Subject: WWII-L Digest - 7 Jan 1994 to 8 Jan 1994

From: Automatic digest processor <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 00:00:36 -0500

There are 3 messages totalling 143 lines in this issue.

Topics of the day:

  1. Gen. Vlasov (2)
  2. Correction on Soviet population losses

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Date:    Sat, 8 Jan 1994 18:20:25 +0700
From:    "Peter E. Beal" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Gen. Vlasov

He was captured in 1941 (I think) and "went over" to the Germans after
some time in a POW camp.  However, the Germans did not commit resources
to his "army" until around the middle or 1944 or latter.  I don't recall
what his army was doing around the Prague area in late April/early May of
1945 and how they got there.

There are at least two books on Vlasov.  One was mentioned here; I read
the other one, the name of which I cannot recall (since I did so about 40
years ago) but I think it was published in Europe although it was in English.

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Date:    Sat, 8 Jan 1994 13:08:23 EST
From:    Chuck McCormick <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Correction on Soviet population losses

Cathleen S. Lewis ([email-masked]) writes:

>The study on losses in population growth resulting from World War II on the
>USSR was not done by Murray Feshbach, but was a Soviet study. The estimate was
>that by 1959, the Soviet Union had 50 million fewer people than it would have,
>had normal population growth continued from 1941. This study takes into
>account the slowed population recovery due to the absence of males first the
>first generation after the war. The citation is: V.V. Pokshiishevskii,
>_Geografiia naseleniia sssr: ekonomiko-geograficheskie ocherki_ (Moscow,
>Proveshchenie, 1971).

I think those numbers are pretty accurate.  Here is some data from the 1965
Demographic Yearbook.

World Population and Growth 1930-1960

                                        Percent Change
        1930    1940    1950    1960    1930-40 1940-50 1950-60

World   2,070   2,295   2,517   3,003   10.87%   9.67%  19.31%

Africa  164     191     222     277     16.46%  16.23%  24.77%
America 242     274     329     412     13.22%  20.07%  25.23%
Asia    1,120   1,244   1,381   1,659   11.07%  11.01%  20.13%
Europe  355     380     392     425      7.04%   3.16%   8.42%
Oceania 10      11      13      16      11.00%  14.41%  23.62%
USSR    179     195     180     214      8.94%  -7.69%  18.89%

Predicted USSR  195.0   212.4   255.8   8.9%    8.9%    20.4%

Source: UN Demographic Yearbook, 1965

Using very naive techniques (assuming that the USSR growth rate for 1940-50
would mirror the 1930-40 growth rate, and that the growth rate 1950-60 would be
a simple average of the world's growth rate) one sees that the 1960 USSR
population is at least 40 million lower.  Asia saw nearly double population
growth after the war was over.  The demographics texts that I have seen conclude
that the post-war population growth, especially in developed countries, was due
to a drop in the death rate and corresponding increase in life expectancy.  Much
of this decrease in the death rate is from better control and treatment of
disease.

Chuck McCormick
Pop Center Programmer
[email-masked]

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Date:    Sat, 8 Jan 1994 16:20:22 -0600
From:    Jon Stevens <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: Gen. Vlasov

Before Christmas Break I just happened to be looking up some references
about Vlasov and the Russian Army of Liberation.  Here is what I found:

_The Illusion: Soviet Soldiers in Hitler's Armies_ by Jurgen Thorwald
  from the Bibliography I also noticed these articles (the only ones in
English)
    _Vlasov and Hitler_  Journal of Modern History, MArch 1951
    _General Vlasov's Official Biography_ Russian Review, Oct. 1949
    _General Vlasov's Mystery Army_ The American Mercury, Feb. 1948
_Vlasov and the Russian Independence Movement_ by (?) Andreivich 1987
_Vlasov_(?) by Sven Steenberg (might be more to the title) 1970
_Soviet Opposition to Stalin_ by George Fischer 1952
_The Other Russian Army_ New York Review of Books, Nov 24,1988 p.7

The only one I have read so far is Thorwald's book.  It is quite excellent
and covers most of the details of the Vlasov Army from individual soldiers
to the work of the German officers trying to raise up and adequately supply
Vlasov and his troops.  It also mentions the use of Vlasov's troops in
France, Yugoslavia, and the end of the Vlasov Army after the fighting in
and around Prauge.  Thorwald writes that his book started out as a project
for either the German intelligence service or the American intelligence
service, I can't remember which.  This is a must read.

In Paul Carell's book, _Hitler Moves East_, Vlasov's importance and
capture are briefly mentioned:

 p.401
 (Vlasov) was one of the stars of the Soviet Generals' Corps.  In the late
summer of 1941 Vlasov had courageously defended Kiev for two months...and
had also thrown back the northern wing of the German offensive against
Moscow at Solnechnogorsk and Volokolamsk.  He had been rewarded with
orders, praise, fame, and the position of a deputy commander in chief of
the Army Group Volkov.

 He was the son of peasant born in 1901.  He had been to seminary but
became a communist during the Revolution and joined the Red Army.  During
the 1930's he was in China as Chiang Kai-shek's military advisor and
subsequently escaped the military purges.  When he returned to Russia
there was no limit to his career.  Very soon his fame as an organizer was
proclaimed throughout the Soviet military press.

(in Jan. 1942, he was assigned by Stalin to take command of the Soviet
Second Striking Army to free the 17 divisions surrounded by the Germans
in the Demyansk pocket and Army Group North.)

(by May 1942, the battle had been won by the Germans.)

p.411
 Only 32,000 Russians survived the battle.  Several thousands were lying
in the swamps ...it was an appalling field of slaughter...It was hell itself.

(Vlasov was turned in to the Germans on July 11, by a Russian village
leader after an intense search by the Germans.)

The  mere fact that one of the best and politically most reliable Soviet
generals emerged from it as an opponent of Stalin and Bolshevism merely
confirms the horror of the hell through which Vlasov's Second Striking
Army had passed.  From that date onward Vlasov remained a political factor
of considerable importance in the background of the duel between Hitler
and Stalin.

I hope this posting was not too long.  When Christmas Break is over this
Monday, I am planning on delveing into this subject.  I am a graduate
student studying Russian History.  Part of my interest is opposition to
Stalin.  Has this helped anyone?

Jon Stevens

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End of WWII-L Digest - 7 Jan 1994 to 8 Jan 1994
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