Volga-Tatar legionnaires were part of 7 reinforced field battalions (about 12.5 thousand people).
Ideological basis
The formal ideological basis of the legion was the fight against Bolshevism and Jews, while the German side deliberately spread rumors about possible creation Idel-Ural Republic. The leading role in the ideological training of legionnaires was played by emigrants - members national committees formed under the auspices of the Ministry of the Occupied eastern territories. Prominent figures of the national movements of the period were especially popular among them.1918-1920(Shafi Almas). The Muslim legionnaire camps were repeatedly visited by the Mufti of JerusalemHajj Amin el-Husseini, who called for holy war against the “infidels” in alliance with Germany. In the Muslim legions, the positions of mullahs were introduced, who sometimes combined religious functions with command ones, being at the same time platoon commanders. Military and political training of soldiers ended with a collective oath to Hitlerand presentation of the flag. The newspaper “Morning of the Caucasus” in 1942 published a statement by Tatar legionnaires that “until the enemy is destroyed New Russia- Bolshevism,” they will not lay down their arms.
No promises regarding creation national republic under the German protectorate, following the example of the Ustasha in Yugoslavia or the Slovaks, none of the nationalities of the USSR was given. Moreover, published materials highlighting Hitler’s categorically negative point of view regarding the need or possibility of allowing the creation of national state entities under a German protectorate in territory occupied by Germany do not allow us to talk about Germany’s goals in relation to legionnaires other than their assistance to Germany in the fight against Bolshevism and control over territories supplying resources to Germany.
Symbolism
The Volga-Tatar Legion used a variant of the patch that looked like a blue-gray oval with a yellow border. In the center of the emblem there was a vault with a vertical arrow. At the top it was written in yellow lettersIdel-Ural, and below - Tatar Legion. The round cockades on the headdresses had the same color combination as the stripes.
Story
Creation logic
Order OKHthe creation of the legion was signedAugust 151942. Practical work its formation began in Jedlino (Poland)August 21 1942.
Future legionnaires arriving from prisoner of war camps were already in preparatory camps divided into companies, platoons and squads and began training, which at the first stage included general physical and drill training, as well as the assimilation of German commands and regulations. The drills were conducted by German company commanders with the help of translators, as well as by squad and platoon commanders from among the legionnaires who had undergone two weeks of training at non-commissioned officer courses. Upon completion initial course training, recruits were transferred to battalions, where they received standard uniforms, equipment and weapons and moved on to tactical training and study of the material part of weapons.
In addition to 7 field battalions, during the war, construction, railway, transport and other auxiliary units were formed from prisoners of war - natives of the Volga region and the Urals - that served the German army, but did not directly participate in the hostilities. Among them were 15 Volga-Tatar separate companies.
Organizational structure of field battalions, participation in hostilities
Passage in solemn march
At first 1943in the “second wave” of field battalions of the eastern legions, 3 Volga-Tatar battalions (825, 826 and 827th) were sent to the troops, and in the second half of 1943 - the “third wave” - 4 Volga-Tatar battalions (from 828 to 831st).
Each field battalion consisted of 3 rifle, machine gun and headquarters companies of 130-200 people each; V rifle company- 3 rifle and machine-gun platoons, in the headquarters - anti-tank, mortar, engineer and communications platoons. The total strength of the battalion was 800-1000 soldiers and officers, including up to 60 German personnel (Rahmenpersonal): 4 officers, 1 official, 32 non-commissioned officers and 23 privates. The German commanders of battalions and companies had deputies from among representatives of the nationality of legionnaires. Command staff below the company level was exclusively national. The battalion was armed with 3 anti-tank guns (45 mm), 15 light and heavy mortars, 52 light and heavy machine guns, rifles and machine guns (mostly captured Soviet ones).
At the end of 1943, the battalions were transferred to SouthernFrance and located in Mand(Armenian, Azerbaijani and 829th Volga-Tatar battalion s). 826th and 827th Volga- they were Tatar disarmed by the Germans due to the reluctance of soldiers to go into battle and numerous cases of desertion and converted into road construction units. The 831st Volga-Tatar battalion was among those separated from theWehrmachtat the end of 1943 to formshelf as part of SS troopsunder the command of career intelligence officer Major Mayer-Mader.
Kurultai of the peoples of Idel-Ural in March 1944
On March 4-5, 1944, the “Kurultai of the Peoples of Idel-Ural” took place in Greifswald.
Underground anti-fascist organization in the legion
Main article: Kurmashev and ten others
Since the end of 1942, an underground organization had been operating in the legion, whose goal was the internal ideological disintegration of the legion. The underground workers printed anti-fascist leaflets that were distributed among the legionnaires.
For participation in an underground organization25-th of August1944in a military prisonPlötzensee V Berlin11 Tatar legionnaires were guillotined:Gainan Kurmashev,Musa Jalil,Abdulla Alish, Fuat Saifulmulyukov, Fuat Bulatov,Garif Shabaev, Akhmet Simaev,Abdulla Battalov , Zinnat Khasanov, Akhat Atnashev andSalim Bukharov.
The actions of the Tatar underground led to the fact that of all the national battalions (14 Turkestan, 8 Azerbaijani, 7 North Caucasian, 8 Georgian, 8 Armenian, 7 Volga-Tatar battalions), the Tatar ones were the most unreliable for the Germans, and they fought the least against the Soviets troops.
The fate of the legion battalions
825th Battalion
Started to be created in October-November1942 V Yedlinoand numbered up to 900 people. Major Tsek was appointed commander.The 14th of February1943 the battalion was solemnly sent to the front and18th of Febuary arrived in Vitebsk. The main part of the battalion was stationed in the villageGralevo On the left coast Western Dvina.
Already February 21representatives of the legionnaires, acting on behalf of an underground organization in the legion, contacted the partisans and agreed on a general uprising of the battalion at 23:00February 22 . Despite the fact that the Germans became aware of the plans of the legionnaires, and they made arrests an hour before the uprising, seizing the leaders of the uprising, still, under the leadership of Khusain Mukhamedov, there were about 500-600 legionnaires with weapons in their hands and with big amount equipment went over to the partisans. Only 2 platoons of the battalion failed to escape (they were not notified in time) and the arrested legionnaires. The remaining legionnaires were urgently taken to the rear and assigned to other units.
] 828th Battalion
The 828th battalion was created during the period from
P carried out operations " Ball lightning“- this is the name of the book published by Tatknigoizdat and telling about the feat of the servicemen of the 825th battalion of the Idel-Ural Legion, who on February 23, 1943, having arrived in the Vitebsk region as part of fascist punitive detachments, raised an armed uprising and went over to the side of the partisans. Among the legionnaires was Chelny resident Mukhamed Galeev.
One of the authors of the book, which talks about little known history times of the Great Patriotic War, became a former Chelny resident, now the head of the department for relations with public organizations Tatars of the near and far abroad of the Executive Committee of the World Congress of Tatars Rustem Gainetdinov.
In a conversation with us, he said that he became interested in this topic back in 1989, when he worked in Naberezhnye Chelny:
— The book’s author team includes famous writer Rafael Mustafin, MGIMO professor Abdulkhak Akhtamzyan, Colonel General Mansur Khakimov, journalist Rafis Izmailov and me. In 1989, a well-known person in the city, Samuil Lurie, contacted the Chelny KGB department. He worked at Kamgesenergostroy, and after retiring, he became an active local historian. At that time, I was involved in the rehabilitation of repressed people, and his father worked as the chief engineer of the Kyiv power plant, was repressed and shot in 1941. Lurie came to us and studied my father’s case.
And back in the 70s and 80s, he took search teams from Chelny school No. 28 to places of military glory. And during one of his trips to Belarus, he saw a report in the Vitebsk museum partisan commander about the transition of Tatar legionnaires to our side. He copied it by hand and in 1989, when he was already at an advanced age, he brought me this document. He said: “This is a very valuable thing for the history of your people, which shows the Tatars from the most worthy side.”
In 1990, using this document, I published an article in the newspaper “Soviet Tataria”. But then the attitude towards the legionnaires was as traitors to the motherland, a wave of criticism came towards me, like, why are you rehabilitating traitors? At that time, some legionnaires were still alive, they turned to the KGB with a request for rehabilitation, but then the time was such that this issue was not even raised...
—Have you continued your search?
— Yes, I made a special trip to Kazan, met with veteran security officers who dealt with these issues, picked up several cases from the archive, and went to a conference in Belarus. And in 2005, he published his article about the transition of legionnaires to partisans in the magazine “Gasyrlar Avazy”. Then I went to Belarus four more times, looking in the archives for lists of those who crossed over. We carried out this work together with a group of Moscow scientists, which included Abdulkhak Akhmatzyan and Mansur Khakimov.
By the way, for the first time facts about legionnaires began to be collected in the 60s, when the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus Panteleimon Ponamarenko, who was the chief of staff during the war, came to our republic partisan movement. It was he who first reported that there was such a thing interesting fact transition of an entire battalion and was surprised that we were not interested in this issue. In 1967, Rafael Mustafin began to study the fate of Musa Jalil. He went to Vitebsk, met with partisans, participants in the transition, and wrote the first material - his book, published in 1974, was the first to talk about this transition.
— There are versions that Jalil himself was involved in this uprising.
- Yes, long years this transition was associated with the personality and activities of the poet, but it is now known for certain that at that time he was near Berlin and had no direct relation to this uprising. On the contrary, this transition greatly influenced Musa Jalil. He realized that in this way, by preparing an uprising within the legion from within, he could bring maximum benefit to his homeland.
— What is the history of the appearance of the Idel-Ural legion?
— In August 1942, Hitler signed an order to create the Volga-Tatar, or, as the legionnaires themselves called it, the “Idel-Ural” legion. A total of seven combat battalions were formed, numbered from 825 to 831. Between eight and ten thousand legionnaires served in them. This is relatively little. According to Doctor of Historical Sciences Iskander Gilyazov, during the war, from 700 thousand to one million Soviet citizens, mostly prisoners of war, served in the German army. Historians are best known for the fate of the 825th battalion in connection with its transition to the side of the partisans.
According to the report of the 1st Commissioner partisan detachment Isak Grigoriev to the Commissioner of the 1st Vitebsk partisan brigade To Vladimir Khabarov, dated March 5, 1943, “506 personnel arrived with weapons; 45 mm cannons - 3 pieces, heavy machine guns - 20, battalion mortars - 4, company mortars - 5, light machine guns - 22, rifles - 340, pistols - 150, rocket launchers - 12, binoculars - 30, horses with full ammunition, ammunition and food - 26". Later, legionnaires still arrived in separate small groups. A total of 557 people transferred.
— Was the transition of the Tatar battalion strategically important during the war?
- Huge! If we take it locally, then he violated general progress German offensive against the partisans in the Vitebsk region and complicated their situation, since the partisans received unexpected reinforcements in manpower and weapons. But most importantly, he undermined the trust of the German authorities in the collaborators - the Germans began to fear sending legionnaires to the eastern occupied regions. Immediately after the uprising, ready to go to Eastern front The 826th battalion was sent out of harm's way to Holland, to the area of the city of Breda. The news of the success of the uprising spread widely among the legionnaires of not only the Tatar, but also other legions and, undoubtedly, intensified the struggle of the anti-fascist underground.
It must be emphasized that in order to perpetuate the feat of our fellow countrymen, on behalf of the first President of the Republic of Tatarstan M. Sh. Shaimiev, on November 10, 2009 in the Vitebsk region, in the area of the transition of legionnaires of the 825th battalion to the partisans and the fighting of the 334th division, on behalf of the Republic Tatarstan was opened Memorial monument Tatars who fought in Belarus.
— Yes, it lists 156 names with specified years and places of birth of these legionnaires. Data for another 50 people remains to be clarified. There are also your former fellow countrymen on the list: Zeyadinov Sadry(s) Zeyadinovich, born in 1914, from the village of Starye Gardali, Naberezhnye Chelny (now Tukaevsky) district, Galeev Me(u)khamed Sadykovich, born in 1910, who lived before the war in Naberezhnye Chelny at : st. Tsentralnaya, house 37. It turned out that neither their relatives nor the public knew anything about the fate of the majority of the people listed. Naturally, this work will continue. Belarusian archivists sent documents on another 300 sheets, just the other day I returned from Belarus, where I found another 15 names of legionnaires who died fighting on the side of the partisans already in 1944.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to address the Chelny residents with a request. The fact is that Samuel Lurie wrote two books of memoirs. They were typed by one of the girls who were part of the search party. I read these manuscripts, they are very valuable both for the history of Chelny and for understanding the life of the country. Lurie did not have time to publish them during his lifetime, but the manuscripts may have been preserved. If anyone knows anything about them, I would ask you to call the editorial office of Chelninskiye Izvestia.
Volga-Tatar Legion (Idel-Ural Legion)- a Wehrmacht unit consisting of representatives of the Volga peoples of the USSR (Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari, Mordovians, Chuvash, Udmurts). Volga-Tatar legionnaires were part of 7 reinforced field battalions (12.5 thousand people). Organizationally subordinate to the Headquarters of the Command of the Eastern Legions (German). Kommando der Ostlegionen)
Description
Ideological basis
The formal ideological basis of the legion was the fight against Bolshevism and Jews, while the German side deliberately spread rumors about the possible creation of the Idel-Ural Republic. The leading role in the ideological training of the legionnaires was played by emigrants - members of national committees formed under the auspices of the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories. Prominent figures of national movements of the period -1920 (Shafi Almas) were especially popular among them. The camps of Muslim legionnaires were repeatedly visited by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, who called for a holy war against the “infidels” in alliance with Germany. In the Muslim legions, the positions of mullahs were introduced, who sometimes combined religious functions with command ones, being at the same time platoon commanders. The military and political training of soldiers ended with a collective oath to Hitler and the presentation of a flag.
No promises were made to any of the nationalities of the USSR regarding the creation of a national republic under a German protectorate following the example of the Ustasha in Yugoslavia or the Slovaks.
Moreover, published materials highlighting Hitler’s categorically negative point of view regarding the need or possibility of allowing the creation of national state entities under a German protectorate in territory occupied by Germany do not allow us to talk about other goals of Germany in relation to legionnaires, other than their assistance to Germany in the fight against Bolshevism and control over territories supplying resources to Germany.
Symbolism
One of the options for the Idel-Ural legion patch
The Volga-Tatar Legion used a variant of the patch that looked like a blue-gray oval with a yellow border. In the center of the emblem there was a vault with a vertical arrow. At the top it was written in yellow letters Idel-Ural, and below - Tatar Legion. The round cockades on the headdresses had the same color combination as the stripes.
Story
Legion fighter in German uniform
Creation logic
Arriving from prisoner-of-war camps, future legionnaires were already in preparatory camps divided into companies, platoons and squads and began training, which at the first stage included general physical and drill training, as well as the assimilation of German commands and regulations. The drills were conducted by German company commanders with the help of translators, as well as by squad and platoon commanders from among the legionnaires who had undergone two weeks of training at non-commissioned officer courses. Upon completion of the initial training course, recruits were transferred to battalions, where they received standard uniforms, equipment and weapons and moved on to tactical training and the study of the material part of weapons.
In addition to 7 field battalions, during the war, construction, railway, transport and other auxiliary units were formed from prisoners of war - natives of the Volga region and the Urals - that served the German army, but did not directly participate in the hostilities. Among them were 15 Volga-Tatar separate companies.
Organizational structure of field battalions, participation in hostilities
At the beginning of 1943, in the “second wave” of field battalions of the eastern legions, 3 Volga-Tatar battalions (825, 826 and 827th) were sent to the troops, and in the second half of 1943 - the “third wave” - 4 Volga-Tatar (with 828th to 831st).
Each field battalion consisted of 3 rifle, machine gun and headquarters companies of 130-200 people each; in the rifle company - 3 rifle and machine-gun platoons, in the headquarters - anti-tank, mortar, engineer and communications platoons. The total strength of the battalion was 800-1000 soldiers and officers, including up to 60 German personnel (Rahmenpersonal): 4 officers, 1 official, 32 non-commissioned officers and 23 privates. The German commanders of battalions and companies had deputies from among representatives of the nationality of legionnaires. The command staff below the company level was exclusively national. The battalion was armed with 3 anti-tank guns (45 mm), 15 light and heavy mortars, 52 light and heavy machine guns, rifles and machine guns (mostly captured Soviet ones).
At the end of 1943, the battalions were transferred to Southern France and stationed in the city of Mand (Armenian, Azerbaijani and 829th Volga-Tatar battalions). The 826th and 827th Volga Tatars were disarmed by the Germans due to the reluctance of the soldiers to go into battle and numerous cases of desertion. The 831st Volga-Tatar battalion was among those detached from the Wehrmacht at the end of 1943 to form a regiment within the SS troops under the command of career intelligence officer Major Mayer-Mader.
Switching to the side of the Red Army
The battalions did not demonstrate high combat effectiveness due to the fact that some of the legionnaires recruited against their will deserted or went over to the side of the Red Army. The first successful attempt was made in February 1943 in the 825th Volga-Tatar battalion, which at that time was on security duty in the Vitebsk region. An underground organization had been operating in this battalion since the end of 1942. The underground fighters of Vitebsk established contact with her, provided local partisans with detailed information about the battalion and took an active part in organizing the transition of its personnel on the side of the partisans. As a result, on February 23, 1943, near Vitebsk, the 825th battalion (over 800 people with 6 anti-tank guns, 100 machine guns and machine guns and other weapons) almost in its entirety went over to the side of the First Vitebsk Partisan Brigade. Most of them were subsequently repressed by the Stalinist regime.
For participation in the underground organization on August 25, 1944, 11 Tatar legionnaires were guillotined in the Plötzensee military prison in Berlin: Musa Jalil, Abdulla Alish, Gainan Kurmashev, Fuat Sayfulmulyukov, Fuat Bulatov, Garif Shabaev, Akhmet Simaev, Abdulla Battalov, Zinnat Khasanov, Akhat Atnashev and Salim Bukharov.
Notes
Links
- Gilyazov I. A. Legion "Idel-Ural". - Kazan: Tatknigoizdat, 2005. - 383 p. - ISBN 5-298-04052-7
- Karashchuk A., Drobyazko S. Eastern legions and Cossack units in the Wehrmacht. - AST, 2000. - 48 p. - (Military-historical series “Soldier”: Uniform. Armament. Organization). - 7000 copies. - ISBN 5-237-03026-2
- Romanko O. V. Muslim legions in the Second World War. . - M.: AST; Transitbook, 2004. - 320 p. - 7000 copies. - ISBN 5-17-019816-7, 5-9578-0500-9
- Yurado K.K.
Legion "Idel-Ural" Gilyazov Iskander Ayazovich
Volga-Tatar Legion - Legion "Idel-Ural"
As shown above, a certain interest in the Volga Tatars in Germany was evident even in the pre-war years. After the start of the war against the USSR, Tatar prisoners of war began to be separated into special camps almost simultaneously with prisoners of war from other Turkic peoples. Nevertheless, the Volga-Tatar legion (or the Idel-Ural legion) was created later than all the others.
In fact, representatives of the peoples of the Volga region were separated into special combined camps already in the autumn-winter of 1941/42. For the first time in the documents at our disposal on the creation Volga-Tatar Legion We are talking about July 1, 1942 - on this day information about the forming legions was sent to various authorities, among which the Volga-Tatar legion was mentioned. On August 1, 1942, an order was given from Hitler's headquarters, signed by Chief of Staff Keitel, to create, in addition to the existing ones, a legion consisting of Volga (Kazan) Tatars, Bashkirs, Tatar-speaking Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts and Mordovians. The order ordered the separation of representatives of the named peoples into special camps and intensification of work with the recruitment of prisoners of war. It was noted that the status of the Volga-Tatar Legion is exactly the same as that of previously created similar formations, that the use of the legion is envisaged in areas of military operations, but especially in areas where partisans operate.
Legionnaire on duty
Keitel's order was, as it were, an order from above, and the practical order of the OKH was signed on August 15, 1942 (110 copies were made from it and distributed to all authorities). It already contained more specific instructions:
"1. Create a legion of Tatars, Bashkirs and Tatar-speaking peoples of the Volga region;
2. The Tatars assigned to the Turkestan Legion should be transferred to the Volga-Tatar Legion;
3. Tatar prisoners of war should be urgently separated from the rest and sent to the Siedlce camp (on the Warsaw-Brest railway line). Place them at the disposal of the Military Commander in the General Government (Milit?rbefehlshaber im General-Gouveniemerit);
4. The created legion should be used primarily in the fight against partisans.”
Practical work on the creation of the Volga-Tatar Legion began on August 21, 1942: the camp in Jedlino near Radom was chosen as the site of its formation, where uniforms and weapons for the legion were received. German responsible personnel also arrived here. The Siedlce camp, located near Jedlino, had already become a gathering point for prisoners of war from the Turkic peoples. It was divided into two parts: Siedlce-A and Siedlce-B - it was the first part that was intended to collect Tatar prisoners of war. It is known that by the end of July 1942, i.e. Even before the order to create the legion appeared, there were already 2,550 Tatars in the camp.
The banner of the Volga-Tatar Legion was presented on September 6, 1942, so the legionnaires themselves considered this day to be the date of the final formation of the formation.
Formation of the Volga-Ural legionnaires
September 8, 1942 The Volga-Tatar Legion was transferred to the command of the headquarters Eastern Legions and commander of a military district in the "Government General".
Tatar prisoners of war were concentrated mainly in the Siedlce-A camp, from where they were sent for training to the legion in Jedlino. Subsequently, the role of a preliminary camp was also played by the camp in Dęblin (Stalag-307), where, for example, on September 1, 1943 there were 1,800 Tatar prisoners of war. In addition to the Tatars, Azerbaijanis and representatives of the North Caucasian peoples also gathered here. And at the beginning of 1944, after the transfer of the Eastern Legions to France, the general preliminary camp was in Legionowo near Warsaw, from March 1944 - again in Siedlce-B (Stalag-366) and in the Nekhrybka camp (Stalag-327 ).
Sleeve patch of the legion "Idel-Ural". First option
The first statistical information from the commander of the military district in the “government general” about the Volga-Tatar Legion arrived in mid-September. This information was as follows: on September 8, 1942, 135 Tatars “expressed a desire” to enroll in the legion in the Turkestan camp Benjamin, Byala Podlaska - 27, Zaezerce - 152, Siedlce - 2315, in total - 2629 people (out of total number 12,130 people registered for the Eastern Legions). In addition, 7,370 Tatar prisoners of war were sent from operational areas to Poland. In total, according to official data, there were up to 100 transports with representatives of different peoples of the USSR on the way. On September 11, 1942, the first German representatives were assigned to the legion: one officer, two employees, 54 non-commissioned officers, 18 soldiers. On September 15, translator courses for legionnaires began to function. Starting from October 1, 1942 to January 1, 1943, it was planned to fully form the first two Tatar battalion(this plan was completed with a slight delay).
A rather elderly and experienced military man, Major Oscar von Seckendorff, was appointed commander of the Volga-Tatar Legion. He was born on June 12, 1875 in Moscow, spoke Russian, English, French, and Chinese well; spoke Ukrainian worse and Spanish languages. He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel. Few specific documents about his activities have been preserved in the archives. It is difficult to even say how long he remained as commander of the legion. The information about this is not entirely clear. On May 12, 1944, von Seckendorff gave orders for the legion, explaining that he was being transferred to the headquarters of the Eastern Legions and he was transferring command of the legion to Captain Kelle. At that time, von Seckendorff was appointed commander of the schools of the eastern formations - the Turkic school of officers and translators (located first in Rohrbach, then in Ohrdruf, and at the end of the war - in Neuhammer); schools for officers and translators eastern peoples(first in Conflans and Saint-Minel, then in Grafenwoehr, and at the end of the war in Munsingen). It is also known that on November 17, 1944, a representative of the SS Main Directorate, R. Olsha, came out with support for von Seckendorff, who, judging by his data, the Wehrmacht command was going to retire on January 1, 1945, citing his age. However, the certificate does not indicate from which position they wanted to remove Lieutenant Colonel Zeckendorf. R. Olsha, referring to the experience, knowledge and desires of Seckendorff himself, recommended not to send him into retirement, but to transfer him to the Main Directorate of the SS, to the Eastern Department. On December 9, 1944, in a certificate from Standartenführer Spaarmann, the prospect of von Seckendorff’s transfer to the SS was again mentioned: “The day of the battle group “Idel-Ural” (it will be discussed below. - I.G.), which consists of Tatars and Finno-Ugric peoples, there is only one specialist who knows the East, as well as understands the language and mentality of the people. It's about V in this case about Lieutenant Colonel von Seckendorff, who, according to the calendar, will be discharged from the Wehrmacht on January 1, 1945, and who would be perfectly suited for organizational work in a battle group.” Information about future fate The first commander of the Volga-Tatar Legion could not be found.
According to the available documents, it can be judged that Seckendorff, despite his age, took up the matter quite energetically, most of all paying attention to the issues of combat training of legionnaires. Perhaps one of the most serious problems For him (as for other German organizers of the Eastern Legions), the problem of training national officers became a problem, which, by the way, was never resolved until the end of the war, although it was raised more than once. It is therefore of interest to see the detailed analytical paper prepared by von Seckendorff on January 25, 1943, which addresses this problem. It was actually common to all Eastern legions, but von Seckendorff’s ideas were implemented specifically in the Volga-Tatar Legion.
First, the legion commander poses the question: from whom can future officers be selected? And he himself answers: from former officers of the Red Army, from the ranks of ordinary legionnaires or from the intelligentsia. For re-education in the German spirit, the most difficult “material” was, according to Seckendorff, a simple legionnaire: it is easy to influence him political influence, but he “brings with him so little intelligence and education that his conversion to officer is accompanied by incredible difficulties: either he turns out to be completely incapable, or he turns into an ignorant, bloody despot who does much more harm than good.” The candidates of the intellectual and the former Soviet officer, since they “due to their exalted position in the USSR are suppressed in ideological terms.” But still, the former officer has an advantage: he has military experience, tactical knowledge, and some kind of education. Therefore, von Seckendorff believed, there remained “the least evil” with whom it was necessary to work - former officers of the Red Army. To “re-educate” them, very specific proposals were made, which, obviously, were taken into account in the actual practice of the Volga-Tatar Legion:
"1. Officers, from lieutenant to captain, coming from the preliminary camp, in the legion from the very beginning are placed separately from the soldiers and even in terms of service have nothing in common with them.
2. An officer platoon is subordinate to a more experienced and senior officer of the legion, who is responsible for education under the control of the legion commander.
3. Preparation is carried out in the following areas: careful ideological influence; tactical recheck and further retraining; close personal contact between officers; daily intensive training German; if possible, get to know the country, travel to Germany.”
Officers deemed "unfit" were sent back to the camps. After graduating from the school for non-commissioned officers (i.e., lower officers) at the legion, the officers were sent to Legionovo, where there was a general officer school. Von Seckendorff drew Special attention on psychological moment in the training of future officers of the legion: to maintain the distance between soldiers and officers, to develop their ambition and self-confidence. He complained that there were not enough capable officers in the Volga-Tatar Legion, so he considered it necessary to intensify this work.
Sleeve patch of the legion "Idel-Ural". The second, most common option
It seems to me that this document not only shows the severity of the problem of officer training in a particular legion, but allows us to roughly imagine the internal psychological atmosphere this connection. Von Seckendorff, a man of old, Prussian training, tried in his own way to spread his experience among the Volga Tatars, in the specific matter of training military personnel suitable for the Wehrmacht. These attempts obviously ended in failure, since even at the end of the war, almost all legion commanders constantly complained about the lack of “suitable” officers. What did this lead to? Moreover, German officers were appointed to replace those who were absent, which meant a deviation from the original principles of recruiting the Eastern Legions. German officers did not know Russian, much less other languages of the peoples of the USSR, and often did not understand the psychology of their subordinates at all. As a result, the result was a completely unexpected effect for the Germans: even those representatives of the eastern peoples who actually voluntarily went over to the side of Germany began to experience psychological discomfort from this, noticing in the fact of their appointment German officers a manifestation of distrust of legionnaires. And from this vicious circle The German military leadership also failed to find a way out.
Sleeve patch of the legion "Idel-Ural". Last option stripes for the legion by order of July 1, 1944. Practically not used by legionnaires
According to the plan, the first of the battalions of the Volga-Tatar Legion, numbered 825, was supposed to be created by December 1, 1942, but it was formed even a little earlier - on November 25. The deadline for the formation of the 826th battalion was set at December 15, 1942, the 827th - January 1, 1943. In fact, this happened, respectively, on January 15 and February 10, 1943. For the first time, all three first numbers of battalions are mentioned in surviving documents 3 November 1942 as being created.
The Tatar battalions, which were created in Poland, in Jedlino, under the control and jurisdiction of the command of the Eastern Legions in the German armed forces, and which are described in detail on the basis of available documents, were not the only ones. Most likely, with individual armies or army groups, in parallel or later, for example, during 1944, other Tatar formations. Among them were combat, construction, and supply units. We can only find fragmentary information about them in the sources, which nevertheless complements our ideas.
From the book For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland author Shambarov Valery Evgenievich70. RUSSIAN LEGION Soar, falcons, eagles, full of sorrow! Is it a matter of camping under tents in the field? Soldier's song The position of the Entente was alarming. The Americans were still being transported to Europe and could only send significant forces to the front in the fall. But
From the book Gaius Julius Caesar. Evil gained immortality author Levitsky Gennady MikhailovichCaesar's beloved legion achieved what he wanted, but, as it turned out, even the one-year consulate required by law was too much for him - fate allowed him to enjoy power for no more than five months... Well, in the end, it is important to live not how long, but how; and Caesar enjoyed every one
From the book Foreign Volunteers in the Wehrmacht. 1941-1945 author Yurado Carlos CaballeroLegion "Wallonia" In their policy in the territory of occupied Belgium, the Germans gave preference to one of the two largest national groups - the Flemings. When Germany invaded the USSR, many Belgians came to the recruiting stations to accept
From book Foreign Legion author Balmasov Sergey StanislavovichHow they got into the Legion Excerpts from the notes of journalist Albert Londra “Biribi - military hard labor” are almost unknown today. In this passage, the author describes his visit to the terrible convict prison in Morocco, Dar Bel Hamrit, in which many of the 180 prisoners were legionnaires,
author Karashchuk AndreyEstonian SS Legion. On the first anniversary of the “liberation” of Estonia, August 28, 1942, General Commissioner K. Litzmann appealed to Estonians to join the Estonian Legion to participate in the general struggle against Bolshevism. Already in October, the first volunteers selected
From the book Eastern Volunteers in the Wehrmacht, Police and SS author Karashchuk AndreyLatvian SS Legion. In 1942, the Latvian Civil Administration invited the Germans to create armed forces on a volunteer basis to help the Wehrmacht total number 100 thousand people with the condition of recognition of the independence of Latvia after the end of the war, but Hitler
From the book Eastern Volunteers in the Wehrmacht, Police and SS author Karashchuk AndreyLithuanian SS Legion. In January 1943, the German authorities, represented by the chief of the SS and police of Lithuania, Brigadeführer Vysotsky, attempted to organize an SS legion from volunteers of Lithuanian nationality. However, this event ended in failure. In response, the Germans closed
From the book Eastern Volunteers in the Wehrmacht, Police and SS author Karashchuk AndreyUkrainian Legion. The first Ukrainian units within the Wehrmacht were created as a result of cooperation between the leaders of the Organization formed in 1929 in exile Ukrainian nationalists(OUN) S. Bandera and A. Melnik from the German military intelligence(Abwehr). While
author Chuev Sergey GennadievichArmenian Legion Even before the start of World War II, the German leadership assigned the status of “Aryan refugees” to members of the Armenian emigrant colony in Germany. Newspapers were published especially for Armenians in Berlin in their native language. weekly magazines “Armenia” and “Rodina”.
From the book Damned Soldiers. Traitors on the side III Reich author Chuev Sergey GennadievichGeorgian Legion On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, the experience of cooperation between Georgian nationalists and Germany lasted more than one year. So, back in 1915, as part of German army a small “Georgian Legion” was formed, which included
From the book In the Footsteps of the Man with the Scar by Mader Julius From the book SS - an instrument of terror author Williamson GordonINDIAN LEGION Originally formed in April 1943 as the 950th Indian infantry regiment Wehrmacht, this unit consisted of captured Indians - from among those who fought in the ranks of the British in North Africa. In November 1944 the unit was transferred
From the book The Death of the Cossack Empire: Defeat of the Undefeated author Chernikov IvanChapter 2 LEGION The Pomors became emboldened and joined the Slavic-British Legion, formed by General Edmund Ironside. Russians, Poles, Finns, Lithuanians, Latvians, Czechs, Estonians and even Chinese served in the legion. It was assumed that in 3–4 months the Russians would begin fighting, and the British
TURKESTAN LEGION The package from the Foreign Ministry of the Third Reich in a solid departmental envelope with the appropriate stamps and marks was delivered to the designated Berlin address by courier. From this it followed that the recipient with an oriental surname in ministerial offices
I. A. Gilyazov
LEGION "IDEL-URAL"
Introduction
The Great Patriotic War is gradually moving away from us into the distant past. This war, one of the bloodiest in human history, largely determined the course of subsequent historical events. It became a huge tragedy for millions of people. Its traces, perhaps, remain today in the souls of not only war veterans and those who survived the horrors of war while working on the home front, but they can probably be felt in the feelings of post-war generations, each of which in their own way is trying to understand the greatness and tragedy of this major disaster. Therefore, the undying interest in modern military issues is obvious. historical science. It would seem that the topic of the Great Patriotic War has been studied far and wide by researchers. Thousands of monographs and articles have been published on the history of the war, and there are also major multi-volume studies.
And yet, war is such a multifaceted and multidimensional phenomenon that even after more than 60 years it is hardly possible to study every nuance of it with all scrupulousness and objectivity. There are also certainly subjects that have been little or insufficiently studied by researchers, the so-called “blank spots.” And indeed, for some time, topics in the history of war remained closed to study. on them in force political reasons was taboo. Historians could think about them to themselves, but they had neither the opportunity nor the permission to study them.
One of these problems is the very sensitive and ambiguously perceived topic of Soviet collaborationism during the war years or the topic of military and political cooperation a certain part of Soviet citizens with Germany - the occupation authorities, the Wehrmacht and the SS, the political institutions of the Third Reich. Obviously, many have heard about General Andrei Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army, about the Eastern legions created by the Nazis from prisoners of war of representatives of the Turkic-Muslim peoples of the USSR, including the Idel-Ural legion. IN Soviet time these topics were mentioned in historical literature and journalism, but the information was, firstly, very dosed, and secondly, very unreliable. We should have formed the opinion that such military formations as the ROA or the Eastern Legions were pitiful, absolutely helpless appendages of the Wehrmacht, consisting entirely of traitors and renegades. If you were already wearing them honest people, then only with the clear intention of turning the received weapon against the enemy. It turned out that the Eastern legionnaires then almost all defected to the partisans - in Belarus, Ukraine, France or Holland, that the Eastern legions initially opposed the Germans and resisted all attempts to use them in the fight against the Red Army or the partisans. But everything, it turns out, is far from so simple and smooth. Even if we pay attention only to quantitative indicators and remember that during the war there were at least 700,000 Soviet citizens in the German armed forces, mostly prisoners of war, the question naturally arises: how did this happen? Could there really be so many “traitors” and “renegades”? To explain all this as elementary betrayal would be to a large extent a simplification and trivialization of the problem. For all its painfulness and ambiguity, it should be looked at more broadly and unbiasedly.
In the post-Soviet era, when historians were able to study the past more freely, when previously closed archives were opened, topics that had previously been vetoed attracted and are attracting special and intense interest. They also evoke an interested reaction from readers. And the problem of Soviet collaboration during the Second World War really began to be studied quite intensively. Especially a lot of historical literature is devoted to the personality of General Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Army - dozens of books, studies and collections of documentary materials have already been published. The history of the Eastern Legions is not ignored either.
So we can state with satisfaction that this is quite a short time There was even a certain tradition in the study of Soviet collaboration during the Second World War. There have been several different approaches in assessing this phenomenon. Particularly representative is the group of those researchers who, to a certain extent, continue the line of Soviet historiography and, without much doubt, equate collaboration with betrayal. But at the same time, there is an attempt in some studies to provide a more comprehensive and, in our opinion, more objective coverage of this problem.
This book is an attempt to examine the phenomenon of Soviet collaboration using the example of representatives of Turkic-Muslim peoples. Based on the sources at my disposal, I will try to present the course of historical events related to this plot, introduce the reader to its different sides, and express my own opinions about the phenomenon of collaboration. The task of the historian in this case is not to act as an accuser or defender, but to strive to present the events that took place in the past as impartially and objectively as possible, without going to extremes. It is clear that from above today It's quite easy to label and describe everything in two colors - black and white. And a war, especially one like the Second World War, is a phenomenon so complex that two colors are clearly not enough to represent all its sides. It should be borne in mind that when studying the past, we must have the broadest possible understanding of it, and not select from it only “winning”, heroic or convenient plots that this moment appear to be “politically adept” or “helpful.”
This book is the result of work in archives and libraries in Germany. Special interest for me were documentary materials from various institutions of National Socialist Germany, both military and civilian: materials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Eastern Ministry), the SS Main Directorate, the command of the Eastern Legions and various military formations of the Wehrmacht. The ideological orientation of this documentation was never lost sight of. These documents were the product of a brutal totalitarian regime, so the need for a strictly critical approach to them was obvious to me. Alas, not all of the sources from the Second World War have survived; many were irretrievably lost. And yet, the available material allows us to reproduce with sufficient accuracy one of the large-scale military-political scams of the Third Reich - an attempt to organize military and political cooperation with representatives of the Turkic-Muslim peoples of the USSR and its results.
I express my gratitude to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Alexander-von-Humboldt-Stiftung), which made it possible for me to conduct a targeted and in-depth search in German archives. I am very grateful to all my colleagues whose advice helped me in writing this work - the staff of the Seminar on East European History at the University of Cologne: its then director, Professor Andreas Kappeler (currently University of Vienna), Dr. Christian Noack (currently University of Dublin), Dr. Guido Hausmann (currently University of Freiburg), and in addition, Professor Ingeborg Baldauf (Berlin), Professor Gerhard Simon (Cologne), Professor Adolf Hampel (Hungen) , Dr. Patrick von zur Mühlen (Bonn), Dr. Sebastian Zwiklinski (Berlin). I remember with warmth and sadness my late colleagues Professor Gerhard Hepp (Berlin) and Dr. Joachim Hoffmann (Freiburg). Many colleagues in Russia also did not stand aside - I sincerely thank the writer Rafael Mustafin (Kazan), deputy chief editor of the “Book of Memory” Mikhail Cherepanov (Kazan) and former leader Center for Public Relations of the KGB of the Republic of Tatarstan Rovel Kashapov. Options for this study were discussed at meetings in Kazan state university, and valuable comments on the text were made by many colleagues in the departments of history of the Tatar people, history of Tatarstan, modern national history and historiography and source studies of KSU - Professor Mirkasym Usmanov, Professor Indus Tagirov, Professor Alter Litvin, Professor Ramzi Valeev, Professor Rif Khairutdinov, Professor Alexander Litvin , Associate Professor Valery Telishev, Associate Professor Zavdat Minnullin, Associate Professor Dina Mustafina. In addition, the observations of professors Nikolai Bugai (Moscow) and Ksenophon Sanukov (Yoshkar-Ola) were also very important for me.
Contemporaries of the events described helped me a lot; conversations with them made it possible to more vividly and imaginatively imagine what was happening. With sincere respect I remember the late lawyer Heinz Unglaube (Lauenburg), former head of the Tatar Mediation. I wish good health to Tarif Sultan (Munich), former member"Union of struggle of the Turkic-Tatars of Idel-Ural", outstanding figure Tatar post-war emigration.