Cossacks in the service of the Germans. Russian Cossacks in the service of the German Nazis. Surrender in Austria
The genetic inability of the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossacks to maintain peaceful, good neighborly relations with their neighbors is again used by Moscow for its next wars against its neighbors. After 20 years of continuous war against their neighbors in the Caucasus in 1994-2013,in 2014 to the southeast of Ukraine gangs of mentally ill Cossacks poured in - murderers, rapists and marauders who are not capable of creative activity in their homeland. To understand their essence, you need to know their history.
A significant part of the Russian Cossacks are Cossack traitors who betrayed their brothers, the Cossack Cossacks, and went into the service of the Tsar. These are the “Cursed Cossacks”, who were cursed by the Character Cossacks for their betrayal and therefore are doomed to constant wars and destruction. This is also essentially the curse of Moscow for the Cossacks, which has been using the Cossacks as cannon fodder for about two centuries.Here are some facts from the life of the Cossacks that confirm their role as jailers of the people.
1902.,
November – Execution of Rostov workers: killed - 6 wounded - 20;
1903.,
March 11 – Execution of Zlatoustovsky workers arms factory killed - 60, injured - 200;
1903.,
July 14 – Shooting of striking railway workers: 10 killed, 18 wounded;
1903.,
July 23 – Shooting of a demonstration in Kyiv: killed - 4, wounded - 27;
1903.,
August 7 – Execution of workers in Yekaterinburg: killed - 16, wounded - 48;
1904.,
December 13 – Execution of workers in Baku: killed - 5, wounded - 40;
1905.,
January 9 – Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, shooting of a peaceful march of workers: killed - 1200, wounded - more than 5000;
1905.,
January 12 – Shooting of a workers’ demonstration in Riga: 127 killed, over 200 wounded;
1905.,
June 18 – Shooting of a demonstration in Lodz: 10 killed, 40 wounded;
1905.,
September 5 – Shameful Portsmouth Peace with Japan: Russian losses in the war – 400,000 people;
1905.,
November 15 – Shooting of the cruiser “Ochakov” and other mutinous ships Black Sea Fleet. Death of thousands of Sevastopol sailors;
1906.,
July 4 - 28 participants in the sailors' uprising in Sveaborg were sentenced to death;
1907.,
June 3 – Dispersal of the Duma by the “holy” tsar. In total, by this time 14 thousand people had been hanged and shot;
1911.
– Famine that claimed the lives of 300 thousand people;
1912.,
April 4 – Shooting of striking workers at the Lena mines: 254 people were killed;
1914.,
June 3 – Shooting of a meeting of Putilov workers in St. Petersburg;
1915.,
August 10 – Shooting of a demonstration in Ivanovo-Voznesensk: killed - 30 wounded - 53;
Cossacks do not let starving peasants leave the village, 1892
1901.,
May 7 – Execution of Obukhov workers by Cossacks. 
Dispersal of a labor demonstration in Poland. 1906, Artist V.V. Mazurovsky
Dispersal of a demonstration by Cossacks in Warsaw,on Moniuszki street, on Sunday, January 29, at 11:30, 1906
Cossacks disperse a demonstration in honor of the opening of the Second State Duma, 1906
"Cossack Prisoner", 1906 year
Dispersal of a demonstration by Cossacks in Moscow, 1909
year
Painting by artist V.A. Serova: “Soldiers, bravo, guys, where is your glory?”
Cossacks demonstrate their cavalry training.
During the Civil War, these Cossacks fought not for the fatherland, but for their police privileges, which the tsar granted them for faithful service in keeping the people in poverty and submission to the tsar, for the destruction of the peoples of the Caucasus. The images of Russian Cossacks, despised by the people, are shown in many films of the Soviet period, for example: “White Sun of the Desert”, “Wedding in Malinovka”, “Running”, others.
The film "Running" about the defeat of the "St. George" Cossacks during the Civil War (1 episode)
The film "Running" about the defeat of the "St. George" Cossacks during the Civil War (1 episode)
The film "Running" about the defeat of the "St. George" Cossacks during the Civil War (2 episode)
The film "Running" about the defeat of the "St. George" Cossacks during the Civil War (2 episode)
Russian Cossacks during the civil war.
At the beginning of June 1919, the Don Cossacks included Volunteer Army Denikin participated in the seizure of Donbass, in honor of whose defenders in Lugansk, for example, majestic monuments were built.
The next meeting between residents of the Ukrainian Donbass and Russian Cossacks took place during the Great Patriotic War when kaz The Aki-atamans again engaged in punitive activities and destroyed tens of thousands of people under the motto “For the Faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland.”
In January 1943, Russian Cossacks with St. George's ribbons and Orders of St. George fled as part of Hitler's troops to the west under the attacks of the Red Army.
In the photo: Ataman of the All-Great Don Army, SS Brigadeführer Krasnov, in a car with the commander of the Russian Cossack Corps, SS Gruppenführer von Panwitz, surrounded by guards and fascist Cossacks.
in the photo: SS Gruppenführer A.G. SHKURO - holder of the Golden Arms of St. George and the Cross of Salvation of the Kuban, 1st degree St. George's ribbon , commander of the Kuban Cossack Corps during the Civil War in Russia, lieutenant general. In 1944, ShKURO, by a special decree of the head of the SS, Reichsführer HIMMLER, was appointed head of the Cossack Troops Reserve at the General Staff of the SS Troops, and was enlisted in service as a Gruppenführer(German) )
Gruppenführer
SS with the right to wear a general's uniform and receive allowance for this rank. Gestapo chief Müller had the same rank in the SS. Shkuro is the creator of the “wolf hundreds” of Cossacks during the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War. The name “wolf” comes from the fact that the Cossacks of the “wolf hundred” howled like wolves before the attack. The famous "Babay" (Mozhaev) in the Donbass is a graduate of the "Wolf Hundred" in the Kuban.
Shkuro was sentenced to hanging and executed by decision of the Collegium of the Supreme Court of the country in 1947 - for treason to the Motherland, along with KRASNOV, PANNWITZ, DOMANOV.
A caricature of the life of a modern Kuban Cossack Mozhaev (“Babay”) without a beard and with a beard.
Modern Russian Cossacks in Donbass are the dregs of society of all types.
In Moscow, near the Church of All Saints, a memorial plaque was erected to the Russian Cossack generals, atamans and Cossacks of the 15th SS Cossack Cavalry Corps with the inscription: “To the Cossacks who died for their faith and fatherland.” This monument was erected with money from the partnership of the XV Cossack Cavalry Corps named after. General von Pannwitz with the blessing of the Russian Hierarchy Orthodox Church The Moscow Patriarchate, the lion's share of whose priests faithfully supported Hitler and the Russian Nazis in the Wehrmacht and the SS.XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps (German XV. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps) - a Cossack unit that fought on the side of Hitler during World War II, created on February 25, 1945 on the basis of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division of Helmut von Pannwitz (German. 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division); On April 20, 1945, he joined the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, becoming the XV Cossack cavalry corps VS CONR.
During the Great Patriotic War, all of the listed Cossack atamans were not only former generals tsarist army And Knights of St. George, but also SS brigadenführers under Himmler, and the former lieutenant general of the tsarist army Shkuro and the Cossack ataman German von Panwitz were SS gruppenführers.
All the generals indicated on the monument after the atamans were also generals of the Nazi Wehrmacht or SS and received the corresponding salary in the SS, including at the time when Hitler stormed Moscow and Leningrad.Question to Krasnov P.N. during interrogation in the USSR after the end of the war:
- Answer, what kind of general did you consider yourself to be - Russian or Hitler?
Answer:
- I considered myself a Russian general, but, unfortunately, I had to wear a Hitler uniform, over which I wore Russian shoulder straps and the St. George Cross.
Note: the last ataman of the All-Great Don Army also had the rank of SS Brigadeführer and corresponding content in the SS. The same rank was held by the head of military intelligence of the Third Reich (previously the head of foreign intelligence of the Security Service (SD)), SS Brigadeführer Walter Schellenberg.
Addressing the Cossacks during the Second World War, Krasnov wrote: “...Cossacks! Remember, you are not Russians, you are Cossacks, an independent people. The Russians are hostile to you. Moscow has always been an enemy of the Cossacks, crushing them and exploiting them. Now the hour has come when we, the Cossacks, can create our own life independent of Moscow...”
During World War II, the Cossacks fought on the side of Hitler, who set out to destroy their fatherland. The Cossacks fought not for the fatherland, but for their police privileges, which were taken away by the Soviet government.
If you look at the photo of the ataman of the All-Great Don Army, SS Brigadeführer Krasnov, he always wore wide royal shoulder straps on German uniform. After the defeat of Germany, according to the photo above, the German Wehrmacht eagle with a swastika disappeared from Krasnov’s uniform, and the Brigadeführer’s cap miraculously changed to a Cossack one. Miracles!
In the village of Elanskaya in the Rostov region, a monument was erected to “General Pyotr Krasnov,” the last ataman of the All-Great Don Army. The same scum came with the war to the southeast of Ukraine.
In addition to this, in Lugansk on Karl Marx Street there is a memorial sign with an inscription almost similar to the Moscow one “To the Cossacks who gave their lives for the fatherland.”
Among the Russian Cossack traitors we should also add the Far Eastern Cossacks Aman Semenov - the Tsar's lieutenant general, Knight of St. George, who distributed St. George's crosses to his Cossacks. In 1945, he announced his subordination to the KONR Armed Forces of General Vlasov.Currently, a certain part of the Transbaikal Cossacks is making efforts to review Semenov’s case, remove the false charges against him and his complete rehabilitation.
The raped memory of the aged victors:
Anatoly Lemysh 02/22/2011 2017
Russian SS corps and divisions
Russian SS corps and divisions
15th (Cossack) SS Cavalry Corps
29th SS Grenadier Division
30th SS Grenadier Division
1001st Abwehr Grenadier Regiment
Even the Nazis were shocked by the “exploits” of the Russian SS men from the 29th division during the suppression Warsaw Uprising- at the same time when other Russian soldiers, in Red Army uniforms, for two months indifferently watched from the opposite bank of the Vistula the agony of the doomed city. The Russian 29th SS Division earned such an odious reputation that the Germans were forced to disband it.
Soviet propaganda resorted to any lie in order to disown the glaring fact: more than a million Soviet citizens participated in the fighting on the side of Germany. This corresponded to the staff strength of approximately 100 rifle divisions
So, in Russia, with its traditional cult of patriotism, after twenty years of Bolshevik rule, several times more citizens fought on the side of the external aggressor than in all the White Guard armies combined. The centuries-old history of the country, and indeed the history of wars in general, has never seen anything like this. Nothing even remotely similar happened in any other country participating in World War II.
This is what politicians and journalists who are trying to present Stalinism as almost a legitimate form of existence of the Russian state need to be reminded of more often.
By the end of 1942, as part of German army Russian battalions with the numbers fought:
207,263,268,281,285,308,406,412,427,432,439,441,446,447,448,449,456,510,516,517,561,581,582,601,602,603,604,605,606,607,608,609,610,611,612,613,614,615,616,617,618,619,620,621,626,627,628,629,630,632,633,634,635,636,637,638,639,640,641,642,643,644,645,646,647,648,649,650,653,654,656,661,662,663,664,665,666,667,668,669,674,675,681.
Only after the defeat at Stalingrad did the German leadership begin to form volunteer SS divisions, and by the beginning of 1944, the Ukrainian, Lithuanian and two Estonian Waffen SS divisions were formed.
Maybe stop talking about the Galicia division in 1944, when back in 1942 Russian SS battalions fought against us?
Stalin’s telegram after the end of the Polish campaign read: “Friendship between Germany and Soviet Union", based on jointly shed blood, has the prospect of being long-lasting and lasting"
Before that, in Russia, a new monument to Joseph Vissarionovich was recently erected (although it is still in Yakutia), I think that as the “plough is swallowing”, then they will be closer to the Red Eye...
But it’s rare to guess that the USSR itself, right up to the beginning of the Second World War, “closely resembles the National-Socialist Great Empire, which is under the wire of Adolf Hitler”
From V. Molotov’s speech in the Kremlin April 1940 We convey the most heartfelt congratulations of the Soviet government on the magnificent success of the German Wehrmacht. Guderian's tanks broke through to the sea at Aberville using Soviet fuel, the German bombs that leveled Rotterdam were filled with Soviet pyroxylin, and the shells of the bullets that hit the British soldiers retreating to the boats at Dunkirk were cast from a Soviet copper-nickel alloy. .
There is no way that the people can return from the war. 60 (sixty) years since BBB ended. Ukraine has been an independent power for only 14 (fourteen) years. How did the warriors “celebrate” the country in 40-45 years? Why did they still fight for her?
The Vlasovites should not be perceived as a national movement; they are rather an internal opposition to the Stalinist regime. We should look for analogies in the Baltic states and Western Belarus. There, as in Western Ukraine, opposition to totalitarianism was strengthened by the goals of national self-determination, especially in the Baltic states.
COSSACK UNITS 1941-1943
The appearance of Cossack units in the Wehrmacht was greatly facilitated by the reputation of the Cossacks as irreconcilable fighters against Bolshevism, which they won during the Civil War. In the early autumn of 1941, from the headquarters of the 18th Army to the General Staff ground forces a proposal was received to form from the Cossacks special units to fight Soviet partisans, initiated by army counterintelligence officer Baron von Kleist. The proposal received support, and on October 6, the Quartermaster General General Staff Lieutenant General E. Wagner allowed the commanders of the rear areas of Army Groups “North”, “Center” and “South” to form by November 1, 1941, with the consent of the relevant SS and police chiefs, - as an experiment - Cossack units from prisoners of war for use them in the fight against the partisans.
The first of these units was organized in accordance with the order of the commander of the rear region of Army Group Center, General von Schenkendorff, dated October 28, 1941. It was a Cossack squadron under the command of Red Army Major I.N., who had recently defected to the German side. Kononova. During the year, the command of the rear area formed 4 more squadrons and by September 1942, under the command of Kononov there was the 102nd (from October - 600th) Cossack division (1, 2, 3rd cavalry squadrons, 4, 5, 6th Plastun company, machine gun company, mortar and artillery batteries). The total strength of the division was 1,799 people, including 77 officers; It was armed with 6 field guns (76.2 mm), 6 anti-tank guns (45 mm), 12 mortars (82 mm), 16 heavy machine guns and a large number of light machine guns, rifles and machine guns (mostly Soviet-made) . Throughout 1942-1943. The division's units waged an intense fight against the partisans in the areas of Bobruisk, Mogilev, Smolensk, Nevel and Polotsk.
From the Cossack hundreds formed at the army and corps headquarters of the German 17th Army, by order of June 13, 1942, the Cossack cavalry regiment “Platov” was formed. It consisted of 5 cavalry squadrons, a heavy weapons squadron, an artillery battery and a reserve squadron. Wehrmacht Major E. Thomsen was appointed commander of the regiment. From September 1942, the regiment was used to guard the restoration of the Maikop oil fields, and at the end of January 1943 it was transferred to the Novorossiysk area, where it guarded the sea coast and at the same time participated in the operations of German and Romanian troops against partisans. In the spring of 1943, he defended the “Kuban bridgehead,” repelling Soviet naval landings northeast of Temryuk, until at the end of May he was removed from the front and withdrawn to the Crimea.
The Cossack cavalry regiment “Jungschultz”, formed in the summer of 1942 as part of the 1st Tank Army of the Wehrmacht, bore the name of its commander, Lieutenant Colonel I. von Jungschultz. Initially, the regiment had only two squadrons, one of which was purely German, and the second consisted of Cossack defectors. Already at the front, the regiment included two hundred Cossacks from local residents, as well as a Cossack squadron formed in Simferopol and then transferred to the Caucasus. As of December 25, 1942, the regiment numbered 1,530 people, including 30 officers, 150 non-commissioned officers and 1,350 privates, and was armed with 6 light and heavy machine guns, 6 mortars, 42 anti-tank rifles, rifles and machine guns. Beginning in September 1942, the Jungschultz regiment operated on the left flank of the 1st Tank Army in the Achikulak - Budennovsk area, taking Active participation in battles against Soviet cavalry. After the order of January 2, 1943 for a general retreat, the regiment retreated to the northwest in the direction of the village of Yegorlykskaya until it united with units of the 4th Tank Army of the Wehrmacht. Subsequently, he was subordinated to the 454th Security Division and transferred to the rear area of the Don Army Group.
In accordance with the order of June 18, 1942, all prisoners of war who were Cossacks by origin and considered themselves such were to be sent to the city of Slavuta. By the end of the month, 5826 people were already concentrated here, and a decision was made to form a Cossack corps and organize the corresponding headquarters. Since among the Cossacks there was an acute shortage of senior and middle command staff, former Red Army commanders who were not Cossacks began to be recruited into Cossack units. Subsequently, the 1st Cossack School, named after Ataman Count Platov, was opened at the headquarters of the formation, as well as a non-commissioned officer school.
From the available Cossacks, first of all, the 1st Ataman Regiment was formed under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Baron von Wolf and a special fifty, intended to carry out special tasks in the Soviet rear. After checking the arriving reinforcements, the formation of the 2nd Life Cossack and 3rd Don Regiments began, and after them the 4th and 5th Kuban, 6th and 7th Combined Cossack Regiments. On August 6, 1942, the formed Cossack units were transferred from the Slavutinsky camp to Shepetovka to barracks specially designated for them.
Over time, the work on organizing Cossack units in Ukraine acquired a systematic character. Caught in German captivity Cossacks were concentrated in one camp, from which, after appropriate processing, they were sent to reserve units, and from there they were transferred to the formed regiments, divisions, detachments and hundreds. Cossack units were initially used exclusively as auxiliary troops to guard prisoner of war camps. However, after they proved their suitability for performing a variety of tasks, their use took on a different character. Most of the Cossack regiments formed in Ukraine were involved in the protection of roads and railways, other military installations, as well as in the fight against the partisan movement in Ukraine and Belarus.
Many Cossacks joined the German army when the advancing Wehrmacht units entered the territory of the Cossack regions of the Don, Kuban and Terek. July 25, 1942, immediately after the Germans occupied Novocherkassk, to representatives German command a group of Cossack officers appeared and expressed their readiness “with all their strength and knowledge to help the valiant German troops in the final defeat of Stalin’s henchmen,” and in September, in Novocherkassk, with the sanction of the occupation authorities, a Cossack gathering gathered, at which the headquarters of the Don Army was elected (from November 1942 it was called headquarters of the Marching Ataman) led by Colonel S.V. Pavlov, who began organizing Cossack units to fight against the Red Army.
According to the order of the headquarters, all Cossacks capable of carrying weapons were to report to the collection points and register. The village atamans were obliged to register Cossack officers and Cossacks within three days and select volunteers for the units being organized. Each volunteer could record his last rank in the Russian Imperial Army or in the white armies. At the same time, the atamans had to provide volunteers with combat horses, saddles, sabers and uniforms. Armament for the formed units was allocated in agreement with the German headquarters and commandant's offices.
In November 1942, shortly before the start of the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad, the German command gave permission for the formation of Cossack regiments in the Don, Kuban and Terek regions. Thus, from the volunteers of the Don villages in Novocherkassk, the 1st Don Regiment was organized under the command of Yesaul A.V. Shumkov and the Plastun battalion, which formed the Cossack group of the Marching Ataman, Colonel S.V. Pavlova. The 1st Sinegorsk Regiment was also formed on the Don, consisting of 1,260 officers and Cossacks under the command of military foreman (former sergeant) Zhuravlev. From the Cossack hundreds formed in the villages of the Uman department of the Kuban, under the leadership of military foreman I.I. Salomakha, the formation of the 1st Kuban Cossack cavalry regiment began, and on the Terek, on the initiative of military foreman N.L. Kulakov - 1st Volga Regiment of the Terek Cossack Army. Cossack regiments organized on the Don in January - February 1943 took part in heavy battles against the advancing Soviet troops on the Seversky Donets, near Bataysk, Novocherkassk and Rostov. Covering the retreat to the west of the main forces of the German army, these units steadfastly repelled the onslaught of a superior enemy and suffered heavy losses, and some of them were completely destroyed.
Cossack units were formed by the command of army rear areas (2nd and 4th field armies), corps (43rd and 59th) and divisions (57th and 137th infantry, 203, 213, 403, 444 and 454 th security guards). In tank corps, such as the 3rd (Cossack motorized company) and 40th (1st and 2nd/82nd Cossack squadrons under the command of Podesaul M. Zagorodny), they were used as auxiliary reconnaissance detachments. In the 444th and 454th security divisions, two Cossack divisions of 700 sabers each were formed. As part of the 5,000-strong German cavalry unit “Boselager,” created for security service in the rear area of Army Group Center, 650 Cossacks served, some of them making up a squadron of heavy weapons. Cossack units were also created as part of the German satellite armies operating on the Eastern Front. At least, it is known that a Cossack detachment of two squadrons was formed under the Savoy cavalry group of the Italian 8th Army. In order to achieve proper operational interaction, it was practiced to combine individual units into larger formations. Thus, in November 1942, four Cossack battalions (622, 623, 624 and 625, previously comprising the 6, 7 and 8 regiments), a separate motorized company (638) and two artillery batteries were united into the 360th Cossack regiment led by the Baltic German Major E.V. von Rentelnom.
By April 1943, the Wehrmacht included about 20 Cossack regiments, each numbering from 400 to 1000 people, and a large number of small units, totaling up to 25 thousand soldiers and officers. The most reliable of them were formed from volunteers in the villages of the Don, Kuban and Terek or from defectors from German field formations. The personnel of such units were mainly represented by natives of the Cossack regions, many of whom fought with the Bolsheviks during the Civil War or were subjected to repression by Soviet power in the 1920-30s, and therefore were vitally interested in the fight against the Soviet regime. At the same time, in the ranks of the units formed in Slavuta and Shepetovka, there were many random people who called themselves Cossacks only in order to escape from prisoner of war camps and thereby save their lives. The reliability of this contingent was always in question, and the slightest difficulties seriously affected its morale and could provoke a switch to the enemy’s side.
In the fall of 1943, some Cossack units were transferred to France, where they were used to guard the Atlantic Wall and in the fight against local partisans. Their fate was different. Thus, von Renteln’s 360th regiment, stationed battalion-by-battalion along the coast of the Bay of Biscay (by this time it had been renamed the Cossack Fortress Grenadier Regiment), in August 1944 was forced to fight a long way to the German border through territory occupied by partisans. The 570th Cossack battalion was sent against the Anglo-Americans who landed in Normandy and surrendered in full force on the first day. The 454th Cossack Cavalry Regiment, blocked by units of French regular troops and partisans in the town of Pontallier, refused to capitulate and was almost completely destroyed. The same fate befell the 82nd Cossack division of M. Zagorodny in Normandy.
At the same time, most of those formed in 1942-1943. In the cities of Slavuta and Shepetovka, Cossack regiments continued to operate against partisans on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus. Some of them were reorganized into police battalions, bearing the numbers 68, 72, 73 and 74. Others were defeated in the winter battles of 1943/44 in Ukraine, and their remnants were absorbed into various units. In particular, the remnants of the 14th Combined Cossack Regiment, defeated in February 1944 near Tsumanya, were included in the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Wehrmacht, and the 68th Cossack Police Battalion in the fall of 1944 ended up as part of the 30th Grenadier Division of the SS troops (1st Belarusian), sent to the Western Front.
After the experience of using Cossack units at the front proved their practical value, the German command decided to create a large Cossack cavalry unit within the Wehrmacht. On November 8, 1942, Colonel G. von Pannwitz, a brilliant cavalry commander who also had a good command of Russian, was appointed at the head of the formation that had yet to be formed. The Soviet offensive at Stalingrad prevented the implementation of the plan to form a formation already in November, and it was possible to begin its implementation only in the spring of 1943 - after the withdrawal of German troops to the line of the Mius River and the Taman Peninsula and the relative stabilization of the front. Those who retreated with the German army from the Don and North Caucasus Cossack units were collected in the Kherson region and replenished by Cossack refugees. The next stage was the consolidation of these “irregular” units into a separate military unit. Initially, four regiments were formed: 1st Don, 2nd Terek, 3rd Combined Cossack and 4th Kuban with a total strength of up to 6,000 people.
On April 21, 1943, the German command gave the order to organize the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, and therefore the formed regiments were transferred to the Milau (Mlawa) training ground, where Polish cavalry equipment warehouses had been located since pre-war times. The best of the front-line Cossack units also arrived here, such as the “Platov” and “Jungschultz” regiments, Wolf’s 1st Ataman Regiment and Kononov’s 600th Division. Created without taking into account the military principle, these units were disbanded, and their personnel were reduced to regiments according to their affiliation with the Don, Kuban and Terek Cossack troops. The exception was Kononov's division, which was included in the division as a separate regiment. The creation of the division was completed on July 1, 1943, when von Pannwitz, promoted to the rank of Major General, was confirmed as its commander.
The finally formed division included a headquarters with a convoy hundred, a field gendarmerie group, a motorcycle communications platoon, a propaganda platoon and a brass band, two Cossack cavalry brigades - the 1st Don (1st Don, 2nd Siberian and 4th Kuban regiments) and the 2nd Caucasian (3rd Kuban, 5th Don and 6th Terek regiments), two horse artillery divisions (Don and Kuban), a reconnaissance detachment, a sapper battalion, a communications department, logistics units (all divisional units were numbered 55).
Each of the regiments consisted of two cavalry divisions (in the 2nd Siberian Regiment the 2nd Division was scooter, and in the 5th Donskoy - Plastun) of three squadrons, machine gun, mortar and anti-tank squadrons. The regiment numbered 2,000 people, including 150 German personnel. It was armed with 5 anti-tank guns (50 mm), 14 battalion (81 mm) and 54 company (50 mm) mortars, 8 heavy and 60 MG-42 light machine guns, German carbines and machine guns. In addition to staff, the regiments were given batteries of 4 field guns (76.2 mm). Horse artillery divisions had 3 batteries of 75-mm cannons (200 people and 4 guns each), a reconnaissance detachment - 3 scooter squadrons from among German personnel, a squadron of young Cossacks and a penal squadron, an engineer battalion - 3 sapper and engineer-construction squadrons , and the communications division - 2 squadrons of telephone operators and 1 radio communications squadron.
On November 1, 1943, the strength of the division was 18,555 people, including 3,827 German lower ranks and 222 officers, 14,315 Cossacks and 191 Cossack officers. All headquarters, special and rear units were staffed with German personnel. All regiment commanders (except I.N. Kononov) and divisions (except two) were also Germans, and each squadron included 12-14 German soldiers and non-commissioned officers in business positions. At the same time, the division was considered the most “Russified” of the Wehrmacht’s regular formations: the commanders of the combat cavalry units - squadrons and platoons - were Cossacks, and all commands were given in Russian. In Mokovo, not far from the Milau training ground, a Cossack training reserve regiment was formed under the command of Colonel von Bosse, numbered 5th in the general numbering of spare parts of the eastern troops. The regiment did not have a permanent composition and consisted of different time from 10 to 15 thousand Cossacks, who constantly arrived from the Eastern Front and occupied territories and, after appropriate training, were distributed among the regiments of the division. The training reserve regiment had a non-commissioned officer school that trained personnel for combat units. The School of Young Cossacks was also organized here - a kind of cadet corps, where several hundred teenagers who had lost their parents underwent military training.
In the fall of 1943, the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division was sent to Yugoslavia, where by that time the communist partisans under the leadership of I. Broz Tito had noticeably intensified their activities. Thanks to their great mobility and maneuverability, the Cossack units turned out to be better adapted to the mountainous conditions of the Balkans and acted here more effectively than the clumsy German landwehr divisions that carried out security service here. During the summer of 1944, units of the division undertook at least five independent operations in the mountainous regions of Croatia and Bosnia, during which they destroyed many partisan strongholds and seized the initiative for offensive operations. Among the local population, the Cossacks gained notoriety. In accordance with the orders of the command for self-sufficiency, they resorted to requisitioning horses, food and fodder from the peasants, which often resulted in mass robberies and violence. The Cossacks razed villages whose population was suspected of collaborating with the partisans with fire and sword.
At the very end of 1944, the 1st Cossack Division had to face units of the Red Army trying to unite on the river. Drava with Tito's partisans. During fierce battles, the Cossacks managed to inflict a heavy defeat on one of the regiments of the 233rd Soviet rifle division and force the enemy to leave the previously captured bridgehead on the right bank of the Drava. In March 1945, units of the 1st Cossack Division (by that time already deployed into a corps) participated in the last major offensive operation of the Wehrmacht during the Second World War, when the Cossacks successfully operated against the Bulgarian units on the southern front of the Balaton ledge.
The transfer of foreign national formations of the Wehrmacht to the jurisdiction of the SS in August 1944 also affected the fate of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. At a meeting held in early September at Himmler's headquarters with the participation of von Pannwitz and other commanders of the Cossack formations, it was decided to deploy the division, replenished by units transferred from other fronts, to the corps. At the same time, it was planned to carry out mobilization among the Cossacks who found themselves on the territory of the Reich, for which a special body was formed at the SS General Staff - the Cossack Troops Reserve, headed by Lieutenant General A.G. Skinny. General P.N. Krasnov, who since March 1944 headed the Main Directorate of Cossack Troops, created under the auspices of the Eastern Ministry, appealed to the Cossacks to rise up to fight Bolshevism.
Soon large and small groups of Cossacks and entire military units began to arrive in von Pannwitz's division. Among them were two Cossack battalions from Krakow, the 69th police battalion from Warsaw, a factory guard battalion from Hanover and, finally, von Renteln's 360th regiment with Western Front. The 5th Cossack training reserve regiment, which until recently was stationed in France, was transferred to Austria (Zvetle) - closer to the division’s area of operations. Through the efforts of the recruiting headquarters created by the Cossack Troops Reserve, it was possible to gather more than 2,000 Cossacks from among emigrants, prisoners of war and eastern workers, who were also sent to the 1st Cossack Division. As a result, within two months the size of the division (not counting the German personnel) almost doubled.
A group of Cossack signalmen of the 2nd Siberian Regiment of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division. 1943-1944
By order of November 4, 1944, the 1st Cossack Division was transferred for the duration of the war to the subordination of the SS General Staff. This transfer concerned, first of all, the sphere of logistics, which made it possible to improve the supply of weapons, military equipment and vehicles to the division. So. for example, the division's artillery regiment received a battery of 105-mm howitzers, the engineer battalion received several six-barreled mortars, and the reconnaissance detachment received StG-44 assault rifles. In addition, the division, according to some sources, was given 12 units of armored vehicles, including tanks and assault guns.
By order of February 25, 1945, the division was transformed into the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS troops. The 1st and 2nd brigades were renamed divisions without changing their numbers and organizational structure. On the basis of Kononov’s 5th Don Regiment, the formation of a two-regiment Plastun brigade began with the prospect of deployment to the 3rd Cossack Division. Horse artillery battalions in divisions were reorganized into regiments. The total strength of the corps reached 25,000 soldiers and officers, including from 3,000 to 5,000 Germans. In addition, at the final stage of the war, together with the 15th Cossack Corps, such formations as the Kalmyk regiment (up to 5000 people), the Caucasian cavalry division, the Ukrainian SS battalion and a group of ROA tankers operated, taking into account which, under the command of the Gruppenführer and Lieutenant General of the troops SS (from February 1, 1945) G. von Pannwitz had 30-35 thousand people.
After the units collected in the Kherson region were sent to Poland to form the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division, the main center of concentration of Cossack refugees who left their lands along with the retreating German troops became the headquarters of the Marching Ataman of the Don Army, S.V. Pavlov, who settled in Kirovograd. . By July 1943, up to 3,000 Donets had gathered here, from which two new regiments were formed - the 8th and 9th, which probably had common numbering with the regiments of the 1st division. To train command personnel, it was planned to open an officer school, as well as a school for tank crews, but these projects could not be implemented due to the new Soviet offensive.
In the late autumn of 1943, Pavlov already had 18,000 Cossacks under his command, including women and children, who formed the so-called Cossack Stan. The German authorities recognized Pavlov as the Marching Ataman of all Cossack troops and pledged to provide him with all possible support. After a short stay in Podolia, the Cossack Stan in March 1944, due to the danger of Soviet encirclement, began moving west - to Sandomierz, and then along railway was transported to Belarus. Here the Wehrmacht command provided 180 thousand hectares to accommodate the Cossacks land area in the area of the cities of Baranovichi, Slonim, Novogrudok, Yelnya, Capital. The refugees settled in the new place were grouped according to their affiliation different troops, by districts and departments, which outwardly reproduced the traditional system of Cossack settlements.
At the same time, a broad reorganization of the Cossack combat units was undertaken, united into 10 infantry regiments of 1,200 bayonets each. The 1st and 2nd Don regiments made up the 1st brigade of Colonel Silkin; 3rd Don, 4th Combined Cossack, 5th and 6th Kuban and 7th Tersky - 2nd brigade of Colonel Vertepov; 8th Don, 9th Kuban and 10th Terek-Stavropol - 3rd brigade of Colonel Medynsky (later the composition of the brigades changed several times). Each regiment included 3 Plastun battalions, mortar and anti-tank batteries. They were armed with Soviet captured weapons provided by German field arsenals.
The main task assigned to the Cossacks by the German command was to fight partisans and ensure the security of rear communications of Army Group Center. On June 17, 1944, during one of the anti-partisan operations, the Marching Ataman of the Cossack Stan, S.V., was killed. Pavlov. His successor was military foreman (later - colonel and major general) T.I. Domanov. In July 1944, due to the threat of a new Soviet offensive, the Cossack Stan was withdrawn from Belarus and concentrated in the area of Zdunska Wola in northern Poland. From here he began his transfer to Northern Italy, where the territory adjacent to the Carnic Alps with the cities of Tolmezzo, Gemona and Ozoppo was allocated for the placement of the Cossacks. Here the Cossack Stan came under the command of the commander of the SS troops and the police of the coastal zone of the Adriatic Sea, SS Chief Gruppenführer O. Globocnik, who entrusted the Cossacks with ensuring security on the lands provided to them.
On the territory of Northern Italy, the combat units of the Cossack Stan underwent another reorganization and formed the Marching Ataman Group (also called a corps) consisting of two divisions. The 1st Cossack Foot Division (Cossacks from 19 to 40 years old) included the 1st and 2nd Don, 3rd Kuban and 4th Terek-Stavropol regiments, consolidated into the 1st Don and 2nd Consolidated Plastun brigades, as well as headquarters and transport companies, cavalry and gendarmerie squadrons, a communications company and an armored detachment. The 2nd Cossack Foot Division (Cossacks from 40 to 52 years old) consisted of the 3rd Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which included the 5th Consolidated Cossack and 6th Don Regiments, and the 4th Consolidated Plastun Brigade, which united the 3rd Reserve regiment, three village self-defense battalions (Donskoy, Kuban and Consolidated Cossack) and Colonel Grekov’s Special Detachment. In addition, the Group included the following units: 1st Cossack Cavalry Regiment (6 squadrons: 1st, 2nd and 4th Don, 2nd Terek-Don, 6th Kuban and 5th Officer), Ataman Convoy Cavalry Regiment (5 squadrons), 1st Cossack Junker School (2 Plastun companies, a company of heavy weapons, an artillery battery), separate divisions - officer, gendarmerie and commandant foot, as well as the Special Cossack parachute sniper school disguised as a motor school ( Special group“Ataman”). According to some sources, a separate Cossack group “Savoy”, withdrawn to Italy from the Eastern Front along with the remnants of the Italian 8th Army back in 1943, was also added to the combat units of the Cossack Stan.
Cossack refugees. 1943-1945
The units of the Campaign Ataman Group were armed with over 900 light and heavy machine guns different systems(Soviet “Maxim”, DP (“Degtyarev infantry”) and DT (“Degtyarev tank”), German MG-34 and “Schwarzlose”, Czech “Zbroevka”. Italian “Breda” and “Fiat”, French “Hotchkiss” and “Shosh”, British “Vickers” and “Lewis”, American “Colt”, 95 company and battalion mortars (mostly Soviet and German production), more than 30 Soviet 45-mm anti-tank guns and 4 field guns (76.2- mm), as well as 2 light armored vehicles, recaptured from the partisans and named “Don Cossack” and “Ataman Ermak”. Mainly Soviet-made repeating and automatic rifles and carbines, a number of German and Italian carbines, and Soviet, German and Italian machine guns were used as hand-held small arms. The Cossacks also had a large number of German Faust cartridges and English grenade launchers captured from the partisans.
As of April 27, 1945, the total number of Cossack Stan was 31,463 people, including 1,575 officers, 592 officials, 16,485 non-commissioned officers and privates, 6,304 non-combatants (unfit for service due to age and health), 4,222 women, 2094 children under the age of 14 and 358 adolescents aged 14 to 17 years. Of the total number of the Stan, 1,430 Cossacks belonged to the first wave of emigrants, and the rest were Soviet citizens.
IN last days war, due to the approach of the advancing Allied troops and the intensification of partisan actions, the Cossack Stan was forced to leave Italy. In the period April 30 - May 7, 1945, having overcome the high alpine passes, the Cossacks crossed the Italian-Austrian border and settled in the valley of the river. Drava between the cities of Lienz and Oberdrauburg, where surrender to English troops was announced. After the official cessation of hostilities, units of von Pannwitz’s 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps broke through from Croatia into Austria, also laying down their arms in front of the British. And less than a month later, on the banks of the Drava, the tragedy of the forced extradition to the Soviet Union of tens of thousands of Cossacks, Kalmyks and Caucasians, who faced all the horrors of Stalin’s camps and special settlements, unfolded. Together with the Cossacks, their leaders, generals P.N., were also extradited. Krasnov, his nephew S.N. Krasnov, who headed the headquarters of the Main Directorate of Cossack Troops, A.G. Shkuro, T.I. Domanov and G. von Pannwitz, as well as the leader of the Caucasians Sultan Kelech-Girey. All of them were convicted in Moscow at a closed trial, held on January 16, 1947, and were sentenced to death by hanging.
Collaborationism was common during the Great Patriotic War. According to historians, up to one and a half million Soviet citizens defected to the enemy’s side. Many of them were representatives of the Cossacks.
Uncomfortable topic
Domestic historians are reluctant to raise the issue of the Cossacks who fought on Hitler’s side. Even those who touched upon this topic tried to emphasize that the tragedy of the Cossacks of World War II was closely intertwined with the Bolshevik genocide of the 20s and 30s. In fairness, it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the Cossacks, despite claims against the Soviet regime, remained loyal to their Motherland. Moreover, many Cossack emigrants took an anti-fascist position, taking part in resistance movements in various countries.
Among those who swore allegiance to Hitler were Astrakhan, Kuban, Terek, Ural, and Siberian Cossacks. But the overwhelming majority of collaborators among the Cossacks were still residents of the Don lands.
In the territories occupied by the Germans, Cossack police battalions were created, whose main task was to fight the partisans. So, in September 1942, near the village of Pshenichny, Stanichno-Lugansk district, Cossack policemen, together with Gestapo punitive detachments, succeeded in defeating partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Yakovenko.
Cossacks often acted as guards for Red Army prisoners of war. At the German commandant's offices there were also Cossack hundreds who performed police tasks. Two such hundreds of Don Cossacks were stationed in the village of Lugansk and two more in Krasnodon.
For the first time, the proposal to form Cossack units to fight partisans was put forward by German counterintelligence officer Baron von Kleist. In October 1941, Quartermaster General of the German General Staff Eduard Wagner, having studied this proposal, allowed the commanders of the rear areas of Army Groups North, Center and South to form Cossack units from prisoners of war for use in the fight against the partisan movement.
Why did the formation of Cossack units not encounter opposition from NSDAP functionaries, and, moreover, was encouraged by the German authorities? Historians answer that this is due to the doctrine of the Fuhrer, who did not classify the Cossacks as Russians, considering them a separate people - descendants of the Ostrogoths.
Oath
One of the first to join the Wehrmacht was the Cossack unit under the command of Kononov. On August 22, 1941, Red Army Major Ivan Kononov announced his decision to go over to the enemy and invited everyone to join him. Thus, the major, the officers of his headquarters and several dozen Red Army soldiers of the regiment were captured. There, Kononov recalled that he was the son of a Cossack esaul, hanged by the Bolsheviks, and expressed his readiness to cooperate with the Nazis.
The Don Cossacks, who defected to us to the side of the Reich, did not miss the opportunity and tried to demonstrate their loyalty to the Hitler regime. On October 24, 1942, a “Cossack parade” took place in Krasnodon, in which the Don Cossacks showed their devotion to the Wehrmacht command and the German administration.
After a prayer service for the health of the Cossacks and the imminent victory of the German army, a letter of greeting to Adolf Hitler was read, which, in particular, said: “We, the Don Cossacks, are the remnants of survivors of the cruel Jewish-Stalinist terror, fathers and grandsons, sons and brothers of those killed in a fierce struggle with the Bolsheviks, greetings to you, the great commander, the genius Statesman, builder of the New Europe, Liberator and friend Don Cossacks, your warm Don Cossack greetings!”
Many Cossacks, including those who did not share admiration for the Fuhrer, nevertheless welcomed the Reich's policy aimed at opposing the Cossacks and Bolshevism. “No matter what the Germans are, it won’t get any worse,” similar statements were heard very often.
Organization
General leadership for the formation of Cossack units was entrusted to the head of the Main Directorate of Cossack Troops of the Imperial Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories of Germany, General Pyotr Krasnov.
“Cossacks! Remember, you are not Russians, you are Cossacks, an independent people. The Russians are hostile to you,” the general never tired of reminding his subordinates. – Moscow has always been an enemy of the Cossacks, crushing them and exploiting them. Now the time has come when we, the Cossacks, can create our own life independent of Moscow.”
As Krasnov noted, widespread cooperation between the Cossacks and the Nazis began already in the fall of 1941. In addition to the 102nd volunteer Cossack unit of Kononov, a Cossack reconnaissance battalion of the 14th was also created at the headquarters of the rear command of Army Group Center. tank corps, Cossack reconnaissance squadron of the 4th security scooter regiment and a Cossack sabotage detachment under the German special services.
In addition, from the end of 1941, hundreds of Cossacks began to regularly appear in the German army. In the summer of 1942, the cooperation of the Cossacks with the German authorities entered a new phase. From that time on, large Cossack formations - regiments and divisions - began to be created as part of the troops of the Third Reich.
However, one should not think that all the Cossacks who went over to the side of the Wehrmacht remained loyal to the Fuhrer. Very often, Cossacks, individually or in entire units, went over to the side of the Red Army or joined the Soviet partisans.
An interesting incident occurred in the 3rd Kuban Regiment. One of the German officers sent to the Cossack unit, while reviewing a hundred, called out a Cossack he did not like for some reason. The German first scolded him sternly and then hit him in the face with his glove.
The offended Cossack silently took out his saber and hacked the officer to death. The rushing German authorities immediately formed a hundred: “Whoever did this, step forward!” The whole hundred stepped forward. The Germans thought about it and decided to attribute the death of their officer to the partisans.
Numbers
How many Cossacks fought on the side of Nazi Germany during the entire period of the war?
According to the order of the German command dated June 18, 1942, all prisoners of war who were Cossacks by origin and considered themselves such were to be sent to a camp in the city of Slavuta. By the end of June, 5,826 people were concentrated in the camp. It was decided to begin the formation of Cossack units from this contingent.
By mid-1943, the Wehrmacht included about 20 Cossack regiments of varying strengths and a large number of small units, the total number of which reached 25 thousand people.
When the Germans began to retreat in 1943, hundreds of thousands of Don Cossacks and their families moved with the troops. According to experts, the number of Cossacks exceeded 135,000 people. After the end of the war, a total of 50 thousand Cossacks were detained by the Allied forces on the territory of Austria and transferred to the Soviet zone of occupation. Among them was General Krasnov.
Researchers estimate that at least 70,000 Cossacks served in the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS units and auxiliary police during the war, most of whom were Soviet citizens who defected to Germany during the occupation.
According to historian Kirill Alexandrov, military service On the German side in 1941-1945, approximately 1.24 million USSR citizens were killed: among them 400 thousand were Russians, including 80 thousand in Cossack formations. Political scientist Sergei Markedonov suggests that among these 80 thousand, only 15-20 thousand were not Cossacks by origin.
Most of the Cossacks extradited by the allies received long sentences in the Gulag, and the Cossack elite, who acted on the side of Nazi Germany, were awaiting the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR the death penalty by hanging.
Collaborationism was common during the Great Patriotic War. According to historians, up to one and a half million Soviet citizens defected to the enemy’s side. Many of them were representatives of the Cossacks.
Uncomfortable topic
Domestic historians are reluctant to raise the issue of the Cossacks who fought on Hitler’s side. Even those who touched upon this topic tried to emphasize that the tragedy of the Cossacks of World War II was closely intertwined with the Bolshevik genocide of the 20s and 30s. In fairness, it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of the Cossacks, despite claims against the Soviet regime, remained loyal to their Motherland. Moreover, many Cossack emigrants took an anti-fascist position, taking part in resistance movements in various countries.
Among those who swore allegiance to Hitler were Astrakhan, Kuban, Terek, Ural, and Siberian Cossacks. But the overwhelming majority of collaborators among the Cossacks were still residents of the Don lands.
In the territories occupied by the Germans, Cossack police battalions were created, whose main task was to fight the partisans. So, in September 1942, near the village of Pshenichny, Stanichno-Lugansk district, Cossack policemen, together with Gestapo punitive detachments, succeeded in defeating a partisan detachment under the command of Ivan Yakovenko.
Cossacks often acted as guards for Red Army prisoners of war. At the German commandant's offices there were also Cossack hundreds who performed police tasks. Two such hundreds of Don Cossacks were stationed in the village of Lugansk and two more in Krasnodon.
For the first time, the proposal to form Cossack units to fight partisans was put forward by German counterintelligence officer Baron von Kleist. In October 1941, Quartermaster General of the German General Staff Eduard Wagner, having studied this proposal, allowed the commanders of the rear areas of Army Groups North, Center and South to form Cossack units from prisoners of war for use in the fight against the partisan movement.
Why did the formation of Cossack units not encounter opposition from NSDAP functionaries, and, moreover, was encouraged by the German authorities? Historians answer that this is due to the doctrine of the Fuhrer, who did not classify the Cossacks as Russians, considering them a separate people - descendants of the Ostrogoths.
Oath
One of the first to join the Wehrmacht was the Cossack unit under the command of Kononov. On August 22, 1941, Red Army Major Ivan Kononov announced his decision to go over to the enemy and invited everyone to join him. Thus, the major, the officers of his headquarters and several dozen Red Army soldiers of the regiment were captured. There, Kononov recalled that he was the son of a Cossack esaul, hanged by the Bolsheviks, and expressed his readiness to cooperate with the Nazis.
The Don Cossacks, who defected to us to the side of the Reich, did not miss the opportunity and tried to demonstrate their loyalty to the Hitler regime. On October 24, 1942, a “Cossack parade” took place in Krasnodon, in which the Don Cossacks showed their devotion to the Wehrmacht command and the German administration.
After a prayer service for the health of the Cossacks and the imminent victory of the German army, a letter of greeting to Adolf Hitler was read, which, in particular, said: “We, the Don Cossacks, are the remnants of survivors of the cruel Jewish-Stalinist terror, fathers and grandsons, sons and brothers of those killed in a fierce struggle with the Bolsheviks, we send you, the great commander, the brilliant statesman, the builder of the New Europe, the Liberator and friend of the Don Cossacks, our warm Don Cossack greetings!”
Many Cossacks, including those who did not share admiration for the Fuhrer, nevertheless welcomed the Reich's policy aimed at opposing the Cossacks and Bolshevism. “No matter what the Germans are, it can’t get any worse,” such statements were heard very often.
Organization
General leadership for the formation of Cossack units was entrusted to the head of the Main Directorate of Cossack Troops of the Imperial Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories of Germany, General Pyotr Krasnov.
“Cossacks! Remember, you are not Russians, you are Cossacks, an independent people. The Russians are hostile to you,” the general never tired of reminding his subordinates. – Moscow has always been an enemy of the Cossacks, crushing them and exploiting them. Now the time has come when we, the Cossacks, can create our own life independent of Moscow.”
As Krasnov noted, widespread cooperation between the Cossacks and the Nazis began already in the fall of 1941. In addition to the 102nd volunteer Cossack unit of Kononov, a Cossack reconnaissance battalion of the 14th Tank Corps, a Cossack reconnaissance squadron of the 4th security scooter regiment and a Cossack sabotage detachment under the German special services were also created at the headquarters of the rear command of Army Group Center.
In addition, from the end of 1941, hundreds of Cossacks began to regularly appear in the German army. In the summer of 1942, the cooperation of the Cossacks with the German authorities entered a new phase. From that time on, large Cossack formations - regiments and divisions - began to be created as part of the troops of the Third Reich.
However, one should not think that all the Cossacks who went over to the side of the Wehrmacht remained loyal to the Fuhrer. Very often, Cossacks, individually or in entire units, went over to the side of the Red Army or joined the Soviet partisans.
An interesting incident occurred in the 3rd Kuban Regiment. One of the German officers sent to the Cossack unit, while reviewing a hundred, called out a Cossack he did not like for some reason. The German first scolded him sternly and then hit him in the face with his glove.
The offended Cossack silently took out his saber and hacked the officer to death. The rushing German authorities immediately formed a hundred: “Whoever did this, step forward!” The whole hundred stepped forward. The Germans thought about it and decided to attribute the death of their officer to the partisans.
Numbers
How many Cossacks fought on the side of Nazi Germany during the entire period of the war?
According to the order of the German command dated June 18, 1942, all prisoners of war who were Cossacks by origin and considered themselves such were to be sent to a camp in the city of Slavuta. By the end of June, 5,826 people were concentrated in the camp. It was decided to begin the formation of Cossack units from this contingent.
By mid-1943, the Wehrmacht included about 20 Cossack regiments of varying strengths and a large number of small units, the total number of which reached 25 thousand people.
When the Germans began to retreat in 1943, hundreds of thousands of Don Cossacks and their families moved with the troops. According to experts, the number of Cossacks exceeded 135,000 people. After the end of the war, a total of 50 thousand Cossacks were detained by the Allied forces on the territory of Austria and transferred to the Soviet zone of occupation. Among them was General Krasnov.
Researchers estimate that at least 70,000 Cossacks served in the Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS units and auxiliary police during the war, most of whom were Soviet citizens who defected to Germany during the occupation.
According to historian Kirill Alexandrov, approximately 1.24 million citizens of the USSR performed military service on the side of Germany in 1941-1945: among them, 400 thousand were Russians, including 80 thousand in Cossack formations. Political scientist Sergei Markedonov suggests that among these 80 thousand, only 15-20 thousand were not Cossacks by origin.
Most of the Cossacks extradited by the allies received long sentences in the Gulag, and the Cossack elite, who sided with Nazi Germany, were sentenced to death by hanging by the verdict of the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.
One of the important and poorly covered issues of the 2nd World War remains the issue related to the participation of Cossacks in the war on the side of the German troops. And although many here speak very categorically that this supposedly could not have happened, the facts indicate the opposite - however, despite the available indisputable evidence, the most important thing here is to find out why this happened and what were the reasons for it.
The fact is that, unlike other projects for the formation of national units from former citizens of the USSR, Hitler and his inner circle looked favorably on the idea of forming Cossack units, since they adhered to the theory that the Cossacks were descendants of the Goths, which means they did not belong to Slavic, but to the Nordic race. In addition, at the beginning of Hitler's political career, he was supported by some Cossack leaders.
The main reason why many Cossacks fought on the side of Germany was the policy of genocide towards the Cossacks (as well as towards many other groups of the population of the former Russian Empire), carried out by the Bolsheviks since 1919. We are talking about the so-called decossackization. Decossackization - not to be confused with dispossession - is a policy pursued by the Bolsheviks during the Civil War and in the first decades after it, aimed at depriving the Cossacks of independent political and military rights, eliminating the Cossacks as a social and cultural community, an estate of the Russian state.
The policy of decossackization resulted in mass red terror and repressions against the Cossacks, expressed in mass executions, hostage-taking, burning of villages, and pitting nonresidents against the Cossacks. During the process of decossackization, requisitions of livestock and agricultural products were also carried out, and the resettlement of poor people from other cities to lands that previously belonged to the Cossacks.
About the same number of Cossacks fought on the side of the 3rd Reich as in the 1st world war fought against the Cossack population of southern Russia. There is every reason for the existence of a version about civil war Cossacks with the USSR, which took place during the 2nd World War. In fact, during the war the Cossacks were divided into 2 parts - one fought on the side of the USSR, the second as part of the Wehrmacht troops.
Background
1919
From the Directive of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) “To all responsible comrades working in the Cossack regions”:
...Carry out mass terror against the rich Cossacks, exterminating them without exception; carry out merciless mass terror against all Cossacks who took any direct or indirect part in the fight against Soviet power...
… “Liberating” the Cossack lands for settlers, 30–60 people were shot per day in the villages. In just 6 days, more than 400 people were shot in the villages of Kazanskaya and Shumilinskaya. In Veshenskaya - 600. This is how the “decossackization” began...
1932
...the Cossack of the Samburovskaya village of the North Don district Burukhin, when the grain procurers arrived at night, “went out onto the porch in full ceremonial Cossack uniform, with medals and crosses and said: “The Soviet government will not see bread from an honest Cossack””...
...The rebels put up desperate resistance. Every inch of land was defended by them with extraordinary ferocity... Despite the lack of weapons, the numerical superiority of the enemy, big number wounded and killed and a shortage of food and military supplies, the rebels held out for a total of 12 days and only on the thirteenth day the battle along the entire line stopped... [The Soviets] Shot day and night everyone against whom there was the slightest suspicion of sympathy for the rebels. There was no mercy for anyone, not children, not the elderly, not women, not even the seriously ill...
1941
...In the first battle he went over to the side of the Germans. He said that I would take revenge on the Soviets for all my relatives while I was alive. And I took revenge...
1942
...In the summer of 1942 the Germans came with the Cossacks. They began to form a volunteer Cossack regiment. I was the first in the village to become a volunteer of the 1st Cossack regiment (1st platoon, 1st hundred). He received a mare, a saddle and harness, a saber and a carbine. Took the oath of allegiance to the priest Quiet Don... Father and mother praised and were proud of me ...
According to S. M. Markedonov, “through Cossack units on the German side in the period from October 1941 to April 1945. about 80,000 people passed.” According to research by V.P. Makhno - 150-160 thousand people (of which up to 110-120 thousand are Cossacks and 40-50 thousand are non-Cossacks). According to data provided by A. Tsyganok, as of January 1943 in German armed forces 30 military units were formed from Cossacks, from individual hundreds to regiments. According to V.P. Makhno, in 1944 the number of Cossack formations reached 100 thousand: 15th SS Cossack Cavalry Corps - 35-40 thousand; in Cossack Stan 25.3 thousand (18.4 thousand in combat units and 6.9 thousand in support units, non-combatant Cossacks and officials); Cossack reserve (Turkula Brigade, 5th Regiment, N.N. Krasnov battalion) - up to 10 thousand; in the Cossack units of the Wehrmacht, not transferred to the formation of the 1st Cossack Division (later deployed to the 15th Corps) 5-7 thousand; in parts of Todt - 16 thousand; in SD units and air defense assistants 3-4 thousand; Cossack losses on the German side during the war amounted to 50-55 thousand people.
Cossack camp (Kosakenlager) is a military organization during the Great Patriotic War that united Cossacks as part of Wehrmacht and SS units. By May 1945, at the time of surrender to English captivity, there were 24 thousand military and civilians.
XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps (German XV. SS-Kosaken-Kavallerie-Korps) - a Cossack unit that fought on the side of Germany during World War II, created on February 25, 1945 on the basis of the 1st Cossack Cavalry Division of Helmut von Pannwitz (German. 1. Kosaken-Kavallerie-Division); On April 20, 1945, it became part of the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia, becoming the XV Cossack Cavalry Corps of the KONR Armed Forces.
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 creation of Cossack units was headed by former colonel of the tsarist army Sergei Vasilyevich Pavlov, in Soviet time worked as an engineer at one of the factories in Novocherkassk. Pavlov's initiative was supported by Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov.
From January 1943, German troops began to retreat, and some Cossacks and their families moved with them to the west. In Kirovograd, S.V. Pavlov, guided by the declaration of the German government of November 10, 1943, began the creation of the “Cossack Stan”. Under the command of Pavlov, who received the title of “marching chieftain,” Cossacks began to arrive from almost all of southern Russia.
When the Main Directorate of Cossack Troops (German: Hauptverwaltung der Kosakenheere) was formed in Berlin on March 31, 1944, headed by P. N. Krasnov, S. V. Pavlov became one of his deputies. In June 1944, Cossack Stan was relocated to the area of the cities of Baranovichi - Slonim - Yelnya - Stolbtsy - Novogrudok.
On June 17, 1944, Colonel Pavlov died. The former White Guard centurion T.N. Domanov was appointed marching ataman of the Stan. In July 1944, Stan moved briefly to the Bialystok area.
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.
On July 6, 1944, a decision was made to transfer the Cossacks to northern Italy (Carnia) to fight against Italian anti-fascists. Later, Cossack families moved to the same area, as well as Caucasian units under the command of General Sultan-Girey Klych.
In Cossack Stan, which settled in Italy, the newspaper “Cossack Land” was published, many Italian towns were renamed into villages, and local residents were subject to partial deportation.
In March 1945, units of the 15th SS Cossack Corps took part in the Wehrmacht's last major offensive operation, successfully operating against Bulgarian units on the southern front of the Balaton salient.
In April 1945, the Cossack Stan was reorganized into a Separate Cossack Corps under the command of the Marching Ataman, Major General Domanov. At that time, the corps included 18,395 combat Cossacks and 17,014 refugees.
The corps came under the control of the ROA commander, General A. Vlasov. And on April 30, the commander of the German troops in Italy, General Rettinger, decided to surrender. Under these conditions, the leadership of the Stan ordered the Cossacks to move to eastern Tyrol, into the territory of Austria. The total number of Cossack Stan at this time was about 40 thousand Cossacks with their families. On May 2, 1945, the crossing of the Alps began, and on Easter, May 10, they arrived in the city of Lienz. Soon other Cossack units arrived there, in particular, under the command of General A.G. Shkuro.
But Lienz and Judenburg turned out to be a trap for the Cossacks. It was there that the forcible extradition by the British and Americans to the Soviet Union took place. different sources from 45 to 60 thousand Cossacks who fought on the side of the German Wehrmacht. The action was accompanied by a large number of casualties. All this was part of “Operation Keelhaul” (eng. Keelhaul from keel - to drag under the keel as punishment) - an operation by British and American troops to transfer to the Soviet side citizens of the USSR located on the territory under their control: ostarbeiters, prisoners of war, as well as refugees and citizens of the USSR who served and fought on the side of Germany.
It was carried out in May - June 1945.
The agreement on repatriation was reached at the Yalta Conference and applied to all displaced persons who in 1939 were citizens of the Soviet Union, regardless of their desire to return to their homeland. At the same time, some of the former subjects were also extradited Russian Empire who never had Soviet citizenship.
On May 2, 1945, the leadership of the Cossack Stan announced an order to move to the territory of Austria in East Tyrol with the goal of honorable surrender to the British. The number of Stan at this time was, according to data provided by M. Shkarovsky with reference to Austrian historians, 36,000, including: 20,000 combat-ready bayonets and sabers and 16,000 family members (also with reference to Italian scientists - “about 40,000 people ").
On the night of May 2-3, the Cossacks began crossing the Alps. At the village Ovaro Italian partisans blocked the mountain road and demanded the surrender of all transport and weapons. After a short intense battle, the Cossacks cleared the way for themselves. The transition was led by generals P. N. Krasnov, T. I. Domanov and V. G. Naumenko.
On May 6, almost all Cossack units of the Stan, in difficult weather conditions, crossed the icy Alpine pass Plekenpass, crossed the Italian-Austrian border and reached the Oberdrauburg region. On May 10, another 1,400 Cossacks from the reserve regiment under the command of General A. G. Shkuro arrived in East Tyrol. By this time, the Cossack Stan had reached the city of Lients and was located on the banks of the Drava River, the headquarters of Krasnov and Domanov were located in the Lients hotel.
On May 18, the British came to the Drava valley and accepted surrender. The Cossacks surrendered almost all their weapons and were distributed in several camps in the vicinity of Lienz.
Initially, on May 28, by deception, under the guise of a call to a “conference,” the British isolated about 1,500 officers and generals from the main mass and handed them over to the NKVD.
From seven o'clock in the morning on June 1, the Cossacks gathered on the plain outside the fence of the Peggets camp around the field altar, where a funeral service was held. When the moment of communion arrived (18 priests administered communion at the same time), British troops appeared. British soldiers rushed at the crowd of resisting Cossacks, beating them and stabbing them with bayonets, trying to drive them into the cars. Shooting, using bayonets, butts and clubs, they broke the barrage of unarmed Cossack cadets. Beating everyone indiscriminately, fighters and refugees, old men and women, trampling small children into the ground, they began to separate separate groups of people from the crowd, grab them and throw them into trucks.
The extradition of Cossacks continued until mid-June 1945. By this time, over 22.5 thousand Cossacks were deported from the vicinity of Lienz to the USSR, including at least 3 thousand old emigrants. More than 4 thousand people fled to the forests and mountains. At least a thousand died during the operation of British troops on June 1.
In addition to Lienz, about 30-35 thousand Cossacks from the 15th Cossack Corps, which fought in in perfect order broke into Austria from Yugoslavia.
M. Shkarovsky gives the following figures with reference to archival documents (in particular, to the report of the chief of the NKVD troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front Pavlov from June 15, 1945): from May 28 to June 7, the Soviet side received from the British from East Tyrol 42,913 people (38,496 men and 4,417 women and children), including 16 generals, 1,410 officers, 7 priests; over the next week, the British caught 1,356 Cossacks who had escaped from the camps in the forests, 934 of them were handed over to the NKVD on June 16; isolated suicides and the liquidation of the NKVD in place of 59 people as “traitors to the motherland” are noted.
After being handed over to the Soviet government, Cossack generals, a number of commanders and privates were executed.
The bulk of the extradited Cossacks (including women) were sent to Gulag camps, where a significant part of them died. It is known, in particular, that Cossacks were sent to camps in the Kemerovo region and the Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to work in the mines. Teenagers and women were gradually released, some of the Cossacks, depending on the materials of their investigative cases, as well as loyalty of behavior, were transferred to a special settlement regime with the same work. In 1955, by decree of the Presidium Supreme Council USSR “On the amnesty of Soviet citizens who collaborated with the occupation authorities during the Great Patriotic War” dated September 17, the survivors were mostly amnestied, lived and worked in the USSR and kept silent about their military past.
The issue of rehabilitation of the Cossacks is still very pressing. Over the years it was either carried out or cancelled. For example, on January 17, 2008, a deputy State Duma from the United Russia party, Ataman of the All-Great Don Army Viktor Vodolatsky signed an order to create a working group for the political rehabilitation of Ataman Krasnov. According to the deputy military ataman for ideological work, Colonel Vladimir Voronin, who is part of working group, Krasnov was not a traitor: Krasnov was executed for betraying his homeland, although in fact he was neither a citizen of Russia nor the Soviet Union, which means he did not betray anyone.
Historian Kirill Alexandrov believes that, in fact, rehabilitation has already taken place. At the same time, the Cossacks are unlikely to need rehabilitation - after the coup of 1917, they fought as best they could against the Bolshevik regime that they hated and for the most part did not repent of this in the future (as, for example, it is written in the memoirs of the Cossacks in the collections of N. S. Timofeev.) In addition Moreover, since the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR, the rehabilitation of the real enemies of the Soviet government in the name of this government is absurd. According to Alexandrov, real rehabilitation of such persons will become possible only when Russia has given a full legal assessment of all the crimes committed by the Bolsheviks since November 7, 1917.
