Russian brigade SS "Druzhina": how the SS went over to the side of the partisans. Third chapter. "Druzhina" in the fight against Soviet partisans of the 1st Russian brigade of the SS squad
In addition to massive attacks and direct hostilities, Nazi Germany also practiced sabotage behind enemy lines. It was for this purpose that the Zeppelin organization (or enterprise) was created in 1942. Its direct purpose is reconnaissance and sabotage in the Soviet rear. Zeppelin employees organized one of the assassination attempts on Joseph Stalin in 1944.
Within the framework of this organization, in June 1942, the Nazis assembled the 1st Russian National SS Detachment, known by another name - “Squad No. 1”. A year later, the detachment was renamed into a regiment, then into a brigade. Served in the "Druzhina" former prisoners of war from concentration camps. These were volunteers who were selected and recruited by specially trained fascists.
"Druzhinnikov" were trained, and then thrown into the rear. The task of the saboteurs was such a skillful conduct of propaganda activities that the local population would not suspect them of involvement in enemy formations. "Druzhinniki" were supposed to undermine the confidence of civilians in the Soviet government and thereby incline them to the side of Germany.
History of creation
The beginning of the "Druzhina" was laid in the small Polish town of Suwalki. There the Germans founded one of the Oflag 68 prisoner of war camps, where, among others, there were many Red Army soldiers. The camp administration initiated the creation of an anti-Soviet group. At first, it was called the "National Party of the Russian People", and then became the combat squad of the BSRN.
The formation was led by a former Red Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Vladimir Gil. Later, for obvious reasons, he took a pseudonym for himself - "Rodionov". Gil was captured by the Nazis in 1941 after the defeat of his division near Bogushevsky. In the spring of 1942, Gil went over to the side of the Germans. From May to the end of August, the "Druzhina No. 1" headed by him grew from 25 people to 700.
The former Soviet lieutenant colonel wrote the program for this organization himself. Its members were dressed in Slovak uniforms with swastikas and other SS insignia. The inscription "For Russia" on the cuffs of uniforms and shoulder straps of their own design distinguished the "vigilantes" from other Nazis. In the summer of 1943, the Russian SS formations already numbered 3,000 well-armed and trained fighters.
The activities of the "Druzhina"
After the formation of the detachments of saboteurs, they prepared for future activities for 3 weeks. Gil himself studied at this time in the intelligence school in the capital of the Wehrmacht, Berlin. The recruitment of volunteers to the "Druzhina" never stopped. After the formation, the first detachments were thrown into the Polish town of Parchev. There they led fighting against local partisans.
In the spring of 1943, detachments under the command of Gil burned several villages in Belarus and machine-gunned 3,000 people. The first group of saboteurs was abandoned on Soviet territory on October 6, 1942. As a result, about a hundred people went over to their side, 25 Red Army soldiers were killed, military equipment and weapons were seized.
Going over to the side of the Polotsk-Lepel partisans
In the summer of 1943, partisans from the Polotsk-Lepel region approached Vladimir Gil and established contact with him. For going over to their side, the commander of the Russian SS brigade was promised an amnesty after the war. Gil believed these promises and agreed to cooperate. Following their commander, all the fighters of the Russian SS units (almost 2,200 people) went over to the side of the Polotsk partisans. This is how the 1st Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigade was formed.
Its fighters distinguished themselves by their bravery and carried out many successful operations against the Nazis. Gil was even awarded for bravery and awarded the rank of colonel. But not so much the fighting of the brigade as its very betrayal greatly undermined the prestige of the SS. The Nazis were not going to give up so easily. In the spring of 1944, they launched an operation to defeat the Polotsk-Lepel partisans, which they called "Spring Holiday". In its course, the Nazis destroyed almost the entire 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade.
Further fate
Vladimir Gil was mortally wounded in battle and died in April 1944 near the Nakol farm. There were rumors that the wounded and starving Gil was shot by his colleague for a double betrayal. Where his remains were buried, no one knew until 1991. Subsequently, they were reburied in a mass grave near the town of Ushachi. The surviving fighters of the 1st Anti-Fascist after the war were sentenced to long terms in labor camps (an average of 10 years). The higher ranks were shot.
Vladimir Gil, commander of the First Nationalist Brigade, traitor or patriot? There are still many unanswered questions in his fate.
In 1929, the Geneva Convention on the maintenance of prisoners of war was adopted, which the Soviet Union did not sign. Subsequently, this was reflected in the treatment of Russian soldiers in captivity. During the first months of the Great Patriotic War The Germans captured more than three million Russian prisoners of war. Germany did not count on such a number of people, and concentration camps had to be urgently organized. The camp in Suwałki on the territory of occupied Poland was a huge field surrounded by barbed wire, where thousands of prisoners crowded without a roof over their heads. Jews and Soviet commissars faced immediate reprisals. At the same time, the Abwehr tried to recruit Soviet citizens into the ranks of the German armed forces. In Suwalki, this was done by Standartenführer Hoffmann, one of the leaders of the German reconnaissance and sabotage organization Zeppelin, created to work in the Soviet rear. He immediately drew attention to Vladimir Gil, who was taken prisoner in July 1941 near Tolochin in the Vitebsk region. German intelligence quickly learned of its origin.
Vladimir Gil was born on June 11, 1906 in the Daraganovo estate of the Bobruisk district of the Mogilev province. His father, Waldemar Anthony von Lutenhausen-Wolf, belonged to the German barons, and his mother, Maria Kazimirovna Dombrowskaya, was the great-niece of the Polish king Stanislaw August Poniatowski. The Lutenhausen-Wolf family ended up in Russia during the time of Peter the Great, who invited a German baron to teach mathematics. And Catherine II presented the estate of Daraganovo to Lutenhausen-Wolf for his faithful service. In 1914, in connection with the war in Russia, the persecution of the Germans began, and the father was forced to change his surname and began to be called Gil. Son Vladimir graduated from the 9th grade and in October 1926 joined the Red Army. In 1939 he graduated with honors military academy them. Frunze and received the rank of lieutenant colonel. Then he entered the Academy of the General Staff and in 1940 was sent to the city of Armavir. Krasnodar Territory to the post of chief of staff of the 229th Infantry Division.
Vladimir Gil was captured at the very beginning of the war, his family remained at home - his wife and two children, son Vadim and daughter Galina. A descendant of a noble family, Gil was fluent in German, French and Polish. He agreed to work for the Germans, and already in December 1941, Gil was appointed to the post of commandant in the Suwalki camp.
Vladimir Gil was instructed to select Russian prisoners of war to create a nationalist detachment. In March 1942, this group was sent first to a special camp near Breslau, and later on a trip to Germany with a visit to Berlin. At a concert dedicated to Hitler's birthday, Walter Schellenberg personally recommended Gil to the Fuhrer, saying that he could be useful to Germany. After that, Hitler entrusted Gil with a special task - to organize from Russian prisoners of war the “Combat Union of Russian Nationalists” to fight Bolshevism.
The leadership of the union was also entrusted to Gil, he also wrote an ideological program, which spoke about the dissolution of collective farms and the return of land to the peasants. In this way, Gil hoped to attract prisoners of war who were dissatisfied with Stalin's policies. Then he changed his surname and took the pseudonym Rodionov - after the name of his father-in-law. 25 former Soviet commanders immediately signed up for the "Combat Union". When joining the union, new members took an oath to unquestioningly carry out all the instructions of the head of the union. Initially, the "Combat Union" was conceived as a political organization, but was later renamed the combat "Squad to combat the Red Army."
By May 1942, the first detachment of a hundred people was formed. IN Soviet army they carried the ranks from junior lieutenant to lieutenant colonel, here they became privates. They were given new Czech uniforms with distinctive SS insignia, but the shoulder straps were of their own design, and on the sleeve there was a swastika and a black ribbon with the inscription "For Russia". By June, the number reached five hundred people, and the detachment became known as the "First Russian National SS Detachment" or "Druzhina No. 1". The first company consisted entirely of former officers of the Red Army, while the other two were staffed by German officers and Russian nationalists from among the émigrés.
Three weeks later preparatory classes The battalion was entrusted with the first combat mission - hunting for Polish partisans in Tomashevsky, Zamostsky and Rava-Russky counties. In the autumn of 1942, the national brigade was transferred to the Bykhov region, where they first guarded railway, and then participated in operations against partisans in the Begoml area. The execution of orders was monitored by a special SS service at the squad. From the very beginning, Gil-Rodionov established a rule: not to allow self-will in relation to the civilian population. The fighters did not participate in the reprisals against the population and tried not to engage in skirmishes with the partisans.
In April 1943, a “delegation” from General Vlasov arrived at Gil-Rodionov and agitated his fighters to join the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), but no one agreed. In the summer, the detachment was transferred to Dokshitsy, where the Zheleznyak partisan brigade operated. Its command immediately drew attention to the Russian national detachment and launched intensified agitation among its fighters. Between Gil-Rodionov and the commander of "Zheleznyak" Titkov, a correspondence began, in which the partisans urged to go over to their side. In early August, a meeting of brigade commanders took place, where they discussed the details of the transition.
On August 16, 1943, Gil-Rodionov read out an order in front of his battalion: “I order from this date the brigade to be called the 1st Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigade.” I impute to every soldier to mercilessly exterminate the Fritz until their last expulsion from Russian soil. On August 16 and 17, all German officers in the brigade were destroyed. About 40 ardent anti-Soviet people, led by intelligence chief General Bogdanov, were arrested and handed over to the partisans. A few days later they were transferred to Moscow to the main department of counterintelligence "Smersh", where they were all interrogated with prejudice. Gil-Rodionov himself was also interrogated for three days.
To atone for their homeland, the Gil-Rodionov brigade attacked the heavily fortified German garrisons in Dokshitsy and Krulevshchizna. Partisan detachments tried unsuccessfully to capture these stations for two years. On August 17, the German garrison in Dokshitsy was taken by surprise by the soldiers of the 1st Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigade and completely destroyed. The Krulevshchizna station turned out to be more fortified, and a lightning offensive did not work out. A fierce battle ensued, during which a large number of Russian soldiers. On the morning of August 18, the Germans launched a counteroffensive with the support of tanks and aircraft, but even the bombardment by Luftwaffe aircraft did not save them from defeat. At the cost of huge losses, Gil-Rodionov captured Krulevshchizna along with the trains they were carrying and other trophies. On the same day, he sent a telegram to Moscow about the transfer of the former Russian SS brigade of about 2 thousand people to the side of the partisans. Stalin ordered that this event be given wide publicity, so that all prisoners of war would know that returning to their homeland was possible.
On August 20, 1943, a plane with a commission from Moscow arrived at the Begoml airfield to clarify the circumstances of the transfer of an entire brigade to the side of the Red Army. On September 17, Vladimir Gil-Rodionov was awarded the Order of the Red Star "for organizing the return of Soviet prisoners of war to the ranks of the defenders of the Motherland and the valor and courage shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders," and also received the military rank of colonel. In the following months, he, along with the brigade, participated in the most daring military operations.
In the spring of 1944, in the area between Polotsk and Lepel, the Germans launched the largest offensive against partisans in the entire war. 60,000 German soldiers, armored vehicles and aircraft took part in Operation Spring Holiday. The forces were too unequal and the partisans quickly found themselves surrounded. On May 5, brigade commander Gil-Rodionov led the fighters to a breakthrough. He managed to break through the German encirclement, while losing more than half of his brigade. Gil-Rodionov himself was mortally wounded and died on May 14, 1944 on a farm near the battlefield. The 1st Anti-Fascist Brigade actually ceased to exist. Of the 400 survivors, they later formed 4 detachments, which continued to fight.
In September 1991, the remains of Vladimir Gil and his fighters were reburied at the fraternal memorial cemetery in Ushachi. His wife and children were allowed to return from evacuation to Belarus and were given Gil-Rodionov's allowance for the years of the war from 1941 to 1944, which was a large amount for that time. After the war
The formation of Colonel Vladimir Vladimirovich Gil-Rodionov, known as the Russian National SS Brigade "Druzhina" and the First Anti-Fascist Brigade, is a truly unique phenomenon in the history of World War II.
Formed in the first half of 1942 from among Soviet prisoners of war and defectors, the unit was originally created to train Russian collaborators for sabotage, reconnaissance and ideological subversive work in the deep Soviet rear. Having gone through the crucible of anti-partisan operations and actions to exterminate the civilian population in the territory of the General Government and occupied Belarus, subordinates V.V. Gila have earned a reputation as quite reliable fighters and ... ruthless punishers. No wonder the Berlin leadership of the SD, which was in charge of this formation, repeatedly sanctioned the numerical increase of the "Druzhina": the officer hundred of the "Combat Union of Russian Nationalists" was successively deployed into a battalion, regiment and, finally, a brigade. On the basis of the units withdrawn from the Druzhina, the Guards Battalion of the ROA was also formed, which many researchers consider the prototype of the Armed Forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia. The servicemen of the "Druzhina" were supplied much better than the vast majority of units and divisions of the Wehrmacht, they were generously encouraged with ranks and awards.
In August 1943, a significant part of the Rodionovites, led by their commander, went over to the side of the people's avengers. In the future - until its complete defeat during the anti-partisan operation "Spring Holiday" - Gil's unit was called the First Anti-Fascist Brigade. Such a metamorphosis has no even distant analogues in the annals of domestic collaborationism. Of course, individual and group transitions of the participants of the "Russian liberation movement" to the side of the USSR were not uncommon, but so that a whole brigade suddenly rushed into the camp of Soviet patriots, directly responsible for the ruthless destruction of many thousands of civilians, and then also fought as a separate partisan formation - this has never happened!
Vladimir Gil. Photo from a personal file
Such a bizarre fate of the Druzhina puts many ideologically motivated researchers in an uncomfortable position. Vladimir Gil cannot be a "hero" either for pro-Soviet authors or for their opponents. One thing is certain: in Gil's unenviable career, the "selfish effect", the desire to save one's life and power by hook or by crook, manifested itself even more than many of the "colleagues" of the brigade commander in the collaborationist camp.
A number of people who served under Gil or closely communicated with him left memoirs that, despite the subjectivity and controversy of some estimates, are of undoubted value to the researcher. First of all, let's name the books of the former propagandist of the "Druzhina" L.A. Samutin "I was a Vlasovite .." and an officer of the "Guards Battalion of the ROA" K.G. Kromiadi - "For the land, for the will .." . The details of the transition of Russian SS men to the side of the partisans and the combat activities of the First Anti-Fascist Brigade were reflected in the memoirs of the former people's avengers: the commander of the Zheleznyak partisan brigade I.F. Titkov, commander of the formation of the Borisov-Begoml partisan zone R.N. Machulsky, head of the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement (BShPD) P.Z. Kalinin.
To date, not a single detailed study has appeared in Russian historiography specifically devoted to the military path of the formation of Gil-Rodionov. The gap is partly filled by general works that consider the problems of collaborationism. Valuable information is contained in the works of historians K.M. Alexandrova, S.I. Drobyazko, A.B. Okorokova, S.G. Chuev (the latter also devoted several very informative articles to the Gil-Rodionov brigade and its connections with the Zeppelin SD operation).
Several works of foreign authors are also devoted to the history of the Druzhina, the most detailed of which are the studies of A. Dallin and R. Mavrogordato, as well as A. Munoz and R. Michaelis. Unfortunately, Western studies are characterized by the presence of a significant number of errors and errors (especially noticeable when describing the beginning combat way"Squads"), which are regularly duplicated in subsequent editions. Foreign historians draw most of the information about the Gil-Rodionov connection from a good article by Dallin and Mavrogordato, which, however, is also not without inaccuracies (given the time of writing and publication - 1959).
Quite actively, Western and domestic authors also draw on the work of the former Abwehr employee Sven Steenberg "Vlasov" (1970), several pages of which are devoted to "Druzhina". Alas, this book is not a full-fledged study, and in terms of the number of myths, errors and misconceptions presented, the author undoubtedly breaks all records of the genre. The unreliability of the source is exacerbated by an incorrect translation into Russian (in the Russian edition of 2005).
During the work on the book, the authors set themselves the following tasks. First, to show the role of the SD - SS intelligence - in the formalization of Russian collaborationism. Secondly, to reveal the details of the participation of formations ("teams") of the Fighting Union of Russian Nationalists in anti-partisan and punitive actions in the occupied territories of Poland and the Soviet Union. Thirdly, it is possible to consider in detail those operations of the German troops in which the Gil-Rodionov formation took a direct part. In addition, we tried to clarify the real reasons that pushed Gil to a secondary betrayal, and, finally, to trace the fate of the former Russian SS men in the ranks of the partisan movement in Belarus. Of course, many documents and evidence are still inaccessible to researchers, and therefore our work is not exhaustive.
We consider it our duty to sincerely thank historians Konstantin Semenov, Roman Ponomarenko, Ivan Gribkov, Sergei Chuev, an employee of the photo archive of the Voeninform Agency of the Ministry of Defense for their help in working on the book Russian Federation Olga Balashova, and Andrey Shestakov.
First chapter. SD and Russian collaborationism. Enterprise "Zeppelin"
SS intelligence organization
The role of the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, SD) in organizing and formalizing collaborationism, including in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union, has not yet, unfortunately, received a comprehensive coverage in the literature. Almost all authors of works devoted to Himmler's department view the SD mainly through the prism of the punitive practices of this SS structure, which is quite understandable - after all, the Nuremberg Tribunal called the SD a criminal organization. In accordance with the verdict, the Security Service, along with the Gestapo, was used "for purposes that were criminal under the Charter and included the persecution and extermination of Jews, atrocities and murders in concentration camps, excesses in the occupied territories, the implementation of a slave labor program, the cruel treatment of prisoners of war and the killing of them". Of course, the activities of the Security Service were not limited to the crimes listed above. Therefore, it would be appropriate to at least briefly touch on the specifics of the work and structure of the SD during the Second World War.
1st Russian National SS Brigade "Druzhina"- the formation of the CC troops during the Great Patriotic War, consisting of volunteers from the camps of Soviet prisoners of war. The tasks of the formation included security service in the occupied territory and the fight against partisans, and, if necessary, military operations at the front. In August 1943, the unit went over to the side of the partisans, and was renamed to.
History of creation
Switching to the side of the partisans
In August 1943, the Zheleznyak partisan brigade of the Polotsk-Lepel region made contact with Gil-Rodionov. The latter was promised an amnesty, if his people with weapons in their hands go over to the side of the partisans. Gil-Rodionov accepted these conditions and on August 16, having destroyed the German communications headquarters and unreliable officers, attacked the German garrisons in Dokshitsy and Kruglevshchina. The former Major General of the Red Army Bogdanov was arrested, who back in 1941 had gone over to the side of the Germans and served in the brigade. The formation that joined the partisans (2.2 thousand people) was renamed 1st Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigade, and V. V. Gil was awarded the Order of the Red Star and reinstated in the army with the assignment of the next military rank of colonel. The commissar of the brigade was approved by the Central Committee of the CP (b) Ivan Matveyevich Timchuk, later Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the autumn of 1943, taking advantage of their superiority in numbers and weapons, the brigade defeated the German garrisons in Ilya, Obodovtsy and Vileyka.
Uniforms and insignia
In 1943 personnel regiment, and then a brigade under the command of V.V. Gil-Rodionov wore the uniform of the "general SS" - gray tunic with black buttonholes and an eagle on the left sleeve, caps with " dead head, brown shirts with a tie. For the command staff, golden epaulettes were introduced. Soldiers and officers of the formation wore a sleeve ribbon with the inscription "For Russia".
According to partisan Yu. S. Volkov, in October 1943, the personnel of the brigade (“Rodionovtsy”) were dressed in German military uniforms with a diamond-shaped tricolor white-blue-red patch on the sleeve with three Russian letters ROA and with a red ribbon sewn on pilotka.
see also
Notes
Literature
- Chuev S. Damned soldiers. Traitors on the side of the III Reich. - M.: Eksmo, Yauza, 2004.
- Drobyazko S., Karashchuk A. Second World War 1939-1945. Russian Liberation Army. -M.: Ast, 2005.
- Klimov I., Grakov N. Partisans of the Vileika region. Minsk, Belarus, 1970.
Links
- Volkov Y. S. At the end of forty-three. // War without embellishment and heroic deeds. Leningrad, 1999.
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