Nationalism, anti-Bolshevism or the will to survive? Collaboration in Belarus under the Nazi occupation of 1941–1944

Abstract

This paper examines how the issue of collaboration was presented and dealt with in Soviet, Western and post-Soviet Russian and Belarusian writings. Furthermore the paper discusses the national, socioeconomic and political preconditions of collaboration with the German occupation forces in Belarus. The author highlights the relationship of collaboration with the prewar Soviet policies and analyses the politics of Belarusian nationalists and independentist émigrés from 1917 to 1941. The Nazi recruitment of Belarusian exiles of different military, political and intelligence organisations and the funding of Belarusian pro-German oriented right-wing organisations are described. The reactions of the Belarusian civilian population and its attitudes vis-à-vis the German occupation authorities and Soviet partisans at the initial stage of the war are then discussed. The paper underlines the complexity of motives and the variety of forms of collaboration. The collaboration movement in Belarus was far from homogeneous: some people supported the Germans on the basis of their political principles, nationalistic ideas and state-building aspirations; some collaborated because they rejected Soviet economic and cultural polices, while the majority just wanted to survive the war and improve their postwar chances. Particular attention is devoted to the nature and peculiarities of Nazi polices in the occupied territory of Belarus. The harsh measures introduced by Germans (requisitions by the troops, forced labour program, collective reprisals and the genocide of Belarusian Jewry etc.) jeopardised the positive or neutral attitude of the local population toward the Germans, aroused hostility and became one of the main factors that caused the change in attitude. Finally, the paper analyses the transition from collaboration to resistance in late 1943–1944 on the basis of several considerations: the change in the course of the war, the influence of propaganda, and an emerging understanding that the Soviets would emerge victorious.

Keywords:

• Second World War
• German occupation
• collaboration
• cooperation
• Soviet authorities
• Nazi policies
• Belarusian nationalism
• civilian population
• partisans
• genocide of Jews
• motives
• attitudes

Notes

 1. Though from 1991 Belarus became a sovereign state officially known as the Republic of Belarus, during its history the territory of Belarus always constituted part of larger states. During the Second World War Belarus constituted part of the Soviet Union (USSR); it was one of its republics and was officially known as the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Therefore, the term ‘Belarus’ in this article has to be understood in reference mainly to a geographical area but not to a unified political entity.

 2. Deak, Istvan. Colloquium on “Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution in Europe during and after World War II”, Department of International Affairs at Columbia University, NY.

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 8. Hill, The War Behind the Eastern Front.

 9. Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust.

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11. For analyses of Vlasov's movement see Fischer, Soviet Opposition to Stalin. Hoffmann, Die Geschichte der Wlassow-Armee. Andreyev, Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement.

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20. Munoz and Romanko. Hitler's White Russians.

21. From 1941 Ermachenko was appointed as a chief adviser to the German General Commissioner for Belarus, Wilhelm Kube. He tried to link the interests of German politics to Belarusian national aspirations; however, his views did not gain popular support and in 1943 the Germans removed him from his position, and consequently he was forced to flee Belarus.

22. In 1943 Ostrovsky was appointed as a president of the Belarusian Central Council.

23. During the occupation Ivanovsky was appointed mayor of Minsk and later chairman of the Belarusian Trust Council.

24. Zaprudnik, Belarus at a Crossroads in History.

25. Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust.

26. Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust

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28. Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust

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30. Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust

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32. Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust.

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34. RGASPI, fond. 69. opis. l. delo. 347.1.

35. See Bernhard Chiari and Evgeniy Rozenbladt.

36. Heiman, L., cited in Dean, Collaboration in the Holocaust.

37. Hill, The War Behind the Eastern Front.

38. “Der Fuhrer und Oberste Befehlshaber der Wehrmacht. Erlass uber die Ausubung der Kriegsgerichtsbarkeit im Gebiet ‘Barbarossa’ und uber besonderen Massnahmen der Truppe. 13 th May 1941.” TMWC, Vol. XXXIV, Document 050-C.

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41. NARB, Fond 359, opis, 1 delo 15.

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43. Chiari, Alltag Hinter der Front Besatzung, Kollaboration und Widerstand in Weiβruβland 1941–1944.

44. Overy, Russia's War.

45. Hill, The War Behind the Eastern Front.

46. Another subsidiary factor was the behaviour of the Axis troops fighting with the Germans. Hungarian, Romanian and Slovak units were less given to mass ideological extermination, but aroused hostility among the locals by their widespread looting and abuse.

47. Dallin, German Rule in Russia, 1941–1945.

48. Gross, “Themes for Social History of War Experience and Collaboration.”

49. Kavalenya, Belarus u vyprabavannyah vajny 1939–1945.

50. See the works of Anikeev, “Agrarnaya politika Natsiskoj Germanii v gody Vtoroj Mirovoj voiny” and Armstrong, “Soviet partisans in World War II”.

51. NARB, Fond 4 P, inventory 33A, file 444.