ROVS

The Russian All-Military Union (Russian: Русский Обще-Воинский Союз, abbreviated РОВС, ROVS) is an organization that was founded by White Army General Pyotr Wrangel in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on 1 September 1924, initially headquartered in the town of Sremski Karlovci. The organization′s ostensible purpose was provision of aid to the veterans of the Russian White movement (usually of the Imperial Russian Army as well), soldiers and officers alike, who now lived outside the USSR; the undeclared aim was to maintain a Russian military organisation with a view to fighting the Bolshevik regime.

Shortly after its establishment in Serbia in September 1924 by Gen Wrangel, on 16 November the supreme command of the ROVS, along with all White Army formations in exile, was assumed by Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, who had until August 1915 been the Supreme Commander of the Russian armed forces during WWI and since 1922 resided in France.

Aside from anti-communism, the ROVS did not have an official political orientation, somewhat adhering to the old Russian military dictum: "The army is outside politics" (in Russian "Армия вне политики"), believing that the political orientation of Russia cannot be predetermined by émigrés living outside of its borders (the philosophy of "non-predetermination" or in Russian "непредрешенчество"). Many (but not all) of its members had monarchist sympathies but were divided on whether the House of Romanov should return and whether the government should be autocratic or democratic.

The ROVS, along with other similar Russian émigré organizations, became a prime target for the Soviet secret intelligence service, the GPU/OGPU. The OGPU even set up a fictitious anti-communist monarchist organization, the Monarchist Union of Central Russia, which was used to undermine the ROVS′ activities in the USSR. The ROVS′ secret counter-intelligence branch, the "Inner Line" (in Russian "Внутренная Линия") set up by Gen Alexander Kutepov in the mid-1920s, was also severely compromised, among other things by suspected recruitment by OGPU of Gen Nikolai Skoblin, who was a senior operative in the Inner Line. Two of the ROVS's successive chairmen, Gen Alexander Kutepov and Gen Yevgeny Miller, were kidnapped by Soviet agents, in 1930 and 1937 respectively, Miller being brought to the USSR to be interrogated and executed. Gen , who succeeded Miller as the ROVS chairman, had to quit the post shortly after and was expelled from Bulgaria where he had resided due to the fact that his son was exposed as a Soviet agent. The OGPU/NKVD′s successful operations against the ROVS as well as infighting, intrigues, and antagonisms in the wider Russian émigré community demoralised and rendered impotent an organisation, which by the time World War II began in 1939 had also become largely irrelevant due to the geoplolitical realignment. After the outbreak of the war, the ROVS was virtually paralysed, as the war split the ROVS′ leadership and membership into two opposing camps: those who advocated war against, or for, Germany. Gen , who assumed ROVS presidency in March 1938, was personally of pro-Germany political orientation, a stance opposed by such renowned émigré figure, among others, as Gen Anton Denikin.

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