Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov | |
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Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов | |
Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov.
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Chairman of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia | |
In office 14 November 1944 – May 1945 |
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Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | Position abolished |
Personal details | |
Born |
Lomakino, Russian Empire |
September 14, 1901
Died | August 2, 1946 Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union |
(aged 44)
Awards |
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Military service | |
Allegiance |
Soviet Union (1919–1942) Nazi Germany (1942–1944) Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (1944–1945) |
Years of service | 1919 — 1945 |
Rank | Lieutenant general |
Commands |
Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov or Wlassow (Russian: Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов, September 14 [O.S. September 1] 1901 – August 1, 1946) was a Russian Red Army general and collaborationist. During World War II he fought in the battle of Moscow and later was captured attempting to lift the siege of Leningrad, after which he defected to Nazi Germany and headed a so-called Vlasov Army or ROA. At the war's end he changed sides again and aided the Prague uprising but was tribunaled in Moscow for treason and hanged.
Born in 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, briefly studying agricultural sciences instead, and in 1919 joined the Red Army fighting in the southern theatre in Ukraine, the Caucasus, and the Crimea. He distinguished himself as an officer and gradually rose through the ranks of the Red Army.
Vlasov joined the Communist Party in 1930. Sent to China, he acted as a military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek from 1938 to November 1939. Upon his return, Vlasov served in several assignments before being given command of the 99th Rifle Division. After just nine months under Vlasov's leadership, after an inspection by Semyon Timoshenko, the division was recognized as one of the best divisions in the Army in 1940. Timoshenko presented Vlasov with an inscribed gold watch, as he 'found the 99th the best of all. The historian John Erickson says of Vlasov at this point that [he] 'was an up-and-coming man. 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 4th Mechanized Corps.