Andrej Vlasov: Vlastenec nebo vlastizrádce – Syruček Milan (2022)

The author vividly describes the personality and life of Andrei Andreyevich Vlasov in the book, striving to objectively find answers to important questions and providing a comprehensive view of one of the major themes of World War II. How could it happen that from the youngest Soviet general and Stalin's favorite, he became his greatest opponent, who did not hesitate to ally with the then greatest Soviet enemy, Nazi Germany? Why did he ultimately believe that the greater danger to Russia was not Hitler, but Stalin? When Vlasov and his 2nd Shock Army found themselves encircled by the Germans near Leningrad, Stalin sent a plane with a rescue team for him three times to bring him to safety, to the Soviet rear, where he wanted to appoint him to command the front at Stalingrad. However, Vlasov refused each time to leave his soldiers. He preferred to continue trying to navigate through the swamps, hungry, with a handful of loyal men to safety. When and why did this change occur? Was it perhaps out of cowardice, when due to the betrayal of a mayor who belonged to the Old Believers who hated the Bolsheviks, he fell into German captivity? So why did he decide to fight again, this time against his fellow countrymen, risking that he might fall in the new battles? And he even allied with Himmler, the head of...