Republic of Lokot

Flag of the "Russian People's Liberation Army" RONA, which was used by the Lokot Republic

The Republic of Lokot ( Russian : Ло́котская Респу́блика) was a semi-autonomous region in the part of the Soviet Union occupied by Germany from 1941 to 1943 , which was under the rule or "(self-) administration" of a group of Russian collaborators and its seat in the small town Lokot (Локоть) in the Orjol Oblast (then spelling "Orel"; today Bryansk Oblast ). The "republic" comprised the territory of several Rajons of the Oblasts Oryol and Kursk .

history

The territory of the "Republic of Lokot"

Bronislaw Kaminski (right) with officers of the German police, 1944

The German occupation authorities under the Commander-in-Chief of the 2nd Panzer Army , Colonel General Rudolf Schmidt , appointed the engineer Konstantin Woskoboinik (also: Woskobojnik or Voskoboinik ) as mayor of the Lokot area in 1941 . Voskoboinik and his fellow student engineer Bronislaw Kaminski , both former political prisoners of the Stalinist regime, began with German approval to set up a self-protection militia to protect themselves against the increasing numbers of Soviet partisans and - connected with this - their German patrons in theirs Relieve anti-partisan struggle. The later “RONA” emerged from this militia, some of whose members were also forcibly recruited . After Voskoboinik was killed in action (according to other accounts, he was killed by an NKVD squad), Kaminski was appointed mayor of Lokot and commander of the self-protection militia, which has since grown into a brigade.

In contrast to many other "self-administered" areas under German occupation, the Republic of Lokot was not under direct control by German authorities. In return, the republic paid a tribute, mostly in the form of grain, and its "armed forces", that is, Kaminski's anti-Soviet militia, also kept this part of the occupied Soviet Union free from partisans.

Many former political prisoners who were released from the Gulag camps in 1941 but were forbidden to settle in larger cities were forcibly resettled in Lokot and the surrounding area . This explains the great support that Woskoboinik and Kaminski received there. The collectivization of agriculture was reversed and many artisans and traders were given permission to go about their business. School operations continued, there was a radio station and a theater company in the nearby town of Bryansk . Newspapers appeared with the mixture of anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic articles typical of German occupation areas .

At the end of 1943, when the Red Army was about to conquer the territory of the Lokot Republic, more than 30,000 of its residents (mainly Kaminski's brigade and their relatives) were evacuated to Lepel in Vitebskaya Woblasz , where they tried again to establish a self-government area. The brigade was to be converted into a division of the Waffen-SS, against which high-ranking commanders of the Waffen-SS protested, supposedly because of their horror at the atrocities committed by the fighters from Lokot during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising . Possibly the horror of the German commanders was only feigned and in fact they wanted to remove potential competitors for the spoils of the Warsaw Uprising. In any case, Kaminski's unit was disbanded in November 1944 and distributed to other Russian volunteer organizations. The Republic of Lokot had already ceased to exist by then.

reception

Anatoly Ivanov's novel Ewiger Ruf (Вечный зов) and the television series based on it were very popular in the Soviet Union, but little was known about the historical circumstances.

literature

Alexander Dallin : The Kaminsky Brigade. A Case Study of Soviet Disaffection. In: Revolution and Politics in Russia (= Russian and East European Series, Vol. 41), Indiana University Press 1972.
Rolf Michaelis : The Kaminski Brigade. Fight against partisans in Russia - Belarus - Warsaw. Verlag R. Michaelis, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930849-24-0 .

References and comments

↑ There are very different statements in the literature on the relationship between the two men. According to some works, Bronislaw Kaminski “inherited” Voskoboinik in his office after he was killed in a fight with Soviet partisans or a victim of a targeted assassination attempt by the NKVD. Accordingly, Kaminski would have already acted as his right-hand man, or at least one of his most important subordinates. According to other accounts, the two are even said to have been friends and Kaminski was almost number two in the command hierarchy from the start. According to Franz W. Seidler: The collaboration 1939 - 1945. Documentation of contemporary history in biographies. 2nd, reviewed and expanded edition, Herbig-Verlag, Munich a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-7766-2139-7 , p. 281, Kaminski mayor Woskobojnik only “made himself available ” later, which was probably connected with the fact that he first had to “work his way up” in the hierarchy.

[1] There are very different statements in the literature on the relationship between the two men. According to some works, Bronislaw Kaminski “inherited” Voskoboinik in his office after he was killed in a fight with Soviet partisans or a victim of a targeted assassination attempt by the NKVD. Accordingly, Kaminski would have already acted as his right-hand man, or at least one of his most important subordinates. According to other accounts, the two are even said to have been friends and Kaminski was almost number two in the command hierarchy from the start. According to Franz W. Seidler: The collaboration 1939 - 1945. Documentation of contemporary history in biographies. 2nd, reviewed and expanded edition, Herbig-Verlag, Munich a. a. 1999, ISBN 3-7766-2139-7 , p. 281, Kaminski mayor Woskobojnik only “made himself available ” later, which was probably connected with the fact that he first had to “work his way up” in the hierarchy.