The Stalinist Political Culture of the Second Wave of the Russian Diaspora: A Case Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15826/qr.2022.2.685Keywords:
Vlasov, Russian Liberation Army, collaboration, Second World War, Russian emigration, espionageAbstract
This article examines the career of Vladimir Vasil’evich Pozdniakov during the Second World War and the early Cold War. A lieutenant colonel in the Red Army who was arrested during the Great Terror, Pozdniakov was captured on the Eastern front in October 1941. He collaborated with the Germans, first serving as the head of camp police in 1942, then becoming a propagandist in the system of POW camps, and finally serving as a high-ranking officer in the short-lived Russian army under General A. A. Vlasov. He escaped repatriation to the USSR after the war and worked as an intelligence agent in the Gehlen Organization and the CIA while also taking part in anti-communist groups in West Germany. Pozdniakov also acted as an amateur historian of the Vlasov movement. Pozdniakov’s career provides a window on the actions of one individual across the upheavals of war, occupation, and Cold War. Pozdniakov’s actions were shaped by the political culture of the Stalinist 1930s. Like other members of the Soviet party-state and military elite, Pozdniakov was opportunistic, suspicious, and dogmatic – all qualities that were crucial for advancement and mere survival in the Stalinist 1930s. The political culture of the 1930s helps to explain his activities during a time of unprecedented chaos and violence: his willingness to collaborate diligently with the Nazis and then with Germany’s Western conquerors, his constant battles within circles of collaborators and the Russian diaspora, and his hagiographic writing of the history of the Vlasov movement while in postwar exile. Pozdnyakov’s example suggests a new approach to the study of the political culture of the second wave of Russian emigration. Due to the historical context of the formation of the second wave – captivity on the Eastern Front, life and sometimes collaboration during the Nazi occupation and flight from repatriation – its members had no other source of public identity other than the continuing devotion to Vlasov’s semi-fictional Russian liberation army.
References
Aleksandrov, K. M. (2011). Zhizn’ i sud’ba polkovnika Vladimira Vasil’evicha Pozdniakova, arkhivista i sobiratelia vtoroi volny russkoi emigratsii [The Life and Fate of Colonel Vladimir Vasil’evich Pozdniakov]. In Efimov, A. B., Mironova, E. M. (Eds.). Lyudi i sud’by Russkogo Zarubezh’ia. Sbornik statei. Iss. 3. Moscow, Institut vseobshchei istorii RAN, Pravoslavnyi Svyato-Tikhonovskii gumanitarnyi universitet, pp. 153–187.
Aleksandrov, K. M. (2015). Generalitet i ofitserskie kadry vooruzhennykh formirovanii komiteta osvobozhdeniia narodov Rossii 1943–1946 gg. [Generals and Officers of the Armed Formations of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia 1943–1946]. Diss. … dokt. ist. nauk, St Petersburg, S. n. 1145 p.
Antoshin, A. V. (2007). Men’sheviki v emigratsii posle Vtoroi mirovoi voiny [The Mensheviks in Emigration after the Second World War]. In Otechestvennaya istoriya. No. 1, pp. 102–115.
Artizov, A. N. (Ed.). (2015). Vlasov: istoriya predatel’stva v 2 t., v 3 kn. [Vlasov: A History of Betrayal. 2 Vols. 3 Books]. Moscow, ROSSPEN.
Chuikov, V. I. (1949). List of War Criminals and Persons Who Collaborated with the Enemy in the US Zone of Occupation in Germany. 13 May. In Georgetown University Archives and Special Collections. Robert F. Kelley Papers. Box 5. Folder 6.
Coffin, W. S. (1977). Once to Every Man: A Memoir. N. Y., Atheneum. 344 p.
Efimenko, E. (2021). Electronic Correspondence. 2 May. In Personal Archive of Author.
Goffman, I. (2006). Vlasov protiv Stalina: tragediya russkoi osvoboditel’noi armii [Vlasov against Stalin: The Tragedy of the Russian Liberation Army]. Moscow, AST, Astrel’. 544 p.
HPSSS. Schedule A. Vol. 22. Case 433. Schedule B. Vol. 1. Case 147. Schedule B. Vol. 11. Case 433.
Martynov, A V. (2014). Po obe storony pravdy. Vlasovskoe dvizhenie i otechestvennaya kollaboratsiya [On Both Sides of the Truth. The Vlasov Movement and Domestic Collaboration]. Moscow, Veche. 382 p.
Materialy vtorogo s’’ezda Soyuza bor’by za osvobozhdenie narodov Rossii (Sternberg, Germaniya, 3–5 maya 1952 g.) [Materials of the Second Congress of the Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (Sternberg, Germany, 3–5 May 1952)]. (1952). Munich, Izdatel’stvo Soyuza bor’by za osvobozhdenie narodov Rossii. 108 p.
Memorandum for the Office in Charge, Talvia, Erick J., 5 Apr. 1947. (1947). In NARA.RG 319. Entry 134A. XE182853. 270/84/20/02. Box 23. Vol. 1. Folder 1.
Neryanin, A. G. (1945). Vypiska iz dnevnika polkovnika Nerianina [Excerpt from the Diary of Colonel Nerianin]. In BA-MA. MSG 149-56.
Newton, H. C. (1947). Letter to Colonel C. F. Fritzsche, Asst. Deputy Director of Intelligence, Hqs, European Command, 23 Apr. In NARA. RG 263. Entry ZZ-18.230/86/23/06. Box 88. Gerhard von Mende. Vol. 1.
Nikolaevskii, B. I. (1949). Pis‘mo Pozdnyakovu V. V., 7 maya 1949 g. [Letter to Pozdniakov, V. V.]. In HILA. Boris I. Nicolaevsky Papers. Box 497. Folder 3. Petrov, I. (2016). Tainstvennoe izcheznovenie maiora Chikalova [The Mysterious Disappearance of Major Chikalov]. In LiveJournal [website]. July 14. URL: https://labas.livejournal.com/1152407.html (accessed: 30.06.2020).
Petrov, I. (2020). Byt’ uslyshannym i pravil’no ponyatym: pis’mo M. Samygina v redaktsiyu “Novogo zhurnala” [To be Heard and Correctly Understood: Letter of M. Samygin to the Editorial Board of Novyi Zhurnal]. In LiveJournal [website]. Dec. 1. URL: https://labas.livejournal.com/1048974.html (accessed: 06.11.2020).
Petrov, I., Martynov, A. V. (2017). Nepriglyadnaya kartina kulisa vlasovskogo dvizheniya: Mikhail Samygin i ego kniga [An Unsightly View behind the Curtains of the Vlasov Movement: Mikhail Samygin and His Book]. In Martynov, A. V. (Ed.). Istoriya otechestvennoi kollaboratsii. Materialy i issledovvaniya. Moscow, Staraya Basmannaya, pp. 25–122.
Popov, A. V. (Ed.). (1997). V poiskakh istiny. Puti i sud’by vtoroi emigratsii. Sbornik statei i dokumentov [In Search of the Truth. The Paths and Fates of the Second Emigration. A Collection of Articles and Documents]. Moscow, Rossiiskii gos. gumanitarnyi universitet, Istoriko-arkhivnyi institut. 376 p.
Postwar Members of the Vlassov Army, 9 March 1948. (1948). In NARA. RG 319. Entry 134A. 22348387. 270/84/20/02. Box 68. Vlassow Group.
Pozdniakov, V. V. (1948–1950). Pis’ma Borisu Nikolaevskomu ot 15 noyabrya 1948a g., 24 noyabrya 1948 g., 18 maya 1949 g., 27 iyunya 1949 g., 12 yanvarya 1950 g., 4 fevralya 1950 g., 11 oktyabrya 1950 g. [Letters to Boris Nikolaevskii: 15 November 1948, 24 November 1948, 18 May 1949, 27 June 1949, 12 January 1950, 4 February 1950, 11 October 1950]. In HILA. Boris I. Nicolaevsky Papers. Box 497. Folder 3.
Pozdniakov, V. V. (1950d). Nekotorye voprosy problem bor’by s bol’shevizmom. 11 aprelya [Some Questions of the Problem of the Struggle against Bolshevism. April 11]. In Georgetown University Archives and Special Collections. Robert F. Kelley Papers. Box 5. Folder 6.
Pozdniakov, V. V. (1951). Pis’mo Mikhailu Stepanovichu, 6 noyabrya [Letter to Mikhail Stepanovich. 6 November]. In BA-MA. MSG 149-29.
[Pozdniakov, V. V.] (1952). Draft: German Counterintelligence Activities in Occupied Russia (1941–1944). MS no. P-122. Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the Army, 1952. In Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library [website]. URL: https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4013coll8/id/4595 (accessed: 20.11.2020).
Pozdniakov, V. V. (1956). Otkrytoe pis’mo chlenam SBONR i rossiiskoi emigratsii [Open Letter to Members of SBONR and the Russian Emigration]. In BA-MA. MSG 149–56.
Pozdniakov, V. V. (1973). Podgotovitel’nye kursy ROA [Training Courses of the ROA]. In Pozdniakov, V. V. (Ed.). Rozhdenie ROA: propagandisty Vul’khaide, Liukenval’de, Dabendorfa, Rigi. Syracuse, Seiatel’, pp. 34–42.
Pyle, R. M. (1948). Memorandum for the Officer in Charge, 9 March. In NARA. RG 319. Entry 134A. XE182853. 270/84/20/02. Box 23. Vol. 1. Folder 1. Summary of Information, Su: Samygin Michael M., 6 Jan. 1961. In NARA. RG 319. Entry 134B. XE251370. Box 662 (Michail Samyg)in.
Tromly, B. (2019). Cold War Exiles and the CIA: Plotting to Free Russia. Oxford, N. Y., Oxford Univ. Press. 352 p.
Tromly, B. (2021). Beyond Betrayal: Recent Russian Scholarship on Vlasov and Russian Collaboration. In The Russian Rev. Vol. 80. No. 2, pp. 294–301. DOI 10.1111/russ.12312.
Volgin, V. [Pozdniakov, V. V.] (1949). Russkomu chuzhoi kaftan ne po plechu [A Foreign Shirt Doesn’t Fit a Russian]. In Bor’ba. No. 11–12, pp. 23–25.
