An information campaign to distort the true history of World War II in Europe is gaining momentum. In Prague, where they recently decided to remove the monument to Marshal Konev, it was proposed to erect a monument to the traitor-general Vlasov and his associates in the ROA, who fought on the side of the Third Reich.
In general, everything is logical. Western world, Europe and the capitalist system (which has become global), neoliberal ideology in crisis. The Western world comes out of the crisis through wars. And before that, nationalist, authoritarian and fascist regimes come to power. It is not surprising that before this there is a campaign to distort the true history, denigrate the Red Army, which liberated Europe from Nazism and fascism. Rehabilitation of the Nazis and their hangers-on, traitor collaborators. Creation of the image of the enemy - Russians and communists. Stalin was equated with Hitler, the USSR with the Third Reich. Moreover, we have already agreed that Hitler defended Europe from the invasion of communism. Further, Europe, which is covered by a new wave of the global crisis, will face a new heyday of Nazism and fascism, the collapse of the old nation states into nationalist regimes (in particular, Catalonia is secession in Spain, the Basque Country and Galicia are next). And all this in the face of growing migration pressure from the global South, riots of migrants and Muslims in Southern Europe. Perhaps we will see the "Fourth Reich" based on Germany and France.
What's happening in Prague
Earlier, in the Czech Republic and Prague, several actions were held against the Soviet soldiers-liberators. In particular, a monument to the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, whose troops took part in the Prague operation, Marshal Ivan Konev, was desecrated. This monument was inaugurated in the largest district of the Czechoslovak capital Prague 6 in 1980 as a historical reminder of the merits of the Soviet commander of the Red Army. After the collapse of the USSR and the socialist bloc, Soviet monuments were repeatedly attacked by hooligans. So Konev was accused of participating in the suppression of the Hungarian uprising in 1956 and preparation for the suppression of the "Prague Spring" in 1968.
In September 2019, the local authorities made a decision (War on history. In Prague, they intend to move the monument to Marshal Konev) to move the monument to the museum, and in its place to create a monument to the “liberators of Prague”. Like, by the time the Red Army arrived in Prague, it had already been liberated by Czech rebels and soldiers of the Russian Liberation Army, three days ahead of the Soviet troops and the Germans had practically surrendered.
The monument to the Vlasovites is proposed to be erected by the headman of the Prague district Rzheporye Pavel Novotny. He became famous as a member of the Civic Democratic Party, journalist and politician known for his populism and anti-communism. The idea to glorify Russian collaborators and "annoy the communists" was submitted to the elder by his fellow party member, founder of the Institute for Research of Totalitarian Regimes, historian Pavel Zhachek. He noted that Vlasov and his closest associate, the commander of the 1st ROA division, Sergei Bunyachenko, stayed in Rzheporye (at that time it was a separate city, which later became part of Prague), and on the night of May 6-7, 1945, they discussed the plan there operations to liberate Prague from the Nazis. As a result, the Vlasovites were three days ahead of the Soviet army in Prague and helped the Czech rebels, who started the uprising on May 5, 1945. They want to erect a monument to the Vlasovites already in 2020.
Who made Vlasov the "liberator of Prague"
The myth that Prague was liberated in May 1945, not by the Red Army, but by the Russian Liberation Army, was not invented by the Czechs themselves. Its founder can be considered the well-known anti-Soviet, the favorite of the West and Russian "democracy" Alexander Solzhenitsyn. He did a good job of creating anti-Soviet myths. Among his inventions there is also the concept of "saving Prague" by Russian collaborators.
So, in the work "The Gulag Archipelago" it is written:
“By the end of April, Vlasov had assembled his two and a half divisions for Prague. It was then learned that the SS General Steiner was preparing to destroy the Czech capital, not to give it up as a whole. And Vlasov ordered his divisions to go over to the side of the rebellious Czechs. And all the insult, bitterness, anger that the forced Russian breasts had accumulated on the Germans during these cruel and stupid three years were now released in an attack on the Germans: from an unexpected angle they were kicked out of Prague. (Did all the Czechs figure it out later,Russians saved their city? Our history is distorted, and they say that Prague was saved by Soviet troops, although they could not have made it)."
The professional creator of black myths about the USSR considered Vlasov and his associates to be sincere Russian patriots who strove to free Russia from the “bloody” Stalinist communist regime. These words of Solzhenitsyn about the Vlasovites did not make it into the version of the "Archipelago" edited for Russian schools.
Prague uprising and ROA
By the beginning of May 1945, the Soviet and American troops approaching the borders of the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia inspired the Czechs to revolt. Previously, there were no major anti-German demonstrations in the protectorate, the Czechs worked quietly, strengthening the power of the Third Reich. On May 4, in Prague, the Czech protectorate government, headed by President Emil Hacha, completed negotiations on the transfer of power, begun on April 29, 1945, with the Czech National Council. The council, under the direction of Albert Prazhak, Ph. D., was to hold general elections for the post-war government. The Czech government issued a decree abolishing the official German language. On the night of May 5, it became known in Prague that the Russians had taken Berlin. In the morning, the head of government, Richard Bienert, broadcast on the radio a statement about the liquidation of the protectorate and the beginning of a general uprising. He called on Czech troops and police to join the rebels and German troops to surrender.
The uprising was led by General Karel Kutlvashr. The rebels (up to 30 thousand people), taking advantage of the weakness of the German garrison, seized a number of important objects. However, it was impossible to count on victory, only in the vicinity of Prague there were up to 40 thousand Germans. Therefore, the leaders of the rebels began negotiations with SS Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Frank and the Prague commandant, General Rudolf Tussain, without insisting on the immediate surrender of the Nazis. The rebels wanted to play for time until the Americans arrived, not knowing about the agreement of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition (Prague was to be liberated by Soviet troops).
The city was an important communications hub for the retreating troops of the German Army Group Center. The German command planned to defend in Czechoslovakia as long as possible, turn Prague into a "second Berlin" and try to use the differences between the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. Therefore, the Nazis brought additional forces into the city to suppress the rebellion. The uprising was doomed. The Czech National Council appealed for help to the 1st division (18 thousand soldiers) located near Prague, headed by Major General Bunyachenko. The division was also accompanied by the commander of the ROA, Lieutenant General Vlasov.
The Russian liberation army at this time, in fact, was at the stage of formation. Its leadership was well aware that the Third Reich was defeated and planned to surrender to the Western allies, in order to then continue the fight against communism, but with a different high command. The 1st Division voluntarily went to the rear, and Vlasov tried, on the one hand, to negotiate with the Germans (they themselves were in no hurry to engage in battle with desperate collaborators), on the other, he wanted to go as far west as possible in order to surrender to the Americans. The ROA commander refused the Czechs. He saw no point in this adventure. General Bunyachenko, on the other hand, ordered his soldiers to support the uprising. He hoped that helping the Czechs would strengthen his negotiating position. Vlasov did not interfere, and did not take any part in the events in Prague.
On May 6, 1945, there were up to 2 thousand barricades on the streets of Prague. The insurgents, having basically only small arms, suffered heavy losses. The Nazis broke into the city center, captured the town hall and the bridges over the Vltava. The Vlasov division had a relatively good combat capability, besides, the Russian soldiers were eager to hit the Germans. The Bunyachenko division occupied the airfield in Ruzin, where the Luftwaffe bombers were located, ready to bomb the city, as well as the Prague district of Smichov, taking control of two bridges over the Vltava. On the same day, the Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, under the command of Konev, began an offensive from Saxony to Prague.
On May 7, ROA fighters broke through to the center of Prague and cut through the German group on the left bank of the Vltava, and also took Petrin Mountain and the Kulishovitsy area. The Vlasovites captured up to 10 thousand Germans. However, the Vlasovites could not liberate the entire city with their limited forces. As new units of the retreating German army group approached the city, the 1st Division was doomed to defeat. On the same day, it became clear to the Czechs that the Americans would not come to Prague. For political reasons, fearing a negative Allied reaction to the alliance with the collaborationists, the Czech National Council broke off the alliance with the Vlasovites. On the night of May 7-8, all parts of the 1st Division left their positions in Prague and went west. And they fled together with the Germans, with whom they fought for two days.
Prague was liberated by the Red Army
On May 8, upon learning of the surrender of the Reich, signed in Reims, the commander of the German Army Group Center, Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, ordered the troops to leave Prague and move into the American zone. The Nazis entered into negotiations with the Czechs, and the rebels did not interfere with the retreat of the Wehrmacht to the west. In Prague, German troops remained, which did not have time to leave to the west, and some parts of the SS, which refused to surrender and continued to resist. On the morning of May 9, 1945, units of the Red Army entered the city and liberated Prague, suppressing the last centers of resistance of the German troops. In the vicinity of the Czech capital, the Nazis were finished off and disarmed for several more days.
Thus, it is obvious that Prague was liberated by Soviet troops. By May 9, 1945, German troops were still in the city, they resisted. The Prague uprising, with or without the support of the Vlasovites, was doomed to defeat. The situation could be changed only by the access to the city of American or Soviet troops. The Germans had an overwhelming advantage over the Czech rebels and Vlasovites, and would have easily turned the city into smoking ruins if resistance continued and they were not allowed to go west. The commander of the ROA, General Vlasov, did not take any part in the events in Prague, and was opposed to helping the Czech rebels. That is, a monument to him as the "liberator of Prague" is obvious stupidity. The 1st division of Bunyachenko, indeed, took part in the battles in Prague for two days, but in principle it could not achieve victory over the Nazis. Having received no guarantees from the Czech leadership, the Vlasovites left the city, in which the fighting continued. The Germans could finish off the Czech rebels, but did not manage to do this, as they were in a hurry to go west to surrender to the Americans, and were afraid of the advancing Red Army. The city was liberated from the Nazis by Soviet troops.
The results of the Prague strategic offensive operation also speak for themselves: during the rapid offensive of the 1st, 4th and 2nd Ukrainian fronts, a powerful group of enemy forces was destroyed, which continued to resist after the fall of Berlin. Killed and wounded 40 thousand, captured 860 thousand Nazi soldiers and officers, including 60 generals. 9500 guns and mortars, 1800 tanks and assault guns, about 1100 aircraft were captured as trophies. Liberated from the German occupation of Czechoslovakia and its capital Prague.
It is obvious that the story of the "Vlasov liberators" is part of a campaign to denigrate the feat of the Soviet soldiers, the Red Army and the USSR in liberating Europe from Nazism. The collaborationists are being rehabilitated, then the turn of Nazism and fascism will come. This operation has already been carried out in the Baltics, in Ukraine. The history of the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War is being rewritten in the interests of the West, the forces that were the organizers of the World War.
