baltics and Western Belarus. There, as in ZU, opposition to totalitarianism was strengthened by the goals of national self-determination, especially in the Baltics.

COSSACK PARTS 1941-1943
The appearance of the Cossack units in the Wehrmacht was most facilitated by the reputation of the Cossacks as irreconcilable fighters against Bolshevism, won by them during the Civil War. In the early autumn of 1941, from the headquarters of the 18th Army, the General Staff of the Ground Forces received a proposal to form special units from the Cossacks to fight the Soviet partisans, initiated by the army counterintelligence officer Baron von Kleist. The proposal received support, and on October 6, the Quartermaster General of the General Staff, Lieutenant General E. Wagner, allowed the commanders of the rear areas of Army Groups North, Center and South to form by November 1, 1941, with the consent of the respective SS and police chiefs , - as an experiment - Cossack units from prisoners of war to use them in the fight against partisans.
The first of these units was organized in accordance with the order of General von Schenckendorff, commander of the rear area of ​​Army Group Center, dated October 28, 1941. It was a Cossack squadron under the command of Major I.N. Kononov. During the year, another 4 squadrons were formed by the command of the rear area, and by September 1942, under the command of Kononov, there was the 102nd (from October - the 600th) Cossack division (1, 2, 3rd cavalry squadrons, 4, 5, 6th plastun companies, machine gun company, mortar and artillery batteries). The total strength of the division was 1799 people, including 77 officers; in service there were 6 field guns (76.2 mm), 6 anti-tank guns (45 mm), 12 mortars (82 mm), 16 heavy machine guns and a large number of light machine guns, rifles and machine guns (mostly Soviet-made) . During 1942-1943. division divisions waged a tense struggle with the partisans in the areas of Bobruisk, Mogilev, Smolensk, Nevel and Polotsk.
From the Cossack hundreds formed at the army and corps headquarters of the German 17th Army, by order of June 13, 1942, the Platov Cossack cavalry regiment was formed. It consisted of 5 cavalry squadrons, a squadron of heavy weapons, an artillery battery and a spare squadron. Wehrmacht major E. Thomsen was appointed commander of the regiment. Since September 1942, the regiment was used to protect the work on the restoration of the Maykop oil fields, and at the end of January 1943 it was transferred to the Novorossiysk region, where it guarded the sea coast and at the same time participated in the operations of German and Romanian troops against partisans. In the spring of 1943, he defended the “Kuban bridgehead”, repulsing Soviet naval assaults northeast of Temryuk, until at the end of May he was removed from the front and withdrawn to the Crimea.
The Cossack Cavalry Regiment “Jungshults”, formed in the summer of 1942 as part of the 1st Wehrmacht Panzer Army, bore the name of its commander, Lieutenant Colonel I. von Jungshultz. Initially, the regiment had only two squadrons, one of which was purely German, and the second consisted of defector Cossacks. Already at the front, the regiment included two Cossack hundreds from local residents, as well as a Cossack squadron formed in Simferopol and then transferred to the Caucasus. As of December 25, 1942, the regiment consisted of 1530 people, including 30 officers, 150 non-commissioned officers and 1350 privates, and was armed with 6 light and heavy machine guns, 6 mortars, 42 anti-tank rifles, rifles and machine guns. Beginning in September 1942, the "Jungshults" regiment operated on the left flank of the 1st Panzer Army in the Achikulak-Budennovsk area, taking an active part in the battles against the Soviet cavalry. After the order of January 2, 1943 on a general retreat, the regiment retreated to the north-west in the direction of the village of Yegorlykskaya, until it connected with units of the 4th tank army of the Wehrmacht. Subsequently, he was subordinated to the 454th Security Division and transferred to the rear area of ​​the Don Army Group.
In accordance with the order of June 18, 1942, all prisoners of war, who were Cossacks by origin and considered themselves as such, were to be sent to the city of Slavuta. By the end of the month, 5,826 people were already concentrated here, and a decision was made to form a Cossack corps and organize an appropriate headquarters. Since there was an acute shortage of senior and middle command personnel among the Cossacks, former Red Army commanders who were not Cossacks began to be recruited into the Cossack units. Subsequently, at the headquarters of the formation, the 1st Cossack named after Ataman Count Platov, the cadet school, as well as a non-commissioned officer school, was opened.
From the available composition of the Cossacks, in the first place, the 1st Ataman Regiment was formed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Baron von Wolf and a special fifty, designed to perform special tasks in the Soviet rear. After checking the incoming replenishment, the formation of the 2nd Life Cossack and 3rd Don regiments began, and after them - the 4th and 5th Kuban, 6th and 7th Consolidated Cossack regiments. On August 6, 1942, the formed Cossack units were transferred from the Slavutinsky camp to Shepetovka to barracks specially designated for them.
Over time, work on the organization of Cossack units in Ukraine acquired a systematic character. The Cossacks who found themselves in German captivity were concentrated in one camp, from which, after appropriate processing, they were sent to reserve units, and from there they were transferred to regiments, divisions, detachments and hundreds. Cossack units were initially used exclusively as auxiliary troops to guard the prisoner of war camps. However, after they proved their suitability for a wide variety of tasks, their use took on a different character. Most of the Cossack regiments formed in Ukraine were involved in the protection of roads and railways, other military facilities, as well as in the fight against the partisan movement on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus.
Many Cossacks joined the German army when the advancing units of the Wehrmacht entered the territories of the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban and Terek. On July 25, 1942, immediately after the occupation of Novocherkassk by the Germans, a group of Cossack officers came to the representatives of the German command and expressed their readiness "to help the valiant German troops with all their strength and knowledge in the final defeat of Stalin's henchmen", and in September in Novocherkassk, with the sanction of the occupying authorities, gathered the Cossack gathering, at which the headquarters of the Don Cossacks was elected (since November 1942 it was called the headquarters of the Marching Ataman) headed by Colonel S.V. Pavlov, who began organizing Cossack units to fight against the Red Army.
According to the order of the headquarters, all Cossacks capable of bearing weapons were to appear at the collection points and register. The stanitsa atamans were obliged to register Cossack officers and Cossacks within three days and to select volunteers for organized units. Each volunteer could write down his last rank in the Russian Imperial Army or in the White armies. At the same time, chieftains had to provide volunteers with combat horses, saddles, sabers and uniforms. Armament for the formed units was allocated in agreement with the German headquarters and commandant's offices.
In November 1942, shortly before the start of the Soviet counter-offensive near Stalingrad, the German command authorized the formation of Cossack regiments in the Don, Kuban and Terek regions. So, from the volunteers of the Don villages in Novocherkassk, the 1st Don Regiment was organized under the command of Yesaul A.V. Pavlova. The 1st Sinegorsk Regiment was also formed on the Don, consisting of 1260 officers and Cossacks under the command of a military foreman (former sergeant major) Zhuravlev. From the Cossack hundreds formed in the villages of the Uman department of the Kuban, under the leadership of the military foreman I.I. Kulakov - 1st Volga regiment of the Terek Cossack army. The Cossack regiments organized on the Don in January-February 1943 took part in heavy battles against the advancing Soviet troops on the Seversky Donets, near Bataysk, Novocherkassk and Rostov. Covering the retreat to the west of the main forces of the German army, these units steadfastly repulsed the onslaught of a superior enemy and suffered heavy losses, and some of them were completely destroyed.
Cossack units were formed by the command of the army rear areas (2nd and 4th field armies), corps (43rd and 59th) and divisions (57th and 137th infantry, 203, 213, 403, 444 and 454 th security). In tank corps, such as in the 3rd (Cossack motorized company) and 40th (1st and 2nd / 82nd Cossack squadrons under the command of M. Zagorodny's squadron), they were used as auxiliary reconnaissance detachments. In the 444th and 454th security divisions, two Cossack divisions of 700 sabers each were formed. 650 Cossacks served in the 5,000-strong German cavalry formation "Boselager", created for security service in the rear area of ​​​​Army Group Center, 650 Cossacks served, and some of them were a squadron of heavy weapons. Cossack units were also created as part of the German satellite armies operating on the Eastern Front. At least, it is known that the Cossack detachment of two squadrons was formed under the cavalry group "Savoy" of the Italian 8th Army. In order to achieve proper operational interaction, it was practiced to reduce individual parts into larger formations. So, in November 1942, four Cossack battalions (622, 623, 624 and 625th, which previously constituted the 6th, 7th and 8th regiments), operating against partisans in the Dorogobuzh and Vyazma region), a separate motorized company (638th) and two artillery batteries were merged into the 360th Cossack regiment led by the Baltic German Major E.V. von Rentelnom.
By April 1943, the Wehrmacht operated about 20 Cossack regiments numbering from 400 to 1000 people each and a large number of small units, totaling up to 25 thousand soldiers and officers. The most reliable of them were formed from volunteers in the villages of the Don, Kuban and Terek, or from defectors in German field formations. The personnel of such units were mainly represented by natives of the Cossack regions, many of whom fought against the Bolsheviks during the Civil War or were repressed by the Soviet authorities in the 1920s and 30s, and therefore were vitally interested in the fight against the Soviet regime. At the same time, in the ranks of the units formed in Slavuta and Shepetovka, there were many random people who called themselves Cossacks only in order to escape from the prisoner of war camps and thereby save their lives. The reliability of this contingent has always been a big question, and the slightest difficulties seriously affected its morale and could provoke a transition to the side of the enemy.
In the autumn of 1943, some Cossack units were transferred to France, where they were used to protect the Atlantic Wall and in the fight against local partisans. Their fate was different. Thus, the 360th regiment of von Renteln, deployed battalion-by-battalion along the coast of the Bay of Biscay (by this time it was renamed the Cossack Fortress Grenadier Regiment), in August 1944 was forced to fight a long way to the German border along the territory occupied by partisans. The 570th Cossack battalion was sent against the Anglo-Americans who landed in Normandy and surrendered on the first day in full force. The 454th Cossack cavalry regiment, blocked by units of French regular troops and partisans in the town of Pontalier, refused to capitulate and was almost completely destroyed. The same fate befell the 82nd Cossack division of M. Zagorodny in Normandy.
At the same time, most of those formed in 1942-1943. in the cities of Slavuta and Shepetovka, the Cossack regiments continued to act against partisans on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus. Some of them were reorganized into police battalions, bearing the numbers 68, 72, 73 and 74th. Others were defeated in the winter battles of 1943/44 in Ukraine, and their remnants joined the various units. In particular, the remnants of the 14th Consolidated Cossack Regiment, defeated in February 1944 near Tsuman, were included in the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Wehrmacht, and the 68th Cossack police battalion in the fall of 1944 was part of the 30th Grenadier Division of the SS troops (1st Belarusian), sent to the Western Front.
After the experience of using Cossack units at the front proved their practical value, the German command decided to create a large Cossack cavalry unit as part of the Wehrmacht. On November 8, 1942, Colonel G. von Pannwitz, a brilliant cavalry commander, who was also fluent in Russian, was appointed at the head of the formation, which was still to be formed. The Soviet offensive near Stalingrad prevented the plan to form a formation from being carried out already in November, and it was possible to start implementing it only in the spring of 1943 - after the withdrawal of German troops to the line of the Mius River and the Taman Peninsula and the relative stabilization of the front. The Cossack units that retreated together with the German army from the Don and the North Caucasus were gathered in the Kherson region and replenished at the expense of Cossack refugees. The next step was the reduction of these “irregular” units into a separate military unit. Initially, four regiments were formed: the 1st Don, 2nd Terek, 3rd Consolidated Cossack and 4th Kuban with a total strength of up to 6,000 people.
On April 21, 1943, the German command ordered the organization of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, in connection with which the formed regiments were transferred to the Milau (Mlawa) training ground, where the Polish cavalry equipment depots had been located since pre-war times. The best of the front-line Cossack units, such as the Platov and Yungshults regiments, Wolf's 1st Ataman Regiment and Kononov's 600th division, also arrived here. Created without taking into account the military principle, these units were disbanded, and their personnel were reduced to regiments according to their belonging to the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossack troops. The exception was Kononov's division, which was included in the division as a separate regiment. The creation of the division was completed on July 1, 1943, when von Pannwitz, promoted to the rank of Major General, was approved as its commander.
The finally formed division included a headquarters with a hundred escorts, a field gendarmerie group, a motorcycle communications platoon, a propaganda platoon and a brass band, two Cossack cavalry brigades - the 1st Don (1st Don, 2nd Siberian and 4th Kuban regiments) and the 2nd Caucasian (3rd Kuban, 5th Don and 6th Terek regiments), two cavalry artillery battalions (Don and Kuban), reconnaissance detachment, sapper battalion, communications department, logistics service units (all divisional units were numbered 55).
Each of the regiments consisted of two cavalry battalions (in the 2nd Siberian regiment, the 2nd battalion was scooter, and in the 5th Donskoy - plastun) of three squadrons, machine-gun, mortar and anti-tank squadrons. According to the staff, the regiment had 2,000 people, including 150 people of the German cadre. It was armed with 5 anti-tank guns (50 mm), 14 battalion (81 mm) and 54 company (50 mm) mortars, 8 machine guns and 60 MG-42 light machine guns, German carbines and machine guns. In addition to the staff, the regiments were given batteries of 4 field guns (76.2 mm). Horse artillery battalions had 3 batteries of 75-mm cannons (200 people and 4 guns each), a reconnaissance detachment - 3 scooter squadrons from among the German personnel, a squadron of young Cossacks and a penal squadron, a sapper battalion - 3 sapper and sapper-construction squadrons , and the communications division - 2 squadrons of telephone operators and 1 radio communications.
On November 1, 1943, the strength of the division was 18,555 people, including 3,827 German lower ranks and 222 officers, 14,315 Cossacks and 191 Cossack officers. All headquarters, special and rear units were equipped with German personnel. All commanders of regiments (except for I.N. Kononov) and divisions (except for two) were also Germans, and each squadron included 12-14 German soldiers and non-commissioned officers in economic positions. At the same time, the division was considered the most "Russified" of the Wehrmacht's regular formations: the commanders of combat cavalry units - squadrons and platoons - were Cossacks, and all commands were given in Russian. In Mokovo, not far from the Milau training ground, a Cossack reserve training regiment was formed under the command of Colonel von Bosse, bearing the number 5 according to the general numbering of spare parts of the eastern troops. The regiment did not have a permanent composition and consisted at different times from 10 to 15 thousand Cossacks, who constantly arrived from the Eastern Front and the occupied territories and, after appropriate training, were distributed among the regiments of the division. A non-commissioned officer school operated at the reserve training regiment, which trained personnel for combat units. The School of Young Cossacks was also organized here - a kind of cadet corps, where several hundred teenagers who had lost their parents underwent military training.
In the autumn of 1943, the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division was sent to Yugoslavia, where by that time communist partisans under the leadership of I. Broz Tito had noticeably intensified their activities. Due to their great mobility and maneuverability, the Cossack units turned out to be better adapted to the mountainous conditions of the Balkans and acted more effectively here than the clumsy German landwehr divisions that carried security services here. During the summer of 1944, units of the division undertook at least five independent operations in the mountainous regions of Croatia and Bosnia, during which they destroyed many partisan strongholds and seized the initiative for offensive operations. Among the local population, the Cossacks earned themselves a bad name. In accordance with the orders of the command for self-sufficiency, they resorted to requisitioning horses, food and fodder from the peasants, which often resulted in massive robberies and violence. The villages, whose population was suspected of complicity with the partisans, were compared by the Cossacks to the ground with fire and sword.

At the very end of 1944, the 1st Cossack division had to face units of the Red Army that were trying to connect on the river. Drava with Tito's partisans. During fierce battles, the Cossacks managed to inflict a heavy defeat on one of the regiments of the 233rd Soviet Rifle Division and force the enemy to leave the previously captured bridgehead on the right bank of the Drava. In March 1945, units of the 1st Cossack division (by that time already deployed in the corps) participated in the last major offensive operation of the Wehrmacht during World War II, when the Cossacks successfully operated against the Bulgarian units on the southern face of the Balaton ledge.
The transfer in August 1944 of foreign national formations of the Wehrmacht to the jurisdiction of the SS was also reflected in the fate of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. At a meeting held in early September at Himmler's headquarters with the participation of von Pannwitz and other commanders of the Cossack formations, it was decided to deploy a division, replenished from units transferred from other fronts, to the corps. At the same time, it was supposed to mobilize among the Cossacks who found themselves on the territory of the Reich, for which a special body was formed at the General Staff of the SS - the Reserve of Cossack troops, headed by Lieutenant General A.G. Shkuro. General P.N. Krasnov, who since March 1944 headed the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops, created under the auspices of the Eastern Ministry, appealed to the Cossacks with an appeal to rise to fight against Bolshevism.
Soon large and small groups of Cossacks and entire military units began to arrive in the von Pannwitz division. Among them were two Cossack battalions from Krakow, the 69th police battalion from Warsaw, a factory guard battalion from Hanover, and finally the 360th von Renteln regiment from the Western Front. The 5th Cossack Training and Reserve Regiment, stationed until recently in France, was transferred to Austria (Zvetle) - closer to the division's area of ​​operations. Through the efforts of the recruiting headquarters created by the Reserve of the Cossack troops, it was possible to gather more than 2000 Cossacks from among the emigrants, prisoners of war and eastern workers, who were also sent to the 1st Cossack division. As a result, within two months the strength of the division (not counting the German personnel) almost doubled.
A group of Cossack signalmen of the 2nd Siberian regiment of the 1st Cossack cavalry division. 1943-1944
By order of November 4, 1944, the 1st Cossack division was transferred for the duration of the war to the command of the SS General Staff. This transfer concerned, first of all, the sphere of logistics, which made it possible to improve the provision of the division with weapons, military equipment and vehicles. So. for example, the artillery regiment of the division received a battery of 105-mm howitzers, the engineer battalion received several six-barreled mortars, and the reconnaissance detachment received StG-44 assault rifles. In addition, according to some reports, the division was given 12 armored vehicles, including tanks and assault guns.
By order of February 25, 1945, the division was transformed into the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the Waffen-SS. The 1st and 2nd brigades were renamed into divisions without changing their numbers and organizational structure. On the basis of the 5th Don Regiment of Kononov, the formation of the Plastunskaya brigade of a two-regiment structure began with the prospect of deployment to the 3rd Cossack division. Cavalry artillery battalions in divisions were reorganized into regiments. The total strength of the corps reached 25,000 soldiers and officers, including from 3,000 to 5,000 Germans. In addition, at the final stage of the war, together with the 15th Cossack Corps, such formations as the Kalmyk regiment (up to 5000 people), the Caucasian cavalry division, the Ukrainian SS battalion and the group of ROA tankers acted, taking into account which, under the command of the Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the troops SS (since February 1, 1945) G. von Pannwitz had 30-35 thousand people.
After the units assembled in the Kherson region were sent to Poland to form the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, the main center of concentration of Cossack refugees who left their lands along with the retreating German troops became the headquarters of the Camping Ataman of the Don Army S. V. Pavlov, who settled in Kirovograd . By July 1943, up to 3,000 Donets had gathered here, of which two new regiments were formed - the 8th and 9th, which probably had a common numbering with the regiments of the 1st division. For the training of command personnel, it was planned to open an officer school, as well as a school for tankers, but these projects could not be implemented due to the new Soviet offensive.
In the late autumn of 1943, Pavlov already had 18,000 Cossacks under his command, including women and children, who formed the so-called Cossack Camp. The German authorities recognized Pavlov as the Marching ataman of all Cossack troops and pledged to provide him with all possible support. After a short stay in Podolia, Kazachiy Stan in March 1944, due to the danger of the Soviet encirclement, began to move west - to Sandomierz, and then was transported by rail to Belarus. Here, the command of the Wehrmacht provided 180 thousand hectares of land for the placement of the Cossacks in the area of ​​​​the cities of Baranovichi, Slonim, Novogrudok, Yelnya, Capitals. The refugees settled in the new place were grouped by belonging to different troops, by districts and departments, which outwardly reproduced the traditional system of Cossack settlements.
At the same time, a broad reorganization of the Cossack combat units was undertaken, united in 10 foot regiments of 1200 bayonets each. The 1st and 2nd Don regiments made up the 1st brigade of Colonel Silkin; 3rd Donskoy, 4th Consolidated Cossack, 5th and 6th Kuban and 7th Tersky - the 2nd brigade of Colonel Vertepov; 8th Donskoy, 9th Kuban and 10th Terek-Stavropol - 3rd brigade of Colonel Medynsky (later the composition of the brigades changed several times). Each regiment had 3 plastun battalions, mortar and anti-tank batteries. For their armament, Soviet captured weapons provided by the German field arsenals were used.
The main task assigned to the Cossacks by the German command was the fight against partisans and ensuring the security of the rear communications of Army Group Center. On June 17, 1944, during one of the anti-partisan operations, the Marching Ataman of the Cossack Camp S.V. was killed. Pavlov. His successor was the military foreman (later - colonel and major general) T.I. Domanov. In July 1944, in connection with the threat of a new Soviet offensive, Kazachiy Stan was withdrawn from Belarus and concentrated in the area of ​​the town of Zdunskaya Wola in northern Poland. From here began its transfer to Northern Italy, where the territory adjacent to the Carnic Alps with the cities of Tolmezzo, Gemona and Ozoppo was allocated for the placement of the Cossacks. Here, Cossack Stan became subordinate to the commander of the SS troops and the police of the coastal zone of the Adriatic Sea, Ober-Gruppenführer SS O. Globochnik, who instructed the Cossacks to ensure security on the lands provided to them.
On the territory of Northern Italy, the combat units of the Cossack Camp underwent another reorganization and formed the Marching Ataman Group (also called the corps) consisting of two divisions. The 1st Cossack foot division (Cossacks from 19 to 40 years old) included the 1st and 2nd Don, 3rd Kuban and 4th Terek-Stavropol regiments, consolidated into the 1st Don and 2nd Consolidated plastun brigades, as well as headquarters and transport companies, cavalry and gendarmerie squadrons, a communications company and an armored detachment. The 2nd Cossack Foot Division (Cossacks from 40 to 52 years old) consisted of the 3rd Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which included the 5th Consolidated Cossack and 6th Don Regiments, and the 4th Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which included the 3rd Spare regiment, three stanitsa self-defense battalions (Donskoy, Kuban and Consolidated Cossacks) and the Special Detachment of Colonel Grekov. In addition, the Group included the following units: 1st Cossack cavalry regiment (6 squadrons: 1st, 2nd and 4th Don, 2nd Terek-Don, 6th Kuban and 5th officers), Ataman escort cavalry regiment (5 squadrons), the 1st Cossack cadet school (2 plastun companies, a company of heavy weapons, an artillery battery), separate divisions - officer, gendarme and commandant foot, as well as a Special Cossack parachute-sniper school disguised as a motor-motor school (Special group "Ataman" ). According to some reports, a separate Cossack group "Savoy" was attached to the combat units of the Cossack Camp, which was withdrawn to Italy from the Eastern Front along with the remnants of the Italian 8th Army back in 1943.
Cossack refugees. 1943-1945
The units of the Marching Ataman Group were armed with over 900 light and heavy machine guns of various systems (Soviet “Maxim”, DP (“Degtyarev infantry”) and DT (“Degtyarev tank”), German MG-34 and “Schwarzlose”, Czech “Zbroevka” Italian "Breda" and "Fiat", French "Hotchkiss" and "Shosh", English "Vickers" and "Lewis", American "Colt"), 95 company and battalion mortars (mainly Soviet and German production), more than 30 Soviet 45-mm anti-tank guns and 4 field guns (76.2 mm), as well as 2 light armored vehicles recaptured from partisans and named "Don Cossack" and "Ataman Yermak". As small arms, Soviet-made magazine and automatic rifles and carbines, a certain number of German and Italian carbines, Soviet, German and Italian machine guns were used. The Cossacks also had a large number of German faustpatrons and English grenade launchers captured from partisans.
As of April 27, 1945, the total number of Cossack Stan was 31,463 people, including 1,575 officers, 592 officials, 16,485 non-commissioned officers and privates, 6,304 non-combatants (unfit for service due to age and health), 4,222 women, 2,094 children under the age of 14 and 358 adolescents aged 14 to 17. Of the total number of Stan, 1430 Cossacks belonged to the emigrants of the first wave, and the rest were Soviet citizens.
In the last days of the war, due to the approach of the advancing Allied troops and the intensification of partisan actions, Cossack Stan was forced to leave Italy. In the period April 30 - May 7, 1945, having overcome the high Alpine passes, the Cossacks crossed the Italian-Austrian border and settled in the valley of the river. Drava between the cities of Lienz and Oberdrauburg, where the surrender to the British troops was announced. Already after the official cessation of hostilities from Croatia to Austria, units of the 15th Cossack cavalry corps von Pannwitz broke through, also laying down their arms in front of the British. And less than a month later, on the banks of the Drava, the tragedy of the forced extradition to the Soviet Union of tens of thousands of Cossacks, Kalmyks and Caucasians, who were waiting for all the horrors of Stalin's camps and special settlements, broke out. Together with the Cossacks, their leaders, Generals P.N. Krasnov, his nephew S.N. Krasnov, who headed the headquarters of the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops, A.G. Shkuro, T.I. Domanov and G. von Pannwitz, as well as the leader of the Caucasians, Sultan Kelech-Girey. All of them were convicted in Moscow at a closed trial on January 16, 1947, and sentenced to death by hanging.

Collaborationism during the Great Patriotic War was common. According to historians, up to one and a half million Soviet citizens defected to the side of the enemy. Many of them were representatives of the Cossacks.

Uncomfortable topic

Domestic historians are reluctant to raise the issue of the Cossacks who fought on the side of Hitler. Even those who touched on this topic tried to emphasize that the tragedy of the Cossacks of World War II was closely intertwined with the Bolshevik genocide of the 1920s and 1930s. In fairness, it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the Cossacks, despite their claims to the Soviet authorities, remained loyal to their homeland. Moreover, many emigrant Cossacks took an anti-fascist position, taking part in the resistance movements of various countries.
Among those who swore allegiance to Hitler were Astrakhan, Kuban, Terek, Ural, Siberian Cossacks. But the overwhelming majority of collaborators among the Cossacks were still residents of the Don lands.
In the territories occupied by the Germans, Cossack police battalions were created, the main task of which was to fight the partisans. So, in September 1942, near the farm of the Pshenichny Stanichno-Lugansk region, the Cossack policemen, together with the punitive detachments of the Gestapo, succeeded in defeating the partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Yakovenko.
Often, the Cossacks acted as guards of prisoners of war of the Red Army. Under the German commandant's offices there were also Cossack hundreds who performed police tasks. Two such hundreds of Don Cossacks were stationed in the village of Luganskaya and two more in Krasnodon.
For the first time, a proposal to form Cossack units to fight partisans was put forward by a German counterintelligence officer, Baron von Kleist. In October 1941, the Quartermaster General of the German General Staff, Eduard Wagner, having studied this proposal, allowed the commanders of the rear areas of Army Groups North, Center and South to form Cossack units from prisoners of war to use them in the fight against the partisan movement.
Why did the formation of Cossack units not meet opposition from the functionaries of the NSDAP, and, moreover, was encouraged by the German authorities? Historians answer that this is due to the doctrine of the Fuhrer, who did not classify the Cossacks as Russians, considering them a separate people - the descendants of the Ostrogoths.

Oath

One of the first part of the Wehrmacht was the Cossack unit under the command of Kononov. On August 22, 1941, Red Army Major Ivan Kononov announced his decision to go over to the enemy and invited everyone to join him. Thus, the major, the officers of his headquarters and several dozen Red Army soldiers of the regiment were captured. There, Kononov recalled that he was the son of a Cossack captain hanged by the Bolsheviks, and expressed his readiness to cooperate with the Nazis.
The Don Cossacks who had gone over to the side of the Reich did not miss the opportunity and tried to demonstrate their loyalty to the Nazi regime. On October 24, 1942, a “Cossack parade” took place in Krasnodon, with which the Don Cossacks showed their devotion to the command of the Wehrmacht and the German administration.
After a prayer service for the health of the Cossacks and the speedy victory of the German army, a letter of greeting to Adolf Hitler was read, which, in particular, said: “We, the Don Cossacks, are the remnants of the survivors of the cruel Jewish-Stalinist terror, fathers and grandchildren, sons and brothers of those who died in a fierce struggle with the Bolsheviks, we send you, the great commander, the brilliant statesman, the builder of New Europe, the Liberator and friend of the Don Cossacks, our warm Don Cossack greetings!
Many Cossacks, including those who did not share the admiration for the Fuhrer, nevertheless welcomed the Reich's policy aimed at opposing the Cossacks and Bolshevism. “Whatever the Germans, it won’t be worse,” such statements were heard very often.

Organization

The general leadership for the formation of the Cossack units was entrusted to the head of the Main Directorate of the Cossack troops of the Imperial Ministry of the Eastern Occupied Territories of Germany, General Peter Krasnov.
"Cossacks! Remember, you are not Russians, you are Cossacks, an independent people. The Russians are hostile to you,” the general kept reminding his subordinates. - Moscow has always been an enemy of the Cossacks, crushed and exploited them. Now the time has come when we, the Cossacks, can create our own life independent of Moscow.”
As Krasnov noted, extensive cooperation between the Cossacks and the Nazis began in the autumn of 1941. In addition to the 102nd volunteer Cossack unit of Kononov, a Cossack reconnaissance battalion of the 14th tank corps, a Cossack reconnaissance squadron of the 4th security scooter regiment and a Cossack sabotage detachment under the German special services were also created at the headquarters of the rear command of Army Group Center.
In addition, since the end of 1941, Cossack hundreds began to appear regularly in the German army. In the summer of 1942, the cooperation of the Cossacks with the German authorities entered a new phase. Since that time, large Cossack formations - regiments and divisions - began to be created as part of the troops of the Third Reich.
However, one should not think that all the Cossacks who went over to the side of the Wehrmacht remained loyal to the Fuhrer. Very often, the Cossacks singly or in whole units went over to the side of the Red Army or joined the Soviet partisans.
An interesting incident occurred in the 3rd Kuban regiment. One of the German officers sent to the Cossack unit, making a review of hundreds, called out a Cossack he did not like with something. The German first scolded him severely, and then hit him in the face with a glove.
The offended Cossack silently took out his saber and hacked the officer to death. The rushing German authorities immediately built a hundred: "Whoever did this, step forward!" A hundred walked. The Germans thought and decided to attribute the death of their officer to the partisans.

Numbers

How many Cossacks during the entire period of the war fought on the side of Nazi Germany?
According to the order of the German command of June 18, 1942, all prisoners of war who were Cossacks by origin and considered themselves as such were to be sent to a camp in the city of Slavuta. By the end of June, 5826 people were concentrated in the camp. It was decided to begin the formation of Cossack units from this contingent.
By the middle of 1943, the Wehrmacht had about 20 Cossack regiments of various strengths and a large number of small units, the total number of which reached 25 thousand people.
When the Germans began to retreat in 1943, hundreds of thousands of Don Cossacks with their families moved along with the troops. According to experts, the number of Cossacks exceeded 135,000 people. After the end of the war on the territory of Austria, the allied forces detained and transferred to the Soviet zone of occupation a total of 50 thousand Cossacks. Among them was General Krasnov.
Researchers have calculated that at least 70,000 Cossacks served in the Wehrmacht, parts of the Waffen-SS and in the auxiliary police during the war years, most of which were Soviet citizens who defected to Germany during the occupation.

According to the historian Kirill Alexandrov, about 1.24 million Soviet citizens served on the side of Germany in 1941-1945: 400,000 of them were Russians, including 80,000 in Cossack formations. Political scientist Sergei Markedonov suggests that among these 80 thousand, only 15-20 thousand were not Cossacks by origin.

Most of the Cossacks extradited by the allies received long terms in the Gulag, and the Cossack elite, who acted on the side of Nazi Germany, were sentenced to death by hanging by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.