WHO AND IN WHAT NUMBER OF THE PEOPLES OF THE USSR Fought ON THE SIDE OF FASCIST GERMANY Our opponents (and for me - enemies) along that front line in Novorossia, in defiance of our identification of them with genetic traitors - Bandera, cite some crazy numbers about a million, otherwise and two Russians who fought on the side of the Germans. Some agree to the point that this number of the Russian population of the USSR fought in the Vlasov army alone. Follow the content in the group. There will be a continuation of the topic below. I will derive data on those who collaborated with the Nazis as a percentage of the number of peoples mentioned below, according to the 1939 census. Very interesting data are obtained. And for Ukrainians as well. Almost ahead of the rest. And they were far ahead of the Russians in terms of the number of traitors. 3 times ahead. The vaunted Cossacks also turned out to be leaders in terms of traitors. In vain Kolya Kozitsyn is crucifying that they have always stood guard over the people. More often people were sold or robbed, as in Novorosiya now. Pleased with the Kazan Tatars, in last place in terms of the number of collaborators. This was a revelation for me. But the Krymchaks are in the lead, the crests are far behind, having 4.6% compared to the Ukrainians, with their 0.9% of the population in 1939. I didn't expect anything else here. I know how massively they surrendered to the Germans in the Patriotic War. Not for beautiful eyes they were evicted from the Crimea. Russian, by the way, was 0.3% collaborating with the Germans. Sad descendants of Bandera and Shukhevych. And now on the topic of who sold the Motherland and how. And for how many pieces of silver. Even talking about two million Russians who fought against the Bolshevik regime (the essence is against their own people), here they probably count 700 thousand emigrants. For all that, not all of them were ethnic Russians. These figures are not just cited - they are an argument for the assertion that the Great Patriotic War is the essence of the Second Civil War 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 figure it out, one way or another, you should answer a few questions: how many were there, who were they, how did they get into the service, how and with whom did they fight, and what motivated them? WHO TO COUNT? 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 enlist the latter in the ranks of fighters against the Bolshevik regime. 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 against 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 THERE WAS? 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, unfortunately, he does not disclose), the following passed through the Wehrmacht, the SS and various pro-German paramilitary and police formations 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 Crimean Tatars 7,000 Kalmyks 40,000 Azerbaijanis 25,000 Georgians 20,000 Armenians 30,000 North Caucasian nationalities 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 up for the front German soldiers , 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-combatants 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 must be taken into account that the proportion of Caucasians enrolled 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 this, holding weapons in their hands. 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 units by others, in total, 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), who 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 Army”). People's Army”), which arose as a self-defense force 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 the remaining battalions. 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 the 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 brought together in the East 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 with a total number of about 70 thousand people had been assembled. 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 the three SS divisions, separate police regiments and battalions took part in the battles. The 20th Estonian SS division was defeated near Narva, but later 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 taken 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 partisans. 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 staffed almost entirely by veterans-punishers, 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. This includes the Cossacks (although partly their motives were national separatist), part personnel Ostbattalions, a significant part of the officer corps of the KONR troops. Thirdly, we can name the opportunists who staked 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 on 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 - 79769 people 1943 - 26108 people 1944 - 9207 people Fourthly, these were people who hoped to break out of the camp and with a convenient opportunity to go to theirs. It is difficult to say how many of these there were, but sometimes they were recruited for a whole battalion. And, finally, the fifth category - people who would rather survive. This includes the bulk of the hiwi and construction workers, who received a much more nutritious ration in this capacity than in the camp. 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 who 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 it earlier, “under the tricolor flag” would have rallied more people, especially since there were still plenty of opponents of the Bolsheviks in the country. But this is “would” and besides, my grandmother also said in two. And in real history, there were no “millions under the tricolor flag”. List of sources 1. S.I. Drobyazko Eastern formations in the Wehrmacht (dissertation) 2. S. Drobyazko, A. Karaschuk Russian Liberation Army 3. S. Drobyazko, A. Karaschuk Eastern volunteers in the Wehrmacht, police and SS 4. S. Drobyazko, A.Karashchuk Eastern legions and Cossack units in the Wehrmacht 5. O.V.Romanko Muslim legions in World War II 6. J.Hoffmann History of the Vlasov army 7. V.K.Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt Against Stalin and Hitler 8. N. M. Konyaev Vlasov. Two faces of the general.
On September 2, 1945, the surrender of Japan ended the Second World War - the largest armed conflict in the history of mankind, which claimed tens of millions of lives.
When they talk about the countries participating in the war, they first of all remember the leading trio of the anti-Hitler coalition (USSR, USA, Great Britain) and the triumvirate of aggressors - Germany, Italy and Japan.
In fact, dozens of states were involved in the war to one degree or another. At the same time, some officially managed to take part in the Second World War on both sides.
Italy
Fascist state led by Benito Mussolini pursued an aggressive policy even before the official start of the Second World War. In 1936, the Italian army captured Ethiopia. Albania was occupied in April 1939.
On June 10, 1940, Italy declared war on France and Great Britain, officially becoming a participant in the conflict and the closest ally of Germany. In June 1941, together with the Third Reich, Italy declared war on the Soviet Union.
Military failures and heavy losses made Mussolini's regime extremely unstable by 1943.
After the capture of Sicily by the Allies, a coup took place in Rome on July 25, 1943, as a result of which the Duce was removed from power.
The royal government of Italy, which concluded a truce with the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, on October 13, 1943 declared war on Germany and the Axis. The Italian army fought against German troops in 1943-1945 on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition in Italy and the Balkans.
At the same time, by order Hitler the territory of Northern and Central Italy was occupied by German troops, and Mussolini was liberated by German saboteurs. A puppet Italian Social Republic was created in the occupied territories, which formally continued to fight on the side of Germany until April 1945.
Romania
Before the outbreak of World War II, Romania was in allied relations with France, but after its defeat, it moved closer to Germany. This, however, did not save the country from territorial concessions - in June 1940 Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina were transferred to the Soviet Union, and in August Hungary received Northern Transylvania.
These losses did not prevent the strengthening of Romanian-German ties. Dictatorship Iona Antonescu hoped to achieve the implementation of the ideas of "Great Romania" as a result of the expected Soviet-German war in the future.
In June 1941, Romania not only acted as a springboard for the German units that invaded Germany, but also declared war on the USSR itself.
Romanian troops took an active part in the battles in Ukraine, the battle for Odessa, the battle for Sevastopol, the battle for the Caucasus and the battle of Stalingrad.
Bessarabia, Bukovina and the interfluve of the Dniester and the Southern Bug passed under the control of Romania with the approval of Germany. On these lands, the Bukovina governorate, the Bessarabian governorate and Transnistria were established.
The turning point in the war for Romania was the battle for Stalingrad, the total loss of parts of which exceeded 150 thousand people. Dissatisfaction with the regime of Ion Antonescu began to grow in the country.
A series of defeats of the German army and its rapid rollback to the West led to the fact that by the summer of 1944 most of the territories of the USSR captured by Romania were lost to it, and the war went directly to the Romanian lands.
On August 23, 1944, King Mihai I and opposition parties overthrew the Antonescu regime. Romania went over to the side of the anti-Hitler coalition, declaring war on Hungary and Germany. In the final part of the Second World War, the Romanian army carried out operations against its yesterday's allies, and King Mihai I was awarded the Soviet Order of Victory with the wording "For the courageous act of decisively turning Romania's policy towards a break with Nazi Germany and an alliance with the United Nations at the moment, when the defeat of Germany was not yet clear.
Bulgaria
Military-political cooperation between Nazi Germany and Bulgaria has been going on since the mid-1930s. At the beginning of the Second World Bulgarian Tsar Boris III provided the territory of the country for the transit of Nazi troops and their allies.
Parts of the Bulgarian army did not take part in active hostilities against Greece and Yugoslavia, however, they were involved in the occupation of the territories of these countries.
After the attack on the USSR in June 1941, Hitler repeatedly demanded that Tsar Boris send Bulgarian troops to the Eastern Front. However, fearing the growth of pro-Russian sentiments, the tsar evaded this requirement and Bulgaria nominally did not participate in the German war against the USSR.
On December 13, 1941, Tsar Boris III gave in to German demands, and Bulgaria declared war on the United States and Great Britain.
During the war, pro-Soviet sentiments were strong on the territory of Bulgaria and the communist underground was actively operating. With the approach of the Red Army to the borders of the country, the demands for withdrawal from the war began to sound louder and louder.
Tsar Boris tried to break the alliance with Germany, but on August 28, 1943, after visiting Hitler's headquarters, he died suddenly. His successors tried to continue the pro-German course, but their positions were getting weaker.
On September 8, 1944, a coup took place in Bulgaria, during which pro-Soviet forces came to power. In the final period of the Second World War, the Bulgarian army participated in hostilities against Germany in Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria, including the Belgrade operation and the battle near Lake Balaton. As a result of the fighting of the Bulgarian troops, the German troops lost 69 thousand soldiers killed and captured.
Finland
In 1939-1940, an armed conflict broke out between the USSR and Finland, which resulted in the loss by the Finns of a significant part of their territory.
According to a number of historians, this conflict was part of the Second World War, although in the USSR they strongly disagreed with this, considering the Soviet-Finnish war to be a separate confrontation.
Finland had close ties with Great Britain and France, but these countries, having provided technical assistance to Helsinki, did not begin to intervene militarily in the confrontation with the USSR.
The Finnish authorities then began to expand ties with the Third Reich.
In June 1941, the Finnish army, together with the Wehrmacht, invaded the territory of the USSR. The most active Finnish units participated in the war in the north of the USSR, where they not only returned the former territories, but also captured new ones. The Finnish army took part in the blockade of Leningrad.
After the defeat of Germany at Stalingrad, the mood in Finland began to change in favor of the decision to withdraw from the war. However, it was not adopted until September 1944, when, under the blows of the Soviet troops, Finland was threatened not only with new territorial losses, but also with complete defeat.
On September 19, 1944, in Moscow between Finland, the USSR and Great Britain, the Moscow Armistice was signed, according to which Finland was withdrawing from the war and assumed obligations to begin fighting against German troops on their territory.
In accordance with its obligations, Finland began hostilities against the German troops based in the north of the country. The conflict, known as the Lapland War, continued until the end of April 1945.
Iraq
After the defeats of England in Europe and North Africa at the beginning of the Second World War, Iraqi Prime Minister Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, head of the Iraqi general staff Amin Zaki Suleiman and the pro-German nationalist group Golden Square, led by Colonels Salah al-Din al-Sabah, Mahmoud Salman, Fahmy Said and Camille Shabib On April 1, 1941, they carried out a military coup against Great Britain.
Almost the entire territory of the country, with the exception of British military bases, came under the control of the new government.
On April 17, Rashid Ali, on behalf of the "Government of National Defense", turned to Nazi Germany for military aid in case of war with Britain.
On May 1, 1941, an armed conflict began between Iraq and Great Britain. The Iraqi authorities turned to Berlin for help and received it, but it was not enough for successful resistance.
By the end of May, Britain had defeated the Iraqi army, and the government of Rashid Ali had fled through Iran to Germany.
On May 31, 1941, the mayor of Baghdad signed an armistice between Britain and Iraq in the presence of the British ambassador. British ground and air forces occupied the most important strategic points in Iraq.
In January 1943, Iraq, which was actually under British occupation, formally declared war on Nazi Germany.
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 figure it out, one way or another, you should answer a few questions: how many were there, who were they, how did they get into the 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 the fighters against the Bolshevik regime without prevarication. Usually, these ranks include those who received rations from the German military or police department, or held in their hands 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 (the method of which, unfortunately, he 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 will not be far 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 must be taken into account that the proportion of Caucasians enrolled 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 this, holding weapons in their hands. 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 units by others, in total, 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 brought together in the East 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 with a total strength of about 70 thousand were assembled. 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 the 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 staffed almost entirely by veterans-punishers, 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 that is not at all similar to those that are drawn by ardent anti-communists. Instead of one (or even two) million Russians who 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 said in two. But in real life, there were no “millions under the tricolor flag”.
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On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany and Slovakia declared war on Poland ... Thus began the Second World War…
It involved 61 states out of 73 that existed at that time (80% of the population the globe). The fighting took place on the territory of three continents and in the waters of four oceans.
On June 10, 1940, Italy and Albania entered the war on the side of Germany, on April 11, 1941 - Hungary, on May 1, 1941 - Iraq, on June 22, 1941, after the German attack on the USSR - Romania, Croatia and Finland, on December 7, 1941 - Japan , December 13, 1941 - Bulgaria, January 25, 1942 - Thailand, January 9, 1943 Wang Jingwei's government in China, August 1, 1943 - Burma.
Who fought for Hitler and the Wehrmacht, and who is against?
In total, about 2 million people from 15 European countries fought in the Wehrmacht troops (more than half a million - Romanian army, almost 400 thousand - Hungarian troops, more than 200 thousand - Mussolini's troops!).
Of these, during the war years, 59 divisions, 23 brigades, several separate regiments, legions and battalions were formed.
Many of them were named according to state and nationality and only volunteers served in them:
Blue Division - Spain
"Wallonia" - the division included French, Spanish and Walloon volunteers, moreover, the Walloons were in the majority.
"Galicia" - Ukrainians and Galicians
"Bohemia and Moravia" - Czechs from Moravia and Bohemia
"Viking" - volunteers from the Netherlands, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries
"Denemark" - Danes
"Langemark" - Flemish Volunteers
"Nordland" - Dutch and Scandinavian volunteers
"Nederland" - Dutch collaborators who fled to Germany after the Allied occupation of Holland.
"French infantry regiment 638", since 1943 was merged with the newly organized "French division of the SS" Charlemagne "- the French.
The armies of Germany's allies - Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia and Croatia - participated in the war against the USSR.
The Bulgarian army was involved in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia, but the Bulgarian ground units did not fight on the Eastern Front.
Russian Liberation Army (ROA) under the command of General A.A. Vlasova acted on the side of Nazi Germany, although she was not officially part of the Wehrmacht.
As part of the Wehrmacht, the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS, General von Panwitz, fought.
On the side of Germany, the Russian Corps of General Shteifon, the Corps of Lieutenant General of the Tsarist Army P.N. Krasnov and a number of separate units formed from citizens of the USSR, often on a national basis, under the command of the former Kuban Cossack Gruppenfuehrer SS, A.G. Shkuro (real name - Shkura) and Circassian Sultan-Girey Klych, leader of the nationalist "People's Party of Highlanders North Caucasus" in France.
I won’t write who and why fought for Hitler and the Wehrmacht… Some for “ideological considerations”, some for revenge, some for glory, some for fear, some against “communism”… About this is written by millions and millions of pages by professional historians ... And I'm just stating historical facts, or rather, I’m trying to do it ... A question about something else ... To remember ...
So, first things first…
Romania
Romania declared war on the USSR on June 22, 1941 and wanted to return Bessarabia and Bukovina “taken away” from it in June 1940, and also to annex Transnistria (the territory from the Dniester to the Southern Bug).
For military operations against the USSR, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were intended, with a total number of about 220 thousand people.
On June 22, Romanian troops tried to capture bridgeheads on the eastern bank of the Prut River. On June 25-26, 1941, the Soviet Danube Flotilla landed troops on Romanian territory, and Soviet aircraft and ships Black Sea Fleet bombed and shelled the Romanian oil fields and other facilities.
Romanian troops began active hostilities by crossing the Prut River on July 2, 1941. By July 26, Romanian troops occupied the territories of Bessarabia and Bukovina.
Then the Romanian 3rd Army advanced in Ukraine, crossed the Dnieper in September and reached the coast of the Sea of Azov.
From the end of October 1941, units of the Romanian 3rd Army took part in the capture of the Crimea (together with the German 11th Army under the command of von Manstein).
From the beginning of August 1941, the Romanian 4th Army conducted an operation to capture Odessa, by September 10, 12 Romanian divisions and 5 brigades were assembled to capture Odessa, with a total strength of up to 200 thousand people
On October 16, 1941, after heavy fighting, Odessa was captured by Romanian troops together with units of the Wehrmacht. The losses of the 4th Romanian army amounted to 29 thousand dead and missing and 63 thousand wounded.
In August 1942, the 3rd Romanian Army took part in the attack on the Caucasus, the Romanian cavalry divisions took Taman, Anapa, Novorossiysk (together with German troops), and the Romanian mountain division captured Nalchik in October 1942.
In the fall of 1942, Romanian troops occupied positions in the Stalingrad region. The 3rd Romanian army with a total strength of 150 thousand people held a front section 140 km northwest of Stalingrad, and the 4th Romanian army held a front section 300 km south.
By the end of January 1943, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were practically destroyed - their total losses amounted to almost 160 thousand dead, missing and wounded.
At the beginning of 1943, 6 Romanian divisions, with a total number of 65 thousand people, fought (as part of the German 17th Army) in the Kuban. In September 1943 they retreated to the Crimea, lost more than a third of their personnel, and were evacuated by sea to Romania.
In August 1944, King Mihai I, allied with the anti-fascist opposition, ordered the arrest of General Antonescu and other pro-German generals and declared war on Germany. Soviet troops were brought into Bucharest, and already the “allied Romanian army”, together with the Soviet one, fought against the Nazi coalition in Hungary, and then in Austria.
In total, up to 200 thousand Romanians died in the war against the USSR (including 55 thousand died in Soviet captivity).
18 Romanians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses", of which three also received " oak leaves» to «Knight's Crosses».
Italy
Italy declared war on the USSR on June 22, 1941. Motivation - Mussolini's initiative, which he proposed back in January 1940 - "a pan-European campaign against Bolshevism." At the same time, Italy had no territorial claims to any zone of occupation of the USSR. In 1944, Italy effectively withdrew from the war.
"Italian expeditionary corps"For the war against the USSR was created on July 10, 1941 - 62 thousand soldiers and officers. The corps was sent to the southern sector of the German-Soviet front for operations in southern Ukraine.
The first clash between the advanced units of the Italian corps and units of the Red Army took place on the Southern Bug River on August 10, 1941.
In September 1941, the Italian corps fought on the Dnieper, on a 100-km section in the Dneprodzerzhinsk region, and in October-November 1941, it participated in the capture of Donbass. Then, until July 1942, the Italians were on the defensive, fighting local importance with units of the Red Army.
The losses of the Italian corps from August 1941 to June 1942 amounted to more than 1600 dead, more than 400 missing, almost 6300 wounded and more than 3600 frostbitten.
In July 1942, the Italian troops on the territory of the USSR were significantly strengthened, and the 8th Italian Army was formed, which in the fall of 1942 occupied positions on the river. Don, northwest of Stalingrad.
In December 1942 - January 1943, the Italians tried to repel the offensive of the Red Army, and as a result, the Italian army was actually defeated - 21,000 Italians were killed, and 64,000 were missing. In the harsh winter, the Italians simply froze, and they were not up to the war. The remaining 145,000 Italians were withdrawn to Italy in March 1943.
The losses of Italians in the USSR from August 1941 to February 1943 amounted to about 90 thousand dead and missing. According to Soviet data, 49 thousand Italians were taken prisoner, of which 21 thousand Italians were released from Soviet captivity in 1946-1956. Thus, in total, about 70 thousand Italians died in the war against the USSR and in Soviet captivity.
9 Italians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
Finland
On June 25, 1941, Soviet aircraft bombed settlements Finland, and on June 26 Finland declared war on the USSR.
Finland intended to return the territories taken from her in March 1940, and also to annex Karelia.
On June 30, 1941, Finnish troops went on the offensive in the direction of Vyborg and Petrozavodsk. By the end of August 1941, the Finns reached the approaches to Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus, by the beginning of October 1941 they occupied almost the entire territory of Karelia (except for the coast of the White Sea and Zaonezhye), after which they went on the defensive at the achieved lines.
From the end of 1941 until the summer of 1944, there were practically no hostilities on the Soviet-Finnish front, except for raids. Soviet partisans on the territory of Karelia and the bombing of Finnish settlements by Soviet aircraft.
On June 9, 1944, Soviet troops (with a total number of up to 500 thousand people) went on the offensive against the Finns (about 200 thousand people). In the course of heavy fighting, which lasted until August 1944, Soviet troops took Petrozavodsk, Vyborg, and in one sector reached the Soviet-Finnish border in March 1940.
On September 1, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim proposed a truce, on September 4, Stalin agreed to a truce, Finnish troops withdrew to the March 1940 border.
54,000 Finns died in the war against the USSR.
2 Finns were awarded "Knight's Crosses", including Marshal Mannerheim received "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".
Hungary
Hungary declared war on the USSR on June 27, 1941. Hungary had no territorial claims to the USSR, but there was also a motivation - "revenge on the Bolsheviks for the communist revolution of 1919 in Hungary."
On July 1, 1941, Hungary sent the "Carpathian Group" (5 brigades, totaling 40 thousand people), which fought as part of the German 17th Army in Ukraine, to the war against the USSR.
In July 1941, the group was divided - 2 infantry brigades began to perform the functions of protecting the rear, and the "Fast Corps" (2 motorized and 1 cavalry brigade, only 25 thousand people, with several dozen light tanks and tankettes) - continued to advance.
By November 1941, the "Fast Corps" suffered heavy losses - up to 12 thousand killed, missing and wounded, all tankettes and almost all light tanks were lost. The corps was returned to Hungary, but at the same time, 4 infantry and 2 cavalry Hungarian brigades with a total of 60 thousand people remained at the front and in the rear areas.
In April 1942, the Hungarian 2nd Army (about 200 thousand people) was sent against the USSR. In June 1942, she went on the offensive in the Voronezh direction, as part of the German offensive on the southern sector of the German-Soviet front.
In January 1943, the Hungarian 2nd Army was practically destroyed during the Soviet offensive (up to 100 thousand dead and up to 60 thousand taken prisoner, most of them wounded). In May 1943, the remnants of the army (about 40 thousand people) were withdrawn to Hungary.
In the autumn of 1944, all Hungarian military establishment(three armies) fought against the Red Army, already on the territory of Hungary. The fighting in Hungary ended in April 1945, but some Hungarian units continued to fight in Austria until the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945.
More than 200 thousand Hungarians died in the war against the USSR (including 55 thousand died in Soviet captivity).
8 Hungarians were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
Slovakia
Slovakia took part in the war against the USSR as part of the "pan-European campaign against Bolshevism." It had no territorial claims against the USSR. 2 Slovak divisions were sent to the war against the USSR.
One division, numbering 8 thousand people, fought in Ukraine in 1941, in the Kuban in 1942, and in 1943-1944 performed police and security functions in the Crimea.
Another division (also 8 thousand people) in 1941-1942 performed "security functions" in Ukraine, in 1943-1944 - in Belarus.
About 3,500 Slovaks died in the war against the USSR.
Croatia
Croatia, like Slovakia, took part in the war against the USSR as part of the "pan-European campaign against Bolshevism."
In October 1941, 1 Croatian volunteer regiment with a total strength of 3,900 people was sent against the USSR. The regiment fought in the Donbass, in 1942 - in Stalingrad. By February 1943, the Croatian regiment was almost completely destroyed, about 700 Croats were taken prisoner.
About 2,000 Croats died in the war against the USSR.
Spain
Spain was a neutral country, did not officially declare war against the USSR, but organized the dispatch of one volunteer division to the front. Motivation - revenge for sending the Comintern International Brigades to Spain during the Civil War.
The Spanish division, or "Blue Division" (18 thousand people) was sent to the northern sector of the German-Soviet front. From October 1941 she fought in the Volkhov region, from August 1942 - near Leningrad. In October 1943, the division was returned to Spain, but about 2 thousand volunteers remained to fight in the Spanish Legion.
The Legion was disbanded in March 1944, but about 300 Spaniards wished to fight further, and 2 companies of the SS troops were formed from them, who fought against the Red Army until the end of the war.
About 5 thousand Spaniards died in the war against the USSR (452 Spaniards were taken into Soviet captivity).
2 Spaniards were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses", including one received the "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".
Belgium
Belgium declared its neutrality in 1939, but was occupied by German troops.
In 1941, two volunteer legions (battalions) were formed in Belgium for the war against the USSR. They differed by ethnicity - Flemish and Walloon.
In the autumn of 1941, the legions were sent to the front - the Walloon legion to the southern sector (to Rostov-on-Don, then to the Kuban), and the Flemish legion to the northern sector (to Volkhov).
In June 1943, both legions were reorganized into brigades of the SS troops - the SS Volunteer Brigade "Langemark" and the SS Volunteer Assault Brigade "Wallonia".
In October 1943, the brigades were renamed into divisions (remaining in the same composition - 2 infantry regiments each). At the end of the war, both the Flemings and the Walloons fought against the Red Army in Pomerania.
About 5 thousand Belgians died in the war against the USSR (2 thousand Belgians were taken into Soviet captivity).
4 Belgians were awarded the "Knight's Cross", including one received the "Oak Leaves" to the "Knight's Cross".
Netherlands
Dutch volunteer legion(motorized battalion of 5 companies) was formed in July 1941.
In January 1942, the Dutch legion arrived at the northern sector of the German-Soviet front, in the Volkhov region. Then the legion was transferred to Leningrad.
In May 1943, the Dutch Legion was reorganized into the SS Volunteer Brigade "Netherlands" (with a total of 9 thousand people).
In 1944, one of the regiments of the Dutch brigade was practically destroyed in the battles near Narva. In the autumn of 1944 the brigade retreated to Courland, and in January 1945 it was evacuated to Germany by sea.
In February 1945, the brigade was renamed a division, although its strength was greatly reduced due to losses. By May 1945, the Dutch division was practically destroyed in the battles against the Red Army.
About 8,000 Dutch people died in the war against the USSR (more than 4,000 Dutch were taken into Soviet captivity).
4 Dutchmen were awarded the "Knight's Crosses".
France
The "French Volunteer Legion" for the war "against the Bolsheviks" was created in July 1941.
In October 1941, the French legion (an infantry regiment, numbering 2.5 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, to the Moscow direction. The French suffered heavy losses there, were defeated “to the smithereens” almost on the Borodino field, and from the spring of 1942 to the summer of 1944 the legion performed only police functions, it was used to fight against Soviet partisans.
In the summer of 1944, as a result of the offensive of the Red Army in Belarus, the "French Legion" was again on the front line, again suffered heavy losses and was withdrawn to Germany.
In September 1944, the legion was disbanded, and instead the “French Brigade of the SS Troops” (more than 7 thousand people) was created, and in February 1945 it was renamed the 33rd Grenadier Division of the SS Troops “Charlemagne” (“Charlemagne ”) and sent to the front in Pomerania against the Soviet troops. In March 1945, the French division was almost completely destroyed.
Remains French division(about 700 people) at the end of April 1945 defended in Berlin, in particular Hitler's bunker.
And in 1942, 130 thousand young people from Alsace and Lorraine born in 1920-24 were forcibly mobilized into the Wehrmacht, dressed in German uniforms and most of them were sent to Eastern front(they called themselves "malgre-nous", that is, "mobilized against their will"). About 90% of them immediately surrendered Soviet troops, and ended up in the Gulag!
Pierre Rigulot writes in his books “The French in the Gulag” and “The Tragedy of the Reluctant Soldiers”: “... In general, after 1946, 85 thousand French were repatriated, 25 thousand died in the camps, 20 thousand disappeared on the territory of the USSR ...”. In 1943-1945 alone, more than 10,000 Frenchmen who died in custody were buried in mass graves in the forest near the Rada station, near Tambov, in camp No. 188.
In the war against the USSR, about 8 thousand Frenchmen died (not counting the Alsatians and Logaringians).
3 Frenchmen were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
"African Phalanx"
After the landing of the Allies in Northern France, of all the North African territories of France, only Tunisia remained under the sovereignty of Vichy and the occupation of the Axis troops. After the Allied landings, the Vichy regime attempted to create volunteer formations that could serve alongside the Italo-German army.
On January 8, 1943, a "legion" was created with a single unit - the "African Phalanx" (Phalange Africaine), consisting of 300 French and 150 Muslim Africans (later the number of French was reduced to 200).
After three months of training, the phalanx was assigned to the 754th Infantry Regiment of the 334th German Infantry Division operating in Tunisia. Having been "in business", the phalanx was renamed "LVF en Tunisie" and existed under this name until the surrender in early May 1945.
Denmark
The social democratic government of Denmark did not declare war on the USSR, but did not interfere with the formation of the "Danish Volunteer Corps", and officially allowed the Danish army to join it (indefinite leave with the preservation of the rank).
In July-December 1941, more than 1 thousand people joined the Danish Volunteer Corps (the name "corps" was symbolic, in fact it was a battalion). In May 1942, the "Danish Corps" was sent to the front, to the Demyansk region. From December 1942, the Danes fought in the Velikiye Luki region.
At the beginning of June 1943, the corps was disbanded, many of its members, as well as new volunteers, joined the regiment " Danemark» 11th SS Volunteer Division « Nordland"(Danish-Norwegian division). In January 1944, the division was sent to Leningrad, participated in the battle of Narva.
In January 1945 the division fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, and in April 1945 fought in Berlin.
In the war against the USSR, about 2 thousand Danes died (456 Danes were taken into Soviet captivity).
3 Danes were awarded the German "Knight's Crosses".
Norway
The Norwegian government in July 1941 announced the formation of the "Norwegian Volunteer Legion" to send "to help Finland in the war against the USSR."
In February 1942, after training in Germany, the Norwegian legion (1 battalion, numbering 1.2 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, near Leningrad.
In May 1943, the Norwegian Legion was disbanded, most of the soldiers joined the Norwegian regiment of the 11th SS Volunteer Division " Nordland"(Danish-Norwegian division).
About 1,000 Norwegians died in the war against the USSR (100 Norwegians were taken into Soviet captivity).
Divisions under the SS
These are the so-called "SS divisions", formed from the "citizens" of the USSR, as well as from the inhabitants of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Note that only Germans and representatives of the peoples of the Germanic language group (Dutch, Danes, Flemings, Norwegians, Swedes) were taken in the SS division. Only they had the right to wear SS runes in their buttonholes. For some reason, an exception was made only for the French-speaking Walloon Belgians.
And here "divisions under the SS", "Waffen divisions der SS" formed precisely from the "non-German peoples" - Bosniaks, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Albanians, Russians, Belarusians, Hungarians, Italians, French.
Wherein command staff in these divisions was mostly Germans (they had the right to wear SS runes). But the “Russian Division under the SS” was commanded by Bronislav Kaminsky, a half-Polish, half-German, originally from St. Petersburg. Because of his "pedigree" he could not be a member of the SS party organization, and was not a member of the NSDAP.
The first "Waffen Division under the SS" was the 13th ( Bosnian-Muslim) or Handshar, formed in March 1943. She fought from January 1944 in Croatia, and from December 1944 - in Hungary.
"Scanderbeg". In April 1944, the 21st mountain division of the Waffen-SS "Skanderbeg" was formed from Muslim Albanians. Almost 11 thousand soldiers were recruited from the province of Kosovo, as well as from Albania itself. They were mostly Sunni Muslims.
"14th Waffen Division der SS" (Ukrainian)
From the autumn of 1943 to the spring of 1944 she was in the reserve (in Poland). In July 1944 she fought on the Soviet-German front in the Brody region (Western Ukraine). In September 1944 it was sent to suppress the uprising in Slovakia. In January 1945, she was transferred to the reserve in the Bratislava region, in April 1945 she retreated to Austria, and in May 1945 she surrendered to American troops.
Ukrainian volunteers
The only units of the Eastern Volunteers that entered the Wehrmacht from the very beginning were two small Ukrainian battalions created in the spring of 1941.
The Nachtigal battalion was recruited from Ukrainians living in Poland, the Roland battalion was recruited from Ukrainian emigrants living in Germany.
"15th Waffen Division der SS" (Latvian No. 1)
From December 1943 - at the front in the Volkhov region, in January - March 1944 - at the front in the Pskov region, in April - May 1944 at the front in the Nevel region. From July to December 1944 it was reorganized in Latvia, and then in West Prussia. In February 1945 she was sent to the front in West Prussia, in March 1945 to the front in Pomerania.
"19th Waffen Division der SS" (Latvian No. 2)
At the front since April 1944, in the Pskov region, since July 1944 - in Latvia.
"20th Waffen Division der SS" (Estonian)
From March to October 1944 in Estonia, November 1944 - January 1945 in Germany (in reserve), in February - May 1945 at the front in Silesia.
"29th Waffen Division der SS" (Russian)
In August 1944 she took part in the suppression of the uprising in Warsaw. At the end of August for rapes and murders German residents Warsaw - the division commander of the Waffen-Brigadefuhrer Kaminsky and the division chief of staff of the Waffen-Obersturmbannführer Shavyakin (former captain of the Red Army) were shot, and the division was sent to Slovakia and disbanded there.
"Russian security corps in Serbia"("Russisches Schutzkorps Serbien", RSS), the last division of the Russian Imperial Army. He was recruited from among the White Guards who found refuge in Serbia in 1921 and retained their national identity and adherence to traditional beliefs. They wanted to fight "for Russia and against the Reds", but they were sent to fight the partisans of Joseph Broz Tito.
"Russian Security Corps", originally led by the White Guard General Shteifon, and later by Colonel Rogozin. The number of the corps is more than 11 thousand people.
"30th Waffen Division der SS" (Belarusian)
From September to November 1944 in the reserve in Germany, from December 1944 on the Upper Rhine.
"33rd Hungarian" lasted only two months , was formed in December 1944, disbanded in January 1945.
The “36th Division” was formed from German criminals and even political prisoners in February 1945. But then the Nazis “raked out” all the “reserves”, calling everyone into the Wehrmacht - from the boys from the “Hitler Youth” to the elderly ...
"Latvian SS Volunteer Legion". In February 1943, after the defeat of the German troops near Stalingrad, Hitler's command decided to form the Latvian National Legion of the SS. It included part of the Latvian volunteer units, created earlier and already taking part in hostilities.
In the first days of March 1943, the entire male population of Latvia born in 1918 and 1919 was ordered to appear at the district and volost police departments at their place of residence. There, after examination by a medical commission, the mobilized were given the right to choose a place of service: either in the Latvian SS legion, or in the service staff of the German troops, or in defense work.
Of the 150 thousand soldiers and officers of the legion, over 40 thousand died and almost 50 thousand were captured by the Soviets. In April 1945 she took part in the battles for Neubrandenburg. At the end of April 1945, the remnants of the division were transferred to Berlin, where the battalion took part in the last battles for the "capital of the Third Reich".
In addition to these divisions, in December 1944 the 1st Cossack cavalry division, in January 1945 renamed the 15th Cossack Cavalry SS Corps. The corps operated in Croatia against Tito's partisans.
On December 30, 1941, the Wehrmacht command ordered the formation of "legions" from volunteers of various nationalities of the USSR. During the first half of 1942, first four and then six legions were fully integrated into the Wehrmacht, receiving the same status as the European legions. At first they were located in Poland.
"Turkestan Legion" , located in Legionovo, included Cossacks, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Karakalpaks and representatives of other nationalities.
"Muslim-Caucasian Legion" (later renamed " Azerbaijan Legion") located in Zheldny, the total number of 40,000 people.
"North Caucasian Legion" , which included representatives of 30 different peoples of the North Caucasus, was located in Vesola.
The formation of the legion began in September 1942 near Warsaw from Caucasian prisoners of war. The number of volunteers (more than 5,000 people) included Ossetians, Chechens, Ingush, Kabardians, Balkars, Tabasarans, etc.
The so-called. "North Caucasian Committee". His leadership included the Dagestani Akhmed-Nabi Agaev (Abwehr agent), Ossetian Kantemirov (former Minister of War of the Mountain Republic) and Sultan-Girey Klych.
"Georgian Legion" was formed in Kruzhyn. It should be noted that this legion existed from 1915 to 1917, and during its first formation it was staffed by volunteers from among the Georgians who were captured during the 1st World War.
During the Second World War "Georgian Legion""replenished" with volunteers from among the Soviet prisoners of war of Georgian nationality
"Armenian Legion" (18 thousand people ) was formed in Pulav, Drastamat Kanayan (“General Dro”) led the legion. Drastamat Kanayan defected to the Americans in May 1945. Last years spent his life in Beirut, died March 8, 1956, was buried in Boston. At the end of May 2000, the body of Drastamat Kanayan was reburied in the city of Aparan, in Armenia, and near the memorial to the soldiers-heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
"Volga-Tatar Legion" (Legion "Idel-Ural") consisted of representatives of the Volga peoples (Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvashs, Udmurts), Most of all there were Tatars. Formed in Zheldny.
In accordance with the policy of the Wehrmacht, these legions never united in combat conditions. As soon as they completed their training in Poland, they were sent to the front separately.
"Kalmyk Legion"
Interestingly, the Kalmyks were not part of the Eastern Legions and the first Kalmyk units were created by the headquarters of the 16th German motorized infantry division after Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, was occupied during the summer offensive of 1942. These units were called differently: "Kalmyk Legion" (Kalmuck Legion), "Dr. Doll's Kalmyk Connection" (Kal-mucken Verband Dr. Doll), or "Kalmyk Cavalry Corps".
In practice, it was a "volunteer corps" with the status of an allied army and broad autonomy. Basically, it was made up of former Red Army soldiers, commanded by Kalmyk sergeants and Kalmyk officers.
Initially, the Kalmyks fought against partisan detachments, then retreated west along with the German troops.
The constant retreat brought the "Kalmyk Legion" to Poland, where by the end of 1944 they numbered about 5,000 people. Soviet winter offensive 1944-45 found them near Radom, and at the very end of the war they were reorganized in Neuhammer.
The Kalmyks were the only "Eastern Volunteers" who joined Vlasov's army.
Crimean Tatars. In October 1941, the creation of volunteer formations from representatives of the Crimean Tatars, "self-defense companies", whose main task was to fight partisans, began. Until January 1942, this process went on spontaneously, but after the recruitment of volunteers from among the Crimean Tatars was officially sanctioned by Hitler, "the solution to this problem" passed to the leadership of the Einsatzgruppe "D". During January 1942, more than 8,600 volunteers, Crimean Tatars, were recruited.
These formations were used in the protection of military and civilian facilities, took an active part in the fight against partisans, and in 1944 they actively resisted the formations of the Red Army that liberated the Crimea.
The remnants of the Crimean Tatar units, together with the German and Romanian troops, were evacuated from the Crimea by sea.
In the summer of 1944, from the remnants of the Crimean Tatar units in Hungary, the "Tatar Mountain Jaeger Regiment of the SS" was formed, which was soon reorganized into the "1st Tatar Mountain Jaeger Brigade of the SS", which was disbanded on December 31, 1944 and transformed into the battle group "Crimea ", which merged into the "Eastern Turkic Union of the SS".
Crimean Tatar volunteers who were not part of the "Tatar Mountain Chasseurs Regiment of the SS" were transferred to France and included in the reserve battalion of the "Volga-Tatar Legion".
As Yurado Carlos Caballero wrote: “... Not as an excuse for “divisions under the SS”, but for the sake of objectivity, we note that a much larger scale of war crimes was committed by the Allgemeine-SS special forces (“Sonderkommando” and “Einsatzgruppen”), but also “ost-truppen” - units formed from Russians, Turkestans, Ukrainians, Belarusians, peoples of the Caucasus and the Volga region - they were mainly engaged in anti-partisan activities ... The divisions of the Hungarian army were also engaged in this ...
However, it should be noted that the Bosnian-Muslim, Albanian and “Russian divisions der SS”, as well as the “36th division der SS” from the Germans, became most famous for war crimes ... ".
Volunteer Indian Legion
A few months before the start of Operation Barbarossa, while still continuing to operate Soviet-German treaty on non-aggression, the extremist leader of the Indian nationalists, Subhas Chandra Bose, arrived from Moscow in Berlin, intending to enlist the support of the Germans "in the cause of the liberation of his country." Thanks to his perseverance, he managed to persuade the Germans to recruit a group of volunteers from Indians who served in the British troops and were captured in North Africa.
By the end of 1942, this Free India Legion (also known as the Tiger Legion, the Fries Indyen Legion, the Azad Hind Legion, Indische Freiwilligen-Legion Regiment 950 or I.R 950) reached a strength of about 2000 people and officially Entered the German Army as the 950th (Indian) Infantry Regiment.
In 1943, Bos Chandra traveled by submarine to Japanese-occupied Singapore. He sought to create from the Indians who were captured by the Japanese, the Indian National Army.
However, the German command poorly represented the problems of caste, tribal and religious strife among the inhabitants of India, and in addition, German officers they treated their subordinates with disdain ... And, most importantly, more than 70 percent of the soldiers of the division were Muslims, people from tribes from the territories of modern Pakistan, Bangladesh, as well as from the Muslim communities of western and northwestern India. Yes, and the nutritional problems of such “motley fighters” were very serious - someone did not eat pork, someone ate only rice and vegetables.
In the spring of 1944, 2,500 people of the Indian Legion were sent to the Bordeaux region in the fortress of the Atlantic Wall. The first combat loss was Lieutenant Ali Khan, who was killed by French partisans in August 1944 during the retreat of the legion to Alsace. On August 8, the 1944 legion was transferred to the SS troops.
In March 1945, the remnants of the legion tried to break into Switzerland, but were taken prisoner by the French and Americans. The prisoners were handed over to the British as traitors to their own power, former legionnaires were sent to prisons in Delhi, and some were immediately shot.
Nevertheless, we note, in fairness, that this peculiar unit practically did not take part in hostilities.
Volunteer Arab Legion
On May 2, 1941, an anti-British rebellion broke out in Iraq led by Rashid el-Ghaliani. The Germans formed a special headquarters "F" (Sonderstab F) to assist the Arab insurgents.
To support the rebellion, two small units were created - the 287th and 288th special formations (Sonderverbonde), recruited from the personnel of the Brandenburg division. But before they could get involved, the rebellion was crushed.
The 288th all-German formation was sent to North Africa as part of the Afrika Korps, while the 287th formation was left in Greece, near Athens, to organize volunteers from the Middle East. They were mostly Palestinian supporters of the pro-German Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Iraqis who supported el-Galiani.
When three battalions were recruited, one battalion was sent to Tunisia, and the other two were used to fight the partisans, first in the Caucasus and then in Yugoslavia.
The 287th unit was never officially recognized as an Arab legion - " Legion FreeArab. This common name was given to all Arabs who fought under German command to distinguish them from other ethnic groups.
The anti-Hitler coalition included the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and its dominions (Canada, India, the Union of South Africa, Australia, New Zealand), Poland, France, Ethiopia, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Greece, Yugoslavia, Tuva, Mongolia, USA.
China (the government of Chiang Kai-shek) has been fighting against Japan since July 7, 1937, and Mexico, Brazil. Bolivia, Colombia, Chile and Argentina declared war on Germany and its allies.
The participation of the Latin American countries in the war consisted mainly in carrying out defensive measures, in protecting the coast and caravans of ships.
The fighting of a number of countries occupied by Germany - Yugoslavia, Greece, France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Poland consisted mainly in the partisan movement and the resistance movement. Italian partisans were also active, fighting both against the Mussolini regime and against Germany.
Poland. After the defeat and division of Poland between Germany and the USSR, Polish troops acted jointly with the troops of Great Britain, France and the USSR (“Anders Army”). In 1944, Polish troops participated in the landing in Normandy, and in May 1945 they took Berlin.
Luxembourg was attacked by Germany on May 10, 1940. In August 1942, Luxembourg was incorporated into Germany, so many Luxembourgers were called up to serve in the Wehrmacht.
In total, 10,211 Luxembourgers were drafted into the Wehrmacht during the occupation. Of these, 2,848 died, 96 were missing.
1653 Luxembourgers who served in the Wehrmacht and fought on the German-Soviet front fell into Soviet captivity (93 of them died in captivity).
NEUTRAL COUNTRIES OF EUROPE
Sweden. At the beginning of the war, Sweden declared its neutrality, but nevertheless carried out a partial mobilization. During Soviet-Finnish military conflict She declared her status " non-belligerent power”, however, provided assistance to Finland with money and military equipment.
Nevertheless, Sweden cooperated with both belligerents, the most famous examples being the passage of German troops from Norway to Finland and informing the British about Bismarck's entry into Operation Rheinübung.
In addition, Sweden actively supplied Germany with iron ore, but from mid-August 1943, it stopped transporting German military materials through its country.
During the Great Patriotic War, Sweden was a diplomatic mediator between the USSR and Germany.
Switzerland. Declared its neutrality the day before the outbreak of World War II. But in September 1939, 430 thousand people were mobilized into the army, rationing was introduced for food and industrial products.
In the international arena, Switzerland maneuvered between the two warring factions, the ruling circles for a long time leaned towards the pro-German course.
Swiss firms supplied Germany weapons, ammunition, vehicles and others manufactured goods. Germany received electricity from Switzerland, loans (over 1 billion francs), used the Swiss railways for military transport to Italy and back.
Some Swiss firms acted as intermediaries for Germany on world markets. Intelligence agencies of Germany, Italy, the USA and England operated on the territory of Switzerland.
Spain. Spain remained neutral during World War II, although Hitler considered the Spaniards to be his allies. German submarines entered the ports of Spain, and German agents operated freely in Madrid. Spain supplied Germany and tungsten, though at the end of the war, Spain sold tungsten to the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. Jews fled to Spain, then making their way to Portugal.
Portugal. In 1939, she declared neutrality. But the Salazar government supplied strategic raw materials, and, above all, tungsten to Germany and Italy. In October 1943, realizing the inevitability of defeat Nazi Germany, Salazar grants the British and Americans the right to use the Azores as a military base, and in June 1944 stops the export of tungsten to Germany.
During the war, hundreds of thousands of Jews from various European countries were able to escape from the Nazi genocide, using Portuguese visas, emigrating from war-torn Europe.
Ireland maintained complete neutrality.
About 1,500,000 Jews took part in the fighting in the armies different countries, in the partisan movement and the Resistance.
In the US Army - 550,000, in the USSR - 500,000, Poland - 140,000, Great Britain - 62,000, France - 46,000.
Alexey Kazdym
List of used literature
- Abrahamyan E. A. Caucasians in the Abwehr. M.: Publisher Bystrov, 2006.
- Asadov Yu.A. 1000 officer names in Armenian history. Pyatigorsk, 2004.
- Berdinsky V.A. . Special Settlers: Political Exile of Nations Soviet Russia. M.: 2005.
- Briman Shimon Muslims in the SS // http://www.webcitation.org/66K7aB5b7
- World War II 1939-1945, TSB. Yandex. Dictionaries
- Vozgrin V. Historical fate of the Crimean Tatars. Moscow: Thought, 1992
- Gilyazov I.A. Legion "Idel-Ural". Kazan: Tatknigoizdat, 2005.
- Drobyazko S. Eastern legions and Cossack units in the Wehrmacht http://www.erlib.com
- Elishev S. Salazarovskaya Portugal // Russian folk line, http://ruskline.ru/analitika/2010/05/21/salazarovskaya_portugaliya
- Karashchuk A., Drobyazko S. Eastern volunteers in the Wehrmacht, police and SS. 2000
- Krysin M. Yu. History on the lips. Latvian SS legion: yesterday and today. Veche, 2006.
- Concise Jewish Encyclopedia, Jerusalem. 1976 - 2006
- Mamulia G.G. Georgian legion of the Wehrmacht M.: Veche, 2011.
- Romanko O.V. Muslim Legions in World War II. M.: AST; Transitbook, 2004.
- Yurado Carlos Caballero "Foreign Volunteers in the Wehrmacht. 1941-1945. AST, Astrel. 2005
- Etinger Ya. Ya. Jewish resistance during the Holocaust.
- Rigoulot Pierre. Des Francais au goulag.1917-1984. 1984
- Rigoulot Pierre. La tragedy des malgre-nous. 1990.
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