1 - FOUNDATIONS

Summary

RED ARMY COMMANDER

Until the regime in the USSR changes its policy on access to archives, the biographer of Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov must operate with the barest minimum of material. Vlasov left no personal documents and almost everything that is known about his early life stems from his own accounts to his friends and followers during the Second World War after he had become the so-called leader of the Russian Liberation Movement. Most of the reports and anecdotes originate from individuals who met Vlasov for the first time during the war, since few knew him before that period of common adversity which began with their capture by the Germans.

Surviving photographs of Vlasov show a very tall, dark and rather gaunt individual with horn-rimmed spectacles, holding himself very erect. Early in his captivity he had a crew cut, but from later photographs it appears that he allowed his hair to grow and brushed it back.

Unlike his subordinates, Vlasov never wore a German uniform. A plain jacket of military cut and deep cuffs made out of brown cloth had been obtained for him by his German sponsors – who had great difficulty in finding clothes which were large enough – and a pair of uniform trousers with general's stripes down the side. His buttons were plain and he wore neither badges of rank nor medals, nor do any photographs show him wearing the ROA sleeve badge. His greatcoat was, unlike those of German officers, waisted, beltless and with wide lapels. On the front of his general's uniform cap he wore the white, blue and red cockade of the Russian Liberation Army.