Cossack ROK and German non-commissioned officers in Belgrade. (1942)

The Russian Security Corps (ROC) was formed in September 1941 from Russian White emigrants - officers, soldiers and Cossacks of the Russian Army of Baron P.N. Wrangel, but there were also young people. Since 1942, the corps has also been replenished with Soviet prisoners of war and volunteers from the western regions of Ukraine. In total, over 17 thousand people passed through the Russian Corps during the war years.

ROK officers in Yugoslavia. According to the German command, the ROC was the most combat-ready Wehrmacht unit among foreign units.

According to ROC soldiers, in the summer of 1941, a wave of murders of Russian emigrants and their families by Serbian communist partisans swept across Yugoslavia. In response to this, Major General M.F. Skorodumov took the initiative to organize a Russian unit to protect the emigrant population. On September 12, 1941, he gave the order to form the Separate Russian Corps, having received the consent of the German Colonel Kevish. Skorodumov tried to achieve maximum autonomy of the corps from the German command, which caused a conflict, and on September 14 he was arrested by the Germans. The formation of the corps, however, continued under the command of another Russian emigrant, Boris Shteifon. Since May 1942, the corps became part of the Wehrmacht.

ROC headquarters building in Belgrade

Initially, the training of corps personnel (security group) was carried out according to the regulations of the Russian Imperial Army, but soon, due to a change in battle tactics, it was necessary to switch to the regulations of the Red Army. With the inclusion of the corps in the Wehrmacht, German regulations were introduced. Command personnel were trained in the 1st Russian Cadet Corps of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich. In addition, the regiments had cadet companies, into which young people who had not completed military training were brought together. The main task of the corps (security group) was to protect mines, communications and other military-economic facilities. It is also known that the ROC took an active part in the fight against Tito’s partisans. Official irretrievable losses of the corps from 1941 to 1945. amounted to 6,700 people

Young ROCK fighters

After the surrender of Romania and Bulgaria in the fall of 1944, the ROC found itself on the front line. At this time, the corps took part in battles not only with Tito’s partisans, but also with regular units of the Red Army. In the winter of 1944 -1945. After the creation of the ROA, the corps became part of the Vlasov army. The surrender of Germany found the corps in Slovenia. Colonel A.I. Rogozhin, who replaced B.A., who died on April 30, 1945. Shteifon, said that he would never surrender his weapons to Soviet representatives or Titoites and would fight his way to the British. Within four days, corps units were able to separately break through to Austria, where on May 12, in the Klagenfurt area, they capitulated to British troops. By this time, 4.5 thousand people remained in the Russian Corps. The Soviet authorities wanted the British to hand over the corps prisoners to them, too. However, the British authorities did not extradite them, since most of those who served in the corps were never Soviet citizens. On November 1, 1945, Rogozhin officially announced the dissolution of the corps and the creation of a union of corps veterans. Those who served in the corps emigrated to the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina and other countries.

ROK fighters on vacation in one of the Serbian villages

Column of Cossacks from the ROC in Yugoslavia

ROC fighters during a combat operation against Tito's partisans in southern Serbia

ROCK fighter with a horse. On the helmet - the so-called Serbian volunteer cross. On the chest is a sign of graduation from the Nikolaev Academy of the General Staff of the Tsarist Army.

ROC officers surrounded by German and Croatian allies.

ROC fighters are sent to the south of Serbia to fight Tito's partisans.

Funeral of ROC fighters who died in battles with Tito's partisans

As I noted above, a significant part of the Russian emigration hatched plans for a “spring campaign of the White Army,” timing it to coincide with Germany’s attack on the USSR. It was assumed that the main unifying force of this campaign would be the Russian All-Military Union (EMRO). In the “struggle for Russia” two paths were foreseen: “If this struggle is waged under the banner of the liberation of Russia, participate in it as part of the armed forces. If there is a struggle against the Bolsheviks, but not for Russian unity, try to invest in this struggle on Russian territory and help those Russian forces that will inevitably awaken...” wrote in the magazine “Chasovoy” in 1939, its editor-in-chief V.V. Orekhov.

However, Hitler’s leadership, hoping to put an end to the Soviet Union in a few months, disdainfully brushed aside the Russian emigrants who were recruiting as “allies.” Thus, on the eve of the German invasion of the USSR, the head of the 2nd (German) department of the EMRO, General Lampe, offered cooperation to the German High Command in the fight against Soviet power. There was no answer. In the first weeks of the war, Lampe sent Brauchitsch another letter of similar content, to which he received a response and assurance that “there is no expectation of attracting Russian emigration.” After this, Lampe issued an order for the department, in which he directly stated that each member of the union is free to act at his own discretion, maintaining, if possible, contact with the EMRO.

The French department of the union registered more than one and a half thousand people who wanted to participate in the war on the side of Germany. In Bulgaria, which sheltered Russian white emigrants, more than 80% of young people, inspired by the hope of joining the “liberation war for their homeland,” began to look for opportunities to join the fight against Bolshevism.

A special upsurge among Russian emigrants reigned in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (as Yugoslavia was then called). At one time, King Alexander I Karageorgievich, who sincerely believed in the ideals of the Orthodox-Slavic brotherhood and considered himself obligated to help in every possible way the former subjects of the power that had repeatedly stood up to defend his homeland, allowed the remnants of Wrangel’s Russian Army into his country, giving the White emigrants civil rights. The minimum number of Russian colonies in Belgrade by 1941 was 10 thousand people. Virtually all universities, theaters, and railways were staffed by Russian specialists.

In the spring of 1941, after the occupation of Yugoslavia, the German administration appointed Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Skorodumov as chief of the Russian emigration in Serbia.

A participant in the First World War, he was seriously wounded during the retreat, was captured, and unsuccessfully escaped three times.

On the initiative of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, he was exchanged for a German officer and arrived in Petrograd at the height of the events of 1917. There Skorodumov joined a secret officer organization, after its discovery he fled to the south of Russia, where he joined the Volunteer Army.

He received his second wound during the capture of Kyiv. Together with the army of General Bredov, he retreated to Poland, where he was interned.

He returned to Crimea, fought at Perekop, after the evacuation he spent a year in the Gallipoli camp, and in 1921 he arrived in Bulgaria, from which he fled to Yugoslavia. Here Skorodumov headed the local department of the EMRO.

After Germany attacked the USSR, the former major general turned to the German military authorities with a proposal to create a Russian division from emigrants. At first, he was refused because he insisted on sending the future unit to the Eastern Front, while the German command needed units to perform security service in the territory of occupied Yugoslavia. However, soon the chief of staff of the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht in the South-East, Colonel Kevish, allowed Skorodumov to form the so-called Russian Security Corps from among the White emigrants.

Interesting point. In their numerous memoirs, veterans of the Russian Security Corps try to present their service to the Germans as an act of self-defense in response to the persecution of Russian emigrants in Serbia by local communists. However, if we accept this version, then it becomes completely incomprehensible why General Skorodumov and other leaders of the emigration so persistently sought to send Russian formations to the Eastern Front.

It seems that in an attempt to whitewash themselves, former collaborators are passing off the effect as the cause. The fact is that, like white emigrants in other countries, they were eager to take revenge for the defeat in the Civil War, even with the help of Hitler. It is not surprising that after this, in the eyes of the majority of the Serbian population, Russian emigrants became German servants. September 12, 1941 M.F. Skorodumov issued an order to the Russian emigrant colony with a call to join the Corps. It ended with the words “I will lead you to Russia!” Thousands of volunteers responded to the general's call. Representatives of many youth and public organizations joined the Corps. Among them were representatives of Sokolstvo and monarchists, members of the NTS and fascist organizations, members of veterans' unions of participants in the last two wars. Among them were Colonel Markov Kondratiev, wounded 19 times during the First World War and the Civil War, who later died from a twentieth wound, Staff Captain Novitsky, wounded six times in the Civil War, and subsequently died in the bunkers of the 3rd Regiment1. According to Lieutenant Granitov, there was no forced mobilization, because Skorodumov did not have the strength and means to carry it out. There was an order for recruitment, but only those who wanted to join the Corps. Russian volunteers from other countries also joined the Corps: Poland, France, Greece, Italy.

The Corps included representatives of the Cossacks, who made up the 1st (Cossack) Regiment under the command of Major General V.E. Zborovsky. former chief of the Kuban Cossack division in Gallipoli. Initially, this regiment consisted of a battalion of Kuban (1st), a battalion of former ranks of Wrangel’s army. 1 Bunker fortifications were dilapidated fortified firing points near bridges, roads and other objects, where small garrisons of corpsmen were located on combat duty (2nd), battalion of unfired and hastily trained youth (3rd cadets). At the end of 1942, the regiment became completely Cossack, since Cossacks from other regiments were poured into it, and its third battalion consisted of Donets. The Don Cossacks mostly lived in Bulgaria and, at the first opportunity, joined the Corps in the summer of 1942. On October 29, 1941, the Guards Division of the Own E.I.V. arrived in Belgrade to form with its standards. Convoy under the command of Colonel N.V. Galushkina. As part of the Corps, the division was renamed the 7th Guards Hundred of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment, in 1942 it was renamed the 12th Guards Hundred, and at the very end of 1942. beginning of 1943. When the 1st regiment was reorganized into a Cossack regiment, the Guards Hundred began to be listed first.

It should be said that among the emigrant colony there were those who saw in the creation of the Corps a betrayal of Russia and Yugoslavia, which sheltered Russian emigrants. The supporters of such views were led by two Orthodox priests. They persuaded their Belgrade parishioners not to join the Russian Corps and not to be afraid of the communists. Members of the “Mladorossov” party, one of them, also launched pro-Soviet agitation. Leo Tolstoy's grandson Ilya even attacked M.F. on the street. Skorodumov and threatened to kill him.

During its existence, the Corps changed several official names:

After the end of World War II, on November 1, 1945, the Union of Former Officials of the Russian Corps was created.

Three regiments were initially deployed. Since September 1943, a stream of volunteers from Bessarabia, Bukovina and Odessa entered the Corps. The replenishment amounted to 50% of the total number of military personnel, and from this the 4th and 5th regiments were deployed.

The corps service was initially regulated by the regulations of the Imperial Army, then they switched to the regulations of the Red Army, as they were more flexible and adapted for combat in modern warfare. Since 1943, the Corps switched to German regulations, which more quickly absorbed combat experience. On January 29, 1943, the personnel of the Russian Corps were sworn in:

“I swear sacredly before God that I am in the fight against the Bolsheviks. enemies of my Fatherland and the enemies of the German Army fighting on the side of the Bolsheviks, I will show unconditional obedience to the Supreme Leader of the German Army, Adolf Hitler, wherever it is and I will be ready, as a brave warrior, at any time to sacrifice my life for this oath.” .

The internal structure of the Corps was as follows:

Five regiments of three battalions, with the presence of separate platoons: artillery, anti-tank, engineer, cavalry, communications; in the 1st and 4th regiments there were also musical platoons.

The battalions consisted of three rifle companies and a heavy weapons platoon. Subsequently, artillery companies were formed in the 4th and 5th regiments, and a company of anti-tank guns was also formed in the 5th regiment. Each battalion also had heavy weapons companies. The companies consisted of three platoons, one platoon of three sections.

At the Corps headquarters there was a German communications headquarters in the combat units of regiments and battalions. German liaison officers and company instructors. All economic units of the Corps were in the hands of German officials and non-commissioned officers. The family benefits department functioned properly, distributing part of the salaries of Corps officials to their families. There was an extensive system of medical and veterinary services.

The Corps command also took care of the training of future officers. It was practiced to organize young people into cadet battalions, platoons and companies. The age of the cadets ranged from 16 to 43 years, they served equally with everyone else and managed to gain knowledge from their teachers who traveled to cadet units scattered throughout Serbia. It is interesting that among the Corps cadets was the father of the future general director of NTV Boris Yordan, Alexey Yordan, who was promoted to second lieutenant in 1942. Refresher courses for command staff were ongoing. The military school courses under the command of Oberst Count Du Moulin produced five graduates of lieutenants. The Corps also had courses for air defense, radiotelegraphists, gunsmiths and other military specialists.

In total, during the existence of the Corps, according to emigrant sources, 17 thousand people passed through it.

The Corps' armament left much to be desired. For example, the first German MP submachine guns (colloquially referred to as “Schmeissers”) were issued only in the fall of 1944, in very small quantities, and their number grew due to trophies. When the 1st battalion of the 1st regiment transferred to the 2nd regiment, the personnel were replaced with Mauser rifles and Czech Zbroevka light machine guns with heavy and capricious Shoshis with strong recoil. When the 4th Regiment was formed, the soldiers were given Italian carbines with a firing range of only 500 meters and with a bullet spread of Schneider's artillery guns, which were not suitable for combat in the mountains, did not have tables for shooting and instruments, and there were no ammunition depots for the guns in the Corps. was in general and their replenishment came from trophies.

A few words should be said about the uniform of the Russian Corps. The original version of the uniform was based on the uniform of the Yugoslav army, and it was planned to wear two insignia. buttonholes on the turn-down collar of the uniform indicating the rank in the Corps (the system was developed specifically for the Corps) and shoulder straps indicating the rank in the White Army. It should be noted that the old ranks of the Imperial and White armies did not matter in the Corps, and a former colonel of the White Army could wear the buttonholes of a sergeant major. The Yugoslav helmet was crowned with a white militia cross on the frontal part. On January 28, 1943, according to the order of the German command, the Corps received Wehrmacht uniforms. Many took care of their old corps uniform for classes and gave it preference over the German one, “which says nothing to the mind or heart.” On March 16, 1945, by order of the command, all ranks of the Corps sewed “ROA” sleeve shields.

Since 1942, the ranks of the Corps received from the German command the right to be awarded the German Order of Bravery for the Eastern Nations. The first awards were presented on September 12, 1942.

The first commander of the Corps was the already mentioned Major General Mikhail Fedorovich Skorodumov. However, he was soon arrested by the Gestapo for unauthorizedly proclaiming the slogan “To Russia!” and spent three weeks in prison. After leaving prison, the general, offended in his best feelings, demonstratively began to earn a living as a shoemaker.

After Skorodumov left the post of chief of Russian emigration in Yugoslavia, this position was taken by Major General of the General Staff V.V. von Kreuter, while the Russian Corps was headed by his former chief of staff, Lieutenant General Boris Aleksandrovich Shteifon, a participant in the First World War and the Civil War, who came from a family of baptized Jews.

Among the regiment commanders we can name the following emigrants: Major General Viktor Erastovich Zborovsky, a Kuban Cossack, commanded the 1st regiment until September 26, 1944, until he was seriously wounded; on October 9, he died of his wounds. In his honor the regiment was named after him; lieutenant colonel, then major general of the General Staff Boris Viktorovich Gontarev, one of the founders of the Russian Corps, chief of its staff, commander of the 3rd regiment. Awarded the Iron Cross, 2nd degree. In 1945, a representative of the Corps under General Vlasov; commander of the 4th regiment, Colonel Gesket Boris Sergeevich, was killed on October 23, 1944 in the battle of Cachak by a shell explosion at an observation post; Colonel Anatoly Ivanovich Rogozhin, Terek Cossack, former commander of the Division of His Imperial Majesty's Convoy. In 1941, together with his veteran convoys, he arrived in the Corps. Commander of the 5th Regiment. For military services he was awarded the Iron Cross of both degrees. On April 30, 1945, after the death of General Steifon, he headed the Corps.

The entire combat path of the Russian Corps can be divided into three stages:

1. From the autumn of 1941 to the spring of 1944. protection of communication routes and industrial facilities.

3. From September 1944 until the end of the war. the period of front-line service, when, after the surrender of Romania and Bulgaria, the Corps repelled attacks by Soviet and Bulgarian troops, Tito’s regular army.

Already in September 1941, Corps units began their first punitive operations. Thus, his 1st regiment, even at the stage of its formation, took part in the liquidation of the partisan “Soviet Uzhitsa Republic”.

One of the leaders of the post-war NTS, Ya.A., talks about the first battles of the Corps in his memoirs. Trushnovich:

“...A battalion of Tito’s partisans was advancing, and ours were sitting in some ravine and having lunch. The German liaison officers who were with each battalion began to run and shout: Fire! Fire!.., and our people calmly continue to dine. Then they calmly disassembled the rifles and began to wait. The Germans already thought that this was betrayal, because ours still did not shoot. In the end, the corpsmen allowed the Titoites to reach 50,100 meters and destroyed the entire battalion with two or three salvos.

The second battle was in the basin, which was fought by a cadet company.

They were placed in bullet-riddled barracks because the partisans had just destroyed a German unit there. The cadets were commanded by Colonel Gordeev-Zaretsky. When the shooting began during another partisan attack, the cadets screamed. Hurray!., we jumped out of the barracks and rushed to attack 600 meters up the mountain and defeated this battalion...... when the partisans heard the Russians. Hurray!., they said to the commander: Well, now we are gone, they are Russians.”

What was the role and place of the Russian Corps, as well as other collaborationist formations, in relations with the Germans, can be judged from a very eloquent passage from the memoirs of the Corps’ captain Sergei Vakar:

“One day, a German non-commissioned officer from the economic department of the corps headquarters, who had arrived in Bor, came into the cavalry platoon. Werner. To meet him, Colonel Popov lined up a platoon and ordered: Platoon. at attention, alignment. right!.

When I asked him why he, being a Wehrmacht lieutenant, greeted a non-commissioned officer like that, he answered me: “Well, how could it be otherwise, after all, he is a German!”

Gradually, towards the end of the war, a paradoxical situation arose: there was an oversupply of officers in the Corps, while there was a shortage of them in the ROA. As a result, the merger of the two principles took place, but only on paper and it was necessary to overcome the resistance of the Germans, who did not want unification. The fact that Vlasov was a former Soviet general did not bother the corps members, because the hope of creating a Russian army had excited the minds of emigrants since 1941.

In December 1944, General Steifon left for Germany and, appearing to General Vlasov, placed the Corps at his disposal. This was the first collaborator general with his “army” to submit to Vlasov without any preconditions.

A few words should be said about the local allies of the Corps. First of all, they were the Serb Chetniks of General Draza Mihailovich and the military-political organization “ZBOR” of Dumitar Ljotić (Letic).

The Chetniks were a very difficult to control semi-partisan army, with an anti-communist spirit.

Their enemies were Tito's partisans and Ustasha-Croats, who massacred entire Serbian villages. Former officer of the Varyag regiment N. Chukhnov recalls the cruelty of the Croats:

“During the entire four-year occupation of Yugoslavia by German troops, the Croatian puppet government of Pavelic, the murderer of King Alexander, supported by the Catholic clergy, was engaged. For the glory of the Lord. the extermination of Orthodox Serbs, of whom there were over a million people on the territory of Croatia at that time. Thousands of corpses of executed Serbs, tied one to another, floated down the Sava to Belgrade. The stench of decomposition poisoned the air ten kilometers from the river.”

Initially, the Chetniks collaborated with Tito, but his pro-communist position contributed to the breakdown of relations. The Chetniks themselves considered themselves an army of the Yugoslav government in exile and received the status of the “Royal Army in the Homeland.” The Chetniks had great power among lower-level commanders, who entered into agreements with their many enemies, as required by the situation developing in a particular region. Each battalion had its own executioner.

Widespread British support for the Chetniks ended in 1943, and a flow of military aid was directed to Tito. In 1945, the Chetniks switched to waging guerrilla warfare against the communist regime.

Dumitr Ljotić had at his disposal three full infantry regiments with good discipline and organization. In 1945, ZBOR declared its readiness to join the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia and submit to General Vlasov. After the war, the Zborovites went into exile and partially into hiding.

It was Ljotić who was the author of the plan proposed to General Vlasov to save all Russian volunteer units of the Wehrmacht and ROA by uniting them into a powerful fist on the territory of Serbia. D. Ljotić himself died under unclear circumstances, and his brother after the war was strangled in Munich by agents of Tito’s state security.

It should also be borne in mind that towards the very end of the war, cases of outright betrayal of Russian units by the Chetniks became more frequent. Trying to curry favor with Tito, many Chetnik field commanders lured Corps units into ambushes, where they were surrounded and disarmed. In a number of cases, they betrayed them in open battle, suddenly shooting corps members.

In 1944, the Corps fought the hardest battles with the advanced Soviet units of the 57th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and the Bulgarian army, which were advancing together with the partisans. On October 22, 1944, the Commander-in-Chief of Army Group E, General von Lehr, issued an order to form all those available in the river area. IBR of Russian units of the battle group under the command of Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) B.V. Gontareva. The group was tasked with clearing the Ramka-Sarajevo route from partisans, thereby ensuring the withdrawal of German troops from Greece through southern Serbia and Bosnia. On October 26, 1944, a Consolidated Regiment was created from all Russian units in the area of ​​Čačak and Donja Milonovets under the command of Colonel A.I. Rogozhina. The regiment consisted of three rifle battalions and one reserve battalion. On November 27, this regiment came under the command of the commander of the 5th SS Mountain Corps, General Krieger.

In the fall of 1944, the 3rd battalion of the 3rd regiment of the Corps under the command of Major General N.A. Petrovsky was surrounded by Soviet tanks. The corpsmen failed to break through, and the entire battalion personnel fell in battle with superior enemy forces.

The surrender of Germany found the Russian Corps on the territory of Slovenia. The day before, on April 30, 1945, Corps commander B.A. died. Steifon. He was replaced by Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Rogozhin. The new commander stated that the Corps would not surrender its weapons to either the Soviets or the Titoites and would make a breakthrough into the British occupation zone. Fulfilling the order of the commander, units of the Corps began to make their way to Austria, to the area of ​​​​the city of Klagenfurt, where they capitulated to the British army. By this time, there were only 4.5 thousand people in the ranks of the greatly thinned Corps.

At first, former corps soldiers were placed in a tent camp near Klagenfurt. After some time, the Corps was transferred to the Kellerberg camp, which later received the name “White Russian Camp”.

The temple and educational institutions were built there by the hands of the corps members. The camp was given a long life. it lasted for six years until all its inhabitants received the status of “displaced persons.” All these six years, the threat of deportation to the USSR hung over the corps members. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union V.M. Molotov from the UN rostrum demanded the immediate surrender of all ranks of the Corps.

It should be said that the new Corps commander made a lot of efforts to save many Vlasovites, Cossacks and representatives of other collaborationist units and units from extradition to the USSR. All of them were equipped and paid as servicemen of the “Russian Corps”. The Corps also included the remnants of a separate Russian regiment “Varyag” under the command of Colonel Semenov.

After receiving the status of “displaced persons,” many left the camp that had already become their home and went to the United States, Australia and other countries. To maintain connections between corps members, on the initiative of Colonel A.I. Rogozhin, the “Union of Officials of the Russian Corps” was created, the permanent leader of which he was until his death. The headquarters of the Corpus Union was located in the USA. The journal "Our News" is still published by the "Union of Officials" magazine. Recently, the magazine has been published in Russia.

Another Russian military unit in the Balkans was the Special Regiment “Varyag”.

The basis of the regiment was a volunteer battalion formed in March 1942 from young emigrants. former cadets of Russian cadet corps in Yugoslavia. In accordance with the order of the commander of the Balkan front, young people were recruited to participate in the landing operation near Novorossiysk. The founder of the unit and its permanent commander was the former guard captain of the Imperial Army M.A. Semenov.

The first group of youth (36 people) went to the Breitenmark camp (Upper Silesia) to undergo a military training course and entered the subordination of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) in Berlin. The 1st battalion was created in Breitenmark under the command of Senior Sergeant Major A. Orlov. The battalion's supplies were in charge of the SS-Hauptamt, and the unit was directly subordinate to the commanders of the army groups who had the battalion at their disposal. In order to avoid pressure from the German authorities, five officers of the battalion, led by the commander, accepted German citizenship, after which the regiment commander M.A. Semenov began to be called “von Semenoff”.

In 1944, in the Zeppelin Enterprise camp in Samberg, the battalion was deployed into a regiment called “Varyag” (SS-Sonderregiment “Waraeger”). Personnel were recruited from

volunteers from the occupied southern regions of Russia and Ukraine, the basis of the regiment was still made up of emigrant youth and only a small part came from prisoner of war camps. By the end of 1944, despite the ban by the German authorities, the regiment was virtually entirely composed of former prisoners of war. Most command positions were also occupied by former Soviet officers.

According to regimental headquarters officer N. Chukhnov, one of the half-companies under the command of his brother, senior non-commissioned officer Yu. Chukhnov, was sent to the Eastern Front to conduct propaganda activities in the Pskov region. Another platoon underwent airborne training in Riga, “...and several people even flew to Magnitogorsk (Southern Urals)...”, apparently carrying out an assignment from German intelligence agencies.

By the beginning of 1945, “Varyag” included three battalions (three companies each), a mortar, guard and reconnaissance companies, an artillery battery, a commandant platoon, platoons of anti-tank guns, engineer, medical and economic services.

Like the Russian Corps, the regiment collaborated with local nationalist organizations, such as the Slovenian Dombrans of General Rupnik and Colonel Pregel, the Ljotichevites and the Dalmatian Chetniks. At the end of the war, all these anti-Soviet formations wished to come under the command of General A.A. Vlasova.

In May 1945, the regiment fought its way to the border of Yugoslavia and Austria and laid down its arms in front of units of the British army, sharing refugee camp life along with the ranks of the “Russian Corps”.

A small number of Russian volunteers served in the SS Wallonia Legion (later the 28th SS Wallonia Division). Initially, 20 Russian White emigrants from Liege and Brussels became Russian military personnel of this Belgian formation. Judging by the memoirs of a comrade-in-arms of the Russian Imperial Union-Order (RISO) N.I. Sakhnovsky, one of them, with the rank of major, at one time commanded a legion, and then its reserve battalion, the other. with the rank of captain. was a company commander.

N.I. himself Sakhnovsky also commanded a company; some emigrants held the positions of lieutenants and non-commissioned officers. The position of Russian emigrant military personnel was in every way equal to the position of the Belgians.

Arriving at the front in the legion, N.I. Sakhnovsky saw the horrific state of Russian prisoners of war and submitted a report to his superiors with a proposal to use them as volunteers for the legion. Soon a Russian auxiliary detachment was formed under the legion.

After N.I. was wounded Sakhnovsky returned to Brussels, but the thoughts of creating a Russian volunteer unit did not leave him, and he turned to the head of the Belgian department of RISO N.N. for support. Voeikov. The latter warmly supported the idea of ​​his comrade-in-arms, and the department organized a collection of emigrant literature and Orthodox crosses with the inscription “By this victory!”, allocated for this purpose by the priest Fr. A. Shabashev. The crosses were supposed to be used as a distinctive sign on the uniform of Russian volunteers. These plans turned out to be unrealistic, because the legion itself had already been evacuated by plane from the North Caucasus, along with hundreds of Russians from the local population. After the evacuation, the legion was reassigned to the SS and received the name “5th Sturmbrigade.” Wallonia." and was stationed at the SS camp Wildfleken. The SS command did not want to transfer all the Russians, and out of a hundred people, only 40 people were selected taking into account their physical characteristics.

In the fall of 1943, “Wallonia” met at the front near the Dnieper in the Korsun region as part of the SS Viking division. N.I. Sakhnovsky was appointed commandant of the village of Baybuzy and tried to make life as easy as possible for the local residents. At a meeting with the brigade commander, Sturmbannführer L. Lippert, Sakhnovsky again asked for permission to form a Russian volunteer unit, but Lippert referred to his lack of such authority. The next day, the emigrant was summoned to the headquarters of the Viking division, where he reported to the command about the possibilities of forming a Russian division, having previously set his own conditions: the formation of the division is carried out under the Viking and is subsequently subordinate to this division - weapons, at the expense of trophies, officers the composition is recruited from volunteer emigrants from Belgium and France through “Wallonia”, some are transferred from the “Russian Corps” to the Belgian brigade, then transferred to the Russian division.

The proposal was accepted, and N.I. Sakhnovsky was sent on a business trip to Berlin to select command personnel for the future formation. Judging by his memoirs, the Berlin émigré “swamp” could not produce a single officer, and those that were available had the leaven of the EMRO and were not suitable for the new business.

Upon returning to the division N.I. Sakhnovsky reported to L. Lippert that he had found officers and began forming. The first recruitment into the company was made at a general meeting of peasants in the village of Baybuzy, where the emigrant made a speech filled with monarchist slogans. By Christmas 1943, through the efforts of N.I. Sakhnovsky's "Wallonia" received 200 volunteers. The company was proudly called the “Russian People's Militia.” The already mentioned cross was located on the uniform (civilian clothing) of the volunteers. Propaganda was launched under the slogan of restoring the monarchy in Russia, whose emperor was supposed to be Vladimir Kirillovich Romanov.

The reality of the military situation did not in any way correspond to these rosy plans. “Wallonia” was surrounded, which was facilitated by the capture of Cherkasy by units of the Red Army. There were five divisions and militias in the cauldron along with the Belgians. During the January thaw of 1944, those surrounded made a breakthrough. The militia, armed only with Soviet rifles, machine guns and grenades, in civilian clothes with crosses “By this victory!” They fought hand-to-hand with Soviet units supported by artillery. After such a breakthrough, the Militia virtually ceased to exist.

Those who were lucky enough to survive this battle were withdrawn from the front and, together with the Wallonia, were sent to Europe. The Russian company was disbanded, and its soldiers were released to all four directions. Some of them remained in the division, others chose demobilization over service.

In January 1945, Nikolai Sakhnovsky led the recruitment of Russian volunteers into the “Fighter Unit of the SS Troops.” Recruitment was carried out in prisoner-of-war camps in Lüben, Altenburg, Bad Wauben, Vienna, Prague and Berlin. By February 12, 1945, he had recruited 20 people, who subsequently arrived at Friedenthal Castle “under the wing” of Otto Skorzeny.

The meager information at the author’s disposal gives reason to assume that there are a certain number of Russian military personnel in other foreign SS divisions. On July 12, 1941, by order of von Lampe, the formation of the Russian Druzhina was announced for combat operations on the Eastern Front. The personnel were represented by former ranks of the 3rd Russian Army, General. P.N. Wrangel, who fought on the side of the Polish army in 1920 and remained in Poland.

The rest of the warriors previously served in the Imperial, Don and Volunteer armies. There is no information about the fate of this formation, which may indicate another unsuccessful attempt to form a Russian combat unit or its subordination to the German intelligence services.

In addition to European volunteer units, representatives of the Russian white emigration served in police, front-line and engineering battalions of the Baltic countries.

The paramilitary organizations of the NSKK (National-Socialistische Kraft Korps, NSKK) that existed in the Third Reich,

The Organization of Todt (OT) and the Speer Legion also included Russian employees. The purpose of these organizations during the war was transport and other auxiliary support for the needs of the Eastern Front, professional training of personnel of transport units of the army. Having a large number of training units, military training grounds and training centers, they themselves soon began to need trained instructors and technical personnel. On June 22, 1942, battalions and companies were created from Russian emigrants who lived in France and former Soviet prisoners of war in the Speer legion, which were soon transferred to the disposal of the territorial corps of the OT "West", meeting the needs of the German-Soviet front. The recruitment of emigrants in France was carried out by the former commander of the Life Guards Cossack Regiment, Major General V.A. Dyakov.

In 1943, two such battalions (seven companies each) were transferred to the NSKK, receiving the name "Transportstaffeln 67.69". Initially, all foreign employees of the NSCC wore the black Corps uniform, which was replaced in 1942 by blue-gray blouses with standard rank insignia. On the left sleeve, instead of an eagle, there were shield-shaped stripes, repeating the colors of the national flags of the countries of which its employees were citizens.

"Legion Speer West" united Baltic, Russian, and Ukrainian employees. Five recruiting points of the legion were organized in their own reserve battalion; in Kyiv, the legion had a regiment in which foreigners served as mechanics and drivers on short-term contracts.

In addition to the above-mentioned organizations, the eastern divisions included the Reich Workers' Service (RAD).

Russian Corps
On Bosan roads
Walked in battles and worries
Forty-fifth decisive year.
From the Moravian Valley
To the Danube and Drina
All regiments went on the march.
Among the heat and dust
The battalions walked
For the enemy, for big things.
Along the humpbacked spurs,
Along river rifts
Our great glory has passed.
On the Bosanské bridge
White bones smolder
The winds rustle over the bones.
The partisan dogs remember
Ustasha, dombrany
About our shock regiments.
Soon to our free land
New waves will pour in
The Russian Corps will come to the Fatherland.
Across the native expanses,
By villages and villages
Peaceful life will bloom again.

("Three Lieutenants")

There is not much material on the Internet about the activities of the Russian Security Corps during the Second World War. Basically it is argued that since Russian White emigrants were often killed by Tito’s Red partisans, the Russians asked the Germans to arm them, after which the glorious White emigrants decided to go home to kill communists. But the Germans shook their heads and asked their Russian colleagues to kill communists in Serbia for now, and then we’ll see.

So when I found on the Internet the official collection “Russian Corps in the Balkans,” published during the training of corps veterans in New York in 1969, I was happy, because I could now get the official version.

"The Russian Corps in the Balkans during the Second Great War 1941-1945. Historical essay and collection of memoirs of comrades-in-arms" edited by D.P. Vertepova (Nashi Vesti publishing house, New York, 1963).

The book describes the combat suffering of the Russian Corps in the Balkans during the Second Great War of 1941-1945 and is a collection of memoirs of comrades. The book, covering 416 pages, is well illustrated: a portrait of the last commander of the Russian Corps (now chairman of the Union of Officials of the Russian Corps) Colonel A.I. .Rogozhina; then portraits of the founder and first commander of the Corps, General M.F. Skorodumov, and the subsequent General Staff, General B.A. Shteifon; there are many photographs of the senior command staff of the Corps, as well as photographs illustrating the life of the Corps - the beginning of formation, the arrival of reinforcements, parades on the march, etc. “The Russian Corps is a unique and unprecedented phenomenon,” says the introduction to this book. “Nowhere and there has never been a case where, after twenty years of emigration, people on foreign territory fought valiantly, albeit in foreign uniforms, for their lofty patriotic goals." The Russian Corps in the Balkans was a direct continuation of the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks on Russian territory, interrupted for twenty years when the white armies were forced into exile. It should be noted that the areas where the Corps was recruited by the Germans were limited only to the Balkan countries, such as: Romania with Bukovina, Bessarabia (and not immediately), Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece; later, at the insistence of the Germans, Hungary also agreed. Therefore, areas for recruiting people for the Corps in other countries of dispersion of Russian emigrants were closed. Only on personal initiative a small number of volunteers came from other countries, as we can see from the above data. Even in Germany itself, recruitment was prohibited...
F.Karius
"Bulletin of the Pioneer" No. 82/83 August-September 1968

Those interested can download the book from the link in PDF and djavu; the stories of the veterans speak for themselves.
Those who are too lazy to read a 450-page book can be content with a brief retelling - unfortunately, I didn’t have time to read all the time, so I looked through the book in the “paragraph per page” mode.

Each section begins with a listing of the events of the year of operation of the Corps under review - 1941, 1942, etc. At the beginning there is an official certificate-retelling, made on the basis of documents and stories of veterans, then official documents, if any, and then - the combat stories themselves.
The summary is as follows:

1. Masturbation for White Case.
2. Masturbation to Orthodoxy.
3. Masturbation to the Russian Empire.
4. Masturbation to a military uniform.
5. Masturbation on young cadet boys.
6. Listing of uniforms, weapons, personnel, detachments, regiments, banners, badges, guns, hats, etc. etc. etc.
6. Evil communist partisans.
7. Good German officers.
8. Evil advisers
9. Ungrateful Englishmen.

Now a little more detail.

1. When brave and intelligent German officers, led, ironically, by the Russophobe Hitler, decided to free the world from communists, the veterans of the White Cause happily volunteered to stand under the old tsarist banners in order to free Mother Russia from communism and return the monarchy there and national idea. Glory to the Emperor!

The command was heard again: “Paul standards, listen to the crawl!” and, to the invigorating sounds of the “Guards March,” the standard officers carried the standards to the barracks with a sedate step. The guards' eagles of gray standards soared proudly - faithful companions of their unit during its centuries-long service to Russia and the Emperors and witnesses of its military glory on the fields of the Kuban, Terek, Don and North. Tavria, where the Kuban and Terek Guards Divisions, in countless battles with the Reds, glorified the name of the Guards Cossack and proved their devotion to the Motherland with their blood.

2. Alas, the unfortunate knights of the Renaissance of Russia were forced to stay in Serbia and stop the communist terror of the Titoites in the mines and railways. And all because of the vile Russophobe Hitler!

The ranks of the Corps were in regimental bewilderment... what actually happened?... What caused this change?.. At that time, not yet tempted by bitter experience, the Russian people did not see the criminal work of the German party line, which later destroyed them with its crazy racial theory your own country. This party line, sensing the possibility of transforming the Russian Corps into a formidable national force, pressed its military command, and the man who said: “I will lead you to Russia” was replaced. I repeat that in those days the Russian people, who had never lived in Germany, who believed Hitler’s words about the fight against Bolshevism, had no idea about the scope of the work of National Socialist leaders like Rosenberg and Co.

3. The soldiers of the Corps spent their days cheerfully and joyfully marching and studying. Old veterans who remembered the face of the Tsar, gray-haired generals and elderly Cossacks stood on a par with the young fledgling youth gathered to restore the victory of the White Cause. Glorious beardless cadets selflessly and honestly tried to revive the glorious Russian Army, adopting all the national traditions of Russian military training. The best relations between the glorious Russian corpsmen also developed with the Serbian population of the surrounding villages, who very much loved their Russian friends - brothers in faith and in Slavic unity.

4. The corps heroically repelled any attack by communist gangs. Heavily armed bands of partisans, a thousand or more strong, regularly went on the offensive and tried to push the Russians out of their posts, but time after time they suffered a shameful defeat and retreated back into the forests. (follows a heartbreaking story of how a gang of communists of 1000 people, while crossing the railway track, destroyed three cadets who fought back to the last bullet).

5. Sometimes, for variety, the Corps fought through small skirmishes with Chetniks and Ustashas. But this was rare. As a rule, the Chetniks themselves came to the Corps and asked for help in the fight against the communists. Well, yes, it happened that the Chetniks attacked small Russian detachments and took away weapons, so you had to keep an eye out for them - but otherwise everything was quite neutral. Sometimes it was even necessary to save the Ustashes, Croats and Serbs themselves, who fled from the clutches of communist terror in droves.

6. Description of everyday life in combat.

7. Description of the formation of new parts.

8. Description of everyday life in combat.

9. Masturbation on the uniform, right down to listing the color of the last cap, masturbation on the banners, on the weapons, on Orthodoxy, again on the uniform...

10. Description of everyday life in combat.

11. Description of the replenishment of 300 Soviet prisoners of war - an unprecedented event in the history of the Corps, ordinary sons of the Russian land infected with Bolshevism! The nice guys were honest warriors, in their eyes one could read the tenderness and sincerity of an old Russian soldier, unspoiled by Bolshevik propaganda, they were distinguished by their faith in their new commanders, obediently listened to anti-communist lectures given in the camp, carefully went to church with the regiment... True, under the end, when the Red Army began to advance at the front, about 30 of them fled. And then a couple more. And then the entire 1st platoon. Which once again proves how deeply the disgusting, misanthropic sovietism has penetrated into the souls of ordinary people!

12. Evil communists regularly attacked glorious Russian warriors, took away weapons, tried to recapture settlements and mines, but they never succeeded. If we had to fight one red plague, the triumph of the Corps would be undeniable! But British aviation began to fly in to help the Titoites, which, not paying attention to the fact that the Corps acted only against the communists and had no intention of resisting the allies, brutally bombed peaceful Serbian cities and shot German and Russian officers faithful to their duty. And then the communist hordes of Bolsheviks from the Soviet of Deputies came to the side of the Titoites. But in this hopeless struggle, the glorious white warriors achieved impossible, amazing victories, suffering practically no losses!

On September 23, 1944 at 13:00, the 1st battalion of the 3rd regiment entered into the first battle with the regular Soviet army. Our companies detained the enemy, but in the evening, on orders from the 1st Mountain Division, they retreated to Jabukovac, where they stood in position until 12:00. September 25. In the evening we began to retreat to the village. Mala Kamenitsa and received orders to occupy this village.
On September 27, at dawn, having surrounded this village, we, together with the Germans. b-nom, broke in and occupied M. Kamennza with almost no losses and took 2,960 prisoners, motorized artillery, 60 trucks, 8 horse batteries. thrusters, bomb throwers, machine guns, a colossal convoy and two generals. This happened because the Serbs met the “brothers” with bread and salt and gave them a rich treat. Everyone, from the generals to the last soldier, got drunk and did not set up a guard. We had a captain from the 1st platoon of the 9th company, cornet V. Karpinsky, killed.

13. The evil communists who flooded the area literally tried to gnaw through the indestructible steel wall of the White Warriors with their teeth! Bands of thousands attacked groups of white troops, showering them with all possible firepower. Despite all efforts, the communists' cartridges were wasted - the Russian Army honestly held its banner and regularly repelled gang attacks, capturing rich trophies, even when Tito's bandits were supported by the Soviet Bolshevik hordes.

We had to experience the effects of this terrible 36-round weapon on ourselves for 15 days. The sound of a Katyusha shot was not heard. There was no visible flash when the shot was fired, but the very flight of the burst of shells produced some kind of incomprehensible devilish roar. The approach of a line of shells fired at you created the impression of the approach of some terrible hurricane. Each shell, exploding, released a whole series of small projectiles, covering the entire area with a roar of explosions and flashes, which gave the impression of a fiery area. All this had a huge effect on morale, but the impact was not great.

The Russian veterans of the White Idea are so severe in their front-line experience that even shelling from Katyusha rockets did not cause them serious losses!

14. Contrary to the previous point, the losses of the Corps turned out to be great, and it could no longer, together with the Germans, hold back the onslaught of the wave of red evil spirits, so the German and Russian troops began, heroically fighting back, to retreat to Austria to General Vlasov. Despite the monstrous conditions and heavy losses, the Corps heroically repelled all attacks of the communists pursuing them.

Morning! Communists from all sides are firing at the monastery with automatic and machine-gun fire of incredible strength, which indicates complete encirclement. Clinging to the window sills and walls, the defenders respond with fire. The losses in the squad make themselves felt.
At 7 o’clock a woman appears with a white flag, who will give the detachment the first ultimatum, beginning with the words: “Traitors to Mother Russia, surrender!” The woman asks for an answer, she is driven away. The attacks resume.

15. With incredible losses, reaching up to two-thirds of its personnel, with the brave support of the Germans, pursued by Soviet tanks, partisan attacks and British aircraft, the Russian Corps completed its glorious battle epic by coming to Austria. But - oh, what vile English deceit! - it turned out that they were going to be extradited to the Soviet of Deputies, where honest Russian patriots would face a cruel death. With great difficulty, it was possible to convince the British that the Corps had always been loyal to the allies, and fought under the oath of Hitler only and only against the communists.

We did not trust the vague rumors that reached us, considering them provocative, or, in any case, immensely exaggerated. Only our Corps Commander and a very limited number of his assistants knew and were aware of all this. Only later, when the terrible danger of extradition was largely negated, did we understand the weight the regiment bore on its shoulders. Rogozhin and learned about the measures he took to save us. As a result of these measures and efforts, Col. Rogozhin managed to convince the British that the people of the Corps were not German mercenaries, not traitors to the motherland, but Russian patriots who took up arms to fight exclusively against the communists - the enslavers of Russia.

Only with the help of great efforts did most of the honest Russian Officers manage to escape from the clutches of the red beast.

During the numerous interrogations that I was subjected to by the British, the inter-allied commission and representatives of the Soviet army, I always felt that they were missing someone who was responsible for the creation of the Corps, who had principled conversations with the German command in the process of the formation and service of our units. While in the regiment, I, as a combat officer, was far from the affairs of the Corps Headquarters and, indeed, often was not aware of everything that concerned its commander. The Western allies knew this, and the advisers knew it, and if the latter still demanded my extradition as a war criminal, then this must be attributed simply to their inherent bloodthirstiness. For General Shteifon, if he had remained alive, it would have been much more difficult and, first of all, he would have been immediately taken away from us and placed in a special strict camp where the generals sat and were isolated, in the opinion of the victors, “serious criminals”.

This is roughly how everything is described.

In general, the assertion that the White emigrants were driven into the corps by partisan terror is, of course, nonsense. They themselves went with great desire, in the hope of killing communists. The Germans, as can be seen from the book, did not really interfere in the management of the camp, exercising mainly unofficial leadership, and also kept several officers in units, mainly for control. The attitude of the Bull Guardsmen towards them is different, but about the German units with which they interacted - almost always respectful and commendable, in the spirit of officer solidarity. So the Russian white emigrants performed the same function for the Germans as Bandera’s or the Latvian SS men - they guarded the rear and destroyed communist partisans while the big white gentlemen were busy with their own affairs at the front.

It’s funny that all veteran memories are imbued with the leitmotif “what are we for?” and hatred for the “shitty Englishwoman” who insidiously betrayed them to their advisers. The gentlemen of the Bull Guards really tried to show that they were fighting with the communists, and not under the control of the Germans, so when the British officers looked at them like shit, they sincerely did not understand what was happening and why they were treated so poorly.

I have already mentioned the regiment. Ferguson. It seemed to us that the person treated us with special sympathy. Once, during his visit, in my room, no. Ferguson asked to call the head of one of the auxiliary services in the Corps. When this officer entered the room, I stood up, gave him my hand and greeted him, then turned around and gave the name of the newcomer to Ferguson, who immediately stood up. At that moment, the Russian officer made a mistake and was the first to extend his hand and... it hung in the air - Ferguson not only did not give him his hand, but somehow twitched all over and depicted undisguised contempt on his face.
In response to our request to help us find families, in one of the military institutions in Klagenfurt, an English colonel (who, by the way, spoke good Russian) replied that the British would not help:
- You bet your card on the Germans, it is beaten. Now you have to “pay” and you won’t get our help. - And this was said by the colonel, to whom everything had just been explained regarding the history of the emergence of the Russian Corps, the motivating reasons that guided us when entering it, and our battle epic, in which we had no clashes with the Western allies.

But the world is not without good people, and even in the vile British environment there is a comrade in the fascist shkon.

The secretary reported something to him and he disappeared into the office again. Finally, we were called into the office. The captain sat, raising his head, and in the most ungracious voice invited us to state our request. As always, exquisite English vol. lt. Raevsky began to report on the purpose of our appeal to this English military engineering department. Speaking about the Russian Corps, Raevsky mentioned that it was formed from the ranks of the White Army, general. Wrangel. The captain immediately raised his head and invited us to sit down, then offered us a cigarette, and 10 minutes later he smiled and talked to us in a friendly manner. It turned out that this captain volunteered to fight against the communists in the troops of General. Franco in Spain would have been: seriously wounded. He hated the Bolsheviks fiercely and predicted to us that in 2-3 years we would fight together with the British against the communists. Needless to say, the captain immediately did everything in his power to ensure that the issue we raised was resolved favorably.

What to say. Captain Chachu from the Inhabited Island seems almost likeable to me after this. For my part, I’m glad that at least some of these bastards ended up in the Gulag and, I hope, rotted there alive to the last man. I recommend you read the book.

This military association of the Great Patriotic War, consisting mainly of soldiers and officers of the White Army, is called the largest White emigrant formation that served the Wehrmacht.

Meanwhile, the ideology of the Russian Security Corps initially consisted of autonomy of existence - the former White emigrants did not want to obey either the Germans or their satellites. They even fought with the latter.

How the corps was created

At first, the Russian Security Corps was formed in Yugoslavia as a unit ensuring the safety of emigrants and their families. After the Nazis occupied the country in 1941, Serbian communist partisans carried out a series of attacks killing Russian emigrants. The initiative to create a security formation belonged to Major General M.F. Skorodumov.

The Germans gave permission to organize this military unit, and in September 1941, the Separate Russian Corps began to form. Skorodumov had the idea of ​​ensuring the absolute independence of the association he commanded, and the major general even made a statement to the corps: they say, thank you to Yugoslavia for sheltering us, and in the future, with God’s help, I will bring you to Russia.

The German command did not like this initiative, and Skorodumov was even arrested for some time for arbitrariness. His place was taken by another Russian emigrant B. A. Shteifon.

Over the history of the existence of the Russian Security Corps, about 17 thousand people served in it, mainly our former compatriots who lived in Serbia and Romania at the beginning of World War II.

Only commanders swore allegiance to the Fuhrer

Only by November 1943 did the Russian Security Corps become part of the Wehrmacht, with all the ensuing circumstances - uniforms in Nazi uniforms and subordination to the regulations of the German army. Previously, soldiers and officers of the ROC did not have a uniform, “statutory” uniform. The rules required that all corps personnel swear allegiance to Hitler, but in fact, the entire war the ROC existed as a unit that was subordinate only to its commanders.

In Yugoslavia, from the beginning of the 20s and almost until the end of World War II, there was a Russian cadet corps that trained command personnel. Graduates, as well as cadets of this institution, were part of the ROC. From 1943 to 1944, the size of the corps ranged from 4 to 11 thousand soldiers and officers. The Russian security corps consisted of a headquarters, several regiments, a separate Belgrade battalion, it had separate companies of veterinarians and signalmen, two infirmaries where Russian doctors and orderlies served. Heavy weapons of the ROK - from field and anti-tank artillery to machine guns and mortars.

How they became disillusioned with the Nazis

The white emigrants who made up the backbone of the ROK were staunch monarchists and anti-communists. They considered the fascists to be temporary allies who would fight only with the Red Army, and not with the civilian population.

As soon as the “Rokovites” found out about the Nazi atrocities in the occupied territories of the USSR, anti-German sentiment began to grow in the Russian Security Corps. It all ended with the fact that by the end of World War II, ROK soldiers and officers essentially considered fascist Germany their enemy. But the “Rokovites” could not enroll the Bolsheviks and Tito’s partisans as allies, since their monarchical ideology did not allow them.

The Russian Security Corps did not like not only the Nazis, but also their hangers-on, the Ustashas and Kosovo Albanians, controlled by the Italian command, and fought against them more than once. During the existence of the ROK, its formations also repeatedly had to engage in clashes with the Serbian Chetnik partisans.

Fighting with the Red Army and its allies

The ROC took part in clashes with Soviet troops and the foreign formations supporting them in 1944, when its command was ordered to provide cover for the German withdrawal from Greece. Not only the Red Army soldiers, but also Tito’s partisans and the Romanian and Bulgarian allies of the USSR then entered into confrontation with the Russian Security Corps. These battles had varying degrees of success: in some clashes, the ROC units won and captured many trophies and prisoners, and in one of the battles they lost an entire battalion.

On September 12, 1941, on the initiative of Major General M.F. Skorodumov began the formation of the future Russian Corps in the Balkans. The purpose of its creation was to protect the population and, subsequently, to transfer it to the Eastern Front. “On this day, I, with my older brother and other militias, led by V.V. Granitov, marched from the 1st Russian-Serbian gymnasium and occupied the barracks on Bannitsa. I was 17 years old,” testifies Lieutenant Georgy Nazimov.

The reason for the organization was the activation of local communists, who launched terror against Russian emigrants and sometimes slaughtered entire families. Only on September 1, 1941. More than 250 cases of single and group murders were recorded. Representatives of three generations of emigration voluntarily joined the Corps. Most of the old officers were forced, due to a lack of command positions, to spend their entire service as privates. Back in January 1934, the “democrat” Denikin addressed two million emigrants. In his policy statement “International situation, Russia, emigration,” Anton Ivanovich called on emigration, “which in a truly difficult situation retained many elements capable of heroism and sacrifice,” to join the fight against the world evil – communism. From that time on, the Russian army in exile took on a different form of existence in the countries of dispersion. September 7, 1939 The charter of the EMRO, whose headquarters was in Berlin, was approved by the German court, and in the order on the EMRO No. 13 of September 13, 1939, Major General von Lampe emphasized the loyalty of the EMRO to the German authorities. “The basic principles of our military organizations formed in foreign lands have always been: loyalty to the traditions of the Russian Imperial Army and the covenants of our White Leaders, intransigence towards communism in Russia and non-interference in the internal and political life of the countries that have sheltered us.

On such days, we must all be extremely loyal to the country that has given us shelter. The debt of gratitude for many years of hospitality obliges us to respond with all our might to the appeals of her representatives to us in one case or another, trying how and in what way to help her in her experiences, of course, remaining true to our basic principles.” On June 22, 1941, every Russian emigrant had to make a final and irrevocable choice. And most of those who were united in its ranks by the Russian General Military Union, without any hesitation, stood under the banner of the country at war with communism. A month before the start of the war with the Soviets, General von Lampe sent a letter to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army (OKH), General Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, in which he wrote: “Russian military emigrants from the first day of the heroic struggle for their existence have been closely watching the events associated with this struggle, and, not considering themselves the right to say their word, are trying with all their might to replace the soldiers who went to the army at the front in their positions in the distant rear, so that at least to a small extent, to take part in the fight of Germany against England, the centuries-old enemy national Russia. For us there is no doubt that the last period of the struggle will be expressed in a military clash between Germany and the union of Soviet socialist republics. This is inevitable due to the fact that the communist government, which now stands at the head of our Motherland, will never keep either its agreements or its promises, by its very communist essence... I consider it my duty to declare to Your Excellency that I place myself headed by me The unification of the Russian Military Unions at the disposal of the German Military Command, asking you, Mr. General – Field Marshal, to give the opportunity to take part in the fight to those of its ranks who express their desire to do this and are physically fit.”

On July 5, von Lampe again repeated his appeal to von Brauchitsch, in which it was reported that the Russian military organizations remaining from General Wrangel’s Russian Army in Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia had decided to take part in hostilities on the side of Germany. The message was conveyed to Hitler. In mid-August 1941 a response was received from Field Marshal von Brauchitsch, which indicated that at present the ranks of the EMRO “cannot be used in the German army.” However, this letter was followed by Order No. 46 of the ROVS dated August 17, 1941, by which its Chief granted the ranks of Russian foreign organizations “the right to further pursue their desire to serve the cause of the liberation of the Motherland by using each individually the resources available for this purpose.” opportunities (translators in the German army, post office, etc.). Officers of the Association who enter one or another service related to the struggle for the liberation of Russia should keep in touch with their commanders of military groups that are part of the EMRO. Heads of Departments and local representatives keep records of all ranks subordinate to them who have received service, and also maintain as close contact with them as possible, allowing them to communicate with each of them at any time.” Due to the policies of the German party leadership, the hopes of the emigrants were not realized. General Skorodumov was arrested, but parts of the Corps fought against Tito's communist gangs. One of the participants in the struggle confirmed: “Here our valiant Cossacks, having barricaded themselves along with the German garrison, withstood the onslaught of the Reds. Yes, our people took part in the operation to liberate the region from the communists, and very successfully. The attitude of the German military commanders is such that one cannot wish for better - they agree to meet everyone in everything. Full readiness to fulfill all our requests and desires.” And the Wehrmacht command cooperated. “Circularly. To all Russian Organizations. January 30, 1942 I hereby bring to the attention of all Mr. Chiefs, Leaders and Chairmen of Russian Organizations in the Protectorate that the Russian Security Corps is being organized for the armed struggle against the Bolsheviks, operating as part of the German Armed Forces and under German Administration. Lieutenant General Shteifon was appointed commander of this Russian Corps of the General Staff.

Lieutenant General Shteifon, with the consent of the German authorities, appeals to Russians who are capable of combat service to enroll as volunteers in this Corps. The corps consists of infantry, artillery, cavalry, technical and Cossack units. The registration of volunteers in the Protectorate is carried out on behalf of Lieutenant General Shteifon and with the consent of the German authorities, Colonel N.A. Bigaev, to whom you should contact for information. By order of the German authorities regarding the above, I propose to immediately and urgently notify all members of the Organization entrusted to you and warn that any actions directed openly or secretly against the implementation of this action, or actions delaying its implementation, as well as similar actions carried out in present or that may arise in the future, will be considered as sabotage directed against the activities and orders of the German authorities with all the ensuing consequences. P.p. K. Efremov. Authorized Head of UDRE in Protectorate B and M.” Persons aged 18-55 years were accepted. The initial training of volunteers was carried out according to the regulations of the Imperial Army. Each regiment had 12 companies, organized into three battalions. The day always began with prayer and ended with it in the ranks. In November 1942 in the Corps there were 6,000 soldiers and officers, incl. 2,000 Cossacks, in September 1943 - 4.800, and in August 1944. – more than 11,000. With the inclusion of the Corps into the Wehrmacht, German regulations were introduced into the Corps. The command cadres were replenished with graduates of the 1st Russian Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Cadet Corps. Operationally, the regiments were subordinate to the commanders of the formations: the 1st and 2nd regiments - the 704th German Infantry Division, the 3rd regiment - the 1st Bulgarian Corps. The total number of those who passed through the Russian Corps is determined to be 17,090 people. In the Russian Corps, almost all associations of regiments of the Imperial and White armies and military educational institutions that survived in exile were represented in the Russian Corps, at least by several officers. May 12, 1945 in the Klagenfurt area, Russischen Schutzkorp, under the command of Colonel A.I. Rogozhkin, capitulated with 4,500 people. The Russian Corps finally ceased to exist on November 1, 1945. in the Kellerberg camp (Austria), transforming into the “Union of Officials of the Russian Corps”. By 2009, no more than 75 corps veterans scattered around the world remained alive. They don't need "rehabilitation". Having clearly shown the world the merciless struggle against world evil, demonstrating the highest spiritual qualities, sacrifice and valor, they left a legacy - the obligation to stand in defense of the Orthodox Church with the return of Russia to the path of its historical development. Therefore, I would like to bow low to all those who did not lose the name of a RUSSIAN person and carried it with honor among all the vicissitudes of life in a foreign land.