In October 1941, when the German army occupied the Oryol region, Bryansk region and Kursk region, a militia unit of 20 people was formed in the village of Lokot of the Brasov district of the Oryol region under the leadership of the head of the local self-government Kostyantyn Voskoboynyk. At the end of 1941, when the command of the Wehrmacht decided to create an autonomous Russian district in Lokota, the Voskoboynyk detachment numbered 200 people, and local self-defence units were created in the surrounding villages. The personnel of the People’s Militia and self-defence groups consisted of volunteers from among local Russian youth, as well as fighters of the former RSPA and commanders of the 3rd and 13th armies of the Bryansk Front, who defected to Hitler’s Germany. Russian National Socialists created the People’s Socialist Party – “Viking” (Knight), and the “Union of Russian Youth” was also created. They operated not only on the territory of the Lokot Republic but also in Minsk, Polotsk, Baranovichi and Borysov.
Immediately after the creation of the Russian Autonomous District, a conflict with pro-Soviet partisan groups began, which attacked local institutions and the population. In one of these battles, the leader of the Russian Lokot Republic, Konstantin Voskoboynyk, died. An interesting aspect was that Moscow decided to use partisan units under the command of S. Kovpak and P. Vershihora to fight not with Russian National Socialists and the Lokot Republic, but with Ukrainian nationalists from the OUN-UPA.
After the death of Voskoboynyk, the leader of the Russian autonomous district of the Lokot Republic became Bronislav Kaminsky, who settled and lived in Lokt shortly before the beginning of World War II, after his release from the NKVD concentration camp. After leading the People’s Militia, Bronislav Kaminsky launched active military operations against the communist partisans and cleared a large area of them. Seeing that the local Russian self-government could ensure the security of the rear areas on its own, the German command of the 2nd Tank Army reorganized the Lokot district into a region, and then into a county, including 8 districts of the Oryol and Kursk regions with a total population of 581 thousand people. Ober-Burgomaster Bronislav Kaminsky ensured order on the territory of the Lokotsk Russian Republic and provided the Wehrmacht with food.
Due to the local population totally supporting the German troops, the Germans withdrew all their troops from the Russian Lokot Republic. In 1942, the male population born in 1922-1925 was mobilized on the territory of this Russian quasi-state and an army called the “Russian Liberation People’s Army” (RONA) was formed. At the beginning of 1943, the RONA consisted of 14 rifle battalions, an armoured division, an anti-aircraft battery, a fighter company and a commandant detachment, which were combined into a brigade with 9,800 soldiers. The Russian armoured division had 8 tanks (1 KV-1, 2 T-34, 3 BT-7, 2 BT-5), 3 armored vehicles (BA-10, 2 BA-20), 2 tanks, cars and motorcycles.
After the second wave of mobilization carried out in the spring of 1943, the number of RONA reached 12 thousand soldiers and officers. On 1 August 1943, the Russian pro-German army had up to 500 artillery pieces, 40 mortars, several dozen field and anti-tank guns, 10 tanks of various types and the same number of armoured vehicles, 2 tanks and 3 anti-tank guns. The Wehrmacht helped former Soviet officers who were in German captivity. 30 former Red Army commanders joined RON.
The “Russian People’s Liberation Army” (RONA) ensured the security of the harvest, guarding the railway and convoying echelons with food for Germany. RONA also actively waged a struggle against the Red Russian partisans, which did not stop either day or night.
At the beginning of March 1943, the offensive of the Soviet troops began, which came close to the Russian Lokot district, the 3rd and 5th RONA regiments took part in battles against the Red Army and suffered losses. However, the Soviet offensive did not develop, and already in April 1943 the front was stabilized. In May-June 1943, aiming to secure the rear during the operation “Citadel”, the German command conducted the anti-partisan operation “Gypsy Baron”, in which several divisions, as well as large forces of eastern troops and police, took part.
The 1st and 5th RONA regiments, together with two German divisions, were involved in liquidating a partisan unit numbering 6,000 fighters in the forests of the Trubchev district. In July 1943, when the Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive on the northern face of the Kursk salient, the 5th RONA regiment fought in the Dmytrovsk-Orlovsk region.
In August 1943, RONA and a part of the Russian civilian population numbering 30,000 people were forced to relocate to the city of Lepel in the Vitebsk region of Belarus due to the offensive of the Soviet troops. In Belarus, RONA received the task of ensuring the rear communications of the 3rd Tank Army of the Wehrmacht, which was under attack by communist partisan units of the Lepel zone. On 20-21 October 1943, RONA successfully repelled the partisan offensive on Leper and Chashniki. In November, the RONA was joined by Belarusian police officers, who also had experience fighting partisans. In February 1944, together with civilians, the RONA was redeployed to Western Belarus, to the district of Dyatlovo.
In the spring of 1944, near Minsk and Lepel, the Germans and Russians carried out several operations against the Red partisans. RONA, which was part of the combat unit of SS Obergruppenführer K. von Gottberg, participated in the “Regensshauer” and “Frühlingfest” operations. The successful actions of the RONA brigade were recognized by the German command, RONA commander Bronislav Kaminsky was awarded the Iron Cross 1st class. By Himmler’s order, the Russian RONA brigade was included in the SS forces, with subsequent deployment into a division, and its commander received the rank of brigade fuhrer and Major General of the SS forces.
In July 1944, the deployment of the RONA assault brigade into the 29th Grenadier Division of the SS (Russian Division No. 1) as part of the 72nd, 73rd, and 74th Grenadier Regiments began, but this process remained incomplete due to the Warsaw Uprising of Polish nationalists from The Home Army, in the suppression of which the Russians took the most active part.
From each RON regiment, which numbered 6,500 soldiers and officers, 300-400 volunteers were selected to form a regiment under the command of I. Frolov. A total of 1,700 soldiers, 4 T-34 tanks, an SU-76 self-propelled artillery installation and two guns. On 5 August 1944, a regiment of Russian RONA was introduced into the city of Warsaw, which actively participated in street battles against Polish nationalists. RONA soldiers also actively demonstrated themselves in violent actions against the local population. That is why, on 19 August 1944, the German command summoned the commander RON Kaminsky to Lodz, where he was convicted by a military court of the SS and shot, and RON was taken out of Warsaw. The fact of the execution of Bronislav Kaminsky by the Germans was hidden from his soldiers, who were told that their commander was ambushed and died at the hands of Soviet partisans. In mid-October 1944, the RONA was disarmed and transferred to the Neuhammer military training ground, and in November 1944 to Münzingen to form the Vlasov 1st Division of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA). This is how the army of the Russian quasi-state ended its journey in the German rear.
It is noteworthy that in Soviet times, propaganda emphasized the activities of Soviet partisans in the Sumy region, and the fact that the multi-thousand-strong National Socialist Russian Republic, which was an ally of Hitler’s Germany, arose nearby on the lands of Kurshchyna, Bryansk and Oryol regions, propaganda kept quiet.
Sources:
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- 2. Ermolov I. Three years without Stalin. Occupation: Soviet citizens between Nazis and Bolsheviks. 1941 – 1944. – M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2010. – 383 p. – (On the front line. The truth about war).
- 3. Verevkin S.I. The most forbidden book about the Second World War / Sergey Verevkin. – M.: Yauza-press, 2009. – 608 p. – (The Second World War. Behind the scenes of the catastrophe).
- 4. Hoffmann, Jochaim “Russian Liberation Army” against Stalin/ Jochaim Hoffmann; trans. with German V. F. Diesendorf. – Moscow: AST, 2014 – 539, [5] p.: ill.
- 5. Partisan war in Ukraine. Diaries of commanders of partisan detachments and formations. 1941-1944 / Centre. Mr. archive of societies General Assembly of Ukraine, Memor. complex “National Museum of History Velyk. Fatherlands wars of 1941-1945”; [team composed of V. S. Lozytskyi (director) and others]. – Moscow: Tsentrpoligraf, [2010]. – 668, [2] p., [8] l. phot. – (On the front line. The truth about war).
Oleksiy Usenko, historian, and researcher of the activities of Russian collaborationist organizations during the German occupation 1941-1944
