Bronislav Kaminski

Bronislav Vladislavovich Kaminski
Kaminski in May 1944
Born	(1899-06-16)16 June 1899 Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire now Polatsk Raion, Vitebsk Region, Belarus
Died	August 28, 1944(1944-08-28) (aged 45) Litzmannstadt, Reichsgau Wartheland, Nazi Germany now Łódź, Łódź Voivodeship, Poland
Allegiance	Soviet Union  Nazi Germany
Years of service	1918-1921 1941-43
Rank	Waffen SS der Brigadeführer
Commands held	Russian National Liberation Army
Awards	Iron Cross, 1st Class

Bronislav Vladislavovich Kaminski (Russian: Бронисла́в Владисла́вович Ками́нский, 16'June 1899, Vitebsk Governorate – 28 August 1944, Litzmannstadt) was a collaborationist and the commander of the S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. (also known as Kaminski Brigade and earlier as the Russian National Liberation Army - Russkaya Osvoboditelnaya Narodnaya Armiya, RONA), an anti-partisan formation made up of people from the so-called Lokot Autonomy territory in the Nazi Germany occupied areas of Russia, which was later incorporated into the Waffen-SS as the S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A.. Older publications mistakenly give his first name as Mieczyslaw.

Bronislav (also transliterated German-style as "Bronislaw") Kaminski was born in Vitebsk Governorate, in the Russian Empire, now in Polatsk Raion, Belarus. His father was an ethnic Pole and his mother was an ethnic German (later termed Volksdeutsch in Nazi Germany). Kaminski considered himself a Russian. He studied at the Saint Petersburg Polytechnical University then served in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. After demobilization he returned to the Institute, and after graduation worked at a chemical plant. In 1935 he was expelled from the Soviet Union Communist Party, and in 1937 during the Great Purge he was arrested for criticising Stalin's policy of farm collectivisation, as well as working with Germans and Poles. He was accused of "belonging to a counter-revolutionary group". In 1941 he was released from prison and settled in Bryansk, where he obtained a position as an engineer in the local distillery.

By October 1941, the German military advance into the Soviet Union reached the area of Lokot near the city of Bryansk, which was itself captured by German forces on 6 October 1941. In November 1941, Bronislav Kaminski, along with his close friend, a local technical school teacher, Konstantin Voskoboinik, approached the German military administration with a proposal to assist the Germans in establishing a civil administration and local police. Voskoboinik was appointed by the Germans as the Starosta (or Mayor) of the "Lokot volost" and the head of the German-controlled local militia. Kaminski became Voskoboinik's deputy. Working with Heinz Guderian the two collaborators organized a militia of 10,000 armed hands with the aim of crushing the Russian partisans. After the death in combat of Voskoboinik on 8 January 1942, Kaminski took over as Mayor and leader of the militia. In 1942 the militia was named Russian Liberation National Army (R.O.N.A.) (rus. Русская Освободительная Народная Армия), which reached a force of tens of thousands. During this time Kaminski was leader of the Lokot Republic, which had half a million inhabitants in its territory.