General Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army

Little known in the United States is the story of the Russian General Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army, Russian prisoners of war who became ten volunteer divisions (about 15000 soldiers) assisting Germany in its war against the Bolshevik empire.

It seems from Vlasov’s statements that he wished to restore something like the liberal democracy that had existed for only a few months in 1917 between the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and the Bolshevik coup.

Here we see Russian soldiers in Wehrmacht uniforms with the patch indicating Russian Liberation Army (POA in cyrillic letters). Since the narration is in Russian, presumably this was filmed for viewing by Russian audiences, probably prisoners of war.

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