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Exposing Some of the Meanest and Pettiest Men in History

Khalid Elhassan January 20, 2021 32 min

Jane Greer - Out of the Past — Jane Greer with Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past. Associated Press

12. Russia’s Most Infamous Traitor of WWII

The most infamous traitor of the Soviet Union and modern Russia is probably Andrey Andreyevich Vlasov (1900 – 1946), one of Stalin’s favorite generals early in WWII. Vlasov went from golden boy to redheaded stepchild after he turned on the Soviet dictator, and switched sides after he was captured by the Germans in 1942. Throwing in his lot with the Nazis, Vlasov turned coat, and went from hero to reviled jerk when he fought against his countrymen at the head of the so-called Russian Liberation Army.

Vlasov was drafted into the Red Army in 1919. He fought in its ranks during the Russian Civil War that followed the communists’ seizure of power in 1917, and distinguished himself. Rising steadily through the officer ranks, he earned a reputation for his ability to whip poor units into shape. In 1930, Vlasov gave his career a boost by joining the Communist Party, and in 1938, he was sent to China as a Soviet military advisor to its generalissimo, Chiang Kai-Shek.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.