Deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly Vitaly Milonov asked the Ministry of Education and Science to include information about traitors to Russia in the school curriculum. He believes that without knowledge about the negative characters of the past, the younger generation of Russians will have a distorted view of the country's history.

The people's representative proposes to introduce a special section into history textbooks dedicated to individuals who can be described as "traitors to the national interests of Russia." The corresponding appeal was sent to the Minister of Education and Science Dmitry Livanov.

The most famous traitors.

History often records not the names of heroes, but the names of traitors and defectors. These people cause great harm to one side and benefit to the other. But all the same, they are despised by both. Naturally, one cannot do without complicated cases when a person’s guilt is difficult to prove. However, history has preserved several of the most obvious and classic cases that do not raise any doubts. Let's talk below about the most famous traitors in history.

The name of this man has been a symbol of betrayal for about two thousand years. At the same time, the nationalities of people do not play a role. Everyone knows the biblical story when Judas Iscariot betrayed his teacher Christ for thirty pieces of silver, dooming him to torment. But then 1 slave cost twice as much! The Kiss of Judas has become a classic image of duplicity, meanness and betrayal. This man was one of the twelve apostles who were present with Jesus at his Last Supper. There were thirteen people and after that this number began to be considered unlucky. There was even a phobia, a fear of this number. The story goes that Judas was born on April 1, also a rather unusual day. But the history of the traitor is rather unclear and full of pitfalls. The fact is that Judas was the keeper of the treasury for the community of Jesus and his disciples. There was much more money there than 30 pieces of silver. Thus, in need of money, Judas could simply steal it without committing betrayal of his teacher. Not long ago, the world learned about the existence of the “Gospel of Judas,” where Iscariot is depicted as the only and faithful disciple of Christ. And the betrayal was committed precisely on the orders of Jesus, and Judas took responsibility for his action. According to legend, Iscariot committed suicide immediately after his deed. The image of this traitor is described many times in books, films, and legends. Different versions of his betrayal and motivation are considered. Today, the name of this person is given to those suspected of treason. For example, Lenin called Trotsky Judas back in 1911. He also found his “plus” in Iscariot - the fight against Christianity. Trotsky even wanted to erect monuments to Judas in several cities of the country.

Everyone knows the legendary phrase of Julius Caesar: “And you, Brutus?” This traitor is known, although not as widely known as Judas, but is also one of the legendary. Moreover, he committed his treason 77 years before the story of Iscariot. What these two traitors have in common is that they both committed suicide. Marcus Brutus was the best friend of Julius Caesar; according to some data, this could even be his illegitimate son. However, it was he who led the conspiracy against the popular politician, taking direct part in his murder. But Caesar showered his favorite with honors and titles, endowing him with power. But Brutus' entourage forced him to participate in a conspiracy against the dictator. Mark was among several conspiratorial senators who pierced Caesar with swords. Seeing Brutus in their ranks, he exclaimed with bitterness his famous phrase, which became his last. Wanting happiness for the people and power, Brutus made a mistake in his plans - Rome did not support him. After a series of civil wars and defeats, Mark realized that he was left without everything - without family, power, friend. The betrayal and murder took place in 44 BC, and just two years later Brutus threw himself on his sword.

This traitor is not so well known here, but he has a bad reputation in China, the largest country in the world. It is often unclear how ordinary and normal people suddenly become traitors. Wang Jingwei was born in 1883, when he turned 21, he entered a Japanese university. There he met Sun-Yat Sen, the famous revolutionary from China. He influenced the young man so much that he became a real revolutionary fanatic. Together with Sen, Jingwei became a regular participant in anti-government revolutionary protests. It is not surprising that he soon went to prison. There Wang served several years, being released in 1911. All this time, Sen kept in touch with him, providing moral support and care. As a result of the revolutionary struggle, Sen and his comrades won and came to power in 1920. But in 1925, Sun-Yat died, and Jingwei replaced him as the leader of China. But soon the Japanese invaded the country. This is where Jingwei committed the real betrayal. He essentially did not fight for the independence of China, giving it over to the invaders. National interests were trampled in favor of the Japanese. As a result, when a crisis broke out in China, and the country most needed an experienced manager, Jingwei simply left it. Wang clearly joined the conquerors. However, he did not have time to feel the bitterness of defeat, since he died before the fall of Japan. But the name of Wang Jingwei found its way into all Chinese textbooks as a synonym for betrayal of his country.

This man in modern Russian history is considered the most important traitor, even the church anathematized him. But in modern Ukrainian history, the hetman, on the contrary, acts as a national hero. So what was his betrayal or was it still a feat? The Hetman of the Zaporozhye Army for a long time acted as one of the most loyal allies of Peter I, helping him in the Azov campaigns. However, everything changed when the Swedish king Charles XII spoke out against the Russian Tsar. He, wanting to find an ally, promised Mazepa Ukrainian independence in case of victory in the Northern War. The hetman could not resist such a tasty piece of the pie. In 1708, he went over to the side of the Swedes, but just a year later their united army was defeated near Poltava. For his treason (Mazepa swore allegiance to Peter), the Russian Empire deprived him of all awards and titles and subjected him to civil execution. Mazepa fled to Bendery, which then belonged to the Ottoman Empire, and soon died there in 1709. According to legend, his death was terrible - he was eaten by lice.

This high-ranking CIA officer had a brilliant career. Everyone predicted a long and successful career for him, and then a well-paid pension. But his life turned upside down, thanks to love. Ames married a Russian beauty, it turned out that she was a KGB agent. The woman immediately began to demand that her husband provide her with a beautiful life in order to fully comply with the American dream. Although officers in the CIA earn good money, it was not enough to pay for the constantly required new jewelry and cars. As a result, the unfortunate Ames began to drink too much. Under the influence of alcohol, he had no choice but to start selling secrets from his work. A buyer quickly appeared for them - the USSR. As a result, during his betrayal, Ames gave the enemy of his country information about all the secret agents working in the Soviet Union. The USSR also learned about hundreds of secret military operations carried out by the Americans. For this, the officer received about 4.6 million US dollars. However, everything secret someday becomes clear. Ames was discovered and sentenced to life imprisonment. The intelligence services experienced a real shock and scandal; the traitor became their biggest failure in their entire existence. It took a long time for the CIA to recover from the damage that one single person inflicted on it. But he just needed funds for his insatiable wife. By the way, when everything became clear, she was simply deported to South America.

This man's family was one of the most ancient in Norway; his father served as a Lutheran priest. Vidkun himself studied very well and chose a military career. Having risen to the rank of major, Quisling was able to enter the government of his country, holding the post of Minister of Defense there from 1931 to 1933. In 1933, Vidkun founded his own political party, National Accord, where he received a membership card number one. He began to call himself Föhrer, which was very reminiscent of the Fuhrer. In 1936, the party collected quite a lot of votes in the elections, becoming very influential in the country. When the Nazis came to Norway in 1940, Quisling invited local residents to submit to them and not resist. Although the politician himself came from an ancient, respected family, the country immediately dubbed him a traitor. The Norwegians themselves began to wage a fierce struggle against the invaders. Quisling then came up with a plan in response to remove Jews from Norway, sending them directly to the deadly Auschwitz. However, history has given the politician who betrayed his people what he deserved. On May 9, 1945, Quisling was arrested. While in prison, he still managed to declare that he was a martyr and sought to create a great country. But justice thought otherwise, and on October 24, 1945, Quisling was shot for high treason.

This boyar was one of the most faithful companions of Ivan the Terrible. It was Kurbsky who commanded the Russian army in the Livonian War. But with the beginning of the oprichnina of the eccentric tsar, many hitherto loyal boyars fell into disgrace. Kurbsky was among them. Fearing for his fate, he abandoned his family and in 1563 ran to the service of the Polish king Sigismund. And already in September of the following year he came out with the conquerors against Moscow. Kurbsky knew very well how the Russian defense and army worked. Thanks to the traitor, the Poles were able to win many important battles. They set up ambushes, captured people, bypassing the outposts. Kurbsky began to be considered the first Russian dissident. The Poles consider the boyar a great man, but in Russia he is a traitor. However, we should not talk about treason to the country, but about treason personally to Tsar Ivan the Terrible.

This boy had a heroic image for a long time in Soviet history and culture. At the same time, he was number one among the child heroes. Pavlik Morozov was even included in the book of honor of the All-Union Pioneer Organization. But this story is not entirely clear-cut. The boy's father, Trofim, was a partisan and fought on the side of the Bolsheviks. However, after returning from the war, the serviceman left his family with four small children and began to live with another woman. Trofim was elected chairman of the village council, but at the same time led a stormy everyday life - he drank and became rowdy. It is quite possible that in the history of heroism and betrayal there are more everyday than political reasons. According to legend, Trofim’s wife accused him of hiding bread, however, they say that the abandoned and humiliated woman demanded to stop issuing fictitious certificates to fellow villagers. During the investigation, 13-year-old Pavel simply confirmed everything his mother said. As a result, the unruly Trofim went to prison, and in revenge, the young pioneer was killed in 1932 by his drunken uncle and godfather. But Soviet propaganda created a colorful propaganda story out of everyday drama. And the hero who betrayed his father was not inspiring.

In 1937, the NKVD was rampant, including in the Far East. At that time, this punitive body was headed by Genrikh Lyushkov. However, a year later, a purge began in the “organs” themselves; many executioners themselves found themselves in the place of their victims. Lyushkov was suddenly summoned to Moscow, supposedly to appoint him as the head of all the camps in the country. But Heinrich suspected that Stalin wanted to remove him. Frightened by reprisals, Lyushkov fled to Japan. In his interview with the local newspaper Yomiuri, the former executioner said that he really recognized himself as a traitor. But only in relation to Stalin. But Lyushkov’s subsequent behavior suggests just the opposite. The general told the Japanese about the entire structure of the NKVD and the residents of the USSR, about where exactly the Soviet troops were located, where and how defensive structures and fortresses were built. Lyushkov transmitted military radio codes to the enemies, actively urging the Japanese to oppose the USSR. The traitor personally tortured the Soviet intelligence officers arrested on Japanese territory, resorting to cruel atrocities. The pinnacle of Lyushkov’s activity was his development of a plan to assassinate Stalin. The general personally set about implementing his project. Today, historians believe that this was the only serious attempt to eliminate the Soviet leader. However, she was not successful. After the defeat of Japan in 1945, Lyushkov was killed by the Japanese themselves, who did not want their secrets to fall into the hands of the USSR.

This Soviet lieutenant general became known as the most important Soviet traitor during the Great Patriotic War. Back in the winter of 41-42, Vlasov commanded the 20th Army, making a significant contribution to the defeat of the Nazis near Moscow. The people called this general the main savior of the capital. In the summer of 1942, Vlasov took the post of deputy commander of the Volkhov Front. However, his troops were soon captured, and the general himself was captured by the Germans. Vlasov was sent to the Vinnitsa military camp for captured senior military officials. There the general agreed to serve the fascists and headed the “Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia” they created. Even the entire “Russian Liberation Army” (ROA) was created on the basis of KONR. It included captured Soviet military personnel. The general showed cowardice; according to rumors, from then on he began to drink a lot. On May 12, Vlasov was captured by Soviet troops in an attempt to escape. His trial was closed, since with his words he could inspire people dissatisfied with the authorities. In August 1946, General Vlasov was stripped of his titles and awards, his property was confiscated, and he himself was hanged. At the trial, the accused admitted that he would plead guilty because he had become cowardly in captivity. Already in our time, an attempt was made to justify Vlasov. But only a small part of the charges against him were dropped, while the main ones remained in force.

There was also a traitor on the part of the Nazis in that war. In the winter of 1943, the German 6th Army under the command of Field Marshal Paulus capitulated at Stalingrad. His subsequent history can be considered mirror in relation to Vlasov. The German officer's captivity was quite comfortable, because he joined the anti-fascist national committee "Free Germany". He ate meat, drank beer, received food and parcels. Paulus signed an appeal “To the prisoners of war of German soldiers and officers and to the entire German people.” There, the field marshal said that he called on all of Germany to eliminate Adolf Hitler. He believes that the country must have new government leadership. It must stop the war and ensure that the people restore friendship with their current opponents. Paulus even made a revealing speech at the Nuremberg trials, which greatly surprised his former comrades. In 1953, grateful for the cooperation, the Soviet government released the traitor, especially since he was beginning to fall into depression. Paulus moved to live in the GDR, where he died in 1957. Not all Germans accepted the field marshal’s action with understanding; even his son did not accept his father’s choice, eventually shooting himself due to mental anguish.

This defector also made a name for himself as a writer. Once upon a time, intelligence officer Vladimir Rezun was a GRU resident in Geneva. But in 1978 he fled to England, where he began writing very scandalous books. In them, an officer who took the pseudonym Suvorov argued quite convincingly that it was the USSR that was preparing to strike Germany in the summer of 1941. The Germans simply forestalled their enemy by several weeks by launching a preemptive strike. Rezun himself says that he was forced to cooperate with British intelligence. They allegedly wanted to make him extreme for failure in the work of the Geneva department. Suvorov himself claims that in his homeland he was sentenced to death in absentia for his treason. However, the Russian side prefers not to comment on this fact. The former intelligence officer lives in Bristol and continues to write books on historical topics. Each of them causes a storm of discussion and personal condemnation of Suvorov.

Few lieutenants manage to go down in history. But this military pilot was able to do it. True, at the cost of his betrayal. You could say that he acted as a kind of bad boy who just wants to steal something and sell it to his enemies at a higher price. On September 6, 1976, Belenko flew a top-secret MiG-25 interceptor. Suddenly the senior lieutenant abruptly changed course and landed in Japan. There the plane was disassembled in detail and subjected to careful study. Naturally, it could not have happened without American specialists. The plane was returned to the USSR after careful examination. And for his feat “for the glory of democracy” Belenko himself received political asylum in the United States. However, there is another version according to which the traitor was not such. He was simply forced to land in Japan. Eyewitnesses say that the lieutenant fired a pistol into the air, not allowing anyone to approach the car and demanding that they cover it. However, the investigation took into account both the pilot’s behavior at home and his flight style. The conclusion was clear - the landing on the territory of an enemy state was deliberate. Belenko himself turned out to be crazy about life in America; he even found canned cat food tastier than what was sold in his homeland. From official statements it is difficult to assess the consequences of that escape; moral and political damage can be ignored, but material damage was estimated at 2 billion rubles. After all, in the USSR they had to quickly change all the equipment of the “friend or foe” recognition system.

And again the situation is when a traitor for some is a hero for others. Otto was born in 1881 and in 1904 joined the Social Democratic Party of Finland. Soon and leading it. When it became clear that there was no chance for communists in the newly independent Finland, Kuusinen fled to the USSR. There he worked for a long time in the Comintern. When the USSR attacked Finland in 1939, it was Kuusinen who became the head of the country's new puppet government. Only now his power extended to the few lands captured by Soviet troops. It soon became clear that it would not be possible to capture all of Finland and the need for the Kuusinene regime disappeared. He subsequently continued to hold prominent government positions in the USSR, dying in 1964. His ashes are buried near the Kremlin wall.

This scout lived a long and eventful life. He was born in 1912 in India, in the family of a British official. In 1929, Kim entered Cambridge, where he joined the socialist society. In 1934, Philby was recruited by Soviet intelligence, which, given his views, was not difficult to accomplish. In 1940, Kim joined the British secret service SIS, soon becoming the head of one of its departments. In the 50s, it was Philby who coordinated the actions of England and the United States to fight the communists. Naturally, the USSR received all the information about the work of its agent. Since 1956, Philby has already served in MI6, until in 1963 he was illegally transported to the USSR. Here the traitorous intelligence officer lived for the next 25 years on a personal pension, sometimes giving consultations.

There weren’t many traitors in the history of Russia, but there were some. These people violated the oath, committed high treason, transferred state secrets to a potential enemy, and fought against their compatriots.

Andrey Vlasov

Andrei Vlasov can be called a general of traitors in Russian history. His name has become a household name. Even the Nazis hated Vlasov: Himmler called him “a runaway pig and a fool,” and Hitler disdained to meet with him. In 1942, Lieutenant General Andrei Andreevich Vlasov was the commander of the 2nd Shock Army and deputy commander of the Volkhov Front.

Having been captured by the Germans, Vlasov deliberately cooperated with the Nazis, gave them secret information and advised the German military on how to fight against the Red Army. Vlasov collaborated with Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, Ribbentrop, and with various high-ranking officials of the Abwehr and Gestapo. He organized the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) from Russian prisoners of war recruited into the service of the Germans. ROA troops took part in the fight against partisans, robberies and executions of civilians, and the destruction of entire settlements.

After the surrender of Germany, Vlasov was captured by Soviet soldiers, taken to the headquarters of Marshal Konev and sent by plane to Moscow. In 1946, he was convicted of treason and hanged on August 1.

Andrey Kurbsky

It is customary these days to call him “the first dissident.” Kurbsky was one of the most influential politicians of his time, was a member of the “Elected Rada”, and was friends with Ivan the Terrible himself. When Ivan IV dissolved the Rada and subjected its active participants to disgrace and execution, Kurbsky fled to Lithuania.

Today it has already been proven that Kurbsky corresponded with the Lithuanians even before his official betrayal.

Kurbsky’s crossing of the border is reminiscent in its drama of Ostap Bender’s crossing of the border at the end of the novel “The Golden Calf.” The prince arrived at the border as a rich man. He had 30 ducats, 300 gold, 500 silver thalers and 44 Moscow rubles. This money was not received from the sale of lands, since the boyar’s estate was confiscated by the treasury and not from the voivodeship treasury; if this were so, this fact would certainly have “surfaced” in correspondence with Ivan IV. Where did the money come from then? Obviously, it was royal gold, “30 pieces of silver” by Kurbsky.

The Polish king granted Kurbsky several estates and included him in the Royal Rada. For the Polish-Lithuanian state, Kurbsky was an extremely valuable agent. When he arrived in Livonia, he immediately handed over Moscow’s Livonian supporters to the Lithuanians and declassified Moscow agents at the royal court.

From the Lithuanian period of Kurbsky’s life it is known that the boyar was not distinguished by his gentle morals and humanism either in relation to his neighbors or in relation to those far away. He often beat his neighbors, took away their lands, and even put merchants in vats of leeches and extorted money from them.

While abroad, Kurbsky wrote a political pamphlet, “The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow,” corresponded with Ivan the Terrible, and in 1565 participated in the Lithuanian invasion of Russia. Kurbsky in Russia ravaged four voivodeships and took away many prisoners. After that, he even asked Sigismund to give him an army of 30 thousand and allow him to go with it to Moscow. As proof of his devotion, Kurbsky stated that “he agrees that during the campaign he would be chained to a cart, surrounded in front and behind by archers with loaded guns, so that they would immediately shoot him if they noticed infidelity in him.” Kurbsky mastered the language better than his own honor.

Genrikh Lyushkov

Genrikh Lyushkov was the most senior defector from the NKVD. He headed the NKVD in the Far East. In 1937, during the beginning of Stalin’s pre-war “purges,” Genrikh Lyushkov, feeling that they would soon come for him, decided to flee to Japan.

In his interview with the local newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, Genrikh Lyushkov spoke about the terrible methods of the NKVD and admitted himself as a traitor to Stalin. In Japan, he worked in Tokyo and Dairen (Dalian) in the intelligence agencies of the Japanese General Staff (in the Bureau of East Asian Studies, advisor to the 2nd Department of the Kwantung Army Headquarters).

The former NKVD officer gave the Japanese extremely important information about the armed forces of the USSR, the composition and deployment of the Red Army troops in the Far East, spoke about the construction of defensive structures, gave the Japanese Soviet radio codes and even called on them to start a war with the Soviet Union. Lyushkov also “distinguished himself” by personally torturing Soviet intelligence officers arrested on Japanese territory, and also by the fact that he conceived an incredible act of audacity - the murder of Stalin. Operation was called "Bear".

Lyushkov proposed to liquidate Stalin in one of his residences.

To ensure the success of the operation, the Japanese even built a life-size pavilion replicating Stalin’s house in Matsesta. Stalin took his bath alone - this was the plan.

But Soviet intelligence was not asleep. Serious assistance in detecting the conspirators was provided by a Soviet agent codenamed Leo, who worked in Manchukuo. At the beginning of 1939, while crossing the Turkish-Soviet border near the village of Borchka, machine gun fire was opened on a terrorist group, as a result of which three were killed and the rest fled. According to one version, Leo was among those killed.

Lyushkov ended badly. According to one version, after the surrender of the Kwantung Army, on August 19, 1945, Genrikh Lyushkov was invited to the head of the Dairen military mission, Yutake Takeoka, who suggested that he commit suicide. Lyushkov refused and was shot by Takeoka. According to another version, he was strangled by Japanese officers while trying to exchange him for the son of the former Prime Minister of Japan, Prince Konoe.

Victor Belenko

Viktor Belenko, senior lieutenant, pilot of the MIG-25 (at that time a superplane, which was hunted by intelligence agencies around the world). On September 6, 1976, he flew to Japan and asked for political asylum in the United States. After landing, Belenko got out of the plane, took out a pistol, fired into the air and demanded that the plane be hidden.

Vladimir Sopryakov, who then served as deputy KGB resident in Japan, recalled: “I believe that the plane could have been destroyed. The Japanese were afraid to approach it, so somewhere within 2-3 hours, even a day, there was time for this. But no one decided to do this - the use of weapons on foreign territory is too scandalous.”

An investigation later established that Belenko met with US representatives in Vladivostok and initially planned to land at an American base, but decided not to risk it and went to land in Japan. In order not to be detected by air defense systems, he walked at an extremely low altitude.

In Japan, the plane was disassembled and carefully studied together with American specialists, and then returned to the Soviet Union. Belenko eventually received political asylum in the United States.

He was delighted with life in the states. When he first went to the supermarket, he said that he did not believe it, believing that he was being played.

The material damage from Belenko’s act was estimated at 2 billion rubles. In the Soviet Union, they had to quickly change all the equipment of the “friend or foe” recognition system. A button has appeared in the fighter's missile launch system that removes the lock on firing at friendly aircraft. She received the nickname “Belenkovskaya”.

In the USSR, the pilot was convicted in absentia under Article 64 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR for treason and sentenced to capital punishment (execution).

Oleg Gordievsky

Oleg Gordievsky, the son of an NKVD officer and a graduate of the Moscow Institute of International Relations, collaborated with the KGB since 1963.

According to him, he became disillusioned with Soviet politics, so he became an agent of the British MI6 in 1974. There is a version that Gordievsky was betrayed by a Soviet source from the CIA. On May 22, 1985, he was suddenly summoned to Moscow and subjected to interrogation using psychotropic properties. However, the Committee did not arrest him, but took him “under the hood.”

“Kolpak” turned out to be not the most reliable - the defector managed to escape in the trunk of an embassy car on July 20, 1985.

That same fall, a diplomatic scandal erupted when Margaret Thatcher's government expelled more than 30 undercover Soviet embassy workers from Britain. Gordievsky claimed that they were agents of the KGB and GRU.

He also accused a number of high-ranking British intelligence officers of working for the USSR. Former KGB chairman Semichastny said that “Gordivsky did more harm to the Soviet intelligence services than even General Kalugin,” and British intelligence historian and Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew wrote that Gordievsky was “the largest British intelligence agent in the ranks of the Soviet intelligence services after Oleg Penkovsky.”

In June 2007, for his service to the security of the United Kingdom, he was initiated into the Order of St. Michael and St. George by Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. The Queen herself presented the order.

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Some historical studies claim that on Hitler's side during the period Second World War Up to 1 million USSR citizens fought. This figure can well be challenged downwards, but it is obvious that in percentage terms the majority of these traitors were not fighters of the Vlasov Russian Liberation Army (ROA) or various kinds of SS national legions, but local security units, whose representatives were called policemen.

FOLLOWING THE WEHRMACHT

They appeared after the occupiers. The Wehrmacht soldiers, having captured one or another Soviet village, under the hot hand, shot everyone who did not have time to hide from the uninvited aliens: Jews, party and Soviet workers, family members of Red Army commanders.

Having done their vile deed, the soldiers in gray uniforms set off further to the east. And auxiliary units and German military police remained to maintain the “new order” in the occupied territory. Naturally, the Germans did not know local realities and were poorly versed in what was happening in the territory they controlled.

Belarusian policemen

In order to successfully carry out the duties assigned to them, the occupiers needed assistants from the local population. And they were found. The German administration in the occupied territories began to form the so-called “Auxiliary Police”.

What was this structure?

So, the Auxiliary Police (Hilfspolizei) was created by the German occupation administration in the occupied territories from persons considered supporters of the new government. The corresponding units were not independent and were subordinate to German police departments. Local administrations (city and village councils) were engaged only in purely administrative work related to the functioning of police detachments - their formation, payment of salaries, bringing to their attention orders of the German authorities, etc.

The term “auxiliary” emphasized the lack of independence of the police in relation to the Germans. There was not even a uniform name - in addition to Hilfspolizei, such names as “local police”, “security police”, “order service”, “self-defense” were also used.

There was no uniform uniform for members of the auxiliary police. As a rule, policemen wore armbands with the inscription Polizei, but their uniform was arbitrary (for example, they could wear a Soviet military uniform with their insignia removed).

The police, recruited from citizens of the USSR, accounted for almost 30% of all local collaborators. Policemen were one of the most despised types of collaborators by our people. And there were quite good reasons for this...

In February 1943, the number of policemen in the territory occupied by the Germans reached approximately 70 thousand people.

TYPES OF TRAITORS

Who were these “auxiliary police” most often formed from? Representatives of, relatively speaking, five categories of the population different in their goals and views were included in it.

The first is the so-called “ideological” opponents of Soviet power. Among them, former White Guards and criminals, convicted under the so-called political articles of the then Criminal Code, predominated. They perceived the arrival of the Germans as an opportunity to take revenge on the “commissars and Bolsheviks” for past grievances.

Ukrainian and Baltic nationalists also had the opportunity to kill “damned Muscovites and Jews” to their heart’s content.

The second category is those who, under any political regime, try to stay afloat, gain power and the opportunity to plunder and mock their own compatriots to their heart's content. Often, representatives of the first category did not deny that they joined the police in order to combine the motive of revenge with the opportunity to fill their pockets with other people's property.

Here, for example, is a fragment from the testimony of policeman Ogryzkin, given by him to representatives of the Soviet punitive authorities in 1944 in Bobruisk:

“I agreed to cooperate with the Germans because I considered myself offended by the Soviet regime. Before the revolution, my family had a lot of property and a workshop that brought in a good income.<...>I thought that the Germans, as a cultural European nation, want to free Russia from Bolshevism and return to the old order. Therefore, I accepted the offer to join the police.

<...>The police had the highest salaries and good rations, in addition, there was the opportunity to use one’s official position for personal enrichment...”

As an illustration, we present another document - a fragment of the testimony of policeman Grunsky during the trial of traitors to the Motherland in Smolensk (autumn 1944).

“...Having voluntarily agreed to cooperate with the Germans, I just wanted to survive. Every day, fifty to a hundred people died in the camp. Becoming a volunteer helper was the only way to survive. Those who expressed a desire to cooperate were immediately separated from the general mass of prisoners of war. They began to feed me normally and changed into a fresh Soviet uniform, but with German stripes and a mandatory bandage on the shoulder...”

It must be said that the police themselves were well aware that their lives depended on their situation at the front, and they tried to take every opportunity to drink and eat to their heart's content, cuddle local widows and rob.

During one of the feasts, the deputy chief of police of the Sapych volost of the Pogarsky district of the Bryansk region, Ivan Raskin, made a toast, from which, according to eyewitnesses of this drinking bout, the eyes of those present widened in surprise: “We know that the people hate us, that they are waiting for the arrival Red Army. So let’s hurry to live, drink, walk, enjoy life today, because tomorrow they will rip our heads off anyway.”

"LOYAL, BRAVE, OBEDIENT"

Among the policemen there was also a special group of those who were especially fiercely hated by the inhabitants of the occupied Soviet territories. We are talking about employees of the so-called security battalions. Their hands were covered in blood up to their elbows! The punitive forces from these battalions accounted for hundreds of thousands of ruined human lives.

For reference, it should be clarified that the special police units were the so-called Schutzmannschaft (German: Schutzmann-schaft - security team, abbr. Schuma) - punitive battalions operating under the command of the Germans and together with other German units. Members of the Schutzmannschaft wore German military uniforms, but with special insignia: on the headdress there was a swastika in a laurel wreath, on the left sleeve there was a swastika in a laurel wreath with the motto in German “Tgei Tapfer Gehorsam” - “Loyal, brave, obedient”.

Policemen at work as executioners

Each battalion was supposed to have five hundred people, including nine Germans. In total, eleven Belarusian Schuma battalions, one artillery division, and one Schuma cavalry squadron were formed. At the end of February 1944, there were 2,167 people in these units.

More Ukrainian Schuma police battalions were created: fifty-two in Kyiv, twelve in Western Ukraine and two in the Chernigov region, with a total number of 35 thousand people. No Russian battalions were created at all, although Russian traitors served in Schuma battalions of other nationalities.

What did the policemen from the punitive squads do? And what all executioners usually do is murder, murder and more murder. Moreover, the police killed everyone, regardless of gender and age.

Here's a typical example. In Bila Tserkva, not far from Kyiv, “Sonderkommando 4-a” of SS Standartenführer Paul Blombel operated. The ditches were filled with Jews - dead men and women, but only from the age of 14, children were not killed. Finally, having finished shooting the last adults, after bickering, the Sonderkommando employees destroyed everyone who was over seven years old.

Only about 90 young children, ranging in age from a few months to five, six or seven years, survived. Even seasoned German executioners could not destroy such small children... And not at all out of pity - they were simply afraid of a nervous breakdown and subsequent mental disorders. Then it was decided: let the Jewish children be destroyed by German lackeys - local Ukrainian policemen.

From the memoirs of an eyewitness, a German from this Ukrainian Schuma:

“The Wehrmacht soldiers have already dug the grave. The children were taken there on a tractor. The technical side of the matter did not concern me. The Ukrainians stood around and trembled. The children were unloaded from the tractor. They were placed on the edge of the grave - when the Ukrainians started shooting at them, the children fell there. The wounded also fell into the grave. I will not forget this sight for the rest of my life. It is before my eyes all the time. I especially remember the little blond girl who took my hand. Then she was shot too.”

MURDERERS ON "TOUR"

However, the punishers from the Ukrainian punitive battalions “distinguished themselves” on the road. Few people know that the notorious Belarusian village of Khatyn and all its inhabitants were destroyed not by the Germans, but by Ukrainian policemen from the 118th police battalion.

This punitive unit was created in June 1942 in Kyiv from among former members of the Kyiv and Bukovina kurens of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Almost all of its personnel turned out to be staffed by former commanders or privates of the Red Army who were captured in the first months of the war.

Even before enlisting in the ranks of the battalion, all its future fighters agreed to serve the Nazis and undergo military training in Germany. Vasyura was appointed chief of staff of the battalion, who almost single-handedly led the unit in all punitive operations.

After completing its formation, the 118th police battalion first “distinguished itself” in the eyes of the occupiers, taking an active part in mass executions in Kyiv, in the notorious Babi Yar.

Grigory Vasyura - executioner of Khatyn (photo taken shortly before execution by court verdict)

On March 22, 1943, the 118th Security Police Battalion entered the village of Khatyn and surrounded it. The entire population of the village, young and old - old people, women, children - was kicked out of their homes and driven into a collective farm barn.

The butts of machine guns were used to lift the sick and old people out of bed; they did not spare women with small and infant children.

When all the people were gathered in the barn, the punishers locked the doors, lined the barn with straw, doused it with gasoline and set it on fire. The wooden barn quickly caught fire. Under the pressure of dozens of human bodies, the doors could not stand it and collapsed.

In burning clothes, gripped by horror, gasping for breath, people rushed to run, but those who escaped from the flames were shot with machine guns. 149 village residents burned in the fire, including 75 children under sixteen years of age. The village itself was completely destroyed.

The chief of staff of the 118th security police battalion was Grigory Vasyura, who single-handedly led the battalion and its actions.

The further fate of the Khatyn executioner is interesting. When the 118th battalion was defeated, Vasyura continued to serve in the 14th SS Grenadier Division "Galicia", and at the very end of the war, in the 76th Infantry Regiment, which was defeated in France. After the war in the filtration camp, he managed to cover his tracks.

Only in 1952, for collaboration with the Nazis during the war, the tribunal of the Kyiv Military District sentenced Vasyura to 25 years in prison. At that time, nothing was known about his punitive activities.

On September 17, 1955, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a decree “On amnesty for Soviet citizens who collaborated with the occupiers during the war of 1941-1945,” and Vasyura was released. He returned to his native Cherkasy region. The KGB officers nevertheless found and arrested the criminal again.

By that time he was no less than the deputy director of one of the large state farms near Kiev. Vasyura loved to speak to the pioneers, introducing himself as a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, a front-line signalman. He was even considered an honorary cadet at one of the military schools in Kyiv.

From November to December 1986, the trial of Grigory Vasyura took place in Minsk. Fourteen volumes of case N9 104 reflected many specific facts of the bloody activities of the Nazi punisher. By the decision of the military tribunal of the Belarusian Military District, Vasyura was found guilty of all the crimes charged against him and sentenced to the then capital punishment - execution.

During the trial, it was established that he personally killed more than 360 civilian women, old people, and children. The executioner petitioned for clemency, where, in particular, he wrote: “I ask you to give me, a sick old man, the opportunity to live out my life with my family in freedom.”

At the end of 1986, the sentence was carried out.

REDEEMED

After the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad, many of those who “faithfully and obediently” served the occupiers began to think about their future. The reverse process began: policemen who had not stained themselves with massacres began to join partisan detachments, taking their service weapons with them. According to Soviet historians, in the central part of the USSR, at the time of liberation, partisan detachments consisted on average of one-fifth of defector policemen.

This is what was written in the report of the Leningrad headquarters of the partisan movement:

“In September 1943, intelligence workers and intelligence officers dispersed more than ten enemy garrisons, ensuring the transition of up to a thousand people to the partisans... Intelligence officers and intelligence workers of the 1st Partisan Brigade in November 1943 dispersed six enemy garrisons in the settlements of Batory, Lokot, Terentino , Polovo and sent more than eight hundred people from them to the partisan brigade.”

There were also cases of mass transitions of entire detachments of people who collaborated with the Nazis to the side of the partisans.

August 16, 1943 commander of “Druzhina No. 1”, former lieutenant colonel of the Red Army Gil-Rodionov, and 2,200 soldiers under his command, having previously shot all the Germans and especially anti-Soviet commanders, moved towards the partisans.

From the former “combatants” the “1st Anti-Fascist Partisan Brigade” was formed, and its commander received the rank of colonel and was awarded the Order of the Red Star. The brigade later distinguished itself in battles with the Germans.

Gil-Rodionov himself died on May 14, 1944 with a weapon in his hands near the Belarusian village of Ushachi, covering the breakthrough of a partisan detachment blocked by the Germans. At the same time, his brigade suffered heavy losses - out of 1,413 soldiers, 1,026 people died.

Well, when the Red Army arrived, it was time for the policemen to answer for everything. Many of them were shot immediately after liberation. The people's court was often quick but fair. The punishers and executioners who managed to escape were still being searched for a long time by the competent authorities.

INSTEAD OF AN EPILOGUE. EX-PUNISHER-VETERAN

The fate of the female punisher known as Tonka the Machine Gunner is interesting and unusual.

Antonina Makarovna Makarova, a Muscovite, served in 1942-1943 with the famous Nazi collaborator Bronislav Kaminsky, who later became an SS Brigadefuhrer (Major General). Makarova performed the duties of an executioner in the “Lokotsky self-government district” controlled by Bronislav Kaminsky. She preferred to kill her victims with a machine gun.

“All those sentenced to death were the same to me. Only their number changed. Usually I was ordered to shoot a group of 27 people - that’s how many partisans the cell could accommodate. I shot about 500 meters from the prison near some pit.

Those arrested were placed in a line facing the pit. One of the men rolled my machine gun to the execution site. At the command of my superiors, I knelt down and shot at people until everyone fell dead...,” she later said during interrogations.

“I didn’t know those I was shooting. They didn't know me. Therefore, I was not ashamed in front of them. It happened that you would shoot, come closer, and someone else would twitch. Then she shot him in the head again so that the person would not suffer. Sometimes several prisoners had a piece of plywood with the inscription “partisan” hung on their chests. Some people sang something before they died. After the executions, I cleaned the machine gun in the guardhouse or in the yard. There was plenty of ammunition..."

Often she had to shoot entire families, including children.

After the war, she lived happily for another thirty-three years, got married, became a labor veteran and an honorary citizen of her town of Lepel in the Vitebsk region of Belarus. Her husband also served in the war and was awarded orders and medals. The two adult daughters were proud of their mother.

She was often invited to schools to tell children about her heroic past as a front-line nurse. Nevertheless, Soviet justice was looking for Makarov all this time. And only many years later, an accident allowed investigators to get on her trail. She confessed to her crimes. In 1978, at the age of fifty-five, Tonka the Machine Gunner was shot by court.

Oleg SEMENOV, journalist (St. Petersburg), newspaper "Top Secret"

The OKH order on the creation of the legion was signed on August 15, 1942. At the beginning of 1943, in the “second wave” of field battalions of the eastern legions, 3 Volga-Tatar (825, 826 and 827th) were sent to the troops, and in the second half of 1943 - “third wave” - 4 Volga-Tatar (from 828th to 831st). At the end of 1943, the battalions were transferred to Southern France and stationed in the city of Mand (Armenian, Azerbaijani and 829th Volga-Tatar battalions) . The 826th and 827th Volga Tatars were disarmed by the Germans due to the reluctance of the soldiers to go into battle and numerous cases of desertion and were converted into road construction units.
Since the end of 1942, an underground organization had been operating in the legion, whose goal was the internal ideological disintegration of the legion. The underground workers printed anti-fascist leaflets that were distributed among the legionnaires.

For participation in the underground organization on August 25, 1944, 11 Tatar legionnaires were guillotined in the Plötzensee military prison in Berlin: Gainan Kurmashev, Musa Jalil, Abdullah Alish, Fuat Saifulmulyukov, Fuat Bulatov, Garif Shabaev, Akhmet Simaev, Abdulla Battalov, Zinnat Khasanov, Akhat Atnashev and Salim Bukharov.

The actions of the Tatar underground led to the fact that of all the national battalions (14 Turkestan, 8 Azerbaijani, 7 North Caucasian, 8 Georgian, 8 Armenian, 7 Volga-Tatar battalions), the Tatar ones were the most unreliable for the Germans, and they fought the least against the Soviets troops

Cossack camp (Kosakenlager) - a military organization during the Great Patriotic War that united Cossacks in the Wehrmacht and SS.
In October 1942, in Novocherkassk, occupied by German troops, with the permission of the German authorities, a Cossack gathering was held, at which the headquarters of the Don Army was elected. The organization of Cossack formations within the Wehrmacht begins, both in the occupied territories and among the emigrants. The Cossacks took an active part in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in August 1944. In particular, Cossacks from the Cossack police battalion formed in 1943 in Warsaw (more than 1000 people), the escort guard hundred (250 people), the Cossack battalion of the 570th Security Regiment, the 5th Kuban Regiment took part in the fighting against the poorly armed rebels Cossack camp under the command of Colonel Bondarenko. One of the Cossack units, led by the cornet I. Anikin, was tasked with capturing the headquarters of the leader of the Polish insurgent movement, General T. Bur-Komorowski. The Cossacks captured about 5 thousand rebels. For their zeal, the German command awarded many of the Cossacks and officers with the Order of the Iron Cross.
By the ruling of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated December 25, 1997, Krasnov P.N., Shkuro A.G., Sultan-Girey Klych, Krasnov S.N. and Domanov T.I. were recognized as reasonably convicted and not subject to rehabilitation.

Wehrmacht Cossack (1944)

Cossacks wearing Wehrmacht stripes.

Warsaw, August 1944. Nazi Cossacks suppress the Polish uprising. In the center is Major Ivan Frolov along with other officers. The soldier on the right, judging by his stripes, belongs to the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) of General Vlasov.

The Cossacks' uniform was predominantly German.

Georgian Legion (Die Georgische Legion, Georgian) - a formation of the Reichswehr, later the Wehrmacht. The Legion existed from 1915 to 1917 and from 1941 to 1945.

When it was first created, it was staffed by volunteers from among Georgians who were captured during the First World War. During World War II, the legion was replenished with volunteers from among Soviet prisoners of war of Georgian nationality.
From the participation of Georgians and other Caucasians in other units, the special detachment for propaganda and sabotage “Bergman” - “Highlander” is known, which included in its ranks 300 Germans, 900 Caucasians and 130 Georgian emigrants, who made up the special Abwehr unit “Tamara II”, based in Germany in March 1942. The first commander of the detachment was Theodor Oberlander, a career intelligence officer and a major expert on eastern problems. The unit included agitators and consisted of 5 companies: 1st, 4th, 5th Georgian; 2nd North Caucasus; 3rd - Armenian. Since August 1942, “Bergman” - “Highlander” acted in the Caucasian theater - carried out sabotage and agitation in the Soviet rear in the Grozny and Ishchersky directions, in the area of ​​​​Nalchik, Mozdok and Mineralnye Vody. During the period of fighting in the Caucasus, 4 rifle companies were formed from defectors and prisoners - Georgian, North Caucasian, Armenian and mixed, four cavalry squadrons - 3 North Caucasian and 1 Georgian.

Georgian Wehrmacht formation, 1943

Latvian SS Volunteer Legion.

This formation was part of the SS troops, and was formed from two SS divisions: the 15th Grenadier and 19th Grenadier. In 1942, the Latvian civil administration, to help the Wehrmacht, proposed that the German side create an armed force with a total strength of 100 thousand people on a volunteer basis, with the condition that Latvia’s independence would be recognized after the end of the war. Hitler rejected this offer. In February 1943, after the defeat of German troops at Stalingrad, the Nazi command decided to form Latvian national units within the SS. On March 28 in Riga, each legionnaire took the oath
In the name of God, I solemnly promise in the fight against the Bolsheviks unlimited obedience to the Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces Adolf Hitler and for this promise I, as a brave warrior, am always ready to give my life. As a result, in May 1943, on the basis of six Latvian police battalions (16, 18, 19, 21, 24 and 26th), operating as part of Army Group North, the Latvian SS Volunteer Brigade was organized as part of the 1st and 2nd Latvian Volunteer Regiments. At the same time, volunteers of ten ages (born 1914−1924) were recruited for the 15th Latvian SS Volunteer Division, three regiments of which (3rd, 4th and 5th Latvian Volunteers) were formed by mid-June. The division took direct responsibility participation in punitive actions against Soviet citizens in the territories of the Leningrad and Novgorod regions. In 1943, units of the division participated in punitive operations against Soviet partisans in the areas of the cities of Nevel, Opochka and Pskov (3 km from Pskov, they shot 560 people).
Members of the Latvian SS divisions also took part in the brutal murders of captured Soviet soldiers, including women.
Having captured the prisoners, the German scoundrels carried out a bloody reprisal against them. Private Karaulov N.K., junior sergeant Korsakov Y.P. and guard lieutenant Bogdanov E.R. were gouged out by the Germans and traitors from the Latvian SS units and inflicted many knife wounds. They cut out stars on the foreheads of guard lieutenants Kaganovich and Kosmin, twisted their legs and knocked out their teeth with their boots. Medical instructor A. A. Sukhanova and other three nurses had their breasts cut out, their legs and arms twisted, and they were stabbed numerous times. Privates Egorov F. E., Satybatynov, Antonenko A. N., Plotnikov P. and foreman Afanasyev were brutally tortured. None of the wounded Latvians captured by the Germans and fascists escaped torture and painful abuse. According to available data, the brutal massacre of wounded Soviet soldiers and officers was carried out by soldiers and officers of one of the battalions of the 43rd Infantry Regiment of the 19th Latvian SS Division. And so on in Poland, Belarus.

Parade of Latvian legionnaires in honor of the founding day of the Republic of Latvia.

20th SS Grenadier Division (1st Estonian).
In accordance with the regulations of the SS troops, recruitment was carried out on a voluntary basis, and those wishing to serve in this unit had to meet the requirements of the SS troops for health and ideological reasons. The formation of Estonian regular units to participate in hostilities on the side of Nazi Germany began on August 25, 1941 It was allowed to accept the Baltic states into service in the Wehrmacht and create from them special teams and volunteer battalions for anti-partisan warfare. In this regard, the commander of the 18th Army, Colonel General von Küchler, formed 6 Estonian security detachments from scattered Omakaitse detachments on a voluntary basis (with a 1-year contract). At the end of the same year, all six units were reorganized into three eastern battalions and one eastern company. The Estonian police battalions, staffed with national personnel, had only one German observer officer. An indicator of the special trust of the Germans in the Estonian police battalions was the fact that Wehrmacht military ranks were introduced there. On October 1, 1942, the entire Estonian police force consisted of 10.4 thousand people, to which 591 Germans were assigned.
According to archival documents of the German command of that period, the 3rd Estonian SS Volunteer Brigade, together with other units of the German army, carried out punitive operations “Heinrik” and “Fritz” to eliminate Soviet partisans in the Polotsk-Nevel-Idritsa-Sebezh area, which were carried out in October -December 1943.

The Turkestan Legion is a formation of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, which was part of the Eastern Legion and consisting of volunteers from representatives of the Turkic peoples of the republics of the USSR and Central Asia (Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmens, Kyrgyz, Uyghurs, Tatars, Kumyks, etc.). Turkestan Legion The legion was created on November 15, 1941 under the 444th Security Division in the form of the Turkestan Regiment. The Turkestan regiment consisted of four companies. In the winter of 1941/42 he carried out security service in Northern Tavria. The order to create the Turkestan Legion was issued on December 17, 1941 (together with the Caucasian, Georgian and Armenian legions); Turkmens, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Karakalpaks and Tajiks were accepted into the legion. The legion was not homogeneous in ethnic composition - in addition to natives of Turkestan, Azerbaijanis and representatives of North Caucasian peoples also served in it. In May 1943, the experimental 162nd Turkestan Infantry Division was formed in Neuhammer under the command of Major General von Niedermayer. In September 1943, the division was sent to Slovenia, and then to Italy, where it carried out security service and fought against partisans. At the end of the war, the Turkestan Legion joined the Eastern Turkic SS unit (number - 8 thousand).

North Caucasus Legion of the Wehrmacht (Nordkaukasische Legion), later 2nd Turkestan Legion.

The formation of the legion began in September 1942 near Warsaw from Caucasian prisoners of war. The number of volunteers included representatives of such peoples as Chechens, Ingush, Kabardians, Balkars, Tabasarans and so on. Initially, the legion consisted of three battalions, commanded by Captain Gutman.

The North Caucasus Committee participated in the formation of the legion and the call for volunteers. Its leadership included Dagestani Akhmed-Nabi Agayev (Abwehr agent) and Sultan-Girey Klych (former White Army general, chairman of the Mountain Committee). The committee published the newspaper “Gazavat” in Russian.

The legion included a total of eight battalions numbered 800, 802, 803, 831, 835, 836, 842 and 843. They served in Normandy, Holland, and Italy. In 1945, the legion was included in the North Caucasian battle group of the Caucasian SS unit and fought against Soviet troops until the end of the war. The soldiers of the legion who were captured by the Soviets were sentenced to death by military courts for collaborating with the Nazi occupiers.

The Armenian Legion (Armenische Legion) is a Wehrmacht formation consisting of representatives of the Armenian people.
The military goal of this formation was the state independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union. Armenian legionnaires were part of 11 battalions, as well as other units. The total number of legionnaires reached 18 thousand people.

Armenian legionnaires.

Traitors have existed at all times. Traitors to the homeland who did not fulfill their promises were often considered the most dangerous criminals. For centuries they were subjected to capital punishment - execution. And yet they have always existed and will continue to exist. After all, humanity continues to retain among its qualities self-interest, thirst for power and a willingness to renounce everything human for its own benefit.

Traitors to the Motherland during the Great Patriotic War

According to some historical data, about 1,000,000 Soviet citizens went over to the side of the Wehrmacht during the Great Patriotic War. The largest caste among them is the policemen. These are groups formed by the occupiers from among local residents. Capturing populated areas, shooting the first people who came to hand there - families of Red Army soldiers, workers, civilians, they moved further into the interior of the country.

The support of the new orders they established was carried out by members of the auxiliary German police. Since the Germans had no idea about local realities, the composition of such groups was formed from the local population. There were always people for such work - traitors and traitors to the homeland entered there.

Police structure

The units were staffed by supporters of the new authorities. They received all orders and orders from German police departments. The administrations in the occupied territories decided only on the functioning and staffing of police groups. The groups themselves were completely dependent on the Germans and were called auxiliary. They made up 30% of all Soviet citizens who defected to the Reich.

They did not have a single uniform - it could be a regular Soviet uniform with a distinctive German sign. During the Great Patriotic War, these traitors to the motherland were most despised by the Soviet people, which is what they deserved.

Who were the police?

By 1943, about 70,000 Soviet citizens had become policemen. This included a large number of ideological opponents of the Soviet authorities, convicts who wanted revenge for the civil war. There were those who wanted to stay afloat under any political regime, while mocking their neighbors, lining their pockets at their expense and reveling in the crumbs of power.

For prisoners of war, joining the police was sometimes the only way to escape captivity and survive in the camp.

Some of the future policemen were threatened with reprisals against him or his relatives if they refused to join the police.

And the smallest category were members of underground organizations and partisan spies who infiltrated the ranks of the police and conveyed important information to Soviet commanders.

Being hated by the local population, the police take advantage of their position to rob their neighbors, get drunk and eat while others suffer.

Redemption

When the Red Army inflicted a crushing defeat on the Wehrmacht at Stalingrad in 1943, these categories of citizens increasingly became former traitors to the motherland. Those who did not have time to register their participation in the mass executions of their compatriots became members of partisan detachments, taking with them weapons issued by the Germans.

Data has been preserved that about a fifth of the partisans were escaped policemen.

Traitors to the motherland switched back to the side of the USSR en masse. So, in August 1943, an entire army of 2,000 soldiers under the leadership of former Soviet lieutenant colonel Gil-Rodionov shot all the Germans and opponents of Soviet power and went over to the partisans.

The lieutenant colonel died, clutching a weapon in his hands, while covering the breakthrough of a detachment of partisans, which was blocked by the Germans. More than half - about 1,500 people - of his detachment then died.

With the arrival of the Red Army soldiers, punishments for traitors to the motherland followed. They were tried quickly and fairly. Most were shot on the spot. Those who escaped were pursued and destroyed by intelligence agencies.

Vlasovites

The list of traitors to the motherland has also been supplemented by followers of the most famous traitor of the Second World War - Andrei Vlasov.

The army under his leadership recaptured Solnechnogorsk from the Germans and liberated Volokolamsk. And then Vlasov was captured, where he began to give advice to the enemy about the most effective methods of fighting Soviet soldiers.

And in the ranks of the Germans he caused disgust with his helpfulness. Himmler called him a deserted boar, a fool, and Hitler disdained personal communication with him.

Vlasov organized the Russian Liberation Army, which included Russian prisoners of war. They attacked their compatriots and began to destroy partisan detachments and kill civilians.

Immediately after the victory over the Reich, the traitor was captured by the Red Army, taken to Moscow, where he was immediately hanged.

Alternative opinion

According to some reports, Vlasov is not a traitor. Major General V. Filatov expressed the opinion that Vlasov was a Stalinist spy agent. Having written a whole book about the Vlasovism, he argued that Vlasov, who was in captivity, retained his party card until the last minutes, wore a Soviet uniform, was always independent and kept himself apart.

After the war

Of course, cases of betrayal were also opened in the post-war period. A lot of information has been preserved about traitors to the motherland who harmed Soviet intelligence. One of the most famous cases is that of Popov, a lieutenant colonel in the GRU. He was also a participant in the Second World War, and in 1951 he was exiled. There he recruited spies from among foreign citizens. While separated from his wife, who remained in Tver with their children, he began an affair with a young prostitute Emilia Kohanek.

Due to the costs of her work, she often communicated with the local police, who were aware of her adventures. This is how the Russian intelligence officer became known to the Austrian authorities. Afraid of being exposed and experiencing a stormy romance, the intelligence officer found a way out by working for foreign intelligence services in parallel with the Soviet one. He gave the United States a lot of valuable information about the USSR, also revealing state secrets about his homeland to Austrian intelligence officers.

In 1958, the Soviet secret services finally stopped this by capturing the traitor. Two years later he was convicted in Moscow and then immediately shot. The Western media painted a portrait of him as a romantic hero-lover. While in Moscow, at his trial, his wife approached him, calling him a scumbag.

About Penkovsky

The most effective traitor who betrayed the interests of his homeland was Oleg Penkovsky. Having gone through the entire Great Patriotic War, being a senior GRU officer, possessing unusually valuable qualities, he would later receive the title of the largest British intelligence officer on the territory of the USSR. He became an exemplary family man, getting married and having a daughter. One day, at a Moscow party, a British spy spoke to him, who then gained the officer’s trust. Here the Soviet officer admitted that he had long wanted to cooperate with foreign intelligence services. This is what the English intelligence officer needed.

In 1960, Penkovsky made the first transfer of documents that constituted state secrets. By this act he convinced Mi-6 of his own loyalty. From that moment on, he began training to be a foreign spy. In just over a year of work, Oleg gave the enemy more than 5,000 documents containing secrets of the operations of the Soviet special services, tactics and plans of the USSR. His tips destroyed more than six hundred USSR intelligence officers and more than 5 dozen GRU officers. He also conveyed the latest gossip about the Soviet elite.

Receiving generous payment for his work, the traitor to his homeland began to squander his big money, spending fortunes on mistresses. At the same time, he carefully hid his luxurious life abroad from his Moscow wife, who lived in poverty in her homeland.

He also did not save his father, who needed money for treatment. The officer stated that he had no money.

Pay

She didn’t let the traitor have any more fun, and after a year of such a life, she was already on the trail of his atrocities. They began to listen and search him more thoroughly. When the truth was revealed, it shocked the entire intelligence service of the USSR. He was immediately arrested along with the English spy friend who recruited him. The friend was imprisoned for 8 years, but was released a year later in exchange for a Soviet spy. And Penkovsky was shot. Although there is evidence that he was brutally tortured in a gas chamber.

How traitors to the motherland are punished

Treason is a serious crime. If earlier the sentence was harsh, what is happening now with a traitor to the motherland, as such people are also called, collaborators? History contains many cases of fairly mild punishments for those who sold documents that constituted state secrets abroad. Thus, in 1998, V. Tkachenko, convicted of this, received 3 years in prison.

In 1992, V. Baranov, recruited by American intelligence services, received thousands of dollars in rewards from them. Arrested with false documents, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison in Moscow.

How intelligence pursued traitors

History has also preserved more interesting cases of the Soviet era and fair punishments of traitors to their country and relatives. One of them is the case of Tonka the Machine Gunner, a war criminal during the Great Patriotic War, an executioner who, with particular cynicism, personally shot more than 1,500 of her own fellow citizens, going over to the side of the Wehrmacht.

Tonya Makarova was born in 1921, and saw the war while in Moscow. She voluntarily went to the front.

Soon she found herself in the “Vyazma Cauldron,” a notorious meat grinder for Soviet soldiers who were surrounded by the Germans. Then only one soldier, Fedchuk, remained next to her. The two of them wandered through the forest, trying to survive. When the soldier went to his family, Tonya did not look for the partisans, stopping in the Lokot Republic. It was an entire settlement of Soviet traitors to the motherland under German control.

Having liked them, she agreed to all their conditions, working there as a prostitute. When she was given a machine gun aimed at civilian Soviet families standing defenseless in front of it, she had no problem shooting them down while drunk. From that day on, she began to fulfill this duty, constantly shooting dozens of her compatriots. When several children managed to survive because the bullets passed over their heads, they and their corpses were taken to the forest by local residents. There they were handed over to the partisans, and rumors spread about Tonka the Machine Gunner, and a hunt was announced for her.

Having fallen ill with a venereal disease, the girl is soon sent behind enemy lines for treatment. She obtains fake documents there right before the arrival of the Red Army and becomes an exemplary Soviet nurse. Soon she marries a Red Army soldier who survived the war and disappears.

Search

For thirty years, the intelligence services were looking for the executioner, who led the ordinary life of a Soviet citizen. When one day her brother traveled abroad and indicated his sister’s real name on the list of relatives, KGB officers finally got on her trail.

Several times witnesses of her atrocities were secretly brought to her. After their unanimous confirmation that this was the same female executioner, she was captured.

She coldly confessed to everything, refusing to communicate with her unsuspecting family. The reason for the wife's arrest was hidden from the front-line husband; he complained to all authorities, including the UN, saving his wife. Then the investigators revealed to him the true reason.

There is information that the war veteran turned gray overnight. He, along with Tony's children, disowned her.

Until recently, Tonya believed that her crime was not so serious and that they would not disgrace her in her old age. However, all requests for clemency written to her were rejected. And soon she was shot.