The Bolshevik takeover of Russia created an alternative Russia in exile that never laid down its arms. For two decades, expelled White Russians sought ways to retaliate against the Soviet Union and return home. Their irreconcilability was galvanized by a superstructure, the dominant military organization, the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). Eventually, militant anti-Bolshevism led the exiled Russians into alliance with Nazi Germany, despite the latter's anti-Slavic stance. For Russia with Hitler tells the story of how thousands of White Russian emigres joined the German invasion of the Soviet Union as soldiers, translators, and civilian workers.
Oleg Beyda investigates and contextualizes emigre collaboration with National Socialist Germany, explaining how it was possible for Russians to fight against the Russians. The book reveals that the exiles, although united ideologically by Russian nationalism in a general sense, did not establish one single, clear-cut political solution for a future ""liberated Russia."" Drawing on wide archival material, For Russia with Hitler details the background and ideological framework of the emigres, how they rationalized their support for Nazism, and what they did on the Eastern Front, including their reactions to life in occupation, war crimes, and the Holocaust.
By:
Oleg Beyda
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions:
Height: 231mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 33mm
Weight: 660g
ISBN: 9781487556488
ISBN 10: 1487556489
Pages: 392
Publication Date: 15 November 2024
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Abbreviations Introduction 1. Lasting Crusade: The Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) in the World of Exile The Puzzle: Organisations and Structures The White Idea: ROVS Ideology Counter-Revolution from Abroad: Defencism and Defeatism 2. Swastikas Rising: Émigrés and Nazi Germany Russian Aryans: “Aryanization” and Foreign Passports Seeking Hostilities: ROVS in Preparation for War 3. A Dawn of Liberation Is Rising over Russia: Russian Military Exile and the German-Soviet War, 1941–1945 Behind Bars: Arrests of Émigrés in Belgium and France Into the Vortex of Illusion: Émigré Assessments of the German-Soviet War, 1941–1943 Swan Song: 1943–1945 4. A Troubled Cooperation: Russian Émigrés and the German Bans Unerwünscht: German Policy on the Use of Émigrés Kriegsentscheidend: The Wehrmacht’s Need for Émigrés 5. Forbidden but Still Marching On: Recruitment of Émigré Volunteers and Forms of Involvement Germany Czech Protectorate The General Government Bulgaria France Contract Work and Civil and Military Engineering Demobilization Émigrés as Soldiers from 1942 On 6. Homecoming: Personal Outlooks on the War in the USSR Not Just Interpreters: The Role of White Émigrés as Mediators and Collaborators “All of Russia Is a Graveyard”: Émigrés’ Assessment of the Soviet Union Them: The Red Army, Partisans, and Soviet POWs 7. “Collecting the Shards”: Perspectives on Life under Occupation The Russian Soul: Soviet Peasants and Other Civilians Through Their Eyes: Soviet Citizens Meet the Émigrés Back to the Roots: “Soviet” White Guards and Their Relatives “God Is With Us”: The Church and Religion Off Duty: Private Time and Leisure Activities Mourning the Fallen: Death on the German-Soviet Front Farewell, Motherland: Reflections by White Émigrés on Their Second Exile 8. Darker Shades of Field Grey: Émigrés and Nazi Occupation Policy The Jewish Question: Antisemitism and White Russian Émigrés Shock, Awe, Compromise: War Crimes and Excesses Saviours in German Uniforms: White Émigrés’ Actions to Defend the Oppressed 9. The Long Defeat: Russian Military Exile after 1945 Bolshevik Roulette: The White Émigrés and the End of War in Europe Verbal Masquerade: ROVS Self-Presentation after 1945 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index
Oleg Beyda is the Hansen Lecturer in Russian History at the University of Melbourne.
Reviews for For Russia with Hitler: White Russian Émigrés and the German-Soviet War
""This masterful book is an instant classic in the historiographies of Stalinism, Nazism, and the Second World War. With the subtle skills of the critical historian, Beyda makes the reader understand the motivations, aspirations, choices, and crimes of men who thought they had Russia's best interests at heart. In reality, of course, they contributed to one of the most criminal occupation regimes of the twentieth century. Beyda's well-written account allows readers to understand this remarkable history of a consequential misunderstanding between anti-Bolshevik Russians and Nazi Russophobes.""--Mark Edele, Hansen Chair in History, University of Melbourne ""For Russia with Hitler is the untold Second World War story of 'White Russians' who had never moved on from their civil war against the Bolsheviks twenty years earlier. As Talleyrand said of the Bourbons, they had learnt nothing, and forgotten nothing. Once Nazi Germany was going to attack the common enemy, the Soviet Union, these Russian officers were keen to join them - keener, in fact, than the Germans, who saw Slavs as an inferior race. After the war, they made no apologies for collaborating: they had been pursuing their own aims, not Hitler's. This well-researched and judicious account leaves readers to make up their own minds.""--Sheila Fitzpatrick, author of Lost Souls: Displaced Persons and the Birth of the Cold War ""For Russia with Hitler tells the unjustly forgotten story of history's double-losers, those White Russians who remained prisoners of the past, unable accept their defeat at the hands of the Reds and ready to throw in their lot with the Third Reich. Oleg Beyda has written an important, fascinating, and at times disturbing book.""--Douglas Smith, historian and author of The Russian Job: The Forgotten Story of How America Saved the Soviet Union from Ruin ""The mass emigration of White Russians in the wake of the 1917 revolution and civil war has at its heart one enduring feature: a visceral attachment to Mother Russia and passionate sense of nationhood. For Russia With Hitler is a powerful and disturbing account of hopes dashed, of sacrifice and betrayal, based on impressive and extensive research. Oleg Beyda is to be congratulated for breaking important new ground in telling a story from which many historians have till now have shied away.""--Helen Rappaport, historian and author of After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris between the Wars
