How the Vlasovites “liberated” Prague
Every time on the next anniversary of the great Victory, the “free press”, both Russian and foreign, publishes the “scorching truth” about the last battle of the Great Patriotic War - the liberation of Prague.
According to the latest liberal historical political correctness, the “real liberators of Prague” were the Vlasovites from the 1st division of the ROA “Major General and Cossack Ataman” Bunyachenko, and the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front Konev, having entered already liberated Prague, allegedly “took advantage of the opportunity and appropriated to themselves all the laurels of liberators.”
The bastard O. Kolář, who ordered the dismantling of the monument to Marshal Konev, has already stated that on the site of the monument to the famous Soviet commander and liberator of Czechoslovakia, a memorial will be erected to the “real liberators of Prague” - the “heroes of the ROA”.
Any sane person understands that all this anti-Soviet fuss is aimed at profanation of the feat of Soviet soldiers and is grist to the mill of Vlasovism lovers, who love to argue that the Great Patriotic War was the “second civil war”, and the Vlasovites “deceiving Hitler, fought with the communists and fascists for the United and Indivisible Russia."
In order to dot all the i's, we will try to figure out where in the story of the liberation of Prague is truth and where is fiction.
Apparently, we need to start with a brief information about what Bunyachenko’s 1st Division of the ROA was like.
To the great chagrin of all supporters of the version that “a million Russian and Soviet people fought on the side of the Nazis,” it should be noted that the 1st ROA division, numbering 15 thousand, was, in fact, the entire “army” of the traitor General Vlasov.
This native military unit was formed by the Germans in November 1944 in the vicinity of the city of Ulm, when the Germans were tired of taking Vlasov for a fool and they were ready to throw anyone into battle, which was the reason for their agreement to organize a “Russian volunteer unit” as part of the German armed forces strength
Vlasovites among the rebels during the Prague uprising
The first and only division of the ROA included self-defense policemen, reduced to a bestial state in Hitler’s concentration camps and ready to fight for a piece of bread with their compatriots, prisoners of war, punishers from the “Eastern battalions” and the most loyal “Khiwis” - laborers from among those deported to hard labor in Germany and prisoners of war of Soviet citizens.
The backbone of the 1st ROA division was the remnants of RONA (Russian People's Liberation Army) Kaminsky, dispersed after the suppression of the Warsaw uprising for the rape and robbery of German civilians locked in Warsaw.
And, since the Germans “expelled Kaminsky from the Gestapo for cruelty”, having anointed his forehead with green paint, the mediocre Colonel Bunyachenko was appointed division commander, who had slipped into the Red Army from the post of corps chief to brigade commander and deserted to the Germans at the end of 1942, without waiting for a tribunal for unjustified loss of personnel.
Under the sensitive leadership of Bunyachenko, whom Vlasov had just promoted to the rank of “Major General,” this whole rabble moved out from Müsingen on March 8, 1945 to the site of their future first battle - Frankfurt an der Oder.
Already on the spot, after long disputes between Bunyachenko and the commander of the German 9th Army, General Busse, who cherished the hope of using the Vlasovites as consumables to save the lives of “true Aryans,” the “divisional commander” of the 1st ROA division gathered his commanders and announced his withdrawal from subjugation of the Germans. After which he recalled the division’s regiments from the battle, having warned Busse about this in advance.
The Germans could not do anything about this, since they, experiencing the heavy blows of the Soviet offensive, least of all wanted to simultaneously wage a war with the Vlasovites who did not agree to go to slaughter.
In the end, the Germans supplied Bunyachenko’s division with grub and took it to the rear as much as 100 km west of the front line - to improve their shaky morale.
Vlasovites among Prague residents, May 7, 1945
From that moment began the glorious epic of “leveling the front” by the “heroes of the ROA”, who wanted to get to the Anglo-American allies of the USSR in order to surrender to them in a well-fed and safe captivity, destroying German rear warehouses along the way.
So, little by little, the Vlasovites, led by Bunyachenko, rushed to Dresden, where at that time the headquarters of the commander of the German Army Group Center, Field Marshal Schörner, was located.
Schörner agreed with Bunyachenko that he would turn a blind eye to the previous pranks of his charges and hush up the scandal with the higher command, which was already ready to give the order to exterminate the “fighters against Bolshevism” who did not want to die for the Germans. In return, General Vlasov’s “eagles” must fight a little, covering the backs of the retreating Germans. Negotiations were conducted through messengers, since meeting Schörner Bunyachenko in person was boring.
Having collected food and weapons from Schörner to “effectively contain the Bolshevik invasion,” the Vlasovites at a light gallop ran to the Elbe River, where they were stopped by a German barrier detachment at a pre-mined bridge. The barrier detachment was ordered to shoot at any military personnel trying to break through without orders to the western bank of the Elbe, especially at the Vlasovites.
barricades in Prague
Then Bunyachenko resorted directly to monkey cunning, appealing to the sense of Teutonic humanism, begging to be allowed to the west bank “at least a medical battalion with the wounded.” Amazingly, the Germans let the medical battalion through, and then, with their mittens open in amazement, watched as the entire ROA division rushed after the medical battalion to the other side.
However, the “heroes of the ROA” could not scuttle indefinitely and test the patience of the Germans as much, especially since, by order of Schörner, SS units and formations withdrawn from battles, defeated, and therefore very fierce, began to concentrate around them.
However, Bunyachenko, for another promise to fight, agreed with Schörner’s liaison officer to receive allowances and gasoline for “diehard fighters against Bolshevism,” and having received them, he quickly rushed south, to Czechoslovakia, where the Western and Eastern fronts were closing slowest, in hoping to safely slip even further to the west.
Vlasovites in Prague, May 7, 1945
After two days of the “unprecedented campaign” of the ROA, the goal was achieved.
To influence Bunyachenko and his subordinates, Schörner flew to Czechoslovakia, taking Vlasov with him. The situation has become piquant. Schörner could not crush the twice-betrayed scum - he did not have enough strength, and the prospect of a showdown with the Vlasovites, to the delight of the Red Army pressing on the heels, did not smile at all on him.
On the other hand, the German front-line units could not calmly watch all these tricks with the capitalization of the rear warehouses of those evading battles by the Vlasovites, which threatened complete confusion and the collapse of the barely holding on front.
Realizing this, Bunyachenko and Vlasov wished Schörner great personal happiness and moved to Prague, along the way selling weapons to the Czechs for food and worn civilian clothes, pursued by the kicks of the offended Germans.
By the time the ROA division reached Prague, the Americans were 70 km to the west, in the area of the city of Pilsen, but according to the agreement they could not enter Prague. Marshal Konev's troops had to fight 150 km to Prague. Berlin had fallen a few days earlier.
Prague Uprising, May 5, 1945
Seeing such a thing, an uprising began in Prague on May 5, 1945. The Czechs, exhausted from production, who throughout the war conscientiously supplied the Nazis with ammunition, rifles, locomotives, Hetzer self-propelled guns, units for bombers and other useful materiel, suddenly decided to become heroes and were inflamed with a thirst for revenge.
It is difficult to say what caused this uprising. There was no special need for it. Apparently, the rebel leaders wanted to liberate Prague without the help of the Red Army, in order to then declare themselves as an independent force to be reckoned with.
The Czechs were poorly armed and had no experience in urban battles with a skilled and brutal enemy. Nevertheless, the Czechs started zealously. In a matter of hours, the streets of Prague were blocked by hundreds of barricades, and shots were fired at the endless stream of Germans advancing towards the Americans from all windows and gateways.
The very next day after the start of the uprising, it became clear that the Prague residents were in a hurry with the uprising and it was doomed to defeat. Prague radio hysterically called on the soldiers of Marshal Konev to come to the aid of the fraternal people as soon as possible.
The Germans retreat west through Prague, May 1945
By order of Schörner, angry SS men, tanks and artillery were brought into the city to break through the annoying traffic jam that was preventing the retreat of the retreating German troops to the west.
And here the “heroes of the ROA” came into play, seeing in the situation a chance to distinguish themselves and appear before the Americans not only as fighters against Bolshevism, but also as “fighters against the Nazis.”
On May 7, units of Bunyachenko's division entered Prague and very quickly occupied several districts of the city, taking advantage of the confusion of the Germans, who did not expect an attack from people in Wehrmacht uniform.
But soon the Vlasovites had to experience all the hatred of Schörner and the extremely angry German soldiers. For the first time, the Vlasovites had to fight seriously, but not for the sake of improving karma, but for their own skins.
Vlasov’s “support for the uprising” lasted only a few hours, during which Bunyachenko’s division lost about 1000 people killed and one tank, after which they abandoned Prague to its fate, continuing to “level the front.”
Historians agree that the Vlasovites got involved in short-term battles with the Germans in Prague only because they did not know about the agreement between the Soviet and American sides that Prague would be liberated by the troops of Marshal Konev. Bunyachenko and Vlasov were firmly convinced that Prague was about to be liberated by the nearby Americans.
Germans in Prague, May 1945
Soon, the remnants of the ROA division came to the Americans, who met the “fighters against Bolshevism and Nazism” rather gloomily and unfriendly, handing them over to the Soviet authorities, and the ROA headquarters with Vlasov and Bunyachenko to the SMERSH bodies. Their shameful death in a noose was a worthy end to their “career.”
On May 9, 1945, the troops of Marshal Konev entered Prague, and in two days they crushed 50 thousand Nazi soldiers and several hundred armored vehicles settled in the city. Together with Soviet soldiers, the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps, 2nd Army and 1st Tank Corps of the Polish Army were involved in the Prague operation, and even - attention! - two Romanian armies - 1st and 4th. Moreover, the number of Romanian units in total exceeded the Czech and Polish ones.
In conclusion, we note that in the Prague cemetery there is a tacky monument on the grave of 187 Vlasovites, including the “generals” Boyarsky and Shaposhnikov, who were shot by the Czechs themselves. Agree, this is not the way to treat liberators.
grave of Vlasovites shot by the Czechs at the Prague cemetery
So why are the Czechs going to erect a monument to the Vlasovites in Prague? For the selfish desire to earn comfortable captivity from the Americans and a quick escape from the dying city? Or, nevertheless, out of a desire to hurt Russia more painfully, in which heroism is valued much higher and is obtained immeasurably more expensively?
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