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{{short description|Soviet Russian general and politician (1901–1946)}}
{{Distinguish|Andrey Vlasov (footballer)|Anatoly Vlasov}}
{{family name hatnote|Andreyevich|Vlasov|lang=Eastern Slavic}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2016}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Andrey Vlasov
| native_name         = {{nobold|Андрéй Влáсов}}
| native_name_lang    = rus
| order               = Chairman of the [[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia]]
| termstart           = 14 November 1944
| termend             = May 1945
| predecessor         = ''Position established''
| successor           = [[Mikhail Meandrov]] (acting)<ref>Михаил Алексеевич Меандров. Штрихи к портрету // К. М. Александров. Против Сталина. Сборник статей и материалов. СПб, 2003.</ref>
| birth_name          = Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov<br>Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1901|9|14}}
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1946|8|1|1901|9|14}}
| birth_place         = [[Lomakino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Lomakino]], [[Nizhny Novgorod Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_place         = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]], [[Soviet Union]]
| death_cause         = [[Execution by hanging]]
| image               = Andrey Vlasov.jpg
| image_size          = 
| caption             = 
| party               = [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]] (1930–1942)<br />[[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia]] (1944–1946)
| nickname            = 
| allegiance          = {{flagcountry|Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|1918}}<br />{{small|(1919–1922)}}<br />{{flag|Soviet Union|1936}}<br />{{small|(1922–1942)}}<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Russian Liberation Army (1944–1945).svg}} [[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia]]<br />{{small|(1945)}}
| serviceyears        = 1920–1942; 1945
| rank                = [[Lieutenant general]]
| commands            = {{plainlist|
* [[99th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|99th Rifle Division]]
* [[20th Army (Soviet Union)|20th Army]]
* [[2nd Shock Army]]
* [[Russian Liberation Army]]
}}
| unit                = 
| battles             = 
{{Tree list}}
* [[Russian Civil War]]
* [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]
* [[Second World War]]
** [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]]
*** [[Battle of Brody (1941)|Battle of Brody]]
*** [[Battle of Kiev (1941)|Battle of Kiev]]
*** [[Battle of Moscow]]
*** [[Battle of Lyuban]]
{{tree list/end}}
| awards              = {{plainlist|
* [[Order of the Red Banner]]<sup>1</sup>
* [[Order of Lenin]]<sup>1</sup>
* <sup>1</sup>All Soviet awards revoked after defection to Germany.
* [[Ostvolk Medal|Ostvolk Medal in gold with swords]]
}}
| laterwork           = 
| signature = Vlasov signature.svg
}}

'''Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov''' ({{langx|ru|Андре́й Андре́евич Вла́сов}},<!-- In Russian: ''Андрей Андреевич Власов''; alternative transliterations of his names appear as '''Andrei Andreyevich''' or '''Andreevich''' and as '''Vlassov''' or (in German) '''Wlassow'''. --> {{OldStyleDate|September 14|1901|September 1}} – August 1, 1946) was a Soviet Russian [[Red Army]] general. During the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Axis-Soviet campaigns]] of [[World War II]], he fought (1941–1942) against the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' in the [[Battle of Moscow]] and later was captured attempting to lift the [[siege of Leningrad]]. After his capture, he defected to the [[Third Reich]] and nominally headed the collaborationist [[Russian Liberation Army]] (''Russkaya osvoboditel'naya armiya'', ROA), also becoming the political leader of the Russian [[Collaboration in the German-occupied Soviet Union|collaborationist]]  anti-Soviet movement.

Initially, this army existed only on paper and was used by Germans to goad Red Army troops to surrender, while any political and military activities were officially forbidden to him by the Nazis after his visits to the occupied territory;<ref name="andreev">{{cite book|author=Catherine Andreev|title=Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement: Soviet Reality and Emigré Theories|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|date=1987|isbn=9780511523571}}</ref> only in November 1944 did [[Heinrich Himmler]], aware of Germany's shortage of manpower, arrange for Vlasov's formations, composed of Soviet [[prisoners of war]] as armed forces of [[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia]], a political organisation headed by Vlasov. While for the Nazis the ROA was a mere propaganda weapon, Vlasov and his associates attempted to create an armed political movement independent of the Nazi control that would present an anti-Stalinist program described by [[Robert Conquest]] as democratic,<ref name="auto">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=16l79hfKMzEC | isbn=978-0-19-507132-0 | title=The Great Terror: A Reassessment | date=1990 | publisher=Oxford University Press }}</ref> while attempting to avoid Nazi antisemitism and chauvinism, with "completing the [[Russian Revolution|Revolution]]" of 1917 being the ultimate goal of the movement.<ref name="andreev"/>

In January 1945, Vlasov headed the army as it was declared that it would be no longer a part of the ''Wehrmacht''. At the war's end, the 1st division of ROA aided the May 1945 [[Prague uprising]] against the Germans. Vlasov and the ROA were captured by Soviet forces with the United States' assistance. Vlasov was tortured,<ref>{{Cite book|last= Gordievsky & Andrew|title= KGB : The Inside Story|publisher= Hodder & Stoughton Ltd|year= 1990|isbn= 0340485612|page=343}}</ref> and hanged for treason after a [[secret trial]]. After his death, his figure and his movement became objects of various narratives in [[memory politics]] and historiography.

==Early career==
[[File:Vlasov in China.jpg|thumb|left|Vlasov during his service in China]]
Born in [[Lomakino, Nizhny Novgorod Oblast|Lomakino]], [[Nizhny Novgorod]] Governorate, [[Russian Empire]], Vlasov was originally a student at a [[Russian Orthodox]] [[seminary]]. He quit the study of divinity after the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]], briefly studying [[Agronomy|agricultural sciences]] instead, and in 1919 joined the [[Red Army]]. He fought in the [[Southern Front of the Russian Civil War|southern theatre]] in [[Ukraine]], the [[Caucasus]], and the [[Crimean Peninsula|Crimea]] during the [[Russian Civil War]], including against the [[White movement|White forces]] of [[Anton Denikin]] and [[Pyotr Wrangel]], and the [[Revolutionary Insurgent Army|anarchist army]] of [[Nestor Makhno]]. He distinguished himself as an officer and gradually rose through the ranks of the Red Army. In the 1920s and early 1930s he was a company, battalion, and regimental commander, and graduated from an infantry officer course. He was also an instructor at the [[Frunze Military Academy]].{{sfn|Andreyev|1987|pages=19–21}}

Vlasov joined the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist Party]] in 1930. Sent to China in 1938, he acted as a military adviser to [[Chiang Kai-shek]] until November 1939. From February to May 1939 he was the advisor to [[Yan Xishan]], the governor of [[Shanxi]]. Vlasov was also the chief of staff to the head of the Soviet military mission, General [[Aleksandr Cherepanov]]. He received a military decoration from Chiang and a watch from his wife, [[Madame Chiang Kai-shek]], which were both taken from him after he returned to the USSR.{{sfn|Andreyev|1987|p=21}} Upon his return, Vlasov served in several assignments before being given command of the [[99th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|99th Rifle Division]]. After just nine months under Vlasov's leadership, and an inspection by [[Semyon Timoshenko]], the division was recognized as one of the best divisions in the Army in 1940.<ref name="Komandarmy">Коллектив авторов. «Великая Отечественная. Командармы. Военный биографический словарь» — М.; Жуковский: Кучково поле, 2005. {{ISBN|5-86090-113-5}}</ref> Timoshenko presented Vlasov with an inscribed gold watch, as he "found the 99th the best of all". The historian [[John Erickson (historian)|John Erickson]] says of Vlasov at this point that [he] "was an up-and-coming man".<ref>[[John Erickson (historian)|John Erickson]], ''The Soviet High Command'', MacMillan, 1962, p.558</ref> In 1940, Vlasov was promoted to major general, and on June 22, 1941, when the Germans and their allies invaded the Soviet Union, Vlasov was commanding the [[4th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)|4th Mechanized Corps]].

As a lieutenant general, he commanded the [[37th Army (Soviet Union)|37th Army]] near [[Battle of Kiev (1941)|Kiev]] and escaped encirclement. He then played an important role in the [[Battle of Moscow|defense of Moscow]], as his [[20th Army (Soviet Union)|20th Army]] counterattacked and retook [[Solnechnogorsk]]. Vlasov's picture was printed (along with those of other Soviet generals) in the newspaper ''[[Pravda]]'' as that of one of the "defenders of Moscow". Vlasov was decorated on January 24, 1942, with the [[Order of the Red Banner]] for his efforts in the defence of Moscow. Vlasov was ordered to relieve the ailing commander Klykov after the Second Shock Army had been encircled.<ref>Bellamy, Absolute War, pg 384</ref> After this success, Vlasov was put in command of the [[2nd Shock Army]] of the [[Volkhov Front]] and ordered to lead the attempt to lift the [[Siege of Leningrad]]—the [[Lyuban Offensive Operation|Lyuban-Chudovo Offensive Operation]] of January–April 1942.

On January 7, 1942, Vlasov's army had spearheaded the [[Lyuban offensive operation]] to break the [[Siege of Leningrad|Leningrad encirclement]]. Planned as a combined operation between the Volkhov and Leningrad Fronts on a 30&nbsp;km frontage, other armies of the [[Leningrad Front]] (including the 54th) were supposed to participate at scheduled intervals in this operation. Crossing the [[Volkhov River]], Vlasov's army was successful in breaking through the [[18th Army (Wehrmacht)|German 18th Army]]'s lines and penetrated 70–74&nbsp;km deep inside the German rear area.<ref>Meretskov, On the service of the nation, Ch.6</ref> However, the other armies (the Volkhov Front's [[4th Army (Soviet Union)|4th]], [[52nd Army (Soviet Union)|52nd]], and [[59th Army (Soviet Union)|59th Armies]], 13th Cavalry Corps, and 4th and [[6th Guards Rifle Corps]], as well as the [[54th Army (Soviet Union)|54th Army]] of the [[Leningrad Front]]) failed to exploit Vlasov's advances and provide the required support, and Vlasov's army became stranded. Permission to retreat was refused. With the counter-offensive in May 1942, the Second Shock Army was finally allowed to retreat, but by now, too weakened, it was surrounded and in June 1942 virtually annihilated during the final breakout at Myasnoi Bor.<ref>Erickson, Road to Stalingrad, 2003, p.352. See also p.381, where Erickson describes 2 Shock after this operation as 'an army brought back from the dead.'</ref>

==German prisoner==
[[File:Vlassof.Himmler.jpg|thumb|left|Vlasov and Himmler on the cover of Norwegian ''[[Signal (magazine)|Signal]]'']]
After Vlasov's army was surrounded, he himself was offered an escape by aeroplane. The general refused and hid in German-occupied territory; ten days later, on July 12, 1942, a local farmer exposed him to the Germans. Vlasov's opponent and captor, general [[Georg Lindemann]], interrogated him about the surrounding of his army and details of battles, then "had Vlasov imprisoned in occupied [[Vinnytsia]]."

While in prison, Vlasov met Captain [[Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt]], a [[Baltic Germans|Baltic German]] who was attempting to foster a [[Russian Liberation Movement]]. Strik-Strikfeldt had circulated memos to this effect in the Wehrmacht. Strik-Strikfeldt, who had been a participant in the [[White movement]] during the [[Russian Civil War]]<!--see his memoirs: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/german/strick-strickfeldt/index.html-->, persuaded Vlasov to become involved in aiding the German advance against the rule of Joseph Stalin and [[Bolshevism]]. With Lieutenant Colonel [[Vladimir Boyarsky]], Vlasov wrote a memo shortly after his capture to the German military leaders suggesting cooperation between anti-Stalinist Russians and the German Army.

==Defection==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27774, Wlassow und Schilenkow bei Goebbels.jpg|thumb|Vlasov (left) and Gen. Zhilenkov (center) meeting [[Joseph Goebbels]] (February 1945)]]

Vlasov was taken to Berlin under the control of the [[Wehrmacht Propaganda Troops|Wehrmacht Propaganda Department]]. While there, he and other Soviet officers began drafting plans for the creation of a Russian provisional government and the recruitment of a Russian army of liberation under Russian command. In the spring of 1943, Vlasov wrote an anti-Bolshevik leaflet known as the "Smolensk Proclamation", which was dropped from aircraft by the millions on Soviet forces and Soviet-controlled soil. In March of the same year, Vlasov also published an open letter titled "[[Why I Have Taken Up the Struggle Against Bolshevism]]". Even though no Russian Liberation Army yet existed, the Nazi propaganda department issued Russian Liberation Army patches to Russian volunteers and tried to use Vlasov's name in order to encourage defections. Several hundred thousand former Soviet citizens served in the German army wearing this patch, but never under Vlasov's own command.[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J28172, Andrej Andrejewitsch Wlassow.jpg|thumb|upright| Vlasov talking to recruits on November 18, 1944]]

Vlasov was permitted to make several trips to German-occupied Soviet Union: most notably, to [[Pskov]], Russia, where Russian pro-German volunteers paraded. The populace's reception of Vlasov was mixed. While in Pskov, Vlasov dealt himself a nearly fatal political blow by referring to the Germans as mere "guests" during a speech, which Hitler found belittling. Vlasov was even put under house arrest and threatened with being handed over to the [[Gestapo]]. Despondent about his mission, Vlasov threatened to resign and return to the POW camp, but was dissuaded at the last minute by his confidants.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} According to [[Varlam Shalamov]] and his tale ''The Last Battle of Major Pugachov'', Vlasov emissaries lectured to the Russian [[prisoners of war]], explaining to them that their government had declared them all traitors, and that escaping was pointless. As Vlasov proclaimed, even if the Soviets succeeded, Stalin would send them to [[Siberia]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Gerald Reitlinger| title=The House Built on Sand.|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London (1960) ASIN: B0000CKNUO| pages=90, 100–101}}</ref>

== Vlasov Movement ==
[[File:Vlasov by Arthur Szyk.jpg|thumb|left|Caricature "General Vlasov, the Russian [[Quisling]]" (1943) by [[Arthur Szyk]] depicts Vlasov as a far-right reactionary surrounded by the [[White movement|White Guards]] with the Russian imperial double-headed eagle above him; the drawing is dedicated to the leader of the Russian Whites [[Anton Denikin]], known for Jewish pogroms]]
The creation of a political movement behind Vlasov and the Russian collaboration became a result of the conflicts within the Nazi Party and the Nazi bureaucracy. While Hitler and the supporters of the ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'' adhered to the idea of the colonization of the ''[[Untermensch]]en'' and denied any cooperation with the population of the USSR, [[Alfred Rosenberg]] proposed the creation of monoethnic nation-states as satellites of the Third Reich ruled by local nationalist collaborators. Hitler rejected this project, but the Soviet defectors were used by ''Wehrmacht Propaganda''. Eventually Hitler agreed to use the Soviet defectors for propaganda purposes. As the reports of the ''Osttruppen'' defecting the Soviet partisans reached Hitler, he demanded that all the units be disbanded, and the men sent to the mines and factories, but this order wasn't executed due to the resistance of the ''OKW''. After the 20 July plot, the Eastern troops were handed to the SS, and as Hitler weakened due to physical conditions, Himmler found possible the creation of a collaborationist political organisation with its army.<ref name="andreev"/>

As he defected, Vlasov became the leading figure of the so-called "Russian Liberation Movement", the main goal of which was the overthrow of Stalinism with the aid of the Nazis; the ROA was thought to be the armed force of the movement. Although the [[White emigre]]s participated in its formation, the Soviet defectors eventually became its leaders and formulated its political ideals. The [[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia]] (KONR) became the political body of this movement, and its ideals were described in the Prague Manifesto of the Committee in November 1944.<ref name="andreev"/> [[Robert Conquest]] wrote that Vlasov's "program shows that he was entirely out of sympathy with Nazism, and only concerned with a democratic Russia."<ref name="auto"/>

As Vlasov became the undisputed leader of the movement, it became referred to as "the Vlasov Movement",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/cia-rdp83-00415r006200040004-4|title=THE VLASOV MOVEMENT, 1940-1945 &#124; CIA FOIA (foia.cia.gov)|website=www.cia.gov}}</ref> while his Manifesto calls it the "Liberation Movement of the Peoples of Russia",<ref name="andreev"/> underlying its multinationality. Although at first Vlasov hoped for an open co-operation of his movement and the Nazis, during his tour at the occupied territories, he emphasised that National Socialism could not be imposed on Russia, and that "a foreign coat [would] not fit a Russian." In his nationalist speeches, Vlasov promoted the idea of equal partnership with Germany and the idea of an independent Russia; his speeches angered Himmler, and in response, [[Wilhelm Keitel]] issued an order that Vlasov must be returned to POW camp and that his name henceforth should be used only for propaganda purposes. Rosenberg stopped supporting Vlasov, but he was placed under virtual house arrest in Dahlem instead of being sent to the POW camp. Disappointed, Vlasov said several times that he would return to the camp, but was dissuaded by his associates, namely Malyshkin and [[Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt]].<ref name="andreev" />[[File:Vlasov bunny.jpg|thumb|Vlasov with a rabbit]]

Ideologically, the Vlasov movement was between the Russian nationalism of the [[National Alliance of Russian Solidarists]], an organisation of far-right origins which collaborated with the Nazis but the members of which were repressed by Gestapo in 1943 and 1944 so Vlasov had to ask Himmler to free them, as its ideologues surrounded Vlasov, and social democratic views of the other Russian POWs in Germany.<ref name="id1">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pWTyBJdfwOsC&pg=PA41|title=Covert Network: Progressives, the International Rescue Committee, and the CIA|first=Eric Thomas|last=Chester|date=September 8, 1995|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-1-56324-550-3 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Some of Vlasov's close associates like {{ill|Milety Zykov|ru|Зыков, Милетий Александрович}}, a Soviet journalist of Jewish origins, described themselves as [[Marxists]], Zykov was also described as a [[Bukharinist]]. Despite being captured by the Nazi secret police and killed, ostensibly for his Jewish origins and for his views, before the formation of the [[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia]] and the creation of its Manifesto, the political organization of the Vlasovites, Zykov was a major ideologue of the Vlasov army and participated in writing of the other Vlasovite program documents. The Vlasovites opposed their programs, the Smolensk Declaration, Vlasov's open letter "Why I Decided to Fight against Bolshevism", the Prague Manifesto of the KONR and ''Bloknot Propagandista'' (an important document which was written by rather minor members of the KONR as open for discussion and was not recognized as an official program), both to the Western capitalism and Stalinism, which was called by the word "Bolshevism" and described in the Manifesto not as [[socialism]] but as "[[state capitalism]]", and proclaimed their devotion to "completing the Revolution" of 1917 without distinguishing the [[February Revolution]] and the [[October Revolution]], and to ideals of either a "Russia without Bolsheviks and Capitalists" (Smolensk Declaration and the open letter), or a [[welfare state]] (''Bloknot Propagandista''); the influence of the NTS on the Manifesto is seen in the description of the future system of Russia as a "national-labour" system, some of Vlasov's generals joined the NTS. All of these documents granted the basic democratic freedoms and rights, including the right of the nations to self-determination and to separate from Russia and did not contain antisemitic remarks and invectives; ''Bloknot Propagandista'' also contained an attempt in critique of Marxism and denied both internationalism and national chauvinism. However, antisemitic remarks were made in one of the speeches of [[Vasily Malyshkin]] in 1943 and in [[Georgi Zhilenkov]]'s interview to the ''[[Völkischer Beobachter]]''; Vlasov was critical of such remarks and replied to the Nazi concerns that "the Jewish question" "was an internal Russian problem and would be dealt with after they [the ROA] had accomplished the primary aim of overthrowing the existing regime"; however, antisemitism frequently appeared in the pro-Vlasov Nazi and collaborationist newspapers issued before the formation of KONR, including the ones edited by Zykov, often in form of articles reprinted from the ''Völkischer Beobachter'' with the citation of the source. The program documents were also written as a compromise with Nazism to various extents: the Smolensk Declaration included some pro-Nazi points ("Germany was not fighting the war against the Russian people and their homeland but merely against Bolshevism"), and the Manifesto included a number of criticisms of the Western Allies as a compromise with Himmler's insistence to add antisemitic points.<ref name="andreev" />

The Nazis were suspicious of Vlasov, his organisation and his ideological position, and the Gestapo warned about the possibility of the Vlasovites betraying the Reich. The suspicions and criticism of the Vlasovites from the Reich officials was summarised in a document by the Ministry of Propaganda official [[Eberhard Taubert]] who described his concerns about the movement being "not National Socialist": "It is significant that it does not fight Jewry, that the Jewish Question is not recognized as such at all"; instead it presented "a watered-down infusion of liberal and Bolshevik ideologies", and Taubert described the concern with "strong Anglophile sympathies" and it "toying with the idea of a possible change of course" while not "feel[ing] bound to Germany".<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xX4eAAAAMAAJ | title=Vlasov: Translated from the German by Abe Farbstein. &#91;1st American Ed.&#93; | date=1970 | publisher=Knopf }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iG8fpUP4QjYC&pg=PA52 | title=Problems of Communism | date=1958 | publisher=Documentary Studies Section, International Information Administration }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/revolution-and-politics-in-russia/section/5fca03a9-07f9-4566-b065-5cba78d09c4d | title=The Kaminsky Brigade: A Case-Study of Soviet Disaffection | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240526145812/https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/read/revolution-and-politics-in-russia/section/5fca03a9-07f9-4566-b065-5cba78d09c4d | archive-date=2024-05-26 | first=Alexander | last=Dallin}}</ref>

[[File:Genarał Andriej Własow podczas przeglądu swoich jednostek (2-1984).jpg|thumb|Vlasov some time after his defection]]
Himmler, the head of the SS, had a negative attitude towards Vlasov and the idea of arming Russian formations. For example, in late 1942 he told another SS official who was based in Minsk that Russian collaborators should not be promised a national state and only a liberation from Bolshevism and possibly better living standards. He oversaw the creation of the [[14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Galician)|SS-Volunteer Division "Galicia"]] in October 1943 from Ukrainian volunteers, but that same month he said that Vlasov made him "genuinely anxious." Himmler later noted that there were Wehrmacht officers who wanted to give Vlasov a million-man army, and speculated that in the future it could theoretically turn against Germany. Himmler did not want Vlasov to even be used for propaganda and on another occasion said that Vlasov's ideology "must be intellectually totally annihilated among us." Hitler had similar concerns, having said in June 1943 that Vlasov was unneeded, because the Germans "would never build up a Russian army."{{sfn|Böhler|Gerwarth|2017|pages=37–40}}

It was not until Germany's position was weakened in the spring of 1944 that Himmler began changing his mind, with the encouragement of [[Gunter d'Alquen]] and others, and decided to meet with Vlasov. Their meeting was scheduled for the evening of 20 July 1944, but was postponed by the [[20 July plot|assassination attempt]] against Hitler until 16 September 1944. When it happened, Himmler promised Vlasov several Russian divisions. Two began to be formed, the [[600th Infantry Division]] in November 1944 and the [[650th Infantry Division]] in January 1945, respectively. He also approved the creation of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR).{{sfn|Böhler|Gerwarth|2017|pages=37–40}}{{sfn|Dallas|2005|pages=387–388}}

Earlier, in the summer of 1944 Vlasov, who had been depressed after the first few years of failing to get German support for the Russian Liberation Movement, was sent to an SS recovery center in [[Ruhpolding]] that was run by Heidi Bielenberg, the widow of an SS officer. Several weeks after meeting they decided to get married, even though neither one spoke each other's language and Vlasov probably knew that his first wife was still alive in the Soviet Union. This may have been done under the pressure of the SS. According to the SS liaison officer assigned to Vlasov's staff, the idea for the marriage came mainly from her, because she liked the idea of her becoming the "first lady" of a future Russian state.{{sfn|Andreyev|1987|page=59}}{{sfn|Dallas|2005|page=387}}

==Commander of the ROA==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0301-503, General Wlassow mit Soldaten der ROA.jpg|thumb|right|Vlasov with ROA soldiers]]
[[File:Dedovshchina in Russian Liberation Army.jpg|thumb|left|Vlasov's order no. 65 to prevent ''[[dedovshchina]]'' in the Russian Liberation Army, April 3, 1945.]]
The only combat of the ROA against the [[Red Army]] took place on February 11, 1945, on the river [[Oder]]; it was carried out by the First Division led by General [[Sergei Bunyachenko]]. After three days of battle against overwhelming forces, the [[600th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht)|First Division]] of the ROA was forced to retreat and marched southward to [[Prague]], in [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia|German-controlled Bohemia]]. In March 1945, Bunyachenko started disobeying the commands of the Wehrmacht; eventually [[Ferdinand Schörner]] (and later [[Rudolf Toussaint]]<ref name="rus" />) threatened to use armed force against the ROA. Vlasov reprimanded Bunyachenko during their meeting with Schörner in assertion of his loyalty, but privately granted Bunyachenko complete independence in sign of his approval while himself taking care of the rest two incomplete divisions.<ref name="andreev" />

During the Prague uprising, the officers of the First Division, Bunyachenko and Vlasov gathered a meeting and discussed whether the First Division should help the insurgents. Vlasov spoke against joining the uprising, but his position was not supported by the others, and the First Division joined the uprising.<ref name="rus">К. Александров. Мифы о генерале Власове</ref> Two days later, the First Division was forced to leave Prague as Communist Czech partisans began arresting ROA soldiers in order to hand them over to the Soviets for execution. Vlasov and the rest of his forces, trying to evade the Red Army, attempted to head west to surrender to the Allies in the closing days of the war in Europe.<ref name="andreev" /><ref name="sv">{{Cite web|last1=Шимов |first1=Ярослав |url=https://www.svoboda.org/a/29011676.html|title="Рубать немцев, освободить Прагу"|website=www.svoboda.org |date=6 February 2018 }}</ref>

==Capture by Soviet forces, trial, and execution==
[[File:VlasovUs.jpg|thumb|Vlasov leaving the headquarters of the [[16th Armored Division (United States)|16th Armored Division]] of the US Army in [[Plzeň]] (May 9, 1945)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Žaček |first=Pavel |title="Prague under the armor of the Vlasovs - the Czech May Uprising in photography" |publisher=Mladá Fronta |year=2014 |isbn=9788020426819 |location=Czech Republic |language=cs}}</ref>]]
Vlasov's division, commanded by General [[Sergei Bunyachenko]], was captured {{convert|40|km|mi|0}} southeast of [[Plzeň]] by the Soviet [[25th Tank Corps]], after their attempt to surrender to US troops was rejected. Captain M. I. Yakushev of the [[162nd Tank Brigade]] had Vlasov dragged out of his car, put on a tank and driven straight to the Soviet [[13th Army (Soviet Union)|13th Army]] HQ. Vlasov was then transported from the 13th Army HQ to Marshal [[Ivan Konev]]'s command post in [[Dresden]], and from there sent immediately to Moscow.<ref>{{cite news|author = Konev, I.S.|title = Year of Victory|newspaper = Progress Publishers|date = 1971|pages = 230–231}}</ref>

Vlasov was confined in [[Lubyanka Building|Lubyanka prison]] where he was interrogated. A [[secret trial]] was held, beginning on 30 July 1946 and was presided over by [[Viktor Abakumov]] who sentenced him and eleven other senior officers from his army to death for high treason. Vlasov was executed by [[hanging]] on 1 August 1946. His execution was among the last death sentences in the Soviet Union carried out by hanging, after which executions were conducted only by [[execution by shooting|shooting]].

== Legacy ==
=== Historiography and memory politics ===
==== 20th century ====
In the USSR, the figure of Vlasov was villainized because of the need to defend the official myth of the Great Patriotic War, which was "created and assiduously supported as a pillar of state legitimacy and national culture in the USSR". However, in the emigration and later in the post-Soviet Russia, he and his movement became objects of various narratives.<ref name="tromly1">{{cite web | url=https://www.academia.edu/40235466 | title=Reinventing Collaboration: The Vlasov Movement in the Postwar Russian Emigration | work=Traitors, Collaborators and Deserters in Contemporary European Politics of Memory, Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies | date=January 2018 | last1=Tromly | first1=Benjamin }}</ref>

[[File:Vlasov Malyshkin.jpg|thumb|Vlasov and [[Vasily Malyshkin]]]]
The first narrative in the emigration was set up by the former [[White movement|White Guards]] who served in the ROA or supported Vlasov, although they were a minority in the ROA and had conflicts with the Vlasovites, since the Whites were suspicious of the former Soviet soldiers and sometimes called them "Reds", while [[Vasily Malyshkin]], one of Vlasov's closest associates, charged that the White movement, described by him as a movement of conservative gentry, had remained distant from realities of the USSR,<ref name="tromly1"/> and lacked "any progressive principles", ranging from apoliticism to reaction,<ref name="a"/> and through seeking a "restoration of the old noble-landowning system" did nothing but legitimizing the Bolsheviks. The Vlasovites and the Whites had very different world views, partially because for the Whites struggle against the USSR and collaboration with the Nazis was not a means of survival, partially because the Vlasovites who were grown on the Soviet culture saw conservatism of the Whites as backward-looking and irrelevant, and Malyshkin suggested that the conflict between the Whites and the Vlasovites was rooted in different social backgrounds and class origins and worldviews. However, after the war, the Whites who participated in the Vlasov Movement sought to connect it with their cause: for example, [[Constantine Kromiadi]] wrote that the Vlasov Movement was a part of the "Christian war of the 30 years of the liberation movement against communism"; the White rightists sought to "offset the opprobrium of collaboration with Germany by viewing World War Two through the prism of the Russian Civil War and the Tsarist period" and alleged that the Soviets, not the collaborators, were the real national traitors. Such ideas were not popular among the majority of the surviving Vlasovites, but for a few years the Whites became their new leaders and even established Monarchist Vlasovite organizations, since they were naturalized citizens of European states and had more chances of surviving, also because of "aristocratic cohesion" and such benefits as knowledge of foreign languages, while the Vlasovites were in danger of [[Operation Keelhaul]], forced repatriation to the USSR carried out by the U.S. with the subsequential punishment for treason; the Whites attempted to unite the whole emigration and get funding by the CIA, and the latter could help Vlasovites survive. However, the Whites failed to get the attention of the CIA, and their narrative was soon rejected.<ref name="tromly1"/> However, it would reemerge in post-Soviet Russia.<ref name="tromly2">{{cite web | url=https://ieres.elliott.gwu.edu/project/the-never-ending-story-general-vlasov-in-post-soviet-russian-collective-memory/ | title=The Never-Ending Story: General Vlasov in Post-Soviet Russian Collective Memory }}</ref>

To get the interest of the U.S. military intelligence, the post-war Vlasovites stressed the anti-Communist nature of their movement.<ref name="hm">https://journals.flvc.org/UFJUR/article/download/130757/136333/240252</ref> However, the new narrative was left-wing, being constructed by the [[Menshevik]] intellectual and historian [[Boris Nicolaevsky]], who after visiting [[DP camps]] came to a belief that the Vlasov Movement was democratic and even anti-Nazi to some extent. His narrative was somewhat closer to the truth, as he, unlike the Whites, could cite Vlasovite documents, like the Prague Manifesto of the KONR.<ref name="tromly1"/> However, it was incomplete and still had some factual errors.<ref name="rus1">''Мартынов А. В.'' По обе стороны правды. Власовское движение и отечественная коллаборация</ref> Nikolaevsky described the Vlasovites with the word ''porazhentsy'', "defeatists", the word used by the Bolsheviks during the World War II towards themselves, as they campaigned against the war efforts of the Russian Empire and for overthrow of the reactionary [[Tsarist autocracy|Tsarist]] and later imperialist ''bourgeois'' government with a revolutionary civil war;<ref name="tromly1"/><ref name="rus1"/> Nikolaevsky drew a parallel between Vlasov and Leninists and thought the first to be influenced by the latter, believing that Vlasov's motivation was to begin a similar civil war.<ref name="rus1"/> The Vlasovites embraced Nicolaevsky's narrative, and he would help them to operate through the CIA-supported [[American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia|AMCOMLIB]], however, [[Roman Gul]] believed that they were insincere and saw Nicolaevsky only as "a direct and CLEAN entry to Washington" and were interested in the Socialist ''émigrés'', including Nicolaevsky, only as powerful representatives of American power.<ref name="tromly1"/> However, the Vlasovites did not have a necessity to present themselves as left-wing democrats, since the CIA did not scruple to fund the openly far-right collaborators from the [[Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations]], like the [[Belarusian Central Council]].<ref>Mark Alexander: Nazi Collaborators, American Intelligence, and the Cold War. The Case of the Byelorussian Central Council. University of Vermont Graduate College Dissertations and Theses, Nr. 424, 2015</ref>

Nicolaevsky's narrative resulted in a polemics among the ''émigrés'', and opponents of Nicolaevsky among ''oborontsy'', the word from the vocabulary of World War I to indicate the patriotic opposition to the Bolsheviks' defeatism, the supporters of the war effort of the USSR in World War II, attacked the Vlasovites and Nicolaevsky: according to them, the democratic program was just a way to court the West in the face of Nazi defeat, that they were national traitors and mere "powerless pawns" in "organized and merciless destruction" of their own people, a "propaganda trick", and that they were unscrupulous people motivated only by lust for power or physical survival whose movement could not be democratic in any way. B. Dvinov, one of the most harsh Nicolaevsky's opponents, supported his publications with documents.<ref name="tromly1"/><ref name="rus1"/> [[Alexander Dallin]] called his publications "a documented but one-sided attempt in Russian émigré politics to reduce the Vlasov movement to a German propaganda trick."<ref name="dallin">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/germanruleinruss0000dall/ | isbn=978-0-86531-102-2 | title=German rule in Russia, 1941-1945 : A study of occupation policies | date=1981 | last1=Dallin | first1=Alexander | publisher=Avalon }}</ref>

Among the positions of the ''émigrés'' was a compromise one that 'Vlasovism' may be a democratic movement, but Vlasov and the other leaders should be condemned, and that the Vlasovites should admit that collaboration with the Nazis was a mistake, but the Vlasovites from the [[Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia|SBONR]], which joined the AMCOMLIB, refused to admit the latter and continued to idolize their executed leader; they accused their opponents of Communism, while the Socialist ''émigrés'' accused Vlasovites of Nazism, and both claims were dangerous since the FBI had been closely monitoring both of the factions. More to it, the SBONR in their responses made nationalist and allegedly antisemitic [[dog whistle (politics)|dog whistles]], since they never mentioned the Jewish origins of their opponents, but contrasted the "Russian people" with the American exiles who "long ago forgotten how to understand" the first; later they compromised themselves more with "historical apologies for restoration and reaction", therefore making Nicolaevsky's narrative unable to be adopted as universal, since one of their publications called [[Kerensky]] a traitor for preventing the [[Kornilov affair|Kornilov coup]] in 1917.<ref name="tromly1"/> However, after the polemic Nicolaevsky continued his publications about the biographies of the Vlasovite leaders and did not change his opinion, and not all the Socialist ''émigrés'' dismissed Nicolaevsky and his narrative.<ref name="rus1"/>

While Benjamin Tromly and other authors believe the description of the ROA as a somewhat revolutionary movement of ideological protest against Stalinism which conflicted with the Nazis to be largely constructed by the Vlasovites themselves,<ref name="tromly2"/><ref name="tromly1"/><ref name="a"/> this claim is rather inaccurate, since the theme of the ROA was explored in the works of several Western historians: along with the sovietologist [[Eugene Lyons]], the chairman of the AMCOMLIB whose attitude towards the Vlasovites was ambivalent, who also believed the ROA to be influenced with Lenin's [[revolutionary defeatism]], the historians [[Jurgen Thorwald]] and [[Joachim Hoffmann]] also contributed to the theme; the historian George Fischer, on the contrary, believed the "inertness" and opportunism caused by Stalinist totalitarianism to be the grounds of the ROA, but he saw Vlasov's political career as an overcoming of opportunism and "inertness", although he failed to "overcome" "Bolshevism"; Catherine Andreev agreed with Fischer's last point, but criticized the other two.<ref name="a">К. М. Александров. Генералитет и вооружённые формирования Комитета освобождения народов России</ref><ref name="rus1"/> More to it, Tromly believes that the works of Catherine Andreev and {{ill|Kirill Aleksandrov|ru|Александров, Кирилл Михайлович}} keep the "essential contours" of Nicolaevsky's narrative, and that Andreev "bypasses controversial questions about the context in which Vlasov troops were recruited, the émigrés employed in Nazi security agencies, and the deep internal hostilities within the KONR's ranks",<ref name="tromly1"/> as well as the war crimes committed by the soldiers of the ROA.<ref name="hm"/> This theme was also explored by Dallin who wrote that "Vlasov was no puppet: therein lay, from the German point of view, both his potential value and his challenge. A relatively 'autonomous' figure, as yet untarnished by association with German abuses and atrocities, he could appeal to the Soviet population more successfully than could the Germans. But as a leader with a will and a following, he and his movement could also develop a dynamic of their own and — precisely because they might be successful — could become potentially distinct from or even hostile to the interests of the German leadership." Dallin also wrote that the idea of the "third force" promoted by the Vlasovites and the NTS was doomed: "no 'third force' could succeed because there was no viable third choice; neither of the titans would tolerate a power vacuum — nor the arrogation of power by a new, autonomous competitor."<ref name="dallin"/><ref name="a"/> Most of these historians relied mostly on the Nazi documents and not the Soviet archives, partly because the latter were unaccessible.<ref name="hm"/>

A new narrative was constructed in the 1970s and emerged in [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s book ''[[The GULAG Archipelago]]'': while not directly advocating collaboration, he and the later authors labelled Vlasov as "the symbol of the suffering Russian people" and its "victimhood" throughout the 20th century. Solzhenitsyn described the Vlasovite prisoners met by him in GULAG camps and wrote that "it's not the Vlasovites who betrayed Russia - it's the Soviet state which betrayed these soldiers", since "Stalin sacrificed armies meaninglessly. He had treated prisoners of war as traitors", and the World War II became "a double sacrifice. This is the idea that the Soviet people, now increasingly perceived as the Russian people, won the war against Nazism despite the brutality and incompetence of the Soviet state. In this context, Vlasov's sacrifice is entirely appropriate."<ref name="tromly2"/> With all these narratives given, Benjamin Tromly calls Vlasov an "empty signifier".<ref name="tromly2" /> Julia Shapiro writes that Vlasov during his collaboration with the Nazis managed to secure his image for the further generations, but "his intentionally murky beliefs make him a convenient straw man to suit cultural and political agendas. Based on the documents, he can be framed as an anti-Bolshevist crusader, Russian patriot, misunderstood democrat, martyred hero, and fascist puppet. Eighty years on, he still defies categorization." Shapiro believed that Vlasov's motivations were complex and laid between opportunism and ideological opposition; she believes [[moral relativism]] and "historical consciousness" to be among his most important qualities.<ref name="hm" />

==== Post-Soviet Russia ====
After ''[[perestroika]]'' and the fall of the Soviet Union, narratives described above entered Russian historiography and [[memory politics]]. These narratives challenge the myth of the Soviet, increasingly perceived as Russian, Victory in the [[Great Patriotic War]], which is significant to Russian national identity. As this myth has been increasingly used by [[Vladimir Putin]] and his [[Putinism|Putinist]] regime to legitimize its state and its actions, the figure of Vlasov gains a political value in contemporary Russia.<ref name="tromly1"/><ref name="tromly2"/> The positive attitude towards Vlasov became visible in the late 1980s, but the majority of Russian society is negative towards collaboration, although there is still no unity on this question.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AHR_AgAAQBAJ | isbn=978-1-134-29677-4 | title=The Extreme Nationalist Threat in Russia: The Growing Influence of Western Rightist Ideas | date=10 November 2004 | publisher=Routledge }}</ref> The fall of the Soviet Union did not lead to immediate popularisation of Vlasov among the emerging far-right nationalists, since they preferred the ideals of Pan-Slavism and an Empire to a separatist nation-state.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sVoxBgAAQBAJ | isbn=978-3-8382-5815-7 | title=Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives on Nationalism: New Directions in Cross-Cultural and Post-Communist Studies | date=17 December 2007 | publisher=Columbia University Press }}</ref> A major liberal politician during the fall of the USSR and the mayor of Moscow [[Gavriil Popov (politician)|Gavriil Popov]] wrote a complimentary book about Vlasov, but was not supported. In the 2000s various nationalist organizations which associated themselves with the White movement campaigned for rehabilitation of Vlasov; the support for the White narrative in the Church caused a scandal after the reunification of the Orthodox Church in Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KZoJEAAAQBAJ | isbn=978-1-350-14998-4 | title=Memory Politics and the Russian Civil War: Reds Versus Whites | date=12 November 2020 | publisher=Bloomsbury }}</ref><ref name="tromly2" />

Solzhenitsyn's narrative became more or less convenient, since it did not deny the role of Victory and the Great Patriotic War and united it with criticism of Stalin and the understanding of Vlasov's tragedy which could be reintegrated into national history, making it more inclusive. Yet, it became debated in the 1990s and received a backlash as a "slander of the entire generation" "who had fought in the war". The opponents of such narratives, including the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation]] created in 1993, started connecting the apology for Vlasov and the ROA with the chaos of the 1990s: economic collapse, dissolution of the Soviet Union and the [[First Chechen War]], the rize of the organized crime, making Vlasov a symbol "past and current betrayal in Russia"; in the second part of the 1990s, [[Boris Yeltsin]] turned back to commemoration of the Great Patriotic War, and after the rise of Putin, "this anti-Vlasov discourse hardens and takes on increasing domestic political uses," connecting Vlasov with the 'collapse of Empire' and influence of the West.<ref name="tromly2" /> [[Jade McGlynn]] and Tromly describe how Vlasov's figure became unsuitable for the Putin regime; however, it was not until 2022 when it received significant attention.<ref name="mcglynn">{{cite web | url=https://meduza.io/en/feature/2022/10/24/general-vlasov-s-return | title=General Vlasov's return Scholar Jade McGlynn explains how Putin's 'unifying historical truth' is losing to reality in Ukraine }}</ref>

Throughout the 2000s, the state-sponsored narratives of World War II villainized Vlasov again whenever his figure appeared in public discourse, although the latter did not happen often.<ref name="mcglynn" /> In the 2010s, the debates over Vlasov moved to historiography, and Kirill Aleksandrov was stripped of his PhD by the Ministry of Education in 2016 after writing a dissertation about the ROA; the earlier successful defense of this dissertation was followed with a scandal, as pro-Kremlin organizations, including the CPRF, forwarded the dissertation to Russian prosecutors to inspect for violation of Putin's "[[Memory laws|memory law]]", which criminalizes "lies about the activities of the Soviet Union in the Second World War" and held rallies with slogans such as "Bandera in Ukraine - Vlasov in Russia", and Aleksandrov's article about Bandera written back in 2014 was designated as an extremist material; the professional historians who joined the attacks compared the dissertation with "blackening of our history" by foreigners.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1M3EAAAQBAJ | isbn=978-0-253-05761-7 | title=The Future of the Soviet Past: The Politics of History in Putin's Russia | date=5 October 2021 | publisher=Indiana University Press }}</ref><ref name="tromly1" /><ref name="tromly2" />

After the Annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the War in Donbas in 2014 Putin called the Ukrainian authorities "Banderites", and Kremlin-affiliated media and politicians alike framed the fighting as a rerun of the Second World War; the usage of the word "banderite" became popular in propaganda, and the Russian media and politicians were eager to remind of collaborators of other nationalities, Tatars and Chechens, but avoided Vlasov and the ROA: McGlynn noted that in an analysis of 3,509 comparisons between the 2014 conflict and World War II, Vlasov was mentioned just once, as a reminder of Russian collaboration could "besmirch Russia's moral authority as an heir to the Soviet Union's Great Victory of 1945 and self-appointed defender of the war's memory."<ref name="mcglynn"/> According to Tromly, the Russian state avoids the mentions of ethnic Russian collaboration and views "reviving a positive memory of Vlasov" as an "instrument of information war" against itself.<ref name="tromly2"/>

The attention to Vlasov increased after the Russian invasion of Ukraine: McGlynn notes that "written references to Vlasovites have increased to levels that usually accompany the release of a popular new book on the subject." Some of them are related to the Ukrainian units of Russian citizens, like the [[Freedom of Russia Legion]], while prominent nationalist figures have branded Russians fleeing mobilization as Vlasovite deserters, and some media reminded of the connection between Vlasovites and Banderites; after criticizing the war, the journalist [[Dmitry Kolezev]] received a flood of messages with the same text: "Only Vlasovites discredit the army." Before the invasion, [[Alexei Navalny]] was labelled a Vlasovite, as the official allegations included "memory crimes";<ref name="mcglynn" /> in 2020, the Russian Foreign Ministry officially protested against a monument to the ROA fighters who participated in the Prague Uprising.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://meduza.io/en/feature/2020/05/05/a-mockery-of-memory | title='A mockery of memory' Prague erects monument to Nazi collaborationist army, despite protests from Russia's Foreign Ministry }}</ref> Putin personally mentioned Vlasov only in 2024, after the presidential elections, during which the Ukrainian units of Russian citizens [[March 2024 western Russia incursion|launched an incursion into Russia]]; he labelled as "Vlasovites" these units, reminded how the Vlasovites were executed, and ordered the FSB to track down every Russian citizen "fighting against Russia". He said: "We will punish them without a statute of limitations, wherever they are."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://kyivindependent.com/putin-orders-fsb-to-hunt-russians-who-fight-for-ukraine/ | title=Putin orders FSB to hunt Russians who fight for Ukraine | date=20 March 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/putins-defector-obsession | title=Putin's Defector Obsession | journal=Foreign Affairs | date=May 2024 | last1=Soldatov | first1=Andrei | last2=Borogan | first2=Irina }}</ref>

=== Attempts of rehabilitation ===
In 2001, a Russian organization ''"''For Faith and Fatherland" applied to the Russian Federation's military prosecutor for a review of Vlasov's case,<ref>Valeria Korchagina and Andrei Zolotov Jr.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928003436/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=5830 It's Too Early To Forgive Vlasov] ''The St. Petersburg Times''. 6 Nov 2001.</ref> saying that "Vlasov was a patriot who spent much time re-evaluating his service in the Red Army and the essence of Stalin's regime before agreeing to collaborate with the Germans".<ref name="sptimes.ru">{{Cite web |url=http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=5830 |title=It's Too Early to Forgive Vlasov &#124; the St. Petersburg Times &#124; the leading English-language newspaper in St. Petersburg |access-date=2008-05-22 |archive-date=2014-02-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140206042708/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=5830 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The military prosecutor concluded that the law of rehabilitation of victims of political repressions did not apply to Vlasov and refused to consider the case again. However, Vlasov's [[Article 58 (RSFSR Penal Code)|Article 58]] conviction for [[anti-Soviet]] agitation and propaganda was vacated.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://62info.ru/history/node/6454|title=РОА: предатели или патриоты?}}</ref>

==Memorial==
[[File:Русское кладбище в Ново-Дивееве (13370867853).jpg|thumb|Monument dedicated to Andrey Vlasov and the combatants of the Russian Liberation Army in New York]]
A memorial dedicated to General Vlasov was erected at the [[Novo-Diveevo]] Russian Orthodox convent and cemetery in [[Nanuet]], [[New York (state)|New York]]. Twice annually, on the anniversary of Vlasov's execution and on the Sunday following Orthodox [[Easter]], a memorial service is held for Vlasov and the forces of the [[Russian Liberation Army]]. {{Citation needed|date=November 2025}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Soviet Union|Russia|Germany|Politics}}
*''[[Engelen des doods]]'' (''Angels of death'')
*[[Collaboration in the German-occupied Soviet Union]]
*[[Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach]]
*[[National Committee for a Free Germany]]
*[[Friedrich Paulus]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Literature and film==
{{Commons category|Andrey Vlasov}}
Books:
*{{cite book |first=Catherine |last=Andreyev |title=Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1987 |isbn= 978-0-521-38960-0 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Dallas |first=Gregor |title=1945 |year=2005 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-11988-6 }}
*{{Cite book |last1=Böhler |first1=Jochen |last2=Gerwarth |first2=Robert |chapter=Non-Germans in the Waffen-SS: An introduction |editor1=Jochen Böhler |editor2=Robert Gerwarth |title=The Waffen-SS: A European History |year=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn= 978-0-19-879055-6 }}
*[[Wilfried Strik-Strikfeldt]]: ''Against Stalin and Hitler. Memoir of the Russian Liberation Movement 1941–5''. Macmillan, 1970, {{ISBN|0-333-11528-7}}
*Russian version of the above: Вильфрид Штрик-Штрикфельдт: ''Против Сталина и Гитлера''. Изд. Посев, 1975, 2003. {{ISBN|5-85824-005-4}}
*Sven Steenberg: ''Wlassow. Verräter oder Patriot?'' Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Köln 1968.
*Sergej Frölich: ''General Wlassow. Russen und Deutsche zwischen Hitler und Stalin''.
*[[:de:Joachim Hoffmann|Joachim Hoffmann]]: ''Die Tragödie der 'Russischen Befreiungsarmee' 1944/45. Wlassow gegen Stalin''. Herbig Verlag, 2003 {{ISBN|3-7766-2330-6}}.
*Jurgen Thorwald: ''The Illusion: Soviet Soldiers in Hitler's Armies''. English translation, 1974.
*Martin Berger: "Impossible alternatives". ''The Ukrainian Quarterly'', Summer-Fall 1995, pp.&nbsp;258–262. [review of Catherine Andrevyev: Vlasov and the Russian liberation movement]

Documentaries:
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060510082929/http://www.ihffilm.com/aavlasgenfor.html General for Two Devils 1995]
*Europe Central by William T Vollmann
*[http://docsonline.tv/?search=Angels%20of%20death&type=title&docinfo=126 Angels of Death] 1998, director: Leo de Boer.

Fiction:
*
Europe Central by William T Vollmann[[Europe Central]]

==External links==
*"[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928003436/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=5830 It's Too Early To Forgive Vlasov]", ''[[The St. Petersburg Times (Russia)|The St. Petersburg Times]]'', November 6, 2001
*[https://www.feldgrau.com/WW2-German-Wehrmacht-Russian-Volunteers Władysław Anders and Antonio Muňoz: "Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII" (describes role of Vlasov)]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070225164821/http://www.russian-americans.org/CRA_Art_Vlas.htm Congress of Russian Americans article on Vlasov]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/018733}}

{{S-start}}
{{S-mil}}
{{Succession box|
before= Unknown|
after= Eventually Colonel [[Dionisy Lisetsky]] (unit reformed in 1943)|
title= Commander of the [[99th Rifle Division (Soviet Union)|99th Rifle Division]]|
years=January 1940 – 17 January 1941
}}
{{Succession box|
before= Major General [[Mikhail Feofanovich Potapov|Mikhail Potapov]]|
after= Eventually Major General [[Vasily Volsky]] (unit reformed in 1942)|
title= Commander of the [[4th Mechanized Corps (Soviet Union)|4th Mechanized Corps]]|
years=17 January 1941 – July 1941
}}
{{Succession box|
before= Position established|
after= Major General [[Anton Lopatin]]|
title= Commander of the [[37th Army (Soviet Union)|37th Army]]|
years= July 1941 – September 1941
}}
{{Succession box|
before= Lieutenant General [[Nikolai Klykov]]|
after=  Lieutenant General [[Nikolai Klykov]]|
title= Commander of the [[2nd Shock Army]]|
years= 16 April – 1 July 1942
}}
{{Succession box|
before= Position established|
after= Position abolished|
title= Commander of the [[Russian Liberation Army]]|
years= February – 12 May 1945
}}
{{S-off}}
{{Succession box|
before= Position established|
after= [[Mikhail Meandrov]]|
title= Chairman of the [[Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia]]|
years= 14 November 1944 – 12 May 1945
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Collaboration in Russia}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vlasov, Andrey}}
[[Category:1901 births]]
[[Category:1946 deaths]]
[[Category:Anti-Sovietism in Russia]]
[[Category:Frunze Military Academy alumni]]
[[Category:German Army generals of World War II]]
[[Category:Soviet lieutenant generals]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of the Russian Civil War]]
[[Category:Soviet people of the Second Sino-Japanese War]]
[[Category:Soviet military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Lenin]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner]]
[[Category:Soviet prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Soviet defectors]]
[[Category:Russian Liberation Army personnel]]
[[Category:Inmates of Butyrka prison]]
[[Category:Executed people from Nizhny Novgorod Oblast]]
[[Category:Executed Russian collaborators with Nazi Germany]]
[[Category:Executed Soviet people from Russia]]
[[Category:Executed military leaders]]
[[Category:Russian people executed by the Soviet Union]]
[[Category:People from Sergachsky Uyezd]]
[[Category:People executed by the Soviet Union by hanging]]
[[Category:Members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union executed by the Soviet Union]]