The Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (russian: Комитет освобождения народов России, ', abbreviated as russian: КОНР, ') was a committee composed of military and civilian

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

collaborators from territories of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

(most being

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

). It was founded by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

on 14 November 1944, in Prague,

Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia; cs, Protektorát Čechy a Morava; its territory was called by the Nazis ("the rest of Czechia"). was a partially annexed territory of Nazi Germany established on 16 March 1939 following the German oc ...

(purposely chosen because it was a Slavic city that was still under Axis control).

Stated goals

The goals of the committee were embodied in a document known as the Prague Manifesto. The manifesto's fourteen points guaranteed the freedom of speech, press, religion, and assembly, as well as a right to

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

of any ethnic group living in territories belonging to Russia. The Prague Manifesto did not contain any explicit anti-semitic or other racially inspired rhetoric, which caused a conflict with many Nazi propagandists. However, criticism aimed at the

Western Allies The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy ...

(specifically US and UK) was included in the manifesto's preamble. The chairman of the committee was General

Andrey Vlasov Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (russian: Андрéй Андрéевич Влáсов, – August 1, 1946) was a Soviet Red Army general and Nazi collaborator. During World War II, he fought in the Battle of Moscow and later was captured att ...

, who also commanded the

Russian Liberation Army The Russian Liberation Army; russian: Русская освободительная армия, ', abbreviated as (), also known as the Vlasov army after its commander Andrey Vlasov, was a collaborationist formation, primarily composed of Rus ...

. The committee was viewed as the political arm of the Russian Liberation Army, although it also united several

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

and other ethnic forces that were anti-Soviet. After the surrender of Germany to the Allies, the committee ceased to operate. During the immediate post-war period, several new organisations sprang up that intended to continue the committee's goal of fighting communism (i.e., the Union of the St. Andrew Flag; the Committee of United Vlasovites; the

Union of Battle for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia The Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (In Russian language, Russian: ''Soyuz' Bor'bi za Osvobozhdeniye Narodov Rossii'', Союз Борьбы за Освобождение Народов России, abbreviated as ...

), started by veterans of the committee and the Russian Liberation Army who managed to escape forced repatriation to the Soviet Union. Two latter organisations participated in US-led efforts to form a united anti-Soviet platform of Soviet emigres. In the United States, a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

-led organisation with a similar name, the

American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia The American Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (ACLPR, AMCOMLIB), also known as the American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism, was an American anti-communist organization founded in 1950 which worked for the liberation o ...

, was founded in the late 1940s, and became known for their propaganda broadcaster

Radio Liberty Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

, which was run by the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

and later funded by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

. It operated from Munich, in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

Gallery

Image:Vlasov A.A. Listovka 1942.jpg, Leaflet of the Russian Liberation Army leaders in 1942 Image:Dedovshchina in Russian Liberation Army.jpg, General Vlasov's order to prevent

Dedovshchina ''Dedovshchina'' ( rus, дедовщина, p=dʲɪdɐˈfɕːinə; lit. ''reign of grandfathers'') is the informal practice of hazing and abuse of junior conscripts historically in the Soviet Armed Forces and today in the Russian armed forces, I ...

in all forces related to KONR Image:Praga. Zebranie inauguracyjne komitetu dla spraw oswobodzenia narodów Rosji (2-1988).jpg, KONR's first session.

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, 14th November 1944 Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1976-114-32, Dabendorf, Generale Trochin und Wlassow.jpg, Camp

Dabendorf Zossen (; hsb, Sosny) is a German town in the district of Teltow-Fläming in Brandenburg, about south of Berlin, and next to the B96 highway. Zossen consists of several smaller municipalities, which were grouped together in 2003 to form the cit ...

: General Vlasov (2nd from left), General Trochin (1st from left) among German and ROA officers, 1944 Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-N0301-503, General Wlassow mit Soldaten der ROA.jpg, Vlasov inspects soldiers of the ROA, 1944 Image:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-297-1704-10, Nordfrankreich, Angehörige der Wlassow-Armee Recolored.jpg, ROA soldiers in Belgium or France, 1944 Image:КОНР РОА. Брошюра (1944).jpg, Brochure of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia Image:Флаг РОА (12.1944).jpg, New Year's greetings from the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia

Stated goals

Gallery

See also